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August 3, 2018

Embroidery Classes: Some Results & Insights

 

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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.

Kids' Embroidery Classes: Simple Monograms project
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August 1, 2018

Figure Embroidery: A Salvaged Saint

 

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.

St. Hedwig Figure Embroidery
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July 30, 2018

Stitch Tip: No-Knot Invisible Thread Start for Hand Embroidery

 

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!

invisible no-knot start for hand embroidery threads
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July 27, 2018

Back of Embroidery: 3 Tips for Keeping it Neat – When it Matters!

 

Do you find yourself frustrated trying to keep the back of your embroidery reasonably neat?

There are times when the back of embroidery doesn’t matter so much, but there are other times when it really does matter – especially on pieces where the back of the embroidery will show.

Today, let’s talk about the back of embroidery: when it matters and what you can do to keep things relatively tidy on the underside of your stitching.

Back of Embroidery: Tips for Keeping it Neat
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July 25, 2018

Goldwork Embroidery Frame: Small Progress

 

I’ve been sneaking in some stitches on my goldwork circular frame project, here and there, when I can.

And my “some” stitches, I mean very few stitches. I’d hoped to be finished with the couched gold passing thread by now, but in fact, I’m barely started!

If you’re just joining us and you’re wondering about the backstory on this particular embroidery project, I’ve included some links at the end of today’s article so that you can explore the project further.

Goldwork Embroidery Frame
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July 23, 2018

Flour Sack Towels – Here’s an Excellent One

 

A couple weeks ago, we chatted a little bit about flour sack towels used for hand embroidery and other crafts, discussing their uses, history, and resources for good ones.

Today, I’m following up on that article with a review of what I think just might be the Best Flour Sack Towel for hand embroidery. I sorely wish I had found these a long time ago!

So let’s look at this fabulous cotton towel and I’ll tell you why I think it ranks right up there as the Best Flour Sack Towel for hand embroidery (so far in my explorations, anyway!).

Best flour sack towels for embroidery
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July 19, 2018

The Stitch Sampler vs The Doodle Cloth

 

One of my favorite aspects of playing with stitches is the resulting sample cloths that are peppered with a variety of color, stitch trials and errors, and other random bits of embroidery.

While preparing for summer embroidery classes for kids, one necessary item in each kit that we prepared was a blank piece of fabric, 10″ square. These pieces were linen of various types, pulled out of my stash, cut, rinsed, pressed, and surged along the edges. Their purpose is to give the kids a decent piece of fabric to practice on, so that they can master individual stitches before applying them to their projects.

As we were preparing the classes, I noticed that one of us called the piece of fabric “sampler fabric” and the other called it “a doodle cloth.” In class, we find ourselves each using our own pet term.

There’s a slight difference between a sampler and a doodle cloth, at least when it comes to concept, especially considering the way the term sampler has developed throughout the ages.

Sampler vs Doodle Cloth for embroidery
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