About

Mary Corbet

writer and founder

 

I learned to embroider when I was a kid, when everyone was really into cross stitch (remember the '80s?). Eventually, I migrated to surface embroidery, teaching myself with whatever I could get my hands on...read more

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Tapestry Small, A Grinning Deer & Stitching on the Go

 

Amazon Books

When I put together my collection of four Tapestry Smalls called A Thousand Flowers which I released before Christmas, I had in mind other animals I wanted to chart to go with the series, and one of those animals was a deer.

I suppose I wanted the deer for a couple reasons. It’s medieval (the hart shows up in many a medieval piece of art). It’s also somewhat a seasonal thing, depending on what your deer looks like. I like winter deer – the folky little deer that show up on sweaters and in Nordic designs and things like that. They spark notions of coziness and homey things during the colder winter months. I like them as a design element!

Tapestry Small - Deer
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Feathered Fourths: A Free Hand Embroidery Design

 

Have you been contemplating a new project to kick of 2019, but you weren’t quite sure what to stitch?

Well, today, I’m sharing a hand embroidery pattern that I call Feathered Fourths. It’s a design based on a repeat of four, and it features some stylized peacock feathers in each repeat.

I’ll tell you a little about the design and what I originally planned to do with it, too, which might give you some ideas for stitching it!

Feathered Fourths: A Free Hand Embroidery Design
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Got Tulip Needles? (Or Bead Tubes?) – Organizational Tip

 

What do embroidery needles and Q-Tips (or cotton swabs) have in common?

Sounds like the beginning of a dumb joke, doesn’t it? Well, there’s no punchline…

As you can see, I’m not kicking off the stitching part of the New Year just yet, but I hope you are!

In the meantime, though, this is a fun little tip for organization, especially if you use Tulip needles or small tubes of beads and you want to pack them up for easy organization. This storage solution works great for travel purposes, too!

Tulip Needle Storage and Organization Tip
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A Stitcher’s Christmas, 2018: An Exquisite Pair of Scissors!

 

Happy Friday, my friends!

In honor of the Shortest Day of the Year, I’ll try to keep today’s give-away short – but even if I don’t, I promise it’s oh-so-very sweet!

There’s a short turn-around on this one, so if you want to join in, do it soon! I’ll be announcing the winner on Monday.

First, I’ll announce the winner’s from last Monday’s give-away, and then I’ll present the final give-away in this year’s series of A Stitcher’s Christmas.

I hope you all enjoyed this year’s series. Perhaps it introduced you to some new products, maybe new books you weren’t aware of, or maybe you’ve now discovered a new favorite needlework business to patronize when you need embroidery supplies? It’s been fun!

Now… onto the last installment!

Roulot scissors give-away on Needle 'n Thread
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A Stitcher’s Christmas 2018: Silk & Metal Specialty Threads

 

Oh boy, oh boy! We’re rapidly nearing the end of A Stitcher’s Christmas for 2018!

While I find this pretty exciting, I also find it a little alarming that Christmas is less than a week away. I’m not exactly sure how that happened!

Today’s give-away, courtesy of Lamora at Access Commodities, features some gorgeous new specialty threads that have come to the needlework market in the past year. Created as part of the ongoing revitalization of interest in 17th century embroidery techniques – thanks especially to the research, online classes, and projects of Tricia Nguyen over at Thistle Threads – these threads are perfect for stitchers interested in metal thread embroidery, silk work, stumpwork, and mixed media textiles.

It’s pretty exhilarating when new threads appear in the needlework market, so I’m thrilled to be able to offer some of these new beauties in today’s give-away!

Specialty Threads from Access Commodities
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