April 18, 2011
Royal School of Needlework in the News
In case you haven’t seen the very nice and interesting little blurb on CBS about the Royal School of Needlework, you should!
April 16, 2011
Miniature Cluny Tapestry Update
Just a short little update this morning to show you some progress on the miniature “Lady & Unicorn” piece that I’ve been stitching on. Nope, I haven’t abandoned it for other things – even though there are about sixty gazillion embroidery projects floating around here right now!
Still, this little piece has been a pretty good carrot, so I have to keep it going! And, though the progress is slow, with literally just a few minutes here and there now and then being devoted to it – still, it’s getting somewhere!
April 15, 2011
The Agecroft Sweet Bag Thread Kit
Well, I seem to be on a Kit Kick lately, don’t I? Today I’m highlighting a thread kit, which isn’t quite the same as a full-blown embroidery kit, but it’s sort of close.
You see, designers often design a piece of embroidery, and then, if the designer doesn’t offer a full kit but just the design, a manufacturer or a shop might put together the kit of threads for that particular embroidery design, so that customers can purchase all the threads needed to complete the design in one tidy package. And that’s what this is – it’s a thread kit (with spangles), and it’s been put together by Access Commodities for the Agecroft Sweet Bag project highlighted in the last issue of the EGA’s publication, Needle Arts Magazine.
April 14, 2011
Suzhou Embroidery Revisited – & Up Close
At the end of January, we took a close-up look at some silk embroideries from the Suzhou region of China, specifically those created be the Su Embroidery Studios. The studio continues the tradition of Chinese needlepainting from this region, by offering various types and grades of Chinese needlepainting, as well as custom reproduction work.
After highlighting the work of Su Embroidery Studios, you can imagine my delight when I received in the post a couple week ago a beautiful piece of Suzhou embroidery for my very own, as a thank you for highlighting the work of the studio! So of course, I want to share it with you, too, so that you can see the piece up close. A study of it provides an interesting lesson in color combinations to produce a given effect.
April 13, 2011
Free Embroidery Pattern – Hungarian #3: Hearts for Whitework
Continuing with Lilly’s Legacy, here’s another Hungarian hand embroidery pattern – this time, a little different, as you will notice that it is not colored. The black silhouette design may bring to mind visions of paper cutting rather than hand embroidery, but in fact, Lilly designed several pieces that look like this, that were meant for whitework embroidery.
If you’re just joining in on this series of Hungarian embroidery patterns, you can read the original story of Lilly Baróthi Zathureczky here on Needle ‘n Thread. It’s an interesting story of a Hungarian designer whose previously unpublished embroidery patterns have been brought to light and will be published now for all to enjoy! As many readers have already commented, the designs are suitable for much more than just hand embroidery. They’re adaptable to all kinds of arts and crafts, from painting, to paper crafts, to quilt appliqué.
April 12, 2011
Who Won the Embroidery Kit, Scissors, and Evertites?
Well, here it is – the winner of the Happy My Birthday to You Give-Away!
April 11, 2011
I Love Sparklies!
Goldwork is called “goldwork” because it involves the use of gold threads. The term goldwork is often used interchangeably with “metal thread embroidery,” though metal thread embroidery encompasses the use of more than just gold threads. It pretty much takes into account the use of any metal threads. The gold threads involved in goldwork are not “metallic” threads, but are rather “real metal threads” – gold, silver, and alloys – that are used (often in combination with silk) to produce the richest results in hand embroidery.
Real metal threads today come in a variety of colors, and these can be used to produce some interesting effects in metal thread embroidery. I haven’t done any real work with colored metal threads beyond playing with them, but I’ve recently gotten my grimy paws on a few new pieces of colored metal threads, and my mind is whirling with The Possibilities! I suppose I’m a bit like a crow that way. I just love sparklies!
