The other day, I reviewed the A-Z of Embroidery Stitches 2, and today, I’m going to give away a copy of it, from the Wooly Thread, where it’s on sale for only $15 right now. Read on to see how to enter the give-away!

I’ve been wanting to do this for a looooong time. Almost a year ago, I wrote about using watercolor pencils to transfer embroidery designs. After writing the post, in which I wished for the Ultimate Embroidery Transfer Implement, a reader (Jean, thank you!) sent me an e-mail suggesting that I try the Paper Mate Flair ultra fine felt tip marker in green. Now, the Papermate Flair is not an “embroidery transfer pen.” It is simply a fine tipped marker with a quick-drying water based ink. But I was curious about it – Jean said that she uses the green ultra-fine Flair for all her embroidery transfers and it washes out every time. So…. I purchased a set of the pens in a variety of colors and over the weekend, I finally began The Experiment.

Embroidery Stitch Dictionaries are handy books to have on your shelf, if you’re a die-hard embroidery fanatic.

Even if you only dabble in hand embroidery as an occasional hobby, you’ll never be sorry you have a stitch dictionary or two at hand – they are wonderful reference tools to have on hand, especially when you want to expand your stitching horizons a bit.

One of my favorite series of how-to books for embroidery is the A-Z series, which used to be published by Country Bumpkin, but is now (as of 2014) published by Search Press.

Today, I want to show you one of their stitch dictionaries – A-Z of Embroidery Stitches 2. It’s a terrific stitch dictionary for stitchers wishing to increase their stitching repertoire.

If you’re into blackwork, or if you’re looking for some designs to get you started with blackwork embroidery, here’s a resource that might come in handy.

While enjoying life in the Canadian Maritimes on my recent break, I ran into a few needlework-related items. The first one was a piece of Victorian perforated paper embroidery, hung on the wall of the “rectory” in the idyllic (and fictitious) town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island. Since I took a few photos of the piece, I thought I’d share them with you and tell you a bit about this embroidery fad that lasted from the 1820’s through 1910, reaching its zenith of popularity in the 1880’s and 90’s.

(You can click on the image below for a larger version.)

After returning from vacation, it’s awfully hard to get back into the swing of things, and my needlework has been suffering because of my relative lethargy when it comes to picking up handwork! Admittedly, I’m in a bit of a slump!

So, how does one crawl out of a needlework slump? I’ll tell you what I do, and then you can give me your advice on how you get out of similar slumpy situations!

There are two things I do to work myself out of a needlework slump: First, I evaluate. Then, I anticipate.

To evaluate, I take a good look at my current situation. There are really only two projects that I was concentrating on with any intensity before vacation – the Floral Glove Project from Thistle Threads and the Blackwork Fish.

Even though I’m officially back from vacation, I still have two more guest posts on needlework that I want to share with you. Both are really good – and they touch on needlework topics that I don’t often visit. This first one is by Patricia Richards, who operates Patricia Richards Miniatures, a website devoted to hand made dollhouse miniatures, as well as kits for miniature pillows. Patricia stitches incredibly tiny miniature items in unbelievable detail! She enticed me with the topic of her miniature embroidery projects by sending me a picture of her reproduction 17th century embroidered casket, which you can see in the article below. The casket is beautiful – full-size, it would be amazing in itself. When I realized the piece was about an inch wide, it took me a while to pick up my jaw! I hope you enjoy the article and are just as amazed as I am at the micro-stitched art!