August 23, 2010
Good Online Needlework Deals…
Today, in celebration of the First Day of School, this is short post! I thought I’d point out a couple … Continue reading Good Online Needlework Deals…
August 22, 2010
Embroidery Class Preparation
As the summer draws to a close (officially, it ends today for me), I’ve been frantically preparing to teach the Needle Arts class I mentioned a while back. I really appreciate everyone’s feedback on the subject – your comments were very encouraging and really helped get me fired up about the class!
“Needle Arts” is probably a misnomer, and I may discuss this with the school a bit later. My brief exposure to other needle arts besides embroidery is minimal – I can crochet, but I don’t do it much; I can knit only the simplest stitches; and aside from occasional needle tatting (in conjunction with needle lace), I don’t tat. In fact, mostly, I just embroider. (You’ve probably noticed that!) My focus, then, for the class, is only embroidery of various types. The first quarter is devoted to counted techniques, including cross stitch, blackwork, Assisi work, and petit point. The remainder of the year is devoted to learning stitches and applying the knowledge in various surface embroidery techniques. I won’t go into all the gory details right now, but said techniques will include, especially, crewel work and silk work.
August 21, 2010
Ricami a Fili Tesi – Book Review for Openwork Embroidery
This past summer while I was away, one of my guest post writers was Anna Catagnetti, who has recently authored and published a book on “Openwork Embroidery” (Ricami a Fili Tesi).
Now that the book is on the market, I’ve had a chance to look at it, and I thought I’d show it to you, too. If you like needle lace, this is a good instructional book to have on hand!
August 20, 2010
Two-Stranded Embroidery Thread, off the spool
One of the questions that came up the other day when we were speaking of Cosmo embroidery floss was whether or not I had tried their two-stranded embroidery thread. I haven’t yet, but I will. It’s an interesting concept, and I would guess that the two-strand embroidery floss off the spool has come about thanks to the popularity especially of redwork and other line embroidery common to quilting.
August 19, 2010
Turkey Work Tails
My sister Sarah has a friend who has a thing for squirrels. With that in mind, Sarah set about stitching a squirrel for her pal for Christmas. The design was originally meant to be stitched over two, on 28 count linen, but I persuaded her that over one on 28 count would be really cute…. Then I talked her into Turkey Work.
August 18, 2010
Schoolgirl Embroidery Exhibit
When an e-mail arrived from the Director of Marketing at the Florence Griswold Museum, asking me to help spread the word about their upcoming fall exhibit titled With Needle and Brush: Schoolgirl Embroidery from the Connecticut River Valley, a couple things popped into my mind: 1. To my knowledge, the exhibit’s been announced on at least two popular needlework websites already – Needleprint and Thistle Threads. People are going to see it as old news; and 2. FIELD TRIP!
August 17, 2010
Cosmo Embroidery Floss: First Impressions
Back to Floss Talk! The embroidery floss that I mentioned last week is Cosmo Embroidery Floss. Several readers commented in the original Floss Talk post about Cosmo Embroidery Floss, so you probably already know that it isn’t a new floss, though it is new to me. It’s very popular among quilters and is found more often in quilting stores, I think, than in regular needlework shops.
I’ve wanted to try out Cosmo floss for a while, after hearing about it from readers and getting several questions via e-mail about it. So far, I’ve only done a little bit of stitching with it, so I thought I’d share my first impressions.
