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September 4, 2024

Harvest Hues Stitch-Along Coming Up!

 

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I hope all my State-side friends had a wonderful holiday weekend – welcome to September!

This autumn, we thought we’d do something a little different for a stitch-along. It’s one project, but it’s made up of multiple small projects – and it could easily morph into many projects, depending on you! It’s adaptable to any season, but we’re making it particularly fall.

Today, I’ll tell you a little bit about it in general and share some sneak peaks of the project up close.

As we approach the launch date for the stitch-along, I’ll tell you all the all the juicy details, but for now, just a little overview and a glimpse of what we’re going to do together for those who want to join in!

Harvest Hues embroidery stitch-along
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August 30, 2024

Autumn Runner: Colors & Stitches & Thinking

 

I’m still working on this hand embroidered linen table runner, with an autumn theme.

I don’t really have any dedicated, absolute, structured plan for the thing, aside from embroidering a decorative runner for my table, to use during autumn. That’s a good enough plan, isn’t it?

Sometimes, that’s all a plan needs to be.

But since I’m not going at this with a dedicated, absolute, structured plan, I find myself not thinking about normally important things like colors and stitches (though admittedly, I’m not going all-out berserk on stitch variety on this piece), and instead just doing whatever occurs to me as it occurs to me.

Is this a good thing? Or a bad thing? I don’t know. I’ll make that judgement a bit later – probably when it’s too late for the Lazy Mary to want to do anything about it.

Linen Autumn Leaf Table Runner on Linen
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August 26, 2024

Studio Life: Behind the Wall

 

Two years ago, my studio landlord and I struck an agreement for the building space that Needle ‘n Thread now occupies.

I wrote about that auspicious occasion here. I was very excited!

It took several months before the inside of the building was empty and available. In November of 2022 – unbeknownst to me at the time, a mere month before I had to move out of my house due to a remodeling project that turned into unavoidable demolition (!) – Anna and I moved the studio from this residential duplex, where I had been operating Needle ‘n Thread for about four years, to our new downtown space.

You can see photos of how we set up our new space in this article.

Studio Building Space Update
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August 21, 2024

Home Again & a Stitching Update

 

I’m back from a quick personal trip to Florida, as mentioned last week before I took off. Monday involved a bit of recovery time and some appointments, so I didn’t get back into the swing of things as quickly as hoped.

But here we are, and things are vigorously rolling along again in the Studio. My desk is remarkably cluttered with projects that need to be documented and supplies that need to be sorted! That’s today’s Big Plan.

We’ve got supplies arriving daily for our next Stitch Snippet kit! Our projected launch date for that is the week of September 9 – 13, somewhere in there. The precise date hinges on one little backorder. Sigh!

I’ll be sharing the details of that project with you over the next couple weeks. It’s a fun project, not too taxing, lots of colors and stitches, with some simple finishing and a whole lot of adaptability!

In the meantime, here’s an update on this simple stitching project that’s been developing during occasional down-time and after hours. I initially showed it to you last week, and there’s a bit more to share now.

Vintage French Stamped Cross Stitch design
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August 14, 2024

Sampler Motif Gone Rogue

 

Here’s a little quick mid-week update on another project in the studio

I guess it’s not enough that we’re working on autumn leaf projects – two of them, in fact: this one (which I haven’t shown you in full yet, but only hinted at) and this leafy table runner that I’ve been sharing tips about lately.

Switching gears entirely, we have another bit of stitchery underway here, too – this rogue sampler motif. It really belongs on a grid, but it has broken away and landed on plain weave fabric.

Like the Vinterfolk winter towel set and the Folky Flakes set, this rose motif is a gridded design transformed into vintage-style printed cross stitch.

Stamped Cross Stitch Vintage Style Sampler Motif
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August 12, 2024

The Back of Embroidery: Stitches, Starts, & Stops

 

The topic of the back of embroidery projects can be a touchy one.

Many, many people in the stitching world have an opinion on the back of work. For lack of a better term off the top of my head, I’m going to use the phrase “Old School” in this discussion. When I think “Old School,” I think of my aunt. She was an Absolute Stickler about the back of her needlework. I was a kid during the Counted Cross Stitch Boom of the mid-80’s, and while Auntie dabbled in other types of needlework in her lifetime, she was an avid cross stitcher in the 80’s.

When she showed me how to do counted cross stitch back then, I remember her emphasizing the back of the stitching more than the front. It had to be perfect. Little parallel lines everywhere…

And yes, I might be older – I’ve passed the half century mark – but I don’t tend to be Old School when it comes to the back of embroidery. Embroidery isn’t done for the back of the work. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always felt that people who flip your needlework over to inspect the back are looking for faults – and this has always annoyed me.

So I’m not here to nag you about the back of your embroidery.

BUT… (think of this as a mighty big but…)

Back of Embroidery, stitches, starts & stops
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