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
October 30, 2013
I’ve said it before. I’ll probably say it again some day.
I Love Pearl Purl.
Pearl purl is one of my Favorite Ever Goldwork Threads. It’s a hefty thread, especially in the larger sizes (like 3 and 4), and it makes a gorgeous outline.
Pearl purl is a very solid metal thread, as it’s simply a coil of solid metal wire that, when un-stretched, looks like a line of little golden beads, like this:
October 29, 2013
There once was a girl-bird named Gertrude McFuzz
And she had the smallest plain tail ever was.
One droopy-drop feather. That’s all that she had.
And, oh! That one feather made Gertrude so sad!
A couple weeks ago, I mentioned that I was practicing tambour embroidery, trying to get up to speed with a tambour needle (or hook).
Tambour embroidery – essentially the chain stitch worked with a tiny hook on the surface of the fabric – is one of those techniques that I’d dabbled in. Though I had managed to make the hook work the way it’s supposed to, I never went beyond that, to the point of picking up speed and developing any kind of ease and accuracy.
October 28, 2013
Couching goldwork threads can feel a bit therapeutic. It’s a slow process – not a technique that you rush – but it’s very repetitive. And it’s not difficult!
The only time it gets a bit hairy is when you suddenly realize things aren’t fitting together quite as well as you hoped. I had a little panic moment when couching the gold threads around the inner frame of the Mission Rose.
October 25, 2013
Playing around with shisha embroidery stitches can be somewhat addicting! This is what happens: when I’m in the middle of one method, a potential variation occurs to me, and I have to try it.
That’s how this particular variation came about. I don’t think you’ll find this one in a book – it was one of those “make it up as you go and hope it works out” approaches. That being said, there really are very few “original” stitches out there. Most stitches are made up of components of known stitches, and this one is no exception!
October 24, 2013
As promised, I’m putting together some tambour embroidery instructional resources for those of you who are interested in learning this technique.
Today, we’ll look at three books that are good for instruction in tambour work. These are the three of four books that I’ve found most useful – I’m saving the fourth one for a full review, which I’ll have for you a little later.
In the meantime, though, these three are good. Only one of the three is completely dedicated to tambour work, while the other two have useful chapters on the subject.
October 23, 2013
It’s been a while since I’ve worked on my Hungarian Redwork Runner, which was set up as a “grab and go” embroidery project exactly a year ago.
Well, fooling around with the tambour needle recently and practicing tambour embroidery led me to thinking about my poor neglected Hungarian runner. Since I haven’t had an opportunity to “grab and go” with it for quite some time, I haven’t made much progress on it.
But… I mused… couldn’t the tambour hook propel the Hungarian runner to a more rapid completion?
October 22, 2013
Every time I went out to work on the goldwork on the inner frame of the Mission Rose project, I found myself humming the same song… and humming it and humming it and humming it.
It’s stuck in my head right now, and I can’t get it out!
Occasionally, while stitching, I’d even start singing out loud (good thing no one’s out there but me!). I don’t know all the words, so it’s just the same little bit, over and over again.
Gold fever! Nothin’ can help you but the yellow stuff!
What can stop that itchin’ ain’t around the kitchen!
Gold, gold, hooked am I. Susannah, go ahead and cry!
It’s from Paint Your Wagon – a bit before my time, but my older sister had the record (yes, record, as in LP, on vinyl or something), and I remember hearing the songs as I grew up.
It wasn’t until I was an adult that I went back to discover what that whole thing was all about. The mere fact that Clint Eastwood was singing in a musical… oh dear.
