July 8, 2012
Granitos in Embroidery – Video Tutorial
Granitos used in hand embroidery are “little grains” made up of straight stitches to create a plump petal shape.
July 7, 2012
Needle ID Cards – Winners and Resources!
Reading through all the responses to this week’s give-away of four packs of Needle ID Cards, I’ve drawn a few conclusions: 1. I’m not the only one who thinks they’re smart and really cute! 2. Though they’re brand-new to the market, they’re going to be pretty popular little accessories for our workboxes; and 3. There are more than just a few of us who have needle-confusion in common!
This morning, I randomly drew four lucky winners who will each receive a pack of their own Needle ID Cards. Here are the winners, plus a list of links to shops where you can pick up a set or two for yourself and your stitching friends.
July 6, 2012
Stitch Fun: Petals & Spokes & How to Space Them
Today’s Stitch Play looks at a variety of different types of hand embroidered elements that feature petals or spokes. These types of circle-and-spoke elements come up often in hand embroidery, whether they are simple flowers made from detached chain (daisy) stitch to complicated affairs involving layers of petals in woven picots.
July 5, 2012
Woven Wheel Stitch Video
The woven wheel, also known as the woven spider web stitch, is a great example of a simple stitch that is versatile and beautiful. The woven wheel makes terrific flowers in almost any kind of thread. It’s used widely in ribbon embroidery for making roses, but it works well in surface embroidery using cotton floss, perle cotton, wool (it looks great in wool!), silk, and really, any kind of thread!
July 4, 2012
On Embroidery Stitches & Samplers
With the Stitch Play series and the refurbishing of the embroidery how-to videos here on Needle ‘n Thread, I’ve received a lot of questions lately about the samples that I show in the series and on the videos. The predominant questions are: What do you do with them? and How can I make a sampler like the ones you show, using the stitches in the videos?
Today, I’ll attempt to answer those questions!
July 3, 2012
Needle I.D. Cards
Needlework tools and accessories are my One Weakness. I like any tool that helps the embroiderer in some way, whether it makes the embroidery process more delightful, or keeps the embroiderer more organized, or dispels confusion.
Needle I.D. Cards fall into a tool of the latter category: they help dispel confusion. And besides that, they’re just nifty little things to have on hand.
Today, I’d like to show them to you. They’re a new product, they’re quite darling, and if you’re good and you read the whole article, I’ll even give you the opportunity to win a set for yourself.
July 2, 2012
Damp Stretching & Blocking Embroidery
Damp stretching or blocking hand embroidery is one of the best ways to make ready a piece of hand embroidery for finishing or framing. I call this step blocking sometimes and other times, I call it damp stretching or damp blocking. The terms can be used interchangeably. The idea is simply that you are squaring up a piece of embroidery, stretching it out, and removing all the wrinkles, all at the same time.
I rarely take pictures of this process, because by the time I get to it, I’ve either finished taking pictures, or I’m not ready yet to take pictures. But it’s good to know how to do this, if you don’t already know. If you photograph your needlework, this is a wonderful way to get it ready for nice, clear, crisp photos.
Damp stretching in this manner assumes that your fabric is clean already. If you have stains or marks on your fabric, you should take care of those before blocking.
