It’s mid-week, and I bet all of us in some way or another are grasping at time that keeps slipping through our fingers. So today I’m going to keep it really short!

Yes, well. That’s my excuse. In reality, the Stitch Fun tutorial I had planned for today is somewhere mid-editing. You might see it Friday if all goes well!

But in the meantime, I want to share with you a website that’s had my eye lately. It’s been terrific for browsing through on my phone, while waiting here and there for this and that. I like to bookmark good textile websites on my phone. It makes me feel like I’m at least learning something when I can’t be at work producing something!

First published in 1934, Mary Thomas’s Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches is a classic resource, instructional book, and stitch guide for embroiderers all over the world.

The book was a trailblazer in its time, and it’s gone through a few editions since then. The contemporary versions of the book are revised by Jan Eaton, with updated stitch diagrams and photos of the embroidery stitches worked on fabric.

Recently, the book has gone out of print, but fortunately for us, it was picked up again by Search Press in the UK and by Trafalgar Square Books in the US, bringing us a new edition of a great classic.

Since the new edition is due to be released at the end of this month, I thought I’d show it to you. If you don’t have a stitch dictionary yet to use as reference at home, this is one that I always recommend, because of its easy-to-navigate layout, easy to read diagrams and instructions, and logical categorization of stitches.

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!

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!

Happy New Year, my friends! I hope 2019 is your Best Year Yet, in every way that you wish!

As we ring in the New Year, I need to thank you so much for making 2018 another great year for Needle ‘n Thread and our little online community!