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
October 1, 2010
Being a fan of Renaissance Art and certain Renaissance artists, I was really excited when a reader sent me a link to the Guardian’s little blurb on the exhibit at the Victoria & Albert in London, featuring Raphael’s Sistine Chapel Tapestries and the paintings from which they were woven.
September 30, 2010
Last week, I posted the first collection of Grace Christie’s little designs for exploring hand embroidery stitches, and now, here’s the second set. These little designs come from Samplers and Stitches by Grace Christie, a very nice embroidery book that’s available online for free.
In the book, the various stitches that Mrs. Christie explores are shown in diagram form, partially worked on lots of different little motifs. To make the motifs workable for a sampler (or anything else you can think of to use them for!), I redrew them as vector images and, for ease of printing, have collected them into several PDF files.
September 29, 2010
Last week, we looked at the Most Frequently Asked Question that I’ve received on Needle ‘n Thread: How to Transfer an Embroidery Design. This week, let’s take a look at another question that pops up quite often, regarding filling large areas (including backgrounds) with embroidery, especially in a solid color.
September 28, 2010
Last week in this series on developing a spot sampler, we discussed choosing and setting up fabric, and picking out threads and colors. Now it’s time to stitch. There are a number of ways to go about exploring stitches on a spot sampler. You can plop motifs, stitch samples, lines or bands down wherever you want, or you can plan out where to put things ahead of time. On my sampler, I’ve done a little of both, but pretty much, I’ve looked ahead to see where I might stitch the next element.
The first thing we stitched in class were initials on the sampler, to mark them as “ours.” Initials or signatures or first names, or first and last names – all of these work when it comes to marking the sampler as your work. Normally, the signature comes at the end of the work, right? Well, ours came at the beginning for a couple reasons: 1. There are heaps of initials available online in counted format, and since we’re doing a little bit of counted work first, initials seemed an easy and available way to get started; 2. initials are personal, and I think they helped the students form a “personal connection” with their samplers.
September 27, 2010
Kits for surface embroidery projects are sometimes pretty hard to come by. They’re even tough to find in local needlework shops, although occasionally you can find some nice crewel kits in shops that carry a wide variety of needlework supplies and that cater to a variety of techniques. But mostly, if you want surface embroidery kits, often you have to go straight to the designer.
For those of you who like to work kits that employ traditional surface embroidery techniques, I thought I’d point out Roseworks Embroidery Designs, a company out of South Africa that sells a whole plethora of surface embroidery kits.
September 25, 2010
Here’s a little collection of simple hand embroidery designs from Grace Christie’s book, Samplers and Stitches, which you can find online for free. Now, you may be wondering why I would bother putting together a collection of images that come out of a free online book. There are a couple reasons…
September 24, 2010
Koala Conventions is a business in Australia devoted to putting together pretty spectacular needlework events. Twice a year in Australia, they host workshops that pull in some of the best tutors from Australia and around the world. The workshops cover a huge variety of techniques, and they look deliciously tempting and downright fun!
