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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Help Send Needlework to Space!

 

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Here’s a neat little hand embroidery story – a combination of one woman’s love of hand embroidery and her life-long interest in all things space related.

Being the embroidery-obssessed person that I am, I think it would be a great step for mankind, to send a piece of hand embroidery out into space. And Rachel of Average Jane Crafter is trying to do just that. She embroidered this highly textured image of the moon, and it’s presently part of a contest sponsored by NASA and Etsy, in which the winning entry may go to the moon on one of the final space shuttle flights.

Hand Embroidery of Moon's Surface
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Hand Embroidery Pattern: Another Stylized Pomegranate Design

 

Here we go again, with another free hand embroidery pattern, the creative naming of which fails me. The design is definitely a stylized pomegranate, though you’d find it hard to believe so by looking at it. It doesn’t look too pomegranate-ish. But, let me show you the design and tell you a bit about the symbolism.

Free Hand Embroidery Pattern: Stylized Pomegranate
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Give-Away! Trish Burr Needlepainting Embroidery Kit!

 

Good morning, all! Today, because it’s Saturday, because it’s a gorgeous day out, because I’m behind the 8-ball as usual (hence, the post is late!), and because I think you all deserve a little needlepainting in your Needlework Lives – I’m giving away a Trish Burr Needlepainting Embroidery Kit!!!

The kit is compliments of Trish Burr (thank you, Trish!), and it’s suitable for beginner to intermediate levels.

Trish Burr Needlepainting Embroidery Kit
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From Button to Needle Minder

 

When I purchased this Singing Frog button a while back, the idea of a needle minder seemed like a good use for the fellow. I don’t always follow through with my original ideas for any Spontaneously Bought Thing, but I had a tube of glue out the other day, and I had some blank magnets on hand, and it just seemed like a natural thing to do, to make the button into a needle minder.

It isn’t precisely perfect, as far as needle minders go, but I don’t suppose there’s any Absolutes when it comes to these types of things. And, anyway, it works. And I like it. Must it measure up to any other criteria?

So today, I thought I’d show you how to make a needle minder out of a button. It’s Really Simple, and this is really a casual tutorial. I’m sure there are hundreds of better ways to go about the process, but this is what I did….

Making a Needle Minder out of a Button
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Goldwork Ribbon – A Pretty Find

 

It is true. I’m a sucker for goldwork. And while I love to do it myself, I also like to find other textiles embellished in goldwork. When very fine goldwork is involved, most textiles embellished with it are beyond my pocketbook, but when I come across a small piece hither and yon, I am just twitterpated enough with goldwork to pocket it. Or, in this case, to buy it.

This past weekend, I was hanging around Kansas City waiting for a flight to arrive, and, as usual, I couldn’t resist I stopping in at Florilegium (in Parkville), which happens to be the same shop where I picked up the Frog Concert button a while ago. And while there, I noticed, up high on a shelf, a couple spools of ribbon spilling over the edge. They were gauzy, and embellished with goldwork, beads, and sequins.

And, as usual when I go into this shop (which I am determined to avoid for the next year because this happens every time I go there!), I’m sure it was whispering to me from on high!

Goldwork Ribbon
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Braid Stitch Video Tutorial – aka Cable Plait Stitch

 

Here’s a video tutorial for the Braid Stitch, which is also known as the Cable Plait Stitch. I used the stitch recently in the felt and floche piece I was stitching, and received a heap of questions about it – more so, I think, than any stitch I’ve ever shown here on Needle ‘n Thread! The pink line in the photo below is the braid stitch:

Braid Stitch Video Tutorial, aka Cable Plait Stitch
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