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

Contact Mary

Connect with Mary

     

Archives

2025 (44) 2024 (135) 2023 (125) 2022 (136) 2021 (130) 2020 (132) 2019 (147) 2018 (146) 2017 (169) 2016 (147) 2015 (246) 2014 (294) 2013 (294) 2012 (305) 2011 (306) 2010 (316) 2009 (367) 2008 (352) 2007 (225) 2006 (139)
 

Pluggin’ the EGA!

 

Amazon Books

Today, I’m plugging the EGA… as in the Embroiderers’ Guild of America.

Read on – you’ll find information about the EGA, some great free resources, and other enticing bits!

EGA Logo in crewel embroidery
Continue reading “Pluggin’ the EGA!”

Snowflake 2: Free Pattern for your Winter Decor

 

We chatted not too long ago about various ways to work cross stitch on plain weave fabric, and I offered you this snowflake corner design for some holiday stitching.

Well, along the same longs, here’s another flake. I figure Monday morning is as good a morning to share it with you!

You’ll find the free PDF printable for this particular snowflake chart at the end of the article. But you know me – I’m going to babble a bit first, before I give it to you…

Snowflake #2 cross stitch chart
Continue reading “Snowflake 2: Free Pattern for your Winter Decor”

Stumpwork Embroidery Essentials – Online Class for Beginners & Beyond

 

Well, now.

I have a little secret.

I’ve been indulging in a very agreeable diversion the last couple days.

Yep, I’ve been totally glued to the screen, watching videos in the middle of the day.

No, no. I haven’t been torturing myself with a Netflix marathon. It’s much better than that!

Craftsy has a launched yet another excellent hand embroidery class for those who want to extend their embroidery skills in an affordable, easy, self-paced way. Remember the goldwork class I reviewed a while back? It’s the same concept!

Only this new one is a stumpwork class – Stumpwork: Raised Embroidery Essentials, taught by Celeste Chalasani.

Today, I’m going to review it for you. I’ll tell you what’s in it, who it’s for, what you can learn from it, and the general pros and cons. To top it all off, if you want to take the class, I’ve got an early (and deep) discount for you at the end of the review.

Stumpwork Embroidery Essentials - Online Class
Continue reading “Stumpwork Embroidery Essentials – Online Class for Beginners & Beyond”

Yuki Sugashima on The Hand-Stitched Flower Garden

 

Yuki Sugashima is an embroiderer from Japan, who writes a beautiful blog Y*Handmade (previously, The Barefoot Shepherdess).

I’ve been reading Yuki’s blog for a long time, since it was Barefoot Shepherdess. Her photos are always gorgeous! And her embroidery is always delicate, clean, neat, and simple – it’s easy on the eyes. She has a lovely style.

Several years ago, Yuki wrote a couple guest posts here on Needle ‘n Thread about dyeing threads. You can find those articles here:

On Natural Dyeing, Part 1
On Natural Dyeing, Part 2

The Big News is Yuki’s new embroidery book, The Hand-Stitched Flower Garden. It’s been recently published and made available in the US and the UK, and it is proving very popular.

I asked Yuki to write about the book for you, so you can hear a little bit about her work and about the book itself. So, here you go – a little bit about Yuki and some photos from her new book. (You can click on the photos to enlarge them.)

Yuki Sugashima The Hand-Stitched Flower Garden
Continue reading “Yuki Sugashima on The Hand-Stitched Flower Garden”