Here we go! Time to get started with Purple Posy: a Tape Measure Cozy!

In this first installment of the stitch-along, we are going to talk about materials, the design, and other preliminary information, including transferring the project. We aren’t going to cover stitching just yet, as I can’t fit everything in one blog post! Today’s information will get you started and set-up, ready to stitch.

If you have the Purple Posy kit, which is available here, you’re in great shape – you have everything you need to create the tape measure cover, except typical embroidery tools like a hoop or frame, scissors, and a few incidentals for the finishing work (like glue, pins, and sewing thread).

On Friday, I shared with you this exploration in wool thread, using DMC’s new Eco Vita line of crewel-weight needlework wool.

I had planned to finish the piece that very day – after all, wool stitches up Fast – but as luck (and Time) would have it, I never did get to my coveted afternoon stitching session. And I didn’t have one minute of stitching time over the weekend, either. What is this world coming to, I ask you?!?

But Monday came around, and lo! I snatched time in the afternoon to finish the project up.

Happy Monday, Everyone! It’s a fresh start to the week – and a very exciting week it is, too, because we’re going to start the Purple Posy Stitch Snippet stitch-along this very week!

Most of you have had a chance to receive your kits in the mail. Those who are following along without the kit will be able to source materials, working from your own stash, or with materials purchased from your own resources, or with possible suitable substitutions that we will talk about as the project progresses.

I have had a small influx of questions about the stitch-along, so today, I want to address those questions to better clarify what a stitch-along is and what you can expect from it.

It seems I haven’t been clear enough about what you can expect, and I apologize for that. Part of this is the nature of blogging. We live in a world of hurry, hurry, hurry and short attention spans. We tend to skim rather than read, and often, we miss the information that’s there, especially if the formatting is poor or the blogger (that would be me!) tends to say too much, and people just see words, words, words. (Guilty as charged!)

So… without further ado, here are some Frequently Asked Questions and their answers concerning the stitch-alongs here on Needle ‘n Thread!

Besides these questions below, I encourage you to read this article from a couple weeks ago that introduced Purple Posy.

I’ve had a couple pleasant afternoons this week, concocting and then stitching, a wee embroidery project with which to test the wool threads that I mentioned here a while back.

I’ve not finished the project yet, but it won’t take too long to finish it, I reckon. That’s a Great Thing about most wool embroidery thread (crewel weight wool) – it stitches up really fast!

The first test stitching I’m doing is with the new Eco Vita line of crewel wool from DMC. I doodled up a little design that I thought would work well with the more muted, almost vintage-like natural hues of this thread.

Here in the US, the time is drawing near for the release of Yvette Stanton’s newest needlework book, Hardanger Filling Stitches! Yay!

This is a book I’ve been anticipating ever since I heard she was writing it! So I’m pretty excited it’s almost here, and I’m even more excited to be able to offer it to you through my shop, where you can pre-order it now for shipment in the first week of March.

Hardanger Filling Stitches is everything you could want in an instructional book on Hardanger fillings, from traditional to contemporary. If you are a Reticello enthusiast, you will immediately recognize that the filling techniques covered in the book can apply equally well to Reticello and other forms of gridded cutwork that produce a lace-like effect.

Let’s take a look at the book up close…

Today’s the day! Wooohooo! I am So Excited about launching Purple Posy and getting started with the stitch-along!

There’s nothing better than getting a project going, is there? And I love it when we have a project going together. It’s fun to be a little more “connected” as we work through the stitch-along, don’t you think?

Besides launching the kit for Purple Posy today, I have some other technical news for you having to do with small changes in Needle ‘n Thread operations, so please read on so that you’re not taken by surprise.

I’ve been experimenting with a different, new-to-me method for making bullion knots.

It came about this way:

A couple inquiring minds directed me to a reel on Instagram and asked me to explain to them what was going on in the reel and what the resulting stitch was. They thought it looked like a bullion knot, but it didn’t seem to be made like a bullion knot.

Subtly, there’s more than one aspect to their question at work here, which I plan to explore further down the road. It will be fun to delve deep into all facets of their question, because without knowing it, they’re proposing a couple different really interesting topics related to embroidery stitches.