About

Mary Corbet

writer and founder

 

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

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2025 (62) 2024 (135) 2023 (125) 2022 (136) 2021 (130) 2020 (132) 2019 (147) 2018 (146) 2017 (169) 2016 (147) 2015 (246) 2014 (294) 2013 (294) 2012 (305) 2011 (306) 2010 (316) 2009 (367) 2008 (352) 2007 (225) 2006 (139)
 

Kicking Off 2024 at Home – Wool Embroidery

 

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Happy New Year and Welcome to 2024 on Needle ‘n Thread! I hope you all had a joy-filled, restful break for the holidays!

I sure did! It was low-key, quiet, and restful almost to the point of comfortable stupefaction. My break consisted of some decorating, some cooking, some family-visiting, some reading, some watching, some sleeping, some listening, some eating, some friend-visiting, some tea-drinking, some merry-making, some cocoa-drinking, some game-playing, some carol-singing, some cheese-eating, some wool-embroidering, some mitten-felting, some soup-making, some cookie-decorating, more tea-drinking, more cheese-eating, and a little more tea-drinking. And cheese-eating. And soup-eating. And finally, some year-planning. And a some more embroidering. And some more sleeping.

I think that about covers it!

I’m not quite ready for the holidays to end – and in fact, they don’t officially end in my mind until January 6th. I leave my decorations up and keep the whole holiday vibe going until after the Epiphany (January 6th), which is the end of the real twelve days of Christmas. I’m always sad to see the lights, ornaments, trees, garlands, bows, sparkles and twinkles of Christmas disappear. But I suppose the transition out of Christmas makes next year’s preparation and festivities all the more welcome when they come around again!

Over the break, I started something so that I’d have a project to work on at home. I’ll show you…

Embroidering Felted Mittens
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Quiet Time in the Studio & a Break

 

Now that we are officially finished with our Christmas Stitch Snippet for the year, and now that we’ve pretty much organized our inventory areas and prepared them for next year and Many Wondrous Things to Come, we have settled into The Quiet Time of the Year at the studio.

For us, this means working on plans for next year while we finish test stitching the small project that will kick off 2024. It means a more relaxed schedule and some coveted time off!

It means we finally finished setting up this:

Christmas I-Spy preview
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Stitch Snippet: Christmas Wreath, Part 5 – Final Finishing Techniques

 

We have arrived at the final installment of the final Stitch Snippet for 2023!

Today, we’re going to go through the final finishing techniques on our little wreath ornament! We’ll add the cord and the felt backing and work the decorative edge.

For members on Patreon, I’ve already shared a PDF that covers all the finishing techniques, so you can retrieve that over there, for easy downloading and printing. I’ll also have a video out next week for the dedicated and avid stitcher levels that covers all the techniques we talk about today.

If you’re just joining in, you’ll find all the articles for this stitch-along project listed chronologically in the Christmas Wreath Ornament Project Index here.

Ok! Let’s get going!

Christmas Wreath Ornament: Final Finishing Touches
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Stitch Snippet: Christmas Wreath, Part 4 – Beginning the Finishing

 

Good morning and Happy Wednesday!

Today, we’re moving ahead with the Christmas Wreath Ornament stitch-along. We’re going to start the finishing, which is split into two parts. So, after today, only one more installment and your ornament will be beautiful finished and ready to hang!

If you’re just joining in, you’ll find all the articles relating to this stitch-along listed in the project index here.

If you are a member on Patreon, all the finishing steps will be available in one PDF by Friday. I’ll also be posting a video on part of the finish work (the more complex part, focusing mostly on the edge work) for dedicated stitchers and higher membership levels.

If you have purchased the project e-book, Twelve Wreaths for Christmas, you’ll find step-by-step finishing instructions in that PDF as well. For those who have access to all sources of information on this project, take advantage of them and read the instructions here on the blog, in the PDF, and on Patreon. You’ll gain a thorough understanding of what’s ahead so you know what to expect and can launch in with great confidence!

Be not afraid! This is not a difficult process!

We’ll start by talking about supplies, we’ll do a little prep work, and then we’ll begin constructing the finished ornament.

Come along! Let us do this thing!

Christmas Wreath Ornament - Fist steps in Finishing
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Christmas Wreath, Part 3: Beads & Bow

 

Time to move on with the next installment of our last Stitch Snippet stitch-along for 2023!

Today, we’re going to add the embellishments to the wreath that we embroidered on Monday.

If you’re just joining in, you can find all the previous articles for this stitch-along listed here in the Christmas Wreath Project Index, in chronological order so that you can follow along easily!

For members on Patreon, you’ve already received today’s installment in the PDF that was posted for you earlier this week.

Today’s lesson is short and sweet!

Stitch Snippet Wreath Ornament: Beads & Bow
Continue reading “Christmas Wreath, Part 3: Beads & Bow”