March 7, 2013
Ode to Orts
Orts.
They’re little scraps of colorful thread.
All over my table they tend to spread.
They’re blue, they’re yellow, they’re white, they’re red.
March 6, 2013
Revisiting the Marian Medallion Project – in Book Form!
It may not seem to make sense for me to “review” a book here on Needle ‘n Thread that 1. isn’t available for the public; and 2. contains information you can find right here on Needle ‘n Thread. But I just have to share with you my joy and excitement, and my flabbergasted wonderment and gratitude, over this book!
March 5, 2013
Goldwork Thread Organization & Other Cabinet Resources
I love it when a plan comes together!
Last week, I showed you the new thread cabinets in my workroom, with various threads getting sorted and stowed in them. Over the weekend, I tackled the last group of threads – goldwork threads! – and I’m so glad to have them sorted, because I have some exciting projects looming!
It’ll be nice to know what I have and what I don’t have.
March 4, 2013
Embroidered Eggs: Designs & Drilling
So you want to embroider eggs, and you’ve gathered all your supplies. You have the preliminary tools necessary, you have your embroidery supplies (including some specialty needles), and you’re ready to start!
Now it’s time to sit down with your eggs and work out your designs and do your drilling. This is the process I go through for the final egg preparation right before embroidering it, including getting the design on the egg, drilling, and final cleaning.
March 2, 2013
Hand Embroidery on Eggs – Index
Today, just a quick post to put up an index for Hand Embroidery on Eggs, so that, if you decide you want to try it, you can find these tips all located in the same spot on Needle ‘n Thread.
March 1, 2013
Stitch Glitch: The Frustrations of Making Lines Meet
Dang! Sometimes, stitching is frustrating!
It’s true! But I figure if everything we did with a needle and thread were easy, if every stitch we took and every project we tackled turned out perfect at the first go, would we really love needlework as much? Would we really love the satisfactory finish as much? Would we really relish the triumph of finishing well something that was challenging?
Probably not. It’d be a lot like living on vacation the rest of your life. Sounds great, but if you never have to work, where’s the fun in a vacation? Where’s the anticipation? Where’s the blissful regret at the conclusion?
I’m saying all this to convince myself, and to console myself over my recent fight with Hungarian braided chain stitch. It was a beautiful brawl! I’m not sure yet who won.
Last week’s Stitch Glitch explored how to start and stop the Hungarian braided chain stitch when switching threads; this week, we’re exploring at how to join a circle invisibly.
February 28, 2013
Embroidery Thread Organization… & Reminders!
“Stash” is something that goes hand in hand with needlework. Even if you’re just starting out with embroidery, you’ll probably find pretty quickly that you can’t get too far away from building at least a wee stash of embroidery supplies, tools, fabrics, and whatnot.
Because embroidery is what I do (I’m very fortunate to be able to say that my hobby is my job), I have an extensive stash. I use my stash for planning embroidery projects for teaching or demonstration and for working up tutorials and follow-along projects for Needle ‘n Thread.
The most important part of my stash is my collection of embroidery threads. Because I live out in the boonies, it’s important to me to have threads I use on hand. I can’t just hop down to a needlework shop or to a craft or hobby shop for even regular embroidery floss. So I have a jolly collection of threads, and the storage and organization of them is an important consideration.
