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.

When Hazel kindly sent me the Late Harvest embroidery kit I showed you the other day, she included a copy of Crewel Intentions.

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!

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.

And next to the tomato was a pair of….

scissors!

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.