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

Contact Mary

Connect with Mary

     

Archives

2025 (74) 2024 (135) 2023 (125) 2022 (136) 2021 (130) 2020 (132) 2019 (147) 2018 (146) 2017 (169) 2016 (147) 2015 (246) 2014 (294) 2013 (294) 2012 (305) 2011 (306) 2010 (316) 2009 (367) 2008 (352) 2007 (225) 2006 (139)
 

Estense Embroidery Book Review

 

Amazon Books

Estense Embroidery or Ricamo Estense by Elisabeth Holzer Spinelli, translated by Jeanine Robertson (who writes the blog Italian Needlework), is a beautiful little embroidery book that introduces a style of embroidery inspired by Italian ceramics. The book is fascinating for a number of reasons, not the least of which are the beautiful embroidery projects you’ll find inside.

Estense Embroidery: Italian Needlework inspired by Italian Ceramics

Continue reading “Estense Embroidery Book Review”

A Frame Job – the Goldwork Pomegranate

 

Do you do your own framing on your needlework projects? Admittedly, I rarely do. For small projects, I sometimes do (like the embroidered flowers and bird I framed in this tutorial on framing needlework). But on larger projects, and especially on special embroidery projects that required expensive materials and lots of time, I prefer to turn my work over to professional framers. So that’s what I did with the Goldwork Pomegranate, and this is what I got back from the framer:

Goldwork Pomegranate Framed

Would you be surprised if I told you that many of the projects I embroider never get framed or finished? Continue reading “A Frame Job – the Goldwork Pomegranate”

The Blackwork Fish Is Coming Along Swimmingly!

 

You’d think that, with all the “time off” from blogging, I would have finished the Blackwork Fish by now! Alas, it is not the case! Still, the embroidery on this fishy fellow has come along fairly well. I’ve finished the body, the tail, and a bit of fin.

What I liked best about this project up to the point of starting the tail was the diversity of stitches. Embroidering the body of the fish was fun, regardless of stitching solely in black for a relatively long time.

Blackwork Embroidery Fish in Progress

I found myself getting pretty excited as I approached the last few inches of filling down by the tail, Continue reading “The Blackwork Fish Is Coming Along Swimmingly!”

Welcome to the New Needle ‘n Thread!

 

I’ve been dying to write this post for a long, long time – before I even knew what the new Needle ‘n Thread would look like, and for that matter, before I knew we would even have a new Needle ‘n Thread for sure! But here it is, shiny and new, and I want to tell you a little bit about it.

But first, a final tribute to the old, so that we can remember what it looked like:

The Old Needle 'n Thread

RIP.

And now let’s get on with the new! Continue reading “Welcome to the New Needle ‘n Thread!”