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 11, 2013
Over the past month, some of the questions I’ve been repeatedly sorting out of ye olde inbox concern embroidery hoops and frames.
I figure that if five or six people are asking the same questions, then there are plenty of others out there who are wondering, but not asking. So today, here’s a little Hoop Talk for you!
September 10, 2013
Here it is!! Your opportunity to learn needle painting from Tanja Berlin!
Tanja Berlin is a graduate of the Royal School of Needlework. A resident of Canada, she travels the world teaching various embroidery techniques, from needle painting, to blackwork, to goldwork, to whitework, to shadow work, to crewel (you name it!), making these embroidery techniques accessible for the very beginner (and beyond).
Tanja has a wonderful website – Berlin Embroidery – that offers detailed and well-written kits for all kinds of embroidery techniques.
She also has a wide range of goldwork supplies available on her site. In fact, hers was the first online store in North America (to my knowledge) that offered extensive goldwork supplies. She’s the one I blame for my obsession with goldwork…
Tanja is now offering occasional online embroidery classes on her website, and right now, she’s running a needle painting class for The Purple Pansy.
September 9, 2013
Cretan Stitch is one of those hand embroidery stitches that’s pretty versatile. It can be used for a filling. It can be used as a line decoration.
But it can also be a source of confusion, especially when worked inside a shape.
As part of the Stitch Fun series here on Needle ‘n Thread, we’re currently looking at different hand embroidery stitches that work well for embroidering leaves. We started with fly stitch leaves last week, and today we’re going to look at Cretan stitch leaves.
September 7, 2013
This is a Must Share! I’m so excited about it!
This past summer, Alrene Ritz from Indiana submitted a piece of hand embroidery at her county fair. And it came home a winner!
Do you recognize it?
September 6, 2013
This is the final of three hand embroidery patterns that have been occupying my imagination lately.
The first of the three was this Exuberant Flower design, and then this Openwork Flower Design, and then there’s today’s, which for some reason, I call Sprouting Floral.
The name lacks something. Or maybe it says too much? In any case, it’s not a very attractive name.
Dubbing things with a name is not my forté – if you want to make suggestions, feel free!
September 5, 2013
After posting this exuberant flower embroidery pattern a couple weeks ago, and this openwork flower embroidery pattern last week, I received some questions from readers about old needlework catalogs and gleaning patterns from them.
So I pulled out my copy of the old Herrschner’s catalog from the first decade of the 1900’s to illustrate some points on developing line drawings that are suitable for hand embroidery patterns.
September 4, 2013
Are you a thread parker? I am!
Parking your embroidery threads is a great way to save time and thread. If you’re not sure what “parking” means, I’ll show you!
Thread parking varies from project to project. On some projects, you might not need to park your threads. On other projects – especially projects that involve a lot of color packed into a small space (think needlepainting projects, very complex cross stitch projects, and the like) – you might have anywhere from two to a dozen or more threads parked at a time.
