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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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  • How-To
    Videos

    Over 75 Embroidery Stitch Videos to Help You Learn

  • Embroidery Tips & Techniques

    A Collection of Instructional Articles

 
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September 4, 2012

Crewel Work Company Kit – a Beautiful Give-Away

 

Amazon Books

Perhaps you’ve heard of The Crewel Work Company? If you haven’t, but you are interested in crewel embroidery, you must (must) become familiar with Phillipa Turnbull’s website. She offers glorious crewel embroidery kits, in the tradition of historical crewel work – they are timeless, they are lovely, they are… *sigh* … covetable! And she offers them in different stitching levels, from Level 1 for beginners (whom she calls “the terrified”!), Level 2 for beginners and stitchers with some experience, and Level 3, for those with some experience in embroidery who like a challenge.

One of Phillipa’s newer kits – the Mellerstain Parrots – is the subject of today’s give-away, with thanks to The Crewel Work Company.

Mellerstain Parrots from The Crewel Work Company
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September 3, 2012

Trestles for Large Embroidery Frames – Available!

 

If you are into historical embroidery, if you like stitching larger projects, if you do ecclesiastical embroidery and so forth, and if you work on larger embroidery frames, trestles are something you’ve probable thought about!

Maybe you’ve seen them in use in the photos on the Royal School of Needlework’s website, or pictured in their books, supporting slate frames. Or maybe you’ve worked with large frames and experienced the discomfort of trying to support them on the edge of a table, and wondered if there was another solution to holding up your frame.

Trestles for Large Embroidery Frames
Continue reading “Trestles for Large Embroidery Frames – Available!”

Uncategorized

September 1, 2012

When Your Embroidery Grins Back at You

 

The scenario: trying to teach the cast-on stitch and double cast-on stitch to a persistent eleven years old, while in the middle of working on other things.

(You know those situations when you really need to be working on other things, but there’s the matter of that eleven year old?)

The solution: challenge the eleven year old to be creative! She has the hang of the stitches. Tell her to come up with something inventive on her own, just for the fun of it!

Cast-on Stitch & Double Cast-On Stitch
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August 31, 2012

Alison Cole’s Updated Website – Worth a Long Browse!

 

At least once a year, I get hankering for certain embroidery kits that have been floating in the back of my mind for a while. Alison Cole’s kits have been simmering and calling to me for a few years now. She’s recently revamped her website, Alison Cole Embroidery, and it now includes a regular online ordering system. But better than that, it includes so many photos of so many beautiful goldwork and stumpwork and combined goldwork and stumpwork projects, that it’s just a wonderful website to browse!

Alison Cole Embroidery
Continue reading “Alison Cole’s Updated Website – Worth a Long Browse!”

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August 30, 2012

Old Goldwork on Velvet: Some Finishing Touches

 

Remember the goldwork on velvet embroidery we were looking at the other day? Besides the actual stitchery, I found the finishing fascinating.

As I explained earlier, the piece is finished into a kind of panel, small “valance”, or something similar, that hung off a larger piece, and was cut from the larger piece. It was cut intact, as far as the panel itself goes, so that the trim is still around the outside, and the back fabric and inside “interfacing” are all included.

Imagine an unconnected pocket 27″ wide and 10″ deep, with fringe at the lower end of it, and an open cut along the top part of it, and you have the right idea of the construction of the piece as I have it now.

Old Twisted Fringe in Gold Threads with Silk Core
Continue reading “Old Goldwork on Velvet: Some Finishing Touches”

Uncategorized

August 29, 2012

Large Embroidery Frames, Photography, and Videos

 

Lately, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the set-up and materials I use to make embroidery stitch videos for Needle ‘n Thread and to photograph step-by-step instructions. I figured, instead of writing up multiple responses, why not tell everyone?

If you’re not interested in the nitty-gritty of this kind of stuff, I completely understand! But for those of you who are interested, today’s your lucky day – I’m letting you in on some Deep, Dark Secrets here. Shhhhhhhh!

Ok, ok. You’re right. There’s nothing deep or dark about it!

Trestles for Large Embroidery Frames
Continue reading “Large Embroidery Frames, Photography, and Videos”