January 5, 2015
Shisha Mirrors for Embroidery
Remember the impromptu hand embroidered Christmas ornament I finished right before Christmas?
January 3, 2015
Breath of Spring Embroidery Kit – A Winner!
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!
To help speed spring along, I’ll be mailing out this Breath of Spring embroidery kit to one of you next week. But to whom?
Let’s find out!
January 2, 2015
Bloomin’ Branch – A Stylized Motif for Hand Embroidery
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.
January 1, 2015
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
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.
December 31, 2014
Red, Red Everywhere and Not an End in Sight!
Happy New Year’s Eve, folks! It’s the last day of 2014, and I have something Very Important to Say.
Are you ready?
Because this is really going to come as a shock, I’m sure…
I didn’t finish either embroidery project that I wanted to finish by year’s end – namely, the Hungarian Redwork Runner or the Secret Garden Hummingbirds.
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.
And then I took off on a completely different embroidery project, which is halfway typical of me.
(Any distraction will do, when it comes to my propensity for procrastination!)
But… to make today’s article a little more exciting, I’d like to stir up some serious controversy.
You see, I did something different on the second hummingbird.
December 30, 2014
Life as a Needle in my Studio
The last time I wrote about hand embroidery needles and how to choose them and use them, some of you asked how I organize my needles, so that I know which needle is what type and size.
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:
December 29, 2014
A Breath of Spring – in Winter (and a Give-Away!)
Happy Last Monday of 2014!
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!
And that brings me to an embroidery project that I worked six years ago, called Breath of Spring.