About

Mary Corbet

writer and founder

 

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

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Goldwork Class: Progress is Slow, but It Is Progress

 

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At the beginning of this past summer, I took on a student. Just one student. We met all summer long, twice a week, for about an hour (sometimes an hour and a half) at a time. Her goal is to learn how to do specific elements of goldwork, to use in ecclesiastical embroidery. To this end, she wanted to work on real projects that, in the end (provided they ended successfully), could be usable.

Beyond the most basic embroidery (chain stitch, backstitch), she hasn’t really ever done any surface embroidery as an adult. As a child in South Africa (where she grew up) she learned the basics in school. She does have some really well-honed sewing skills, though, including hand-sewing skills, so she’s pretty adept with a needle. Throughout the summer, we covered the groundwork.

Goldwork Embroidery IHS
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Monogram for Hand Embroidery – Fan Flower N

 

I’m drudging up a ghost from the past here! I really do want to finish the Fan Flower Monogram Alphabet – it’s been on my List of Things to Do for the past year or more!

As autumn rolls around and I start looking ahead at other embroidery projects that I’d like to accomplish in the next year, the Monogram keeps popping up in my head. I love the look of monograms, whether they are the single monogram, or the entwined double monogram (is that an oxymoron?) or triple monogram. I often wonder if other people like monograms – they seem to be popular for some things, but do you reckon they still have a popular spot in the embroiderer’s repertoire? Is embroidering beautiful monograms something that entices you? What do people think of monograms these days? These are the questions I was pondering when I remembered this unfinished alphabet.

So, I’m tying up a loose end!

Here’s the N in the Fan Flower Monogram alphabet:

Free Monogram for Hand Embroidery: N Fan Flower
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My Workroom, Organization, and Labor

 

Where do you do most of your needlework? Do you sit in a comfortable chair in your living room, stitching in front of the TV? A sunny corner next to a window? Outside in the garden?

There are lots of places I’d like to embroider, but in fact, there’s only one place where I really get a lot of needlework and associated tasks done, and that’s in my workroom. Sometimes, I call it a studio (by definition, it is – classes go on there, I do art-related work there); sometimes, I call it the garage. It really is a garage, but it’s revamped into a workroom and storage area.

My garage-gone-studio/workroom (there must be a way to combine those into a clever name) is not part of the house. It shares a joining wall on the back of the house, but I have to go outside to get into the place. While this may seem inconvenient, especially in inclement weather, it’s nice to be separated from the rest of the house. That way, when I do go to “work” out there, I actually feel as if I’m going somewhere to work!

(Why am I calling it work?! It’s fun!)

In case you haven’t seen it before, I thought I’d show you my workroom on a good day! I took most of these photos on Memorial Day at the beginning of this summer, when I cleaned up the workroom.

Embroidery Workroom
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Shaded Embroidery & Old Books

 

Thanks to all who responded to The Nesting Place registration on Wednesday – I was really just as surprised as many of you were, to see the class full in 20 minutes. I think I’ve answered most inquiries personally by now, but in case I missed you, and if you want to be on an “advanced notice” list for the next run of this class, then please do feel free to drop me a line and let me know! I don’t have an official “guaranteed waiting list,” but I’ll send out a short advanced notice to those who are interested in the class.

On to other things: I’ve been reading some old needlework books lately. The books I’m reading are actually real books (the kinds with pages, and some even have hard board covers!), but I think a couple of the titles are online, so I’ll try to dig those up for you and point you to them in the future. If I come across any tidbits that I think you’ll like to hear, I’ll definitely take note and share them with you!

Needlecraft Journal: Embroidery Shading
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Iron-On Monogram Transfers

 

I love it when products geared toward simple yet tasteful surface embroidery hit the needlework market. Last week, I showed you a new line of surface embroidery projects out from Rouge du Rhin – kitchen towels ready-printed for embroidering. The same company is catering to the surface embroidery crowd with a line of iron-on monograms, too, and the ones they have out so far are pretty nice! So I thought I’d show them to you…

Monogram Iron-On Transfers
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