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 17, 2011
Today, I’m very excited to start a little series here on Needle ‘n Thread that features some Hungarian designs suitable for embroidery and other artistic pursuits. There’s a little background story here about the artist’s legacy, so I’d like to share that with you, along with a pattern that has lots of possibilities for stitching.
March 16, 2011
Yesterday, we looked at how to embroider a satin stitched dot, which is not as easy a task as it sounds, but once the general layout of the stitches in the top layer of satin stitch is understood, it sure makes it a lot easier to achieve a nice looking satin stitched dot.
One thing I failed to mention in that tutorial – being too caught up in the finished satin stitched top, rather than what was going on underneath – is that the padding of the dot is not actually “satin stitched.” Thanks to Carol-Anne of Threads Across the Web, who followed up the original post with a very informative comment about padding in Japanese embroidery, I decided I better complete the dot tutorial by clarifying the method of padding the dot.
And so, today, in a somewhat reversed order, I’ll show you how I do the padding for a satin stitch dot, and really for any area of satin stitch where I don’t want a layer of padding as thick as the padding on the front of the work, on the back of the work. Make sense? Let me show you!
March 15, 2011
The satin stitch is one of my favorite filling stitches for small areas and narrow elements in embroidery. While it is absolutely a gorgeous stitch worked in silk, really, in any thread, it’s beautiful.
Perhaps the most difficult element to stitch well in satin stitch is a circle or larger dot. A wee tiny dot in satin stitch isn’t so difficult – it’s really just a matter of stitching two or three tiny stitches the same size and two slightly smaller stitches on each side of those, to give the look of a dot, without it actually being a perfect circle.
But those are wee tiny dots (an 1/8″ or smaller). But what about larger dots? Once you get the hang of them, they’re actually pretty easy! Here, I’d like to show you how I satin stitch larger dots or circular elements.
March 14, 2011
This is one of the questions I receive via e-mail quite often, and I figured I may as well put it on the website, just in case there are other stitchers out there wondering the same thing.
How do you embroider the little red cross that is traditionally found on most church altar linens? Normally, this cross is quite small and is actually cross stitched. While it doesn’t have to be cross-stitched, and while it doesn’t have to follow this pattern, this is a typical pattern that is very neat and tidy, tiny, and pretty, and it serves its purpose well.
March 12, 2011
Ahhhhh. It’s Saturday, and much of today, if I have anything to say about it, will be spent with this wool embroidery project (the Pomegranate Corners) that I’ve been muddling through. It’s true that I’ve been putzing around on it! I’ll share with you my source of consternation on the project, which I think most needleworkers can relate to at some point or another.
So the question is, why the hold-up on this particular work, and how can we get over the walls we build when frustration sets in?
March 11, 2011
Here’s a little update on the miniature embroidery project I’m working on – the “Sense of Hearing” Cluny tapestry, designed for working on silk gauze. I will admit that this past week with grades due and lots of school work to concentrate on, I didn’t work in too many 15 Minute sessions.
Instead, last night I had a therapeutic few hours of stitching with an audiobook and a cup of tea or ten. I told myself I needed the “break,” but in fact, I was really just procrastinating. It was relaxing – a good audio book, peace and quiet, no interruptions, lots of stitching, and finally finishing the 6th section of the piece. Only three more pages of charts to go! Three. More. Pages.
March 10, 2011
If you’ve been reading Needle ‘n Thread for a while, you’ve probably gathered that I’m not a crazy quilter. It’s not that I don’t like crazy quilting – it’s just that I don’t do crazy quilting. My attempts have been … well … half-baked, at best! But I love looking at crazy quilting, and I love watching what other people do with crazy quilting.
One crazy quilter in particular that’s fun to watch is Allison Aller. Allie takes crazy quilting to a level of such richness – in color, in embellishment, in construction – that I often find myself boggled at what she creates!
Allie wrote a book, and it is finally on the shelves and available. So I bought the book, and I thought I’d show it to you.
