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
May 7, 2012
At the end of last week, we took an up-close, personal look at Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães by Yvette Stanton. Today, because I know you’re just dying to add this book to your needlework library, it’s time for a give-away!
May 4, 2012
Well, here it is! Yvette Stanton’s new hand embroidery book, Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães is out and available. And golly! It is beautiful!
If you’re familiar with Yvette’s other books on various types of lesser-known, beautiful whitework techniques, you won’t be surprised that this one is superb. I have to say, though, out of all her whitework books, so far, this one is my favorite. Perhaps it’s because her books just keep getting better and better, or maybe it’s because I have an affinity for the combination of drawn thread embroidery and surface embroidery. Guimarães embroidery just does this combination so well!
Let me show you what’s in the book – if you like whitework, this is bound to tickle your fancy!
May 3, 2012
Schwalm whitework embroidery is a folk embroidery that developed in the Schwalm region of Germany. It is characterized by its folk design elements (tulips, hearts, flowers, and so forth) and drawn thread (openwork) fillings.
May 2, 2012
The little goldwork dots in the outside edge of the Medallion are under way again. There are 50 of these little dots in the edge, and they’re worked in a combination of pearl purl (for the outline) and chips (little cuts of check purl) for the filling.
If there weren’t 50 of these dots to contend with, I’d say they weren’t too time consuming. The dots are about 5/16″ – 3/8″ in diameter, so they’re pretty small. This makes manipulating the pearl purl (which is a stiff thread) somewhat slightly less than fun. Actually, every time I finish a dot, I find myself saying, “Bah – that wasn’t so bad!” and I move on to the next fiddly little blighter with an ever-increasing excitement at being one step closer to the end.
Today, I’ll show you how I work the pearl purl outlines and talk a little bit about working with this versatile and beautiful real metal thread.
May 1, 2012
Have you ever wanted to embroider your own little garden? If you have, but you’re not sure how to go about doing it, there’s a nifty e-book available out there to show you how. It’s called Stitching Idyllic: Spring Flowers by Ann Bernard. Ann’s little book focuses on creating your own unique embroidered garden out of recognizable flowers and trees, using very basic stitches worked in threads and combinations of threads that produce true-to-nature color schemes.
April 30, 2012
The Medallion Project is dragging out a bit longer than I had hoped! I did not meet my First Personal Deadline (which was Easter), nor my Second Personal Deadline (which was April 15), and now I’m pushing my Last Personal Deadline and Final Deadline of All (mid-May). I must be finished around May 15, because it has to be turned over the vestment-maker, to meet the June deadline. So it’s down to the wire! (No pun intended!) This may turn into a nail-biter!
Today I’d like to show you how I changed the order of work on the roses, and give you my reasoning behind that. You can apply the same principals to any embroidery – sometimes, you just have to change the “normal” order of work, due to some logical reason. I’m also going to show you the back of the goldwork, because this figures into my reasoning for changing the order of work.
April 27, 2012
When your vacation is looming, when you have company coming for an extended stay, when you know life is getting ready to go ballistic on you, what happens to your needlework? Do you abandon stitchery until the cyclone of activity blows itself out, do you plod ahead with your regular needlework pursuits, or do you plan needlework into those busy times by preparing a project that fits into your life when it’s in hyper-drive?
I tend to do the latter: I prepare a project that I know I can grab and take with me, or that I can concentrate 15 minutes of time on now and then, just so that I have some kind of project going – something that keeps the fingers busy when there’s some down time. Grab-n-Go needlework projects like these are never something that I feel pressured to finish in any particular time frame. They’re just a casual project that requires minimum supplies and tools, that can be easily transported, and that don’t require a lot (if any) real thought. No decisions to make, no techniques to work out – just simple stitching.
And you’d be surprised how soon you can actually finish this type of project (even if it is rather large!), if you keep it available for those little snatches of time when you can get in a few stitches.
