One question that surfaced several times in our recent discussion of tambour embroidery here on Needle ‘n Thread is whether or not you can combine tambour embroidery with other types of surface embroidery stitches in one project.

I’d say the point to remember whenever you’re pursuing any type of adventure in surface embroidery is that you aren’t bound by definite rules that say you can or can’t combine this technique or that technique. While tambour embroidery may be a specific technique that’s most often seen used in particular ways, there’s no reason why it can’t be combined with other techniques and used in any way you want to use it.

That’s the real fun of surface embroidery! There are so many variables, it never gets boring!

On that note, here’s the beginning of a little project that I’m using for further practice in tambour work.