Once in a while, I like to risk boring you with some behind-the-scenes news for Needle ‘n Thread, and today strikes me as the perfect day to do that.

Why the perfect day?

Because I just lost a batch of digital photos between my camera and my computer. I know they’re in that transfer cable somewhere, but no matter how hard I suck on the thing, I can’t seem to get them out.

Do you ever experience super-busy days, but still feel as if you are crawling when it comes to making progress? That’s me right now. Do you know why? Because hand embroidery is a slow process. It does not give instant results. It requires Time. And Time passes inordinately fast when you want a lot of it.

And when Time starts passing really fast, things start feeling a bit hairy, don’t they?

Continue reading “What’s Up on Needle ‘n Thread? Here’s the News!”

Last month, I brought up the subject of needlework price tags and the needlework things that stitchers save their money for. I was mentioning especially the big needlework events that cost a lot of money, but are great things to attend, in order to learn techniques and to connect with other needleworkers.

But national seminars are decidedly more expensive than regional seminars, and local workshops are even more affordable. Local workshops are also smaller – not nearly as overwhelming people-wise or class-choice wise.

Just a short little post today to share with you the embroidery pattern for this Tudor-style rose. I figured you may as well have the pattern if you want it, before I go step-by-step through my stitching process, right? There’s a PDF version below, too, with four different sizes included.

Last time I mentioned my little embroidered Tudor rose in silk and real metal threads, it was almost finished. “Almost” when working on something like this doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be finished “shortly.” Taking the rose from the almost finished state to complete took several hours. But at long last, it was finished, and here it is:

Today I want to show you how to satin stitch to a sharp point. Sometimes, on your embroidery designs that you’re working, you might find an small element (like a leaf or a petal or a bird beak) that requires a sharp point. You satin stitch the element, following the “stitch-just-over-the-outline rule” that seems to govern satin stitching, and …. you end up with a slightly rounded tip to your leaf, or at least it isn’t as pointed as you thought it should be.

The two things that will ensure a pointy point on a satin stitched element are the length of the first center stitch and the angle of all subsequent stitches.

Let me show you what I mean:

Goldwork embroidery is great fun, but it’s a time-consuming type of hand embroidery. It’s not something that can be rushed. And when you’re feeling your way through an embroidery design – not quite sure what thread will look just right – there’s bound to be some trial and error.