February 21, 2013

Vintage Silk Embroidery Thread, Tags, & Tips

What happens when you combine an afternoon of cleaning and organizing your workspace with a desire to play with silk?

You end up playing with silk, of course!

Yesterday, I set about cleaning and organizing my workroom, with the aid of my Minion. My workroom is a garage-gone-studio + general-household-storage space. If you’re curious to see it, you can find pictures of moving in and organizing here, pictures at the end of a typical day in the workroom here, and pictures of my workroom when set up for a class here.

So, yep. That was the plan. Clean up. Straighten up. Organize. The Mid-Week Re-Group & Re-Charge. The Wednesday Afternoon Ritual.

Only I had this box of vintage silks that needed my attention. Or… er…. that caught my attention.

And my attention was happy to oblige!

You are my justification for the distraction. After all, it’s vintage silk. It’s fun to look at. The tags make great reading. And we can even glean some good tips from them!

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February 20, 2013

Embroidery on Eggs: Preliminary Supplies

Remember last week when I mentioned that I’d taken up embroidering on eggs? Well, it’s a mammoth subject to write about!

To make it more manageable, I’m going to divide the instructions over several articles that will appear intermittently over the next few weeks. The articles will be filed away into a series under “Tips and Techniques” here on Needle ‘n Thread, so that they are easily accessible for you.

Today, let’s talk about preliminary supplies.

Now, keep in mind, this is my approach, developed from piddling around with the concept for the past year. It’s just the way I do it – and there are always other ways to do things. So if you find a better way, don’t hesitate to use it!

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February 19, 2013

Vintage Linen: Circular Crochet Edging – a Free Pattern!

My One Weakness (among all my other One Weaknesses – there are many!) is vintage linens embroidered with whitework. I have a hard time resisting beautiful vintage linens, and I’ve collected quite a few over the years. When I can’t get my paws on “new” additions to the collection because the budget just won’t allow – and because, really, where could I possibly put another one? – I have a worrying habit of crawling the internet for photos of luscious old linens embellished with whitework.

It’s a curse. Or a blessing. It all depends on how you look at it! I find heaps of inspiration in old embroidered linens. They are a great springboard for design ideas, and a wonderful source for the study of embroidery techniques.

Several years ago (back in 2008!), I wrote a short article about a vintage embroidered linen with a pretty crocheted edge. The whitework embroidery on the linen is very pretty, but the real eye-catcher on the whole piece is the edging.

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February 18, 2013

Deconstructing Goldwork – Inside the Lily

Last week, we looked at this high-relief embroidered goldwork lily, taking a preliminary look at how it was made by making some observations about it before taking it apart.

Today, let’s take it apart and look inside!

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February 16, 2013

Ingenious Use of Pearl Purl

If you’ve been reading Needle ‘n Thread for a while, you might recall a couple years ago, I highlighted the pearl and goldwork embroidered frames by Larissa Borodich, a reader in Russia. Larissa’s needlework is beautiful, so if you haven’t seen her gorgeous frames, you might jump back to that article and take a quick look!

I love hearing from Larissa and seeing what she is up to – she never fails to amaze me! If you use Pinterest, she has some lovely boards on Embroidery. While you’re there, check out all her antique ecclesiastical pieces from her own collections – absolutely gorgeous stuff!

Larissa recently sent me some photos of some embroidery done by her friend Elena Emelina, and of course, I had to seek permission to share! One aspect that really caught my attention was Lena’s ingenious use of pearl purl in her metal embroidery.

Lena’s work is vivacious and captivating! I thought you might enjoy seeing it, too.

You can click on the photos below for a larger version.

Metal Thread and Bead Embroidery by Elena Emelina

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February 15, 2013

Deconstructing Goldwork IV: The Lily

Earlier this week, we began deconstructing various elements on a piece of old ecclesiastical embroidery, to see how the elements were originally made and to learn something about the materials and techniques used.

You can find the photos of the whole piece of goldwork embroidery in the first article in the series, and you can find the rest of the backstory, along with my reasons for deconstructing this piece, in the second article of the series, where we began deconstructing the goldwork grapes.

Today, we’re going concentrate on this piece of high relief goldwork:

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February 14, 2013

Hand Embroidery on Eggs – Sneak Peek

Hand embroidering an egg isn’t exactly a new idea, but it is, in some respects, a zany idea.

Last year, when I stumbled upon these magnificently embroidered eggs right before Easter, I knew, deep down, that I’d have to try it.

Egg art has always fascinated me – I love carved eggs, painted eggs, Ukrainian eggs (Pysanky) and the like. And not just at Easter, either, though that’s when eggs really come into fashion. I think eggs make beautiful Christmas ornaments and even year round displays.

I like natural, naked eggs, too – a bowl of blown eggs in natural soft blues, greens, whites, browns, and speckles is so simply pretty in its own right.

But anyway, when I saw the embroidered eggs, I was bitten by a bug…

Connect with Mary

How-To
Videos

Embroidery Tips & Techniques

Connect with Mary

Vintage Silk Embroidery Thread, Tags, & Tips

Embroidery on Eggs: Preliminary Supplies

Vintage Linen: Circular Crochet Edging – a Free Pattern!

Deconstructing Goldwork – Inside the Lily

Ingenious Use of Pearl Purl

Deconstructing Goldwork IV: The Lily

Hand Embroidery on Eggs – Sneak Peek

Connect with Mary

How-To Videos

Embroidery Tips & Techniques

Connect with Mary

How-To
Videos