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Mary Corbet

writer and founder

 

I learned to embroider when I was a kid, when everyone was really into cross stitch (remember the '80s?). Eventually, I migrated to surface embroidery, teaching myself with whatever I could get my hands on...read more

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April 30, 2025

Finally: Some Production and Finishes!

 

Amazon Books

I’ve been tying up loose ends.

That sounds ominous and rather old-time gangster. It’s not really what I mean. Anna is still alive.

We’ve been trying to clear our plate of projects, bit by bit, so that we can move on to — more projects!

Two projects that we’ve finally managed to move along and get out are these ready-to-stitch towel sets. We’ve shown you glimpses of them previously. And here they are, finished and ready to go!

Here’s a bit about them, with a few stitching and color tips.

French Sampler ready to stitch towel set
Continue reading “Finally: Some Production and Finishes!”

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April 28, 2025

Coton a Broder vs Stranded Cotton: What You Need to Know

 

With the interest and response to Elisabetta Sforza’s latest book, The ABC of Padded Stitch – which, incidentally, will be back in stock by this Wednesday – I’ve had a boatload of questions about coton a broder, the cotton embroidery thread that Elisabetta recommends for much of the satin stitching in her book.

I’ve written about coton a broder quite a bit on Needle ‘n Thread. It is one of my favorite embroidery threads for monogramming, along with cotton floche.

I use it and floche in Stitch Sampler Alphabet, which is my most popular PDF project book. The decorative initials in Stitch Sampler Alphabet really show off the qualities of both coton a broder and floche for surface embroidery (although you can use regular embroidery floss for those projects, as well).

Today, I just want to present some quick information about coton a broder, compared to stranded cotton – or what we call “embroidery floss” here in the US. Since there’s a little confusion between the two, I thought I could quickly highlight some distinctions for you.

coton a broder vs stranded cotton embroidery floss
Continue reading “Coton a Broder vs Stranded Cotton: What You Need to Know”

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April 23, 2025

Behind the Scenes: Developing the Eye Spy

 

One of our favorite pre-holiday activities is developing Eye-Spy puzzles for the blog. It’s so much fun – even if it is a bit of a time hog.

Still, it’s fun, and I know some of you out there enjoy the puzzles. Once in a while, we’ve had to take a hiatus from them, because they are so time-consuming, but now we try to plan in advance so that we can work the set-up, photography session, and take-down in.

I thought I’d explain a bit about what we do and how we do it, since some of you have commented on them and wondered about their preparation and so forth.

So this isn’t really embroidery-related, but we do try to incorporate plenty of embroidery-related stuff into the puzzle-scape of the eye-spy layout.

Easter eye-spy 2025 miscellaneous photos
Continue reading “Behind the Scenes: Developing the Eye Spy”

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April 15, 2025

The Matter of the Blue Shelf

 

Perhaps color is an age thing.

Or maybe appreciation of color is an age thing? or could it be desire of color?

I don’t know.

I find that, more and more, I like color. LOTS of color. I like more color. I like color combinations, and more color combinations. I like color contrasts.

And I don’t rightly care all that much if the colors I like are “in” or not. Fashion color trends don’t seem to dictate my choices of – or desire for – color.

Is it an age thing? Or have I just become more open-minded?

I will chalk it up to the latter, and I will chalk it up to the latter for all those people out there who are accused of garish color choices “because they’re old.” I do not think it is age. I think it is the understanding and acceptance of the fact that Life Should Be Colorful. Color begets joy, darn it.

I got to thinking about this in depth for two reasons: 1. color plays a Huge Part in embroidery life;

And 2. Well…

There’s the Matter of The Blue Shelf.

The Blue Shelf in the studio
Continue reading “The Matter of the Blue Shelf”

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April 8, 2025

Happy Birthday to Me! Let’s Celebrate!

 

Today, I’m celebrating another milestone by becoming one day older – because let’s face it: I’m really only a day older than I was yesterday.

In fact, following this line of logic, I’ve decided to start calculating my age differently. By my new calculations, I must be somewhere around 20,000.

“It’s your birthday?! Why, how old are you?”

“I’m 20,000, give or take…”

It just feels so right.

For my birthday, I thought we’d have our own little party here on Needle ‘n Thread, by having a give-away.

Additionally, we’re going to have a sale! Yay! More on that below the give-away!

Birthday give-away and sale, 2025
Continue reading “Happy Birthday to Me! Let’s Celebrate!”