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
Over 75 Embroidery Stitch Videos to Help You Learn
Embroidery Tips & Techniques
A Collection of Instructional Articles
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
This morning, just a quick update on Modern Crewel – I want to show you a few things and discuss mistakes and their corrections, or non-corrections – and talk a bit about padding again with this particular kit.
While this weekend was meant for catching up on stitching on this (I wanted to have all the leaves finished and the little bloom on the right), in fact, I spent the whole weekend nursing a toothache that struck with raging sincerity on Friday night. (Murphy’s Law: toothaches rage on weekends, when a dentist can’t be had for love nor money). I already had an appointment set for tomorrow, but I’m hoping against hope they’ll take me in today. Otherwise, I may have to resort to an ice skate. (Movie reference: Castaway!)
All that just to say, if today’s article sounds a bit weird or wonky, blame it on the tooth!
It’s biting cold out, the heat is on, the air is dry. I don’t have a maid and I haven’t invented a magic sink, so the dishes still need washing every day! My hands just want to be rough and scratchy this time of year.
Rough and scratchy hands are a frustrating inconvenience when you’re working with fine embroidery threads – any time of year!
You know how it is: you’re stitching along pretty happily with a brand new thread, when disaster strikes! Your thread snags on, of all things, your thumb! That curséd dry scratchy patch on the side of your thumb! Grrrrr! The plies of the thread bunch up, the fibers get hairy, you have to trim the thread and start anew.
I know I’m not the only one with this problem, because inevitably, in the winter, I get a lot of inquiries about how to work with fine embroidery threads when your hands are rough.
Over the years, I’ve tried myriad solutions for this problem. Today, I’ll chat about what works for me, and then ask you to share your solutions, too. If we put our heads together, we can most likely save many people from the frustration of stitching with rough hands. After all, 30,000 heads are better than one.
I actually ended the day with a completely empty work table in my embroidery studio.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the surface of that table completely clear. And seeing it – and enjoying the benefits of it – have made a world of difference in all kinds of things this past week.
For several months, I’ve been telling you about the grievous need to re-organize my workroom. I’ve been chipping away at it slowly, making small improvements here and there that make a huge difference in efficiency, time management, and productivity.
True, I haven’t quite achieved Organizational Nirvana! But I’ve found a few solutions that have helped me manage my workspace better.
I’d like to share an organizational tip with you and show you two Very Useful Additions to the studio. They’re not fancy or anything. But they’re well loved and they’ll definitely be well used!
Many moons ago, after compiling and publishing my e-book Favorite Monograms – a collection of 16 monogram alphabets for embroidery – a reader wrote in with a specific embroidery project in mind, using initials from the book.
She wanted to combine two initials into one monogram and work the initials in real gold threads, and she needed some suggestions on how to go about the whole thing.
Today, I want to share with you the results of our correspondence, the methods behind the project, and some thoughts about the whole thing, since I think Debra’s adventure demonstrates a really good lesson on simplicity and success in embroidery.
It’s true. I’m a sucker for embroidered pomegranates!
The pomegranate has been around in the art world as a symbol for centuries upon centuries, thanks, most likely, to Proserpina, who couldn’t keep her little paws off those tiny seeds.
It’s one of those symbols that pops up unexpectedly in art and textiles, across cultures, religions, geographical regions, artistic eras and styles. Why the appeal for so many centuries? Most likely, because the pomegranate is a symbol of new life, and therefore, of hope.
I’ve always loved them. Not necessarily the fruit itself – though, when I was a kid, it was the zenith of “exotic” to actually have a real pomegranate, to open it and pick out those little tart, crunchy, juicy jewels from the innards of the thing. The fruit is abundantly available now, but it used to be pretty scarce when I was a kid in the 80’s.
I love coming across the pomegranate in art and textiles. Its symbolic presence has such a long and rich history – it’s one of those connecting threads that ties thousands of years of art together. I’m always on the lookout for pomegranates!
So it’s probably not unusual that the Modern Crewel kit I’m working on now appealed to me – after all, it’s another pomegranate!
And with pomegranates, come seeds. Today, I’m going to show you the seeds on this one, discuss a mistake and share a tip, and then we’ll take a pomegranate tour!
Happy Wednesday! It’s half-way through the week, and a perfect time to send out a free hand embroidery pattern for those of you looking for inspiration and stitching ideas!
I say “embroidery pattern” rather loosely. This one can be used for a myriad of arts and craft applications – from embroidery, to quilting, to parchment and paper crafts, to painting….
Below, I’ll explain the how’s and why’s of this particular design, which is an old Therese Dillmont pattern from the DMC series. We’ll also chat about different embroidery approaches that can be taken with a design like this one (which I’m calling Dillmont Rose).
You’ll find the download link for the PDF at the very end of the article.
Have you ever been stuck in a situation where you wished you could whip out your embroidery and indulge in some stitching, but there just wasn’t enough light to do it?
Think: airplanes, cars, trains, hotel rooms, lobbies, libraries, waiting rooms. Think: power outages.
I know if I don’t have adequate light for embroidery, I just skip it. There’s no point in straining to stitch – and subsequently stitching poorly – because I can’t see my work well enough.
Sometimes, it’s not feasible to travel with a full size light. Sometimes, you can’t use a full size light, anyway.
There’s a really easy, portable, affordable, and tiny solution for these types of situations. It’s the clip-on mini light, often known as a book light.
I have a few different types of these types of lights. They get me out of all kinds of lighting binds when I want to stitch but can’t use my normal light.
The light I’m going to show you today is from Mighty Bright. We’ll talk about the light, see how it works, and discuss some pros and cons.
I’ll also share a purchasing tip with you on how to avoid a dastardly marketing practice when shopping for mini book lights!
Here we are, in the New Year – with January almost half gone! It’s still winter here in Kansas (we’re expecting a little ice this weekend) – perfect for a cup of cocoa, a roaring fire, and a nice visit with good friends.
So pour yourself a steaming cup and pull up a chair! Here’s a small collection of inspiration, instruction, and fun embroidery stuff for weekend exploration.
The other day, I introduced you to another project in this year’s embroidery project rotation – this Tree of Life miniature tapestry.
Today, we’ll chat about setting it up and getting the first stitches in.
I’m going to tell you a little bit about silk gauze in general, setting up the embroidery frame, and lighting and magnification, with a few tips that will make stitching on this kind of thing a bit easier!
Have you noticed that there’s an increasing trend in the embroidery world to find different ways to finish needlework, besides framing it?
This is completely understandable, given the fact that any one house only has so much wall space, and anyone’s circle of friends and family’s houses only have so much wall space!
Still, despite our reasonable desire to find multiple ways to display needlework, framing is still the most popular approach to finishing a project for display. Professional framing, though, can be mighty expensive! So, in many cases, I do my own framing.
I’ve written about how to frame up pieces of embroidery before, using a lacing technique for mounting the finished work on board before putting it the frame. You can read about that here.
Today, I’m going to walk you through a recent framing job, this time employing pins.
If you’ve pondered framing your own embroidery but haven’t taken the leap, come along while I frame up a favorite piece of needlework, and you’ll see how easy it is!
It seems like ten forevers since I’ve shared an embroidery project progress report with you!
But today’s your lucky day! Not only do you get a project update, but you’ll also get couple tips that will speed up your stitching process and that will save your sore little fingers.
The project here is Modern Crewel, a surface embroidery project worked in a variety of cotton threads with some bead embellishment. You can find my review of the embroidery kit here, if you’d like to know more about it.
Last year (or just a few weeks ago), the subject of time management and embroidery came up repeatedly in my inbox. I mentioned it briefly here on the blog and got lots of response, asking for me to cover the subject.
The more I’ve thought about it, though, the more I realized that time management is a really difficult subject to cover in just one article, for several reasons:
1. Time management is a huge topic, and lots of sub-topics fall underneath it.
2. What works for one person when it comes to time management is not necessarily going to work for another person, because everyone’s circumstances are different.
3. I am not the best example to follow when it comes to time management. Yes, I have certain tricks – more like rituals – that I go through, to help me manage my time and make sure I get my work done, but, like anyone, I tend to slip up and fall off the wagon now and then. So I’m plagued with self-doubt when it comes to sharing ideas about a lofty subject like how to manage your time!
4. Time management is not quite the same thing as organization (although organization has a lot to do with time management), and when it comes to embroidery specifically, I think it’s more a question of organization than actual time management.
So today, I thought I’d share with you some ideas on managing embroidery projects, especially if you are the type of personality that needs to have a lot of things on the go at once. This is a much more specific topic than “time management,” and perhaps the ideas we share here (and in the comments below) will be more of a direct help to those of us who stitch and who want to have time to stitch more often.
I hope you enjoyed a peaceful, joy-filled holiday season and that you’re already testing the 2017 waters and finding them just fine.
2016 ended on a very quiet on my end of the computer screen – which is a good thing!
I indulged in quite a bit of stitching (not to mention 3.5 audiobooks). I didn’t enter the workroom once with the intention of organizing. (Why is it so easy to put that off until the “new year”?) And I filtered a lot of paperwork while messing with editorial calendars, idea lists, and all kinds of planning and goal setting. It was a semi-productive week!
Spending some time looking back on Needle ‘n Thread in 2016 helped me gauge my ideas and goals for 2017 (and 2018). So here’s a little glance backwards, and a broad glance forward!
I really had a great time running A Stitcher’s Christmas this year!
For those just joining in, A Stitcher’s Christmas was a series of ten give aways leading up to Christmas, featuring some really wonderful needlework-related gifts.
Thanks to all who participated in the series, and a Huge Thank You to the small needlework businesses who offered the prizes! It was a lot of fun!
Welcome to the last give-away in A Stitcher’s Christmas 2016 – this year’s series of embroidery-related give-aways for Christmas here on Needle ‘n Thread.
It’s been a super-fun series this year, and I hope that you all have enjoyed it as much as I have! Thanks so much for participating in the series – and a Huge thank you to the small businesses who have joined in and made such nice gifts available for the give aways!
The final gift in the series is another collection of needlework books, compliments of Search Press. Towards the beginning of the series, we had three A-Z books, perfectly suited for beginners. Today’s collection is for embroiderers who want to go a little further with their stitching pursuits and tackle some more advanced embroidery techniques.
With only a few more days until Christmas, I hope you’re not feeling any of the typical holiday pressure that builds up this time of year.
I generally avoid Holiday Burnout by putting things into perspective. I loathe the notion that Christmas is just about giving gifts for the sake of giving gifts.
A gift, in my mind, should always be something thoughtful, something tailored for the recipient, something that will delight, something given out of love, to make someone happy – and it doesn’t have to be complicated! If it’s none of the above, well…skip it. Giving your time, your friendship, a shoulder to lean on, cheerful encouragement, help when there’s need – those are the best gifts, anyway, and they can be given at any time.
Still – it’s fun to receive prezzies! A gift that delights, that surprises, a gift suited perfectly to you, with real thought behind it – who doesn’t like that?!
If you’re worried about giving a gift to a fellow needlework enthusiast – or if you know that your children, your husband, your wife, your parents, your loved ones are in a state of consternation over what to get you for Christmas – here are some excellent gift ideas for creative people that can’t miss the mark. They’re gifts that keep on giving, and that can still be had without paying overnight shipping – or, better yet, without going on some crazed hunting frenzy in crowded shops late into the night on the day before Christmas.
Good morning, and welcome to A Stitcher’s Christmas #9!
A Stitcher’s Christmas, 2017 is a series of pre-Christmas give-aways here on Needle ‘n Thread, featuring delectable needlework prizes from a variety of excellent small needlework businesses known for their beautiful products and terrific service!
So far, we’ve had 8 give-aways in the series. From threads, to books, to kits, to tools, to classes – each give-away has featured lovely embroidery-related goods for the needlework enthusiast.
We still have two more to go in the series – and today is one of ’em!
Today’s give-away is for two kits – one to each of two winners – but they aren’t just any kits. You’ll want to pay a little attention to the details here, because you’ll want to know you’re getting into with these kits before you commit to them!
Good morning, oh stitching world! And Happy Monday from a freezing cold Kansas!
Two Monumental Things happened in my life this past weekend: I actually did get the tree up (all three feet of it), and we had snow (all three inches of it)!
It doesn’t take much to make me happy!
Today, we continue with my Christmas 2017 give-away series, A Stitcher’s Christmas. This one is for all of you who want to try needle painting, but haven’t taken the plunge yet; for those of you who have tested the needle painting waters and want to improve your skills; or for those of you who love needle painting and just want a fun kit to work on!
I’ll also announce the winner for A Stitcher’s Christmas #6, the Inspirations Calendar shown here, and I’ll tell you about a challenge I’ve received (repeatedly).
I hope you’ve had a jolly week so far, and that you’re ready for a relaxing weekend. (Hopefully relaxing?)
With nine days left until Christmas, there’s still a bit of stuff I need to do.
My tree is still not up, for example.
But that’s no reason to not continue the pre-Christmas celebration here on Needle ‘n Thread! And today, we’re going to do just that, with a very holiday-appropriate give-away for A Stitcher’s Christmas #7!
I’m also announcing the winner of A Stitcher’s Christmas #5 – a beautiful stumpwork kit from Celeste Chalasani and her stumpwork class on Craftsy.
Today’s give-away, courtesy of The French Needle, features this gorgeous Christmas wreath embroidery kit from Rouge du Rhine.
Can you believe we’re halfway through the week before the week before Christmas? Where’s my snow? And why isn’t my tree up yet?
With time flying by so very quickly, I think it’s a perfect day to give away a calendar.
Not just any calendar, mind you! This is a calendar you’ll want hanging where you – and the rest of your world – can see it daily! It’s beautiful. It will keep you inspired all year long!
As we head a little closer to Christmas, A Stitcher’s Christmas – my series of embroidery-related give-aways to add to your holiday celebrations – is heating up!
So let’s start the week with another delectable pre-Christmas give-away! Today, it’s A Stitcher’s Christmas #5 – and it involves free tuition to an online class and the full materials kit.
Since it’s Friday, and since I love you this much, it’s a perfect day to continue with A Stitcher’s Christmas, and to venture into that realm that most stitchers can’t resist: tools…
…and more specifically…
Scissors!
I haven’t met one committed stitcher in my life who doesn’t love a good pair of scissors. Sure, you can get by with anything that’ll cut a piece of thread, but the pleasure that comes from using a Really Good Pair of Embroidery Scissors? It’s hard to beat!
So here it is – A Stitcher’s Christmas #4 involving scissors! We’ll also find out who the five winners are of A Stitcher’s Christmas #3 – embroidery kits and magazines from Inspirations.
Read on…and don’t forget to follow the give-away guidelines if you want a chance to win some fantastic embroidery scissors!
You know how that is, don’t you? You have every intention of “just doing a little bit right now to get started” … and then, next thing you know, you’re engrossed, and that little bit turns into a lotta bit.
Happy Monday! And welcome back to A Stitcher’s Christmas, a fun series of embroidery-related give-aways here on Needle ‘n Thread, just in time for Christmas!
Today, I’ll tell you the winner of A Stitcher’s Christmas #2 (these three A-Z embroidery books), and then tell you all about today’s give-away, for five winners!
This weekend’s stitching bout was a journey of self-discovery when it comes to crewel. I found out I’m too uptight with my stitches. They’re not as long and sketchy as they should be, especially in the large grass shards on top of the hillocks.
In fact, some of the grasses look pretty d-r-e-a-dful.
But…all that being said…the piece is coming along! Today, I’ll show you a correction, and then an interpretation. I’ll also defend my case for rabbits.
As the post-Thanksgiving weekend continues here in the US, I thought I’d pop in and let you know that I’ve clambered onto the band-wagon!
Oh yes, I’ve clambered! Because there’s just nothing better than a bandwagon to get things going!
Today is what retailers have been calling lately “Small Business Saturday” – when you’re encouraged to patronize small locally owned businesses to do your holiday shopping.
While I generally see most name-dubbing of specific days as marketing ploys, the whole “go forth and support small businesses” is a strategy that’s totally worthwhile.
Today, we kick off A Stitcher’s Christmas! This is a series of pre-Christmas give-aways here on Needle ‘n Thread for some delectable embroidery stuff, just in time for Christmas!
I’m kicking off the series with some gorgeous over-dyed threads, courtesy of Colour Complements…because, after all, who doesn’t like thread?
Back in October, we chatted about a series of needlework books called Beginners Guides, that are super-valuable to have in your embroidery library. The books are excellent, especially for stitchers who want to explore specific needlework techniques that they might not have tackled before.
Today, we’ll look at another great series of embroidery books that are for beginners and experts alike – the A-Z Series of needlework books. The A-Z series is an instructional reference series that has been around for a while and has been a best seller in the industry. Understandably, the books have a huge fan base, because they’re just that good!
If you’re just getting into embroidery and you’re looking for instructional books that will take you step-by-step in a logical, methodical way through learning stitches and techniques, these books are perfect for that.
Today, I’ll answer some questions and share a couple stitching tips – whether you’re working on this particular project, your own crewel project, or even any other embroidery project where the tips are still relevant.
Used throughout the design (and in many other Roseworks kits) are threads from House of Embroidery, a dye house also located in South Africa.
The review prompted a slew of inquiries about finding House of Embroidery threads in the US.
So I put on my Needle ‘n Thread Hat, did some research, made some connections, tested some threads (gosh, it’s a tough job!), took lots of photos, begged for some favors, arranged a terrific thread deal for you (update 2017: the deal has expired – sorry!) – and today’s article is the result of all that “hard work.”
Oh, the things I do for you! Like I said, it’s a tough job…chortle chortle.
If you’re like me, you’re probably still thinking it’s early days in the whole holiday preparation scheme of things.
I’ve heard that there are highly motivated, highly organized stitchers out there who actually embroider things for Christmas early in the year.
While I admire them – and I often wish I were one of those people – it never really works out that way for me. Usually, somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I get a hair-brained idea to stitch up holiday gifts. And then I do those frenzied late-night stitching sessions a couple days before the gift is due.
Don’t be like me! There’s still plenty of time to stitch up a fun gift or two for Christmas, enjoying the whole stitching process in a relaxed and calm state.
Here are some project ideas to help you do just that!
This particular alphabet has features the weird S and T. If you’re a fan of monograms alphabets – especially those from older sources – you’ve probably pondered the weird S and T before.
Today, someone out there is going to be a very happy winner of a copy of the recently re-printed Home Sweet Home, a very popular needlework book featuring an embroidered workbox and all its accessories, offered by the kind folks at Wooly Thread.
In fact, speaking of book popularity, we’ll talk a little bit about that below, too – what makes the book so popular, and its previous and subsequent appearance, disappearance, reappearance, disappearance, reappearance…and disappearance!
I’m telling you, this book is all about beauty and presentation! If you want a needlework book to drool over, to sigh over, to practically cry over – this is it.
A Passion for Needlework, published this year by Inspirations, features a drop-dead-gorgeous collection of needlework projects that will woo you into a dreamy world of dazzling, delightful, sumptuous embroidery.
Whether you buy this book for inspiration, for instruction, or just for decoration, you’re definitely going to want it in your library (or, more likely, on your coffee table!). Put it on your Christmas wish list!
I’ve been doing a bit of autumn-esque stitching this weekend!
This is one of Those Projects I’ve had drawn up for a while, but I’ve just gotten around to the embroidery.
Perfect timing, though – it’s still very much autumn here in Kansas. We’ve had gorgeous sunny days, perfect for sitting on the porch in bright sunlight, which is my favorite type of lighting for embroidery!
For your weekend entertainment, a little historical embroidery for you – from two different places. So let’s talk Opus Anglicanum and then a little crewel work!
I even have a discount code for you, for some gorgeous crewel embroidery kits…
Back in 2011, a lovely needlework book called Home Sweet Home hit the market.
The book featured step-by-step instructions for stitching a charming, fun, and rather vast embroidery project – an embroidered workbox with all the accessories.
Understandably, it wasn’t long before the book was sold up and out of print.
And people have been pining for it ever since.
Well, there’s good news! Home Sweet Home is back in print, better than ever, and ready to assist you to create your own workbox masterpiece!
Today, I’m going to chat a little bit about resources, supplies, and availability, share some ideas with you about the book (especially if you’re dying to create your own Home Sweet Home workbox), and then – thanks to the kind folk at Wooly Thread – have a give-away!
It’s the dawn of the 20th century. You’re a kid at a fair.
But not just any fair, mind you! It’s the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis!
There, all your sugar-coated, sweet-tooth dreams just came true. You plunked down 25 cents – which was a lot of money! – and bought yourself a box of “fairy floss.”
And someone captured you in a photograph delighting in what we now know as cotton candy.
About ten or so years later, your doting mother took that photo to a photography artist and had it hand-painted, because by about 1915, hand painted photographs were all the rage.
And your family has treasured the keepsake ever since, each generation contending that the newest edition – little Fred or sweet Sally – looks just like Great (Great) (Great) Uncle Charlie or Aunt Dahlia in that old photo of the Kid at the Fair with the Cotton Candy.
All I can think of when I pick up my latest monogram-embroidering endeavor is Vintage Cotton Candy. I’m pretty sure it looks just like the cotton candy you were reveling in, back in 1904.
And I’ll be honest: though it seems like a sweet thought, I’m not all that sweet on the current outcome!
Instead of focusing on ghouls and ghosts this morning (I have none! But I do have candy if you’re out trick-or-treating!), I thought we could look ahead a bit.
With November less than 24 hours away, and December showing up shortly thereafter, it’s time to think about embroidering something special for Christmas.
And to get you started, here’s a beautiful embroidery pattern for an angel in cutwork (or Richelieu) embroidery.
The pattern (you’ll find the PDF at the end of this article) is from Joanna at Haft Richelieu, and it is part of her Christmas collection design booklet that will be out by December (no. 61 in the Haft series). No. 61 includes 10 angels adorned with beads, along with 12 other little whitework ornaments for the tree.
If you’re looking to explore new adventures in hand embroidery, you’ll be happy to know that all of Craftsy’s online classes are on sale for less than $20 this weekend, and that includes a nice line-up of hand-embroidery related classes!
I’ve gotten my claws into two new-to-me Craftsy classes, too. As the end of the year approaches, I’m a little antsy to follow through on one of my new year’s resolutions for 2016, which was to learn a new handwork technique. I’ll tell you about it below!
In the meantime, here’s a list of super-good hand embroidery classes available on Craftsy (along with links to my reviews) that are on sale this weekend for less than $20. If you’re keen to learn a new technique or brush up on your stitching skills before the end of the year, this is a great way to do it!
Are you a budding embroidery artist who has recently discovered that you like this whole Embroidery Thing, but you don’t know exactly what’s out there to help you learn?
Are you an intermediate embroiderer who yearns to branch out into new techniques?
Are you a seasoned embroiderer looking for new inspiration, ideas, and approaches to bring to your masterpieces?
No matter where you are in your embroidery journey, eventually you will face the need – or entertain the desire – to purchase a needlework book.
There are three collections of needlework books out there that are excellent additions to the well-rounded needlework library and that will help you in your embroidery pursuits, no matter what your skill level.
Today, I want to talk about one of those series, called Beginner’s Guides, and three reasons I think you need them on your bookshelf.
Earlier this year, I had the pleasant opportunity to examine, up close, a really unique embroidery sampler worked by Sheila Iskin, who lives in Sunny California.
Now, this isn’t just any sampler. It’s not a band sampler. It’s not an alphabet sampler. It’s not a spot sampler.
It might not even be recognizable at first as a sampler, but that is indeed what it is – and I think it’s a very clever idea!
This sampler goes way beyond the standard approach to sampling stitches and techniques. It will open up a whole world of ideas for you!
I call this decorative alphabet for embroidered monograms Floral Script.
When it comes to naming things, I have very little pizzazz. I’m afraid I’m the type of person who would name a dog “Spot” without any qualms of conscience!
Still, in my defense, Floral Script tells you pretty much what you can expect from this alphabet: script-like letters with a little floral element for decoration. (Incidentally, the name could be equally applied to hundreds of decorative alphabets out there!)
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!
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:
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!
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.
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!
Ready for a really colorful, super-fun hand embroidery project?
The concept for these hand embroidered kaleidoscopes that I’ve been playing with this year developed from a combination of inspirations and ideas: the whole adult coloring book craze, the desire to embroider with lots of lively color, and the addictive practice of doodling repeat geometric designs.
Just a quick little post this morning to show you a really simple, but pretty, approach to an embroidered monogram, using just two stitches and two skeins of floss.
It’s so simple you can finish it in a day!
And I don’t mean you have to stitch all day, either – tops, it’s about a three hour project.
Here’s all the information, with links to tutorials that will help you whip up this pretty monogram in a short time, with few supplies!
Throughout my whole life, whenever anyone walked into our home – be it stranger or friend, seldom seen or always around – my Dad always greeted every visitor the same way:
Welcome home!
Mom and Dad wanted our home to feel like their home. They wanted every visitor to be at home.
And to this very day, my dad still greets every visitor the same way: a warm handshake, a big smile, and a hearty Welcome Home!
Today, I want to welcome you home the same way – to my new online home, right here at Needle ‘n Thread!
Purple and green. It’s a color combination I’ve always loved!
Strangely enough, I don’t wear it. I don’t decorate with it. But golly, I do like it.
And it was with purple and green in mind that I first fell for the “Leafy Blooms & Dots” alphabet that you’ll find in Favorite Monograms.
Today, I’ll show you a stitched sample from that alphabet. As always, there are parts of the letter that I really like, and parts that I’d do differently if I were stitching it again. But it was a fun little sample to stitch, and it worked up pretty quickly. And it provided a good purple and green fix – it’s been a while since I’ve stitched with this combination!
If you want to stitch it with the same approach, you can always change the color palette if you’re not a purple and green fan and make any other adjustments you want along the way, too!
Now, you might think I’m a little off my nut. You might think that I teach people to embroider all the time. But in fact, I don’t. I used to, when I had space. But I don’t have space, and my dream of a dedicated studio where I can teach locally is yet a distance away.
But I have a friend who wants to learn to embroider. She is desperate for a hobby – something to provide her with a creative outlet at the end of a long day’s work.
Sometimes, it’s easy to lose track of articles on blogs, so I like to create indexes that gather all the articles on one embroidery project or one series of embroidery projects into one place.
I keep all these project indexes under Tips & Techniques here on Needle ‘n Thread (in the main menu at the top of the website).
Today, I’m going to gather together all the articles on Needle ‘n Thread that include tips & techniques for embroidered monograms. Feel free to bookmark the list, to share it with your friends, and to visit it when you’re looking for ideas for embroidered monograms!
Some of my recent embroidery adventures have involved cotton floche – like this monogram and this monogram – and without a doubt, I’ll be dabbling with the thread again very soon.
I love floche. And it re-infatuates me every time I stitch with it.
Those of you who have been hanging around with me on Needle ‘n Thread for a while already know I love this embroidery thread! But for folks who are just joining us, if you don’t know what floche is, I’ll introduce you to it here.
Whether new or old in your explorations of embroidery, you’ll appreciate floche. It’s an amazing cotton thread – it definitely tops my list of favorite cottons.
This could be one of those blog posts where the writer (yours truly), traveling to exotic and interesting places, visits an elaborately named museum affectionately known by its initials, where she discovers some worthwhile textile and embroidery-related acquisitions to share with you.
It could be…
But it’s not.
The DMV really is the Department of Motor Vehicles. That’s the place we Americans go to register our cars, pay our car taxes, and get our licenses, tags and stuff like that.
Rather unjustly immortalized in Disney’s Zootopia, the DMV might not be the Most Thrilling Place in the world to go – and you certainly wouldn’t choose it as a vacation destination – but it’s one of those Necessary Places. In fact, I never mind going.
In my rural county in Kansas, our DMV is located in the very rural county seat, which is one of those geographical oddities (being 40 minutes from everywhere), and known primarily these days for two things: the DMV and the county courthouse and jail.
While there is an Oregon Trail crossing close by, I have to say, there’s not much else to recommend the place. But it’s a pleasant drive – hilly (yes, even in Kansas), green, with beautiful vistas. Once arrived, the lines are never long (if there are any), and the folks who work there are friendly and efficient. I’m always in and out in minutes.
And on my way in and on my way out, I always pause to look at this:
The embroidered E monogram that I showed you on Tuesday is finished, so today, I’ll show you the final details and discuss some of the stitching and some ideas for future modifications.
This is one of my favorite monograms so far in this recent splurge of monogramming.
Well… I should say it’s been one of my favorite “classic style” monograms to stitch. The voided floral monogram was actually the Most Fun Thing Ever to embroider, but this one – I like the results over all and I like the stitches involved in it.
There were some sticky spots, though, and there are some areas on the E that I’d like to do differently, in another version of the letter.
Lately, I’ve been sharing with you all kinds of ways you can embroider monograms, using techniques that are accessible for beginners and beyond, and highlighting different lettering styles from my recently released e-book, Favorite Monograms.
The purpose of these sample monograms is to show you that you can embroider beautiful monograms in a variety of stitches – that monogramming isn’t limited to any one kind of stitching technique.
Just last week, we looked at this monogram, embroidered with a few simple stitches in a few colors.
Today, I want to show you the beginnings of a filled monogram that’s easy to stitch and that incorporates a little bit of shading. The results: a classy, pretty monogram that’s a little more intricate than last week’s simple monogram, but that’s still super accessible.
This morning, let’s have a quick little chat about some needlework-related news bits – some information, some inspiration, and a little instruction, too!
It’s not a big list this time, just enough to get you through a few swigs of your morning brew.
Today, I want to show you a really simple approach to embroidering a pretty, classic monogram. Nothing overly fancy, and nothing difficult to stitch!
I’m going to share with you exactly what I did on this monogram, including everything I did wrong and the solutions.
This way, you can learn from my mistakes. The overall concept here is very simple and it makes for a nice, neat monogram that anyone – including beginners – can stitch up in just a matter of hours.
Here in the States, it’s Labor Day, which means many folks are enjoying a three-day weekend. If you’re one of them, I hope you have a chance to kick back and relax – and maybe spend some quality time with your needle and thread!
A three-day weekend is always a perfect excuse to get some stitching in, don’t you think?
I think everyone should have at least two on their reference shelf. Why at least two? Because when you have two stitch dictionaries, you can learn one very important lesson…and I’ll tell you what that lesson is at the end.
What I really want to talk to you about today is a book. It is one book. But it’s causing some confusion!
I’ve had some requests to review a “new” book that’s out, called Embroidery: A Step-by-Step Guide to More Than 200 Stitches.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? And really, there’s nothing better than a good step-by-step stitch dictionary that will help you learn a boatload of stitches!
Here’s the last voided monogram I’ll bother you with for a while! After this – besides sharing with you another project or two on the list – I’ll be dabbling with different, more classic approaches to monogramming and sharing some tips with you along the way.
This is a monogram that was meant to be a slightly simpler approach to the Confetti Monogram I showed you earlier – fewer threads, larger stitches, to work up faster – but part of that didn’t work out as planned.
Never fear – I’ll tell you how to adjust your approach to speed up your own voided monogram project.
Appliqué is a needlework technique that involves adding smaller fabric shapes onto a larger piece of fabric, usually in some kind of ornamental way.
While we often hear the term appliqué in association with quilting, it’s also a technique that’s closely associated with embroidery. Some embroidery books out there address the very basics of appliqué, but finally, there’s a new book on the market that delves very (and I mean very) thoroughly into appliqué as it pertains to hand embroidery.
The book is called Appliqué: Techniques, Projects & Pure Inspiration, a Royal School of Needlework book by Kate Cross and published by Search Press.
If I had to pick one word to describe this book, it would be thorough. It is a Gem of a Book, full of precise, clear instruction, plenty of inspiration, and some nice projects to get you started in pursuing the wonders of appliqué with embroidery.
Since we’re moving towards the beginning of September and autumn here in the northern hemisphere, it seems to me like a great time to think ahead to cooler weather and crewel embroidery.
For some reason, I always classify crewel work as a cool-weather pursuit!
Courtesy of Wooly Thread, which is a terrific US source for Appleton wool, wool felt, and Other Things Wooly, it’s time for a crewel embroidery kit give-away!
The kit is called Kashan. Designed by Anne at Talliaferro Classic Needleart, Kashan is exclusively available through Wooly Thread, where you can find the whole kit (instructional packet, linen and threads) in two thread offerings – Appleton wools or Cascade House wools – or you can purchase just the instructions, or just the instructions and the wool… whatever configuration of the kit you’d like.
It’s not that I don’t want to put in more stitches, but that’s the problem with this type of embroidery adventure. It might never end. There’s always One More Place you could add One More Stitch!
At some point, you have to draw the line and declare the thing complete.
Today, just a quick note to let you know about some rare needlework sales and some new kits out there on the market, before the opportunities pass!
These are bits from the small needlework businesses that advertise here on Needle ‘n Thread – supporting them helps support the website, so I like to give a little yelp now and then to bring you attention to the good stuff going on at their businesses.
All of the advertisers here on Needle ‘n Thread are small, quality, needlework-related businesses with good reputations, great products, excellent customer service – so if you haven’t had a chance to become familiar with them, please do! They’re terrific resources for the embroidery enthusiast.
Jade Dragon hails from Roseworks Embroidery Designs in South Africa, the work of designer and embroiderer Colleen Goy, who has produced a prolific amount of embroidery kits suitable for all tastes and levels. Roseworks has been producing embroidery kits for a long while, and they have over 100 designs available in kit form now!
Let me introduce you to Jade Dragon, up close and personal. I’ll share with you all the pertinent details of the kit, chat a bit about the level of embroidery, and share information on where you can find it.
You came up with some great ideas for a name for this one! Thank you! I’ve settled on a name – it wasn’t directly mentioned by anyone, but there were some related suggestions.
Today, we’ll take a look at the finished kaleidoscope (yippee!) and chat about it a bit. I’ll answer some questions that have come up about the project, too.
After a long weekend of stitching off and on, my voided floral-themed A monogram is just about finished!
Let me warn you right now – this type of embroidery is addicting. Once you get into a piece like this, it’s a bit like getting hooked into a Really Good Book. It’s hard to put down!
For those of you just joining in, you can see the beginnings of this project here. That’s where you’ll find information on fabric, on transfer method, and on most of the stitches used up to that point.
Today, we’ll chat a little bit more about the stitches I’ve used, and a bit about the approach I use to filling the whole background up.
Earlier this year, I brought up the subject of “designer” embroidery kits – that is, embroidery kits made and sold directly from designers (as opposed to kits bought in a big box craft store) – and their value.
Since then, I’ve been reviewing several embroidery kits from different designers around the globe, so that you can see these kits up close and get an idea of what different embroidery designers have to offer in kit form.
Today, we’re going to take a close look at a crewel embroidery kit designed by Jessica Grimm, an RSN graduate who lives in and works her embroidery business from Bavaria, in Germany.
Jessica explores many different types of embroidery on her blog, and in her shop, she sells her own embroidery kits that cover different techniques, too.
Her crewel embroidery kit called Carol’s Rose caught my eye, and so that’s what we’re going to look at up close today.
Earlier this year, I brought up the subject of “designer” embroidery kits – that is, embroidery kits made and sold directly from designers (as opposed to kits bought in a big box craft store) – and their value.
Since then, I’ve been reviewing several embroidery kits from different designers around the globe, so that you can see these kits up close and get an idea of what different embroidery designers have to offer in kit form.
Today, we’re going to take a close look at a crewel embroidery kit designed by Jessica Grimm, an RSN graduate who lives in and works her embroidery business from Bavaria, in Germany.
Jessica explores many different types of embroidery on her blog, and in her shop, she sells her own embroidery kits that cover different techniques, too.
Her crewel embroidery kit called Carol’s Rose caught my eye, and so that’s what we’re going to look at up close today.
To reiterate, you can apply this whole “voided” embroidery approach to any bold, clear design – it isn’t just for monograms!
I’m using monograms because I like them, and because they work up into nice little gifts to give for birthdays, Christmas, and the like. I either frame them or insert them into the top of a decorative box to make a special little gift. Occasionally, I use them for the cover of a needlebook or even a journal cover, depending on the recipient.
Today, I’ll show you the beginnings of another approach to a voided monogram. This one is a little more complex. There’s a lot more stitching variety in today’s approachand much more scope for the imagination!
If you love whitework embroidery, you’ve probably heard of Yvette – and if you haven’t heard of her, you need to!
Yvette writes instructional and project books, mostly for specific whitework techniques. She’s published an impressive library of eight books so far, six of which are devoted to whitework. All of Yvette’s books are beautifully written and photographed and packed full of clear, accessible instructions that are suitable for beginners and beyond.
This eighth book – Early-Style Hardanger – does not disappoint. It is High Quality Yvette, all over the place. If you know her books, you’ll recognize her style, her attention to detail, her thorough instructions and her exquisite projects.
In the upcoming weeks here on Needle ‘n Thread, I’ll be sharing some simple, effective, and fun ways to embroider monograms.
Today, we’ll look at a very basic “voided” monogram and chat about how to stitch it up.
If you love monograms and you’re looking for something very easy and relaxing to stitch, this will fit the bill!
It’s perfect for what I call “mindless stitching” – great for those times when you want to do something with your hands, but you don’t want to put a lot of brain power into it. Think: road tripping, commuting, lounging by the lake, sitting in a waiting room, visiting with friends, listening to a favorite book or watching a movie…
If you’ve been hanging out with me on Needle ‘n Thread for a while, you already know my secret love for the stem stitch!
But if you’ve just jumped on the Needle ‘n Thread wagon in the last year-ish, my infatuation with stem stitch might be news to you, since I haven’t extolled the virtues of this underrated stitch for quite a while.
With the advent of the Kaleidoscope designs I’ve been sneak-peeking to you lately – like this one worked with DMC cotton floss, and this one worked in Au Ver a Soie silk – I’ve received a jolly influx of email about stem stitch, some of which expressed real frustration and angst over the stitch.
Today, I want to touch on a subject that may change your approach to hand embroidery forever!
This just might be the secret you’ve been looking for, to vastly improve the finished results of your embroidery projects.
The topic is lining your embroidery ground fabric with another fabric – why to do it, when to do it, what to do it with, and how to do it.
For many of you, I’m sure this tip is Old Hat. But newbies to the embroidery scene might not even know they have the option of using a lining behind their ground fabric, and that doing so can make a huge difference in the outcome of an embroidery project.
I’ve fallen victim to a new stitching addiction, and it’s making it very hard to tear myself away from embroidery these days, even to concentrate on other website-related and workroom-related activities.
There’s a new version of Needle ‘n Thread coming out, for example. Yesssss! The All-New Needle ‘n Thread is almost ready to launch!
It’s been a long time since I’ve embroidered a whole project in silk threads.
But the fact is, I love silk embroidery threads, and if I could, I’d embroider the entire world with silk thread!
So you can well imagine how excited I am to launch into another little (bigger) kaleidoscope project, this time worked entirely in silk. I’m in Hog Heaven – Silk Hog Heaven, that is!
I picked out a four-color, multi-shade palette to work with for this particular design. I found myself sucked into the project, dreaming about it at night and waking up extra early to get stitches in. You know how it is…
So, today I thought we could chat about these particular silk threads, because I love them so.
You might have noticed I’ve been reviewing quite a few hand embroidery kits lately.
Back in April, we discussed designer’s embroidery kits – that is, embroidery kits directly from the designer, as opposed to embroidery kits that you might find at a big box craft store or similar.
Since then, I’ve been reviewing some kits that I plan to work so that you can get a close-up look at them and maybe make a decision on whether you want to work any of them, too.
You see, I love kits. I might design my own stuff, but that doesn’t keep me from loving other people’s designs and the kits that come from them. I consider stitching someone else’s kit almost like eating dessert. Dinner may be really good and it certainly sustains you, but dessert – ahhhh. Dessert! It’s a source of decadent pleasure!
I always feel a bit luxurious when I work a kit. I suppose it’s because all the really hard work is already done – I just have to sit back and enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labor while I indulge in the pure pleasure of stitching.
Today, I want to show you a kit involving silk embroidery with some tiny gold accents. The finished products are gorgeous and useful embroidery accessories.
For all you monogram lovers out there, I’m really excited to share today’s article with you!
Ever since I first started posting monogram alphabets on Needle ‘n Thread, I’ve had requests to make the whole alphabets available in one PDF, so that they were easy to download and organize, to pull up whenever you need a pretty letter to stitch.
Finally, I finished doing that – and not only with the monogram alphabets you’ll already find on Needle ‘n Thread, but with a heap of other alphabets, too!
Adult coloring books are all the rage, and while they’re a heap of fun in a lot of ways, I think I’ve found an even better outlet for needle and thread lovers!
When I put the last stitch in, I was almost sorry to see the end of the project. I say almost, because my brain was churning with ideas for the next one!
Happy Saturday! Time to grab your favorite cup, fill it up, and pull up a chair for a little online browse!
In Needlework News Snips, I like to share little embroidery-related snippets that I’ve come across online, hither and yon.
Usually, my Snips are a hodgepodge of inspiration, information, and instruction – a pretty picture or a neat project that caught my eye and that might inspire you; embroidery products, sales, or resources that sound interesting; or maybe a tutorial here and there…whatever happens to pop up whenever I have time to browse about through online embroidery haunts.
It’s a good time for me to share any newsy bits specifically related to Needle ‘n Thread, too, so I usually throw those in at the end of the list.
It’s a meandering journey, sometimes short, sometimes long. And the only thing required to enjoy it is your favorite morning beverage!
Well, I expected to finish it the very day we spoke about it.
I mean, it’s not as if it’s a high pressure stitching job. It’s not as if there’s any difficult techniques involved. After all, it’s just Fun Stitching. It’s an easy Afternoon Finish.
But you know, sometimes, things don’t always go as planned.
The answer to this will vary, undoubtedly, depending on what you like to do in the summer, the type of climate you live in, and whether you’re a “seasonal” stitcher. And of course, there’s the whole question of what you like to stitch, too!
For me, a summer stitching project should have a few key attributes. I’ll share my ideas on those below, and then suggest some projects that would make a good fit for summer stitching.
Good morning, friends, and a Happy Saturday all around!
Here in the US, it’s a holiday weekend! And while the Fourth of July weekend usually smacks of outdoor weather, picnics, sunshine, fireworks and the like, here in my part of Kansas, we’re finally getting (a lot) of rain! In fact, it’s practically flooding. In the Midwest, it’s never a good idea to complain about rain. Whenever it comes, it’s a good thing. It’s good for the crops, it’s good for the cattle…
… and it makes great indoor weather to catch up on stitching-related pursuits! So that’s my plan!
Today, I’m going to share with you two things: my last stopping point on Late Harvest, an embroidery project designed by Hazel Blomkamp that I’ve been slowly working my way through and sharing here on Needle ‘n Thread; and a personal update, because many of you are inquiring how things are panning out with my Big Life Adventure with Cancer.
First, Late Harvest! Then, I’ll share the personal update with via a link to a PDF file (so that you can skip it if you want to).
This morning, I’m sending out to you four more letters in the floral script monogram alphabet – letters I though L.
If you’re just joining us recently on Needle ‘n Thread, you’ll find all the earlier letters in this beautiful alphabet available here, on the monogram index, and I’ll be adding the rest of them as I get them cleaned up for you.
You’ll also find stitching tips and ideas on each article for these letters, if you’re looking for ideas on how to embroider them.
So, here are the next four letters with some more stitching ideas!
Lately, I’ve been doodling about, playing with some designs that I call kaleidoscopes. These are repeating designs drawn on a radiating grid of spokes, which vary in number depending on the type of design.
Some of the designs are made up of many straight lines, while others are scrolly, floral, and a bit loose. Whether linear or scrolly (or a combination), they’re all fun to embroider!
When each issue arrives, I give it a preliminary glance because I just can’t wait to see what’s inside it. But then I set it aside until I have time to really savor it. I usually do this over a long and lingering lunch or a couple cups of afternoon tea. I go through the whole issue and I read everything. I even read the ads!
And often, I find myself drooling over the projects. There’s always a few projects in each issue that really grab me. I want to embroider them. Now! And while that’s not always possible or even practical, sometimes, I come across projects in the magazine that I definitely want to stitch with my own hands.
For me, the best approach to having everything ready when the time is right is to order a kit.
One question that came up in the discussion of this new variegated thread from DMC was whether or not a list of corresponding solid DMC colors was available for color matching.
A long, long time ago – back when the idea of blogging for Ten Whole Years had never even crossed my mind – I started a project that would become an Old Friend.
It has withstood the test of time rather well, and I thought it would be fun to revisit it.
Maybe it will inspire you to take up some random embroidery project and just stitch your little heart out!
Because I’ll tell you this much: it may not be the most beautiful embroidery project in the world, it may not be the nicest finishing job, and it may be a bit on the bizarre side overall, but this project was downright fun.
And now and then, doing something Just Plain Fun with needle and thread is darned good therapy!
Over the next several weeks, I’ll be reviewing embroidery kits for you, from designers around the globe who sell their own kits through their own small embroidery businesses.
Ordering kits directly from designers ensures that you get a good quality kit directly from the person who made it, who designed the project, worked it from the ground up, and knows all about it.
These types of kits are a great way to learn a technique well, and they often come with a good support system. If you are having trouble with your kit, you can often email the designer directly and get good tips that will see you through the project successfully.
Today, I’m going to show you, up close and personal, what you get in a kit from The Crewel Work Company, Phillipa Turnbull’s business in the UK that specializes in historically accurate crewel embroidery designs and materials.
The kit I’m reviewing here is the Mellerstain Firescreen kit. It’s lovely, and I can’t wait to get started on it!
I mentioned at some point last week that I’ll be doing some organizing and cleaning up in my workroom over the next couple weeks.
Just mentioning “organizing the workroom” sparked a lot of interest. You asked if I’d share before and after pictures, if I’d share tips on organizing and so forth.
Organizing can be a real bear! And I’m probably the last one in the world to offer tips on how to do it efficiently, on what storage solutions to use and all that kind of stuff. Because right now, I’m completely disorganized.
My Biggest Problem right now is a Book Problem.
Here’s a question for you: Can you have Too Many Embroidery Books?
My answer: a resounding YES.
To give you a better understanding of my Embroidery Book Problem, let’s take a little peek in my book cabinet:
Continuing with this new series of monograms for hand embroidery here on Needle ‘n Thread, here’s the next four letters of the floral script alphabet I started sharing last week.
One thing I especially love about this particular alphabet is that it offers so many possibilities for interpretation in stitches, and as I add the letters to Needle ‘n Thread, I’ll share some stitching ideas with you.
Since many of you write now and then asking about class sale prices for the hand embroidery classes available on Craftsy, I thought I better give you a Big Heads Up about this weekend’s class sale!
It’s a good one, and if you’ve been contemplating signing up, now’s a good time to do it!
Some of the questions showing up in my inbox lately have to do with Coloris, DMC’s new multi-colored stranded cotton.
I’m working on a little Coloris project as we speak – I’ll share that with you in upcoming weeks. I always figure you can get a better idea of a thread and what it does by actually stitching with it, rather than just handling it and staring at it. And to that end, I’ve been playing about with it! (Hey, any excuse to play with thread!)
In the meantime, I’ll answer a couple questions about the thread that may help you decide if you want to add this new collection of twenty-four colors to your stitchy stuff.
Let me put it this way – if you have a fun streak when it comes to embroidery, I’m pretty sure you’re going to want to add it to your stash!
Today, I’m going to start a series featuring these very pretty floral monograms that I’ve cleaned up into vector line drawings that you can enlarge or reduce, print, and use for your own hand embroidery projects.
Visiting museums, taking road trips, exploring history… these are things I love doing, and usually, when I do get the opportunity to do them, I’m always on the lookout for embroidery along the way. I can’t help it – it’s a compulsion and an obsession!
Last month, a very dear friend came to visit, whom I hadn’t seen in years. One day, she suggested a short road trip. Now, I’m nuts for road trips, but I haven’t gone on even a short one in a couple years. So I leapt at the opportunity, and one morning, early, we headed out across the green hills of Northeast and North Central Kansas (yes, by the way, we have hills in Kansas!), to a town called Concordia.
Concordia is home to a small museum with a huge story. While the museum is, in a way, a simple affair, it tells one of the most compelling (and little-known) stories of America history – the story of the Orphan Train Movement. The Orphan Train Complex houses a research center and a museum dedicated to the riders of the Orphan Trains in the US from the mid-1800’s through the early 1900’s. During a time frame of about 75 years, over 250,000 children – orphaned, abandoned and foundlings – were “deported” (primarily from NYC) on trains across the United States and Canada to be placed in new homes.
Living in a small rural town in the middle of Kansas has its advantages…but it also has certain drawbacks.
For example, local embroidery supplies are pretty scarce. And locals who share an interest in embroidery are scarce, too. That’s why I love, love, love our little community on Needle ‘n Thread! Thanks to the internet, we can share ideas, tips, and tricks about embroidery with ease, almost as if we live right next door to each other!
This month, I experienced another disadvantage of rural life. Mid-May, I received one of those delightful little cards from the Post Office that said I had a package waiting. I love those cards! Especially when I’m not expecting a package! But upon perusal, I saw, circled boldly, “Last Notice. Package will be returned to sender in two days.” Last notice? Last Notice? I never got a first notice! Needless to say, I hastened to the local PO (which has the oddest hours on the face of the earth), and retrieved a very intriguing package, which I’m going to tell you about today.
This particular package hails from Cynthia – you might remember her from the incredible work she did in formatting my Marian Medallion e-book – and in it is an item that may very well be The Solution to all your whitework embroidery transfer fears.
You already know it. But, in case you have any doubts, I’m going to say it anyway: I’m a thread junkie.
I love embroidery thread! I’m drawn to thread like an ant is drawn to sugar. Like a bee is drawn to pollen. Like Icarus was drawn to the sun. And like some people are drawn to chocolate.
Put me amongst embroidery thread, and I am happy.
There are worse addictions in the world, so I suppose I’m not ashamed of the fact that I love thread so much. I am a little bit mortified, though, when I look at all the thread that I’ve accrued over the years and realize that there’s really no way for me to use it all. Ever.
So for the past year or so, I’ve stopped accumulating thread just for the sake of having, and I’ve been working solely from threads I own. While this may make me feel temporarily self-restrained, it doesn’t curb the addiction.
My determination to work from what I own has resulted in a few testy moments. Going into a needlework shop and facing a wall of thread, only to pass on all of it, almost causes me to break out in a sweat. The whole experience can be rather depressing.
Fortunately, my determination doesn’t prevent some very kind people out there from feeding my addiction (God bless ’em!). Recently, I received a pleasant package in the mail, containing several samples of a reader’s favorite thread. And when I opened the package and began to revel in the colors, I knew I had to share them with you!
Those of you who love over-dyed threads and vibrant colors, beware.
Back in 2015, I ran a short series of articles on a variety of heritage tapestries that can be found around the globe. These are needlework tapestries that depict a story – usually a rather epic tale – from the heritage of the people who stitch it or of the area in which it is stitched.
Heritage tapestries fascinate me! I love the history they tell, the artistry they display, and the whole idea of Community that revolves around them.
For those of you who are new to the concept of heritage tapestries, or who missed the articles last year, you might find this particular book review of The Art of Narrative Embroidery interesting. If you’ve ever toyed with the idea of organizing a tapestry in your own community, it’s a great place to start!
Not last week but the week before (no, I’m not going to jump rope for you while chanting ditties – remember that one?), I made quite a bit of progress on Late Harvest, the finish of which is Looming!
And then I made no more progress on it at all.
And I still haven’t.
I had this weirdly naive plan to crank out the rest of the project this past weekend – I was so sure I could do it! – and then… nada. Not one stitch.
Still, week before last, I made some fair progress and I “discovered” a way to speed up the larger long and short stitch leaves.
Trust me, it’s no Grand Discovery that’s going to change your embroidery life. But it did help on these leaves!
It’s been mighty quiet here on Needle ‘n Thread for the past week – I hope you didn’t miss me too much! I missed you, though, and I’m really happy to be back today! For those who have asked, yes, I’ve been a bit ill this week, but I’m crawling out of it now, and things are getting back to normal. Thanks for all the encouragement!
To help celebrate this resurgence of energy, today I want to review a Very Energetic book for you. It’s Hazel Blomkamp’s newest book, called Hand-Stitched Crazy Patchwork, and let me tell you right off the bat – it’s different.
It’s not your typical needlework book. It’s a bit crazy, just like the name implies…but in a good, good way!
Today, I want to share with you an ingenious piece of embroidery by Robin, who live in “The Land of Enchantment” (that would be New Mexico!).
Using my Lavender Honey needle book design (found in my Lavender Honey and Other Little Things e-book), Robin added a few tweaks of her own, to make the needlebook uniquely hers and more functional for her.
I love the way it came out! Just wait til you see the back!
Here are some step-by-steps on how Robin improved the needlebook to suit her needs. Hopefully, it will inspire you to do the same – to mix things up a bit and make little adjustments to make your own needlebooks from Lavender Honey (or any project, really) unique to you.
No one has ever claimed that hand embroidery is a wicked-fast enterprise. When you do something by hand, it just takes time.
But golly, sometimes, progress is much slower than we think it should be. Sometimes, it’s hard to get back into the groove of a project, and this can slow us down.
Last week, that’s how I felt about Late Harvest. I should be farther along than I am. But I couldn’t seem to make myself sit still and stitch. And it seemed like a chore to pick it up and get going again. And so I purposely avoided it. I worked on other things and took a Late Harvest hiatus.
After a little break from the project, picking it up again was easier. And by selecting one element to stitch and focusing just on it, my excitement was rejuvenated. Sometimes, a break is a good thing!
Over the weekend, I tackled this one small element – which I call The Funky Mushroom.
Wow! It didn’t take long for April to fly by, did it?
I’ve gathered up a few embroidery-related links for you to explore this weekend. It’s a short list this weekend – just enough for your morning coffee break! Let’s spend it browsing together, shall we?
I have not been a very good girl! This past weekend, I fell behind on my List of a Great Many Things to Do.
Falling behind – it can be such a Frustrating Thing.
But in this case, you know what? I had a lot of fun falling behind! You see, I had a distraction…
Last week, I received in the mail a very kind anonymous gift from a very kind reader. Inside the box were two charming kits from Ann’s Orchard, the website of Emma Pavier, who designs very delicate, pretty, fun bead embroidery kits. One of those kits, I’ll review in depth later, once I get started on it.
The other, this little Blue Tit mini bead kit, I’ll show you now, in the interest of justifying why I fell behind this weekend. I think you’ll understand!
Whoops. I should have told you sooner – I apologize! But if you have been hankering to further your embroidery skills, this is a great (and super affordable) way to do that!
Below, I’ve included a list of the hand embroidery classes on sale today and also some general notes about Craftsy classes, with links to some of the class reviews I’ve written, in case you’re curious. Yes, I do enroll in Craftsy classes, and I’ve learned some really good things from them!
Today, I’m going to ramble on about embroidery thread. Once in a while, I just have to. It’s like releasing a pressure valve. I have to talk about thread, because I love thread.
Those of you interested in 17th century embroidery, in embroidered caskets, and similar exquisite items in the needlework field are probably not new to Thistle Threads.
If you’ve scoured the internet for information about 17th century embroidery or making your own embroidered casket (i.e. decorative, intricate cabinet with drawers and little compartments), then you’ve probably run across Thistle Threads – or maybe you’ve even enrolled in their casket class.
The casket class – called the Cabinet of Curiosities – is a two-part course, a fascinating multi-year journey towards creating your own embroidered table-top cabinet that tells whatever story you want it to tell. It includes the history of the embroidered casket, techniques, materials, side journeys for small treasures for inside the cabinet, and all the information you need to be well-informed while you create your magnum opus – your own embroidery heirloom that should last centuries.
The stumpwork elements for Late Harvest are all stitched up and ready to go! Not that they have anywhere to go yet – I still have to finish the left half of the main part of the project.
But it’s always nice to accomplish a minor goal, isn’t it?
Today, I’ll show you the stumpwork pieces and share a couple handy tips that might help you on your own embroidery projects.
“Designer Kits” – sounds a bit snobby, but for lack of a better term, this is what I call embroidery kits that are created by a specific designer and usually only sold through that designer. You won’t find them, for example, in big box craft stores, and usually not even in local needlework shops (although sometimes, you might).
For your browsing pleasure, here’s a round-up of interesting embroidery-related bits I’ve come across online lately. Some are information, some are inspirational – I hope you find them a fun way to start the week!
Pour yourself a cup of your favorite morning beverage – it’s tea for me this morning – and join me in a brief browse through some recent favorites.
It’s Friday! It’s Spring! It’s my birthday! And it’s a Perfect Day for a Give-Away!
And not just any give-away, but a thread give-away. Yes, that’s right! I’m going to help you feed your embroidery thread addiction!
When it comes to Tangible Things, there’s nothing better than embroidery thread, right? I have a serious infatuation with threads, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.
The most appealing aspect of embroidery thread, to me, is the color, and no one does unique, hand-dyed color quite like Colour Compliments, a small embroidery thread business in Canada.
Lorraine at Colour Complements has announced a clearance sale at Colour Complements starting today, and, to kick it off, she thought it would be fun to give Needle ‘n Thread readers a chance to win some of her threads. I wholeheartedly agreed. Any time I have a chance to get thread into an enthusiastic stitcher’s hands, I’m all over it!
Lately, I’ve received some interesting emails from readers, asking questions or relating experiences that have to do with embroidery kits.
And heck, who doesn’t like to talk about embroidery kits? It’s a topic I love, so I’m always game for a discussion!
One interesting conversational thread that has surfaced is the topic of purchasing embroidery kits as opposed to sourcing your own supplies for a project.
The topic is multi-faceted. I could never cover every detail or share every thought I have on the subject in one article. You’d be asleep by the end!
So, instead, I’m introducing the subject here, sharing a few of my thoughts and some basic principles behind them, and asking for your input and feedback.
I’ve been working on an embroidery project called Late Harvest for the last year, and the articles relating to my progress on the project – and any mistakes, corrections, tips and techniques that I’ve written about – are scattered all over Needle ‘n Thread.
So, to do a little housekeeping and keep things organized so that you can find them more easily, here’s the Project Index for Late Harvest! This is where I’ll list, in chronological order, all the articles relating to this project as I work through it.
Remember my embroidered Secret Garden Hummingbirds from the same book? Well, Karen followed along with that project, working her own version of the peacock page. She kindly sent photos and all the details of her stitching adventure.
So, let’s end the week with some inspirational embroidery and forget the whole April Fool’s thing! Besides reveling in the colors and stitching, you’ll find plenty of ideas to glean for your own embroidery projects.
Back to my adventures with Late Harvest, the embroidery kit by Hazel Blomkamp that I’ve been working on for quite a while now.
I don’t think I can emphasize too much how fun the embroidery on this design has been. Not only is there a ton of stitching variety in the piece, but there are elements and techniques that have proved relaxing, challenging, and exciting, all in one!
I’ve found myself anticipating the next step the whole time – always eager to stitch the next element, to try the next technique, to see the finished product. It’s like reading a really good book, where you can’t wait to get on to the next chapter!
Here in the Midwest, Spring is trying its darnedest to break through!
But it definitely needs a little help. Two weeks ago, when it was 80 degrees, you’d think that we skipped the season altogether and plunged straight into summer. But no. Now there’s a possibility of snow on Easter Sunday.
So, in an attempt to encourage Spring to spring, here’s a round-up of some of my favorite embroidery ideas, tutorials, and patterns that are spring related. I hope you enjoy them!
Certain times of the year, the yearn to go road tripping overwhelms me. There’s nothing I love better than a good road trip!
One of my favorite aspects of a road trip is staying in different hotels along the way. I love hotel life! I don’t really know why. It’s not as if I stay at swanky hotels or anything. But I think it’s fun to stay in hotels, especially if you’re traveling with family or friends.
When road tripping, I rarely bother to take embroidery with me anymore, because the fact is, I never get to it. There’s just too much else to do on vacation – too many things to see, people to visit, places to go. Embroidery ends up taking a back seat, if I remember it at all.
But lately, I’ve had the unique opportunity to stay in a hotel for some extended bouts of time, without the vacation vibe hovering over the whole experience, while I take care of some medical treatments. And I’ve been staying alone, so there’s lots of time on my hands! When I prepare to pack up for these chunks of hotel living, you can bet that, in these circumstances, my embroidery plays first fiddle. I’m not exactly getting out and about and “doing the town,” so I need something to do to while away those hotel-room hours.
Whether you’re traveling for business, pleasure, or necessity, packing needlework stuff for hotel stays is a good idea, if you know you’re going to have time to stitch.
Here are the stitchy things I’ve been taking along with me lately – maybe they’ll give you some good ideas for your next hotel stay.
I won’t start this week by grumbling about the Most Ridiculous Time Change that we call Daylight Savings Time. Some day, reason will prevail and it will be abolished altogether, don’t you think?
So, instead of bemoaning DST, I’ll start the week off sharing a tiny bit of progress on Late Harvest. I Really Like this leafy element that I stitched over the weekend.
At first, I wasn’t sure I’d like the color combo, but I love the techniques involved. The strange thing about the colors, though, is that, as the element came together, the colors seemed to morph into something rather pleasing.
For the past several months, Laura Turnbull and I have been chatting back and forth about crewel embroidery kits from The Crewel Work Company.
Not only have the kit offerings at The Crewel Work Company expanded quite a bit recently, but Phillipa and her daughter Laura are in the process of deciding on some new offerings to add to their gorgeous line of historic crewel embroidery kits. And, to that end, they want your help!
To entice you to help them make some decisions on upcoming kits, they’ve graciously offered a magnificent give-away here on Needle ‘n Thread, for three winners. The prize? Ohhhhhhhh……..
I know it’s not “officially” spring yet, but my daffodils – which have popped up abundantly all over – are telling a different story!
And so, to celebrate – and to welcome a whole bunch of newcomers who have joined our Needle ‘n Thread community over the past several months – I thought today would be a great day to offer a sale on my favorite e-books, both of which offer springy projects, techniques, and colors that sing Spring!
I was going to title today’s article “The Pessimist’s View of Reaching the Half Way Point on a Beloved Embroidery Project.”
I didn’t, for obvious reasons.
Usually, I’m a pretty optimistic sorta gal, but I’ve got seriously conflicting feelings, now that I’ve finished the whole right half of Late Harvest.
Half of me sees the embroidery project half empty; half of me sees it half full. And half of me (yes, there is enough of me to have three halves) can’t decide if it’s half empty or half full.
The only way to settle my thoughts and re-affirm my normal positive state, I’ve decided, is to talk about it. And who better to talk about it with than you?
Spring is springing here in Kansas – the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and out amongst the dead grassy remnants of winter, my crocuses are blooming. Now all we need is a little rain!
It’s been a while since I’ve written up any news snips. These are little collections of embroidery-related bits I’ve come across online that are either informative, inspirational, or instructive.
So I thought today would be a good day to compile a list that you can enjoy meandering through over the weekend.
Go pour yourself a cup of something and join me! Let’s explore!
I love battlement couching! If you’re not familiar with what it is, you’ll find a tutorial for it right here on Needle ‘n Thread.
While I’d used battlement couching in crewel work with wool threads, it wasn’t until I made use of it in my Lattice Jumble Sampler that I really fell in love with it. It really is a magnificent filling technique for surface embroidery of all types.
Oh golly! I’ve been wanting to write this book review for Alison Cole’s new book, The Stumpwork Masterclass: Raised and Embossed Embroidery, for a long time!
If you acquire this book – and you must, if you have any interest in stumpwork, historical or contemporary – you’ll understand the delay. It is not your typical book. It is a tome, and I wanted to read it cover to cover before writing about it.
Well, I finished it, and now I’m going to tell you all about it!
Today, I’m announcing the winner for the La Serenissima crewel embroidery instructional guide from Talliaferro give-away from last week!
One lucky winner will receive the instructional guide and pattern for this gorgeous design, thanks to Anna at Talliaferro.
And, since I’ve had a lot of inquiries lately on how my personal adventure with cancer is going, I’ve also included a link to a little update at the end of the article, for those who want to read it.
Of all the different embroidered elements on Late Harvest, the grapes were the Wow Factor that really sucked me into this project!
Made from bunches of flat back topaz crystals attached to the surface of the project with a clever combination of detached buttonhole cinched with a whip stitch, the grapes add a massive amount of sparkle and texture to the project.
Lately – and I admit it freely! – I’m a sucker for bling, and these grapes definitely feed my growing penchant for adding a bit of blingy brightness to my embroidery projects.
So, needless to say, I was super eager to get on with the grapes. Alas, it wasn’t smooth going at first! Initially, in fact, it was pretty hard going – most of which has to do with the leaf that I showed you last week and the fact that I switched up the recommended order of work.
Today, thanks to Anna, the artist behind Talliaferro, I’m giving away one complete instructional guide to one lucky stitcher out there who wants to take on this gorgeous project!
Read on for the details on how to join in the fun!
I’ve been making pretty good progress on Late Harvest recently, and I’ve concluded that one of the things I like best about this project is that every bit that I do is a learning experience.
Many of the lessons I’ve absorbed from this project are negative lessons – what not to do, the next time I’m in similar situations. Negative lessons are sometimes the best lessons, because they stick with us longer.
The negative lessons I’m experiencing here have nothing to do with the instructions or the kit itself – instead, they have to do with decisions or mistakes that I’ve made while working my way through the project.
Today, I want to show you one of my favorite elements of Late Harvest so far, and I’ll share with you some negative lessons, so that, if you’re ever in a similar stitching situation, you can avoid making the mistakes I’ve made.
For those of you who are newer to the fold, if you haven’t seen that instructional guide, take a look at it! It’s worth a gander!
When that design first hit the market, I was thrilled! Here was traditional crewel embroidery, kicked up about a hundred notches into something new, something artistic, something fabulously exuberant, and yet worked in traditional crewel techniques, with wool.
Well, you’ll be most happy to know that Anna, the artist behind Talliaferro, has done it again, recently releasing a stunning new design called La Serenissima. Today, I want to show it to you and review the instructional guide for this gorgeous piece of modern, yet traditional, crewel embroidery.
As you know, I’ve been working through Late Harvest – an embroidery design from Hazel Blomkamp that can be found in her book Crewel Intentions.
I’ve been making pretty decent progress on it (and having a lot of fun with it!), pretty much because it’s the only project I’ve got out right now.
While I’d like to be working on some other projects, and while I need to be working on some other projects, I find myself taking the Path of Least Resistance. It’s just easier to work on what’s right in front of me instead of going through the set-up phases on other projects.
One of these days, I’ll snap out of my Lazy Mode. But in the meantime, I justify it by telling myself that at least I’m getting something done with my needle and thread. Gosh, I’m good at justifying these things!
As I’ve worked through different parts of the project, I’ve found myself contemplating a few things. We’ve already discussed some of them, like changing the order of work.
In one prolonged moment of stitching reverie last week, I found myself contemplating the subject of levels of embroidery.
For those of you who have worked my Lattice Jumble Sampler, this might not surprise you.
Today, we’re going to talk about lattice filling stitches and I’m going to share a couple tips to help you achieve evenly spaced, straight lattice stitches without marking up your fabric.
Well, controversial might be an exaggeration – it’s not as if the use of a specific tool for a hobby is a matter of serious debate or anything, and a tool’s use is hardly a matter of principle on which we’d stake our lives.
But surprisingly, there’s one little tool that I think is super-handy for embroidery, that weighs in on a love-hate scale.
There are lots of people who use these tiny tools all the time, whose stitching lives wouldn’t be complete with them, while others avoid them with vehemence.
I fall on the side of over-use of them. I love ’em. I use ’em. I rarely stitch without ’em.
This morning, I’m excited to share with you a beautiful guest post for you from Celeste Chalasani.
Celeste will chat about what inspires her stumpwork projects and show us some of her favorite stumpwork embroidery pieces. She’ll also share a great design tip to help you come up with your own stumpwork designs. At the end of the article, you’ll find a discount link for Celeste’s class Stumpwork: Raised Embroidery Essentials on Craftsy, in case you want to explore three-dimensional stumpwork embroidery further.
So, prepare yourself for some gorgeous embroidery! To really enjoy the photos, feel free to click on them for larger versions. (All photos credited to Celeste Chalasani, except where noted.)
I have a dilemma. A Real Stitching Dilemma. And I’m hoping you can help me solve it!
If you’ve been reading Needle ‘n Thread a while, you’ve probably figured out that my Thing is surface embroidery of the free-style type. It’s what I love doing and what I do most, when it comes to needle-and-thread-related things.
But occasionally, I also enjoy a little foray into counted work.
Last year, I was challenged to undertake a very large counted project, one that will probably last years and years. I succumbed to the challenge, ordered the chart, accumulated and organized the 200 thread colors required, and prepared the fabric, so that I could at least get the gargantuan thing under way.
A Fabulous Friday all around! Today, I’ll show you some progress on Late Harvest, discuss some woes and triumphs, offer some tips that you might find helpful in your own embroidery pursuits, and beat myself over the head for some deliberate oversights.
And Late Harvest IS fun! Even though I run into many self-induced snags along the way, it’s rather exhilarating to work my way out of them and to make up my mind how to attack similar situations later on.
It’s a particularly fun project, too, because there’s enough variety in it that you don’t get bored doing the same thing over and over again.
At the same time, there’s enough similarity among many of the elements that you really have the opportunity to improve on certain skills. I figure there’s always room for improvement in every path of life, including my embroidery. Anything that makes me better, I like! Even if the experience can be kind of grueling at the time!
So, here’s a recap on my latest jaunt with Late Harvest.
Today, I want to introduce to you all a wonderful new website for those of you who love historical embroidery and reproduction samplers, show you one of their charts, and point you to a really sweet free pattern that I want to use for a particular stitching technique.
I love embroidering on felt! I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I had so much fun with this needlebook years and years ago. It was such a “free form” project – no rules, no preconceived ideas. Just stitching whatever occurred to me.
Yes, that was certainly the beginning of my romance with stitching on felt.
Well, for Christmas, I received the most adorable little felt pincushion from a very kind reader. And I have to show it to you, so that you can see that stitching on felt can be creative, delicate, and addictive!
You know that Long List of Things to Do in 2016 that I posted the other day?
Well, I left off one little thing.
Well, actually…I left off several little things.
I left them off on purpose, because I thought they weren’t really worth mentioning. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that these little stitchy things have given me a lot of pleasure lately – more so, perhaps, than any of my larger projects.
See, my larger projects – the projects that you see most frequently on Needle ‘n Thread – require me to traipse out to my workroom, to work in isolation in a rather lonely, cold environment, under glaring lights, sometimes using magnification, never in a really comfy chair, always with a certain level of concentration, always with a camera handy, always thinking about the article that will accompany the photos, always planning next steps… you get the idea.
But I have a collection of tiny little kits that provide me with just the opposite experience. They are my secret little indulgence.
Do you have an embroidery wish list? Those things you want to do, that keep adding up in a long, never-ending list of Stitching Adventures?
I do. If I look at it as a whole, I realize that life is probably too short to fit it all in. So I like to break it down a bit.
Before January struck and the year turned over, I made a list of Embroidery (and other needlework-related) Adventures for 2016.
In the last few weeks, I’ve mapped out my Plan of Attack for 2016. Now that I’ve done that, I can share with you my official 2016 list with greater confidence that we might actually see most of it!
The funny thing is, even my yearly list is a bit much. In reality, I know I won’t complete everything on it, but I’ll at least get it started.
I figure if I aim high, then when I land at the end of the year, I’ll be further along than otherwise.
Today, I’m going to take you through my latest tiny stitching adventure and tell you my thought processes and how they didn’t work, but then how they did work, and hopefully convince you that it’s ok to plow ahead even when the results of your stitching are looking a bit dim.
My adventure started when I succumbed to the temptation of working the elements of Late Harvest (an embroidery project designed by Hazel Blomkamp and featured in her book Crewel Intentions) completely out of order.
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a free surface embroidery pattern, so this morning, I thought I’d share a little heart I’ve been dabbling with.
There’s something a little Valentine’s Day-ish and a little St. Patrick’s Day-ish combined in this design – sort of hearty, sort of shamrocky, and good for all kinds of craft techniques.
You might remember that, last autumn, I was fiddling around a bit with some fun needle woven fillings that can be used to add color, texture, and pattern to large areas of embroidery.
Needle weaving is pretty much just weaving embroidery thread on the surface of fabric. In concept, it’s not too complicated. But the results that you can achieve by following a variety of patterns and by working with different types of threads, colors, textures, and whatnot are pretty amazing!
If you’ve had a bit of a hankering to try out needle weaving on your embroidery projects, you’re in luck! Hazel Blomkamp has put together a terrific little instructional book called Needle Weaving Techniques for Hand Embroidery, and it’s chockfull of so many patterns that you’ll never tire of the offerings!
I’m excited about this instructional book! Let me show you why…
Today’s article is an example of either Really Bad Timing or Really Good Timing, depending on how you look at it.
I want to show you the Most Adorable, downright cute, perfectly constructed, beautifully finished tiny little hoops that you can use for finishing itty-bitty embroidery projects – whether you want to finish those little broder-bits into jewelry, ornaments, keychains, tiny framed things to hang from your ceiling all over your house…
Perhaps I should have mentioned these well before Christmas, so that you could use them to finish little embroidered ornaments or fun and unique jewelry to give as gifts. It’s too late for that now, but look at it this way: January gives you plenty of time to prepare for next Christmas, and for all the holidays, birthdays and other occasions in between!
Better yet, it’s also a great time to make something fun, just for yourself.
I’m still struggling with those differences. But I keep trying! You know how they say it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks? Well, the same concept applies for stitchers.
Not that we’re dogs, mind you!
I did make some progress on the project last weekend – not a lot, but if you’ve been reading Needle ‘n Thread for a while, you know one of my recurring themes: some progress is always better than no progress!
2016 promises to be a big one here on Needle ‘n Thread – new adventures in embroidery and writing, a new look on the website, and lots of new projects, inspiration, and stitching ideas.
And I’m excited that I get to share it with you! We’re going to have so much fun together!
My big plans for today – to share with you a whole completed stack of red Christmas napkins embroidered with snowflakes using the patterns I’ve been posting on Needle ‘n Thread lately – have fizzled to naught!
Unless I sprout another eight arms and acquire another eight hours in the day, they won’t, alas, be finished. So I’ve decided to do what any sane person would do, and let it go. There’s always next year!
Although there are a mere four days left until Christmas, I want to share with you a tutorial I wrote for using soluble canvas on plain weave fabric, along with three new holiday stitching patterns.
These are quick projects to stitch up – even the larger of the three patterns works up fast! – so there’s still time, if you’re adventurous, to whip up a handmade gift or two before Friday.
Just popping in to share with you another free snowflake pattern, in case you’re stitching up any holiday flakes this year!
This particular pattern is for a rather large snowflake – it would make a nice focal point on a table cloth or table runner, especially if surrounded by smaller flakes arranged in a pleasing way.
But it might just work on its own, on a little red cloth napkin, which is how I’m stitching it up. Granted, it takes almost a quarter of the cloth napkin – but it’s pretty, and it’s fun to stitch.
For all you history buffs out there who like to combine embroidery with historical interests, there’s something fun going on over in the UK!
And, since it’s Monday, and Monday’s a great day to start thinking of new projects (because you really need another new project, right?!), I thought I’d point you to the Lady’s Magazine Stitch Off, in case you haven’t already seen it.
I think it’s a neat idea, and it would be great fun to participate!
So, you know all these counted cross stitch snowflake and folky designs I’ve been working on lately? The whole point of them was to give me something to do with my hands when I’m not really up to doing something super intense, like goldwork or silk shading or anything that requires me to sit at a frame for an extended period of time.
With these quick little cross stitch projects, worked on Christmas red pre-finished cotton table napkins, I can hold them right in a little hoop, in any chair I want to sit in, with minimal supplies at hand. They’re completely relaxing to work, thanks to the monotony of the stitching, and I can easily listen to a good book, hum along to some relaxing music, watch a movie, or even visit with friends, without worrying about making mistakes or having to concentrate too hard on the stitching part of things. They’re also extremely easy to tote places, for stitching on the go.
At the end of this article, I’ll link to all the previous articles on this subject, along with the free patterns. For now, though, I want to share with you a brain storm I had the other night and that I’ve tried out a little bit, but that needs a little more tweaking.
To start with, let’s compare two counted embroidery charts.
One of the delightful things about convalescing is the complete lack of guilt when it comes to sitting around, watching instructional videos on embroidery techniques.
I admit, I’m a sucker for online video classes. I like to watch people teach their Thing, when it comes to needlework. But I don’t always have time to just indulge in watching classes. So, yeah. I’ve been rather a sloth lately, and I’ve been indulging, guilt free! Not a bad deal, eh?
Ok, so…with Christmas coming up and ornaments on the mind, it was easy to get sucked into a bead embroidery class. I love adding beads to embroidery! They sparkle! They shine! They add texture! They’re just fun!
And once you get the hang of adding beads to various stitches, to adding single beads and lines of beads, to adding specialty beads and sequins – well, you’re set for stitching up all kinds of blingy, beady stuff – all of which is perfect for embroidering Christmas ornaments.
So, today, I thought I’d review Bead Embroidery taught by Myra Wood on Craftsy. Here’s my take on it, with pros and cons, in case you’re interested in adding another dimension to your embroidery pursuits!
I like to start Mondays with something exceptionally cheery, because Monday’s always get a bad rap!
How many times in your life have you heard, “I hate Mondays,” or “Ugh. It’s Monday again,” or something to that effect?
I have to admit, I’m the opposite. I’m slightly mad for Mondays. I look forward to Monday the way most people look forward to Friday. I love Monday!
To me, Mondays always feels like a gift – a fresh start, the beginning of a new week, the perfect time to map out plans, set short-term goals, and make mini-resolutions.
Not that I always accomplish what I hope to accomplish during my sometimes overly-optimistic Monday Musings. Not that I always stick to every plan, every resolution. Not that the week never falls apart due to unexpected circumstances. But on the bright side – another Monday morning is just around the corner!
Yep. That’s how I see Mondays.
But just in case your approach to Monday might be a little different, here’s a bit of embroidery to cheer you up and start your week out right!
When I was in high school, I made my first hand-made greeting cards.
On the back of them, I drew a little hairy guy with long fangs, and I wrote under him, “Because I care enough to send the hairy beast.” I’m sure it wasn’t an original idea, but, with my sick sense of humor, I thought it was funny.
You know the Hallmark card slogan? “When you care enough to send the very best”? It’s a great slogan – those are pretty powerful words that have worked well for years in the marketing of greeting cards.
But a long time ago, I realized that I could show that I cared enough to send the very best (or the hairy beast), a different way – and that’s by making my own cards.
If you embroider even just a little bit, your stitching skill is a terrific medium for creating cards that are personal, pretty, festive, and a gift in themselves.
The only real investment you have to make when you want to embroider cards – assuming you have even just a little bit of embroidery stash and some card stock – is the investment of time. And that’s when you demonstrate that you real do care enough to send the very best, because you’re sending a piece of yourself!
So, today is “Cyber Monday.” Call me late to the party, but I never really got into that kind of thing – Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Terrestrial Tuesday…
I avoid shopping on Thanksgiving weekend like the plague. I’d rather stay home and fluff my carpet or something.
Now, if you told me that shopping consisted of a small town atmosphere, with main street shops bedecked in Christmas lights, with carolers in Victorian garb dotting the street corners, with toys in the shop windows – something rather Norman Rockwellian or Charles Dickensian – ok, sure. I’d be on board.
But…shopping centers? Crowded parking lots? Oh golly. No. But I admire the tenacity of those who can not only handle it, but who really have a blast doing it!
Still, when it comes to Cyber Monday, I don’t mind joining in a bit and getting somewhat gimmicky … I’ll tell you why.
Today, in the US, it’s Thanksgiving. Despite the fact that today is principally a US holiday, I always think of Thanksgiving as a universal event, since gratitude has no boundaries.
This is a pre-published article on Needle ‘n Thread, and just a reminder that I’m not available for email or for comment moderation on the website until next week some time. (Details here, if you want them.)
Here in the Northern Hemisphere, winter is steadily approaching. And what could be better on a nippy-cold morning, than to fix your favorite hot beverage – ahhhhh, like a nice steamy cup of cocoa! – and go for a bit of a browse?
To help you indulge in a leisurely morning, here’s a list of embroidery-related articles I’ve come across lately, that are either inspiring, informative, fun, or … enticing!
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…
If you’re keen on hand embroidered monograms, you’ll be over-the-moon thrilled to know that Monograms: The Art of Embroidered Letters by Susan O’Connor is back in print.
If you’ve ever been to a thrift store (sometimes referred to as an “op shop”), you’re probably familiar with the fate of many a piece of retro needlework.
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!
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.
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:
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.)
In that article, we chatted about three ways that you can work cross stitch – or any counted technique, really – on plain weave fabric, but I didn’t clarify the third way you could do it, because I hadn’t finished my little stitchy projects to test it out.
But now I’ve finished them, so here we go!
All three methods involve some sort of something that supplies a grid for the plain weave fabric. Remember, plain weave fabric is any fabric that isn’t an even-weave fabric like the kind you’d normally use for counted work. There’s no grid on plain weave fabric, so you have to supply a grid, if you want decent looking cross stitches.
Today, let’s delve into the world of counted cross stitch, with a bit of a twist!
I’ve been recently fiddling with some folky holiday-related designs for counted work. As is pretty much always the case when I start messing with pattern development, what was originally three designs morphed into many more variations, which I’ll be sharing with you here as I finish the samples.
There’s just Something about working with repeat patterns. In the design stage, it’s fun. There are so many possibilities for developing more complex and less complex patterns, starting from just a few basic design elements.
For those of you who have been hanging out with me on Needle ‘n Thread for a while, floche is probably not a new thread to you. You may not have tried it yet (some day, I hope to convince you!), but you’ve heard about, because I use it a lot.
I love floche! I love it more than I love chocolate. If I had to see one or the other disappear from my life, I wouldn’t cry over losing chocolate. But I would have a melt down over losing floche.
(I almost said I love it more than I love tea. But one must draw the line somewhere, when it comes to a thread addiction… life without tea wouldn’t be life at all.)
For those of you who are relatively new to Needle ‘n Thread or haven’t experienced floche before, you might appreciate more of an introduction to floche.
To that end, today I’m going to direct you to the dope, as it were, on this addictive, beautiful embroidery thread…
We’re almost finished with the tulip monogram alphabet! Today, I’m adding four of the last six letters of the alphabet to the collection, for your embroidery pleasure.
Granted, U and X are not too commonly seen used as decorative initials and monograms, the other two – W and V – are a little more in demand, so I’m glad to be able to get these out to those of you waiting for them.
After the monograms, and little catch-up on news and some updates.
A few weeks ago, I cleaned out the embroidery & needlework section of my Feedly feed.
Feedly is a feed reader that organizes blogs and news websites that you want to follow regularly, and it keeps track of what you read, what you like, and what you want to return to, to read again.
I hadn’t cleaned my feed out for a long, long time. Over 200 needlework-related blogs were lurking in there. As often happens with blogs, many of them had Died the Death of the Blogosphere. They disappeared. They became defunct. They froze in time, date stamped three years ago. Or they shifted focus completely.
The clean-up job left me with less than a quarter of the original list. Some of them are newer, some of them are tried-and-true and have withstood the test of time. All of them offer something for the embroiderer, from instructional content, to inspiration, to history snippets.
For your weekend reading, I’d like to share with you my Big List of Embroidery & Needlework Blogs worth exploring. So, grab a cup of tea and pull up a chair and join me, while we explore!
Autumn is upon us! It’s well past the mid-October mark, and if you live in the northern hemisphere, you’re probably enjoying a break from your typical summer heat.
That’s the principle, anyway. It’s not been the case in Kansas the last couple days, but I have high hopes of a chilly weekend!
When autumn hits, I like to at least think about the possibilities for fall-ish embroidery projects. And this is really a shame, because if it’s already autumn, by the time I get around to stitching something autumn-related, it’s usually winter. And the urge, by then, has passed.
Finally, I say! I’m So Excited about the slate frames that are being produced for the general US embroidery market by Access Commodities. Finally, a slate frame that is strong, solid, serviceable, and absolutely meticulously correct in all its details. And – finally – I’ve been able to get one!
Yes, I’m a bit of a frame junkie. I have tried them all, you see. And I like many different types of embroidery frames.
But the slate frame – that is, a good slate frame – just can’t be beat.
I’ve also tried lots of different slate frames over the years. Frames made with very heavy, thick wood that, though well-made, were so cumbersome they were hard to handle and manipulate. Frames made from such thin, light wood that they bowed under the pressure of lacing. Frames that were poorly finished, that needed constant touch-up sanding to prevent splinters and snagging.
Frames with roller holes that were too large, so that the frame easily skewed itself with the slightest bump. Frames with twill tape that shredded on the first use.
Frames with conical pegs that popped out whenever the frame was set on a flat surface.
Frames that I’ve made due with when I needed a slate frame, but never felt satisfied with.
Whenever I hear from Larissa Borodich, a stitching friend from Moscow, I always know I’m in for a visual feast! Her goldwork and pearl embroidery is always sumptuous, meticulously worked, and downright beautiful!
Larissa’s latest piece – like the last stylized pomegranate she sent photos of – comes from a design I shared on Needle ‘n Thread ages ago. It is by far one of my favorite “sampler” designs for goldwork – and it could be interpreted in other types of embroidery, too.
So, here’s some splendiferous eye candy for you this morning, plus a little bit about the design itself.
Hi, there! Did you miss me yesterday? Well, I missed you! For those who wrote to wonder where I was, thank you! I was still right here in Kansas, but I was out of commission.
I’m back in commission this morning, which is a good thing – and hopefully, I’ll get some real work done today!
This morning, I’m sharing with you the next four letters in the Tulip Monogram alphabet. I know some of you have been waiting eagerly for the later letters of the alphabet, and we’re finally getting there! I also have a little bit of news, just to keep you abreast of Needle ‘n Thread-related activities.
When I first saw Hazel Blomkamp’s Late Harvest, an embroidery project in her book Crewel Intentions (which I’ve reviewed here, if you want to see what’s inside it), I thought Wow! That would be the Perfect Fall Embroidery Project!
Originally, I set up the project as a “carrot” – something I can work on solely for the fun of it, as a reward when I finish other things I need to do, or just when I want something to stitch for relaxation.
The last time I had a chance to work on it was in the hot throes of summer, during mid-July in Kansas. Not exactly the Vision of Stitching Bliss that I first pictured for this project, which I imagined indulging in on crisp autumn days.
This weekend, even though the temperature peaked around 90 (thanks a lot, Kansas), I took it out and worked on it a bit. Today, I’ll share some progress, make some comparisons, and share a happy discovery with you.
There are very few needlework / thread-related arts and crafts that I haven’t tried.
At least once.
They don’t all click.
There’s one thread-related art that I’ve tried to teach myself many times over, and that I’m still determined, some day, to get the hang of, and that’s bobbin lace-making. I don’t want to be an expert at it. I just want to be able to flip some bobbins about with semi-confidence and end up with some kind of ordered pattern showing up on the board in front of me. Is that too much to ask?
In any case, I feed my desire to learn that particular lace-making art by reading about it, watching videos now and then, and even, occasionally, sallying forth with the same beginner’s kit I’ve had for umpteen years.
And then, a day later, embroidery takes over my life again, all the bobbins go back in their bag, and I concede that “it isn’t going to happen this year.”
When it comes to embroidery design transfers, you’ve got to admit that the easiest possible way of getting a design – a perfectly crisp, clear design – onto fabric is a good iron-on transfer.
But iron-on transfers aren’t always made to our particular tastes and needs. Sure, we can find iron-ons of pin-up girls, of day-of-the-dead skulls, of cute vintage kittens and cupcakes and space ships; we can even find iron-ons of complex, lovely cutwork designs; and we can find iron-ons of state birds and bottles of wine and cups of cappuccino.
And while all of the above have their place and their audience, what if those aren’t what we’re looking for?
What if we’ve got our own design and it’s exactly what we want to iron on, and it doesn’t fit into any of those categories?
Often, I have my own design that I want to embroider three or four times. Gosh, I’d just love to be able to iron that thing on and just get on with the stitching, rather than getting stuck into four design transfers by hand.
Well, I’m still playing around with the possibilities. See, that’s the problem whenever I engage in any type of sampler. I get Well and Truly Stuck in it.
I’m playing particularly with woven fillings because I’m working on an article for Commonthread by DMC on the same topic. I’ve got a little practice piece that will accompany that article, so I’ll let you know when it’s out. It’s particularly fall-ish, so it’s perfect for this time of year!
After yesterday’s Peacock embroidery kit give-away – which is still drawing a lot of comments! – I thought we’d go a bit light this morning, with the next four letters of the Tulip Alphabet patterns for hand embroidery.
You’ll find the handy-dandy PDF printable for the M, N, O and P below…
Well, since it’s Monday, and since it’s Autumn – which makes me Very Happy! – I think it’s a good day for a give-away!
Besides, we haven’t had one of these in a long, long while, have we?
On Friday, we looked up close at this new Blue Peacock embroidery kit from Canevas Folies. Today, thanks to Laurence at Canevas Folies (for the design kit) and Lisa at the French Needle (for the thread), I’m giving away the design kit with the specialty threads to one of you peacock fans out there!
I have a song running through my head. It goes something like this:
If you love peacocks like I love peacocks… and then there’s something like Oh, what a gal! and some other stuff. I know the tune and I know about a dozen words, and the rest of the song is filled with something, something, something.
I’m pretty sure the song is about a gal named Susie. And I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with peacocks.
But I do love peacocks, and it fits the tune of the song, so why not?
I especially love peacocks in embroidery. They are a Prime Target for the embroiderer. They beg to be rendered in thread, with their glorious colors and fabulous plumage.
So, needless to say, when Canevas Folies came out with Blue Peacock, I was twitterpated. Let me show you the kit, so you can be twitterpated, too.
A few weeks ago, I compiled this list of suggestions for how to make a stitching session easier and more productive.
I know this sounds a little weird. Easier and quicker are not necessarily two things we’re seeking when we embroider.
We pretty much already know that hand embroidery isn’t quick (in fact, that’s one of the reasons we like it, right?), and, when we embroider, we’re not normally looking for an easy way out of our chosen project. If we choose a challenging project, it’s because the challenge is part of the fun!
But the ten tips below are not really meant for speeding up your stitching to the point of machine-like production levels, and they’re not meant to simplify your stitching to the point of Boring. Instead, they’re just suggestions that will make an embroidery experience better (as in, more pleasurable and less frustrating), while at the same time allowing the embroiderer to make more progress on actual stitching during any embroidery session.
Here are my ten tips, and I’d love to hear your suggestions, too!
Once upon a time, just around when I turned seven, my teacher suggested to my folks that I should have my eyes checked.
Lo and behold, the discovery was made that I was very near-sighted. That’s when I got my first pair of glasses.
I remember coming home the day we picked up my glasses. We drove through winding New England roads, where the sun glints between tree branches and leaves, and I discovered, for the very first time, that it was possible to see individual leaves on trees. What always looked to me, from a distance, like a kid’s cartoon of a tree – you know the type, with a brown trunk topped with green blobs – now came to life, with quivering leaves and delicate branches.
That was the best ride home ever! I could see! And while, before, I didn’t know what I was missing, now, I was completely enchanted by it. Trees with leaves. What a wonder!
My enthusiasm for sight only got better as that first week in glasses went by. TV? Oh, yeah! I could sit on the couch and still see it. Chalkboards and bulletin boards at school actually had some kind of meaning to me now. And every ride home from school was deliciously detailed with distant houses, farms, people, and animals.
Then, Sunday rolled around and we went to church. Our church had a big stained glass rose window at the front. Before glasses, it was a kaleidoscope of blurred colors running over on each other like backlit watercolors all merging on the same round canvas. I thought it was beautiful! So much color!
When I saw it with glasses for the first time, though, I was floored. There were pictures in it! Saints and angels and stories, all there in a glorious arrangement that I could see for the first time.
Eyes are important. In most cases, they are the primary receptors of sensory information for us. As we get older, our eyes change quite a bit, and that can have a huge effect on what we can and can’t do, comfortably, with our needlework.
It’s good for you, like sunshine and fresh air are good for you. Or fruit and vegetables. Or … chocolate…
When you allow yourself to dabble about and play with stitches, you learn a lot!
Besides learning just the construction of a stitch, you learn how to be really comfortable with it, how to mix it up, how to combine it with other stitches, how to expand the possibilities of the stitch.
There are other advantages to playing with stitches: it opens up new possibilities for your own projects, it gets your creative juices flowing, it gives you new ideas on color and texture combinations.
To start the week off, here are the next four letters of the Tulip Monograms – I, J, K and L.
I’m trying to crank these monogram embroidery patterns out for you as quickly as possible – I know there are quite a few of you waiting for some of the later letters in the alphabet. I think it’s better to keep the letters in order, though. There’s just something about alphabetical order for keeping things tidy!
So, without further ado, here’s I though L, followed by the PDF!
All this talk about embroidery floss organization lately has raised some good questions from fellow stitchers, from newbies and experienced alike.
One recurring question has to do with the embroidery floss pull skein, and how to pull thread successfully from the pull skein without having to wrestle a knotted clump of embroidery floss to the ground to subdue it.
Let’s address that question today. I’m going to give you the key to unlock the secret of the pull skein! We’ll also discuss the whole notion of the “blooming” end of the embroidery floss.
And I love what creative people are doing with Dorset buttons these days.
So, when Anita sent in photos of her latest adventures in Dorset-buttonry (I don’t really think that “buttonry” is a word, but it should be), I just knew I’d have to share them with you!
And, in case they inspire you to try some buttonry yourself, I’ve also included several links below to good Dorset button-related tutorials.
When you work with stranded embroidery floss (like DMC or Anchor cotton floss, stranded silks, and the like), it’s pretty standard procedure to separate the number of strands of floss, one at a time, from the whole thread of six, and then put the number you’re going to use back together again to stitch with them.
This is called stripping your embroidery floss, and I show you how to do that in this tutorial here.
Stripping your floss serves a purpose: it keeps the strands (if you’re using two or more) from twisting around each other, so that you get good and smooth coverage with every stitch.
Whether you’re doing counted work or surface embroidery – whether it’s cross stitch or stem stitch – stripping the floss makes a huge difference in the way your stitches look. It’s a good practice.
When I wrote about this thread organization system the other day, I made the comment that I like using precut threads hitched through a hole, because they allow me to pull out individual strands of floss without having to strip them from the rest of the threads (well, the comment was something to that effect, anyway). I don’t have to replace the unused portion of the strand. I can just pull out one tiny little thread at a time.
This garnered a bit of comment and a whole flood of questions via email, so I promised I would clarify.
And here’s the clarification of how this whole one-strand-at-a-time floss pulling trick works.
Last week, I shared the printable for letters A – D in this tulip monogram alphabet with you.
If you missed that article and you want to collect the alphabet printables for this set, or you want to see one of the letters stitched, feel free to jump over to the A – D article. You’ll find the printable at the bottom of the page.
When I asked the question, I was already hooked into organizing the 200 colors required for this project – there are 95 solid colors in it, and 105 blended colors.
I found that the organizational aspect was actually kind of fun, but it took So Much Time. It was a project in itself! Still, I figure if I’m going to subject myself to a super-duper-long-range project, it makes good sense (based on the Principle of P’s: Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance) to organize thoroughly in advance.
So many of you offered great suggestions for organizing threads for projects! A couple of you mentioned the system that I’m using, which is called Annie’s Keepers. Today, I’ll show you that system, the parts involved, and how I’m using them for this particular project.
As we wind down the week, I thought I’d share with you this twin set of embroidered Farmers Market bags, made by Melissa for her sister and her farmers market sidekick.
I’m a sucker for farmers markets, especially in the fall! Here in the Midwest, we have an abundance of good ones that are heaps of fun to potter around early on a Saturday morning.
But I don’t go to them in style. When I go, I pretty much crawl out of the house, looking pretty much like I just crawled out of bed.
I don’t have embroidered totes to tote around my stuff, like these two adorable bags. I think they’re a great idea, and I thought they’d serve as inspiration for other FM enthusiasts out there!
It’s essentially a counted cross stitch project, but I’ll be working it in tent stitch on a 30-count linen.
Last night, as sleep was wafting over me, I found myself contemplating switching to a 40-count silk gauze, by the way. When I awoke this morning, I instantly recalled the thought, and then I forthwith brushed it aside as a nightmare.
The project involves 200 colors, a little less than half of which are solid (only one color of thread in the needle at a time) and the rest, blended (two colors in the needle at a time).
Now, when you’re dealing with This Much Thread for one project, there is no way around it: you must come up with a reasonable, logical, efficient organizing system for your thread.
I know this. You know this. But the question is, what system to use? How does one go about organizing this much thread for a project of this scope?
Back in July, when I originally showed you this embroidered monogram in floche, I had a lot of requests for the tulip alphabet that I used for that particular letter.
This is the embroidered monogram, in case you haven’t seen it yet:
Lately, I was hornswoggled into a needlework project.
Hornswoggled, for those who aren’t familiar with word, means the same thing as bamboozled or hoodwinked.
Not very helpful, I know. But you just have to love that group of words: hornswoggled, bamboozled, hoodwinked! They all mean approximately the same thing: tricked or deceived into doing something – but they say it in such a fun way.
So, yes. I was hornswoggled – pretty much by myself – into a project.
When I was a wee lass – some 35-ish years ago! – my mom made me the Best Birthday Cake Ever. It was a carousel cake, with carousel ponies all around the edges, topped off with a striped tent over head. I thought it was a magnificent thing! Just dreamy!
I’ve always had A Thing for the color and flash of the carousel pony. The carousel is my favorite ride, even now, at any fair or amusement park, especially to take little kids on, or just to watch them enjoying the ride. It’s tame, but it’s fun, and it’s always great for smiles. And there’s nothing better than visiting a city park that has a permanent carousel.
Carousels, after all, are happy things!
(Unless, of course, Stephen King gets ahold of one and turns it into something creepy…)
So, when Sarah, a twelve-year-old reader here on Needle ‘n Thread, sent in photos of her recent fair entry – an embroidered carousel pony – I thought sharing it with you would be a cheery way start to the week!
Well, I’ve teamed up with Commonthread again to present a new tutorial for you. This particular tutorial is the reason I stitched up this shisha embroidery piece with beads, to use as a sample:
I’m really excited about this! And I think many of you will be, too, especially if you’re a Linen-Lover!
I wanted to work up a nice little sample project to show off this new linen for you, but instead, I worked up a rustic little (read: pathetic and tiny) few stitches to help illustrate what I really like about this linen. I have a small project planned for this particular linen, and it will show up some time before Christmas.
In the meantime, without further ado, let’s move on to the introductions!
Several weeks ago, Ros Clarke, a reader here on Needle ‘n Thread, dropped me a line to let me know she’d be taking a class at the Royal School of Needlework. She offered to write up her experience for us – kind of an insider’s scoop.
I thought that sounded like fun! After all, who doesn’t like an insider’s scoop?
So I’m going to turn you over to Ros and let her chat with you about her recent RSN visit and class. I hope you enjoy it!
If you’re a connoisseur of old embroidery publications, you’ve probably heard of Thérèse de Dillmont, who was DMC’s featured embroidery expert for many of their embroidery publications produced in the 1800’s.
Though writing for DMC (a French company) and sporting a French name, Thérèse was, in fact, Austrian. She is perhaps best known for her Encyclopedia of Needlework, which can happily still be found in print through used book sources and can also be found online for free through places like Project Gutenberg.
Besides the Encyclopedia of Needlework, there are a ton of other publications with her name on them, including pattern books, technique books, books dedicated to specific regional embroidery techniques. I’ve been collecting publications with her name on them for many years, and I still stumble on one here and there that I had no idea existed! Many of her works are available online for free through Antique Pattern Library, too – they’re well worth exploring!
It’s Labor Day here in the US, and one of those treasured three-day weekends! You know the type!
Once upon a time, this day used to mark the official end of summer vacation for kids going back to school. Now, it falls somewhere in the second or third (or fourth) week of the school year and is welcomed as the first three-day weekend of the academic year.
When I was a kid, our family celebrated Labor Day by…laboring. We cleaned the garage and wallowed through the last big yard clean up before winter. We knew how to have fun!
One thing I love about Labor Day is that it signals that autumn is coming. It’s time to anticipate the imminent change of seasons by planning out how to spend the shorter upcoming days and darker evenings stitching.
Maybe you’re looking for a new project? Maybe you’re contemplating stitching up some Christmas gifts?
Well, to that end, I have a little 12-hour break for you…
For your weekend reading pleasure, here’s a little round-up of needlework-related links that I’ve come across lately that I thought were inspirational, interesting, or just fun!
So, grab a cup of something satisfying, and come browse with me!
Oh, oh, oh!! Here’s some exciting news for embroiderers who want to learn the basics of goldwork embroidery!
Lucy Barter, a Royal School of Needlework-trained embroidery instructor in San Francisco, has teamed up with Craftsy to produce Goldwork Embroidery: Essential Techniques.
So, being the lazy bum “highly efficient person” that I am, there are times when I opt for certain quick modes of embroidery design transfer, despite the fact that I have misgivings that they’ll work as I need them to.
The Thing is, there is Nothing quite so appealing as a design transfer method that takes a mere 30 seconds. And this is precisely what an iron-on embroidery transfer promises.
Don’t get me wrong – I have nothing against iron-on transfers, in the right circumstances. But there are times when an iron-on might not be the best solution, despite the promise of a quick transfer. For example, if your lines will not be completely covered with stitching, don’t opt for an iron-on. They usually don’t wash out. Opt for a transfer method that you are sure will leave no trace of a pattern.
And then there are times when the iron-on itself might be problematic. All iron-ons are not created equal. Let me show you what I mean.
The slate frame is possibly the Best Embroidery Frame that you can invest in.
Slate frames have been around for centuries, and it’s no wonder. In concept, it’s quite a simple thing – horizontal “roller” bars are held apart from each other by vertical slats or stretchers. The vertical bars pass through the ends of the horizontal bars, which sport a twill “tape” to which the fabric is sewn, top and bottom. Space and tension are maintained by pegs stuck in the holes in the vertical bars. The fabric is further tensioned by lacing it on the sides, until it is truly the drum-tautest fabric you could want.
You can adjust your tension on your fabric, by tightening the laces or adding another peg of space in the vertical bars.
Projects set up on a slate frame can stay there interminably, until they’re finished. And when they’re finished and removed, you just have four slats of wood and four pegs to store.
Whether your stitching forte is cross stitch, needlepoint, surface embroidery, whitework, crewel, goldwork – it doesn’t matter. A slate frame can handle them all!
If you’re not sure what a slate frame is, you might find this article on dressing a slate frame handy. You’ll see what the frame is, and one way of setting it up.
But looking at the miniature paintings of Carol André makes me wish I were!
Carol paints traditional miniatures, which, according to her website, is “defined both by size and technique. A true miniature is 25 square inches or less, and is highly detailed, able to withstand magnification and still look good, and generally the subject should be 1/6th scale or smaller.”
To add a new dimension to her artwork, Carol began adding some embroidery to some of her miniature paintings, and the outcome is quite delightful. Keep in mind that these pieces are small – and you’ll get the sense of how small, at the end of the article!
Once upon a time, in the deep, dark recesses of time (as in, two or three years ago), a rather addle-brained embroiderer (that would be me) set out on a stitching adventure with two of her best friends: Floche and Satin Stitch.
Over peaks and through valleys, the three risked life and limb (ok, maybe not) to complete an Embroidery Quest and reach Embroidery Paradise (or at least, to complete a little test project).
I always marvel (and rejoice!) when I see intricate needlework projects successfully completed by stitchers who are beginners in that technique.
When this happens, it illustrates the point that, with a little courage and determination, any kind of needlework is accessible! It just depends on how badly you want to do it.
Case in point: Cathy Pratt. She’s a geologist by day, and obviously pretty keen about needlework when she’s not geologizing!
You’ve probably noticed that there’s a magnificent trend going on right now in needlework-related travel. I love it!
I love the fact that embroiderers are getting out and about to workshops, tours, and retreats in exotic places, from the Highland castles of Scotland to shipboard tropical cruises, where they can interact with other embroidery enthusiasts, learn about embroidery, and explore local needlework, all while enjoying the little luxuries and fineries afforded by the vacation.
What a way to take a holiday!
The fact is, though, I don’t travel a lot right now. For the majority of us, the time might not be quite right for our dream vacation. Work, family obligations, financial restraints and the like keep us dreaming. Some day! Some day!
But this doesn’t mean I’m not intensely curious about how these grand experiences play out! I love it when folks on the workshop or traveling end of the experience send me photos and emails. It’s a great way to vicariously take part!
Today, I’d like to share with you some photos from a current needlework retreat in the Lakes District in England. The retreat is going on right now, and it looks lovely!
So, let’s escape together for a little bit, shall we?
Over the next several weeks, off and on, I’ll be featuring embroidery projects from fellow stitchers in the Needle ‘n Thread community.
I like to share what other people have been doing with their own needle and thread, and that’s why I started, many years ago (way back in 2007!), this ongoing series highlighting your embroidery projects. When we see a wider range of stitching from folks all over the world, it enriches our own needlework experiences – it helps inspire us, it gives us new ideas and a broader outlook.
If you want to participate in the series, it’s really easy! Just drop me a line at mary(at)needlenthread(dot)com, attach your photos, and tell me a bit about the project.
Today, I want to share with you a beautiful piece by Laura Bray, a reader from North Wales. It involves some gorgeous decorative initials – and here’s the story behind it.
Today, I want to share with you the pattern for my next personal embroidery project that will be developing here on Needle ‘n Thread over the coming months.
See, I’ve had the goldwork and silk itch for quite a while now, and it can’t be ignored any longer!
To help relieve the itch, I’ve set up a project and I’ll be sharing it with you as it progresses, along with tips, techniques, successes, and the inevitable failures, too, so that we can all learn from the project. Even if you’re not into goldwork and silk embroidery, you’re guaranteed to find information that will help you along your own particular journey.
So, here’s the pattern, which I’ve named very unimaginatively “Rose Swirl.”
Let’s end the week with another little finish – and a request at the end of the article.
Today, it’s the blooming tree, worked in three very simple stitches.
And that’s really what I like best about this particular project. It illustrates how simple stitches can work together to create a pretty nice finish. Embroidery doesn’t have to be complicated.
So, here’s the finish and some particulars. You can click on the images to view them larger, if you like.
I might have gone wee bit overboard, but you know what? That’s ok! It was fun, it will work for what I need it for, and, more to the point, it’s finished!
And that means I can move on to the other tree I need to finish.
I’m not sure why I’m sprouting trees all over the place lately.
On Monday when I mentioned the free shipping sale at Hedgehog Handworks, I dropped the name of a new silk on the market. It’s not really a silk thread, but it can be used for embroidery applications of many sorts.
Soie Tressage is the name of a new line of silk braids – specifically, a soutache braid and a flat braid – made from Au Ver a Soie silk.
Today, I’ll them to you up close and chat a bit about what you can do with them.
Here’s a little practice and play piece I worked on last weekend.
I wanted to try out the tiny mirrors for shisha embroidery that I told you about last week (the punched ones). I’ve also been itching to play around with some DMC Diamant (a metallic thread that I wrote about here) and tambour embroidery.
I went about setting up my play piece the wrong way, though. I don’t know why I do things like this, but I do!
And I usually regret it later. So, learn from me. I like to make mistakes so that you don’t have to.
For many, many, many years, there’s been a subject that’s circulated in the embroidery world that I’ve never bothered to write about here on Needle ‘n Thread (on the blog), because it is a debate that I don’t want to have.
It’s not that I’m wishy-washy; it’s not that I won’t stand up for my beliefs. It’s just one of those topics that I figure isn’t worth debating over. It’s not a matter of principle; it’s not a matter of life-or-death, right-or-wrong, just-or-unjust. In life, you pick your fights. And arguments over embroidery thread, when there are much greater issues to occupy one’s mental energy with, just don’t seem that important to me.
Still, I’ve been recently barraged with the question because the topic came up on a couple embroidery websites recently, and I’ve been asked about it off and on over the years because it comes up in classes, guild groups, books and conversations now and then. I can’t tell you how many emails I’ve written on the subject!
And so, this morning, once and for all, I’m going to write about the question here on Needle ‘n Thread: you’ll know exactly what I think of the subject and finally, I’ll be able to reply to inquiries about it with a direct link to this article. (Saves the fingers, you know…)
I’ve been fuddling about with a little bit of shisha embroidery lately. Remember this project that I showed you recently, featuring shisha and beads?
Well, one of my biggest beefs with working shisha is that it’s difficult to acquire tiny shisha mirrors that are affordable and relatively easy to work with. Not sequins, mind you (they have a hole in the middle), but little flat mirrors.
The smallest sized mirrors that are commonly available for shisha embroidery are about 1/2″ round and larger. If you’re embroidering something small, or if you just want a little bit of the sparkle, flash and zing that comes with shisha work, you have to get inventive.
As I pondered the question of small mirrors and surveyed my supplies, an idea struck me. It resulted in a nicely tiny little shisha blob. Oh, I was so happy!
Monday, Monday! To give you something bright and cheery to look at, to start the week out right, here’s some development on a little bit of stitching.
I’m working up this sample of an embroidered tree to demonstrate what can be done with the thread I’m using. I really didn’t intend for it to be a major project. It’s not – it’s pretty simple, fairly relaxing stitchery, and not toooooooo time consuming, but more time consuming than I originally intended.
I am an absolute inveterate optimist when it comes to judging time and how long it will take to complete even the smallest project.
Oh, I can whip that up in a couple hours, the Time Optimist in me says…
Today, just a quick blurb to let you know who won last week’s give-away for Tanja Berlin’s goldwork pendant and brooch kits, which you can read about here, and to tell you (er, maybe warn you?) what’s coming up on Needle ‘n Thread!
I’m very excited that Search Press’s new edition of A-Z of Goldwork with Silk Embroidery is out now in the UK, and coming very soon (by September, I believe) to the US.
The re-printing of the A-Z series of needlework books (which I wrote about here) is a great thing for the embroidery world. The books, printed and distributed by Search Press, are now available more affordably, and hopefully, they’ll be available for a good long time.
Getting my little paws on the new edition of A-Z of Goldwork reminded me why I love this book. It prompted me to put together a short list of goldwork reference and instructional books that are definitely worth having on your needlework book shelf.
And sometimes, just between you and me and the dog, I am a Very Messy Stitcher.
Being a Messy Stitcher can lead to some Problems, especially if you rely on embroidery for your livelihood (which I do).
The biggest problem has to do with Productivity.
As a Messy Stitcher, it’s very easy to lose track of things – from needles and threads to ideas and decisions.
I reconcile my Messy-Stitching-Habits with my Need-to-Be-Productive through one little object that I’m never without. And since it accidentally showed up in a photo, I thought I’d chat about it with you.
Please tell me I’m not the only one who has a Bucket List when it comes to embroidery projects!
A Bucket List is a list of accomplishments or experiences that we want to eventually achieve. Often, these are events, projects, plans that we consider luxuries right now, that we work towards as life progresses.
I probably don’t have to tell you that Bucket List items often are not achieved. We think about them a lot, we dream about them often, we pine for them and plan for them – but it isn’t unusual that they don’t happen. Life takes us down one course, then another, and before we know it, the opportunity to experience this or that on our Bucket List is gone forever.
But it doesn’t have to be that way!
If you’ve been nurturing the Cabinet of Curiosities courses offered by Tricia Nguyen on Thistle Threads as part of your Bucket List, I want to encourage you to take the leap and get in on the current openings for this class. I’ll tell you why…
Here’s a fun project for summer stitching! If you’re familiar with chicken scratch embroidery, I think you’ll love this adorable chicken scratch border that features watermelons embroidered on gingham with chicken scratch techniques.
If you’re not familiar with chicken scratch, no problem! It’s a very simple style of embroidery that creates a lacy look on gingham fabric. You can learn all about it through these articles, tutorials, and projects for chicken scratch embroidery. So many possibilities with this humble, pretty, embroidery style!
To kick off the month of August and the first week therein, I thought this morning a good time for a give-away!
On Friday, I mentioned Tanja Berlin’s new Etsy shop, where she’s offering kits and digital downloads for a number of her designs, including some neat little goldwork and metal thread embroidered jewelry pieces.
I can think of several reasons for wanting these kits, though they might not be the reasons you’d expect. I’ll let you in on them below!
Tanja thought I might want to give away a couple of the kits to readers here on Needle ‘n Thread, so today I’m giving away one of each. Read on to see how to enter the give-away. It’s quite simple, I promise.
I’m not sure exactly where the month went. Probably lost in the dryer with half my socks, I suppose.
Let’s end the month with some needlework news snips for your weekend reading and enjoyment, shall we?
This is the perfect time to pour yourself a nice cup of coffee or tea and pull up for a relaxing little break. I’ll share some information, inspiration, and new stuff out in the embroidery world with you.
My little secret pleasure this week has been working on this embroidered tree. When I’m supposed to be doing Other Things, I find myself picking this up and putting in just a few (or so) little stitches.
I overcome the guilt by telling myself that at least I’m accomplishing Something.
Besides, it’s fun to watch it bloom!
Because I’m using a non-divisible thread on this wee tree (specifically, coton a broder #25), I’ve been playing around with different ways to change the size of the French knot blossoms.
I thought I’d share some tips with you on how to successfully vary the size of French knots when you’re working with one thread.
It seems quite a few of us have taken to adding beads to our embroidery lately, incorporating some of the recent Stitch Fun! tutorials here and there in current projects.
I know this is the case – and that I’m not the only fiddling with beads now – because I’m receiving lots of emails with questions about adding beads to this stitch or that stitch, or about how to get this stitch to work right with beads, or about what size bead to use with that thread for this stitch, and other similar bead-related questions. I love these kinds of questions, and thanks for sending them in!
But I can rarely answer them all via email, in detail, so I’ve been keeping a list. If I can work out a tutorial that will answer your question and make it available for everyone here on the website, I will.
One particular question that’s come into the inbox repeatedly is how to make a daisy-stitch-like loop that looks like normal petals or leaves when working it with beads. Since the stitch is a pretty popular one in general, I thought I’d answer that question right here.
There are a couple ways that you can work chain stitch and detached chain stitch with beads and get a decent result. Today, I’m going to show you the simplest approach to making a daisy stitch loops with beads.
It’s a great little stitch – one of the basic hand embroidery stitches – but every time I bring it up on Needle ‘n Thread, I get an influx of anti-split-stitch commentary.
Some people just don’t like the poor little split stitch!
So today, I thought I’d write in defense of split stitch, using a small sample project I’m working on to illustrate. I’ll share with you some tips that might make you like split stitch better, and that might encourage you to give this versatile, easy stitch a second chance!
Antique Pattern Library is really a gem of a resource, worth bookmarking and checking often for updates. Because they’re entirely a non-profit work, it’s also worth supporting them if you’re able. And they make it very easy to donate through Paypal – it takes about a whole two seconds. If you make use of APL, do consider a donation. No matter the amount, anything helps to keep the endeavor afloat.
Here’s a question that came into my inbox over the weekend:
Mary, you mention using these old embroidery books for inspiration. There are some embroideries in them that I think would make good patterns that I’d like to use, but how do you make them into a design if they don’t have a design in the book? How do you make the designs that you have on your website?
I thought I’d address these two different questions here, in case others are wondering the same thing!
If you have a chance this weekend, you’ll definitely want to take some time to browse through Antique Pattern Library.
If you’re not familiar with Antique Pattern Library, it’s a real bonanza when it comes to needlework books in the public domain.
The folks behind Antique Pattern Library do a fantastic job scanning and cataloging a whole variety of needlework books, and many of them are excellent old embroidery books.
Today, I’ll sum up a list of recent delectable finds and old favorites that are worth downloading. I’ll also share my “shortcuts” for browsing Antique Pattern Library. In case I didn’t mention it, there are a lot of books there. Browsing can be a bit like falling into the Black Hole of Oblivion, only to emerge to a day half-gone.
All the books are free for downloading, although you can support APL by donating, if you wish – there are buttons on the site.
We’re going to apply the same principles in that tutorial to the drizzle stitch, which is a fun dimensional stitch that sits up right off the fabric.
I’ve already shown you one way to bead the drizzle stitch, which involves placing a decorative bead just at the end of the stitch. What I like about that method is that the stitch really retains its curliness and the added bead on the end contributes a certain amount of weight to the stitch that makes it sort of floppy. I like that! It’s fun!
In this particular tutorial, with the stitch fully beaded up its whole length, you’ll see that the stitch, as I’ve worked it here, results in a rather stiff column of beads standing right up off the fabric.
Don’t be put off! You can make adjustments to this, which I’ll discuss below, to incorporate the twist that makes drizzle stitch so fun, and you can also add variety to the stitch by mixing things up a bit. I’ll talk about that at the end of the tutorial.
For now, here’s a quick little tutorial for a fully beaded drizzle stitch!
Have you ever had one of Those Projects that you knew, from the beginning, that the results probably wouldn’t be All That Great? That was this project.
Now, don’t get me wrong! I think shisha embroidery is a lot of fun. I like the combination of beads and shisha and metallic threads.
(These all appeal to my secret attraction to Things Sparkly. Shhh. Don’t tell my family. They’d never believe it.)
But good golly, Miss Molly! Try combining shisha, beads (iridescent ones, to boot), metallic threads and dark fabric in the same project, and then try to photograph it decently, and you’re just begging for lunacy.
When I was a professional teacher, I held this maxim to be one of the Worst Possible Ways to instruct anyone, especially children.
Children especially learn from example; they absorb what they see other people do (especially people they look up to), and they learn by what we do more than by what we say.
So I’ve always held “do as I say, not as I do” as a pretty shoddy way to instruct.
However…
(Don’t you just love “buts”?)
We’re all adults here, right? (Except for maybe Sarah, but I’m sure she’ll understand!)
When working with an embroidery kit designed by someone else, do as I say:
Read through the instructions carefully first. And I really do mean read through All The Instructions carefully first. If you want to make changes to the instructions or the design or the layout or the colors or the method, go for it! But read what the designer originally intended, first. Then make your decisions.
Lately, we’ve been fiddling about with adding beads to embroidery stitches as part of the Stitch Fun! series.
Since it’s Monday morning – and Monday’s are as good a time as any to think about organization – I thought I’d do a little house cleaning on the website and create an index for all the tutorials and articles relating to embroidery with beads here on Needle ‘n Thread.
That way, if you have a favorite tutorial you’re looking for, you can find it on this list. You can also bookmark the list so you can access it easily whenever you want. I’ll updated it whenever we add a new tutorial or article of interest.
You’ll find the list nestled under Stitch Fun!, which can be found under Tips & Techniques in the main menu across the top of the website.
Incidentally, you’ll be happy to know (maybe?) that there’s a new website overhaul going on right in the background, and the new site will feature visual indexes. I’m very excited about that!
A couple weeks ago, my niece hit me up for some stitching help. She wanted to embroider something for a gift for a friend’s wedding.
I thought “monogram” or “wedding sampler.” She thought “symbol.”
I was pretty pleased with the outcome of this little project, especially since it was the first time Anna had ever tried long & short stitch, shading, and working with silk and gold threads.
Today, I thought I’d share the finished embroidery project and the details on how it was worked.
A frequently asked question here on Needle ‘n Thread is what fabric to choose for hand embroidery projects.
We’ve talked about testing specific ground fabrics for hand embroidery before (here and here, for example), we’ve discussed linen for embroidery numerous times (here and here are two articles with a lot of information in them), and we’ve discussed building a swatch collection of fabrics that are suitable for embroidery, but in all the years we’ve been chatting about embroidery together, I’ve never itemized what I look for in a ground fabric specifically for hand embroidery.
I thought I’d do that today and open up the topic for discussion. Most embroiderers have their favorite fabrics that they gravitate towards, so I’d love to hear about the fabrics you like to use for surface embroidery, the fabrics you avoid for surface embroidery projects, and the whys and wherefores behind your thoughts.
Here are my thoughts on the subject – I hope you join in with yours!
Lately, we’ve looked at quite a few simple ways to add beads to embroidery stitches as part of the Stitch Fun! series here on Needle ‘n Thread.
In this exploration of embroidery with beads, if you could take away just one lesson from the various tutorials, I’d want it to be this:
It’s easy to add beads to practically any embroidery stitch.
Sometimes, we think embroidery is Much More Complicated than it really is. And adding another element to it – like beads – can seem daunting. But the key is to try – play with your stitches and see what you can come up with! Really, there’s not a lot to it, when it comes to adding beads to any embroidery stitch.
Case in point: adding beads to cast-on stitch. I’ll show you how simple it is!
There are times when I think I really should rouse myself from my photo-taking lethargy and aspire to be of those Really Awesome Bloggers who knows how to stage every photo perfectly, with the embroidery perfectly situated in a perfect setting, perfectly finished and perfectly perfect.
Instead, I usually grab my needlework finishes in pictures at about the moment of finishing. It’s the excitement, the relief of reaching the end of a project, I suppose.
With the Hungarian Redwork Runner, I had dreams of setting a beautiful table, replete with flower arrangements, candles, good dishes, and – down the middle in all its redwork glory – the Hungarian Redwork Runner, starched and pressed and pristine.
Instead, I draped the piece over my trestles with a bunch of other projects and snapped some shots. Then I flung it on a piece of furniture and snapped some shots.
Whether it’s a stitch tutorial that brings clarification or a free embroidery pattern that provides inspiration, nothing warms the cockles of my wee little heart more than seeing Needle ‘n Thread put to good use!
Today, I want to share with you a piece of pearl and goldwork embroidery worked by Larissa Borodich.
Larissa used this stylized pomegranate design as the foundation of her project and interpreted it using pearl embroidery and goldwork.
After yesterday’s True Confessions about the small monogram sample that went from an hour-long project to an almost-five-hour-long project – and all the doubts and discoveries along the way – I thought I’d share the finished monogram with you.
Upon finishing the embroidery on the little R and blocking it, I drew some more conclusions about it.
It started out as a quick sample meant to show off an embroidery thread.
One of those “this will only take an hour (or so)” sort of embroidered samples.
You know the kind: You want to test something new: an embroidery thread, a type of fabric, maybe a technique. Or you want to demonstrate a point: this thread works well in this scenario, or this fabric is perfect for that type of project.
And you think it’ll only take an hour or so to whip up your sample and establish your conclusions.
I’ll tell you something, between you and me: any time you think it will “only” take an hour or so to stitch up a sample, go ahead and second guess yourself.
Why? Because invariably, if you’re anything like me, you’ll be wrong. It’ll take significantly longer than you ever intended, you’ll wander down one diverging path after another until your hour turns into a day, and your day turns into two, and you’ll reach every other conclusion but the one you set out to establish.
How do you embroider? Do you sew your stitches, or do you stab your stitches?
Today, I want to chat a bit about these two methods of embroidering a stitch. Chances are, you habitually gravitate towards one method or the other when you stitch.
Both methods have their merits! Let’s look at the differences between these two methods of stitching, and then I’ll tell you which one I habitually use and why. I hope you’ll chime in with your preferences!
For stitchers who are interested in adding sparkle to their embroidery using beads, you’ll quickly find that some kind of bead tray is a good thing to have on hand.
A bead tray is pretty much just what it sounds like: a tray (or something similar) where you put your beads while you’re working with them.
It keeps your working beads confined, so that they don’t roll about on the table, but it also allows you to easily access them with your needle.
I imagine bead embroiderers who have been at the whole Bead Thing for a long time have definite preferences for a work tray. I’m not super particular about mine – at first, I simply used the lid of a small gift card tin. If I ended a work session, but I wasn’t finished with the beads in the lid, I’d just put the base of the tin upside down into the lid and my beads would be covered and contained until the next session.
But I noticed that, when I was working with just the tin lid, the beads had a tendency to be very active. They’d scoot and slide, pop away from the needle, and sometimes, with a shiver or a shake, they’d dance a jolly jig. Give the lid a bump, and they’d fly. Ornery, I tell you!
At first, I was going to line the inside of the tin with some velveteen, in the same style as this goldwork tray that I use for cutting and containing real metal embroidery threads. Any fabric with a nap (like velvet or velveteen) – or even just a rough surface (like felt) – will go a long way to keeping beads calm and easier to manage.
Last night, as we sat outside at my sister’s house, gnawing watermelon and waiting for a neighbor’s fireworks display to commence, my five-year-old niece asked me, “Do they have the Fourth of July in other countries?”
Ummmm… I just love trick questions from five-year-olds. I knew from the outset the conversation would end badly.
Yes, they do, I explained. July 4th is tomorrow’s date.
In America, I explained further, Independence Day is on July 4th, and it’s our national holiday, which is why we celebrate with fireworks, picnics, and parties.
Other countries have national holidays, too, I went on pedantically, but they aren’t necessarily on July 4th. But they still have the fourth of July, because it’s the date – just like today is July 3rd, tomorrow is July 4th. It’s just not necessarily a day they have fireworks and picnics.
So…… she said, swatting a mosquito and totally missing the point of my lesson, they don’t have the Fourth of July?
I grabbed a sparkler, lit it, handed it to her, and sent her off to frolic.
Wherever you are, happy fourth of July! If you happen to be an American, Happy Independence Day!
If you’re sweltering in the summer heat this weekend (or shivering with the cold, depending on your locale), take some time to enjoy this month’s needlework news snips!
Today, I want to share with you an exquisite piece of whitework embroidery which, at first glance, could be mistaken for a pristinely preserved antique.
But it’s not! No, indeed, this is a brand new piece of embroidery, worked by Jacqueline Barcelo, a Needle ‘n Thread reader, as a gift for her daughter.
It was one of those days. You know the kind – when nothing goes quite right, when the whole day slips by and it seems like nothing significant was accomplished?
We all have days like that now and then!
I try to redeem days Those Days in one of two ways: either by learning something from the day’s events (or non-events) and why they transpired the way they did so I can handle them better in the future, or, if that’s even a lost cause, by putting myself to one small but significant task, to set me up for a better day the next day.
On this particular day, I took the second route. I undertook the tiniest of tasks.
I’ve had a stitch sample hanging over my head for a couple weeks, but I didn’t know how I was going to approach it. I needed to force myself just to start.
Starting is often half the battle, isn’t it?
The sample in question will be embroidered on dark fabric. It will involve a few different, uncomplicated stitches. And it will be embroidered with a limited palette of…yes…metallic threads.
Two hurdles loomed in my mind: dark fabric and metallic threads.
One recurring question that keeps showing up in my inbox ever since we broached the subject of adding beads to embroidery is this:
How do you organize and store your beads?
A month ago, my first reaction to the question was pretty forthright:
Organization? Hahahahhahahahahaha!
It’s not something I’d actually bothered with… until recently.
How did I store and organize beads? In the little ziplock bags they arrive in, or in the tubes and cylinders they’re packaged in, all jumbled together in a box here, a basket there, a larger bag inside that particular box, tossed into this drawer or that drawer.
You get the point: I had no organizational or storage solution for beads until about a month ago.
I finally capitulated. I was fed up with foraging and weary of wondering what beads I have, in what color, size, and type.
For those new to Needle ‘n Thread, Stitch Fun! is a series of embroidery stitch tutorials that focus on the fun side of stitching – playing with various embroidery stitches that are perhaps more obscure, or that go beyond the basic stitch. Sometimes, we explore complex or composite stitches, sometimes we try something different with a simple embroidery stitch, or sometimes, we just play around with stitches to see what develops.
When I started the series way back in 2012, the idea behind Stitch Fun! was to promote the notion that embroidery should be fun, and part of that fun is in the exploration of what can be done with stitches.
Playing with stitches is a good way to reinvigorate your needlework. It can help you take your stitching beyond a set repertoire of the same repeated stitches, adding a whole new excitement to your embroidery.
Sometimes, even the simplest approach to a stitch can spice things up a bit. Today’s mini tutorial for alternating beaded chain stitch is a good example of how a simple modification to a stitch can dress it up.
Vintage embroidered linens are an obsession of mine – I love to collect them, especially if I find beautiful ones that I can afford.
Sometimes, I wash them up and use them for gifts.
Sometimes, I use them in my home.
Sometimes, I just want the embroidery – I want to rescue it somehow, because it’s beautiful. But I don’t always have ideas on how to do that. So the linens end up being stowed away until inspiration strikes… and then, admittedly, they risk being forgotten all over again.
Last Friday, I left home on an unexpected whirlwind trip to the Deep South.
I live in Kansas, where Dorothy put it best: There’s no place like home. Unfortunately, I couldn’t just click my heels and arrive. It was a 15 hour drive to and fro, each direction taken in a day.
Not-so-surprisingly, since I was the driver, I didn’t accomplish a bit of stitching while on the road. I’ve not perfected the “stitch anywhere” approach to embroidery – I can’t quite do it behind the wheel. We have to draw the line somewhere, after all, don’t we?
Thanks for all your well-wishes last week. Now that I’m home, I’m chomping at the bit to get some major things accomplished!
If you’ve ever set out to tackle an embroidery project that doesn’t come out of a book or a kit, you know what it’s like to mull over color choices.
For me, making good color decisions can be a fairly arduous task. Thankfully, there are some good books on the market that can help with this – Trish Burr’s Colour Confidence in Embroidery (which I reviewed a few years ago) is one of my favorites!
Besides books, though, there are myriad ways to find color ideas for embroidery projects. The most obvious way: take a look around you!
Recently, I found inspiration for a small embroidery project in a most unlikely place.
My dad is a prolific reader. And he’s forever using any scrap of paper, any paperclip, perhaps a toothpick – whatever he has on hand! – to mark his place in books.
If your dad is anything like mine, you could always embroider a bookmark for him for Father’s Day.
Hand embroidered bookmarks make great gifts for anyone who reads, or should read. Maybe you’ve got a recent graduate in the family? Or maybe you have a children’s summer reading program at your local library that could benefit from some prizes?
The best thing about embroidered bookmarks is that they’re quick to make and easy to finish!
I like to have an embroidery carrot hanging about – an enticing project that I reward myself with when I meet a goal.
Lately, though, it’s been my Pondering Project. And it works well for that!
There are times throughout the work day when I find myself at a loss as to what step to take next. What approach should I take on this project? How should I tackle that project?
When I’m stumped like that, I find I can ponder The Next Thing and work out ideas while I’m stitching on Late Harvest.
I can’t always do that with every embroidery project, especially projects that I’ve designed and I’m working through for the first time. In such cases, my mind is normally occupied with what step to take next on that particular project.
But if I’m following someone else’s directions, it’s much easier to think about something other than the project I’m stitching on while I’m stitching on it. It’s a good time to work out little directional problems and develop ideas. And it’s nice to be able to do that while still making some progress on something.
Two things I love: floche and fabric. Specifically, cotton floche and linen fabric.
I’ve been dabbling with some little designs embroidered with floche – nothing large or extravagant or hugely time consuming – and using the opportunity, while dabbling, to try some fabrics I haven’t used before.
Ahhhh, summer! It’s that time of year when vacation spots beckon and when the travel bug starts to tickle!
Whether it’s a road trip or a long flight to a distant exotic destination, you probably don’t want to go without a needlework project. After all, if you’re goal is to relax, what better way than with a project in one hand and a tropical drink in the other?
Today, I thought I’d show you my typical line-up of needlework tools that I tote with me when traveling, and ask you what your favorite (and most successful) travel tools are.
Looking back on the beginning of Needle ‘n Thread reminds me of my mom looking back on baby pictures of her grown children. Sometimes, you’ll hear her say, “She was so cute!” and sometimes, you’ll hear her say, “I thought she was so cute!”
There’s a world of difference in those statements! When I look back at the beginning of Needle ‘n Thread – in the relatively early years of blogging – I have to say, at the time, I thought it was …
… No. Actually, I never thought it was attractive at all. There wasn’t a lot to choose from back then, when it came to free blogging templates.
This is what the content color scheme looked like:
Figure embroidery – the depiction of human figures in embroidery – is the hook that originally got me into exploring surface embroidery in earnest.
I came across a lot of it when doing research for a History of Art course in college, and it absolutely fascinated me. At the time, I already dabbled in surface embroidery, but the exquisite, artistic nature of the figure embroidery that I found in texts, in museums, and eventually in church sacristies and collections really astounded me. It was an art form I had never really noticed before, until I started studying it in earnest. And, like I said, I was hooked. It became a bit of an obsession.
Since then, I’ve collected a lot of Stuff pertaining to figure embroidery – many pieces, gleaned from antique dealers, online auctions, and the like, as well as books the at least touch on the subject (there are no books, to my knowledge, solely devoted to the subject) and pattern collections.
Technology has made the study of figure embroidery from an amateur’s perspective (i.e., my perspective) a lot easier than it used to be when I was in college. Way back then (some 25 years ago), I had a camera – you know, the kind with film? – and as for a computer… ha! I thought I was pretty advanced to have an electronic typewriter in my dorm room. And while I had access to computers, they certainly didn’t do what they do now. If I wanted to study a piece of figure embroidery up close, I used a magnifying glass.
Now, my favorite tools for getting really up close and personal with pieces of old embroidery are my camera and my computer.
Lately, I’ve been playing with a few other rose designs, like this Rose Window embroidery pattern that I shared with you a couple weeks ago.
Yep. It’s true. I’m a sucker for these types of stylized roses!
So here’s another rose pattern, which has been screaming for my attention for the last year. Alas, I won’t get to it right away – too many other things on the Proverbial Plate – but maybe you may find a use for it.
I’m calling this one Rose Rondelle.
(I’m really bad at naming designs, if you hadn’t noticed!)
Part of the reason for this is because the project was always meant to be a grab-and-go project – the type of embroidery project that I could take with me traveling, or that I could just grab and work on, whenever I wanted something easy and convenient to stitch. I never had a real deadline set for the project, even though I set several (unmet) deadlines along the way, in brief moments of naive optimism.
In short, I never saw it as a project that I had to complete by a certain time – just as a project that would always be there.
Well, it’s not going to be there much longer, I’m very happy to say!
For those of you who are just delving into the wonders of hand embroidery and discovering the creative pleasures that embroidery affords, here’s a list of tips that you might find useful along your journey.
For those who have been embroidering for a while, some of the tips may be old hat to you, but others might offer some new ideas to help spark the creative muse, or just to make needlework easier for you.
I’ve been collecting old embroidery books for a long time.
While I’m pretty much a sucker for any good book on hand embroidery or needlework in general (my over-burdened shelves bear testimony to this undeniable fact), I find old books, magazines, and serials on embroidery to be particularly enchanting.
I can spend hours leafing through the sometimes-brittle, almost-always-discolored pages of old needlework publications, especially those circulated by thread companies and other businesses in the needlework industry.
It used to be that such companies would publish and either give away or sell instructional manuals, informational periodicals, and even design catalogs. Inside them, you’d find good information, lots of creative ideas and inspiration, and many subtle and not-so-subtle plugs for the company’s products. Herrschners, Belding, Coricelli, Heminway – all of these are good names to look for when hunting out old needlework catalogs and the like.
One of my favorite old treasures is a publication from Pearsall’s in England. It’s called Embroidery, strangely enough, and the subtitle reads: A new serial containing articles upon stitches, methods of work, design, and other subjects connected with the study of fine needlework, with colored plates and other illustrations.
Deep down, though I don’t indulge in it too often, I have a penchant for bling. I like sparklies and I like beads and I like shiny stuff.
This doesn’t come across too often in my embroidery. It doesn’t even come across in my household decor or my clothing. And I rarely wear jewelry. But for some reason, when I see beads, sparkles, texture, shine – within reason – I am attracted to it. I like to look at it, examine it, entertain ideas about what to do with it.
And while I’m not really into formal bead embroidery, I like playing with beads and embroidery stitches. Lately, I’ve been doing just that.
Here in the States, it’s not unusual to run into a wedding or two in June. Winter is a distant memory, summer officially begins, the chance for decent weather is fairly good, and, with school out and families able to travel, it’s a pretty good month to get hitched.
I think I live in the Wedding Capital of the World! Among family and friends, it seems there’s always a wedding or two (or three or four or five) every summer. Not that I’m complaining – any opportunity for a good party and some socializing is a good thing!
When I have time, I like to make wedding gifts – a nice of piece of embroidery for display, a pretty tea cloth, a set of monogrammed linen guest towels. The latter is usually my preference. And to tell you the truth, “set” might be a bit of a stretch. Usually, I’m happy when I finish one.
That’s why I was super excited to see some of the new design offerings in Haft Richelieu, a magazine out of Poland, dedicated to Richelieu, or cutwork embroidery.
It was a bleak and grimy day. Clouds hung low in the sky with the menace of rain – the kind of day when mood mirrors weather.
But contrary to Nature’s cheerless condition, my heart was light, my step was springy.
This was The Day. This day was my carrot dangling before my salivating brain during three long months of focused labor. If I finish this project by this date, I will allow myself a weekend off, doing whatever I want to do.
Part of what I wanted to do was to spend a nice stretch of hours on a Sunday afternoon in the leisurely pursuit of stitching. In the company of a good audio book, I would hole myself up and revel in the delights of embroidery, with no interruptions and only the birds outside my window for company.
I could picture it perfectly, and I was all set to enjoy it.
With my work table clear, Late Harvest set up before me, audiobook selected, lights situated, tools accounted for, I settled down to a guilt-free afternoon of quiet stitching.
After initially setting up Late Harvest, the embroidery kit by Hazel Blomkamp that I’m working on for sheer fun right now, I tucked all the supplies that came in the kit, along with a copy of the book, neatly into a bag, ready to grab at a moment’s notice.
I mentioned previously that this project is going to be my carrot this year – my if this, then that project. If I accomplish this, then I can work for a while on that. It’s nice to have a carrot – it helps me get other things done!
Well, I promised myself that, once I finished the Stitch Sampler Alphabet e-book, I would allow myself one weekend where I could stitch just for fun. And that weekend finally happened.
As I dug into the project, I noticed one thing: there are enough colors in this project, and they are such similar colors, that a thread organization method becomes quickly necessary.
Jane emailed me a couple weeks ago with a question. She’s been a reader here on Needle ‘n Thread since 2007, which is a pretty long time!
Her question:
Mary, you review a lot of interesting needlework tools, but when it comes down to it, what do you use every day? I imagine most of the tools you review (like the aficot or the stumpwork sticks you showed us) only come out occasionally.
What I want to know is what are the tools and accessories and other things that surround you all the time when you’re doing embroidery – not the expensive specialty tools that only do one job, but the things you find yourself working with every day, that you couldn’t work without?
I pondered this for a bit. It’s a fair question! And so, at the end of a work session one day, I set about to show her the answer, by gathering all the tools – and other things – that I use in my workroom on almost a daily basis.
The other day, I got a little package in the mail from Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching.
Nestled inside was one of her new fine-tipped iron-on transfer pens.
You know me – I’m always game to try a new embroidery product, especially one intended to make the transfer process easier.
So I set about playing with the pen, thinking I’d eventually write a review of it.
The more I played with it, the more I thought I better write a review sooner, rather than later. After all, it’s always better to be aware of things ahead of time, than to wish you had known before it was Too Late.
I’ve been fiddling with embroidery patterns again, and this one is something that I’ve been toying with for quite a while. I like it!
Rose Window is somewhat reminiscent of the Mission Rose embroidery project we worked through a while ago, so I don’t plan to embroider it any time soon.
But I thought I’d throw it out here, in case you like it and want to tackle it!
On Memorial Day, we remember those in the services who died in the line of duty and we commemorate their sacrifice.
The poppy, thanks to a Canadian poet, is a fairly universal symbol for Memorial and Remembrance Day celebrations world wide.
While the poppy has specific connections to World War I – John McCrae wrote his poem “In Flander’s Fields” in honor of the sacrifice made by his comrades in World War I – the flower is used as a symbol of remembrance of those who fell in other wars, too.
In the US, the poppy was adopted in 1922 by the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) as the memorial flower.
In the past year, with the commemoration in 2014 of the 70th anniversary of D-Day when the Allied forces landed at Normandy, and with 2015 marking the 100th anniversary of the landing of the ANZAC forces at Gallipoli, the poppy has enjoyed quite a bit of extra attention, and it’s popped up in embroidered forms all over the place. A quick search of “embroidered poppy” on Google images will demonstrate!
Today, I’d like to share a fantastic hand embroidered poppy sent from a reader, Allan Bowers, along with some links to other sources for poppy-related embroidery ideas. Whether embroidered in remembrance or not, the poppy is a glorious flower, and it translates well into all kinds of embroidery.
Whether you’ve just begun your embroidery journey, or whether you’re a seasoned stitcher, you’ve probably asked yourself, “What stitch should I use to fill this area?” at some point.
To help you answer that question, I’ve rounded up 16 different filling techniques that can be effectively used in embroidery, with links to articles and tutorials.
Have you ever tried to hand embroider on knit fabric, only to end up with a puckered mess?
Knit is not exactly the best fabric in the world to use as a ground for hand embroidery, but there are times when knit fabric can’t be avoided for certain embroidery projects.
You want to add a little embroidered motif to a T-shirt? You have to stitch on knit! Baby goods – like onesies and receiving blankets – are often knit, so if you want to embellish them with a personal touch, you’ll want to know how to stitch on knit.
If you’re interested in embellishing knit fabrics with little bits of embroidery (or big bits!), then read on! I’ll share with you my recent adventures in embroidering ducks on baby goods, throwing in a few tips and observations along the way.
I have to admit, I’m not a huge fan of certain types of embroidery done on black velvet.
Mostly, it’s colorful embroidery on black velvet that makes me shudder.
Taken apart, I like the concept of embroidery on velvet, I like colorful embroidery, I like velvet, and I like black, but put them all together into the phrase “embroidery on black velvet” and it just Does Something to me.
I blame it on Elvis.
Larger-than-life images of Elvis painted in neon-esque colors on black velvet waft into my head when I think of embroidery on black velvet.
Now, don’t get me wrong! I have nothing against Elvis – I like my blue suede shoes, too – but how anyone deserves to be memorialized in garish colors on black velvet wall hangings is beyond the scope of my understanding.
So, you see, I generally shy away from embroidery on black velvet.
We’ve reached the mid-point of May already, and it’s been a while since I’ve shared some little embroidery bits that have caught my eye lately.
So, for your weekend browsing, here are a few online embroidery spots to explore – just a bit of inspiration and information from around the traps!
So, when you have a quiet moment this weekend, pour yourself a cup of you-know-what (for me, it’s iced coffee right now, I’m afraid…) and let’s peruse some spots together.
I eked out the final stitches yesterday, so today, I’ll show you those and share a final parting shot of the complete project. It’ll be a while before it’s framed, so for now, we can say bye-bye to the birdies!
These little hand embroidered ducks were So Much Fun to stitch, and they took a total of about thirty whole minutes – which makes them highly delectable in just about every way!
Today, a bit of tool talk! Are you familiar with half cone sticks and trumpet cones used in dimensional embroidery and needle lace making?
Today, we’ll look at these curious little tools, which are also called “embroidery shoes,” and later on, we’ll explore how they’re used. We’ll also take a look at trumpet cones, which are used in a similar way to half cone sticks.
I’ve been fiddling about, setting up a photo sharing area for projects based on my new ebook, Stitch Sampler Alphabet.
I’m hoping that many of you are enjoying the stitches and instructions in the book, and that you’re already engrossed in the addictive practice of combining embroidery stitches in colorful, fun, and unique ways!
And if you are, then I thought it would be nice if we could all share photos, to inspire each other.
Here’s the finished quote and some reflections on it. I’ll tell you right off the bat that it’s not my Favorite Project that I’ve ever worked. I’ll tell you why!
Just as narrative poetry can relate the great epics of mythology and history, narrative embroidery can relate visually – in vivid, captivating detail – similar epics.
If you’ve ever contemplating starting a narrative tapestry, whether on a small scale (relating, for example, the story of your own family), or on a larger scale, perhaps relating the history of your city or town or region, then you definitely will be interested in The Art of Narrative Embroidery by Rosemary Farmer and Maggie Ferguson.
And heck, even if you never dream of creating a narrative piece of embroidery, if you love embroidery, history, bustling activity, people, places, animals, ships, incredible vistas – all worked with needle and thread – you’ll love this book!
I’ve got embroidery projects coming out of my ears. Does this ever happen to you?
Right now, I feel a bit like Mr. Toad. I go careening down one path, soon to be distracted by yet another project, so I go careening off in that direction, until I’m all tied up with a million little things that I need to finish, and the result: confusion and mayhem!
For me, the best way to get through a situation like this is to sort out what needs to be done and put the Needful Things in order, according to when they need to be done. Those things that don’t have a specific deadline can be sorted in other categories.
Obviously, everyone’s situation is different. This is my current situation, and I’ll show you how I’m getting through it.
There are certainly more complicated ways to go about making an embroidered book cover, but this way is fast and very easy. It isn’t perhaps the most “finished” of finished book covers, but it is finished enough to serve for a long time.
When we parted on Friday, I was getting ready to launch into a “quick” embroidery project with a deadline – this embroidered book cover for a prayer book for Adele’s First Communion, which happened to be yesterday.
As usual, I underestimated the time necessary to finish the embroidery and the book cover. I don’t know why I always underestimate the time it will take to do these things, but alas, I’m a Super Underestimator, when it comes to time and stitching!
Today, I’ll take you through the embroidery for the book cover, show you the mistakes and foibles that I certainly didn’t correct, and discuss some changes that could easily be made to simplify the design. And tomorrow, I’ll show you how I finished the book cover.
Here’s my latest adventure with the embroidered book cover that I really should have finished a while ago.
Yep. The event is day after tomorrow – a point I realized yesterday. (Being the attentive aunt that I am, I obviously pay close attention to these things!)
So, yesterday, I spent a little bit of time getting the set-up work done for the embroidered prayerbook cover and selecting colors. Today, I’ll stitch it.
Here’s the set-up process in a nutshell, along with information on the fabric I’m using (and why), the threads, and a few tips that will make the finishing process much quicker.
Even after triple and quadruple double-checking, some color numbers slipped past me on a few letters in Stitch Sampler Alphabet, and I wanted to get the news out to those of you who have purchased the e-book as soon as possible. And the blog being the best place to do that, here we are, interrupting our normal schedule to bring you…
…the Dreaded Errata Notice!
In other words, to say with a bit of a blush, I made a couple mistakes.
If you plan to use the color schemes and the same threads listed in the e-book, specifically for letters S, F, and D, you’ll want to make note of these three errors in the book.
Thanks to Vaune Pierce at vaune.com for the discoveries – she sure knows her floche and coton a broder!
The other day, when I was trying out a new-to-me hand embroidery thread – Aurifil’s stranded embroidery floss – I had one of those strange Groundhog Day moments. Déjà vu, repeatedly.
Today I’ll tell you a little bit about this stranded cotton embroidery floss from Aurifil, which is called Aurifloss.
Here’s a preview of what you can find inside Stitch Sampler Alphabet, with details on how to procure it, how to use it, and how to breeze through the simple technical stuff.
This isn’t the first time I’ve gotten into embroidered handwriting – and it probably won’t be the last!
If you’ve poked around a bit on Needle ‘n Thread, you might be familiar with my tutorials on embroidered lettering and text. That was a fun sampler! And it morphed into a series of 15 free tutorials on embroidered handwriting, lettering and text.
Right now, I’m working on some embroidered handwriting samples – some are along the same lines as the sampler, some are straightforward embroidered handwriting for specific purposes.
I thought I’d open up the topic for some reader input. Have you ever embroidered your own handwriting? Or embroidered text using a computer font? Have you ever embroidered writing on quilt labels, crazy quilt squares or the like? Or embroidered words on surface embroidery samplers? Maybe you’ve added embroidered names to christening gowns? Perhaps you’ve embroidered the words of an inspirational quote to hang on a wall or to use on a bookmark?
If you’ve done any of that, or taken other excursions into hand embroidered handwriting, my question is this: what stitches have you found most effective for these types of exercises?
Guess what’s finally showing up here on Needle ‘n Thread – in just a couple days?
It’s been in the works longer than the Secret Garden Hummingbirds, longer than the Hungarian Redwork Runner… and finally, finally, it’s finished and ready to share with you!
It’s the Stitch Sampler Alphabet, and today, I’d like to tell you a little bit about what you can expect with this new offering from Needle ‘n Thread.
Now it’s time to change tack – to set out on a new, much simpler course! And to that end, here’s the embroidery design that I’ll be using for this semi-quick project that has to be finished in about two weeks.
This hand embroidery design featuring a cross, grapes, and wheat can be used for all kinds of finished items. Think: Bible cover, prayer book cover, bookmark (in a reduced size), even the front of a greeting card. In fact, you’re not limited to hand embroidery with any of the free embroidery patterns here on Needle ‘n Thread – they’d translate well into any of your personal craft projects!
So, here’s the design, and I’ll tell you how I’m going to stitch it. You’ll also find a handy-dandy PDF printable below, to make it easy to save and print out for your own projects.
I know I can’t be the only one in the world who has done this with an embroidery project!
I call it dead-ending.
Dead-ending is when you have a specific plan (or two) in mind for an embroidery project, you get the project underway, and then you realize it just isn’t going to happen. At least, not the way you planned it!
The backstory to this: A while ago, I mentioned this embroidered book cover design that I planned on stitching up on a prayer book cover for my niece’s First Communion. That was the first episode of transferring the design to fabric using my printer. After the printer successfully spat out the design on linen, I also printed the embroidery design on a very nice silk dupioni.
So far so good.
The next step: setting up the foundation fabric for the embroidered book cover.
I thought at first that they were both objects of the tourist trade. It turns out that one is, one isn’t. Panama Pamela is the tourist.
But the little Korean girls on the teeter totter are not. Instead, they’re proof that amazing things can be accomplished with a few embroidery stitches.
During the Victorian age and up into the first part of the 20th century, single initials, monograms or ciphers (there’s a difference between initials, monograms, and ciphers, explained here) embroidered onto personal linens served more than just a decorative purpose. And sometimes, they were so simple, small, and discreet that they weren’t necessarily even that decorative.
Imagine marking all the personal linens in your trousseau. (Um…ok, first imagine that you had to have a trousseau…).
Every hanky, every under garment…just so there’d be no mix up in your household laundry when your servants or your laundry service cleaned them.
Imagine that your husband or brother or father is going off to fight in WWI, and his personal linens all need to be marked. It’s not as if you can whip out the Sharpie, after all.
Or just imagine that you’re an industrious embroiderer who wants to embroider a neat little initial on a nice pile of hankies to to sell, to give as a gift, or whatever.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could impress the letter’s design onto many different linens, uniformly?
Enter, the iron-on transfer, first developed in the late 1800’s, and popular ever since for the easy transfer of embroidery patterns.
Woooohooooo! This is me, in a good mood. Why? Not because it’s Tax Day. No, no! It’s better than that!
(Well, that wouldn’t be too difficult, would it?)
Yesterday, I reached a Milestone in the preparation of my Stitch Sampler Alphabet e-book that will launch on the world in the not-too-distant future.
I printed it for proofing. That’s practically Monumental. It means I’m almost there.
Stitch Sampler Alphabet is a hefty little instructional and project e-book, printing at about 120 pages. Lots of detailed stitch instructions! Lots of fun stitch combinations! Lots of color! Lots of samples!
And lots of work!
While it was printing, I was damp stretching this:
One of the best ways to get really comfortable with hand embroidery is to set about making a stitch sampler.
Sometimes, we get stuck with one impression that comes to mind with any given word. If I say “sampler,” for example, what comes to your mind? For me, it’s usually something that includes an alphabet and that’s worked in cross stitch. I know this is a limited view, but I suppose it’s because that’s what I grew up with in the 80’s, when my sisters and aunts were working samplers.
A stitch sampler doesn’t have to have a pattern, necessarily. It doesn’t have to be planned. It doesn’t have to include an alphabet. And it doesn’t have to be worked solely in cross stitch. A stitch sampler can be just that – a sampler of stitches.
Today, I’ll point you to some further reading and resources, with plenty of tips for creating your own stitch sampler.
Well, to start your Monday off, here are two pieces of embroidery that have charmed me. I find them delightful!
Both handkerchiefs below are hand embroidered with figures – a dancing lady, children playing. They’re colorful and fun, and they were undoubtedly embroidered for the tourist market.
Just because they are souvenirs, though, don’t write off the embroidery! Sure, at souvenir shops these days, you can still find embroidered hankies – machine embroidered, produced in bulk, lacking quality, and usually pretty devoid of personality.
But these hand embroidered hankies are just lovely, they’re packed with personality, and they can teach us a lot!
For your weekend stitching adventures, here’s a super-simple, really fun stitch with a whole lot of options for further experimentation.
The stitch is called tulip stitch – it’s a slipped, detached chain stitch, and while it can be worked singly, as a detached, lonely stitch, it also works up well into a line stitch.
Tulip stitch works well as an individual accent stitch, but it can also be worked in lines, in gentle curves, for seam treatments in crazy quilts, on lettering, in garden landscapes, as borders, and I’m sure you can come up with many more possibilities!
Coloring books are a great source for embroidery design inspiration. We’ve discussed this before a couple times – the Secret Garden Hummingbirds are an example of how a coloring book page can turn into an embroidery design.
This is The Thing: we don’t necessarily all have the talent to draw well. We might love embroidery, we might yearn to embroider something other than designs in kits and the like, but we might not necessarily have the knack for drawing the things we might want to stitch.
But an embroiderer can certainly take advantage of this Era of the Grown-Up Coloring Book. These advanced and intricate coloring books are wildly popular right now, and you can find many good ones by many different artists widely available today.
If you purchase a coloring book, you can turn the designs in the book into embroidery projects, as long as they’re for your own personal use. There’s nothing wrong with this, and there’s no violation of copyright or anything like that.
I’ve had questions about that with the Secret Garden embroidery: Do I have to write to the author or publisher to get permission to embroider a design in that book? The answer is no. If you buy the book, and if you’re using the design for personal use only, you can embroidery it, you can color it, you can etch it onto glass or carve it onto wood. You just can’t reproduce the design and sell it, or sell items made with the design on it.
Here are two coloring books that you might enjoy using for embroidery designs, ideas, and inspiration. One is Johanna Basford’s second book (I reviewed her first book Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt here), Enchanted Forest; and the second is Millie Marotta’sAnimal Kingdom. I’ll tell you what you’ll find in both of them, and discuss the designs a little bit from an embroiderer’s perspective.
Well, I continued with some experimentation, and I’ve chatted with some other stitchers about the subject since then and done a little more research and whatnot.
If you jumped on the home-printing idea for embroidery patterns transfers, there are a few things you might want to know before you plunge headfirst into using your home printer for printing all your embroidery designs straight onto your fabric.
I know, I know! We’re always seeking the perfect (and easy and most painless) solution for design transfer – but there are several things to consider before settling on the inkjet printer as the ideal solution.
Figure embroidery is a topic that absolutely captivates me.
I started my whole adult Embroidery Journey (that is, pursuing embroidery with Lusty Gusto, avidly collecting, reading, examining, attempting) while studying the history of art in college.
Ever since then, I’ve built my own collection of embroidered pieces and photographed others – especially on church vestments and vesture – in order to study them closely.
Now, if you’re not really into ecclesiastical figure embroidery, that’s ok – the techniques can translate well into any figure embroidery, whether church-related or not.
I think one thing that really mesmerizes me about this subject is that the assortment of extant examples of such embroidery from various ages teaches us so much about the whole development of embroidery styles, techniques, and even materials – the development, in short, of the art of embroidery through the ages.
An important point to consider about figure embroidery is how it is meant to be viewed. The embroiderer will most certainly embroider differently, depending on the way the embroidery is supposed to be seen.
To illustrate this point, let’s take a look at some figure embroidery.
Several weeks ago, we started exploring embroidered stories – tapestry projects that, in some way, tell stories that are significant in some way. Most of these tapestry projects are community efforts, embroidered by volunteers.
For your perusal and further exploration, here’s a group of tapestry projects that I call “heritage tapestries.” For the most part, they have to do with the settlement and development of communities, or the cultural, artistic, religious, or historical heritage of the communities or individuals involved in making them.
Some of the tapestry projects may be familiar to you; hopefully, you’ll find some new gems among them to explore further on your own! And maybe, just maybe, you’ll find out that there’s a tapestry near you – or in the vicinity of some future travels – that you can see in person!
I’ve spent the last week pondering how to get a highly detailed but very small hand embroidery design onto a piece of linen, with the least amount of grief possible.
The Least Amount of Grief Possible is the operative phrase.
For me, the transfer process of any embroidery design is always a bit of a hurdle. I don’t mind doing it, as long as I know it’s going to be successful. And once I’m doing it, even if I’m unsure, I’m ok.
It’s just that whole Gearing Up to do something I’m unsure of, that gets me. It looms. It swells into a mighty mountain. I turn in twenty different directions just to avoid looking at it.
Which is all rather silly, isn’t it? It’s not as if I haven’t transferred embroidery designs to fabric before! But, when it’s a project I want to be extra-careful about; when it’s a project that presents some logistical difficulties; when it’s a project for someone else… there’s always a little fear.
(True confessions here…)
So, this is the situation: I was asked to embroider a prayer book cover for a little girl making her First Communion next month.
I couldn’t say no. After all, it’s for my niece. And she adores me… well, she adores me, the way a six year old does when she wants something. Know what I mean?
If you’re keen to learn a variety of approaches to stumpwork embroidery – from figures to scenes to animals and flowers – you’ll definitely be interested in Stumpwork Embroidery by Kay and Michael Dennis.
Stumpwork Embroidery, published just last year by Search Press, is a hefty instructional book that teaches the basics of stumpwork and how to apply them to all kinds of projects. The book is a combination of Kay & Michael Dennis’s other books that are no longer in print, so if you have one or more of their previous books (like Stumpwork Figures, Beginner’s Guide to Stumpwork, or Stumpwork Seasons), you’ll recognize some of the content.
Let’s take a look at what Stumpwork Embroidery has to offer the stumpwork enthusiast, shall we?
When we chatted about our favorite embroidery tools a couple weeks ago, some readers brought up a tool called an aficot, which raised some virtual eyebrows out there and brought up a few questions.
Here in the States and among embroiderers, the aficot is not really a super well-known tool. It doesn’t come up in embroidery conversation much. It’s not a highly marketed tool. And it’s not that easy to find a nice aficot.
The aficot is more commonly used in lace-making, but it has its uses in embroidery, too. If you do a lot of whitework that involves satin stitching, or you love to satin stitch monograms or the like (in any color), you just might find an aficot very useful!
It’s also one of those tools that’s fun to have lying around, because people look at it and can’t help asking, “What is that thing?”
So, here’s a shot of my aficot. I’ll tell you a little about how it’s used and where you can find your own.
I’m not sure how we arrived at Friday already. I’m pretty sure that, if Friday hadn’t arrived so soon, I would have gotten more done this week!
I’m happy to report that I have accomplished some of the things on The List for the week.
And I’m also happy to report that some things never change: I have not accomplished most of the things on The List for the week.
But Some is better than None. And I’ll tell you this – committing to a daily goal goes a long, long way in getting at least Something accomplished.
Yep – through thick and thin, in sickness and in health, come hell or high water, I have embroidered One Feather a Day on the Secret Garden Hummingbirds.
Gosh, what an accomplishment.
Or not. But at least it’s Something.
Here’s my update on the Secret Garden Hummingbirds Project, with a close-up of the latest feathers, a full shot of the project so far, and some stitch talk.
This morning, I’d like to share a free hand embroidery pattern from a series of old designs that I’m cleaning up and altering a little bit so that they’re suitable for hand stitching on smaller projects.
This particular medallion features a cross shape, tipped with fleurs-de-lis, with stylized floral elements between the four arms.
Great events in history, and especially great conflicts, have been retold with needle and thread since the Middle Ages. The Bayeux Tapestry is the first example of this.
The two great conflicts of the modern era – World War I and II – have been retold in stitches through a few well-known and lesser-well-known projects that should be well-known.
Don’t be misled into thinking the stories told here are meant to glorify war. On the contrary, they commemorate the spirit of the people whose lives were profoundly changed because of the horrors of war. Sandra Lawrence, on her web page devoted to the Overlord Embroidery, quotes Lord Dulverton, who commissioned the embroideries. He explains:
The Embroidery is a tribute to our Country and Countrymen over the part played in defeating a great evil that sprang upon the Western World. It is not, and was never intended to be, a tribute to war, but to our people in whom it brought out in adversity so much that is good, determination, ingenuity, fortitude and sacrifice.
As Time distances us from these massive conflicts that affected all of our ancestors (and hence, us) in one way or another, the stories below serve as a good reminder.
Have you ever tried to transfer an embroidery design onto dark or brightly colored fabrics and ended up dissatisfied with the results?
Pencil lines and dark ink don’t show up, chalk pencils rub off during the process of stitching, tacking stitches over tissue paper is time intensive and might not deliver the detail you want – all of these are problematic when trying to get a design from paper to darker colored ground fabrics.
A reader recently wrote in frustration, looking for a solution. She wrote:
I’ve tried every kind of chalk pencil out there, but the marks don’t last. I’ve tried white and yellow dressmaker’s carbon, but the fabric surface is too rough. They seem to work better on a smooth fabrics, not bumpy linen. I’ve tried tacking stitches like you recommend for tacking over tracing paper, but the detail isn’t fine enough. What can I use to draw lines on darker fabrics that won’t disappear and that are visible and fine enough for embroidery?
I’m opening the question up for all of you to chime in! Please, offer advice to Stacy!
And in the meantime, I’ll offer this suggestion for those facing a similar dilemma:
This September, Hand & Lock will be in the US, offering classes in tambour beading and in traditional monogramming in Williamsburg, Virginia, at the Williamsburg School of Needlework.
Today, I’ll tell you a little bit about Hand & Lock and their classes and then, courtesy of Hand & Lock, I’ll announce a very special give-away.
And I mean Very Special – once-in-a-life-time-special!
Once upon a time, when I was a kid (ok, back in the late 1900’s – like, 1999 – when I wasn’t really a kid), I came across The A-Z of Bullions on my sister’s bookshelf.
My next-oldest sister has always been My Hero when it comes to churning out arts, crafts, real cooking, and pretty much All Things Handmade. If she turns her hand to something that requires Making, she’s generally successful at it.
Heirloom sewing (this hand embroidered First Communion dress, for example) was one of her first loves. Long before I ever got into real embroidery, she was stitching bullion knots on her children’s clothes.
But then, that’s because she’s So Much Older than I am.
Chortle, chortle.
It’s no wonder, then, that, once upon a time back in 1999, I found the A-Z of Bullions on her bookshelf.
And given my growing infatuation with embroidery, it’s equally no wonder that I absconded with it.
This is the book that taught me how to work bullion knots easily and with confidence.
And it’s one of the many A-Z books that have been recently republished by Search Press, this one under the title of A-Z of Embroidered Motifs.
You know what the funniest thing is about setting a concrete stitching commitment, with a daily stitching goal attached to it?
You find yourself thinking about the project Every Single Day. Pre-commitment – before I set in concrete my goal to embroider one feather a day on the Secret Garden Hummingbirds – days and days would go by without the project ever entering my brain.
Sure, occasionally, I’d glimpse it, perched on a stand, covered, waiting for attention. But just as quickly as I saw it, out it went again, replaced by some other pressing task.
But now, I have feathers on the brain. I can’t escape them!
On the bright side, it is paying off. In fact, I’ve even put another feather in the bank, so I’m four feathers ahead on my stitching goal.
Here in Kansas, the rapid onset of spring in the last week is forcing out the buds on flowers, trees and shrubs.
Yeeeehaw! That’s exciting!
To celebrate, I thought I’d share a little Stitch Fun tutorial with you, to show you a simple way to embroider a pretty little floral vine speckled with tiny buds.
This is one of the many combinations in my Stitch Sampler Alphabet (ebook coming soon!), and it’s one of my favorites. It’s quick to work, simple, and very adaptable – think crazy quilt seam treatments, borders, sampler bands, or a floral element in embroidered gardens and landscapes. The combination could also be reasonably adapted into crewel work for wide vines. There are lots and lots of possibilities!
Ready? Here it is – a Stitch Fun tutorial for a floral vine with tiny buds, using up and down buttonhole stitch.
Lately, I’ve been exploring embroidered tapestries and other needlework projects that tell stories.
And there are oh, so many of them out there!
Embroidery has been used to tell stories for a long, long time. We’re probably all familiar with the Bayeux Tapestry, a 230-foot long embroidered cloth that relates the tale of the Norman conquest of England in 1066. (If you haven’t seen it, this video animating the Bayeux Tapestry is fun!)
But the Bayeux Tapestry, while certainly the most famous, is not the only embroidered tale worthy of attention.
In recent years, many fascinating tapestry projects that focus on retelling an important story have been undertaken and completed. For example, the Ros Tapestry, which I wrote about previously, retells a snippet of the history of Ireland.
Despite the fact that it’s St. Patrick’s Day and everyone’s thinking Irish, here’s a modern Scottish tapestry that relates a snippet of Scottish history and is definitely worth exploring!
Tomorrow’s St. Patrick’s Day, a great reason to celebrate All Things Irish-ish!
To celebrate a day early, I thought I’d show you a wee bit of Irish Inspiration, in the form of a lovely piece of tambour embroidery worked by a reader.
I really love what she did with the this embroidery pattern!
The essential tools for hand embroidery are pretty simple: needle, scissors, and a hoop or frame pretty much cover it.
When considering those essential tools, though, no doubt we all have our favorites. We like a certain type of hoop or frame; we have our favorite pair of scissors; and there are certain brands of needles that we gravitate towards, because we know they’re reliable.
Chances are, along our different needlework journeys, we’ve also acquired other tools that we’ve become attached to – tools that go beyond the basics, but that make our stitching lives a bit easier or perhaps just more pleasurable.
So that we can collectively help each other – and especially help stitchers new the art and craft of embroidery – I’d like to find out what your favorite tools are and why. I’ll recap some of mine below, and then ask you to tell us about yours.
Last weekend, I enjoyed a delightful spurt of Weekend Reading.
Accompanied by a fascinating booklet on embroidery (thank you, Janice!), I took myself to the front porch and sat in the sun and read away. It was a delightful, quiet couple hours of really good reading, with some note-taking scattered in for good measure.
Stitchers with an interest in historical embroidery (especially from the Victorian through Edwardian ages) and in ecclesiastical embroidery will probably find the booklet equally as enticing.
Now I find myself super-duper motivated to finishing the hummingbirds altogether. I’m encouraged, because I know that One Feather a Day is manageable. And I’m encouraged because – well, let me tell you how the first few days went.
It promises to be a glorious, beautiful weekend here in Kansas. The first hint of spring! I’m going to stitch with my windows open today, even if I freeze in the process.
I absolutely never throw away any scrap of linen that’s at least 2″ square, because I know I can use it for something.
Mostly, I use scraps for the background fabrics you see here on Needle ‘n Thread for stitch instructions.
And lately, I’ve been stitching up a lot of instructions and stitch samples. Lots! Yesterday alone, I took 439 photos of about 18 different stitches and stitch combinations in progress and finished.
Before I set out on this particular glut of stitch photography, I was able to come up with a whole pile of scraps perfect for this use.
This is my whole process of setting up a photo session for embroidery stitches.
If you’ve been hanging around here on Needle ‘n Thread for a few months, you might remember that, shortly after Christmas, I mentioned that Benton & Johnson in the UK was having a sale on their website, particularly on their goldwork embroidery kits (which are still marked down, by the way).
I purchased a few of them at the time so I could review them for you. Gosh, I just love using you as an excuse to feed my embroidery habit!
Just in case you’re looking for goldwork kits suitable for beginners and beyond, it’s nice to know what you’ll get when you order an embroidery kit. The descriptions on the Benton & Johnson website are not very thorough, so I was curious to see what their kits are like.
So, here it goes – what you can expect in a goldwork kit ordered from Benton & Johnson…
Sorry about that – I added the give-away later in the morning, after the newsletter had already flown the coop!
Throughout the day yesterday, I received a slew of email about the curls on the doll, many from folks working on stumpwork figures: how did I work them, are there instructions in the book, are they attached to the head first, is there a pattern for that bonnet, and so forth.
So today, before we get too far away from the subject, I’ll explain how I added curls to my doll’s head, so that those of you immersed in creating stumpwork figures can play with the techniques.
Quite a while ago, I fell in love with Salley’s artwork, through her book illustrations. (I reviewed her book, Pocketful of Posies, here). On exploring her artwork, I discovered her website and blog, and her book Felt Wee Folk, reviewed here.
Salley’s approach to her doll making and the creation of her little scenes struck me as very adaptable for embroiderers who are particularly interested in dimensional embroidery and stumpwork – especially stumpwork figures.
Ever since my first encounter with Salley’s work, I’ve longed to dabble with doll making.
I never gave into the longing. After all, I’m an embroiderer, not a doll-maker, right?
But earlier this year, my sister and I got into a few discussions on doll making and we found ourselves exploring all kinds of options for making little dolls. When Salley contacted me about her upcoming new book, Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures, and asked if I’d like to review it and participate in a “blog tour” of book reviews for it, I thought it was serendipitous. I said, You Bet!
It seems like the best excuse in the world to throw off my inhibitions about making dolls!
So, today, I’m going to review Salley’s new book for you, and then I’m going to introduce you to my new stitching companion and offer you a chance to win your own copy of the book!
Now and then, I like to post questions from readers, especially when the answer may open up some embroidery options for others, too.
Janet wrote a while ago, asking if floche can be used for long and short stitch shading:
I have the whole set of DMC floche and I’m not sure what kind of stitching to do with it. I want to embroider some flowers and practice long and short stitch needle shading, but can floche be used for that? I appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks!
This morning, a free pattern to add to the collection of hand embroidery patterns here on Needle ‘n Thread! This one is a highly formal, stylized thistle.
A little news first, after hearing from some readers: I updated information on yesterday’s article regarding Alba Maxima linen for hand embroidery, adding some more resources and a good substitute if you can’t find the bright white Alba Maxima. You can always try “Old White” linen, which is the same linen, only not as bright white. It’s just as nice!
And now, let’s talk about some new old embroidery books!
The A-Z Series of Needlework Books
When Country Bumpkin first began publishing the A-Z Series of needlework books, I was in Hog Heaven!
The A-Z Series is a fantastic series of instructional books for different needlework techniques, featuring step-by-step photo instructions in beautiful books that are perfect for reference.
Last year, the rights to publish the A-Z Series were acquired by Search Press.
This is Extremely Good News for needleworkers all around the world, for a number of reasons.
Search Press is well-known for their excellent instructional books in all kinds arts and crafts – from embroidery to painting and drawing, paper crafts, knitting, cake decorating – you name it! They’re a strong, quality publishing company, and their acquisition of the rights bodes well for the future availability of the series, as well as for the continuation of it.
Some minor things have changed with the new reprints of the books. So let’s look at the alterations, talk about what’s coming up, and compare two series of instructional needlework books.
Well, I’ve not gotten very far on the Redwork Runner hem – but I’ve started withdrawing some threads.
Withdrawing threads for a little drawn thread hem stitch around the whole hem of the runner takes a lot of time! It’s fiddly work, and admittedly, it’s not the most exciting part of any embroidery project. Besides, it always makes me a little nervous, to start cutting and pulling out threads.
I’ll show you how I go about preparing for this type of simple hem – it’s really a fool-proof method, so there’s not too much to be worried about. The key is taking your time and looking two, three, four, or ten times before you snip the first threads.
Playing is necessary with any craft, hobby, or art. When you play around – when you loosen up a bit and try new things – that’s when the juices flow and the Muses sing. Playing is a creative catalyst.
Plus, it makes you better at what you do. The more you play with embroidery stitches, the better you get at stitching in general. Think of it as practice – not the drudging practice of the kid who never wanted to take piano lessons in the first place. Think of it as practice for the adult, who desires, enjoys, and embraces the lessons!
So, there’s your excuse to play with your embroidery stitches! It’s good for you.
This alternated and laced Mountmellick stitch would make a great addition to crazy quilt seams – and really, anywhere you want a slightly spiked, festooned stitch.
One question that came up was how to tell if an embroidered handkerchief is stitched by hand or by machine.
I’m not really an expert on this subject, but there are a few indications that I look for, that point to machine embroidery instead of hand embroidery on vintage pieces.
If I had to pick an embroidery stitch that I have mixed feelings about, it’s the satin stitch.
I love it – I consider it the Queen of Embroidery Stitches. It screams elegance. Refinement. Style.
But on the other hand, there’s one thing I don’t like about it: sometimes, it’s a hard stitch to get right!
There have been times when I’ve been satin stitching along, all perfectly happy, when suddenly, I notice my direction has shifted. Or my stitches aren’t as silky smooth as they should be. Or the edge is wobbly.
Satin stitch is one of those stitches that either looks absolutely terrific….or not very terrific at all.
When it looks good, it looks good.
But when satin stitch looks bumpy and clumpy and wobbly ….wellllll. It just doesn’t sing the same way.
If you’ve experienced difficulties with satin stitch, these ten tips will help you produce a sensational satin stitch!
Good morning – and, depending on where you are, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!
Well, today I’m announcing the winner for last week’s give-away of Trish Burr’s new book, Miniature Needle Painting Embroidery, which I reviewed a couple weeks ago.
And then I’ll regale you with news, in case you want a little browse over your coffee.
And then…and then…
I’ll tell you another little secret about me. I write my articles from my bedroom. Yes, my bedroom and office are one. It’s a dangerous situation. I have to make my bed right after I crawl out each morning; otherwise, it becomes a Siren, luring me to the Pillows of Self-Destruction. Right now, the sun is not up. The lure is strong.
I’m still cleaning up my great big folio of ecclesiastical embroidery patterns from the early 1900’s. It’s quite a task!
Occasionally, I come across some little excerpts or individual elements that I like to share here on Needle ‘n Thread. Some are obviously ecclesiastical in design, while others can be used for secular embroidery pursuits, too.
I’ve already posted several patterns that I’ve cleaned up from the same folio: this fleur-de-lis frame, the bloomin’ branch, this lily in a diamond, this wheat bundle, this rococo bud, and others. These are all excerpts from larger ecclesiastical designs, but I thought, taken individually, they make nice patterns for embroidery in general.
This small stylized passion flower is also an excerpt from a larger collection. The way many old folio collections of patterns were laid out, you could mix and match small vignettes from different designs and work them into other, larger designs. This provided a huge variety of possible embroidery designs, published in a smaller space.
Anyway, I thought the design was appropriate, since it’s Ash Wednesday. Maybe you can find some use for it!
I don’t know why that is. But alas, it is! And so, armed with a list of DMC thread numbers that correspond with the Gütermann threads Trish uses in her projects, I went on a little hunt to try to match up thread colors and put together a workable list of Gütermann thread numbers for US stitchers working on Trish’s projects.
My search took me not too far afield – I just needed a store that stocked all of Gütermann’s Sew-All polyester threads and the full line of DMC.
Oh, I suppose I could have taken the DMC colors with me, or purchased them elsewhere and then found the Gütermann’s, but I figured it would be easier to have all the threads under one roof. And I found them, at JoAnn Fabrics. Indeed, I am told that they have the full line of Gütermann Sew-All thread colors that are available in the States.
Here are some hints on color matching and the results of my search.
Here in the northern hemisphere, it’s definitely time for a little touch of spring!
And this hand embroidered, vintage handkerchief I want to show you today is Just the Thing to inspire spring-like thoughts. It’s a lovely specimen, with its little cluster of sweet violas, meticulously embroidered in an interesting technique that you don’t often see on hankies.
Monograms with satin stitch? Sure. You see them on handkerchiefs all the time. Pretty flowers in long & short stitch? Yep, those show up quite a bit, too.
But this approach? This approach on a very fine linen handkerchief – you don’t see so much.
I think it’s so pretty – and I hope you will, too!
It’s promising to be a bright, sunny morning here in Kansas – a perfect morning for sipping a cup of tea with the window barely cracked (it’s chilly!), just so I can hear the birds. There are lots of birds out and about this morning!
So, join me with a cup of something, and let’s meander through some needlework and embroidery newsy bits and pieces, shall we?
The other day, I reviewed Trish Burr’s new book Miniature Needle Painting Embroidery, which will be available in the US next month, and today, courtesy of Trish Burr, I’m giving away a copy of it! How exciting!
So, even if the book isn’t available yet, it will be soon – and in the meantime, you might end up with your own advanced copy.
And speaking of which…there’s a thread question that came up regarding the book, so let’s chat about that, too.
A couple weeks ago, I introduced you to my embroidery carrot.
You do have embroidery carrots, don’t you? For me, my carrot is always a project I want to work on, but it’s purely for my own pleasure, my own learning experience, just for relaxation and fun. I don’t have to think about the project. Someone else has done all the thinking for me!
For example, this little miniature Cluny tapestry was an embroidery carrot for me. It was just a fun little counted petit point piece, worked on silk gauze. I used it as my “15 Minute” project and as a carrot. When I finished something I had to do, when I got a good day’s work done, or whatever – I’d spend fifteen minutes or more relaxing and stitching on it.
A carrot is a reward. If I was good, I’d reward myself with stitching time on it. And eventually, it was finished!
Late Harvest is a rather large piece (especially if you compare it to that miniature Cluny tapestry!), and so it requires a good-sized embroidery frame.
My stand-by embroidery frames that I will always love are Evertite stretcher bar frames. You can read all about Evertite stretcher bar frames here – what they are, how they work, and what makes them special.
Valentine’s Day is coming up. It’s that time of year when people pay special attention to their True Loves.
Ah, me! *Sigh*
Don’t worry, I’m most certainly not going mushy on you.
But I am going to get a bit gooey over some goldwork.
Goldwork! Now there’s something to sigh over. Doesn’t it just make you weak in the knees?
Ok, seriously, several years ago, I shared this embroidery pattern for a heart filled with flowers, and Barbara McNabb, a reader down in New Zealand, embroidered a lovely version of it. Her guild – a group of about 35 at the time – was doing a display with a theme of hearts, and the pattern was shared in their newsletter for inspiration.
If you’re a fan of needle painting, you are most likely familiar with Trish Burr’s exquisite embroidery, where she uses needle and thread to “paint” embroidered vignettes – primarily, flowers and birds.
Trish has a substantial list of published books available for the embroiderer, books that are a combination of instruction and projects. If you’ve ever wanted to learn needle painting, her books are a great place to start!
Well, this year, Trish is adding yet another book to her published repertoire: Miniature Needle Painting Embroidery. This particular book is devoted to the embroidery of small needle painted projects, including vintage portraits, flowers, and birds.
I hope I’m not going to shock you, but after finishing all the embroidery (even the last couple bits I mentioned the last time we visited the project), I tossed the runner in the washing machine.
Yes, red embroidery, white linen, and the washing machine. Oh, and a bit of detergent.
I didn’t really pause to wonder if it was a bad idea.
Today, due to a little glitch in scheduling, I’m announcing winners for two embroidery-related give-aways – Hazel Blomkamp’s Crewel Intentions and a spot in Tanja Berlin’s online class for blackwork, with a kit and all the necessities to take the class.
Some happy news – I’m going to choose two winners for Crewel Intentions, thanks to Barbara, a reader who had two new copies of the book and only needs one. She generously sent it along, so that I could pass it on to another stitcher. So I’ll be randomly drawing two names for that book. Thanks, Barbara!
Today, I’m going to show you a different version of a scalloped edging. It also uses buttonhole stitch, but instead of the larger beads we used last week, worked over slightly looser scallops, this tutorial will show you version 2 of a beaded and scalloped buttonhole edging, using tiny seed beads.
Better yet, she’s offering one of you the chance to take her online blackwork class for free, along with the materials kit, stretcher bar frame, and tacks – everything you need to work the class project.
Today, I’m going to share a free hand embroidery pattern with you while waxing philosophical (actually, just babbling and pondering) about the names we give to visual works of art.
This is a little drawing I’ve been playing with for a while, with the intention of using it as a hand embroidery design.
The design was inspired by a floral repeat on a piece of antique fabric of a somewhat Jacobean flavor. I fiddled with it, sketched it, colored it, fudged it up, and then finally set it aside, thinking, “Some day, some day.”
And hopefully, some day, it will come about that I can work it into an embroidery piece. But in the mean time, I thought I’d share it with you!
If you’re doing any weekend embroidery, you might want to indulge in some Stitch Fun while you’re at it!
Today’s tutorial for a scalloped, beaded buttonhole edging (version 1) came about because a reader requested a tutorial. She was following directions on a kit, and the directions stated:
Work a loose buttonhole in the backstitches with beads for scallops.
There were no further instructions and no diagrams, so she was a little stumped. Looking at the photo she sent of the finished piece that came with the kit, today’s tutorial for beaded buttonhole edging is what I gather the designer meant.
This is a very simple scalloped beaded buttonhole edging. It can be used to add a little sparkle and zing to decorated edges on finished embroidery projects like needle books, pin cushions, ornaments, and the like.
And since I already have a copy of Crewel Intentions, this one is perfect for giving away to you, right? Well, wrong! I actually ended up doing something else with it… so instead, I’m giving away yet another copy. Still, the long and short of it is this:
Today, I’m giving away a copy of Crewel Intentions to some lucky stitcher out there!
When I make mistakes with needlework or embroidery projects – you know, the kind of mistakes I should have known better and avoided? – I call them Misadventures.
They’re often the result of exploring or experimenting with some technique, some process that has to do with embroidery (because I live, eat, breathe and drink embroidery and it’s the only thing I ever do in my life. Oh wait. No, I do other things, and I have Misadventures in those pursuits, too).
As I explore and experiment, it’s not unusual for something to go amuck.
Maybe this doesn’t ever happen to you. Perhaps you are the one of those amazing people that I look at, with Eyes Wide in Wonder, thinking, She always gets it right. When I grow up, I want to be like her!
Today, we’re going to take a close-up look at one of Hazel Blomkamp’s embroidery kits from her latest book, Crewel Intentions, which I reviewed last year.
The book, if you remember from reading the review, is full of magnificent embroidery projects that incorporate all kinds of stitching techniques, thread types, beads, and other embellishments into modern interpretations of somewhat Jacobean-esque embroidery designs. It’s a fantastic book, full of fun, challenging embroidery projects!
Hazel sells kits for the projects in her books through her website, Hazel Blomkamp Fine Needlework. I’ve always wanted to buy one of her kits, to review it for you and experience working through one of her projects, but I’ve put it off and off again, due to time constraints.
Well, right around this past Christmas, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a package whose contents to me were unclear? I sprang to the mailbox, my heart gave a flutter, and I opened the package and started to stutter!
It’s…it’s….it’s a kit! I cried.
(And that’s where my ability to rhyme ceases.)
And not just any kit, but Hazel kindly sent me her Late Harvest embroidery kit, replete with fabric, threads, beads, needles, and necessary notions.
It all started on a gloomy winter afternoon, not long after lunch. I was feeling restless. Deep down, I was yearning for an Adventure.
But like a good girl, I betook myself to my studio to work.
Now, I know most people wouldn’t consider embroidering while listening to good music or an audiobook work, and I don’t, really, either. But it is what I do for a living, and there are days when it seems a little less than adventurous.
With the winter sky forcing its grey light through the windows, I sat silently in the half-gloom.
An Adventure! said I to me. You need an Adventure!
Suddenly, the sun broke through the clouds. It’s rays slanted across my work table. With an angel choir swelling into sweet song in the distance, the light glinted on the needles protruding from my Ubiquitous Red Tomato pincushion.
Hand embroidery is a relatively inexpensive and easy craft to take up, because, unlike most other hobbies, the basic tools required for embroidery are simple, few, and affordable.
While the woodworker needs saws and carving tools, the weaver needs a loom, the cake decorator needs bags and tips, the sculptor needs chisels and hammers, the potter needs a wheel, the painter needs a variety of brushes, and the magician needs props … what does the embroiderer really need, as far as tools go?
You can embroider without scissors. You can embroider without a hoop.
But one thing you can’t embroider without is a needle.
The needle is the Most Important Embroidery Tool for the stitcher. It is the one tool a stitcher cannot do without.
Because needles are essential to embroidery, if you’re interested in embroidery, the subject of needles is worth exploring.
Many questions arose about the cloth itself, about the embroidery on the cloth, and about where to find piña cloth. The most frequently asked question, though, was what does the fabric feel like?
The latter is a very difficult question to answer via the internet! Today, we’ll look at old examples of piña cloth and a new sample, and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.
Howdy ho, friends! I’m in a jolly mood this morning, because I get to share with you The Big Milestone in an embroidery project that’s been going on since October of 2012.
In my excitement to share this milestone with you, I betook myself and the Hungarian Redwork Runner outside in the post-dawn blue light of a chilly, early morning, laid out some towels on the driveway, and put the runner down so I could get a bird’s eye photo.
Incidentally, while I was going back and forth to my workroom, that’s the one thing I was a little wary of – the birds. I wasn’t so worried about dirt – the wind was still, there was no Kansas dust swirling about – but, since it was early morning, the birds that weather the winter in Kansas were twittering about, flying overhead. Dirt would be nothing, compared to the damage a bird can do!
But they were kind, those birds, and though probably a little appalled that someone was messing around in their backyard at that hour, they stayed away.
And here you have the redwork runner, with the embroidery finished:
One of my embroidery goals this year is to face a challenge – to embroider something that I think will be particularly challenging.
And when it comes to embroidery, I can’t think of any type that is more challenging (at least in my mind) than figure embroidery.
Figure embroidery is embroidery that involves human figures. Depending on your approach, the figures can be realistic or they can be stylized or symbolic.
Although figure embroidery is not limited to just ecclesiastical embroidery, it has played a significant role in ecclesiastical embroidery for a thousand years. To me, pulling off a decent piece of ecclesiastical figure embroidery is a definite challenge, and it’s something I’ve wanted to explore in-depth for a long time.
I’ve decided that this is the year I’m going to explore figure embroidery. This doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to succeed, it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to finish in 2015 – but I am going to explore it, test ideas, and work a project.
Two things you might not know about me: I have a Thing for the color red (ok, if you look at Needle ‘n Thread, you might gather that), and I have a deep-seated affection for Sunbonnet Sue.
Sunbonnet Sue is iconic. When she’s done right, she’s just adorable. Admittedly, there are some Sues I like better than others. The vintage, homey, sweet Sunbonnet Sue – well, she just pulls my little heartstrings.
And so, there I was, a few weeks ago, meandering through new embroidery books out on the market, when my eyes were arrested by a whole redwork collection devoted to the sweet, vintage, homey Sue that I love!
Be still, my heart! Oh, I must have you! said I.
And the rest, as they say in Kansas (and many other places as well), was history.
The book was everything I hoped it would be. Here’s my review of Sunbonnet Sue Redwork Collection for All Seasons by Loyce Saxton of Yesterday’s Charm.
Happy Monday! Let’s start the week with a splash of color, shall we?
I’m still plugging away on the Secret Garden Embroidery Project. Now, it’s just the long haul with the feathers left, and some little accents here and there.
Do you ever feel as if you’re the only person in your personal world who is interested in embroidery and the needle arts?
Before Needle ‘n Thread, I used to feel like the odd guy out. I live in a small rural town in Kansas, and there aren’t a lot of social options for stitchers out here. I don’t know anyone close by who is as freaky-weirdly-interested in embroidery as I am. And traveling a long distance to participate in guild meetings is not possible for me.
If you’re in a similar situation, it can be kind of lonely, can’t it?
There are online groups, though, that can help you overcome the isolation of the lonely stitcher, and today, I want to tell you about three of them.
The other day, we had a little guessing game about this delicately embroidered piece of cloth. I showed you some close-up photos and asked if you could guess what the cloth was made of, and many of you did.
Still, the answer is hard to believe! The following pieces, embroidered in the Philippines probably before World War II, are made from piña cloth, or cloth woven from fiber taken from the fronds of pineapple plants.
When Robert Burns consoled the Mouse, saying something about the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men (undoubtedly in a heavy Scottish brogue) often going awry, I really think he was talking about me.
I swear I’m the best layer-of-schemes in the world. But they always seem to be the kind that go awry.
Take, for example, my plan for embroidering some beautiful little monograms and mounting them on mirror compacts, for a few of my nieces for Christmas. I had plans to make matching drawstring little bags, to house the mirror compacts in. And all decked out with pretty monograms…. my, my, ’twas sooch a good idea!
I even went so far as to buy the mirrors. And once I had those in hand, you know, it was just a matter of whipping out a few pretty monograms, doing some quick finish work, monogramming the outside of the drawstring bags, constructing the bags, and having them ready for Christmas.
I bought the mirrors at the end of November.
Hmm. Perhaps it wasn’t the best best-laid scheme, after all.
I am the happy new owner of a collection of exquisitely fine, detailed embroideries that I’m going to tell you more about later on, as I finish up some research on them and clean them up.
I’ve been on a quest – thanks to the prodding of a reader in Australia who was on a similar quest – to find samples of this embroidery, and finally, I’ve got some in my grimy paws.
As you look at the photos below, can you guess what fabric this embroidery is worked on?
Corticelli, once upon a time, was The premier silk thread company. Corticelli silk was known around the world, and even now – though the company no longer exists – their threads are still well known by name.
The Corticelli silk company has an interesting history, which began in Florence, Massachusetts, in 1838, in an area where folks had been dabbling in sericulture and silk manufacturing for many years.
In 1846, one Samuel Hill took over the company, which was at that time the Nonotuck Silk Company, and under him, the company grew, especially due to his invention of a machine that produced the first successfully-made silk thread for sewing machines. The Singer company jumped on the thread, and the Nonotuck Silk Company really took off.
It was around this time, too, that the actual silk production shifted to China and Japan, because the US workforce could not affordably produce the amount of silk needed for the growth of the company. The raw silk was imported from Asia and then finished (dyed, twisted, spun, woven, etc.) in the mills in the US.
I know. It’s Monday morning. And that says it all, doesn’t it?
To help you get through the start of the week, here’s an awesome piece of inspiration – a beautiful pearl, gemstone, and goldwork embroidered icon frame, featuring an interesting and effective approach to high relief embroidery.
Several years ago, Larissa Borodich shared this pearl embroidered frame with us, surrounding an intricate cross stitch featuring an angel. Since then, she’s been exploring bead embroidery, including high relief embroidery.
For those of you who are relatively new to Needle ‘n Thread, you might not know that one of my Most Favorite Things in the Whole Wide World is… is…
…embroidery thread!!
(Are you surprised? Probably not!)
I have a hard time resisting hand embroidery threads. I don’t know if it’s the color, the feel, the fiber, the twist, or everything combined – but there’s just something lovable about the stuff, isn’t there?
Shisha embroidery – or mirror embroidery – is kind of addicting, you know?
You get started with the traditional shisha stitch, and before you know it, variation after variation presents itself – all of them lending to further adornment with more stitches – and the next thing you know, every time you turn around, you’re thinking of some other way to attach mirrors to fabric!
Today, let’s look at yet another variation of shisha embroidery. This one incorporates the cretan stitch over the foundation stitches, to create a spoked, sun-burst-like effect. It’s a fun variation, and it opens up all kinds of possibilities for adding decorative touches.
Many good points came from that conversation as you chipped in with good advice, approval, or disapproval! And a couple questions arose, too, two of which I’ll clear up today while showing you a wee bit more embroidery progress on the birds.
Just in case goldwork embroidery is somewhere on your New Year’s Resolution list, I feel Absolutely Compelled to let you know about a wonderful resource for goldwork kits and supplies.
It’s not a new resource – au contraire! – but you might not be familiar with their goldwork embroidery kits. And if you’re not, you might want to know that not only does this renowned company carry goldwork kits, but many of their goldwork kits just happen to be on sale right now.
What could be better?
But what really compelled me to announce this particular happy circumstance today is the fact that one of their kits is this magnificent goldwork crown:
It’s a wintery, shivery day here in northeast Kansas. Rumor has it, there’s snow coming. But right now, it’s just dark, misty, bleak and cold. And on mornings like this, it’s hard to believe that spring will ever come!
Off and on, I love to spend time doodling about with hand embroidery designs that eventually, I’d like to embroider!
Some of this fiddling is done in sketch books, some is done on the computer (usually after I’ve played about in a sketch book), and some is done on vellum over old embroidery patterns, photos of old pieces of embroidery (from ecclesiastical embroidery collections I’ve visited), or over real pieces of embroidery that I’ve collected.
But you know how it is. You understand this dilemma:
So many ideas, so little time.
Today’s hand embroidery pattern is one example of an excerpt from an old folio of ecclesiastical embroidery designs. I cleaned up the excerpt, made some changes to it, and ended up with a stylized blooming something-or-other.
And because I have such a gosh-awful time naming things, I’m calling this one Bloomin’ Branch: A Stylized Motif for Hand Embroidery.
When the New Year rolls around, I like to take stock of what I managed to accomplish the year before, and examine what I want to accomplish in the new year.
If you’re just joining us on Needle ‘n Thread, these are two projects that have been ongoing for a while, and back in November (or was it the end of October?) I entertained some silly nonsensical dream about getting them both finished before Christmas.
I admit that, upon reading such an innocent question, the flush of shame overspread my Normally Alabaster Complexion.
Snort, snort! I don’t have an alabaster complexion!
Probably I didn’t feel a lot of shame, either. But I did laugh. Sort of a surprised belly laugh – almost a guffaw – that would convey this thought to anyone hearing it: Organize my needles? Oh golly. If they only knew….
I would love to tell you about my organized needle book! The one with the beautifully embroidered cover, the one divided into different sections, each devoted to a specific needle type, with each soft, woolly page full of perfectly ordered lines of needles, arranged by size, from small to large.
But instead, I’ll stick to reality and show you this:
I hope you had a delightful holiday, a Merry Christmas, and are looking forward with vigor and optimism to whatever 2015 will bring. I had a nice little break these last three days – though admittedly, I was feeling a little lost without your company!
Once the New Year kicks in (in just a couple days), a funny thing happens to me.
And it’s funny because it happens every year, no matter what I do to forestall it. Deep down somewhere in my subconscious, I seem to illogically believe that once we hit January 2nd, spring is just around the corner.
And by just around the corner, I mean next week.
As many of you know, when you live in the northern hemisphere, this can be a dangerous mental predicament.
Usually, January is just the beginning of the winter haul. During November and December, we were so busy concentrating on holidays and reveling in everything we love about winter, that we didn’t think of winter as a drag.
But come January, the grey days, the cold, the on-going inconvenience of snow, the yearning for sunshine, warmth, green… well, if you don’t do something to combat this, the winter can seem very long, indeed!
Here’s a handy index for all the articles relating to the hand embroidered Christmas ornament series that finished this week.
The index will be listed under Tips & Techniques in the main menu on Needle ‘n Thread, under Hand Embroidery Lessons & Step-by-Step Projects, where you can find a list of most of the embroidery projects and lessons we’ve gone through together over the years.
Even though time was ticking quickly towards Christmas, I proposed that we still had plenty of time to embroider an ornament – a fun ornament! – and have it hanging on the tree or wrapped as a gift before Christmas.
Today, I’ll show you how I finished embroidering the front and the back of my ornament, and tomorrow, I’ll show you how to finish the ornament – a simple but effective finish, that takes about ten minutes. I promise! Only ten minutes!
Don’t forget you can click on any of the photos in the article to view them larger.
Yes, I know I should have done this two weeks ago! But there are a lot of things I’m doing right now, that I’m sure I should have done two weeks ago!
Every year, I’m accosted with the what-do-you-want-for-Christmas question, and I’m pretty sure there are plenty of stitchers out there who are also asked the same thing.
As time ticks away and Christmas looms closer, you still have a chance to lay out some heavy hints. If you have family and friends who might be baffled about what to get you for Christmas, forward this list!
You can even act like you did it accidentally.
And if you’re like me and you have to finagle (or even buy!) your own Christmas presents, maybe you’ll find something on the list you didn’t even know you wanted. Get it! Wrap it! Sneak it under the tree!
Then thank your husband, your wife, your brother, your sister, your parents – doesn’t matter who! – profusely for it.
Today, we’ll look at Part 2, which is essentially finishing the front of the ornament (even though, when I took the photos, I hadn’t finished the front of the ornament yet!). No excuse except (cue up the music): “It’s that time of year…”
(Is anyone else trying to figure out how we arrived at 8 days before Christmas, without warning?)
But see, that’s the nice thing about this project. It’s relaxing. It’s fun. It’s easy. And it should produce a nice finished ornament to either give as a gift or add to your own tree. Above all, this should be a no-stress project. And that’s exactly how I’m approaching it.
It’s just been released – Judy O’Dell’s Just-a-Thought needlework stand! And it’s lovely, and I’m excited about it, and I want to tell you all about it!
Update 2023: Judy has retired and this stand is no longer available.
I was very fortunate to receive a stand for review, after reviewing the prototype and giving feedback on it earlier this year. Even though I did receive the stand from Judy (thank you, Judy!), the review below is objective. I don’t get any kickback or anything if you buy a stand or if you don’t.
You’ll hear pros and cons, along with my own thought processes while unpacking the stand, putting it together and using it.
I’ll also compare the stand to other stands that I own, so that you have a good idea of what the Just a Thought Needlework Stand is and what it isn’t.
And all this, just in time for Christmas! If you have a needlework stand on your Christmas wish list, this one may fulfill all your Christmas dreams!
I love the word “ruched.” And I especially love it when it’s used in context with ribbon. Ruched ribbon – the two words just sound right together!
What does ruched mean? It means gathered, frilled, or pleated.
Ruched silk ribbon looks pretty neat, and it’s a great way to add some dimension and texture to the surface of an embroidery project.
On this Christmas ornament I’m currently working on, I added a little ring of ruched silk ribbon in pink. If it were done in green – perhaps speckled with tiny red seed beads – it would make an absolutely adorable Christmas wreath!
So, here are the instructions on how to create a ruched silk ribbon wreath or ring. You can adapt the approach to lines, squiggles, waves, whatever!
Let’s take a break from the holiday hustle, shall we?
Grab a nice cup of something, and let’s explore some embroidery-related bits that have caught my eye in the past week or so. Some are informational, some are inspirational, but I hope all are enjoyable!
Have you ever used DMC Memory Thread? Have you wondered what it is and how to use it? Or, especially, how to hide the ends of a thread like that on a surface embroidery project?
The other day when we looked at this Fiesta Fob embroidery project, questions poured in, wondering what the thread was, how to use Memory Thread, and especially wondering how I took care of the ends of the thread.
Today, we’ll talk about Memory Thread, what it is (and what it’s not), how to use it, and especially how to take care of those ends.
With Christmas a mere two weeks away, you might be thinking it’s a little late to start embroidering an ornament.
And normally, I’d be the first one to agree with you, especially if Said Ornament was a fancy-schmancy one, embroidered with hard-to-find threads and supplies.
But would I do that to you, right before Christmas? No, no, no! This is a fun and quick project, something to relax and enjoy, while making something special.
In this 2014 Christmas Sampler Ornament series, we’ll discover how to embroider a Christmas ornament with whatever we have in our stash, and how to put the ornament together and have it hanging on the tree (or wrapped in a box for gift-giving) well before Christmas arrives!
Today, in Part 1, we’ll talk about materials, setting up the project, and working the first stitches. Then, in subsequent articles, we’ll concentrate on more embroidery ideas and finishing.
Before we launch into a “made from stash” Christmas ornament project (which we’ll start tomorrow), let’s look at a quick, easy, and precise way of transferring a simple embroidery design to fabric.
The key words here are precise and simple. This method – which is really a cheater version of prick and pounce – only works quickly if your design is quite simple.
So, simple shapes, simple lines, designs where you just need basic guidelines – that’s where this method of embroidery design transfer will come in handy because it’s quick and precise.
It’s been a while since I’ve featured some embroidery from you, so today, let’s look at someone else’s embroidery project!
Sarah Aldrich recently finished this fantastic crazy quilt square, made from a combination of red fabrics, with embroidery done entirely in white. The result is striking!
Let’s have a look – and let’s see what good lessons Sarah’s red crazy quilt square can teach us.
(You can click on the photos below for larger versions…)
If you’re looking for something Christmassy to embroider, something relatively simple that will work up quickly and look great, you might like this Christmas tree embroidery pattern.
Inspired by a soutache embroidery design from a late 1800’s publication, this particular pattern is especially suitable for tambour embroidery or for couching. If you start from the tip of the tree and follow one line as it twists and turns, you’ll eventually end up back at the tip of tree!
Once you have the tree part embroidered, you can add ornaments to it, too, which doubles the fun!
Below, you’ll find the free Christmas tree embroidery pattern in PDF format, as well as some suggestions for stitching.
If you’re launching into any embroidery projects this weekend, you might consider incorporating the chain stitch – or some variation thereof – into your current project.
Why? Lots of reasons! The basic chain stitch is easy, it’s versatile, it’s attractive, it works up quickly – and it has oh-so-many variations to it that you could never get bored with it!
There are times when I try to be an organized stitcher. I actually make an effort to keep everything in its place while I’m working.
There’s a reason for this, and it’s very simple: organization saves time. I can work much more efficiently, in a much better frame of mind, if my workspace is neat and if I know where things are.
But just as there are times when I purposely work to keep myself organized while an embroidery project is underway, there are also times when I don’t.
There. I said it. The first step on the road to recovery is admitting there’s a problem. So I’ve admitted it.
But this raises a question: is this an addiction I really want to recover from? Not really. It’s not as if it’s harmful, after all.
But the truth is, I sometimes do the Silas Marner thing. You know him, don’t you? He was a miser. And he liked to count his gold.
And sometimes, I like to count my threads. I like to take stock of the threads I have, especially if I’m starting another project, and especially if the threads I plan to use are metal threads.
And when I take stock of my embroidery threads, sometimes, the most delightful thing happens!
If I could categorize embroidery books into types, I’d probably divide them up like this:
Embroidery techniques, embroidery projects, embroidery history (and culture), old embroidery books, embroidery patterns…
I’m sure if we all put our heads together, we could come up with a few more general categories that hand embroidery books usually fall into, but off the top of my head, those are the divisions that come to mind when sorting books.
And I was sorting books the other day, when I came upon an oldy but goody. It fits into pretty much all the categories listed above, in one way or another.
The book is Scandinavian Embroidery by Edith Nielsen, published in 1978.
For those who read Needle ‘n Thread via email, I apologize for the broken links that came in the newsletter on Saturday. If you go to Needlework News Snips here on Needle ‘n Thread, all the links work fine, but on Saturday, I messed something up in the email format and managed to break most of them.
Yes, after 8.5 years of blogging, I’m still making mistakes…
Anyway, in Saturday’s article, I mentioned that I’m writing for Craftsy now and then. Because I would never want another website to come between me and thee, I contracted for only one article once a month, but somehow, I bit off a three-article series for December, due tomorrow.
The series is on adding dimension and texture to hand embroidery. The series focuses on threads, other materials, and a small project. This is the small project:
This morning, it’s a cup of cocoa while browsing through some needlework news snips for this last Saturday of November!
Please don’t remind me it’s already the last Saturday of November!
Did you hit the stores and shop this weekend? I didn’t venture out for “Black Friday” (I’m not a huge fan of the whole atmosphere that surrounds the day after Thanksgiving here in the US). But I do like to take advantage of some of the sales this time of year, especially on needlework things that have been on my List for a while, or items or services that I wanted to review here on Needle ‘n Thread.
So, below, I’ve included some browsing links, and also some good sale links for today. All of them are of things I’ve actually purchased myself. Some include affiliate links, which means I get a small kickback, which helps support Needle ‘n Thread.
Lorna Bateman is a well-known embroidery designer and teacher from the UK.
I’ve been familiar with Lorna’s work for years – her embroidery projects have often been featured in Inspirations magazine – and I’ve always admired her classic, sometimes whimsical, always beautiful, embroidery style.
So, today, I’m delighted to review a Lorna Bateman embroidery kit and tell you what they’re like – and to give one away!
Today seems as good a day as any to share one of the embroidery patterns I’ve been playing with this year.
This particular pattern was inspired by a design from a very old folio of full-sized ecclesiastical patterns that I was able to buy from a used bookshop in Belgium.
Lately, I’ve been needled a lot about hand embroidery needles – lots of questions from beginners and beyond about this mysterious tool that we certainly can’t live without.
Today, I want to share a few points about hand embroidery needles, so that you can make a good choice when you select the needle you’ll use on your next embroidered masterpiece.
We’re always seeking the “magic solution” for easy embroidery design transfer, and, in most cases, there is no perfect solution. Eventually, we get used to the design transfer process, and we end up with our own pet methods for transferring embroidery designs to fabric.
Now matter what transfer method we use, I think we can all agree that the notion of an iron-on transfer is pretty appealing, because it’s quick and it’s easy.
With iron-on embroidery transfers, you can be stitching complex designs in a matter of minutes, without all the hassle of tracing, pouncing, tacking – whatever design transfer method you like to use – and with no specialty tools beyond a household iron. What a deal!
The problem is finding iron-on patterns for hand embroidery that you really want to stitch. Sure, you can find playful, retro, subversive, and juvenile iron-on options out there through various companies, but it’s harder to find classy, pretty designs that are not overly faddish, with a style that will withstand the test of time a bit better.
And rarely do you find iron-on transfers and good instruction in one package.
Stitch Fun is a series of hand embroidery tutorials that concentrates on stitch combinations, composite stitches, and more obscure hand embroidery stitches. The purpose of the series is exactly what the name implies: to have fun playing with embroidery stitches!
To get the most out of the Stitch Fun tutorials, it’s helpful to know the basic stitches that make up the composites. For example, today we’re going to look at the buttonholed cable chain stitch accented with bullion and French knots. Throughout today’s tutorial, I’ll link to other tutorials here on Needle ‘n Thread that cover the basic stitches you need to know.
If you know the basic stitches, putting them together to create a composite stitch is no big deal! In fact, it’s… it’s…. (wait for it!)…
It’s Fun!!
So, let’s start! Here’s today’s Stitch Fun tutorial, the buttonholed cable chain stitch with knot accents.
My plan was four hours of stitching a week. It hasn’t really happened. But I have made progress on it, and I’m pretty sure the stitching will be finished by the end of November, according to plan.
Unfortunately, every time I pick up this particular piece of embroidery, a nightmare unfolds.
La Broderie – it’s the title of a book about (you guessed it) embroidery.
I can’t tell you, “Go get this book! Add it to your needlework library!” It’s out of print. The copies that are out there are a little expensive (though you might find a bargain one here and there).
The book is written in French. If you can read French and you can get your paws on this book, you’re in for a double treat. If you can’t read French, well…you’re still in for a treat!
La Broderie: Histoire & Technique de la broderie libre, (Embroidery: the history & technique of free embroidery), written with Pascal Payen-Appenzeller with the participation of DMC and the Brocard Collection, is one of those book that you might come across one serendipitous day at a used book shop or library sale – and if you do, you’ll know to snatch it up!
And besides, since it’s Monday morning, I figured we might as well start the week with something to salivate over.
The Art Nouveau era was a relatively short, transitional period of art, with roots in the Arts & Crafts movement of the 19th century, and branches that stretched into the Modern era.
The style was represented in just about every type of decorative art during the height of its popularity, between 1890-1910.
Embroidery in the Art Nouveau style often featured botanical images, embroidered in wool.
The fun thing about free style surface embroidery is that you can add texture and dimension here and there, just by changing up the stitches a bit.
Flowers, for example, don’t have to be embroidered just in daisy stitch. Lines and borders sometimes need a bit more oomph to them than backstitch or stem stitch can supply.
Leaves in a flat satin stitch or fishbone stitch certainly have their place and are beautiful, but what if you want a leaf that actually sticks up off the surface of your embroidery project?
Here’s a collection of 16 hand embroidery stitch tutorials that can help you easily add texture and dimension to your embroidery projects.
What I mean is, you’ll find a little bit of Needle ‘n Thread in Threads this month!
Besides writing here on Needle ‘n Thread (which is where you get to witness my most prolific babble!), I’ve been writing in other places recently, too.
One of those places is Threads Magazine, a popular sewing magazine published by Taunton Press for people who love to sew.
In the current issue of Threads (January, 2015), you’ll find a feature article by yours truly, on beetle wing embroidery.
Remember last week when we looked at my first sorry attempt at embroidering the hummingbird beak? So many of you chimed in, echoing my misgivings about the outcome with the split stitched beak in dull browns.
I’m ever grateful for the feedback and the suggestions! I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again: you’re the best! What would Needle ‘n Thread be without you?
Following that first Beak Blunder, I undertook the battle for a better beak right away, and this is what I’ve come up with so far. Let’s see how you like it!
Today, we’re going to look at one of those books that’s so chockfull of good needlework wisdom, you’ll wish the book had been in your hands from the first day you started your journey with needle and thread.
More Hardanger: Tips, Tricks and Fix-its, Plus Care and Feeding by Carol Pedersen is a self-published volume of information pertinent not only to fans of Hardanger embroidery, but to all needlework enthusiasts, collectors, embroiderers, and textile lovers in general.
Sounds like a big promise, doesn’t it? That a book written specifically about Hardanger would apply across the board?
Well, let’s take a look at the book, and I’ll explain…
Several weeks ago, I reviewed this hand embroidery hoop stand – a hoop on a stick – and it prompted quite a few emails and comments from readers.
Most readers were chiming in to report great things about their sit-on hoop stands. Many readers hadn’t heard of them before, or didn’t know they could be found in the US.
And several readers wrote in with a very legitimate question, which I want to address today.
Condensed, the questions posed boiled down to this: “I would love to have a way to embroider with both hands free, but I just can’t afford to purchase a stand right now. Do you have any suggestions for a less-expensive alternative?”
You know the saying, A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush? It means that what we already have is more valuable than what we hope to get some day.
I’m thinking we could apply this to the Secret Garden Hummingbirds, now that one of them is completely finished. I learned a lot when embroidering the first bird – and I suspect the future hope of having the second bird eventually finished will not be quite as interesting a journey.
But … it will certainly be a faster journey!
So, I finished all the embroidery on the first hummingbird, including the bird’s beak, which I’m still debating about. Perhaps you can help me?
Each letter has a free PDF printable with three sizes of letters on it. And many of the articles that accompany the letters offer stitching tips and ideas, links to monogram resources, and so forth.
Without further ado, here’s The End of the Alphabet – letters Y and Z.
If you’re new to the embroidery / quilting / needlecrafting world, you might think I’m a little off my nut here. But if you’ve been in the game for a while and you’ve had contact with other people in the hand crafting and needle arts world, then you’re probably familiar with the term UFO, and you know what I mean by it.
A UFO – strangely enough – is an UnFinished Object.
This particular moniker has always irritated me a little bit. Why do we call it a UFO?
Firstly, unfinished is one word. So, if anything, it should be a UO. But I realize that sounds equally silly.
Secondly, who calls their embroidery work an object, anyway? I generally call it an embroidery project. If I don’t finish it, it’s an Unfinished Project.
Today, I’m going to go out on a limb and offer a list of the 10 hand embroidery stitches that I think every beginner (and beyond) should learn.
I get the question often: I’m just getting into hand embroidery. What stitches should I learn first?
There are hundreds and hundreds of embroidery stitches out there, so answering that question can be somewhat difficult.
After giving it some thought, I’ve narrowed my recommendations down to 10 stitches that every embroiderer should know and that the beginner can aim to learn, that will provide the stitcher with a good foundation for future growth and plenty of entertainment and versatility.
Yes, yes, yes, ladies & gents, we have a winner for last week’s give-away, which features the book Monograms: The Art of Embroidered Letters, a hard-to-find (in English, anyway), out-of-print instructional book on monogramming, by Susan O’Connor.
While we wait and hope for the book to be reprinted, I’ve been giving away some spare copies off and on. Hopefully, the book will be reprinted soon – if I hear it’s coming, I’ll definitely let you know.
We’re nearing the end of the Daisy & Rings monogram alphabet here, which is always exciting! You can collect the free PDF printables for these monograms on the Monograms index, if you’d like.
Monograms, by the way, are not only terrific for hand embroidery, but they come in handy for many other craft applications as well. Card making and other paper crafts seem to be popular choices, for example.
One reader wrote to say that she used this alphabet to make a set of note cards, combining watercolors and ribbon embroidery. She printed the letter on note cards, used watercolors to paint them, and then touched up the flowers with little bits of ribbon embroidery. On the inside of the card, she pasted heavier color-coordinated cardstock to cover the back of the embroidery. I haven’t seen photos, but I thought it was a great idea!
I’m an absolute sucker for vintage embroidered linens, especially linens embellished with whitework embroidery.
I don’t collect a lot of them, but what I do have, gets used. A lot.
I figure if you collect something just for the sake of having it, but not for the sake of using and enjoying it, what good is that?
After all, those gorgeous vintage linens that were meticulously hand embroidered by someone, somewhere, at some point in time – well, they were made to be used! They weren’t made to be stored in a drawer or a box forever, to eventually make their way into an attic or… woe is me… a garage sale or a thrift store.
But they often go that route, don’t they?
I think if they were used more – instead of stored away for safe keeping – they would be better appreciated by all who saw them, and they would be treasured by family and friends. They wouldn’t end up cast away at a thrift store.
But I also think many people don’t use vintage pieces and end up getting rid of them simply because they don’t know how to use them and how to take care of them.
Earlier in the year, I reviewed Susan O’Connor’s delectable book on hand embroidering monograms.
It’s called Monograms: The Art of Embroidered Letters (that’s a link to the review, if you want to see the details), and it’s a must-have if you love hand embroidered monograms.
Well, I tried several different approaches and several different stitches on the tail feathers for the Secret Garden Hummingbirds, each resulting in a little more un-stitching.
Today, in part 3 of this mini-series on silk chenille embroidery thread, we’ll discuss some tips for stitching with silk chenille and look at some other types of stitching it can be used for.
I think we’ve all experienced it: that overwhelming frustration when, in the middle of an embroidery project, nothing is going right with the thread.
It’s tangling. It’s fraying at the eye. It’s fuzzing up. It’s shredding as you stitch. SHREDDING!!
Aaaaaaaaaaaack! You’ve had it up your eyeballs with the fibery little beast.
You might be tempted to say, “I can’t do this. I’m not good enough. It must be me.”
No no no. Pause a moment, and I’ll tell you something you might not know:
Generally speaking, with embroidery thread that’s causing Severe Frustration, the problem is not you or your stitching. The problem is the thread. Some threads are simply not made for hand embroidery. They might be made for needlepoint. They might be made for cross stitch. They might be made for knitting and repurposed (by resizing and repackaging) into an embroidery thread.
But they weren’t made with the intention of passing them repeatedly through a piece of closely woven ground fabric.
*Sigh* What to do?… What to do?
Well, you could ditch the thread and look for a substitute that will hold up to the rigors of hand embroidery. Or you could lessen the problems by changing something else in your approach.
About the same time that Yvette’s book came out, another book on the same embroidery technique also appeared, called Sardinian Knot Stitch, interpreted by Gioja Ralui.
I love the story of how this book came about! It’s so human, and a lovely tale.
It’s the story of five friends with a passion for Italian needlework who met through an online embroidery group, exchanging tips and ideas. They eventually met up in Italy, and the bonds of true friendship were solidly confirmed.
Sardinian Knot Stitch is a fantastic little book written collaboratively by these five embroiderers – “Gioja Ralui” is a pseudonym constructed from their names. They don’t claim to be professional embroiderers, just friends who love Italian needlework. They collaborated on the book and the projects in it over four years, finally bringing the fruits of their labor to print this past summer.
How to do the stem stitch is not really the question we’re going to address here today – although it’s part of the question.
Beyond the “how-to” of the stem stitch, let’s explore a question that comes up often here on Needle ‘n Thread and that seems to be trending right now:
How can I make my stem stitch look better?
Since the stem stitch is so universally used in hand embroidery, and since it’s a beautiful, easy, versatile stitch worth learning well, let’s chat it up a bit with this list of 12 articles that will help you stitch a better stem stitch.
We’re getting close to the end of this monogram alphabet!
Are you as glad about that as I am? I love finishing up a set of patterns. It makes me feel so… accomplished!
Now, if I could embroider all of them, that would really be an accomplishment. But to accomplish that, I’d have to grow about 12 more arms.
Pretty sure that’s out of the question.
I hope that, if you like monograms, you’ve found some use for these. If you’ve used them in your embroidery (or any other arts and crafts), I’d love to see photos!
Here’s the U and the V of the Daisy & Rings alphabet. At the end of the article, you’ll find the handy PDF printables for both letters.
Now, settle yourself in with a nice cup of coffee, and let’s explore some needlework snips together! Some good reading, some inspiration, some stitching ideas…
In hand embroidery, a doodle cloth is usually an extra piece of fabric that you keep on hand, to practice embroidery stitches on before you apply those stitches to an embroidery project.
If you embroider, and especially if you’re a beginner (but even the experts do it!), a doodle cloth is a good idea!
Let’s look at five reasons you should use and keep a doodle cloth with your embroidery projects.
Ahhhh, silk! It’s such a luxurious fiber, and so perfect for hand embroidery that it’s been used for centuries and centuries to embellish fabric, and ever considered the Queen of Embroidery Threads.
There are many different types of silk threads used in hand embroidery and other needlework. After all, silk embroidery threads differ in construction, in weight, in twists, even in types of fibers in their make-up.
Today, I want to chat with you about a silk thread that is a little mysterious and obscure (it’s certainly not the most commonly used silk thread in the world, that’s for sure!).
If you’ve perused the hand embroidery projects here on Needle ‘n Thread, or even noticed the design and color scheme of the website, you might have noticed that I have a thing for the color red.
So it’s no wonder that, when Lacy Suzette sent me these photos of her recent, gorgeous embroidery project, I was over the moon with excitement. It’s adorable! It’s charming. It’s amazing!
Old hand embroidery and needlework books mesmerize me.
Vintage embroidery books appeal to me more than new embroidery books do. I love reading old needlework books – sometimes, because they crack me up, and sometimes, because they make me think.
There is such a pleasure in thumbing through old books on hand embroidery – from all the sensual appeal of the book (the feel, the smell, the tentative, brittle movement of the pages) – that can’t be had from perusing a digital copy of the same book.
Do you ever yearn to hand embroider some of those really complicated, rich, braid-like bands, but just find the stitch sequence too complicated to master quickly?
Sometimes, complicated looking embroidery stitches are not as complex as they really seem!
Today’s Stitch Fun tutorial is a good example of that.
That’s not to say this stitch isn’t slightly complicated, but once you understand the sequence, everything else about this embroidery stitch is super simple!
And the result? A nice, heavy, braided band stitch, great for outlines, heavy stems, or anywhere you want a strip of texture and dimension on your embroidery surface. It works up great as straight lines and as slightly curved lines.
I’ve included lots of photos to make the stitch tutorial as clear as possible.
Today, I’m happy to announce the winner of a copy of Hazel Blomkamp’s lovely embroidery book, Crewel Intentions, from last week’s embroidery book give-away.
And what a great way to start October, right? Thinking of Hazel’s gorgeous Jacobean-esque designs, planning some new embroidery projects…
It’s perfectly understandable if you look at these two letters and say, Huh?
The S is an old scripted S, as is the T – although the T is somewhat reminiscent of an uncial-type T. Both of these styles are often seen in old alphabets for embroidery.
At first, for modern audiences, they can be somewhat difficult to get used to.
I’m popping up here on Sunday (somewhat unusual) to pass along some embroidery news so that you can plan ahead to take advantage of it, if you’re interested.
One of their planned visits is to Muncaster Castle, on the west coast of the English Lake District. Muncaster is home to the Pennington family, who have collected over the years (over the centuries, really) an impressive array of textiles that are seldom seen by the public.
Today, a book review for a unique instructional book for an equally unique style of embroidery, called “Estense embroidery” – a style hailing from northern Italy, modern in its concept but with roots in the 14th through 16th centuries.
After several years of hard work, Elizabetta has produced an extensive manual that catalogs all the stitches and techniques she incorporates into this enchanting style of embroidery.
As autumn settles over the Northern Hemisphere foreshadowing chillier days to come, my embroiderer’s outlook generally turns to heavier fabrics, wool threads, felt, dense stitching, deeper colors…and crewel embroidery.
To celebrate the arrival of autumn, then, what could be more appropriate than a give-away of a crewel-esque sort of book?
There are embroidery tools that we treasure because they’re fun and functional! I particularly like my frog button needle minder because it’s fun, or my clip-on scissor pulls because they’re fun and functional.
There are embroidery tools that we treasure because they are rare and unusual. Think: antique etuis, or hard-to-find, unique tambour hooks.
There are embroidery tools that we treasure because they have sentimental value. I can’t count the number of stories I’ve heard over the years about lucky folks who have inherited needlework supplies from a beloved mother, aunt, grandmother…
And then there are those embroidery tools that we treasure purely because they serve a specific purpose. They aren’t necessarily attractive. They might even be a dime a dozen. But hey, they work, and who’s to scoff at that?
Today, I’d like to introduce you to my eraser. I’ve been using it for years and years.
Before I started writing Needle ‘n Thread a little over eight years ago, scissors were just utilitarian tools (primarily, for me, they still are). But over recent years, I’ve morphed into a scissor-noticer – and a buy-them-to-try-them scissor collector. (I know – it’s a tough job. But we do what we must…)
In Nogent, France, there are still scissor artists who make very fine scissors by hand, and each pair is a work of art. These scissors are exquisitely fine, wrought with intricate, decorative handles. They are, from what I’ve heard from those who own them, sharp, delicate, beautiful, and perfectly functional.
Here in the States, The French Needle carries a wide selection of these hand-made masterpieces.
Although I long to touch them and try them, I never have. They are a bit beyond my buy-them-to-try-them budget.
But that’s why I’m bringing the subject up today – I’m really excited about the fact that The French Needle is running a give-away for this pair of embroidery scissors:
It’s been a while since I’ve foraged around online for available old needlework books.
For those who are new to this concept, there are several places online where you can find excellent, old, public domain needlework and embroidery books in PDF format that you can download and save on your computer for personal use.
Many of these old books have really good instructional tips in them. Some have patterns and design ideas. Some are just good reading for their entertainment value! It just depends on what you’re looking for.
Despite the proliferation of articles here on Needle ‘n Thread about embroidery design transfer methods, the question of what to use to transfer an embroidery design is still by far my most frequently asked question.
I always know there’s something new going on out there in the embroidery world – a beginner’s class, maybe, or a popular blog post that’s been circulated – when all of a sudden, my inbox is flooded with questions that are about the same subject.
So, today, I’m going to tackle two questions. One represents the repeated questions I’ve been getting lately about Frixion pens, and the other is an isolated question – a very fairly put question about design transfer from a beginner.
Finally, I’m going to ask you to chime in at the end. If you do something different from what’s covered here, and you’ve discovered it’s a no-fail method with certain types of embroidery, tell us about it!
When I’m in one of these Un-Stitch-To-Fix situations, if I don’t force myself to face it right away, it can become a Monumental Problem – something I loathe more and more to face, so much so that I keep putting it off. And the putting off of an embroidery project in these circumstances can lead to serious consequences, like shelving a project “for Later” – and then Later never comes.
Tell me I’m not the only one who’s experienced this! In fact, I’d bet that many of UFO’s (un-finished objects) out there in the embroidery world are primarily the result of one of two situations: 1. boredom with the project, or 2. a mistake that needed fixing and couldn’t be faced.
So I figure it’s always best to face stitching hurdles as soon as possible. Once a stitching mistake is made that keeps me from going farther on the project, I correct it right away – at the first possible moment I have to address it. I usually find that these situations that require un-stitching and re-stitching are not that big of a deal, if I just get to it.
This weekend, I was rummaging through the workroom, taking photos of needlework tools and accessories that I have, but have never shown you. This was while I was supposed to be cleaning up.
I never quite got around to cleaning up.
Once upon a time, I was a bare-bones stitcher. I didn’t have tools and accessories, beyond the very basics. But one thing I noticed while writing about embroidery here on Needle ‘n Thread is that needleworkers of every ilk and every persuasion of needlework just love their accessories and tools.
So I started noticing accessories and tools. Can you guess what happened?
Now, I love discovering unique needlework-related tools and accessories – the kind that you don’t see everywhere. The kind that are hand-made. Personalized. Interesting. Little lovely things that make stitching easier or simply more pleasurable.
So today, I thought I’d show you this particularly neat little gadget that’s new to me. I’ve seen plenty of magnetic needle keepers out there – especially the kind that rest on your fabric – but I’ve never seen one quite like this! I love it!
Do you have but one pair of embroidery scissors? I know many embroiderers who do – one pair of scissors, exclusively for embroidery, that they cherish, protect, and defend with their lives.
I used to have one pair of embroidery scissors that I used exclusively for surface embroidery. For goldwork and wire, I had a pair of snippers that eventually died the death.
But that was before I started Needle ‘n Thread. I’m not sure what happened, but over the past many years, I’ve accumulated a few pair. I blame it on the blog.
Off the top of my head, I couldn’t even guess how many pairs of embroidery scissors I have right now.
But I can tell you this: embroidery scissors are not all created equal.
And for those who are just joining up here on Needle ‘n Thread (a big welcome to new subscribers!), a little background information. This particular embroidery project came about when I discovered Johanna Basford’s book, Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt & Coloring Book, which I reviewed last year as a source for embroidery inspiration.
I contacted the author and squared away permission to stitch the project and show the development of it here on my website – the only caveat is that I can’t share the design with you. If you want it, you’ll find it in Johanna’s book, along with other delightful drawings that could translate well into embroidery.
For those who aren’t that keen on the project itself (you might be thinking, I would never embroider that!), I try to incorporate little tips, ideas, all the mistakes and their fixes, into the articles as the project develops, so that everyone can learn at least something from the project, whether you’re ever going to embroider it or not.
I love to get reader feedback through suggestions, comments, and questions, which can be found at the end of any article on Needle ‘n Thread. The collective needlework community here on Needle ‘n Thread is a great resource for inspiration, ideas, guidance. Since embroidery is never a matter of “only one way” to do things, it’s great to have so much input from such a knowledgeable, enthusiastic community.
If you haven’t guessed it yet, I’m a sucker for monograms.
I assert, here and now, for the world to know, that I love monograms!
But the other day, I had an interesting conversation about them with a pal. The conversation made me re-evaluate my relationship with monograms – it hasn’t decreased my love of them, mind you, but it set me thinking…
Do you ever get really stuck into your embroidery, completely engrossed in it, with the absolute certitude that you will not only reach your daily goal but surpass it, everything just ticking along exactly as you wanted it….when suddenly….
…suddenly…
…out of nowhere… the phone rings, the unexpected happens, some sort of interruption comes? They’re not necessarily bad interruptions – but they are interruptions.
This happens to me a lot. And it’s always when I’m the most settled, the most determined, the most engrossed, and the most certain that I’m actually getting somewhere.
In particular, it happened the other day when I was working on the hummingbird feathers on the Secret Garden project. And I was so sad to leave them! I was having such fun!
I’ve been saving some little needlework news snippets for a while, so today, I think I’ll share part of the list with you. Kick back and join me for a cup of coffee!
Saturday morning! The birds are frolicking, the air is cool (mid-50’s! Yes! Autumn is coming!), the windows are open, my tea is hot – in short, it is a perfect morning to sit and chat with you!
Now and then, I come across newsy needlework bits, important information, interesting blog posts, splashes of inspiration, or just some neat little embroidery-related thing that makes me think of you. “Ah, I’ll share that with my friends…” So I keep a list. And eventually, they morph into a weekend chat.
Today, though, I’m just going to concentrate on one bit of news, because I think it’s important. We’ll have a chat about the other bits, later on.
A short recap of the book: Simply Samplers is a nice beginner’s embroidery book for both cross stitch and surface embroidery. It covers all the basics and makes a great starting point for folks, young or old or anywhere in between, interested in getting into stitchery for the first time.
They weren’t the greatest hits in the world – the I is ok (it was the original), but the J (my re-draw) was another question. Someday, I’ll go back and try to re-imagine the J!
In the meantime, though, forward with the alphabet! Today, the K and the L.
Today, I’m going to review for you an absolutely luscious needlework book called Delicious Embroidery, by the mother-daughter team of Lesley Turpin-Delport and Nikki Delport-Wepener. It’s brand new on the market, and you won’t find it too widely available right now, but I’ll list some sources at the end of the article.
As the name implies, Delicious Embroidery loosely parallels a cookbook approach towards the embroidery and mixed media projects within.
It’s a fun and fascinating book, for both its instructional content and its visual content – it’s definitely one of those books that deserves Coffee-Table Status. I think even non-embroiderers would enjoy browsing through it and marveling at the contents!
Because it’s Friday…because we’ve all made it to the end of another week…because it’s Raining in Kansas (which is always happy news in August!)…today’s a perfect day for a give-away!
Whenever I come across monograms for an I or the J (or is the J or the I?) in old publications, I mourn the absence of one or the other, or at least of one distinct from the other.
In old monogram alphabets, it is very common to see only the I or the J. The reason? It’s really because they can be substituted for each other, in most of the scripted monogram alphabets. Whether you use the offered letter as an I or as a J is up to you – it can work for either.
I mean that literally. I’m winging it on the Secret Garden embroidery project right now – just testing some approaches on the wings, trying this and that, and changing my mind and starting over.
It’s not necessarily the best approach in the world, if you’re trying to be an efficient embroiderer!
Simply Samplers by Cheryl Fall is a delightful instructional book for hand embroidery and cross stitch, great for beginners!
The book is suitable for adults who are getting into embroidery for the first time, and I also found it perfect for handing off to youngsters, to give them a good foundation for stitchery with plenty of starter projects to embroider. I handed it off to my 11 year old niece for her to read, explore, and experiment, and she found it easily accessible and understandable.
So here’s my review of Simply Samplers so you can see what it’s all about, in case you are a beginner looking for somewhere to start, or in case you have a beginner in mind that you’d like to help out!
I wasn’t going to publish the list of thread colors for the birds until I had completely finished at least one bird, but here I am, succumbing to persistent requests for the DMC thread color list for the colors used so far on the hummingbirds!
Just keep in mind I haven’t finished the bird yet. These are the colors I’ve selected, though, and I have used most of them so far. There may be one or two that I don’t end up using, and there are a few neutrals not listed here that I’ll play with for the beak and perhaps for some parts of the wing.
So, at this point, I’ll note the colors I have used, the colors I haven’t used yet that I may potentially use, and leave it open for adding a few more neutral colors or “accidental” highlights as the rest of the bird develops.
Some of you asked if I would just go ahead and post the whole alphabet all at once, so that you can choose the letters you need and not have to wait for them. Good question, and the answer is simple!
We looked at those stitches very close up, and I received some questions about how I get clear close-ups like that, and some questions about the camera I use.
Since I was working on some stitch samples for another project yesterday, I have a few photos on hand that I can use to explain what I do when I take photos of stitch samples.
You should probably understand right off the bat that I am no professional photographer. If you want professional photographic advice to produce professional, gorgeous photos, you’ll want to ask someone else!
I’ve been playing with several embroidery stitches lately, to add some tutorials and stitch ideas to the Stitch Fun series here on Needle ‘n Thread.
This latest stitch I’ve been playing with is, I think, one of those under-appreciated, not-often-used stitches, but it has great potential, especially because it’s easy!
There’s nothing complicated about it at all, and yet it yields results that rival some of the more complex braid stitches.
I have a Thing for hand embroidered wedding gowns from days of old – like this gorgeous wedding dress from 1914, that I wrote about a few years ago.
The other day, I spent a delightful bit of time reading up on Elizabeth Bull’s wedding dress – a Colonial era hand-embroidered wedding dress held by the Bostonian Society.
I’ve been writing a little bit lately about (and working in the background a lot lately) on monograms for hand embroidery.
The funny thing about monograms – and maybe it isn’t funny at all – is that the monograms that we think of as monograms these days aren’t necessarily monograms at all. And perhaps I’m perpetuating the problem, by calling the letters that I share here on the website, “monograms.”
Today, people often refer to decorative initials as monograms. They aren’t. To clarify, here’s a little primer on technical terms for decorative lettering used in embroidery.
Lately, I’ve come across some little snips of needlework news that I think are worth sharing with you – just bits here and there that I thought I’d pass on.
You might find a little gem of information here that you didn’t know about – upcoming classes, a sale, supply news, another interesting video.
I really love this alphabet – but the reason I’m sharing it now has more to do with the fact that, in the “near-ish” future, we’ll be looking at monogramming a little closer, and in case you decide you like monogramming, too, I want you to have access to some easily printable monogram patterns.
Near-ish is such a relative term. Right now, with the Secret Garden still progressing, I don’t want to move off on a monogramming tangent.
I’m no exception. I am easily infatuated by scissors, but only under certain conditions.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I am not really a collector of scissors. I don’t collect embroidery scissors just to have them. If they’re just cute or pretty, that’s not quite enough for me.
This doesn’t mean I don’t have a small collection of favorite scissors. I do. They just aren’t collectibles. They’re functional tools that I use over and over and over again, and I don’t care if they are trendy, cute, beautiful.
To me, when it comes to scissors, the beauty is in the functionality and workmanship that makes them a Good Pair of Scissors.
After writing about this satin fabric the other day, using it as a ground for hand embroidery and mounting it on an embroidery frame, the inbox played host to many curious visitors who were excited to see a new project developing here on the website, with the champagne-colored satin as the ground fabric.
What’s it for?
I can’t wait to see this new project!
I love that fabric! Can’t wait to see the new project!
Are you using this for the silk version of the Secret Garden?
Where can I get that fabric? I want to stitch along with your next project!
Well, I would be excited, too, if that were the case, but … it isn’t.
To satisfy the curious out there, I’ll show you what happened with the satin fabric.
I’m afraid some of you might have to brace yourselves for a let-down, for which I apologize in advance!
At this point, I haven’t put any idea to the test yet, though. But I have worked the hummingbird’s neck, and it might terrify some of you, especially if you’re opposed to the brighter blues.
It features a bit of texture, and I’ll just admit it now… I like it!
There are all types of “satin” fabrics out there, and many of them are well-suited to hand embroidery.
Satin, just to make it clear from the start, is a weave. It doesn’t refer to the fiber make-up of the fabric, but to the weave of the fabric. Satin fabric (unless it’s double-faced) is normally dull on one side of the fabric and shiny on the other.
Good satin made with natural fibers will often have a nice body to it – it’s not slick, limp and slippery. Rather, it’s a little stiffish, but “buttery” in a way. Smooth, easy to cut, substantial – it just feels good.
Silk satin, cotton satin (or sateen), and some natural fiber blends (silk / cotton and silk / wool) in satin weave are all suitable for hand embroidery, and all of them have one thing in common that you might want to be aware of before you start working with them:
They roll and shed.
The cut edges of most satin fabrics tend to roll up, making it a little more difficult and fiddly to mount satin fabric on an embroidery frame. They also tend to shed wispy bits of thread that can catch in your embroidery.
Today, I’m going to show you a quick cheat for working with fabrics that have a tendency to roll and shed on the edges.
I’m still feeling my way along here, so eventually, I’m sure we’ll run into a few areas that need to be un-embroidered (as in, ripped out!) and re-thought, but for right now, I’m pretty happy with how the little bird body is turning out.
I almost called it a vacation, but if you understood how we do road trips, you would not want me to cast aspersions on the word Vacation.
Vacation conjures up lingering, enjoying, relaxing.
Our family road trips are None of the Above. They are go, go, go – get there – do what you have to do – leave – drive, drive, drive, drive, drive. Get to the next place – do what you have to do – drive, drive, drive, drive, drive – get to the next place. Stop and sleep. Get up early. Go, go, go, go. Drive, drive, drive, drive. Repeat anywhere from five to ten times. Arrive home.
So, vacation is the wrong word – road trip suffices.
Many of you responded – many more than I expected, actually! And so I’ve been trickling them out on the website ever since, in the hopes that they provide fellow stitchers with embroidery ideas and inspiration.
But, as is usually the case with this work-it-out-as-you-go process of completing an embroidery project, there’s been a little un-stitching along the way, too.
So, today, I’ll show you where I am and discuss the circuitous route that got me here.
Normally, I procrastinate until Mondays, when I begin things. It’s a bad habit – “I’ll start that on Monday….” – but for some reason, Mondays seem like good days to start things. It’s like the beginning of a new year, in miniature form. And since it happens 52 times a year (give or take), that’s a lot of opportunities for new beginnings!
But, today, we end. We end the Delicate Spray monogram alphabet with the last four letters: W, X, Y, and Z.
Wow – this alphabet went fast! We’re only four letters from The End!
The previous monograms I added to the free embroidery patterns here on Needle ‘n Thread took months and months – and sometimes, over a year! – to make the whole alphabet available. This time, I decided larger groups of letters over a shorter period of time would be more helpful for folks looking for pretty monogram alphabets for hand embroidery.
And happily, these 26 letters have gotten to you rather quickly! So, here’s the second to the last set of letters – the S, T, U, and V.
For whitework embroidery lovers everywhere, Yvette Stanton has recently published a new and unique whitework book: Sardinian Knotted Embroidery: Whitework from Teulada.
If you are familiar with Yvette’s last whitework book, Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães, you’ll recognize the approach: she introduces us to the history and culture surrounding a more obscure form of whitework embroidery, carefully educating the reader on the technique while offering a beautiful selection of manageable projects to embroider.
It’s a successful formula that brings to light exquisite forms of whitework embroidery that we might otherwise never know anything about if it weren’t for Yvette’s careful research and instruction.
Once upon a time, just over three years ago, a friend and once-fellow-teacher called me.
She: “Can you teach me how to do gold church embroidery?”
Me: “Yes, I can.”
And so we started by covering the very basics of goldwork embroidery. Nothing paid or formal. Just a casual arrangement to meet once a week when she had an hour or two to spare.
Once she understood what threads do what, she decided the best way for her to start would be to actually start, to begin with a real project that could be used upon completion.
After several months of her working on the project quite slowly, the inevitable happened: life got busy, she had to prioritize, and the goldwork was side-lined.
I sent my slate frame and my floor stand home with her, so she could work on it when she had time.
A good two and a half years went by, and although we occasionally touched base, the embroidery was still languishing, neglected, not going anywhere.
Imagine yourself going all-out on an embroidery project, focusing all your concentration on that particular piece of needlework, getting into it, moving along on it, always having it there and ready for you when you have time to stitch…and then you run into the Brick Wall of Indecision.
Or at least, you find yourself second-guessing a previous decision and coming to a complete halt while you ponder your options.
Ever happen?
Well, it happens to me, probably at least once on every large project I work! The Hummingbird Color Kerfuffle we talked about yesterday – and to which you responded mightily with many excellent suggestions! – is exactly this kind of situation.
I always find pauses in a project like this a good opportunity to take stock of my workroom, re-organize, and clean up a bit. Doing so gives me time to think. And when I’ve finished tinkering and organizing, I’ve usually finished thinking as well.
Not only do I have a fresh perspective for my embroidery, but I end up with a moderately well-organized workspace where I can launch back into my project with an easier mind and a better sense of order about me.
Last week, I finished the flowers on the Secret Garden embroidery project – finally!
Two feelings welled up inside me upon completion of the flowers: 1. that sense of elation you feel when you’ve finally plowed through to a seemingly elusive goal; 2. that sense of trepidation at what comes next!
Last week, I reviewed Di van Niekerk’s new silk ribbon embroidery book, Little Flowers in Silk & Organza Ribbon. It’s a gorgeous book, accessible to beginners and beyond, with beautiful ribbon embroidery projects within!
After seeing (and sharing with you) Jacqueline’s lovely little embroidered E, I find myself more in love than ever with this particular monogram alphabet!
I’m looking forward to taking some time to work some of the letters in the near(ish) future. Monogrammed items make perfect gifts, and I’d like to monogram some gifts for Christmas this year. That’s the plan, anyway.
And that’s one of the reasons I’m pummeling you with a set of three letters each week – when I do get to the point of working some of the monograms, I want you to have access to all the letters, too.
Today, the next set of three letters: the M, N, and O.
Over the past several weeks, I’ve been sharing a monogram alphabet for hand embroidery with you. I’ve dubbed it the “Delicate Spray” alphabet, and you can find the other letters in the alphabet listed on this page of free monogram patterns here on Needle ‘n Thread.
Today, I’d like to show you a reader’s interpretation of this alphabet, to give you a good idea of how you can use traditional monogramming techniques to embroider the individual letters in the Delicate Spray alphabet.
Ever since returning from a little road trip almost two weeks ago, I’ve been in a bit of a slump, and my embroidery on the Secret Garden project is suffering for it.
A Slump? you say. Yes. A Slump.
Well, it’s a strange slump – but I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s ever experienced a slump like this. It’s like facing the kitchen after a huge Thanksgiving dinner for forty people. You look at the dishes heaped hither and yon, the pots, the pans – there’s a lot to do, and unless you work out some organized process, it’s going to take a lot of time to clean up the mess! Flitting from one little dish to another, from one section of the kitchen to another, isn’t really going to help things.
Sometimes, it’s just hard to know where to start.
Sometimes, the best option is burying your head in a pillow and waiting to see if elves really do exist.
But when it comes to embroidery – or to anything creative – sometimes, the best thing to do is to step away from a project for a little bit. Sometimes, it’s just helpful to take a break and tackle other things that need to be tackled.
Oh my goodness. The words that come to mind! Lavish, Lovely, Luscious – Di van Niekerk and Marina Zherdeva’s new silk ribbon embroidery book, Little Flowers in Silk & Organza Ribbon is all of the above!
For silk ribbon embroidery enthusiasts, I’m pretty certain all of Di’s books are a must for your bookshelves. But silk ribbon embroidery – and the techniques found in this book that I’m reviewing today – goes beyond just the SRE enthusiast.
If you are a crazy quilter, if you love stumpwork and three-dimensional embroidery techniques, if you are a flower enthusiast, if you just like pretty things – this book will draw you in and teach you much!
Well, this is a surprise. I hope it isn’t too unpleasant, though. I really wasn’t planning on starting the week with more monograms patterns, but the article I was preparing just for you fell apart this morning while I was proofing.
I spent most of the weekend researching a topic that came up in an email conversation, reading up on it, finding resources and information about it. It’s one of those enthralling, obscure embroidery topics, and I was thoroughly enjoying putting together an article about it.
But when it came time to hit that publish button this morning, I just couldn’t hit the button. It needs More Work. More Research. More Information. It’s a neat subject – something related to whitework – and I’ll share it with you when I can round out the information a little bit.
And so, I found myself sitting here at the computer, later than usual on a Monday morning, scratching my head… Monograms to the rescue!
Here’s the next set of three monogram patterns for the Delicate Spray alphabet I’ve been adding to the patterns here on Needle ‘n Thread – the G, H, and I.
Have you ever embroidered something with threads that you thought were colorfast, only to have them inexplicably bleed their dye onto the ground fabric come washing or rinsing time? It can be a gut-wrenching experience!
You’ve put hours – possibly weeks or months – of work into a project and you come to the point where you want to wash it or rinse it. You do so, still confident and happy, glowing in the sunshine and satisfaction of your stitching accomplishment.
You remove the piece from the water, and
…and…
…and…
…there it is. DYE. Oozing all over the ground fabric. Blurring the lines of your beautiful embroidery. Seeping out of the threads and spreading a halo of destruction around your stitchery. Oh, woe is you!
And woe is me, too! It’s the hardest situation to advise people on, because there aren’t too many solutions that absolutely work, or that work in every situation, to clean up the mess.
Today I’m going to make a confession. I’m going to tell you something deep, dark, and secret about myself – something that many of us probably have in common, but we just don’t like to talk about it.
So, this is between you and me. Don’t spread it around. We’ll just keep it between us, ok?
When it comes to embroidery, I am an over-optimist – and my optimism gets me into trouble. I am an optimist about time; I am an optimist about workload; I am an optimist about perseverance; I am an optimist about capabilities.
And so, with my usual optimism, I often take on more than I can reasonably accomplish in a given amount of time, or I make plans that take me much longer to deliver on.
You know how it is. Once you get a bug in your head for a certain embroidery thread, you can’t really let it rest until you find it and try it.
Recently, we chatted a bit about the old whitework threads that can be found today, used, from various sources – estate sales, grandma’s attic, and so forth. Often (but not always), these threads are not really usable. They’ve been exposed to bad conditions or faulty storage for too long, and thread rot has set in.
If the threads are just dirty, it’s one thing – they can be cleaned. But if they are weakened due to rot, that’s a different question.
So, questing about for new extra fine whitework threads, I took the plunge and bought some threads from Marie Suarez in France.
Last week, I began offering a new series of monograms for hand embroidery – a delicate alphabet with a few simply flower sprays adorning it.
Today, I’ll share the letters D, E, and F with you, along with some stitching ideas for beginners (and beyond).
If you have some ideas you’d like to share for stitching the letters, by all means, leave a comment below! It’s always nice to hear suggestions from everyone, when it comes to stitching ideas – the more ideas, the better!
Since I haven’t posted anything on the Secret Garden embroidery project lately (I haven’t been home for the last couple weeks – did you miss me?), today I want to share with you someone else’s Secret Garden project.
My reason for honing in on Lynette’s version of the Secret Garden Hummingbirds will be obvious once you see it!
The purpose of the Long & Short Stitch Sampler is to take the beginner through progressively more difficult aspects of shading using long & short stitch.
Most of the embroiderers from the Needle ‘n Thread community featured today said they started out with the Long & Short Stitch Sampler, and then worked their way forward to other types of stitching involving long & short stitch, most specifically needle painting (or creating realistic looking embroidery using long & short stitch shading and other stitches).
One of the aspects that I really like about these scrolly-scripty type letters is that they are easy to combine into true monograms – groups of letters – rather than just using them as decorative initials.
Today, let’s look at some ways that individual decorative letters can be combined into groups of letters to form a monogram.
The Crewel Rooster is one of the step-by-step embroidery projects available on Needle ‘n Thread.
He was an experiment in combining various types of wool threads and various stitches, using whatever happened to be available, wool-wise, in my stash.
Since I’ve had lots of questions about the Crewel Rooster since he was born, I wasn’t surprised to receive a few contributions from readers in which he was featured.
The surprising thing is that all the rooster contributions arrived in my email on the same day, within a couple hours of each other! I’ve since proclaimed a National Rooster Day.
Each rooster below represents a completely different approach to the same embroidery design, so I think it’ll be fun to see them all on one page, demonstrating that an embroidery design can always be personalized with your own thread and stitch choices.
If you’re traveling this summer and you happen to make it to London – or, more accurately, to Oxford – after the first of August, and if you’re a 17th century embroidery fan, you’ll not want to miss The Eye of the Needle exhibit at the Ashmolean!
I have A Thing for hand embroidered monograms. I love them – and it doesn’t matter whether they’re my initials or not. I just love them.
Embroidered monograms are popular these days. If you don’t believe me, search “embroidered monogram” on Pinterest, and you’ll come up with a whole slew of them – enough to keep you busy browsing for hours!
So I was delighted to receive several emails from readers here on Needle ‘n Thread who have been dabbling with embroidered monograms in a variety of styles, and it is my pleasure to share these masterpieces with you!
I love this particular alphabet! It’s from the late 1800’s – early 1900’s (it came out in two different editions of a French publication). I’ve cleaned it up and added the missing letters from the alphabet (I and W… or was it J and W?).
Often, in old publications that offered alphabets for hand embroidery, certain letters were left out.
Sometimes, it was the I or J, because they can be interchanged for each other. Sometimes, the W was left out, because the M could be flipped. Sometimes, the alphabets are missing X’s or Z’s – maybe because there aren’t as many people out there whose names begin with X and Z? Or perhaps because, in the particular language in which the embroidery pamphlet was printed, the letter didn’t figure as a common letter for the beginning of names?
Whatever the case, eventually, the complete alphabet will be available here on Needle ‘n Thread. We’ll start with A, B, and C.
Today, I’m sharing with you some fishy embroidery from Needle ‘n Thread readers.
Now, just so you know, fishy is not meant in any dubious way! I literally mean fishy, as in fish-related embroidery.
Since it’s summer here in the States and a perfect time to think of beaches, rivers, lakes, water, and sunshine, I thought I’d group these three contributions together in a fish-related theme.
Hazel Blomkamp has done it again! If you fell in love with Crewel Twists, Hazel’s first book published in 2012, you’re going to love her new book, Crewel Intentions, too!
In Crewel Twists, Hazel introduced us to her unique and colorful approach to surface embroidery. Incorporating beads, a huge variety of stitches and filling techniques and various types of threads, her embroidery designs are Jacobean flavored with a decidedly signature look to them.
She carries this forward in Crewel Intentions by combining the same approaches found in Crewel Twists, with a few new twists!
Speaking of tea and embroidery and continuing with embroidery by others influenced by Needle ‘n Thread (SUI – Stitching Under the Influence?), today we’re going to look at an embroidered tea cozy.
For those who don’t know what a tea cozy is (it’s true – tea cozies are not so common in the US, more pity to us), it’s a cover for a tea pot that helps keep the tea pot warm.
Asia wanted to make a tea cozy and she wanted to make it super special, so she decided to embroider it.
Today, let’s chat about beginner embroidery supplies.
I answer questions about beginner embroidery supplies very frequently. I thought this might be a way to compile some simple answers in one place and to open the topic up to other stitchers who can contribute some good advice.
Well, I received a glorious influx of email – much too much to include in one article – with fabulous photos of all kinds of embroidery projects.
Oh, happy day! I knew I could count on you!
Since I’m taking some time off to do a little necessary traveling (as in, unavoidable), it’s a perfect time to share some embroidery from other people with you. Over the next couple weeks, intertwined with regular articles, we’ll be looking at embroidery projects from all over the world, which I hope will further inspire you in your own needlework pursuits.
To start, I want to share embroidery from two gals who, learning various stitches through tutorials here on Needle ‘n Thread, have been able to start or advance their own small businesses with embroidery-related offerings.
Here on Needle ‘n Thread, I post a lot of hand embroidery patterns, hand embroidery tutorials – stitch instructions and so forth – and hand embroidery projects developed step-by-step.
Sometimes, I feel like I’m posting these things into The Void – they go out there, but do they ever really get used?
In the upcoming weeks, I’ll be featuring some readers’ embroidery projects, and I thought it might be fun to expand the selection a little bit by calling for some photo contributions of your embroidery projects that have developed from things you’ve learned or used from Needle ‘n Thread.
Here’s a quick update on the Secret Garden embroidery project, wherein you will see that six embroidered flowers are complete, and I’ve made one stitch alteration.
I’d also like to share a some embroidery advice for those who have expressed some concern about their embroidery. It’s just a tiny bit of advice for any embroiderer – beginner and beyond – whether working on this project or not.
I love whitework embroidery. I love vintage and antique linens.
And, in my mind, the perfect marriage of both of these can be found in delicate whitework handkerchiefs of old.
And so, now and then, I’ll pick one up from antique dealers, estate auctions, and the like.
I’m not an avid collector. But, occasionally, I will treat myself to a vintage or antique embroidered handkerchief if there is something about it that appeals to me, if there’s something I can learn from it, and if the price is reasonable.
This particular handkerchief that I’m going to show you today fell into all of the above categories – I like the design, I can learn something from it, and since I was the only person bidding on it, it was reasonably priced.
Remember when we delved into tambour embroidery for a brief spell at the end of last year?
Well, I haven’t dropped the subject entirely. I’m going to revisit it one of these days – and in the meantime, I’ve been doing some reading, practicing, studying, exploring…
Along the way, I met up with another tambour embroidery book that I think is very worthwhile to have in your collection, if you’re keen on tambour work.
While I still prefer Yusai Fukuyama’s book Tambour Work overall, this particular book, called Le Point de Beauvais by Mick Fouriscot and Pascale Duchénoy, offers some particular reasons for particularly liking it!
Last week, we discussed using old embroidery threads on hand embroidery projects. I proposed that using very old threads that have not enjoyed decent storage conditions and that are showing serious signs of age (brittle, thin, victims of Thread Rot) are not worth using on embroidery project.
Today, I’ll explain what I do to wash old cotton embroidery threads to see if they can be returned to The State of Usability. It’s really just common sense – but for those who are shy about handling threads, maybe this will encourage you!
Today we get to find out who won a copy of Monograms: The Art of Embroidered Letters by Susan O’Connor – a book that is currently out of print, but in the process of being re-printed. It’s hard to find an original edition of this book, and if you do, it’s often Very Pricy Indeed.
So, last week, to help spread the Love of Monograms to all, I decided to give away a copy of the original edition. And today, one lucky gal out there will find out that she gets to add this lovely tome to her needlework library!
An explanation of a Thing might be in order, so you understand me correctly.
I often say, “I have a Thing about needlework books.” Or “I have a Thing about good embroidery scissors.”
And if you’ve been reading Needle ‘n Thread a while, you probably gather that I like needlework books, and I’m attracted to good embroidery scissors.
But my Thing about old embroidery threads is slightly different. The fact is, I don’t really like them the same way. I like the idea of them. I like looking at them, examining them, contemplating them.
Oh dear. We were supposed to chat about some whitework embroidery threads today. But – woe is me – my photos turned out just dreadful! So instead, I’ll share an update on the Secret Garden after some weekend stitching.
Deep down, I don’t like doing updates too frequently on the same project, because I fear you might be sitting on the other side of the computer screen, bleary-eyed and yawning from boredom.
After all, hand embroidery projects rarely develop at a Rapid Rate by today’s standards. Embroidery is a slow process – and I love it for that, most of the time.
But other times, I wish I were a Super-Fast-Bionic-Stitcher.
Woolies are embroidered images of ships worked by sailors who were usually on those ships. Although they’re mostly a British thing, it’s not unusual to find woolies worked by sailors from other countries as well.
My interest in woolies was piqued some 15-ish years ago, when visiting DC. There, I saw the sailor’s embroidery that’s on exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Unlike woolies, this piece is worked on linen with silk, and it features, along with a ship, many land-based scenes memorializing the Civil War. On the bottom of it, the sailor embroidered “Worked at Sea.”
Contemplating that piece, I thought, “Embroidery by sailors made sense – it would be a great way to occupy time. And surely this isn’t the only piece of embroidery ever done by a sailor!”
The Secret Garden Hummingbirds – my current follow-along embroidery project on Needle ‘n Thread – reached a milestone the other day. A halfway point of sorts!
I love Halfway Points of Sorts. Though not officially The Halfway Point (as there are no embroidered birds in the picture yet), half the flowers are finished.
It’s always nice to step through a mini goal and start moving towards the next one, isn’t it?
Believe it or not, the Hungarian Redwork Runner that I started eons ago hasn’t been neglected entirely, despite the comings and goings of many other embroidery projects on the work table.
And while the progress on this particular project may seem particularly slow, I have good news to report: the chain stitch part of it is more or less completely finished. There are just a few tiny chain stitch bars remaining, that await their intersecting lines of Hungarian braided chain stitch.
You know how it is about embroidery supplies: we all have our favorites…and it’s pretty rare to see fine embroidery goods go on sale.
Because of that, I like to announce it when they do. In this case, I know many of you have been waiting for the annual 15%-off everything sale at Hedgehog Handworks. Guess what?
It starts today! And it’s running for 15 days, through June 3rd. What will you find there that might be of interest? (I probably don’t need to ask that question!) Well, I’ll tell you some of my Favorite Things – embroidery supplies that are hardly ever on sale any other time!
Oh dear. Did I just title my blog post with an ’80’s allusion?
I just dated myself – and if you get it, you were probably in high school then, too.
In any case, I am awash in beetle wings these days. And you might think that’s a little gross, until you delve into the history of beetle wings used in embroidery and textile adornment.
Sounds like the beginning of a corny embroiderer’s joke, doesn’t it?
It never fails – if I write about any kind of whitework on Needle ‘n Thread, I always get questions about whether or not it can be done with colored threads.
Remember a few weeks ago, when we chatted about Haft Richelieu, a magazine from Poland devoted to all kinds of cutwork embroidery designs?
Well, to emphasize the point that these are smaller, manageable cutwork embroidery projects, I’d like to share some photos of some beautiful Richelieu projects with you. Joanna Jakuszewska, who designs most of the projects in the Haft publications, sent me two beautiful pieces of her cutwork, along with several issues of the magazine. (Thank you, Joanna!)
Monograms: The Art of Embroidered Letters by Susan O’Connor first came out in 2007, and I’ve had it on my shelf (and on my work table for reference, and in my grubby paws just for the pleasure of reading and browsing) since practically the day it hit the shelves.
It is The Book to have, if you love embroidered monograms and decorative initials worked in traditional embroidery methods.
The hand embroidery stitch called the pistil stitch (or the elongated French knot) comes in really handy when stitching flowers. The reason is obvious – it looks like its namesake, the pistil on the inside of a flower.
The pistil stitch is an easy stitch to master, and it works well inside all kinds of flowers or even on its own, in completely un-flower-related circumstances.
I’ve been using the pistil stitch on the Secret Garden project, on the flowers. Some reader’s have asked for pointers on working this stitch, so here’s a handy tutorial to show you how to work the pistil stitch.
I love grapes! I love embroidered grapes! If I were the type to decorate by theme, I believe my kitchen and dining room would sport a kind of winey, grapey, Italian theme.
But since I’m not super-themey when it comes to decorating, I just enjoy grapes in all kinds of other ways, from embroidered…to frozen…to crushed and fermented.
If you like grapes and have a reason to embroider a bunch of them, this particular stylized bunch would work quite well. It has Possibilities.
Today, we’ll cover some stitching tips for the flowers. Even if you’re not stitching along with this project, these are the types of tips you can apply to your own embroidery projects. We’ll be looking primarily at satin stitch here, since it’s the only stitch on the flowers that might be a little challenging.
Have you even looked at a piece of vintage embroidery – say, a gorgeous whitework monogram with its satiny smooth surface and incredibly detailed adornment – and thought, “Wow. They just don’t make ’em like they used to!”
It’s only a quick glance today! Next week, I promise we’ll chat a bit more about the flowers on the Secret Garden embroidery project. We’ll look at colors and techniques, and I’ll give you some stitching tips.
But in the meantime, I just wanted to show you a splash of color on the linen, so you can get a sense of where the piece is going. Green, you see, is not the Only Color!
When it comes to learning a new embroidery technique or improving your skills in a technique, I think one of the best ways to learn, short of private classes, is to work a kit designed by an expert in that particular technique.
I never hesitate to recommend stitchers to various designers around the world who provide excellent instruction through their embroidery kits.
When it comes to authentic crewel work, Phillipa Turnbull’s Crewel Work Company, located in the UK, produces beautiful, historical crewel kits replete with all the right materials and excellent instructions.
During May, Phillipa is offering something special to readers here on Needle ‘n Thread – an excellent way to learn crewel work, with an extra component beyond a kit. Read on, read on…
Hedebo embroidery is a type of whitework originating in Denmark, perhaps as early as the 15th century (according to Flora Klickmann in The Cult of the Needle).
Hedebo is unique style of whitework, in that it involves seven distinct types of stitched elements in its composition, each type being added to the general make up of Hedebo over time as Hedebo developed and evolved. What began as stylized, rather stiff geometric drawn thread embroidery eventually evolved in the early 1800’s to a freer type of openwork ornamented with satin stitch, cutwork, and needle lace.
Today, we associate Hedebo mostly with cutwork and needlelace, as these make up a recognizable part of most Hedebo embroidery.
Guida al Ricamo Hedebo, or Guide to Hedebo Embroidery, by Laura Marzorati and Stefania Bressan, is an excellent beginner’s guide to the basics (and beyond!) of Hedebo. Here’s a closer look at the book.
From 1809-1829, during the Regency era, Rudolph Ackerman published a periodical called the Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions, and Politics, or, for short (thankfully!) Ackermann’s Repository.
Ackermann’s Repository can serve as a nice source of free hand embroidery designs, and today, I’ll show you how to access the designs easily.
So grab a cup of coffee and join me for a browse through a fascinating piece of history!
I often get questions about sources for cutwork embroidery patterns.
Richelieu (also called by the more generic name of “cutwork”) is an exquisite type of (usually whitework) embroidery that involves outlining areas in a design and building little “bridges” of fabric and woven bars, so that pieces of the linen can be cut away, creating a visual contrast between the white linen and the cut away parts of the design. It also often involves some surface ornamentation in whitework embroidery.
There are several publications available that are dedicated to cutwork embroidery, all of them coming from one area of Europe or another.
Today, I’ll show you one publication devoted entirely to cutwork that I really like, and tell you why I like it and where you can get it.
I really wanted to have the leaves on the Secret Garden project completely finished by today.
In my head, I set a deadline for yesterday evening. But for some reason, I’m always overly optimistic when I set stitching deadlines.
If I add a calendar year to every stitching deadline I set, I’d be more likely to hit the mark!
In any case, the leaves are moving along, and today, I want to show you my favorite leaves, and talk about a bit about the order of shading with long & short stitch.
It’s always a good sign when twenty or more years can pass, and a needlework technique and instruction book is still in demand and relevant.
Needlelace: Designs and Techniques, Classic and Contemporary by Catherine Barley is just such a book. It was first published in 1993, and while you can still find copies of the book available through used book sources for a pretty penny, you can now buy a reprint of the book, new, directly from the author.
If you are interested in needlelace – or in its application to stumpwork embroidery projects, to historical needlework projects (think detached stitches in 17th century embroidery), to contemporary whitework – Catherine’s book should be in your reference library.
Just a little house keeping here, so that you can easily find information on chicken scratch / embroidery on gingham here on Needle ‘n Thread when you’re looking for it!
This index will include all articles on Chicken Scratch, including patterns, tutorials, and other information on the technique. As more articles are added on the subject in the future, I’ll add them to this list, too, the keep them all neatly in one place.
Today, a little tutorial for embroidery on gingham, or chicken scratch.
Chicken scratch is suited to any level of embroiderer, but, due to its simple nature and pleasing results, it’s an especially nice technique for beginners and even for children.
You can make up your own patterns for gingham embroidery, or you can look around online for pattern sources or inspiration from vintage aprons, household linens, and so forth. You’ll find two patterns here on Needle ‘n Thread for chicken scratch: Floral Corner #1 and Floral Corner #2, both of which can be used as corner designs, or can be easily adapted for straight edges.
As promised in yesterday’s article on chicken scratch (which garnered a lot of discussion!), here’s the second gingham lace or chicken scratch pattern for a little corner design.
It’s always nice to take a break and see what other folks have been up to with their needle and thread, so today, let’s look at a reader’s embroidery project!
Particularly apt for the day, this is a piece of silk & metal thread ecclesiastical embroidery that Anne Gomes worked up for her church to use as part of a Lenten altar frontal.
Anne is proficient in Japanese embroidery – she’s the gal who worked up this video of twisting Japanese silks for us, demonstrating how to twist 4 strands of silk into one twisted thread. Using similar twisting techniques, she combined silk and silver threads for the filling stitches on this piece.
Besides Anne’s obvious skill with the needlework, what I really love about this piece is the combination of silver and white against the black background. The contrast is striking, and so much more preferable for this type of work (in my opinion) than gold on a black background.
In many examples today of ecclesiastical embroidery, gold on black tends to look a bit – well, chintzy. But I know this depends entirely on the types of threads used and the choice of ground fabric. I suppose I’ve seen too many examples of bright gold lurex thread on black polyester…
I’ve been working on the two larger, single leaves that hang above the hummingbirds on the Secret Garden embroidery project. It seems as if I’ve been working on those two leaves, in fact, forever!
In fact, I only worked on them in one late afternoon, up to a point where a little mishap stalled me in my tracks.
With Easter coming up, and with some vague sensation of Spring flitting in and out, teasingly, I have lilies on my mind. And so I thought I’d pass on a free hand hand embroidery pattern featuring the lily.
This is my variation of a design from a very old folio of ecclesiastical embroidery drawings that I was able to purchase last year from a European rare books source. I’ll tell you more about the folio later – it’s an amazing collection of designs, all full-sized, from the first decade of the 1900’s.
My variation of the lily design can definitely be used for secular embroidery. I picture it as a goldwork piece with a touch of silk here and there, but that’s just me.
Usually, when I take a piece of embroidery in to be framed, I eagerly anticipate the outcome, generally confident that I’m going to like the end results. For the past ten years, I’ve worked with an excellent framer, whose advice and ideas I’ve come to trust thoroughly.
I didn’t feel too confident when I took the Mission Rose in to be framed. I came home thinking I had made the wrong decision on the frame. And, sad to say, my regular framer moved on to greener pastures…and his replacement seemed a little green.
After dropping the Mission Rose off, I spent a few days second-guessing, and then I put the whole thing out of my mind. I didn’t even think about it again until the phone call came, saying it was ready. And even then, I waited a few days before going to pick it up – which pretty much says everything!
The fun thing about embroidery on gingham is that it works up pretty quickly, and with just a few subtle changes, you can have a completely different looking design.
Today, I’ll share a pattern with you and chat about supplies I’m using.
Scissors. Yes. Scissors. I know! We talk a lot about scissors here on Needle ‘n Thread. But today, I want to show you these particular scissors because they are pretty incredible.
And I love them! And I love the way they came to reside with me.
You see, they were a gift – a completely out-of-the-blue, surprise gift – and ever since they arrived, I have been enamored with them. I’ve been using them daily.
Japanese Embroidery: The Techniques Based on Nuido is the “beginner’s guide” to Japanese embroidery, published by the Japanese Embroidery Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
Even if Japanese embroidery isn’t your thing, this is a book that you’ll find very useful. I’ve had the print version for a while, and I’ve learned a lot from it!
The JEC has recently released Japanese Embroidery in a digital version, available at an affordable price. Compared to the $42 price tag for the print version, the digital version is $19. And if you happen to live outside the US, where postage can be prohibitive when ordering books, you can readily see the advantages of a digital edition.
Yesterday, I purchased and downloaded the digital version so that I could give you a balanced review.
Gingham embroidery goes by lots of names: gingham lace, chicken scratch, Depression lace, Hoover lace, Amish lace, snowflake lace, broderie suisse (strangely enough, if you look up “broderie suisse,” you’ll find lots of tutorials and photos for gingham embroidery, but if you look up “Swiss Embroidery,” you’ll end up with whitework and other techniques popping up in search engine results) – and probably many other names that I’ve missed.
They all boil down to relatively simple embroidery worked on gingham fabric, and sometimes on plain, two-toned checked fabric.
Happening on a pretty picture of a very springy piece of gingham embroidery worked on a multi-colored gingham linen, I found myself itching to work up something similarly simple and springy, just to dabble for the fun of it.
I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. And again. (And probably again!): Linen is my go-to fabric for hand embroidery, because, in my opinion, good linen is the Best Fabric for Hand Embroidery. There are many reasons for my tunnel vision when it comes to linen, and if you look up linen here on Needle ‘n Thread, you’ll find all kinds of articles devoted to that wondrous flaxy fabric, along with my reasons for loving it.
Now, this article is not about linen, so I’m not going to expound upon its glories herein. (Aren’t you glad?)
I do realize that linen is not the only fabric under the sun, and it just so happens that I also like stitching on other fabrics, too. There are times when silk makes a gorgeous ground for embroidery. There are times when it is appropriate to use cotton for hand embroidery. Velvet (silk velvet, or in a pinch, 100% cotton velveteen, even), wool – all are suitable for hand embroidery, depending on what you want to embroider. Some fabrics are more appropriate than others, depending on what you’re doing.
I draw the line at synthetics. I’m not a fan of synthetics as ground fabrics for hand embroidery. I find they are harder on the thread than natural fibers, they can be unpredictable regarding the finished outcome, and they are often a pain to work on. They’re tricky. And usually, they’re just downright icky.
Here’s the outcome of stitching two similar leaf clusters following a different order of stitching for each, placing the leaves in a different overlapping arrangement.
How about a little round-up of hand embroidery ideas for Easter and Spring?
When Spring finally rolls around, I’m always convinced it’s my favorite season. (Umm…strangely enough, when Fall rolls around, I’m equally convinced it’s my favorite season.)
But right now, with the conviction that Spring is the Best Season of the Year Ever, I’m in the mood to share Spring Stuff with everyone!
Anything to promote Spring – in desperate hopes of forcing Nature’s hand to spring Spring!
To that end, here are some embroidery ideas for Easter and for Spring, just in case you’re on the prowl for something Springy or Eastery to stitch.
In the online world, you can find excellent resource books for hand embroidery – old books that are in the public domain, preserved in digital format for general use. I’ve mentioned many of the online spots for good needlework books here on Needle ‘n Thread over the years, as occasionally, I like to highlight a book that’s caught my eye, that you might find interesting, too.
Open Library is one of those hubs where you can search for old embroidery books available online.
Today, I’d like to point out one of my Absolute Favorite old embroidery books (I have it on my shelf and like to read it just for fun now and then). Unfortunately, it’s not a widely available book (you can find used copies available now and then, but they tend to be pricey). But fortunately, it’s available on Open Library in digital format, so you can enjoy it, too.
Then I’ll give you some tips on using Open Library when you’re foraging about for embroidery topics.
Today, I want to share with you a piece of ecclesiastical embroidery worked by Kate – her first piece of ecclesiastical embroidery, as a matter of fact.
Today, I want to share with you three things that every avid embroiderer should read.
Two are what I’d call “serious” subjects – they’re for embroiderers who think about wider issues related to needlework.
The third…well, the third is your dessert. It’s your reward for reading the other two articles. So, if you clean your plate on the first two articles, you may go ahead and follow the third link.
Or you can go for dessert first and save the substance for later…
Whatever order you take, they’re all worth reading!
Some stitchers following along with the Secret Garden project have written to ask for tips on how to simplify the embroidery on their versions of the project, especially with regards to long & short stitch fillings.
At times like this, I wish I were an octopus… or a double-octopus (a sedecipus?). With 16 hands, I could embroider all the possibilities for every follow-along project on Needle ‘n Thread. Just imagine! And that way, I could answer so many questions visually, which would be easier all around.
But, since I only have two hands, we’ll have to settle for a few general tips. You can apply these to any surface embroidery project, not just the Secret Garden project.
To that end, here are some suggestions and thoughts on simplifying embroidery projects to make them more accessible to your own particular levels and likes.
I’m a huge fan of whitework embroidery of all types. And although I don’t do a lot of whitework compared to other forms of embroidery, I do dabble in whitework now and then.
One of my favorite types of whitework embroidery is Schwalm whitework.
I love Schwalm whitework for a few reasons: 1. It offers a never-ending plethora of variation, especially when it comes to fillings; 2. It involves relatively simple stitches, which makes it easy to get into; and 3. With its crisp white finish, airy openwork areas, and simple folky design elements, it’s really beautiful and, at the same time, it’s accessible. It doesn’t overwhelm.
Since it’s Saturday morning, how about we have a nice cup of coffee together while we browse through a wonderful Schwalm embroidery resource?
I have The Worst Time Ever trying to name hand embroidery designs.
It’s a great source of wonderment to me, how designers can repeatedly come up with apt, catchy, or elegant names for embroidery projects, kits, and designs! Or how thread manufacturers can come up with diverse color names that work!
When I try to come up with clever and appropriate names for designs or projects, words like thingy, stuff, and whatchamacallit come to mind.
Once upon a time, I thought about resorting to a numbering system. Project 1. Project 2. Project 214a. But that would be even worse, wouldn’t it?
So I really put my thinking cap on for this design, and I named it Rococo Bud.
It’s not necessarily a clever name. But it beats Acanthus-ish Thingamabob.
And if you say it ten times fast, it ends up twisting into nonsense words, like ropocobut, which makes it doubly entertaining.
It’s been a while since I’ve written a Stitch Fun tutorial! I’ve been aching to write one, though, for quite a while!
This particular combination of stitches results in a rather frivolous and fun spoked wheel. It would be perfect for adding to dimensional embroidery projects, Brazilian embroidery, highly textured embroidery, free style embroidery, and so forth.
Last time we visited the Secret Garden project, I was reveling in Yellow. I still haven’t gotten over the excitement of the yellow – I want to outline every element on the project in yellow now!
But I’ll refrain…
Today, let’s look at some leaf clusters. There are quite a few clusters of leaves on the Secret Garden project. Some could certainly be translated into flowers. The three-leaf clusters, for example, could be worked as some kind of stylized flower, in colors other than green.
But, as I explained earlier, my color vision for this particular project is predominantly lush and vibrant green – lots of green. Very leafy and springy green. And so my clusters are all going to be leaves.
Last week, I reviewed the book BiblioCraft, wherein you’ll find a project I designed, inspired by ornamental penmanship of the 19th century.
The project in the book is worked on a linen glass towel (like the one I used for this monogrammed towel). The one in the book was my second version of the project, though.
The first version of the project was worked in various types of silk thread, and it ended up looking like this:
I love arts & crafts. I value the things made by artists and craftsmen. And I value the gift of being able to make things.
I love libraries. And I love the riches within libraries. Books are as much a part of my life as embroidery is. If people only knew the Treasure that is The Library! Whole worlds of wonder reside in the library system. It’s just a matter of knowing how to tap The Library as an inexhaustible source of inspiration for artisans and crafters.
So… when rare books librarian and knitter-stitcher-bibliophile Jessica Pigza asked me to participate in a book she was writing that combines the Library with Arts & Crafts, how could I say no?
The result of that happy combination: BiblioCraft, by Jessica Pigza. It’s a completely different twist on arts & crafts and inspiration.
I have a hard time letting go of something that’s nagging me on an embroidery project. If it’s nagging me, I want to tackle it and correct it right away; otherwise, it hovers like my own personal little grey cloud, detracting from the rest of the embroidery.
But there they were, hovering. Nagging. Whispering. Constantly distracting me.
After eight failed attempts at settling on a color and a stitch for the outer leaf outlines, in steps an email from Margaret Vant Erve (if you’re not familiar with her embroidered landscapes, you should be!).
She suggested one of two options: a dark maroon or a mustard yellow. I had already tried a maroonish color, but yellow – yellow never occurred to me at all!
The cabinets are not quite tall enough to support a table top at normal sitting height, so they are lifted on plinths so that they can support my work table. Three cabinets fit tidily at one end of the table, facing outward, and three fit at the other end, facing outward. Right now, the table is slightly smaller in depth than three cabinets side-by-side, but eventually, once the budget allows it, I’ll be-take myself to the lumberyard, where I’ll have a custom 6 foot long tabletop made to fit the depth of the cabinets.
At that point, my workroom thread storage and worktable set-up will be complete. The set-up didn’t happen overnight – it took me three years to acquire the cabinets, buying a couple each year from The Container Store, when they have their yearly sale (which made a difference of $70 per cabinet).
I’ve found the cabinets a great way to store my whole thread sets. But I still need to finish my inventory system! And that takes a little time!
But for those who don’t have space for cabinets, here’s a great way to organize and store a complete line of threads with a built in inventory system, so that you can easily see what you have and what you’re missing.
Yes, Books Review. I’m going to review two books at once, because they’re both closely related, by the same author & publisher, and they’re both So Much Fun that they deserver never to be separated.
The books are Bead Embroidery Stitch Samples and Bead Embroidery Stitch Samples: Motifs by Yasuko Endo.
If you like embroidering with beads, if you like embroidering little things, if you like embroidering on paper for cards and such, if you like embroidering on crazy quilts, if you like embroidering samplers, if you like embroidering decorative edges, if you like embroidering… if you just like embroidering, I think you’ll like these books! They’ll inspire many an idea for embellishing with needle and thread and beads.
Seems rather shoddy of me to pretend this is something special for St. Patrick’s Day. After all, I’ve been working with green thread for the past several weeks, and it really has nothing to do with March 17th. But happy St. Patrick’s Day, anyway!
The Secret Garden Project, in my mind, is awash with green. My plan for the piece has always been very green and lush. And with all those leaves in the design, it’s no wonder. The leaves beg for green.
Now, I know there are so very many shades of green out there, but I’m quite taken with these bright greens I’ve been working with so far on the project. I think it’s the springy green-ness of them that gets me. They’re just chipper, and they make me happy.
Green is a color that tends to put people in a good mood. That’s one of the reasons grocery stores put vegetables and flowers right near the front of the store, so you see them when you enter. It lifts the spirits.
On that note, here’s some green to lift your spirits, and a couple mistakes, too, to keep us all from getting too green-giddy.
Ahhhh… one of you out there who participated in last week’s Chatelaine Scissors give-away will soon be in possession of this gorgeous little accessory from Golden Hinde and Simply Scissors!
The larger the leaf, the longer it takes to embroider it. I know that’s just common sense, and I know I should know that.
But when I started the long & short stitch shading on the large leaves at the base of the Secret Garden design, it seemed to take So Much Longer than I had anticipated. And that’s because long & short stitch on a large leaf is not the same as fishbone stitch on a small leaf.
I’m just loaded with all kinds of common sense today, am I not?
In reality, though, the large leaves didn’t take all that long – it’s just a matter of plugging away at them.
So, today, let’s go through the large leaves together, and allay all our fears of long & short stitch shading on these leaves, or anything similar on your own projects.
If you’re not, and you’ve embroiled yourself in what you believe will be a life-long love affair with hand embroidery, you should get acquainted with the EGA. It’s an organization that spans the continent of the US, and if you live near a major city (and even some minor-major cities), chances are, there’s a chapter close by.
Even if there’s not a chapter close by, you can always be what I am, a Member at Large – I’m not attached to nor do I participate in any particular chapter, but as a Member at Large, I can enjoy the benefits of being a member of the EGA.
One benefit is receiving the magazine NeedleArts. True, it’s not the greatest benefit, but I like this magazine more and more. And the current issue is a whopper!
I spent yesterday afternoon and early evening fiddling, and this is what I did. Not 100% sure of part of it, but let’s chat it up, anyway! And then I’ll show you what’s next in this grand adventure.
I’m pretty sure there will be other similar moments, so I’m not fretting over it. There’s no point in fretting over unstitching, because it is bound to happen now and then. If you look at it as part of the process, it’s not as detrimental to your overall stitching morale!
And with hopes of spring springing eternal, the green is a mood lifter right now, too. Winter’s loosening up its hold here in Kansas – the sun is shining, the temperature is creeping upwards, almost all the snow is gone, the birds are singing cheerily of a morning. And stitching green leaves makes me ever-hopeful that spring is just around the corner.
Today, we’ll look at a full shot of all the vines finished and a good amount of the small leaves finished, and we’ll discuss some more tips for working the small and medium sized leaves on the project.
Scissors here, scissors there. I know I put my scissors … somewhere!
Does that ever describe you? I’d like to say it doesn’t describe me, but there are times, you know – times when I fuddle about, looking for my scissors.
There are all kinds of devices to help us avoid Fuddling About for Scissors. For example, I wrote about this wooden tool caddy that serves as a scissor, pencil, and tool holder. I use it all the time!
Another example: Scissor Pulls – I wrote about them here, and I’ve got instructions to make several varieties of them in my Lavender Honey & Other Little Things e-book. Scissor pulls are handy – I love them! They make great gifts, are fun to personalize, and they’re easy and quick to embroider.
There’s another kind of decorative device that’s been used for years and years, for keeping your scissors (and other tools) close to you. It’s called a chatelaine.
And while stitching too many of one shape in an embroidery design can become tedious after a while, the nice thing about leaves is that there are So Many Options for embroidering them.
Today, since some of you have expressed interest in starting the leaves, I thought I’d give a brief overview and some pointers, so you can plow full speed ahead.
Occasionally, I like to go strolling about online for little needlework browses. Usually, these are prompted by blog posts of other needleworkers, by newsletters, or just by my own curiosity, to see what’s going on with other embroiderers or needlework-related enterprises that I’m interested in.
When I do this, I keep a list of links that I think would be of interest to you, too, and when I have the chance, I like to mix them all up in an article, so that you can go browsing, too.
Not that I would ever advocate Procrastination or any similar Heinous Habits … but really, sometimes, it’s just Fun to procrastinate! Think of it as Relaxing. Think of it as Garnering Inspiration.
Ah – the Justification of Procrastination! I could write a book on the subject.
So, pour yourself a delectable cup of coffee or tea, and let’s go meandering together!
Before moving onto the leaves on the Secret Garden embroidery project, I wanted to show you how I muted some of the vines on the project, by adding a little twiggy brown into the mix.
If you were the type of person to daydream about embroidery thread, what type of thread would you dream about?
For me, it’s silk.
I can dream about silk embroidery threads all day long, if I let myself.
Today, I’m going to let myself.
Ok. I don’t mean I’m spending my day with my head in the clouds, staring out the windows, picturing the world enrobed in silk threads. I’m not going to have conversations with imaginary skeins of silk. (Well. I don’t think I’m going to, anyway…)
But I am going to think about silk. I’m going to sort silk. Test silk. Touch silk. Group it, organize it, mix it up again. And I might even dabble with some preliminary stitches with silk threads. My goal today is to make decisions about silk, and so – poor me – to do that, I have to surround myself with silk embroidery threads.
Today’s mini tutorial on stem stitch curls and spirals was prompted by some questions that have come in recently via email and in the comments on the various articles on stem stitch.
Some of the questions concerned me enough to reschedule today’s planned article. It seems some of you are really struggling with stem stitch on curls and spirals. On top of that, there’s some erroneous information out there about working curls or spirals with stem stitch.
A couple readers mentioned that they have attended classes in which the instructor taught that the working thread is always on the outside of a circle or curl, no matter what direction you’re stitching in, because that’s only way the circle will look smooth and the stitches will hold in place.
Wellllllll…this isn’t exactly true. I thought we better clear that point up, just in case others suffer under the same impression.
So, in this tutorials, I hope to answer questions on working curls in stem stitch without the stitches looking spiky, and I hope to clarify the relationship between the needle and the working thread when working into a curl.
I’ve had a few questions this past week about stem stitch filling in general, mostly in conjunction with the Secret Garden embroidery project.
So today, I want to show you some close ups of stem stitch filling underway and go over a few tips about how to successfully fill an area with the stem stitch.
The stem stitch is a really versatile stitch, so whether you’re working the Secret Garden project or not, hopefully, you’ll find these tips useful for other surface embroidery projects as well.
These are very handy reference books to have in your needlework library. They cover the basics and a little beyond in each technique, giving the beginner a place to start and a direction to move in when learning various aspects of the needle arts.
I’ve reviewed seven of them (the links above will take you directly to my previous reviews), and today, I’m reviewing the eighth – the RSN Essential Stitch Guide for Canvaswork, by Rachel Doyle.
Canvas work and needlepoint are synonymous terms. Here in the US, needlepoint has been the more commonly used term for stitching on canvas, though more and more, the term “canvas work” is becoming more widely used here, too.
I’ve finished embroidering the vines on the lower half of the project, including the center scrolls.
Today, let’s look at that part of the design. I’ll tell you how I stitched it (you might want to do it differently), and share some insights on some tricky spots.
Lately, Ye Olde Inbox has been jammed full with questions about embroidery frames, stands, hoops, and the like.
When questions start arriving in bulk (a good sign that somewhere, there’s a spurt of growth going on in the embroidery world!), I try to address the topic here on the website for a couple reasons:
1. It makes it easier to refer folks to one article; and
2. If 20 people are asking, there’s a good chance that many more are wondering, but not asking.
Starting and Traveling. Are we talking about cars here, or embroidery?
My knowledge of cars being somewhat limited (does it start? do I like the color? this is where the gas goes…), I promise we’re talking about hand embroidery.
And not only are we talking about hand embroidery, but we’re talking about ways to make hand embroidery more efficient.
We all know that handwork is not the most time efficient way of decorating fabric. In the past hundred plus years, we’ve developed machines that can adorn fabric a whole lot faster than the hand-wielded needle. Yet there are some things we can do to make our hand embroidery more time efficient.
Today, we’ll talk about two ways that will clip a little bit of time and trouble off your stitching sessions: starting threads and traveling threads.
I mentioned that I wanted to come up with a dowel system to use as a kind of thread rack while working.
Many readers suggested swinging towel bars, which would probably work great if you wanted to permanently mount them somewhere or onto some kind of rig that would be semi-portable or moveable. It’s certainly a possibility. I could see replacing the mounting system with a very strong magnet, for example, and putting a set of swinging towel bars on the side of my thread storage cabinets that support my work table.
Recently, Lorraine overhauled her embroidery thread business, renamed it to Colour Complements, and established a bright and beautiful new website, which has a blog attached, where you can keep up with her thready news.
You might think that I’d start with the hummingbirds, since they’re in the middle of the project, and they’re the focus of the project. After all, a jeweler starts with the stone before creating the setting, right?
Well, call it backwards, but I’m starting with the setting, and specifically with the vines, because they are the continuous force in the design. They go everywhere. They hold it all together.
Besides, I’m still ruminating on those hummingbirds. I haven’t conquered them yet in my mind, and working on the rest of the project will give them time to work themselves out in my head.
Last week, I reviewed a beautiful and instructive little book on stumpwork embroidery, called Stumpwork Flowers.
This week, continuing with stumpwork books, I want to show you Jane Nicholas’s latest book, called Stumpwork Butterflies & Moths. It’s just out, and, if you love stumpwork, butterflies, insects in general – well, it’s a corker!
Today, we’re going to finalize our examination of cotton embroidery threads, insofar as they relate to the Secret Garden embroidery project. I’m sure there are many, many angles from which we could examine many, many more types of cotton embroidery threads, but for now, we’ll finish with the choices for this particular project.
Have you noticed that there aren’t a whole lot of surface embroidery kits for general embroidery available on the market?
Individual designers produce their own kits in specific techniques, but when it comes to general surface embroidery (as opposed to goldwork kits, whitework kits, stumpwork kits, etc.), you have to do some real looking to find any available on the market.
The French Needle carries a variety of surface embroidery kits imported from Switzerland. Among them, I particular like the Canevas Folies embroidery semi-kits. I like their little floral kits best, because they incorporate a large variety of stitches into a relatively small, pretty surface embroidery project.
Canevas Folies has recently produced a line of decorative floral initials in semi-kit form, and I think they’re really pretty!
You know when we start discussing frames and hoops for an embroidery project, the actual stitching part is getting pretty close!
I thought I’d take a short break from the thread discussions we’ve been having to tell you about my framing choices for the Secret Garden project and to make some suggestions for frames or hoops.
Please, please, please keep in mind that I’m just discussing what I’m doing, or what I would do, if I weren’t doing what I’m doing (?!).
If you already have a favorite frame or hoop method for your embroidery projects, feel free to ignore me completely.
It’s all well and fine to compare cotton embroidery threads straight off the skein, but what’s even more important is to see how differently they stitch up, right? After all, it’s all about the stitching!
Today, we’re going to compare several lines of stitching, using the more familiar threads – perle and floss – and then we’ll compare floche and coton a broder, stitched, to each other and to the familiar perle cotton and floss. Eventually, I’ll tie this all in with the thread choices I’ll make for the Secret Garden Hummingbirds project.
My hope is that, even if you aren’t interested in working the Secret Garden project yourself, you’ll still find the information useful for your own embroidery endeavors!
How often do we actually think about the threads we stitch with? What do we know about them and the way they behave? I like to occasionally explore these questions by looking at threads up close, because it’s helpful to know a bit about embroidery threads when making thread choices for embroidery projects.
It’s a snowy cold day here in Kansas – a perfect day for staying home, stitching, drinking plenty of hot tea, and dreaming of spring and flowers and sunshine and blue skies!
If you’re feeling the winter blues, or if you’re sweltering under a hot summer sun, Stumpwork Flowers by Sachiko Morimoto is the perfect book for evoking all the sweetness and freshness of spring.
It’s a lovely book! It’s simple and elegant. It’s instructive. And it makes stumpwork – that sometimes-complicated-looking, three dimensional embroidery – manageable.
If you’re a beginner who aspires to learning stumpwork, or if you’re an expert who wants a simple, fresh approach, methinks you will love this book!
Today, let’s delve into the differences between two somewhat similar embroidery threads. In the States, these two threads are called “coton a broder” and “floche.” Elsewhere, they may be called “broder special” and perhaps “floche a broder” or “coton floche a broder.”
In any case, there is confusion between the types of threads, from country to country, because they’re called different things. So I’m going to refer to the threads as I know them and explain their properties here, so that you can tell the difference between them and perhaps find them in your own country. You can at least know what I’m talking about when I use the names of the threads.
The ultimate point I want to make here is that coton a broder and floche are two distinctly different threads. Let’s look at them.
Here’s a little glimpse of some cotton floche on a flower petal. It isn’t much – again, like yesterday’s dribblings, it was only a test – but it gives us the opportunity to consider some more points about embroidery threads in general, and the treatment of a design.
In an effort to keep you abreast of all the little details of the Secret Garden Project, I’m going to show you some doodlings with different embroidery threads.
There’s nothing lovely here. Just some stitching, to see how things pan out. You can decide what threads you like better – I’m still debating the question.
I should probably mention right now that the transfer work for this project is not what I’d call “easy.” It requires some patience.
And transferring it three times over? Well, I’ll admit by the third time around, I was careless. Fortunately, or serendipitously, my carelessness paid off.
My poor bookshelves were in the throes of upheaval last month – undergoing one of those bouts of organization and purging that must happen – when I came across this gem and I realized that I had not yet shared it with you.
So today’s your lucky day!
Embroideries from an English Garden: Projects and Techniques in Surface Embroidery by Carol Andrews is an Absolute Must for the embroiderer’s library. I don’t say that lightly, either.
Actually, I wonder if I say that too many times, about too many books?
Well, whatever the case – I Absolutely Mean this book is an Absolute Must!
Here’s another indispensable tool in my workroom. I don’t keep it in my “tool box” with my scissors or anything else – no, no, it has a special place right next to where I sit, because I use it daily.
And besides, if it were in my tool box, it would make a mess of everything!
You may very well have one of these already (if you do, I bet you love it, too!), or you may have seen or heard of them and thought you didn’t really have a need for it. I thought the same thing until I bought one. And now – well, it’s True Love. We won’t be parted! We’re drawn to each other, like… like… magnets.
You know I have this thing for “15 Minute Projects” and “grab and go” projects. That’s what the Hungarian Runner is right now. And when the Hungarian runner is finished, I’m going to need another “15 minute” project to fill in those 15-minute gaps this year.
Now, granted, I do have the Secret Garden projects going, but those are “studio” projects – I work on them in my workroom only, because that’s where I can photograph things, take good notes, and prepare overly wordy articles for you.
Besides its versatility, there’s the whole Easy Thing going on. It’s one of the basic embroidery stitches, easy to work for any level of embroiderer.
Besides exploring chain stitch in tambour embroidery, I’ve been using the regular surface embroidery stitch called chain stitch (with a needle) on the Hungarian redwork runner that I started eons ago. There’s a lot of chain stitch on that piece – mostly in the form of squiggly or curly lines.
Did you know that you can speed up chain stitch a little bit – especially when working curls and swirls on line patterns – by switching to reverse chain stitch?
Reverse chain stitch looks exactly like chain stitch, but it works up in reverse. Let me show you how:
A few years ago, these Hungarian embroidery patterns began to appear on Needle ‘n Thread. If you haven’t read about them and how they came to be here, you can read the backstory of this collection of patterns in this article, which features the first pattern offered, which I called “Golden Circle.”
Mary Martin of Larkspur Stitchery on Facebook stitched up Lilly’s Golden Circle design in blackwork. She did a fantastic job, and I love the way she adapted the design for blackwork.
I thought it would be fun to share her Hungarian blackwork piece with you, in hopes that it might inspire you, too!
Quite a while ago, when I was writing about tambour embroidery, a reader asked about a tool in my tool box that showed up in one of my photos.
Well, I would have answered the tool question a little more clearly and directly, except that, in all honesty, I didn’t know what the tool was called.
Sometimes, I call it a Tucker Tool. Sometimes, I call it a Tweaker. Sometimes, I call it by its long name (invented by me) – it’s a Thread-Tucker-Tweaker-Fixer-Thingy.
Not knowing its official name made it somewhat difficult to look up, but I did eventually find it online. I discovered that it has an official name – it is a Stitch Fixer.
I wasn’t too far off!
Let me introduce you to this handy tool that’s been in my box for years, and that I use All the Time, for All Kinds of Things.
To start off, I’ll show you my preliminary steps in preparing to think about embroidering the design I chose from Secret Garden, and I’ll tell you what you can expect in this kind of step-by-step project development on Needle ‘n Thread.
Being a lover of all things Bayeux-Tapestry-related, I think it’s ok to share this article with you, even though it’s technically not about embroidery.
Well, I take that back. It is about embroidery – it’s about how a piece of embroidery from a thousand years ago helped an artisan today.
The story comes from the Daily Mail online, and it tells of a wood carver who, to overcome the grief of losing his sixteen-year-old son, turned to the Bayeux tapestry – with carving tools.
I finished the Mission Rose! But as usual, not exactly when I thought I would.
Last night at 5:30, I put the last stitches in. And then I sat back and breathed a big sigh of relief.
And then I realized it was dark. And too late to take good photos.
Today, I’ll show you how I treated the corners on the piece and added the last goldwork thread to outline the inner part of the outer frame. And Monday, I’ll show you the complete finished piece, good photos or not!
Since it’s still early in January, and since we’re heading into the weekend when you can take some time to do some browsing, today strikes me as an Excellent Day to introduce you to a very special set of needlework businesses.
Truly, taken as a whole, this group of embroidery-related businesses can supply your every needlework need, wish, want, desire!
Each business listed here offers something unique to the embroidery and needlework enthusiast. If you visit Needle ‘n Thread regularly, you’re bound to see their ads. These are my advertisers and they are, in a sense, hand selected. I only advertise for needlework businesses that are a good fit for Needle ‘n Thread, and whose goods and services I have experienced myself.
I know that they are quality businesses, and I hope that you will get to know them and find them as wonderful as I do!
So, without further ado, here’s my line-up of needlework advertisers on Needle ‘n Thread for 2014!
For the past couple years, I’ve been on an unending quest to discover, read about, and explore everything I can on the subject of monograms.
Along the way, I’ve collected a bunch of links to online sources, built up a little collection of monogram-related images on Pinterest, and bought a bunch of out-of-print, in print, rare, and easy-to-find books on the subject.
In other words, I glutted on the whole monogram thing!
Paul over on BibliOdyssey – a blog on books and illustration which I follow pretty faithfully – wrote about one of my favorite old books this week. It’s called Monograms & Ciphers, by Albert Angus Turbayne, who was an American designer of books in the late 1800’s – early 1900’s.
Ahhhhh. I love this color of blue! But I’ve never had a chance to use this particular blue silk thread, because it just hasn’t worked in any of my projects.
So I was Positively Delighted when I realized that I could finally incorporate this almost-electric-looking deep blue into the Mission Rose project.
It might be a little shocking at first to see the color – you might be thinking She’s nuts, that color won’t work!… but bear with me here!
If you love All Things Embroidery, and especially if you love whitework embroidery, you’ll definitely enjoy the following video on Appenzell whitework!
My first finish in 2014 will be the Mission Rose project – the End is Coming Very Soon!
The Mission Rose is a goldwork & silk embroidery project that I started in the spring of 2013 and have developed step-by-step here on Needle ‘n Thread. If you want to follow the project from beginning to end, you’ll find all the articles relating to it listed in chronological order on the Mission Rose Index page.
For your weekend viewing pleasure – in case you’re stuck inside in snowy weather, or trying to escape the summer heat in the Southern Hemisphere, or just in the mood to browse some photos of exquisite needlework tools of the past – check out this upcoming auction of antique needlework tools at Theriault’s!
Let’s kick off the New Year with a book review! Why? Because I love books!
And I love, love, love needlework books. I love how-to needlework books; I love project needlework books. But needlework books that I can really read are usually needlework history books. And I really love those!
Today’s book is just such a book. It’s not a how-to book. It’s not a project book. It’s a book that looks at a very specific era of needlework history – the Arts & Crafts Movement. The book is called Arts and Crafts Embroidery and it’s by Laura Euler.
Today, on this second-to-the-last day of 2013, just a brief announcement of the winners of my Merry Christmas Give-Away!
The two winners will each receive a signed copy of Margaret Lee’s new book, The Art of Chinese Embroidery and an embroidery kit for one of the projects in the book.
One of my favorite gifts for giving this year and for receiving (I received two copies of it myself, both of which I’ll put to good use) is not an embroidery book.
A few readers asked about finishing the twist that I’m using down the middle of the outer frame. It is obviously a much heavier thread than the passing threads and check threads surrounding it. So how do you finish twist at the end of a line? Do you plunge it? And if you do, how?
Shrewsbury Abbey, located in Shropshire, England, has been around for a Long Time! Founded as a Benedictine Monastery in the latter part of the 11th century, the portion of the Abbey that is still standing serves as a parish church.
For those who aren’t local to the area, but who are fans of British mystery shows, Shrewsbury Abbey (technically, the Abbey Church of St. Peter and St. Paul) is well known as the setting for the Cadfael mystery series.
When Virginia, a reader of Needle ‘n Thread, visited the Abbey recently, she took pictures of some of the embroidery she saw at the Abbey and sent the photos along. I thought I’d share them with you today. They’re beautiful!
Remember last week, when we discussed the angle of viewing this wool embroidery sample, where I’m playing with tambour embroidery in wool, along with a few other stitches?
Well, I fixed the long & short stitch filling on that little paisley shape in the center, and I thought you’d want to see it. And as things like this always go, once I fixed that, I started in, ripping out another section, too.
We’re in the last month of 2013, and although I’m probably not the most organized person in the world, I do actually attempt to keep a semblance of order and organization in my life, by way of Planning Ahead.
I find that if I have some kind of plan to follow – some kind of long-term schedule and short-term schedule so I know where I want to go and what I need to do to get there – I’m a much happier person. And this is especially true here on Needle ‘n Thread.
Planning ahead is super-essential, if I want to keep Needle ‘n Thread alive. And I couldn’t do it without you. I would have no interest in keeping Needle ‘n Thread going, if I didn’t have such an interesting and engaging audience.
And that brings me to how you can help me do what I do, better than I’m now doing it.
I have some questions for you, and your answers may very well determine our direction on Needle ‘n Thread in 2014:
Because it’s Monday, and I Love Mondays – and because Christmas is coming – and because we all need a little light in our lives – today, I’m giving away a Beam ‘n Read light, courtesy of the Beam ‘n Read folks who make it!
I’ve been stumbling about on the Mission Rose project, doing the goldwork embroidery on the outer frame.
I have (er…I had) high hopes of finishing it by Christmas! But in the past two weeks, every time I’ve started working on it – and I mean every, single time – the same thing has happened that has hampered my progress. It cracks me up!
First, let me show you where I am, and where I’m going.
I was sliding the kits into packaging so they’d be ready to mail quickly (I hope the winners get them before Christmas!), when it suddenly occurred to me that they really should be wrapped and bedecked with bows. And so, two of you are going to receive nice little packages you can slip under the tree for yourselves – or … you can just tear ’em open and launch right in!
I’m in a kerfuffle. A kerfuffle is a fuss, usually caused by conflicting views.
Did you know that the angle of viewing your embroidery can change the way you feel about it? It can! And when different angles of viewing your embroidery conflict, you end up in a kerfuffle.
The Royal School of Needlework produces a line of instructional books for needlework called Essential Stitch Guides, and I’ve reviewed most of them here on Needle ‘n Thread.
All the books are excellent little reference books to have in your needlework library, and so far, they’re building into a nice little Library Collection. I’m eager to see what topic is next in the series!
Just in time to add to your wish list for Christmas, I thought I’d review their latest book today – the RSN Essential Stitch Guide for Bead Embroidery, by Shelley Cox.
One question that surfaced several times in our recent discussion of tambour embroidery here on Needle ‘n Thread is whether or not you can combine tambour embroidery with other types of surface embroidery stitches in one project.
I’d say the point to remember whenever you’re pursuing any type of adventure in surface embroidery is that you aren’t bound by definite rules that say you can or can’t combine this technique or that technique. While tambour embroidery may be a specific technique that’s most often seen used in particular ways, there’s no reason why it can’t be combined with other techniques and used in any way you want to use it.
That’s the real fun of surface embroidery! There are so many variables, it never gets boring!
On that note, here’s the beginning of a little project that I’m using for further practice in tambour work.
It’s very satisfying indeed to know that the free embroidery resources here on Needle ‘n Thread are used! And I love it when readers send photos of their own embroidery work, using the embroidery patterns or needlework tutorials available on the website.
So I was thrilled when Jane sent a photo of her rendition of my blackwork tree design that she’s making up into ornaments this year.
Tricia Nguyen of Thistle Threads sent along this really fun little freebie for distribution to embroidery fanatics everywhere.
If you’re a fan of 17th century embroidery, and especially a fan of embroidered caskets, you’ll love this little gift box that you can make with just scissors and a good glue stick!
I’ve written about Trish Burr’s needle painting kits here on Needle ‘n Thread many, many times. And there’s a reason for that – her needle painting projects are so finally detailed, so charming, so pretty. Her flowers, her birds, her little miniatures – they appeal, you know!
But most of all, what I think I love best about Trish’s embroidery projects is her sense of color and color blending. No one else does it quite like she does.
Here are four of Trish’s recent kits, up close. To see them is to love them!
Perhaps it’s the time of year. Things are very Sparkly this time of year, aren’t they?
I like Sparkly! I love rich jewel tones, and I especially love them when they are combined with gold.
So when a reader asked about the possibility of doing shisha with beetle wings, a lightbulb went off. Why not? Shisha embroidery can hold practically any-shaped, flat-ish anything onto fabric. And beetle wings! Well, they are magnificently rich in color, and they can be trimmed to practically any shape.
Oh, ye’ll tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road…
But whatever road you take, if you end up in Scotland, and if you love needlework and all things historical-needlework-related, perhaps you should schedule a stopover in Coaltown-of-Wemyss, perched just north of the Bonnie Banks of the Firth of Forth, to visit the Wemyss School of Needlework.
I recently wrote to the Wemyss School of Needlework to get on their newsletter mailing list. This led to an exchange of emails and an offer to write an article about them. You see, I find this little school and what it is doing now quite fascinating, and I think you’ll find it equally as fascinating. Hopefully, you can help me spread the word about it!
The Wemyss School of Needlework is perhaps not as well known as the Royal School of Needlework to the south; nevertheless, it has a worthy history, it houses an impressive historical collection, and it is recently “making a comeback” in needlework education.
If you’re determined to whip up some Christmas stitchery this year, you might find some of the following free embroidery patterns useful.
Though I do try to keep everything on Needle ‘n Thread easily indexed in one way or another, it’s easy to miss some of the content from previous years, so here’s a quick recap of some holiday-related (or holiday-adaptable) stitching patterns for you.
I love the idea of a whole tree full of hand embroidered Christmas ornaments; I love the idea of a whole basket full of beautiful embroidered eggs; I love the idea of a hand embroidered tablecloth and matching linens for the Thanksgiving table.
But I really don’t think it will happen in my house, in my lifetime. There are too many other projects, and holiday-specific embroidery rarely takes top priority.
Well, it never does, until right before the holiday – as in, the day before, or the morning of! That’s when I start thinking, Golly, it would be nice to take a hand embroidered gift along to the festivities!
Iron-on embroidery design transfers fall into a love-hate category for me.
I love the idea of being able to iron an embroidery design straight onto a piece of fabric, without having to go through the rigmarole of transferring an embroidery design in various, nefarious, laborious ways.
You might also recognize hints of the design in my Jumble Lattice Sampler, which was originally called a Jacobean Jumble. Believe it or not, this design played a part in the original doodle for that.
Lighting is one of those subjects that should be near and dear to every embroiderer’s heart.
And eyes.
I needed a little light – something I could use inside the house in the evenings that wouldn’t bother the rest of the family, something I could use in the car, and something that would work well in hotel rooms, without having to tote a larger light around with me. (Have you ever noticed that hotel room light is never adequate for needlework?!)
Enter a little light that’s bright, bright, bright – the Beam N Read light. It makes a great little traveling companion for the needleworker. If you want a portable light that’s usable in the car, that’s easy to take to needlework classes, that doesn’t take up room in your living room, and that’s affordable, you might take a look at this one.
Here’s my review of the Beam N Read light as used while embroidering, with pros and cons.
Cotton tulle is a machine made, hexagon net used in lace making techniques such as Carrickmacross lace, Limerick lace (which often involves tambour chain stitch), Coggeshall lace, tambour lace in general, and in all kinds of other embroidered laces made on net grounds.
I used cotton tulle in the tambour embroidery video that I shared with you the other day – not so much because I use tulle as a ground fabric very often, but because you could easily see what’s going on behind the fabric.
But the use of the cotton tulle generated some questions, which are worth addressing.
Do you ever find yourself, mid-embroidery-project, facing a problem that you knew you should have addressed much sooner?
Well, that’s where I’ve been lately with the Mission Rose. There is a problem with it. And, like many problems that we run into on needlework projects, just the mere thought of the problem and how to rectify it was slowing me down.
But, just like with many problems we face in life, if we avoid it, it just gets bigger! Before you know it, you’ve got a proverbial Mountain where there should just be a wee Mole Hill. And most of that mountain is built in our minds, more than in reality. That is certainly the case with this problem on the Mission Rose.
The problem needs addressing. I can’t fudge it and make do. I needs must correct it, in order to move on with confidence in a decent outcome.
We’ve been talking a lot about tambour embroidery recently, and since I promised a tutorial for you, here’s a video on the basic stitch!
The very best way to get familiar with tambour embroidery is just to do it – that is, sit down with a hook, a piece of fabric in a hoop, and some thread, and try it. Work your way through the basic movements of the stitch, until you understand how it works. Start by stitching in one direction – the direction that’s most comfortable for you – and keep practicing in that direction, until you have the movement of the hook down.
From that point, it’s just a matter of practice. And more practice. And even more practice!
Practice until you’re comfortable with the hook. Practice until you can stitch in all directions with it. The more you practice, the more the stitch makes sense, and the easier it becomes to stitch in all directions.
To get you started, then, I’ve worked up a how-to video for the basic chain stitch with the tambour hook.
Good morning, peeps! It’s a lovely Friday here in Kansas – cold, but warming up later today. The sun will shortly be rising, the kids will shortly be walking past on their way to school, I will shortly be doing some needful chores, and shortly, the weekend will be upon us.
I’m not sure why, but Friday always seems to be the shortest day of the week. It’s the day I want to savor. But there’s never a chance. It flies by – and the next thing I know, bam-o! It’s Monday again.
Today – the 15th – is the day I sit down and work out wonderful things for Needle ‘n Thread. I brainstorm article ideas. I sketch in a publishing calendar for the next month. I write up lists of things to do and prioritize them. I see if I have all the supplies I need to accomplish what I need to accomplish in the next month, and if not, I order them. It’s the mid-month prep for the next month (and sometimes, beyond.) And I love doing it.
Which brings me to the point that Christmas is coming – I’ll be preparing my To Do Calendar around that fact today – and if you didn’t win today’s give-away, you should definitely put one of these beautiful and exceedingly handy tool caddies on your Christmas list! I’ve grown really fond of mine. It’s a terrific tool for any workspace, but especially if you have a tight workspace. It keeps a lot of tools together in one neat space, and it does it while lookin’ good.
Rarely do I look good when I’m being serviceable, but it’s nice to see that my tool caddy can manage it!
All the waste knots cut, all the threads secured – ’tis the finish of this second practice piece on my quest to learn how to wield a tambour hook with accuracy, (relative) speed, and ease.
When working with the tambour needle – and really, when working in any embroidery technique – practice is essential if you want to be perfectly comfortable with the tools, no matter what circumstances you find yourself in.
I prefer practicing on a particular design, rather than in random blobs, rows, and patches. When practicing on a design, there’s that whole Sense-of-Accomplishment Thing going on, you know?
Keep in mind that this project was a practice piece. There wasn’t much planning that went into it. With a little tweaking in shades and placement of colors in the design, I think the finished piece could be much improved. But here it is, anyway, for what it’s worth!
Whenever I’m in the middle of a goldwork project (the current one being the Mission Rose), there’s a fair certitude that one question will slip into the inbox at least ten times. It is this:
What thread are you using for couching the goldwork?
Although I usually mention it within articles on the different goldwork techniques, I’ve never written an article devoted entirely to The Couching Threads.
But you know, they deserve their moment in the limelight. They have an arduous task and they work hard to get it done. So they are, in fact, Important. Essential. Critical, even!
Today, I’ll show you exactly which ones I use and tell you why.
And, with an article devoted just to these indispensable little spools, from now on, I can just send a link when anyone asks.
While working through this practice piece a little bit each day, I’ve learned a few more bits about tambour embroidery, which I thought I’d share with you.
It’s a dream vacation for any embroiderer: surrounded by embroideries rich in history and beauty, tutored by specialists and professionals, pampered in comfortable accommodations, shopping quaint English and Scottish high streets, exploring castles and manor houses, rubbing elbows with lords and ladies.
The JR Crafter laying tools are my favorite needlework tools that I own. What they did was take the BLT (Best Laying Tool by Shay Pendray) and encase it in exotic wood or colorful acrylic – they’re the perfect size to hold (the BLT on its own is quite small and fiddly to hold), they’re the perfect weight, and – doggonit – they’re just pretty.
I have another JR Crafter “tool” that has been my constant stitching companion for the last six months. It’s an organizational tool. And it has solved that Where-Did-I-Put-It Dilemma. I no longer shuffle around for this tool or that while I’m in the middle of stitching.
And that, my friends, is a Wonder and a Miracle. And that’s why I’m showing you this pretty little tool caddy today – and giving one away. I also think this little beauty is a terrific gift idea, for those putting together Christmas lists.
Lately, in the Stitch Fun series, we’ve been playing with shisha embroidery. Shisha is the application of mirrors or similar shiny objects to the surface of fabric, using embroidery stitches.
All three of the approaches listed above are admittedly a little complex. For beginners, then, who want to add mirrors and sparkly things to their embroidered masterpieces, but would like a simpler approach to shisha, here’s an alternative that works and that is super-duper easy.
Today, most of the current, in-print books that focus on work with the tambour needle are beading books. Occasionally, these books will have a chapter or a section on tambour embroidery, but for the most part, they focus on work with beads and sequins.
That’s ok! You can learn a lot about tambour embroidery from these books, too. I’m not knocking them – I’m just stating a fact. They’re mostly books on beading.
But if you want what I think is the best and most thorough book on all aspects of tambour work, primarily focusing on embroidery, you’ll have to scour libraries and out-of-print, used book sources for it.
The book is Tambour Work, by Yusai Fukuyama, published in 1987 by Dryad Press in the UK.
Little Gertie McFuzz, the tambour work bird to whom I introduced you last week, didn’t take very long to finish. It just took me a long time to get around to writing about her again.
I spent a little time organizing my workroom (again) last week. This can be a good thing, or a bad thing. Sometimes, organizing is just an excuse for delay. Other times, it’s an absolute necessity!
In this particular case, it was the latter – and all because of a book. But I’ll save that story for next week!
While organizing, I came across a collection of stitched samples that were still set up on stretcher bar frames. One – this wee goldwork and silk rose – had been there for two years. It was definitely time to disbar it!
Kits for hand embroidery are one of the best ways to learn a technique or a combination of techniques. With a kit, you have everything you need available, you don’t have to make any decisions about threads and fabrics – decisions that might stump the beginner and slow down the process of getting into embroidery. Everything’s there, ready for you to start stitching.
But for embroiderers interested in the various techniques of surface embroidery, it’s often difficult to find good embroidery kits that are instructive, challenging, and satisfying.
Rarely can hand embroidery kits be found even in local needlework shops, where counted cross stitch supplies and needlepoint offerings generally reign.
So if you want to work embroidery projects that focus on various surface embroidery techniques, you have two choices, really: design your own, or seek out one of the many designers who sell their kits directly through their own businesses. I’ve mentioned a heap of these designers on Needle ‘n Thread over the years: Phillipa Turnbull, Tanja Berlin, Trish Burr, Alison Cole, Jane Nicholas, Yvette Stanton, Jenny McWhinney – and there are many, many more embroidery designers out there who teach and who sell their own kits through their own businesses.
Here in the States, Halloween is awfully popular. But I will go out on a limb and admit that it’s never been one of my favorite holidays.
I’ve never really gotten into Halloween. I’m not really sure why that is. It’s just not My Thing.
My childhood memories of Halloween are not that vivid, either, even though we did the typical costume-dress-up-trick-or-treating thing, and we went to Halloween parties and the like.
When I was a kid, I always got the clown costume. When I crept into the teenage years, scary movie parties on Halloween were The Thing – but not for me. I always found an excuse to be in a different room. I’m still a scary movie wimp.
As an adult, my exciting Halloween “celebration” is comprised of a card game or two while waiting for the doorbell to ring. On a busy Halloween, we might get a whopping dozen or so beggars – and half of those are usually my nieces and nephews. Welcome to quiet, small town life!
I’ve said it before. I’ll probably say it again some day.
I Love Pearl Purl.
Pearl purl is one of my Favorite Ever Goldwork Threads. It’s a hefty thread, especially in the larger sizes (like 3 and 4), and it makes a gorgeous outline.
Pearl purl is a very solid metal thread, as it’s simply a coil of solid metal wire that, when un-stretched, looks like a line of little golden beads, like this:
There once was a girl-bird named Gertrude McFuzz
And she had the smallest plain tail ever was.
One droopy-drop feather. That’s all that she had.
And, oh! That one feather made Gertrude so sad!
Tambour embroidery – essentially the chain stitch worked with a tiny hook on the surface of the fabric – is one of those techniques that I’d dabbled in. Though I had managed to make the hook work the way it’s supposed to, I never went beyond that, to the point of picking up speed and developing any kind of ease and accuracy.
Couching goldwork threads can feel a bit therapeutic. It’s a slow process – not a technique that you rush – but it’s very repetitive. And it’s not difficult!
The only time it gets a bit hairy is when you suddenly realize things aren’t fitting together quite as well as you hoped. I had a little panic moment when couching the gold threads around the inner frame of the Mission Rose.
Playing around with shisha embroidery stitches can be somewhat addicting! This is what happens: when I’m in the middle of one method, a potential variation occurs to me, and I have to try it.
That’s how this particular variation came about. I don’t think you’ll find this one in a book – it was one of those “make it up as you go and hope it works out” approaches. That being said, there really are very few “original” stitches out there. Most stitches are made up of components of known stitches, and this one is no exception!
As promised, I’m putting together some tambour embroidery instructional resources for those of you who are interested in learning this technique.
Today, we’ll look at three books that are good for instruction in tambour work. These are the three of four books that I’ve found most useful – I’m saving the fourth one for a full review, which I’ll have for you a little later.
In the meantime, though, these three are good. Only one of the three is completely dedicated to tambour work, while the other two have useful chapters on the subject.
It’s been a while since I’ve worked on my Hungarian Redwork Runner, which was set up as a “grab and go” embroidery project exactly a year ago.
Well, fooling around with the tambour needle recently and practicing tambour embroidery led me to thinking about my poor neglected Hungarian runner. Since I haven’t had an opportunity to “grab and go” with it for quite some time, I haven’t made much progress on it.
But… I mused… couldn’t the tambour hook propel the Hungarian runner to a more rapid completion?
Every time I went out to work on the goldwork on the inner frame of the Mission Rose project, I found myself humming the same song… and humming it and humming it and humming it.
It’s stuck in my head right now, and I can’t get it out!
Occasionally, while stitching, I’d even start singing out loud (good thing no one’s out there but me!). I don’t know all the words, so it’s just the same little bit, over and over again.
Gold fever! Nothin’ can help you but the yellow stuff!
What can stop that itchin’ ain’t around the kitchen!
Gold, gold, hooked am I. Susannah, go ahead and cry!
It’s from Paint Your Wagon – a bit before my time, but my older sister had the record (yes, record, as in LP, on vinyl or something), and I remember hearing the songs as I grew up.
It wasn’t until I was an adult that I went back to discover what that whole thing was all about. The mere fact that Clint Eastwood was singing in a musical… oh dear.
Many brands of sewing threads and several brands of embroidery threads are spooled up these days on plastic snap spools.
On each end of a snap spool, the “head” of the spool lifts up a little bit so that you can anchor your loose thread underneath the lip of that liftable head, and snap the spool closed again – a convenient way to anchor the loose end of the thread.
If you use sewing threads packaged on these kinds of spools – or embroidery threads (certain Au Ver a Soie silks come on them, as well and Londonderry Linen thread, Trebizond, and others) – when you’re finished with the spool, don’t pitch it!
I re-use empty spools often, and here’s one way I recently put one to use.
I’m not as far along as I’d like to be on the Mission Rose, but there’s some progress, and some progress is always better than no progress, right?
Today I’ll show you a wee amount of progress on the Inner Frame, and tell you why I’m doing what I’m doing the way I’m doing it, and then discuss my misgivings about the thread choice.
There was really no reason not to finish the little tambour embroidery project I started night before last.
All told, there are only a few hours of stitching in the piece. I’m still on the learning curve, but even then, chain stitch can be accomplished much faster with a tambour needle, compared to a regular needle. Certainly, a skilled tambour embroiderer could finish this project in at least half the time – probably a lot less!
Yesterday afternoon was all mapped out, scheduled, spoken for, even. Yesterday afternoon, I was supposed to be working on the Mission Rose – finishing up a part, photographing it, preparing an update on it.
But there was so much enthusiastic response on yesterday’s article on tambour embroidery. And enthusiasm and interest like that – well, to a blogger, it’s infectious. You get excited – I get excited. You express interest – my interest increases.
The same thing used to happen in the classroom. Students would get excited about a subject – which would further heighten my excitement – which would lead to an extension on the topic so that we could delve more deeply into it. It’s a normal part of human relationships, I suppose. People tend to feed off each other’s enthusiasm – and that can be a very good thing!
Well, when I first got suckered into the adventure (did I just say that?!), one though that resonated quite loudly in my head while discussing threads, techniques, fabrics, and whatnot was the fact that I am woefully inadequate when it comes to using the tambour needle.
And so, with dogged determination, I’ve set about to improve. So this is a little tambour embroidery excursion, and I’ll discuss some discoveries along the way.
Mary sat nervously at her computer screen, wondering if it was a good idea.
Begging for help? It wasn’t really Her Thing. She didn’t like asking people to go out of their way for something that might mean a lot to her, but didn’t necessarily mean much to anyone else.
“Still,” she mused, “that’s what Community is all about, isn’t it? And Needle ‘n Thread is a community, after all.” And so…
She plunged.
She decided the best approach was a forthright and sincere one, because, after all, she was talking to friends.
I need your help! I have an opportunity to apply for a grant through Mission Main Street, which is an endeavor of Chase bank, partnered with Google and additional supporters, to offer small businesses in the US grants that will help them expand.
Today, I’d like to show you a fun variation of shisha. It produces a completely different look when attaching mirrors (or anything else you might want to use in place of mirrors) to ground fabric.
This various has a kind of “hairy” look to it, but I like it a lot! It’s fun, it’s a little different, it’s easy once you get the hang of it, and as you start working it, it opens up other possibilities for shisha embroidery.
Recently, I began lending a helping hand on an embroidery project – it’s a project of reconstruction, re-creation, and repair. I’m not doing much of the “real” work – mostly just advising on thread selections, color matching, fabric selections, and so forth. Maybe towards the end of the project, if time allows, I may help with the final goldwork.
But I thought I’d show you the piece, and chat a bit about selecting colors and threads, the types of embroidery on it, and what exactly is going to happen to it.
When I see things that sparkle, I go googly-eyed and say things like, Oooooh, a Sparkly!
(In case the reference is lost on you – and you’re interested in visiting a childhood moment of mine – check out this Sparkly scene from Secret of Nimh. The reference is about 28 seconds into the video.)
When it comes to things that sparkle, you can call me Jeremy.
Well, along the lines of sparkly things, Cosmo – the Japanese company that produces this embroidery floss – has introduced a new metallic thread onto the market, and I had the opportunity to play with it a bit last week. Today, I’ll show it to you – in case you’re a fan of Sparklies, too!
But, since many of you expressed an interest in the stitch and doing some “real” shisha embroidery with mirrors, I thought we could chat a bit about types of mirrors and resources.
Shisha – embroidery with mirrors – can be worked different ways.
The most common shisha stitch found in most stitch dictionaries is a combination buttonhole and chain stitch worked over a grid of holding threads that anchor the small mirrors to fabric. Today, we’re going to look at the basic stitch, and then later on, we’ll look at some variations.
Do you want to add more variety to your hand embroidery projects by stitching different types of leaves or flowers?
After all, when you look at flowers and foliage in their natural setting, they’re rarely exactly the same!
Since flowers and leaves are probably the most common motif in hand embroidery, it’s good to have a whole arsenal of stitching techniques on hand for embroidering them.
Here are sixteen different ways you can embroider leaves and flower petals.
When I was growing up, Saturdays were the Best Day of the Week. They always tingled with a Holiday Mood, even though the inevitable chore list was published that day. My dad used to sing a song to us – a rather tuneless song, if I recall – that went something along these lines:
Saturday’s a holiday, for the week is ended.
Saturday’s a holiday, we can work and play.
Bright sunny day!
We tramp the fields and meadows,
Skies so blue, softest hue,
and dream along the way…
Well, just be grateful you can’t hear me singing along while I type! I never actually knew if that was a real song, or if he just made it up.
I still have that Saturday-Holiday-Mood feeling now and then – and especially this morning because I get to announce two winners of these Silk Gimp Thread Assortment packs!
It’s been a while since I’ve written about my Mission Rose goldwork project, for two reasons, which I’ll share below.
But since I’ve received a lot of inquiries about it in the last several weeks, I thought I’d give you a quick update.
The project was put away for a bit while I was working on other things. For goldwork projects that are incomplete, I always cover them up with a cloth and put them somewhere out of the light.
And of course, once a project is put away, it’s less likely I’ll get anything done on it until I have real time to devote to it again. So that’s one reason the work stalled on the project.
Since leaves are often featured in hand embroidery projects, I’ve been dedicating a few articles lately to different ways to work hand embroidered leaves, beyond the simple daisy stitch.
Whenever a major museum publicizes a major exhibit having to do with textiles, one of the first things I do is ferret out the exhibition catalogue.
An exhibition catalogue is the list (and usually provenance and detailed description) of the items on show in the exhibition. When a museum as large as the Met puts on an exhibition, their catalogues are usually a bit more than that. They usually include essays of scholarly research, supported by images of art and artifacts, extensive annotation, and the like, resulting in magnificent coffee-table quality books that appeal visually and intellectually to enthusiasts of the subject.
If it’s something I know will appeal to me, I invest in the exhibition catalogue right away, because usually, the catalogues are not reprinted and once they’re gone, they’re gone. (The exhibition catalogue for ‘Twixt Art & Nature comes to mind…)
The exhibition catalog for Interwoven Globe another exceptional volume, a fantastic book for anyone interested in the history of all varieties of textiles. Today, I’ll take you through it, so you can decide if you want to invest in it, too.
There are tools, and there are Tools, when it comes to the tools I like to use in my needlework pursuits.
The tools – those are the ho-hum, every day tools. They’re there, but I don’t think much about them. They don’t excite me. A roll of scotch tape fits into this category. I use it all the time, but it’s nothing I’d jump over the moon over (though, come to think of it, life without it would be drastically different!)
The Tools-with-a-capital-T – those are the ones that I am over the moon about. The ones that, through some serendipitous chance, we met, and every time I use them, I find myself gazing at them amorously, asking where they have been all my life.
Why do Monday’s always get a bad rap? I love Mondays! They’re the start of a whole brand-spankin’ new week – hopefully, a week in which I can correct all the mistakes I made last week, and get all the things done I didn’t get done last week. I always view them as a mini-start-over.
So, to celebrate another glorious Monday, let’s have a give-away, shall we?
Ahhhhh – I love this thread! Silk Gimp is unlike any other thread on the market.
Really. I mean that! It’s absolutely unique.
It’s not like other threads called gimp (here’s a comparison of different threads called silk gimp); it’s not like DMC memory thread (some folks have substituted memory thread for it, but there’s no real similarity between the two threads, so the embroidered outcome is completely different); it’s not like normal silk embroidery thread.
It’s a bit difficult to explain exactly what it’s like, and if you’ve stitched with it, you know what I mean!
If you haven’t stitched with it, I’ll describe it as a tiny, shiny, wormy-like thread, soft and supple, with incredible sheen, very manipulative, producing an absolutely unique result in the finished embroidery.
There are some needlework & embroidery tools that are A Must. Good scissors, good needles, good hoops and frames fall under this category in my mind.
Then there are those embroidery tools (I sometimes call them “accessories”) that aren’t quite essential, but that are nice to have and useful. A pretty needlebook or needle case, a nice scissor fob that helps you easily locate your scissors, an extra-special, funky or fun pin cushion – these are the types of tools and accessories that fit in this category.
And then there are those needlework tools on the market that baffle me. Why do we need them? What’s the point? And really, why should I spend money on that?
Today, I’m going to show you a tool that fits in this latter category, that had me baffled at first (why would anyone buy this?), but once I started playing with it, I saw that it has its merits and is kind of fun!
The Craft of Embroidery by Alison Liley is not a new book. It’s not a fancy book – in fact, it’s just the opposite. It’s a pretty unassuming book, by today’s standards of needlework and craft books.
First published in Great Britain in 1961 and reprinted into the 1970’s, the book is a practical study of the craft of embroidery, intended particularly for the student pursuing the City & Guilds courses and qualifications for hand embroidery, but it also works well for a more general audience – anyone who wants to learn the craft of embroidery.
You can read all about the online needlepainting class here, on Tanja’s website. If you didn’t win and you still want to participate in the class – an excellent opportunity for learning the basics of needlepainting with a master embroiderer from the comfort of your own home and according to your own time table – you might check that out. Her enrollment is limited in number and once all the spots are filled, registration will be closed.
Yesterday, I was supposed to make some extreme stitching progress.
In the morning, I psyched myself up for a grueling, record-breaking day of embroidery.
I wanted to accomplish two things: preparation of website content (I had a few tutorials in mind), and arriving at the next stage of the Mission Rose project, which has stalled somewhat due to website work.
But this is what greeted me when I went out to my workroom:
Over the past month, some of the questions I’ve been repeatedly sorting out of ye olde inbox concern embroidery hoops and frames.
I figure that if five or six people are asking the same questions, then there are plenty of others out there who are wondering, but not asking. So today, here’s a little Hoop Talk for you!
Here it is!! Your opportunity to learn needle painting from Tanja Berlin!
Tanja Berlin is a graduate of the Royal School of Needlework. A resident of Canada, she travels the world teaching various embroidery techniques, from needle painting, to blackwork, to goldwork, to whitework, to shadow work, to crewel (you name it!), making these embroidery techniques accessible for the very beginner (and beyond).
Tanja has a wonderful website – Berlin Embroidery – that offers detailed and well-written kits for all kinds of embroidery techniques.
She also has a wide range of goldwork supplies available on her site. In fact, hers was the first online store in North America (to my knowledge) that offered extensive goldwork supplies. She’s the one I blame for my obsession with goldwork…
Cretan Stitch is one of those hand embroidery stitches that’s pretty versatile. It can be used for a filling. It can be used as a line decoration.
But it can also be a source of confusion, especially when worked inside a shape.
As part of the Stitch Fun series here on Needle ‘n Thread, we’re currently looking at different hand embroidery stitches that work well for embroidering leaves. We started with fly stitch leaves last week, and today we’re going to look at Cretan stitch leaves.
So I pulled out my copy of the old Herrschner’s catalog from the first decade of the 1900’s to illustrate some points on developing line drawings that are suitable for hand embroidery patterns.
Parking your embroidery threads is a great way to save time and thread. If you’re not sure what “parking” means, I’ll show you!
Thread parking varies from project to project. On some projects, you might not need to park your threads. On other projects – especially projects that involve a lot of color packed into a small space (think needlepainting projects, very complex cross stitch projects, and the like) – you might have anywhere from two to a dozen or more threads parked at a time.
Treasures of Ancient Yaroslavl is a book that features gorgeous embroideries from the Yaroslavl region of Russia.
The city of Yaroslavl, founded at the end of the first millennium, is located some 150 miles north of Moscow on the Volga River. It has a strong tradition of textile arts, including those relating to icon embroidery and pearl embroidery.
If you’ve been reading Needle ‘n Thread for a while, you may remember these examples of pearl and goldwork embroidery by Russian embroiderer Larissa Borodich. Perusing the fantastic photos in Treasures of Ancient Yaroslavl, you’ll discover that this combination of pearl and goldwork to embellish religious art is an ancient tradition in Russia, and Yaroslavl is home to many exquisite examples of this work.
Labor Day weekend always marks the official end of summer in my mind.
Given the fact that the summer temperatures still soar here in Kansas until well into September, I’m not really sure why that is. I suspect that it has to do with the fact that, when I was growing up, the new school year started after Labor Day. And then there was the “white shoe rule,” that unwritten rule (or maybe it was written?) that said you shouldn’t wear white shoes after Labor Day, since it wasn’t summer anymore. Remember that?
Both of those points are pretty much defunct now. Schools start well before Labor Day and white shoes seem to be fair game any time.
Still, I like to have something to officially mark the end of summer. And this year, that something is the End of a Project.
Here’s a free hand embroidery pattern for you – a design that would make a great piece for practicing openwork fillings, like the kind used in different types of pulled thread and drawn thread embroidery, Schwalm whitework, and the like.
Of course, the design can be used for any type of surface of work, too. Feel free to experiment!
The other day, I received a nice email from a reader who explained an embroidery problem that was perplexing her. This is her note:
Whenever I want to stitch small leaves on an embroidery project, I’m always stumped. The only stitch that comes to mind is the single chain stitch [detached chain, or daisy stitch], but I really want to add a little more variety to my projects. Do you have any recommendations for stitching leaves?
Since leaves have been on my to-do list for a while now, there’s no time like the present! So today, I’d like to kick off a series-within-a-series. As part of the Stitch Fun series here on Needle ‘n Thread, we’re going to look at a variety of ways to create individual embroidered leaves, using stitches other than the detached chain stitch.
The other day, we looked at this fantastic piece of goldwork embroidery by Cristina Badillo. When Cristina sent the piece off to Larissa, who commissioned it, she sent along some samples of the various gold threads in the piece.
Larissa, understanding my inordinate infatuation with goldwork threads, generously shared some cuttings with me, and today, I want to share them with you, virtually.
I like to examine embroidery threads from different countries, especially goldwork threads. Here in the States, most of our goldwork threads come from England and Japan, but there are other goldwork thread manufacturers in other parts of the world, too; looking at these threads may give us a broader perspective on goldwork and may also help those who are interested come up with resources in their own countries or in other countries.
Oh my goodness, we all seem to like and want the Stella lamp!!
I loved reading all your comments on the original give-away article for the tabletop Stella. I’m glad I’m not the only one attracted to the lamp because of its sleek design. I think it’s a nice-looking lamp, and, as many of you said, it seems to have “personality.”
Cristina Badillo is an embroiderer in Spain who creates fantastic pieces of embroidery featuring gold and other metal threads. I’ve gotten to know her work through her blog, Barroco Siglo XXI, or 21st Century Baroque, and through following Cristina on Facebook, where she posts gorgeous close ups of her work.
Recently, I’ve been communicating with Larissa Borodich, a Russian friend who shares a keen interest in goldwork and embroidery as well. She commissioned Cristina to embroider a piece for her, and Larissa sent some close up photos of the piece to me.
So I’d like to share this gorgeous goldwork with you today, for inspiration!
Today’s tip on separating (also called stripping) embroidery floss is handy especially for beginners, because stripping your floss first makes a huge difference in the look of your stitches, whether you’re doing surface embroidery, cross stitch, or any other kind of stitching.
Any type of divisible thread for embroidery benefits from stripping or separating before stitching with it. Stripping floss is simply separating the individual strands from the larger bunch of strands. With regular DMC embroidery floss, for example, there are six strands in one “bunch” or main thread as it comes off the skein, and each of those six strands can be removed singly from the bunch. Usually, you remove the number of strands you’re going to stitch with one at a time, and then you put them back together again when you thread the needle.
The advantage of this exercise? It untwists the individual strands from each other, so that you get fuller and more consistent stitch coverage from your thread.
Here’s how I separate my floss. I know others do it differently, so this is just one way that’s always worked for me without any hitch.
Yesterday, I reviewed the Stella lamp for you – it’s a nice task lamp that works really well for hand embroidery, other arts and crafts, reading, writing, and the like. It’s also a great lamp for carrying to workshops and classes.
Today, courtesy of Needle in a Haystack, I’m giving away a Stella! I’m excited about it, too – with autumn and winter coming on in the States and the days getting shorter, it’s a great time to add a little more light to your life!
So, we’ve chatted a bit about color in hand embroidery projects lately, and yesterday we talked a bit about color and the eyes. Today, I’d like to follow up with a review of a good light for hand embroidery.
We’ve talked about lighting before here on Needle ‘n Thread. I’ve reviewed the BlueMax lamps that I use in my workroom, and the Dublin Craftlite LED light and magnifier, and I’ve used all kinds of other lights, too, from various types of Ott lights, to “HD” craft lights, to LED clip ons – you name it. I don’t have very good eyesight, so good lighting has always been one of my Great Quests.
There lots and lots of craft lights available out there, and it’s difficult to differentiate between them without either using them yourself or doing a little research. So here’s another review – this time, of Stella lamps.
Today, I want to mention another point about color choices for embroidery projects, and it is this: the colors you choose, even if you like them (but especially if you don’t), can make your embroidery project a misery to work on.
There can be a number of reasons for this – sometimes they can be emotional or psychological. But one reason is more objective – it is a physical reason. It has to do with the eyes.
Here’s a little free hand embroidery pattern for you – one that has loads of possibilities when it comes to embroidery techniques!
This is an adaptation of an element within a much larger project featured in the old Herrschner’s catalog from the beginning of the 1900’s. If you’ve never seen that catalog, you can find it online in various places. Antique Pattern Library has it available under H, and you can also search Flickr (using “Herrschner 1907”) and many images from it will come up.
But… all that having been said…. if you can find your own real copy of it from used or rare booksellers, it’s a wonderful resource to have! It’s so enjoyable to browse through.
Imagine how much fun it must have been for embroiderers at the turn of the 20th century to find out a new catalog was out, to wait with anticipation to see it, and finally to linger over the pages making purchasing decisions!
I found my copy foraging through a library book sale years ago, and picked it up for a whole fifty cents. One of those serendipitous moments…
When developing the various projects for Lavender Honey & Other Little Things, nestled snuggly on the list of ideas was a squirrel, but he didn’t make the final cut.
It was a fun give-away, and interesting to hear your preferences on colors and thread types. There’s nothing quite like discussing embroidery threads with a bunch of thread lovers! We do get enthusiastic, don’t we?
Vermicelli is an appropriate name for this meandering, worm-like technique involving a fine couched thread. I used it extensively in the Marian Medallion Project as a background for the whole medallion. It served really well in that project for securing the flat silk used in the background. I almost regret not using flat silk in the corners on the Mission Rose.
But the technique works equally as well over fabric, too. And so, I opted for it – much better than the lattice work, methinks.
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve written anything about ecclesiastical embroidery here on Needle ‘n Thread.
Ecclesiastical embroidery is essentially church-related embroidery, and as a category of embroidery, it embraces several of the most exquisite embroidery techniques out there – especially goldwork and silk shading.
If you’re somewhat new to Needle ‘n Thread, you might not know that my real interest in embroidery sprang from art history studies in college, and specifically getting into the study of ecclesiastical embroidery when doing research for art history.
Since then, I’ve spent years collecting resources on ecclesiastical embroidery, along with old pieces of ecclesiastical embroidery. When traveling, I tend to seek out places where I can examine extant examples of historical pieces of ecclesiastical needlework. It fascinates me, and I eat the stuff up whenever I have a chance!
Lately, I’ve been pattern chasing – that is, trying the trace the origins of some ecclesiastical embroidery patterns (a very difficult thing to do!). This particular image that I’m going to share with you today has come up several times in my pattern-chasing endeavors.
When feeling your way through an embroidery project for the first time, it isn’t unusual to change your plans for embroidery techniques as you progress.
You might, for example, have an idea that you think is brilliant, that you’re sure will work …. but when it comes down to actually trying it, the Cold Dead Fish of Reality slaps you in the face with a resounding Nope!
And that’s what happened to me recently with the Mission Rose project. I was all geared up to tackle the blue silk areas – I had a Plan! I liked the Plan! In my head, the Plan worked.
To get the week off to a good start, let’s have a give-away! Today, thanks to Lorraine at LES Designs, whose thread I featured last week in this article on overdyed embroidery threads, I’m giving away some very colorful skeins of thread!
Better yet, when it comes to the prize, it’s Winner’s Choice – so read on for more details on how the give-away works.
During the whole Restoration Process of my data from the old computer to the new, I’ve had a good bit of fun discovering misplaced photos of past embroidery projects that, over time, have slipped my mind.
It’s not that I don’t remember the projects; it’s just that, when I come across the photos of them, there’s a kind of new delight in seeing them again, because I haven’t thought about them in so long. And in looking at them again, some valuable lessons come to mind.
This is one of the reasons that I normally encourage new stitchers to take photos of their embroidery projects, regardless of your age, your skill level, or the type of project it is. Whether you have a blog or not, even if you think you’ll never have any interest in seeing photos of the projects you’ve worked, you’d be surprised what they can teach you, or what new ideas they will generate, when you look back at them after some time has passed.
Here are some Pictures from the Past and a little chat about some of the lessons I’ve recalled, or ideas that have occurred to me, since coming across them.
This morning, I was going to write a long, deep article about overdyed embroidered threads.
But two things are against me: one is the ongoing computer kerfuffle, which is slowly being solved, but when I say slowly, I mean slooooowly. And the other is a large impending thunderstorm, which could very well mean a loss of internet connection.
So instead of an all-out article on the subject over overdyed embroidery threads at this point, I’m going to poll the audience for opinions today, and save the in-depth stuff for a little farther down the road.
Well, since we’ve been talking about embroidered monograms lately, this is a very timely announcement!
For those of you who will be in the north eastern US this autumn, and who are interested in a face-to-face class in traditional monogramming, you’re in luck…
This whole Mission Rose project has me a little bit excited – I love seeing an embroidery project come together! I’m dying to get on to the goldwork around the frame of the piece!
But before I can move to the outside, I have to finish the inside. Isn’t that always the way of it? It’s another case of “dinner before dessert”…
After finishing the filling on the large leaves, the next step is doing all the outline work on the rest of the rose part of the design. So here it is – the goldwork outlines on the lower part of the rose stem and around the large leaves.
Today, we’re going to look at one of the many variations of chain stitch – the knotted chain stitch. Once you get the hang of it, it’s an easy stitch and a fun way to add texture and interest to a chain stitched line.
Are you a magazine person? I’m only sometimes a magazine person.
There is only one magazine I subscribe to regularly – Inspirations Magazine. If you only ever subscribe to one needlework magazine, let it be Inspirations. It is gorgeous. Each issue is a book of fine needlework projects, instructions, and insight.
Occasionally, I’ll pick up Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly as well. It’s a good magazine, of special interest to those who like topics related to historic embroidery.
But now and then (pretty rarely these days), I come across a magazine at a newsstand or bookstore that catches my eye. I like meandering through a good magazine while sitting on the front porch, or while whiling away passenger hours on a road trip or a long commute. But it has to be a beautiful magazine – one that delights the eye and feeds the mind – and one that doesn’t bombard the reader with really annoying ads on every other page.
Recently, Hoffman Publishing put out a special issue of Victoria Classics on Monograms. Well, given the subject matter, and given the fact that Victoria Magazine is generally a beautiful magazine, I couldn’t resist! So here’s a review of the special issue, so that you can decide if you want a copy, too!
Before I delve into a deep explanation (there actually isn’t one) of why I did the leaves the way I did them, I should probably remind everyone again that this is a stylized design. That is, it’s not supposed to look real.
Last time we visited the Mission Rose project, I was almost finished with the goldwork on the central rose. Well, I haven’t moved ahead as much as I’d like, as Life keeps interrupting in unpredictable ways.
Still, I always figure Some Progress is better than No Progress. No matter how little, progress is always progress, and it keeps us moving towards an eventual completion, right? 15 minutes here or there, squeezed in whenever you can, might be all the time you have to work on something, but those short bouts of stitching add up!
(Yes, I’m just trying to make myself feel better for not having more to show you!)
I don’t often use iron-on transfers for hand embroidery. I’m more of a trace-your-pattern sort of gal, or transfer it in other ways, depending on the project. But good iron-on patterns have their place, and they are a Very Convenient way to get an embroidery design onto a piece of fabric.
The problem is, there’s not that great of a variety of embroidery designs available as iron-on patterns. There are, of course, the Aunt Martha iron-ons which have been around for a long time. And there are the fun-and-funky, very trendy Sublime Stitching (and similar) designs, for craft embroidery.
But for other types of general surface embroidery designs that are a little more classic and will withstand the test of time, it’s somewhat difficult to find iron-on transfers. Generally, if I’m looking for iron-on transfers that fall into this category, I look for them abroad among the French and the Italians. (For example, these Mani di Fata iron-on transfers from Italy or these iron-on transfers from Mains et Merveilles of France.)
And that brings us to the book I want to show you. DMC France has a book out that is jam-packed with a huge variety of embroidery designs in iron-on-transfer form. It’s called Fleurs en Transferts or Flower Transfers.
I love finding old embroidery books online, especially when they offer good instruction or patterns.
While it’s often difficult to find hard copies of these wonderful old resources, many different websites provide scanned copies of out-of-copyright books, pamphlets, and whatnot relating to embroidery. My favorite online book resources are Antique Pattern Library and Internet Archive.
This morning, I’d like to point you a little treasure over at Internet Archive.
Lately, I’ve been sharing some photos of various samples of floral monograms that I’ve been putting together. When I started on this particular monogram project (not to be confused with the more “traditional” monograms I’m also working on), I had a goal: to embroider the monograms with 20 – 25 types of stitches or stitch combinations.
Do you find yourself forever leaning towards the same ground fabric every time you start a new embroidery project? Do you gravitate towards the same basic color schemes? Do you find yourself resorting to the same set of embroidery stitches each time you tackle something new?
You aren’t alone. I think for many hobby embroiderers, this is the case. It’s definitely the case for me. I gravitate towards linen, and normally, it’s white or natural colored. I generally select very similar color schemes for my projects. And I rely on my tried-and-true favorites when it comes to selecting stitches.
The other day, we looked at the finished blue silk appliqué on the Mission Rose, and I introduced you to another color of fabric that would be added to the piece next – a yellow felt.
The felt is the foundation for the goldwork frame on the piece.
What does William Morris have to do with organizing monograms and stitching samples? Well, I’m sure we could draw some kind of deep, meaningful tie, just by virtue of the fact that it’s embroidery, it’s arts & crafts, threads, fibers, what-have-you.
But the connection between my organizational methods for my upcoming bout of stitching and William Morris is hardly deep or profound or even meaningful.
But it’s one of those things that makes me happy, and because it makes me happy, I thought I’d tell you about it. Maybe this will lead to some further ideas on organizational methods, too.
Opinions were really divided on the addition of the blue! I’m glad, because that means that you feel comfortable expressing your needlework opinions on Needle ‘n Thread, which contributes to that sense of community that a blog is all about – we can discuss needlework things, and we can even have divergent views on this or that approach, but we still go forward.
In the long run, the whole Final Decision thing still falls back on me. Darn! It’s one of those situations where you can please some of the people most of the time, and most of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all the people all the time. Right?
But I am going to ask those who don’t really like the blue – those of you who are scratching your heads, raising your eyebrows, and wondering about my state of mental health – one big favor…
Now that Lavender Honey & Other Little Things is finished and available, it’s time to move on to some embroidery projects that have been weighing on my mind. And some of those projects involve monograms.
I am a lover of decorative initials and monograms. And they don’t even have to be mine! I don’t care what initials they are! I love monograms and decorative initials, and I love, love, love them when they are hand embroidered. It’s that marriage of hand embroidery and lettering, I suppose….
Why “typical”? Because I think a lot of people do this – or they do it more than they realize. I call it phone doodling. And I do it all the time.
While cleaning up my desk the other day, I came across several scraps and notes that were phone doodled. They happen when I’m on the phone. Sometimes, they happen when I’m chatting with a visitor at the kitchen table (isn’t that what paper napkins are for?).
I saw this particular doodle and I thought of two specific things that could happen with it, with embroidery.
Last week when I reviewed the LightPad for transferring embroidery designs, I mentioned that I’ve transferred 52 monograms in the past month-ish. This generated a lot of questions, but the most common one was about the transfer process itself.
What do you use to trace monograms (or any patterns) onto linen, if the monogram is going to be laundered. Should the transfer be permanent? What if you can’t cover it up?…. Lots of questions about tracing designs.
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this tip before on Needle ‘n Thread, but if not, I should have! It deserves its own article, its very own space in cyberspace.
Last week, we delved into the fun of creating fluffy stitches by examining Victorian Tufting, a technique involving layers of herringbone stitch which are cut and then fluffed up to create a dimensional pile on the embroidery surface.
Today, just for the fun of it, let’s look at another fluffy stitch. This one is called velvet stitch, and although it’s more often seen in canvas work, it can also be used in surface embroidery.
I’m calling this free hand embroidery pattern Art Nouveau, although it doesn’t quite have all the qualities of an Art Nouveau design. I think the reason Art Nouveau came to mind was because this is a pattern from an old catalog from the early 1900’s.
This was originally a cushion pattern, and the full embroidery design could certainly be used in the same way. But what I like about this particular design is that it can be taken apart fairly easily and reconstructed into different design schemes. It can be rendered in embroidery in many different ways.
How long has it been since I started making these little embroidered things? I started talking about them last summer – almost a year to the day, today – after I had already been playing around with them for months. And you know, given the fact that these things are little, you’d think that they’d also be quick!
And they are, when it comes to making them. When it comes to putting together an e-book about them, that’s a Whole Nuther Story!
The other day, I had a little family reunion with many of them. It was a regular little party!
In case you have time off this weekend – and between Fourth of July celebrations for those of us in the States – maybe you can squeeze in some Stitch Fun! This stitch is particularly fun, because it’s fluffy.
When it comes to creating a fluffy finish with your embroidery stitches, there are a few options for stitches that work well. Probably the best known of these is Turkey Work, also known as Ghiordes knot.
Victorian Tufting is another method of working up some fluff on your embroidered surfaces. And in a sense, it’s a little easier than Turkey work, because if you already know one basic embroidery stitch, then you already know how to work Victorian Tufting.
Sometimes, when it comes to hand embroidery, equipment just complicates things. When you think about it, does an embroiderer need a lot of equipment? Not really – needles, a hoop, some sharp scissors, and that about covers the basic needs relating to hand embroidery.
Yet I’ve invested in a new piece of equipment, and although originally I had no intention of writing about it, the Inordinate Infatuation I have with it compels me to write about it.
I’m Excessively Fond of it.
And, more to the point, it’s a Really Handy Piece of Equipment, especially if your primary way of transferring embroidery patterns is by tracing.
It’s summer in the US, and this time of year, picnics, outdoor parties and cookouts are all on the menu.
If you’re the keen outdoor picnicky type, and you love the idea of embellished picnic tablecloths, there are a few tutorials here on Needle ‘n Thread that might strike your fancy!
Book art – the manipulation, recycling, up-cycling, embellishing, cutting, folding, sculpting, stitching, or myriad-other-things done to books (especially to old books) in the quest of creativity – is pretty popular today.
While some of the things paper artists do with old books are amazing, enchanting, and incredibly artistic – like these book-cut sculptures by Sue Blackwell – most of the creative approaches that require the destruction of a book don’t thrill me all that much. I chalk it up to years of teaching literature and an almost fanatical fondness for books as books.
So although stitching on pages of books is not something I’d normally consider enticing, there are definitely exceptions. This particular exception is fascinating – especially because it is a work of restoration.
Stitching on the pages of a book is apparently not a new thing.
Back in 2009, I reviewed Luzine Happel’s book, Basic Principles of Schwalm Whitework, which, in my mind, is still The Definitive Guide on Schwalm whitework embroidery.
Since then, Luzine has written quite a few books that have been translated into English, some of which I’ve reviewed – like Fancy Hems, a book on Early Schwalm Whitework, a beautiful pattern book for Schwalm embroidery, and books on filling techniques. Really, when it comes to this type of whitework embroidery and all the nuances of it – all the “sub techniques” that can be applied to other types of embroidery, too – Luzine is a goldmine of information!
Her latest books are of the sampler variety, in a sense. Here’s a look at both of them: Openwork Pattern Samplers and Openwork Needleweaving Patterns.
The Turk’s Head Knot is often seen in knot-making and other cord and rope techniques, but it’s also an embroidery stitch.
As an embroidery stitch, the Turk’s Head Knot creates an intertwined knot that sits up, plump and round, on the fabric. It can be used in place of French knots and colonial knots for a little more texture. Like the French knot and colonial knot, it can be used singly, as an isolated stitch, or it can be grouped together in clusters or used as highly textured filling.
The thing is, it’s a tricky stitch. It’s definitely knot the easiest knot in the book!
Thanks to one and all who left comments on the give-away for the complete set of DMC Diamant metallic embroidery threads!
Reading through your comments was fabulously enlightening. To hear how people stitch with metallic threads, what their thoughts are about metallic threads, how they overcome the frustrations of working with metallic embroidery threads… this was all good stuff to read!
If you happen to be a stitcher who wants advice on using metallics, read through the comments on the DMC Diamant give-away article. There’s a bunch of good info in there!
There are lots of stitchers out there right now stitching (or preparing to stitch) the Lattice Jumble Sampler from the Sampler Guide that was published a couple weeks ago here on Needle ‘n Thread.
On the Lattice Jumble Sampler, I used coton a broder #25 exclusively. But I used it in a very haphazard manner, this thread here, that thread there, pulling colors from my stash without any definite plan to the colors and their placement. (It was a very random sampler!)
If you want to plan colors for a stitch sampler like the Lattice Jumble, then you might be a little distraught over how to select colors without access to coton a broder at a local shop.
Of course, if you can purchase specialty threads in person, you’re a lucky duck! But if you can’t, and you have to resort to online purchasing (which is the case for most of us!), then what to do? What to do? Most websites only list color numbers and maybe the descriptive color name.
Keep in mind that this is a stylized rose. That is, it’s not a natural representation of a rose. It does not look like a rose that we would find in nature, and yet, there are characteristics of it that correspond to the rose, and so, it is a rose, but it is a stylized rose.
My job job here is not really to make it look like a real rose. If that were the case, the rose itself would be vastly different, and – oh! – those Dr. Seuss “mitts” that are supposed to be leaves would have been eliminated from the start.
All that, by way of making excuses for the brown branch.
These days, we have wide access to all kinds of embroidery threads – an “embarrassment of riches” in that regard – as long as we’re willing to shop online.
Because local needlework shops with specialty threads are few and far between, we often have to purchase threads unseen. So, in order to take out some of the guesswork, now and then I like to write about hand embroidery threads, especially those that are a little more obscure. Hopefully, this will give you a greater knowledge of what’s available to the stitcher, and maybe give you a better idea of what you’re going to get and how it can be used when you order embroidery thread.
Today, I’d like to show you a thread by DMC. Here in the States, it’s not a well-known thread, and it’s not available (to my knowledge) through the regular DMC-USA channels. It’s fairly widely available in the UK, though, and probably throughout Europe. It’s also available in Australia, according to a quick Google search. In the US, I only know of one shop that carries it.
As far as projects go, lately I’ve been focusing on the Mission Rose quite a bit here on Needle ‘n Thread.
The Mission Rose is my Blog Project right now – the project that I’m showing step-by-step on the website, in order to demonstrate how embroidery projects develop, in order to demonstrate techniques, in order to offer little tips along the way that you can apply to your own embroidery, and so forth.
I like to have a major Blog Project going because it gives me a kind of coherent series or theme to develop on the website. It keeps me, in short, from being a little too haphazard in what I choose to write about each week!
There’s a little security in knowing that there’s one project that I must write about each week, at least once and often twice, so I can arrange my week’s writing around that project. At the same time, because I know I’ll be writing about it, it gives me stitching goals to meet.
The satin stitch is complete on the outer parts of the petals on the Mission Rose.
It dragged out a bit because I was avoiding the inevitable: I had to make a decision about the stem on the rose.
It was a thread decision: To switch, or not to switch? Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the shortage of brown shades in one line of thread, or to take arms against the shortage, and by switching from one line of thread to another, end it?
Here’s a wee update on the Mission Rose project! I’m still satin stitching the outside petal turnovers with Great Hope of finishing them this very day.
I’ve had a couple queries lately about Madeira silk embroidery floss – apparently, someone out there is using it in a class, kit, or chart. I can always tell when “something’s up” with a needlework product, based on the number of questions coming in!
And so, today, we’ll have a little Thread Chat about Madeira silk floss.
‘Tis Monday, and a good day to announce the winners to last week’s give-away of little needle tins and needle ID cards. It is also a good day to pass on my thanks for lots of things!
I had fun with this give-away, I admit! The answers to the give-away question were quite diverse and interesting – it’s always fun to see where people’s interests lie in the whole wide world of embroidery.
But what I enjoyed most? The fact that so many of us have the same difficulty in narrowing down a choice of “favorite” when it comes to embroidery! Not that I was trying to make the question difficult on purpose, or anything…
Remember the Lattice Jumble Sampler that somehow morphed out of the Stitch Fun series? It’s been a little while since we visited it, but I thought I should let you know that it’s finished.
See, the embroidery on the rose so far has been a little deceptive. The long & short stitch shaded center and inner petals, now that they’re finished, give the rose a rather compact look. The central flower that’s supposed to be the focal point seems like it’s rather small and lost in the middle of those big leaves down below and that the looming bud above.
But now that the outer petal “turn overs” are underway, the perspective changes a bit. For example, the lower shaded leaves seemed to dwarf the rose before, but now, we can see that they won’t look quite as large when the whole rose is complete.
Sometimes, when choosing ground fabrics for different types of embroidery, working up small samples to compare results is a good way to discern better from good. Often, once I work up a sample, choosing the better ground fabric for an intended project is much easier. But sometimes, I found out that either fabric will do fine – which is the case here.
To decide between two different types of linen for embroidering monograms, and especially for shadow work monograms, I worked up two samples, one of which (monogram M in shadow work) I’ve already shown you.
Today, let’s look at a different monogram worked on a different linen, but with the same threads and stitches.
Remember the book Home Sweet Home by Carolyn Pearce? I reviewed it when it first came out, and it proved to be quite a popular book – so much so that it sold out and whether or not it would ever be printed again was uncertain.
Oyster stitch is an isolated embroidery stitch made up of a twisted chain stitch wrapped with a regular chain stitch, to form a chubby roundish-oval stitch that works well for petals and the like. I’m pretty sure it’s called oyster stitch because it resembles the shape of an oyster shell.
I like oyster stitch, but I don’t use it too often on its own. Lately, though, I’ve taken to stringing oyster stitches together into a line of oyster stitches, so that they look like little buds.
For today’s Stitch Fun tutorial, I thought I’d show you how to make some oyster stitch buds, using oyster stitch as a line stitch.
For those of you who read Needle ‘n Thread via an RSS feed – and especially via Google Reader – I thought I’d address some technical issues that are coming up in the next month.
I don’t generally like writing about the technical side of blogging because it can be really boring for folks who aren’t interested in that kind of stuff. You’re here for an embroidery fix, after all – not for technical tips on using the internet!
But there’s a changes coming up, especially for those of you who read Needle ‘n Thread and other blogs through Google Reader, so I thought it might be a good time to address those changes.
Now, for those of you who read Needle ‘n Thread directly on the website or via the daily e-mail newsletter, this doesn’t necessarily apply. If you still want to have your morning coffee with me, read on. If not, I understand!
Here’s a free hand embroidery pattern for you, doodled up over the weekend. It is a slightly altered version of a design from an old book – resource below!
The embroidery pattern come about like this…
Step back to my childhood with me! Memorial Day weekend transports me to childhood. Those three day weekends at the beginning and end of the summer – Memorial Day and Labor Day, respectively – were reserved for certain family rituals.
And while most people were beginning or ending the summer with picnics and cook-outs, or enjoying the first or last summer fling of camping by the lake, or lining streets for parades while slurping snow cones or dissolving into sticky messes of cotton candy – not us! No, no! We had our own unique family ritual.
It was called “Cleaning the Garage,” and while it’s a family joke now, it has become a deep-seated kind of urge. Memorial Day weekend comes around, and I feel compelled to clean the garage.
If you’re just popping in here on Needle ‘n Thread for the first time, we’re working our way through a hand embroidery project called “Mission Rose,” worked in silk (and eventually gold threads) on a silk ground. You can find all the articles relating to this project in the Mission Rose Index, if you’d like to follow along or catch up on the project.
Well, after a distressing series of mishaps with the little leaves around the rose, they’re finally finished. And I’ve moved on to the rose, which is a refreshing change from greens.
Let’s look at what happened with the leaves at last, and then see some progress on the rose.
There’s something about needlework accessories… something that compels us to buy them, use them, enjoy them.
When I first started embroidering as a kid, accessories were never part of the package. I didn’t even have real scissors at first. I remember biting my thread to cut it!
But as an adult, I’ve found that needlework accessories and specialty tools are part and parcel of my whole love affair with embroidery. However, I’m not prone to “collecting” them just for the sake of having them. They have to be useful. And if they’re attractive to boot – well, that’s just the best type of accessory, in my mind!
Today, I’d like to show you a new accessory on the market – one that I believe is useful, unique, and attractive. I love these little needle tins!
While we look at them, we’ll chat with Lamora Haidar of Access Commodities, who conceived the idea for the needle tins and had them made for distribution. We’ll learn a little bit about the whole needlework accessory market, how ideas come about and progress to a finished product, and glean a little insight to this love of accessories to which many embroiderers are prone.
Do you love the look and idea of stitching with fine silk threads, but are intimidated by working with them? Are you frustrated when you work with certain silk threads and wonder why the heck anyone would stitch with the stuff?
Today, I want to chat about silk embroidery thread, and specifically about filament silk embroidery threads, and even more specifically about Soie de Paris. Hopefully, through a discussion about these silk embroidery threads, we can allay frustrations and overcome Silk Thread Fear.
Shadow Work is a type of embroidery worked on semi-sheer or sheer fabric, with the bulk of the embroidery on the back of the design so that the color of the thread – or rather, a shadow of the color – shows through on the front of the fabric between two solid-colored outlines.
The stitch used in shadow work embroidery is essentially backstitch, but it is worked between two lines, alternating back and forth between the two lines with each stitch.
On the back of the fabric, the resulting closely worked herringbone stitch forms a layer of criss-crossing threads that shows through on the front of the fabric with just a hint of color between the backstitch outlines.
Last week, I had the opportunity to show someone how to do shadow work. This is the sample I worked up for the occasion.
The give-away was generously offered by the folks at Hedgehog Handworks – they still have a small number of this out-of-print-but-highly-coveted book in stock. To my knowledge, the only other place you can find it for purchase now is through used book outlets, where some of the prices listed for it are shocking.
The “rush” to get these finished lately (did I say rush? I think I’ve been putting them on Needle ‘n Thread since 2009!) is that I’ve been working with my collection of old publications, sorting them and organizing them. This means I’m digging up some treasures that need scanning and cleaning up. But no point in starting another collection with this one still hanging over my head, eh?!
So here’s the rest of the Fan Flower alphabet – letters X, Y, and Z – with the printable PDFs down below.
The Ros Tapestry is, as the website devoted to the tapestry states, a “tale told in thread.”
Conceived in 1998 by Dr. Paul Mooney of the parish of New Ross in County Wexford on the east coast of Ireland, the tapestry tells of the history of the Port of New Ross and its surrounding area, especially from the time of William Marshall and the Norman invasions.
The photos below are courtesy of The Ros Tapestry initiative, and you can click on most of them to view larger images.
As I was stitching the other day, I had a little accident that brought me to a momentary halt on the rose. I thought it was a good lesson to learn, so I’m going to share it with you. Though it may make me look slightly idiotic, I’m willing to risk that if it will save you from doing the same thing!
Today, courtesy of Hedgehog Handworks, I’m giving away one copy of the out-of-print, highly coveted book on 17th century English embroidery, ‘Twixt Art and Nature: English Embroidery from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1580-1700.
Anyone up for a trip to London? If you’ve got one in your plans this year – or if you live in the relative vicinity – you might take the opportunity to catch the exhibit For Worship & Glory at the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court.
(Update, 2021: the exhibition was in 2013, so there are no longer working links to it in this article.)
This year from May through December, the RSN is exhibiting examples of ecclesiastical embroidery from their collections, and the star of the show? The twelve Litany of Loreto embroideries that are rarely all seen together on exhibition.
Here are a few more patterns for the fan flower alphabet for hand embroidered monograms (or decorative initials) that I began posting a few years ago. I’m finally tying up this loose end and getting the whole alphabet in place.
And it’s about time, too. The last letter I posted was O, and I don’t even like to think about how long ago that was!
So here are letters P through W, all in one place, with individual PDFs below for each letter.
Last time we looked at the Mission Rose project, the two large leaves were finished. Though still suffering a little bit of an internal debate over them, I decided to move on to the little leaves on the rest of the design.
Today, I’ll announce the winner and tell you about a special something that’s coming up next week that, if you any interest in historical embroidery, you won’t want to miss!
So my good friend the Lattice Sampler, which began as part of the Stitch Fun series, is almost finished.
On the one hand, this is a good thing, because I find it distracts me now and then. On the other hand, this is a bad thing, because I find I like to be distracted by it.
Also, it has proved to be a good Thinking Project. I spoke about this last time we looked at the lattice sampler – when I’m at loose ends and can’t figure out what to do next, putting in a few stitches on this thing gives me time for putting my thoughts in order and laying out other plans. So I’ll be sorry to see it finished (on the one hand) – but… on the other hand…
A little while ago, I was asked to try a new (to me, anyway!) line of hand sewing needles from Pony.
Even though I have my favorites when it comes to embroidery needles, this doesn’t mean that I don’t use other brands. I do, and quite frequently. And I like all the needles I use, for different reasons. Believe it or not, I’m not super picky about embroidery needles, as long as they don’t have burrs and they do their job.
“Reverse stitching” – i.e. ripping out previously stitched areas – is ever a part of the embroidery process.
Mentally, I prepare myself for the frustrations of picking out stitches by convincing myself that it really is just part of the process. Looking at it that way, I can then convince myself to actually enjoy it as part of the whole Embroidery Journey.
Yesterday, we looked at two pairs of Bohin scissors on the needlework market, and today, courtesy of Access Commodities, I’m giving away a pair of these red needlework scissors. Not only are they red, but they cut really well!
At least, I don’t intend to be. But scissors are an important part of needlework, and good scissors – well, good scissors are just good.
So yes, I have a few pairs, and now and then, I like to write about them. They are my tried-and-true assistants. And they work hard for their moment in the spotlight.
Bohin, the needlework tool company in France that specializes in high quality needles for handwork, also makes scissors. They have a terrific line of delicate little embroidery scissors, but they also have two specific pairs of needlework scissors that, though somewhat hefty in comparison to their more delicate brethren, are marvelous tools.
An interesting question came up the other day in the inbox, regarding surface embroidery on even-weave linens, or lower thread count linens sold primarily for cross stitch. Essentially, the reader wanted to know “Can it be done?”
To answer the question and make some qualifications, here’s a sneak peek of an upcoming project.
This Hungarian Redwork Runner project is really quite enjoyable.
I know! I know! It looks like it would be monotonous! I thought that by now, I’d be bored with it and barely pushing myself to pick it up occasionally. But in fact, I love sneaking 15 Minutes here and there to work on it. And because it’s easy to transport, I can grab it and take it with me hither and yon, when venturing out.
For some reason, the Mission Rose has adopted a Dr. Seuss personality in my mind. I find myself equating the two leaves with Thing 1 and Thing 2.
There is something rather Dr. Suess-ish in their shape – if you took them alone, out of the project. Think of the hands or the hair of a Dr. Seuss character, and you’ll see what I mean!
“Hands-free embroidery” (or needlework) is a term often used to describe a situation wherein needlework frames or hoops are held by a stand of some sort – a device that holds the frame or hoop so that your hands don’t have to.
When talking about hand embroidery, I always chuckle when I hear that term (“hands-free embroidery”) to describe using a stand. I find it a bit oxymoronic. But maybe that’s just me…
In any case, there’s nothing as wonderful as a needlework stand, whether it’s a floor stand, a table stand of some sort, a lap stand, or any other device that can hold your hoop or frame for you, so you don’t have to. It frees up both hands so that you can use both hands to do your work.
For techniques like goldwork and many types of silk embroidery, a stand is really essential because you need two hands for much of the work. But even for other embroidery techniques, a stand is so helpful – it allows you to work faster, with more ease and and with more precision. French knots and bullion knots when you don’t have to hold the hoop? So much easier!
Oh, goodie gumdrops!! I’ve been waiting all week to write this article for you!
All the preliminary work that goes into setting up an embroidery project for stitching is certainly necessary, but it’s not exactly Thrillsville, if you know what I mean.
I’ve learned to like the set-up process, but it is ever eclipsed by the anticipation of those first stitches.
Often, for me, the first bit of stitching tells me if the project is going to click. Will I like it? Will the colors work? Is the fabric right? Normally, these questions are answered with the first foray into stitching.
On the Mission Rose project, I decided to start with the large leaves on the rose. Perhaps it would have made more sense to begin with the stem, since, perspective-wise, it is the element in the design that is farthest back or underneath everything else. But I wanted to work the leaves first because I wasn’t quite sure about my choices of greens. Working a leaf would settle any doubts.
Were my doubts settled? Well, let’s work through the leaf and see!
This lattice work sampler – where I’m using a bunch of different lattice stitch fillings and other techniques from the Stitch Fun series – is turning into seriously random embroidery chaos.
But it’s fun, and it’s also serving a tremendously useful purpose for me. Let me explain…
Aha! We have a winner! Yes, one lucky one of you will receive in the mail this Carrickmacross Lace Sampler Kit by Tanja Berlin, along with a handy-dandy pair of nice, sharp, curved-blade scissors, perfect for doing this kind of work.
Before I started to stitch on the Mission Rose project, I knew I’d want something over the project in the frame, to help minimize dirt and such from soiling the ground fabric.
Because the ground fabric is silk (backed with linen), and because the embroidery will be done with silk and metal threads, this isn’t the type of project that can be submerged in a nice boil of sudsy water when it’s all finished. Instead, every precaution has to be taken to keep the piece clean.
In addition to washing your hands well before each stitching session, there are other precautionary methods you can employ to help you keep your embroidery project clean during its creation. When I was working on the Medallion Project last year, I basted a piece of plain cotton muslin onto the fabric in the frame, as a built-in cover for the piece when I wasn’t working on it, as well as to protect the fabric during stitching, giving me something to rest my hands on.
Hand embroidered monograms! Ahhhh! I am twitterpated by them! They are my One Weakness… to quote Dorcas Lane.
This inordinate infatuation with embroidered monograms and decorative initials was the impetus behind a crazily obsessive era of collecting old embroidery pamphlets and magazines from the mid-1800’s through the first half of the 1900’s, before it became really popular to collect them.
In the last six years or so, it’s become increasingly The Rage to collect vintage and antique patterns. The prices have gone up considerably on these old publications – when you can actually find them. So I don’t really collect many anymore, unless a happy chance brings me into contact with a volume I’m really interested in that’s affordable.
The old French magazines like La Broderie Blanche and Journal des Demoiselles, and the old Sajou pamphlets (especially those with line drawings rather than charts) are among my favorites. I have a good pile of them that I browse through occasionally for design ideas, alphabets, and general inspiration.
And sometimes, I stumble upon a little pattern that, with a little clean-up job, would be fun to share. Like this one!
When the Mission Rose project first started taking shape, I knew two things right off: 1. that it would involve very specific silk embroidery threads; and 2. that it would involve some goldwork threads, but not a lot.
The majority of the project will be worked with silk embroidery threads, specifically with Soie de Paris by Au Ver a Soie. I used this thread for the Tudor Rose in the Medallion Project, and I loved-loved-loved it.
While I was working out those five Tudor roses, I was already thinking to myself, “I would like to do a Whole Project with Just This Thread.”
I was creeping ever-so-steadily towards the halfway point on the Hungarian Redwork Runner this past Sunday. It was an indoor day, quiet, gloomy and cloudy outside with threatening storms, and perfect for some simple stitching. And I thought to myself, “Today will be the day I hit the halfway point!”
And I really thought it would be!
I found myself starting to nod. I don’t normally nod off over my stitching. But the weather, the silence, the perfect peace of the day, a late night the night before… you see how it can happen, right?
Then a Brilliant Idea struck me! I would do something I rarely (as in, pretty much never) do. I would watch a movie while I stitched! Imagine that! A quiet day, no interruptions, rain outside, a really good movie (I’m a sucker for BBC dramas). Doesn’t that sound ideal?
And it worked! I hit the halfway point on the runner! And I was pleased.
Time to do some organizing! Here on Needle ‘n Thread, whenever I work a major hand embroidery project all the way through and write about it, I like categorize and index the whole project so that all the articles about it are easy to find.
If you love embroidery and you want to learn embroidery – all different types of embroidery – one of the best places to find accessible, clear, thorough instruction in a variety of needlework techniques is Berlin Embroidery Designs.
Tanja Berlin was one of the first fine needlework teachers in North America to establish a thriving online business offering contemporary goldwork kits and supplies, needlepainting kits, fine whitework kits and supplies – all kinds of kits and supplies for fine needlework techniques that were just beginning to enjoy a resurgence of interest in the mid-1990’s. I remember just seven or eight years ago, searching up and down and all over the place for a good selection of goldwork threads available in one shop, and Berlin Embroidery was the only place in North America that I could find a really good selection of supplies. And since then, her selection has grown by leaps and bounds.
I’m always excited to share products that I think can improve the embroiderer’s life, especially when the improvement has to do with seeing our needlework better. I’d like to introduce you to a tool – a tool that can change the way you look at your embroidery. And I mean that literally!
Craftoptics are an incredible tool for people who do detail work – any kind of detail work – but they are especially wonderful for those of us who have vision problems and need to use magnification when doing embroidery.
Imagine small binoculars (or two jeweler’s loupes) that magnify your work considerably. Add a directional light beam that brightens up your work surface, and imagine both of these effects – good magnification and bright light – without a bulky magnifier positioned between you and your needlework. That’s what you get from Craftoptics.
When stitches work together in happy combinations, they make me happy! And this stitch combination – chain stitch + buttonhole stitch – works particularly well together, to make a sweet little scalloped edge.
Yesterday, we looked at the beginnings of a new embroidery project that I’ll be writing about here on Needle ‘n Thread over the next few… well, probably months rather than weeks! The project is called Mission Rose, and we’ll be working through it together intermittently, covering techniques and tips and mistakes and fixes and all that kind of stuff.
With the design for Mission Rose hammered out, and the ground fabric choices made and the fabrics prepped, it’s time to look at design transfer methods and framing up. I’ll also do my best to answer some questions that came in after yesterday’s article covering the start of the piece and ground fabric choices.
The topics of design transfer and framing up are open to interpretation. Keep in mind that this is just how I do these things. You might have a better way that works for you, and that’s just fine. In situations of embroidery design transfer, and in questions of embroidery frames, there’s no “only one right way,” so I’m sharing with you what I’m doing with this particular project, but feel free to pursue your own tack on these things, if it works better for you!
Well, isn’t it about time? I finally have a full-fledged embroidery project underway, and I can’t wait to share updates, tips, techniques, mistakes, divergences, and so forth with you again. I always have Much More Fun with my embroidery when I journey through a project with you!
Let’s talk about ground fabric, shall we? Besides coming up with the embroidery design and a general idea of colors and threads, ground fabric is my First Big Consideration when starting a project.
Browsing through a copy of Élizabeth-Félicie Bayle-Mouillard’s Nouveau Manuel Complet de la Broderie (1840) – thanks to the direction of a kind reader who pointed out the book! – I came across a page of motifs intended for embroidery on a net ground.
I liked this one, so I made a few very minor adjustments to make it embroidery-friendly, with goldwork in mind. I think it’d make a great little design for a beginner goldwork project! But it would also work well for all sorts of embroidery – whitework, regular surface work, you name it.
And, since it’s been a long time since I’ve posted a free hand embroidery pattern on Needle ‘n Thread, I figured it was about time to do so.
In embroidery, thick stems and branches often get the same treatment: filled with stem stitch, filled with chain stitch, sometimes satin stitched, maybe a little texture added with knots and so forth. And all these techniques work great!
Here’s another option, though, that can supply a little bit of color depth and a little bit of texture, without a whole lot of complex effort. It’s easy, it’s fun, it’s quick. It would work great in crewel embroidery, in regular surface embroidery, with different types of threads – you can mix it up and play with it and come up with all different looks to it. But it really is just one simple stitch: whipped chain stitch.
Now, by a “15-minute project” I don’t really mean it will only take 15 minutes to complete. (If only…!) Instead, I mean it’s a project perfect for 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there.
I’d like to open up a discussion about Pinterest, the visual social network that created a lot of controversy in the arts & crafts (and especially needle crafts) blogosphere when it first started up, and that still has its adamant advocates and staunch opponents.
Since there are quite a few needleworkers out there using Pinterest, I think it’s a worthwhile topic to discuss, and I’d love to hear your opinion about it.
Lately, too, I’ve received some well-meaning, but horrified, e-mails, informing me that they saw a photo from my website on Pinterest. I had to write back and assure my friends that it’s ok. I actually like Pinterest, and I use it a lot, and sometimes (between you and me), I even post my own photos on there!
The whole idea of Stitch Fun is to explore some of the more obscures stitches or to explore more obscure – but fun! – ways of using common stitches.
Today’s Stitch Fun is a more obscure way of using a fairly well-known stitch, the Palestrina stitch.
Palestrina stitch is one of my all-time favorite embroidery stitches. It creates an interesting line with texture to it, thanks to the knots formed by the stitch. It’s also lots of fun to work. It’s got a great “stitch rhythm,” and once you get going with it, it works up quickly into a really attractive line.
If you haven’t added Palestrina stitch to your embroidery repertoire, I encourage you to try it out! For even more fun and more texture, you can even try beaded Palestrina stitch.
I wanted to show you a nice display of my embroidered eggs this morning, but in fact, I didn’t finish them after all. Life is sometimes like that!
Instead, I’ll share with you (again) this beautiful example of Pysanky (Ukrainian dyed Easter eggs), with an embroidered Ukrainian cloth in cross stitch, along with a pattern for my version of the cloth.
Your feedback from that article was much appreciated, and it prompted us (both Cindy and I) to look into printing options for the book. Alas, the expense of print-on-demand for a book this size is rather high, making it an unlikely investment.
So instead, I decided to make the book available as an e-book – that is, as a downloadable PDF that will work on computers and devices that have the ability to open PDFs.
I’m really excited about being able to make it available to you!
There are many special features to the e-book that make it worthwhile to own. How ’bout some highlights?
At the end of yesterday’s article, we ended up with the Agnus Dei removed from the ground fabric, and today, we’re going to “unlayer” the lamb on this piece.
By doing this, we’ll see how the foundations of a dimensional piece of embroidery are built up and eventually embroidered. Mostly, we’ll learn through photos – there’s not a lot of explanation required here (though that doesn’t usually keep me from talking, does it?!).
Given the symbolism of this piece and what I’m doing with it, I figured this would make an appropriate Good Friday topic!
Everything we’ve examined so far in this Deconstructing Goldwork series has built up, in a way, to the final central element on the vestment, which is the Agnus Dei symbol.
But all those little pieces – as interesting as they are – are not quite as complex as the focal point on the vestment, which is this symbol, the Agnus Dei:
Easter being right around the corner, and days flying by as they always do, I’ve fallen behind a bit on my egg embroidery!
Do you ever have those grand visions of preparing hand-made gifts for a whole list of people, only to find that you have run out of time? Well, that’s the case here.
I wanted to finish five more eggs before Easter, but I have judiciously narrowed that down to two possible finishes. The others will have to wait!
With Easter right around the corner, I think it’s a great day for a give-away! And this one reminds me particularly of Spring…
While I was visiting the Deep South a couple weekends ago, a little package arrived from South Africa with a couple of Trish Burr’s “supplement” embroidery-related books in it, and today, I’m giving away the pair!
I call them supplementary books, because they are really meant to accompany other books or designs by Trish. Take a look, and you’ll see what I mean.
Little Things … I’ve been working on Little Things for about 9 months!
What are Little Things? Well, they’re little embroidered things – in fact, they are part of a project book titled Lavender Honey & Other Little Things: A Little Primer on Embroidering & Finishing that will be available here on Needle ‘n Thread in the near future.
Earlier this week, I was delighted to see some new surface embroidery kits available here in the US. It’s difficult to find commercial surface embroidery kits that employ lots of different stitches – kits that are colorful, fun, and tasteful, so this collection is exciting!
I love little heads of golden wheat in embroidery. For some reason (maybe because I live in Kansas?), I’m always drawn to them. It’s amazing how many ways wheat can be rendered in embroidery!
Wheat is a prevalent element in ecclesiastical embroidery, so it isn’t surprising to find it featured on a vestment like the one we’re studying these days.
Now, we’re going to combine the concept of lattice stitches and lacing stitches to produce a raised, detached filling that can be lacy, light, and lovely.
Figure embroidery has been on my mind a lot lately. It’s actually one of my goals for this year, to work a piece of figure embroidery here on Needle ‘n Thread.
But you know those New Year’s resolutions… I figure if I resolve it one year, I’ve got at least five to make it happen. Or at least, that’s how it seems to work out!
In any case, I’ve been doing some reading lately, and the topic is sniggling about in my head, so I want to talk about it. Telling you all about it always helps me to clarify things.
Deconstructing the leaves on this goldwork piece was really fun – probably because it was so simple! Unlike the goldwork grapes, lily, and rose, the leaves are not layered with various elements worked onto foundations, all tightly fitting together. The leaves are not fiddly at all to take apart!
Today’s article almost ended up with the unfortunate title Lucky Lacy Leprechauns on Lime. But then I realized I wasn’t really writing about leprechauns. I’m not sure why I equate shamrocks with leprechauns…
“I want to design my own embroidery projects, but I’m not sure where to start.” I hear this a lot – design questions frequent my inbox just about as often as technique questions.
Right off the bat, you should know that I’m not a terrific artist. I can doodle, and I can draw “ornament” (roughly!), and I can even color with crayons! But if I sit down with the notion of sketching up a realistic portrait, I’m the type of draw-er that ends up with stick figures or caricatures.
Source books are a great aid when it comes to getting a little nudge of inspiration on drawing your own design. And books that actually teach you how to draw certain types of designs are even better. When you understand the basic structures that make up ornamental designs and how those structures developed, it’s a lot easier to doodle up your own ornaments.
Why? Primarily because it’s more visible, but there are several secondary reasons. One is that it’s a non-divisible thread, so I don’t have to worry about keeping strands of thread straight in the needle will recording. And of course, there’s always the fact that DMC produces a high quality thread, so it performs well. Good threads always perform better than inferior alternatives!
I also use it because it comes in lots and lots of colors, and it’s nice to be able to choose from a range of colors – although some colors work better than others for the camera.
I get a lot of questions about the thread and fabric I use in the videos. The other day, I received a question about the pearl cotton: “I want to use the same thread in a project I’m doing, but it only comes in two colors of green. One is bright and the other is blue-green, they don’t work well together. Any suggestions?”
With that stitch alone (which is really just a series of straight stitches worked in a given order – or you could think of it as an elongated kind of stem stitch), you can drum up some really pretty embroidered eggs using random swirly patterns or spiral patterns.
If you want to start adding different elements to your embroidered eggs, though, you might want to try a few other stitches.
Today, we’ll look at raised, woven stitches for embroidering on eggs. In the scheme of things, I find these types of stitches – which include ribbed spider web, woven wheel stitch, stitches like raised chain bands or raised stem stitch or the simple woven filling – the easiest and quickest stitches to work on eggs. And not only are the quicker and easier than other stitches, but they have a good “wow” value, too.
The other day, I was having One of Those Days. Do you ever have them?
I sat at my worktable, staring before me, not really sure what to tackle. And so, listlessly, without really thinking about what I was doing, I reached for my Stitch Fun lattice work sampler.
Mastering the Art of Embroidery is a newly released book by Sophie Long, a graduate of the Royal School of Needlework.
It’s a huge book in scope. When my book order arrived and I took the book out, my first thought was, “WOW. This is HUGE.” I thumbed through it, and was immediately gobsmacked by the number of photos in it.
And then I started reading it (from cover to cover), and I had to do that a few times before I felt I could put together a sensible review that I think is a fair evaluation of the book.
Here are my thoughts on this encyclopedic volume devoted to all kinds of embroidery techniques. First off, it’s a book that will make a decent reference book in your needlework library, but it’s more than just a reference book – we’ll see that below – and, while it does have its definite pros, there are a few cons as well. I think it’s worth noting both the pros and the cons and considering what you want out of the book before making a decision to purchase it.
Ahhh…. finally! Today, we are going to see how to add some embroidery to empty eggshells that we’ve already prepared by drawing the design, drilling, and cleaning (which is what we covered in the last article in this whole series on embroidered eggs).
If you’re just stopping by Needle ‘n Thread for the first time and want to know more about embroidering eggs, you can check out the Embroidered Eggs Index, where all the articles on the topic are listed.
Let’s look at a how to embroider lines and swirls on a whole egg shell, using a technique that creates a smooth, flowing line. Once you get this concept down, you’ll be able to apply the concept to other stitches. But I think it’s important to start simply, and then to move forward to the more complex.
There are several elements on the piece that deserve individual attention: the grapes (which we’ve already taken apart), the lily, the rose, the wheat ears, the leaves (all taken together), and finally, the central element, the Lamb.
Today, we’re going to look at the rose. It’s much the same as the lily, so we’ll talk a little bit about the order of work on it, the thread direction, the forms and padding, and then an interesting little clue that tells us a little more about the whole embroidered piece.
It may not seem to make sense for me to “review” a book here on Needle ‘n Thread that 1. isn’t available for the public; and 2. contains information you can find right here on Needle ‘n Thread. But I just have to share with you my joy and excitement, and my flabbergasted wonderment and gratitude, over this book!
Last week, I showed you the new thread cabinets in my workroom, with various threads getting sorted and stowed in them. Over the weekend, I tackled the last group of threads – goldwork threads! – and I’m so glad to have them sorted, because I have some exciting projects looming!
It’ll be nice to know what I have and what I don’t have.
Now it’s time to sit down with your eggs and work out your designs and do your drilling. This is the process I go through for the final egg preparation right before embroidering it, including getting the design on the egg, drilling, and final cleaning.
Today, just a quick post to put up an index for Hand Embroidery on Eggs, so that, if you decide you want to try it, you can find these tips all located in the same spot on Needle ‘n Thread.
It’s true! But I figure if everything we did with a needle and thread were easy, if every stitch we took and every project we tackled turned out perfect at the first go, would we really love needlework as much? Would we really love the satisfactory finish as much? Would we really relish the triumph of finishing well something that was challenging?
Probably not. It’d be a lot like living on vacation the rest of your life. Sounds great, but if you never have to work, where’s the fun in a vacation? Where’s the anticipation? Where’s the blissful regret at the conclusion?
I’m saying all this to convince myself, and to console myself over my recent fight with Hungarian braided chain stitch. It was a beautiful brawl! I’m not sure yet who won.
“Stash” is something that goes hand in hand with needlework. Even if you’re just starting out with embroidery, you’ll probably find pretty quickly that you can’t get too far away from building at least a wee stash of embroidery supplies, tools, fabrics, and whatnot.
Because embroidery is what I do (I’m very fortunate to be able to say that my hobby is my job), I have an extensive stash. I use my stash for planning embroidery projects for teaching or demonstration and for working up tutorials and follow-along projects for Needle ‘n Thread.
The most important part of my stash is my collection of embroidery threads. Because I live out in the boonies, it’s important to me to have threads I use on hand. I can’t just hop down to a needlework shop or to a craft or hobby shop for even regular embroidery floss. So I have a jolly collection of threads, and the storage and organization of them is an important consideration.
The last time we glimpsed inside this piece of old goldwork ecclesiastical embroidery, we looked at one petal of the lily and talked about how it was created. But the lily has more to show us, so we can’t just leave it and move on to the next goldwork element yet!
In fact, though it was interesting to look at one petal, the Really Interesting Stuff about the lily is ahead. When we take the whole lily apart, we’ll see that there’s a lot more to learn about this type of goldwork than simply how the technique is done.
For example, we’ll find out whether or not the same padding and card were used on the whole lily, we’ll find out how the stamens (stitched in bright check purl, or frieze brilliant) were worked on top of the gold, and we’ll discover the order in which the whole flower must have been worked.
Battlement couching is used in hand embroidery as a colorful filling stitch.
Continuing with different lattice stitches in the Stitch Fun series, today we’re going to look at battlement couching and see just how easy it is to do!
I think this is my Favorite laid thread / lattice technique – I love the way it looks when it’s worked with several colors! When it’s just worked with one color, it’s kind of ho-hum, but when you start adding a gradient of color, it’s much more exciting!
If you’re keen to put your needle and thread through whole, empty egg shells to create rather unique little Easter ornaments (or ornaments for any time of the year), then you’ll also need a few embroidery supplies, one of which I find essential.
So let’s look at the supplies you’ll want to have on hand to embroidery your eggs. Most of these, you’ll probably have in your stash – in fact, embroidering eggs can be a great stash-busting project! Bits of ribbon and specialty thread that might not otherwise get used can be put to good use embellishing eggs.
Most of the topics in Stitch Glitch are reader-generated. Normally, these articles come about because a reader wants to know “How do I…?” and a photo tutorial is generally the most helpful way to answer.
So, yep. That was the plan. Clean up. Straighten up. Organize. The Mid-Week Re-Group & Re-Charge. The Wednesday Afternoon Ritual.
Only I had this box of vintage silks that needed my attention. Or… er…. that caught my attention.
And my attention was happy to oblige!
You are my justification for the distraction. After all, it’s vintage silk. It’s fun to look at. The tags make great reading. And we can even glean some good tips from them!
Remember last week when I mentioned that I’d taken up embroidering on eggs? Well, it’s a mammoth subject to write about!
To make it more manageable, I’m going to divide the instructions over several articles that will appear intermittently over the next few weeks. The articles will be filed away into a series under “Tips and Techniques” here on Needle ‘n Thread, so that they are easily accessible for you.
Today, let’s talk about preliminary supplies.
Now, keep in mind, this is my approach, developed from piddling around with the concept for the past year. It’s just the way I do it – and there are always other ways to do things. So if you find a better way, don’t hesitate to use it!
My One Weakness (among all my other One Weaknesses – there are many!) is vintage linens embroidered with whitework. I have a hard time resisting beautiful vintage linens, and I’ve collected quite a few over the years. When I can’t get my paws on “new” additions to the collection because the budget just won’t allow – and because, really, where could I possibly put another one? – I have a worrying habit of crawling the internet for photos of luscious old linens embellished with whitework.
It’s a curse. Or a blessing. It all depends on how you look at it! I find heaps of inspiration in old embroidered linens. They are a great springboard for design ideas, and a wonderful source for the study of embroidery techniques.
Several years ago (back in 2008!), I wrote a short article about a vintage embroidered linen with a pretty crocheted edge. The whitework embroidery on the linen is very pretty, but the real eye-catcher on the whole piece is the edging.
Last week, we looked at this high-relief embroidered goldwork lily, taking a preliminary look at how it was made by making some observations about it before taking it apart.
I love hearing from Larissa and seeing what she is up to – she never fails to amaze me! If you use Pinterest, she has some lovely boards on Embroidery. While you’re there, check out all her antique ecclesiastical pieces from her own collections – absolutely gorgeous stuff!
Larissa recently sent me some photos of some embroidery done by her friend Elena Emelina, and of course, I had to seek permission to share! One aspect that really caught my attention was Lena’s ingenious use of pearl purl in her metal embroidery.
Lena’s work is vivacious and captivating! I thought you might enjoy seeing it, too.
You can click on the photos below for a larger version.
Earlier this week, we began deconstructing various elements on a piece of old ecclesiastical embroidery, to see how the elements were originally made and to learn something about the materials and techniques used.
Egg art has always fascinated me – I love carved eggs, painted eggs, Ukrainian eggs (Pysanky) and the like. And not just at Easter, either, though that’s when eggs really come into fashion. I think eggs make beautiful Christmas ornaments and even year round displays.
I like natural, naked eggs, too – a bowl of blown eggs in natural soft blues, greens, whites, browns, and speckles is so simply pretty in its own right.
But anyway, when I saw the embroidered eggs, I was bitten by a bug…
I do a lot of dabbling. And I’m dabbling with a few other things right now, too – one of which I’ll start leaking out to you very soon. I’m excited about it and having So Much Fun with it! Ooooooooooooooh. Can’t wait to show you!
But… but… I must curtail my excitement and stick with today’s subject – which is this Stitch Fun lattice sampler. It’s a lot of fun, too, and for those of you who picked up the Jacobean Jumble pattern and are using it for a similar sampler, I thought I’d show you what I’m doing with it. I’ll show you what I like and what I don’t like, and reiterate an important tip for working with lattice stitches.
Here on Needle ‘n Thread, I like to organize indexes for the various projects that I blog about in a series. You can find all these project indexes listed under “Tips & Techniques” in the main menu here on Needle ‘n Thread.
I’ve found that project indexes are a good way to keep a project organized, so that you can easily find it again and go through it to find tips and techniques that we cover in the process of completing the project.
So this is officially the project index for this series on Deconstructing Goldwork.
Today, I’ll tell you my reasoning behind why I’m taking this piece of embroidery apart, and we’ll start the deconstruction process together. Follow along with me here to see what these grapes are made of and how they’re made, and what it’s like to take a piece of goldwork like this apart!
Several years ago, the following piece of old ecclesiastical goldwork embroidery was handed over to me. It is beyond use as far as an ecclesiastical piece is concerned, and rather than leaving it in some storage cupboard somewhere, the general consensus was that I could take it apart, save some hard-to-find materials on it, and learn something in the process.
Overall, though the piece is attractive in parts and might look ok from afar, it is not really a well-designed ecclesiastical piece. Still, I like certain individual elements of the design.
This is an excellent piece for learning. Although I would never consider taking certain embroideries apart, this one is perfect for “deconstructing” in order to learn from it. Since I’m photographing the process and discoveries, I thought I would share them with you.
Textiles, embroidery, fabric, clothing – a study of all of these in any given country’s history provides insight into the values and traditions of that have permeated a nation over the centuries.
Hand embroidery has played a significant role in the fashions, the arts, and the religious and cultural interests of most countries, in one way or another. And so, although I generally don’t get into “costuming” and the making of historical or re-creation clothing, I do love to study the records of historical fashion from different countries.
This is a technique that’s been on my mind for a while – a Long While! I rarely see it on goldwork pieces being designed and embroidered today, but it shows up often on ecclesiastical embroidery pieces from the past.
It’s a type of raised goldwork. It looks like satin stitch (it’s actually surface satin stitch, or laid work, couched at the sides) worked over card or board or other foundations. We talked about this technique a little bit last year, when exploring this piece of old goldwork.
Here’s a bit of needlework news that may thrill you silly. It thrills me silly, anyway!
Needlework Supplies on Sale!
The first bit is about a sale.
Oh my. Sale + Needlework Supplies = Giddy-Gladness!
If you’ve been holding out to purchase some good embroidery supplies, February is a great month to do it over at Hedgehog Handworks! Hedgehog is having their annual 15% off sale, which often comes in January, but this year is for the whole month of February.
In addition to that, we’ll look at some new needlepainting resources that Trish has recently released. For those who wish to perfect their needlepainting skills and have a color resource at their fingertips, you’ll want to take a look!
Just a really tiny embroidery tip today! It’s tiny. But important!
You know those dirty hoop rings that develop (especially on lighter colored fabric) around the edge of your hoop? Or the soiled look that might develop over time on embroidery that you’re working in hand, without a hoop? Much of the dirt, grime, and soiling that subtly develops on an embroidery project comes initially from your hands.
Lately in the Stitch Fun series, I’ve been playing with lattice stitch variations and whipped and laced stitch variations. When playing with filling or line stitches (as opposed to individual elements, like the raised spider daisy), I like to have some kind of pattern or drawing to “play” in.
Think of the pattern as a sandbox. It’s nice to have something to contain all the sand – to keep it from spilling about and getting too messy – but you still have plenty of scope inside the sandbox for creative play. That’s pretty much how I approach patterns like the Jacobean Jumble.
For stitchers who find it difficult to get their thread into the tiny eye of the needle, there are solutions to this difficulty! If you have a hard time threading your needles, don’t let this prevent you from indulging in embroidery. The trick is to find a solution that works for you and helps you overcome the difficulty once and for all.
When it comes to tools to help you thread your needles, there are plenty of different needle threaders available on the market. But sometimes, keeping track of another little tool – and one that can be awkward to use – may not be your idea of an ideal solution.
Ok. I realize this is a relative statement. But by virtue of the fact that every day, no matter where we live, brings us a little closer to the next spring, I can legitimately say “Spring is coming!”
So, Spring is coming! And to celebrate, here are some Beautiful Butterflies!
Working on a very strange looking sampler pattern that I’m calling Jacobean Jumble, I’ve been embroidering different Stitch Fun stitch combinations and varieties onto the sampler. With a sampler that is made up of shapes rather than lines, you can especially see how filling stitches like these lattice variations can work on your own projects.
Just popping in this morning with a brief project update – I finished one end of the Hungarian Redwork Runner! Yep, the project creepeth along, but a little creeping here, and little creeping there, and eventually, the embroidery on this thing will be finished!
Did you know you can completely change the look and the function of an embroidery stitch by either lacing it or whipping around it with another thread? Well, you can! There are all kinds of embroidery stitches that can either laced or whipped, and the effects you can achieve with the stitches vary, depending on what type of thread you use, what colors you choose, and so forth.
So let’s play with some stitches and have a bit of fun with lacing and whipping. Then, next time you’re dabbling about with your embroidery stitches, try these techniques out to see what new combinations you can come up with!
When we really get into any hobby, art, or craft – when it becomes a significant part of our lives – the tendency to accessorize becomes part of the the whole experience.
That’s not to say that we can’t dabble in our hobbies or delve into our arts and crafts without tools and accessories, but if it’s true that the right tool makes a job easier, then isn’t it also true that the right tool that happens to be beautiful can add another degree of pleasure to the pursuit?
“Ground Fabric” sounds funny. If you’ve been around embroidery for a while, you probably know what it means, but for newbies, when they hear the term “ground fabric,” it raises questions.
I don’t mean ground, as in the past tense of grind – we aren’t putting the fabric in the coffee grinder (well, not today, anyway). And I don’t mean ground, as in dirt. By all means, keep your fabric out of the dirt! By “ground,” I mean the foundation upon which embroidery is worked. So, “ground fabric” is your embroidery fabric – it’s the foundation of your embroidery.
Right now, I’m in a Ground Fabric Quandary. I have a few projects in the Test Run phase. They’re ready to be worked out, but I’m oscillating over choices for ground fabrics. So let’s chat a bit about ground fabrics!
Until 7th grade, my family lived in New England. I have the best memories of growing up in a little town called Boxborough, in Massachusetts.
The colonial history of the area in which I grew up has always fascinated me. Living not far from Concord and Lexington, we field-tripped to all the popular haunts from that historical era.
And of course, as an adult, I look back on the places there that I’ve never been to, but wish I had. Places like Plymouth Plantation. Never been! Martha’s Vineyard – never been! I always think that I’ll go back and see it all with the eyes of an adult – visiting the same places, experiencing new places, and testing whether or not the charm of the area where I grew up is as real to me now as it is in my memory.
When the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston published the book Women’s Work: Embroidery in Colonial Boston, it struck a chord with me. The title encompasses two things I love: my happy memories of the place I grew up and embroidery. So of course, I had to get the book!
The first announcement – registration is now open for the Vintage Strawberries online needlepainting class. The class is now sold out! (Had no idea that many spots would go that quickly! Thanks to all who jumped aboard!)
And the second announcement? Five winners of these great little “Stitch Beautifully” zipper bags!
Normally, the books reviewed on Needle ‘n Thread are embroidery technique, project, or history books. But let’s deviate a bit! This book is an example of needlework in action.
It’s a children’s book. If you have children in your life – kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, godchildren, friends’ children, any children! – this is a fun book that makes a great gift!
A couple years ago, I reviewed Salley Mavor’s book, Felt Wee Folk, which is a project book that demonstrates how to combine felt and embroidery and dimensional objects and characters into little pictures or story boards. It is a wonderfully instructive book, and if you like working with felt, embroidery, and sculpted figures, chances are, you’ll love this book!
But today, I want to show you Salley Mavor’s creations at work, in her book Pocketful of Posies. It is, simply put, an enchanting book.
It’s strawberry time again here on Needle ‘n Thread! It’s your chance to participate in a thoroughly instructive class in needlepainting (long and short stitch shading), taught by Margaret Cobleigh.
In today’s article I’ll tell you about the class, including some insights gleaned from students who participated in last year’s run, plus let you know exactly when registration will be open. That way, if you want to take the class, you can mark your calendars and jump in to reserve your space as soon as registration opens.
Today, I’m going to take some time out from regular blog articles, tutorials, and stitchy talk to introduce you to a very special crew of needlework-related businesses – the advertisers here on Needle ‘n Thread.
The businesses that you see speckling my website are truly “hand picked,” specially selected because they fit. So while the advertisers on Needle ‘n Thread do me a service by off-setting some of the cost of running Needle ‘n Thread, they are also here to serve you – to give you top-notch resources for your hand embroidery and needlework needs.
I’d like to tell you a little bit about their businesses, and what they offer for the needleworker.
Stitch Beautifully. I think this is a great motto for embroiderers – something that we all try to aspire to in our own way.
Admittedly, I don’t always succeed! There are days when I make a perfect mess with my stitching, and I have to rip it out and start again. But that doesn’t keep me from aspiring to stitch beautifully. Pretty much, all my efforts are aimed towards that simply put phrase.
And today’s give-away is aimed at keeping us all inspired to Stitch Beautifully!
The other day, we looked at Griffin Stitch, a lattice filling, as part of the Stitch Fun series. While playing about with that particular lattice variation, I discovered something that you might discover, too, if you’re fiddling about with lattice stitches any time soon.
“Seeing red” is an idiom in English that means “annoyed” or “irritated” or even downright angry.
Hand embroidery rarely makes me see red. I always figure there’s no point in getting angry when embroidering, even if I make a major mistake – after all, what’s to be angry about? It’s just embroidery. And mistakes in embroidery can always be solved in one way or another. A few snips with the scissors in a good case scenario – chucking it in the bin, in a bad case scenario. But nothing worth getting angry about.
On the other hand, Slightly Irritated is another question. I can be slightly irritated with my embroidery, especially if I think it should be moving along faster than it is, in the amount of time I’ve been working on it. I mean, really! What nerve! You’d think an embroidery project would speed itself up now and then.
This is as Absolute Beginner’s Tip – it’s something most embroiderers learn relatively early in the stitching game. But if no one has told you to do this and why you should, it’s good to know!
Neatening the edge of your fabric before you transfer your embroidery design is a step you will never regret. Forgetting to do it, though, can lead to lots of little irritations. And that’s the reason I’m bringing the point up today. Who needs little irritations while embroidering? None of us!
Last week, I received a beautiful gift in the mail. And inside it was a note from the sender, explaining the enclosed scarf. She was passing it on to me, because it was buried in a drawer and she was afraid it would eventually be sent to a thrift store. She thought I might appreciate it – and she was So Right!
I love this scarf! I love it for lots of reasons – and I can’t wait to show it to you!
Time to play with a stitch and have a bit of Stitch Fun!
This stitch is particularly fun, because it’s colorful, it’s a little complex, but it still works up fairly quickly.
Griffin Stitch is a lattice filling used in hand embroidery, counted work, and canvas work. As with most lattice fillings, it’s easiest worked on an even-weave fabric, but it can also be worked on a plain weave fabric, and I’ll talk about that as we go through this tutorial.
Thread, thread, thread. I love talking about needlework thread! Here’s one you don’t hear much about, but it does exist, so I thought I’d tell you about it.
To demonstrate the point, I used a thread called DMC Retors Mat 4 (Art 89). It’s a strange name. And we don’t hear about this thread too often here in the States, because, although it’s a DMC thread, like many DMC threads, it’s not distributed by DMC USA. So, if a shop carries it, it’s imported from DMC in France.
The start of a new year often involves resolutions to learn something new, or to do something different during the course of the new year. Here are four needlework possibilities that you might want to explore, if you’re itching for some new direction in needlework for the upcoming year.
If you love embroidery and needlework books as much as I do, you’ll understand why I have to share this book find with you! This isn’t a Needlework Book Review Proper, because… well, there’s not a lot to actually review in this case (it’s mostly patterns), and because it’s not a book you’ll be able to find readily.
If you do find a copy of it, though, and if you’re keen on folk embroidery, you might grab it while you can! I have had this on my “search” list for a while, and a couple months ago, I finally found a copy.
It’s so much fun to see what’s going on in the embroidery lives of readers here on Needle ‘n Thread!
Today, let’s look at an example of a reader’s embroidery, one that I think is a really fun idea that opens up all kinds of possibilities for household decor!
In the days leading up to Christmas, I didn’t have a chance to make much progress on any needlework! To those of you who gave hand embroidered gifts for Christmas and finished them all up on time, you have my enduring admiration. As for me, I’m afraid I was a bit of a slug in that regard.
Still, I did manage a wee bit o’ stitching on the Hungarian Redwork Runner. Not a whole lot, but at least some.