A few bits of embroidery-related news from various spots online, for your Saturday perusal!

First, we’ll start with a little information, to enrich your needlework-related knowledge. Dinner first, then dessert.

Do you find yourself forever leaning towards the same ground fabric every time you start a new embroidery project? Do you gravitate towards the same basic color schemes? Do you find yourself resorting to the same set of embroidery stitches each time you tackle something new?

You aren’t alone. I think for many hobby embroiderers, this is the case. It’s definitely the case for me. I gravitate towards linen, and normally, it’s white or natural colored. I generally select very similar color schemes for my projects. And I rely on my tried-and-true favorites when it comes to selecting stitches.

The other day, we looked at the finished blue silk appliqué on the Mission Rose, and I introduced you to another color of fabric that would be added to the piece next – a yellow felt.

The felt is the foundation for the goldwork frame on the piece.

What does William Morris have to do with organizing monograms and stitching samples? Well, I’m sure we could draw some kind of deep, meaningful tie, just by virtue of the fact that it’s embroidery, it’s arts & crafts, threads, fibers, what-have-you.

But the connection between my organizational methods for my upcoming bout of stitching and William Morris is hardly deep or profound or even meaningful.

But it’s one of those things that makes me happy, and because it makes me happy, I thought I’d tell you about it. Maybe this will lead to some further ideas on organizational methods, too.

It’s been a little too long since we visited the Mission Rose project. Last time we looked at it, we were discussing the question of whether or not it was a mistake to appliqué blue silk into the corners around the central marquise shape.

Opinions were really divided on the addition of the blue! I’m glad, because that means that you feel comfortable expressing your needlework opinions on Needle ‘n Thread, which contributes to that sense of community that a blog is all about – we can discuss needlework things, and we can even have divergent views on this or that approach, but we still go forward.

In the long run, the whole Final Decision thing still falls back on me. Darn! It’s one of those situations where you can please some of the people most of the time, and most of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all the people all the time. Right?

But I am going to ask those who don’t really like the blue – those of you who are scratching your heads, raising your eyebrows, and wondering about my state of mental health – one big favor…

Now that Lavender Honey & Other Little Things is finished and available, it’s time to move on to some embroidery projects that have been weighing on my mind. And some of those projects involve monograms.

I am a lover of decorative initials and monograms. And they don’t even have to be mine! I don’t care what initials they are! I love monograms and decorative initials, and I love, love, love them when they are hand embroidered. It’s that marriage of hand embroidery and lettering, I suppose….

Finally, finally! After over a year of work (albeit intermittent), Lavender Honey & Other Little Things is now available!

It’s a fun “little” book (that isn’t so little…) This is what it’s all about: