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January 24, 2014

Tool Time! Lost your Needle?

 

Amazon Books

Here’s another indispensable tool in my workroom. I don’t keep it in my “tool box” with my scissors or anything else – no, no, it has a special place right next to where I sit, because I use it daily.

And besides, if it were in my tool box, it would make a mess of everything!

You may very well have one of these already (if you do, I bet you love it, too!), or you may have seen or heard of them and thought you didn’t really have a need for it. I thought the same thing until I bought one. And now – well, it’s True Love. We won’t be parted! We’re drawn to each other, like… like… magnets.

Telescoping Magnet
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January 23, 2014

Speaking of Blackwork & Projects, This Looks Fun…

 

Were we speaking of blackwork? Well, we were last week!

You know I have this thing for “15 Minute Projects” and “grab and go” projects. That’s what the Hungarian Runner is right now. And when the Hungarian runner is finished, I’m going to need another “15 minute” project to fill in those 15-minute gaps this year.

Now, granted, I do have the Secret Garden projects going, but those are “studio” projects – I work on them in my workroom only, because that’s where I can photograph things, take good notes, and prepare overly wordy articles for you.

Blackwork Journey
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January 21, 2014

Hungarian Redwork Runner – A Little Progress

 

It’s been a while since we last glimpsed this red-on-white, never-ending, ever-present, long-neglected project of mine – the Hungarian Redwork Runner.

It’s called the Hungarian Redwork Runner not because it’s technically Hungarian redwork. It’s a Hungarian design, worked entirely in red, with two stitches only: the chain stitch and the Hungarian braided chain stitch.

Hungarian Redwork Embroidery Project
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January 20, 2014

Reverse Chain Stitch Speeds Things Up

 

I’ve been using chain stitch a lot lately!

And there’s good reason for that. First of all, chain stitch is a versatile stitch, great for outlining. But chains stitch also makes a wonderful filling stitch.

Besides its versatility, there’s the whole Easy Thing going on. It’s one of the basic embroidery stitches, easy to work for any level of embroiderer.

Besides exploring chain stitch in tambour embroidery, I’ve been using the regular surface embroidery stitch called chain stitch (with a needle) on the Hungarian redwork runner that I started eons ago. There’s a lot of chain stitch on that piece – mostly in the form of squiggly or curly lines.

Did you know that you can speed up chain stitch a little bit – especially when working curls and swirls on line patterns – by switching to reverse chain stitch?

Reverse chain stitch looks exactly like chain stitch, but it works up in reverse. Let me show you how:

Reverse Chain Stitch
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January 17, 2014

Hungarian meets Blackwork: Reader’s Embroidery

 

A few years ago, these Hungarian embroidery patterns began to appear on Needle ‘n Thread. If you haven’t read about them and how they came to be here, you can read the backstory of this collection of patterns in this article, which features the first pattern offered, which I called “Golden Circle.”

Mary Martin of Larkspur Stitchery on Facebook stitched up Lilly’s Golden Circle design in blackwork. She did a fantastic job, and I love the way she adapted the design for blackwork.

I thought it would be fun to share her Hungarian blackwork piece with you, in hopes that it might inspire you, too!

Hungarian Embroidery Design in Blackwork
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