July 12, 2024

Cornflowers Stitch-Along 5: Creating the Scissor Envelope

Today, we’ll look at the first part of finishing the Cornflowers Scissor Envelope, our current Stitch Snippet stitch-along here on Needle ‘n Thread!

Sadly, I can’t fit the entire finishing of the project in one blog post (it’s around 40 photos), so we’ll do half today and half on Monday.

If you are just joining in on this adventure, you can find all the previous articles for this stitch-along available here in the Cornflowers Project Index.

If you would like are looking for materials for stitching your own Cornflowers scissor case, you can find the Cornflowers Materials Kit available here.

For members on Patreon, the finishing will be covered in one downloadable PDF, which will be posted in the Needle ‘n Thread community on Patreon this weekend. Hopefully, before today is out, that will be available. I’m also working on a little video.

Let’s take a look at the first steps in finishing the Cornflowers project!

Cornflowers Scissor Envelope part 5: Creating the Envelope

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July 10, 2024

Tool Talk: Milliner vs. Bullion Needles – What’s the Diff?

Recently, I had a discussion with a stitching friend about needles. She saw some of the needles I was using in this tutorial and this tutorial, and she wanted to know what kind they were.

So we got to talking about milliner needles, the sizes they’re available in, what sizes we like to use, and about a needle made and marketed by Tulip as a “Bullion Knot Needle” and described as a “big eye straight needle” in size Long and size Regular.

And that brought us to these questions: What is the difference between a milliner (also sometimes called a “straw” needle) and this “Bullion Knot” needle manufactured by Tulip? Aren’t the “Bullion Knot” needles just milliner needles repackaged under a different name? (No, they aren’t.) And why would we need a “Bullion Knot” needle if we already had milliner needles to make bullions and other wrap stitches?

I figured I’d answer her questions here. So today, we’re going to discuss the Milliner Needle and the Bullion Knot Needle to see what the differences are between the two.

Milliner Needles vs Bullion Needles - what is the difference?

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July 8, 2024

Figure Embroidery Close-Ups: the Mind Boggles

Good morning and Happy Monday! I’m so glad to be back from a long holiday weekend, and I hope you are, too!

Summer’s really trucking along! I arrived back home in Kansas early last week after being away for about 9 days. You couldn’t tell I was gone, could you? I planned ahead pretty well this year! Of course, I had my trusty-rusty phone with me to keep up as best as I could while away from home.

When I got home, though, the middle of the week involved playing the inevitable Catch-Up Game, followed by the holiday with some weekend events to navigate – all of which involved falling behind a bit. But now…. now!! We’re back to the Bliss of Routine and Reality! There is much good to be said for Routine!

As the Routine settles back to normal here at the studio, you can expect the following Grand Events this week:

Today, we’re going to look at some figure embroidery up close; Wednesday, we’ll have a little Tool Talk and compare a couple needles that may be of interest, especially for an upcoming tutorial; and Friday, we will finish Cornflowers. Yay!

Hand Embroidery Tutorials

July 3, 2024

Stitch Tutorial: Easy Scalloped Beaded Edge

Why, welcome to Wednesday! We’re on the approach to a holiday weekend here in the States. Tomorrow’s Independence Day, and for many, it’s the opportunity to take a long weekend and do summery things.

Perhaps you’ll be indulging in some stitching this weekend, too, and if so, here’s a little Stitch Fun tutorial that you might enjoy trying out.

This is a simple approach to making a very effective and really kind of cute scalloped, beaded edge. It’s fun, easy, and quick!

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July 1, 2024

Cornflowers Stitch-Along 4: All the Flowers

Hello and Welome to July! Golly, this year is going fast.

It is time to move on to the colorful and exciting part of our current stitch-along here on Needle ‘n Thread! Today, we’ll be addressing the cornflowers. This is a photo-heavy article, but please read the instructions as well!

If you are just joining in on this Stitch-Along, you can find all the previous articles for this project listed here, in the Cornflowers Scissor Envelope Project Index.

You can find the materials kit for this project available here, if you would like to have all the materials on hand that I used to create the scissor envelope shown in these lessons.

If you are a member of the Needle ‘n Thread community here on Patreon, you have already received this installment of Cornflowers as a handy PDF for downloading and printing. It was posted this past weekend on Patreon, so if you haven’t picked it up yet, hop on over and pick it up!

Cornflowers Embroidery Project - Stitch Along

Hand Embroidery Tutorials

June 28, 2024

Stitch Tip: More Explorations of Extra-Wide Cast-on Stitch

Last week, we explored an extra-wide cast-on embroidery stitch, using two needles to help form wide loops for the cast-on stitch.

Today, we’re going to look at a second approach to the same concept.

Before we start, if you’re not familiar with cast-on stitch, you might want to watch the video tutorial for cast-on stitch here, and you might check out the other instructional resources listed at the beginning of last week’s article. it helps to have a good idea about how the basic stitch is formed before getting entangled in adventurous stitch play!

Extra-wide cast-on stitches embroidery stitch

Hand Embroidery Tutorials

June 26, 2024

Cornflowers Stitch-Along 3: All the Leaves

Last week, we embroidered all the stems on the Cornflowers project, which is our current stitch-along project on Needle ‘n Thread.

Today, we’re going to embroider all the leaves!

If you’re just joining in on this Stitch Snippet stitch-along for Cornflowers: a Scissor Envelope, you can catch up on previous installments in the stitch-along and pick up tips and techniques that we’ve already covered, by visiting the Cornflowers Project Index here.

If you would like to make your own Cornflowers Scissor Case, you’ll find the materials kit for this project available here.

If you’re a member of the Needle ‘n Thread community on Patreon, I posted Part 3: All the Leaves in a downloadable PDF format for you yesterday, so feel free to pick up that download! Part 4 will be released this Friday afternoon on Patreon, so you can get a head start on the flowers over the weekend.

And now, let us tackle the graceful leaves on our cornflowers!

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Cornflowers Stitch-Along 5: Creating the Scissor Envelope

Tool Talk: Milliner vs. Bullion Needles – What’s the Diff?

Figure Embroidery Close-Ups: the Mind Boggles

Stitch Tutorial: Easy Scalloped Beaded Edge

Cornflowers Stitch-Along 4: All the Flowers

Stitch Tip: More Explorations of Extra-Wide Cast-on Stitch

Cornflowers Stitch-Along 3: All the Leaves

Connect with Mary

How-To Videos

Embroidery Tips & Techniques

Connect with Mary

How-To
Videos