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
June 21, 2010
A couple days ago, I introduced you to Yuki Sugashima of Barefoot Shepherdess, who uses natural dyes to color various threads and yarns for needlework. Today, Yuki presents a few of her favorite plants that she uses to dye her threads. Enjoy!
June 20, 2010
What inspires your creativity? In this series of guest posts, Kathy Andrews is going to explore several different designs inspired by Italian pottery. She’s going to show us not only her designing process, but also the effects of different threads used on similar designs.
June 19, 2010
Yuki Sugashima lives in Japan and is author of the blog Barefoot Shepherdess. Yuki started out as a knitter and spinner, but has recently moved into embroidery and natural-dyed threads. In the Barefoot Shepherdess’s Etsy shop, you’ll find naturally dyed embroidery threads of amazing color! The natural dyeing process is fascinating and Yuki writes about it beautifully – I hope you enjoy reading a little bit about Yuki’s adventures with naturally dyed threads.
June 18, 2010
A-Z of Stumpwork was originally published by Country Bumpkin Publications, but, as of 2015, it has been recently re-published by Search Press, along with the rest of the A-Z needlework series.
This is good news for embroiderers worldwide, because the A-Z books are some of the best embroidery reference books (and the most beautiful!), and they’re now available to a wider audience, more affordably.
A-Z of Stumpwork focuses on dimensional embroidery techniques, made famous in 17th century embroidery, and enjoying a huge resurgence in popularity today.
June 17, 2010
Over the next few weeks, Needle ‘n Thread is going to be on “auto drive” – but never fear, there’s a whole line-up of interesting articles on needlework-related topics coming up!
June 16, 2010
Wow! What a bunch of great input from Monday’s post on Needlework on the Road! Thank you so much for your comments, suggestions, advice, and so forth! I narrowed down my “Road Tripping Stitching Kit” based on a couple common denominators, which I’ll talk about here. I’ll also show you what I decided on…
June 14, 2010
Do you do needlework on the road? If you do, I’d love to hear from you! See, I’m leaving on Thursday on a rather extended road trip (I’ll be telling you more about it later this week!), and I’m questioning whether or not I’ll take any needlework with me!
The first “on the road” needlework project I ever did developed into this:
