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Hand Embroidery Books

November 15, 2012

Blissful Beginnings – A Beautiful Book of Embroidered Blankets!!

 

Amazon Books

It’s the perfect time of year for cozy embroidery projects, and nothing in the world is quite as cozy as a beautiful, soft blanket! And if there’s a baby or a toddler wrapped up in it, that’s even better!

If you want to embroider some gorgeous blankets, you’ll find Blissful Beginnings a real treasure. It’s a compilation of gorgeous embroidered blankets that have come out over the years in different Inspirations publications.

Whether the book is used to make the blankets as designed, or whether you devise some other use for the embroidery designs within, or whether you want instructions on constructing blankets that you personalize with your own embroidery designs, you’ll find this delightful blanket book a handy reference for your needlework library.

Here’s my review of Blissful Beginnings!

Blissful Beginnings Embroidered Blankets Book
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November 14, 2012

Embroidery Design Layout – Basting Guidelines

 

Yesterday, we looked at how to prepare linen for a hand embroidery project. Now that the linen is nice and smooth and ready to work with, I’ll show you how to ensure an accurate layout for your embroidery project.

Keep in mind that I’m working through all the steps for the Hungarian Redwork Runner project. But even if you’re never in your life planning to work this project, these steps hold true for any type of similar project. So you can apply these concepts to just about any embroidery project that demands an accurate layout and placement of the design.

Are you with me, then? Ok, let’s do it! You’re going to need a sewing needle of some sort (I used a #9 crewel needle), a contrasting color of regular sewing thread, a ruler, and maybe (depending on your eyesight) magnification.

Preparing Linen for hand embroidery
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November 13, 2012

Preparing Linen for Embroidery

 

After testing the embroidery threads for the Hungarian Redwork Runner project and making up my mind about the ground fabric, the next step was to cut the linen and prepare it for embroidery.

I have my own little ritual for preparing linen for hand embroidery. Most stitchers have their own way of working through these preliminary steps in preparing their fabric, but for those of you who haven’t figured it out yet or like to see what other people do, we can go through the grunt work together here!

Preparing Linen for Hand Embroidery
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November 12, 2012

Playing Around with Pipers Silk Gimp

 

A week ago, we looked at the difference between two types of silk gimp – the new silk gimp from Access Commodities and the silk gimp from Pipers Silks.

These are two completely different types of silk thread that share the same name.

So what is gimp, anyway? Gimp, in textile talk, is often a trim of some sort. If you look up “gimp trim” for sale today, you’ll generally find narrow individual cords or flat ribbon-like trim with a cord that runs through it in a decorative way.

In lace-making, gimp is the trim that outlines a lace element, and it can be tube-like looking (not actually a tube, but a smooth cording) or twisted, with a fine rope-like look. Gimp often has some sort of core running through it that helps “stiffen” it in a way. The core is wrapped or twisted with an outer thread. Sometimes (in the more heavy duty gimps), the core is a flexible wire, so that the gimp retains its shape when bent and manipulated. Sometimes, the core is another thread or cord. And some gimps are not made with a core.

So we can see that gimp in thread talk, when taken generally, can mean different things.

Silk Gimp from Pipers Silks
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November 10, 2012

Testing Embroidery Threads: Colorfast?

 

Working with a deep red embroidery thread on a white fabric background justifies a little concern over the washability of the threads. Will the color run, when the Hungarian redwork runner is washed? If it does run, that could be a bit upsetting, don’t you think?

So I set about testing my stitch sample, to make sure that I could go forward with the embroidery, using the threads I selected with confidence.

Testing Embroidery Threads: Colorfast
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