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
Contact Mary
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
Contact Mary
September 4, 2014
Last week, I posted the I & J monograms for this particular alphabet.
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.
September 3, 2014
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!
September 2, 2014
Besides the Secret Garden hummingbird embroidery project, I’ve been doing other embroidery-related stuff behind the scenes in my little spot here in Kansas.
September 1, 2014
Happy Monday! And if you’re enjoying a three-day weekend today, double-happy Monday to you!
It’s Labor Day here in the US. To celebrate, I’m going to labor with some stitchy stuff – and a little cleaning and organizing.
But in the meantime, I want to show you the top of the wings, or the wing “caps” on the hummingbird.
Last week, we left off here:
August 29, 2014
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!
And today, courtesy of Stackpole Books, I’m giving away a copy of Cheryl Fall’s Simply Samplers, which I reviewed earlier this week.
August 28, 2014
What do you get when you cross a hummingbird wing, a frustrated embroiderer, the wrong colors, and a pair of sharp scissors?
Right.
A larger orts pile.
I’m sure there’s a joke in there. If I tried really hard, I could probably string this whole thing out into a series of lousy puns.
But I’m too nice to put you through that!
August 27, 2014
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.
