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
June 21, 2014
Since I haven’t posted anything on the Secret Garden embroidery project lately (I haven’t been home for the last couple weeks – did you miss me?), today I want to share with you someone else’s Secret Garden project.
My reason for honing in on Lynette’s version of the Secret Garden Hummingbirds will be obvious once you see it!
June 20, 2014
The long & short stitch is one of those embroidery stitches that is worth learning, and that’s why I published a series of step-by-step lessons on a Long & Short Stitch Sampler several years ago.
The purpose of the Long & Short Stitch Sampler is to take the beginner through progressively more difficult aspects of shading using long & short stitch.
Most of the embroiderers from the Needle ‘n Thread community featured today said they started out with the Long & Short Stitch Sampler, and then worked their way forward to other types of stitching involving long & short stitch, most specifically needle painting (or creating realistic looking embroidery using long & short stitch shading and other stitches).
June 19, 2014
The other day, I posted the first three letters of the Delicate Spray monogram alphabet that I’m adding to the hand embroidery patterns here on Needle ‘n Thread.
One of the aspects that I really like about these scrolly-scripty type letters is that they are easy to combine into true monograms – groups of letters – rather than just using them as decorative initials.
Today, let’s look at some ways that individual decorative letters can be combined into groups of letters to form a monogram.
June 18, 2014
The Crewel Rooster is one of the step-by-step embroidery projects available on Needle ‘n Thread.
He was an experiment in combining various types of wool threads and various stitches, using whatever happened to be available, wool-wise, in my stash.
Since I’ve had lots of questions about the Crewel Rooster since he was born, I wasn’t surprised to receive a few contributions from readers in which he was featured.
The surprising thing is that all the rooster contributions arrived in my email on the same day, within a couple hours of each other! I’ve since proclaimed a National Rooster Day.
Each rooster below represents a completely different approach to the same embroidery design, so I think it’ll be fun to see them all on one page, demonstrating that an embroidery design can always be personalized with your own thread and stitch choices.
June 17, 2014
If you’re traveling this summer and you happen to make it to London – or, more accurately, to Oxford – after the first of August, and if you’re a 17th century embroidery fan, you’ll not want to miss The Eye of the Needle exhibit at the Ashmolean!
June 16, 2014
I have A Thing for hand embroidered monograms. I love them – and it doesn’t matter whether they’re my initials or not. I just love them.
Embroidered monograms are popular these days. If you don’t believe me, search “embroidered monogram” on Pinterest, and you’ll come up with a whole slew of them – enough to keep you busy browsing for hours!
So I was delighted to receive several emails from readers here on Needle ‘n Thread who have been dabbling with embroidered monograms in a variety of styles, and it is my pleasure to share these masterpieces with you!
I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
Here’s the first one:
June 14, 2014
It’s time to add a new monogram alphabet for hand embroidery to the embroidery patterns page!
I love this particular alphabet! It’s from the late 1800’s – early 1900’s (it came out in two different editions of a French publication). I’ve cleaned it up and added the missing letters from the alphabet (I and W… or was it J and W?).
Often, in old publications that offered alphabets for hand embroidery, certain letters were left out.
Sometimes, it was the I or J, because they can be interchanged for each other. Sometimes, the W was left out, because the M could be flipped. Sometimes, the alphabets are missing X’s or Z’s – maybe because there aren’t as many people out there whose names begin with X and Z? Or perhaps because, in the particular language in which the embroidery pamphlet was printed, the letter didn’t figure as a common letter for the beginning of names?
Whatever the case, eventually, the complete alphabet will be available here on Needle ‘n Thread. We’ll start with A, B, and C.
