August 10, 2012

Stitch Fun: Interlaced Herringbone – and Printables?

Today’s Stitch Fun is a bit challenging – but, oh! the satisfaction of conquering a challenging stitch! True, this isn’t the Most Challenging Stitch Combination in the world, but it is challenging enough that many stitchers simply don’t bother to tackle it, even though it creates a beautiful, intricately laced border or band.

Tomorrow, I’ll have a Stitch Printable available for you. This is a new idea – we’ll see how it goes over. The Printable will take you step by step through the whole process of creating the interlaced herringbone, not only for the simple band shown below, but also on corners, complete frames, and circles. More on this at the end of today’s article!

How To Videos

August 9, 2012

Knotted Pearl Stitch Video

The knotted pearl stitch used in hand embroidery is one of those fun, rhythmic stitches that works up fairly quickly.

The knotted pearl stitch is a lot like the Palestrina stitch, but it differs in two ways: 1. the direction it is stitches is reversed, and 2. there are two knots created in this stitch, rather than just the one knot created in the Palestrina stitch.

So the knotted pearl stitch ends up just a bit more “knotty” than the Palestrina stitch. Often, you’ll see the knotted pearl stitch called the “reverse Palestrina stitch,” but in fact, it isn’t actually the Palestrina stitch reversed – it has one additional step to it.

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August 8, 2012

Embroidery Scissors by Premax

Though I’ve often asserted I’m not a “collector” of scissors or other needlework tools, fact is – I have quite a collection! What a paradox, eh?

Ah, but I don’t collect these things simply because I want to collect. Rather, I acquire them so that I can know what other people are talking about, using and recommending. This helps me make recommendations with greater confidence. Hopefully, these recommendations will, in turn, help you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah! It’s just a good excuse, right?!

Since our last little discussion on embroidery scissors, when I showed you a pair of bad little embroidery scissors, I’ve gotten my paws on two brands of embroidery scissors that are new to me, but that were recommended by readers. Today, I’d like to show you one of them – I like these scissors very much, and I think they’re an affordable option for a good pair of embroidery scissors.

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August 7, 2012

Needlework Resources Around the Traps

Just a bit of needlework resource news today! When life gets busy, it’s easy to miss good things that pop up in online needlework shops or websites. Here are a few little things I’ve noticed lately in the needlework world.

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August 6, 2012

Stitch Play: Woven Filling

Needle weaving in hand embroidery involves all kinds of stitches. Woven picot, woven wheel, various interlaced stitches – these are both examples of stitches that involve “needle weaving.” In drawn thread and whitework embroidery, needle weaving is used to create decorative woven bars in drawn thread areas. So the whole idea of needle weaving is fairly prevalent across the whole surface embroidery spectrum.

For today’s Stitch Play, we’re going to look at the most basic needle weaving technique, the woven filling. This is such a simple technique and easy to use wherever you want a filled embroidered area that looks woven.