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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Needlework News Snips & a Winner!

 

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Brrrrrrrrrrr…… It’s finally chilly in Kansas! I love autumn. I could live in autumn for my whole life!

I say that now. But when spring comes, you’ll hear me saying the same thing about spring.

But I promise I’ll never say it about summer in Kansas!

Summer being officially over, it’s time to move on to fallish stuff, and often, that includes fall and winter craft pursuits. In today’s needlework news snips, I’ve included a few links to some fun fall embroidery stuff, in case you want a seasonal stitching fix!

I’m also happy to announce the winner of Early Hardanger Embroidery today!

So, join me in a cup of your favorite brew, and let’s browse a bit!

Needlework News Snips for October, 2016
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Messing About with Colors

 

You know, I love embroidery thread. But there are times – there are many times – when sitting down with the stuff can be rather frustrating.

For me, selecting colors for my own projects is usually more frustrating than not.

The other day, I sat down under a good, true spectrum light with a Whole Heap of Embroidery Floss on the table in front of me. My goal was to select a range of colors from that Whole Heap – a range that would impart a certain impression or idea that I have in mind.

Do you know, it took me forever to finally say “That’s it. For better or for worse, I’m done.” I sat there picking through floss for more than two hours!

At the end of that ridiculous amount of time, this is the range of colors I came up with:

Selecting Embroidery Floss Colors
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Early Style Hardanger – A Give-Away!

 

It’s Tuesday, and since we’re past the halfway point in October, I think it’s a perfect day for a give-away!

If you love whitework, if you love open work embroidery, delicate embroidery, geometric design and drawn thread work – you’re going to love Yvette Stanton’s newest embroidery book, Early Style Hardanger! And if you don’t have a copy of it yet, here’s your opportunity to win a nice addition to your needlework library!

Early Style Hardanger by Yvette Stanton
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Autumn & Late Harvest Embroidery

 

It’s finally autumn in Kansas. The nights are chilly, and the days can’t decide between chilly and warm. The skies are a mesmerizing deep blue. The trees are changing. The gnats are swarming (sort of ruins the picture, doesn’t it?), and the year is ticking to a slow close.

With the harvest going on all around me, my thoughts naturally have turned back to Late Harvest, an embroidery project that I started eons ago and that’s finally ticking to a close, too.

When last we looked at this project, the right side was completely finished and I had finished most of the stitching on the left side. I still had one large leaf and two small flowers to work, along with all the beadwork on the stems and the leaves.

Well, the other day, I put my fingers to it and got down to work on the last stitching on Late Harvest, and here are the results.

Late Harvest: Hand Embroidery Project - left side finished
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How to Tame a Big Hank of Floche

 

Oooooh, you’re excited! You just bought a new skein of embroidery thread!

You can’t wait to try it for the first time!

You take it home.

You cut into it.

You pull a strand, you cut a piece, you stitch a bit, and you reach for the skein again.

Where is that dagblasted end?!

You find it. You pull. And then it happens.

A Nightmare Mass of interlocking, intertwining, interconnected, angry thread mushrooms forth with every inch you pull from the skein.

Excitement turns quickly to consternation, and consternation to downright frustration.

Before you know it, you’ve got a huge, convoluted jumble of thread rupturing from your lap.

I’m guessing this has probably happened to you before. I know it’s happened to me more times than I can count. And it’s always frustrating!

How to Manage a Hank of Floche Embroidery Thread
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Needlework Terminology: Surface Embroidery

 

Grab your morning cuppa and let’s have a chat about surface embroidery!

Terminology can be a huge source of confusion for beginning embroiderers, and even for stitchers who have been plying the needle for years.

While there are lots of terminology lists with short definitions out there, I’ve always found that the one-line definition of A Thing doesn’t always do that Thing justice.

For example, take the term “surface embroidery.”

Wikipedia (which, next to Google, is apparently The Source of All Instant Knowledge) defines surface embroidery as “any form of embroidery in which the pattern is worked by the use of decorative stitches and laid threads on top of (their emphasis) the foundation fabric or canvas rather than through the fabric; it is contrasted with canvas work.”

The Wizard of Wiki goes on to explain: “Much free embroidery is also surface embroidery, as are a few forms of counted thread embroidery such as cross stitch.”

And then, a list of forms of surface embroidery is presented: appliqué, art needlework, crewel embroidery, cross stitch, goldwork, Jacobean embroidery, stumpwork.

To a beginner, that’s probably about as clear as mud. To a non-beginner, it still presents a few problems. Let’s chat about it a bit!

Embroidery Terminology: Surface Embroidery
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