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
March 27, 2012
There are two hand embroidery treasures that I have locked up in a dark box, in a dark closet, wrapped safely in tissue paper, awaiting The Day, The Moment, the Ideal Time. This hank of Japanese Real Gold Thread is one of those treasures.
March 26, 2012
We have a winner for Mary Brown’s Goldwork Embroidery: Designs & Projects!
March 23, 2012
As mentioned earlier this week, I’ll be updating the Medallion Embroidery Project in larger chunks now, showing you progress on whole parts, rather than individual tiny elements. Why? Because from here on out, it gets a little repetitive! Don’t worry – I’ll still include close ups and those inevitable Instructional Moments (i.e. especially when I make mistakes, change my mind, run into trouble, and so forth!).
Today, I want to show you the edge of the Medallion all stitched in, so you can get a general idea of the whole look of the piece now.
March 22, 2012
Methinks today is a good day to give away a very nice goldwork embroidery book, called Goldwork Embroidery: Designs and Projects by Australian embroiderer, Mary Brown. You’re very welcome to ready my review of Goldwork Embroidery if you like. It was written in the days before my more in-depth approach to book reviews, but the essentials are there, and my opinion of the book hasn’t changed any!
March 21, 2012
When I played with the detached chain stitch and the ribbed spider web stitch a couple weeks ago, to create the Chain Stitch Spider Daisy, a reader wrote and asked if there was a way to make the flower domed rather than flat.
So today, for Stitch Play, let’s look at the Raised Spider Daisy! Now, the concepts involved in creating this domed spider daisy are found in other raised stitches (for example, in raised satin stitch dots), so you can actually apply these concepts to creating all kinds of domed elements in your embroidery.
This is what we’re going to create in today’s Stitch Play:
March 20, 2012
More goldwork dots today! But I think it’s the last time I’m going to show them to you.
You see, I’m musing about how much of the Medallion Project to show you these days. I don’t want to bore you to death with the slow progress!
And it is slow progress. All hand embroidery is slow progress, compared to what we’ve become used to with machines to do all our work. The slowness of it – the whole “journey” of any handwork project – is part of the appeal of handwork. Whipping out the Medallion on a machine wouldn’t be quite the same! And in fact, it couldn’t be the same. Many of the elements of this project can only be achieved by hand. And even those that could be achieved by machine wouldn’t look the same. So the progress is slow, and I can live with that.
But can you?!
March 19, 2012
What’s your favorite element involved in hand embroidery? Are you:
A. an Accessories Advocate, irresistibly drawn to the tools and trinkets that are used by the embroiderer?
B. a Fabric Fanatic, mesmerized by any woven surfaces upon which embroidery can be performed?
C. a Thread Junkie, with a Thread Fixation that keeps you addicted to needlework?
If I had to choose only one of the three above, I’d have to say I’m a Thread Junkie. I just love embroidery thread!
