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
Contact Mary
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
Contact Mary
August 13, 2018
Way back in January, I reviewed the book, Embroidered Treasures: Flowers, a wonderful compilation of embroidery pieces held by the Embroiderers’ Guild of the UK.
Guess what? The next Embroidered Treasures album is coming soon – and today, I just wanted to give you a heads up and quick little look at it!
August 10, 2018
Stems and branches – you’re bound to run into them at some point in hand embroidery!
Whether it’s tree branches, wispy herbal shoots, curly vines and tendrils, heavy stalks, or stylized stems on stylized flowers, it’s highly probably that at some point in your embroidery journey, you’ll have to make a decision on the stitches to use to interpret these types of growing things.
To help you make just such a decision, I’ve put together a list of my favorite 10 hand embroidery stitches to use for stems and branches, with information on how they can be used and links to tutorials.
August 8, 2018
Happy Mid-Week!
Today, just a quick little free hand embroidery design for you. I worked a very simple floral border up earlier this summer, thinking I might use it on a linen towel or even a flour sack towel.
After playing around with it for a bit, this was the resulting little border:
August 6, 2018
I promise this is the last installment on this year’s summer embroidery classes for kids!
I just wanted to share a few more photos, insights, and learning experiences from the recent round of kids’ classes, for those who have written in to ask questions and for those who want to teach children to embroider, too.
Here are a few progress photos and a few more finishes, then, with some commentary along the way. I hope you enjoy seeing what the kids have accomplished over their three week embroidery adventure!
August 3, 2018
Today, our kids & youth embroidery classes wind down for the summer.
We’ve had two 1.5-hour daily sessions with different age levels of kids over the past three weeks, and it’s been a lot of fun!
And the results have been good! I think all the kids enjoyed the classes. There were only a few who were there because they were sent, rather than because they wanted to go, but even these participants worked steadily (perhaps chatted more steadily than they worked!), learned a bit of stitching, and had a good time.
August 1, 2018
Happy Wednesday! Halfway through another week of summer!
We’re almost finished with the kids’ embroidery classes, which end this Friday. I’ll share some photos – along with a discussion of what worked, what could have worked better, what we learned, and what we’d do differently – once we get things tied up.
In the meantime, today, here’s a nice piece of figure embroidery for you. It’s a “salvaged saint” – a piece of church embroidery that survived, when the vestment it was on didn’t. While I was in New England earlier this year, I visited a convent, where this was hanging in their “embroidery room” where they house all their machine embroidery supplies and tools.
I like her! She is St. Hedwig.
July 30, 2018
Today, just a quick little stitch tip to start your week off – and hopefully to make your embroidery quicker and easier!
Last week, we talked about the back of embroidery projects and I shared three tips to help you keep the back neat when it matters. Among those tips, we looked at how to start and end threads in a way that reduces “tweakers” (loose thread ends) on the back of our work.
This particular thread-starting tip that I’m going to share today is a quick and easy one that I use quite frequently, if all the stars are aligned and I’m working in exactly the right circumstances – which happens pretty frequently!
