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
Contact Mary
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
Contact Mary
January 10, 2024
Howdy ho and Happy Wednesday! I’m just popping in today with another little sneak peek – a pretty little embroidered band that coordinates with the bullion bits we looked at on Monday.
I can’t wait to show you how these will all come together!
January 8, 2024
Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been testing a little embroidery piece that will be finished into something entirely useful. I’ve been using bullion knots. I love bullion knots!
Unfortunately, bullions get a bad rap as a difficult stitch. Yes, it’s true they can be a bit fiddly sometimes, but they’re not necessarily difficult. I think the biggest problem with bullions is the instructions that normally come with them.
Let’s chat a little bit bullion knots, shall we?
January 5, 2024
When I showed you this Christmas break project the other day, you might recall that I mentioned a couple times that I was glad – very glad! – that I didn’t choose a pink or coral-to-red color scheme for them.
I almost did choose a pinkish-coral-to-red color scheme. The corals were a better contrast against the gray background of the felted mittens, compared to the purples. But something in me just wanted to use those glorious purples!
And it’s a good thing.
A very good thing.
January 3, 2024
Happy New Year and Welcome to 2024 on Needle ‘n Thread! I hope you all had a joy-filled, restful break for the holidays!
I sure did! It was low-key, quiet, and restful almost to the point of comfortable stupefaction. My break consisted of some decorating, some cooking, some family-visiting, some reading, some watching, some sleeping, some listening, some eating, some friend-visiting, some tea-drinking, some merry-making, some cocoa-drinking, some game-playing, some carol-singing, some cheese-eating, some wool-embroidering, some mitten-felting, some soup-making, some cookie-decorating, more tea-drinking, more cheese-eating, and a little more tea-drinking. And cheese-eating. And soup-eating. And finally, some year-planning. And a some more embroidering. And some more sleeping.
I think that about covers it!
I’m not quite ready for the holidays to end – and in fact, they don’t officially end in my mind until January 6th. I leave my decorations up and keep the whole holiday vibe going until after the Epiphany (January 6th), which is the end of the real twelve days of Christmas. I’m always sad to see the lights, ornaments, trees, garlands, bows, sparkles and twinkles of Christmas disappear. But I suppose the transition out of Christmas makes next year’s preparation and festivities all the more welcome when they come around again!
Over the break, I started something so that I’d have a project to work on at home. I’ll show you…
December 25, 2023
Merry Christmas, my friends!
May the Light that comes into the world at Christmas shine bright upon you throughout the New Year!
As promised, we’ve put together a Christmas EyeSpy for your holiday entertainment. You’ll also find a fun jigsaw version linked below, for those who enjoy online jigsaw puzzles.
December 19, 2023
Now that we are officially finished with our Christmas Stitch Snippet for the year, and now that we’ve pretty much organized our inventory areas and prepared them for next year and Many Wondrous Things to Come, we have settled into The Quiet Time of the Year at the studio.
For us, this means working on plans for next year while we finish test stitching the small project that will kick off 2024. It means a more relaxed schedule and some coveted time off!
It means we finally finished setting up this:
December 15, 2023
We have arrived at the final installment of the final Stitch Snippet for 2023!
Today, we’re going to go through the final finishing techniques on our little wreath ornament! We’ll add the cord and the felt backing and work the decorative edge.
For members on Patreon, I’ve already shared a PDF that covers all the finishing techniques, so you can retrieve that over there, for easy downloading and printing. I’ll also have a video out next week for the dedicated and avid stitcher levels that covers all the techniques we talk about today.
If you’re just joining in, you’ll find all the articles for this stitch-along project listed chronologically in the Christmas Wreath Ornament Project Index here.
Ok! Let’s get going!
