May 14, 2010
Needlework & Inspiration Around the Traps
Needlework inspiration can come from a lot of places. Not all these places are necessarily needlework-related, either. When I can, … Continue reading Needlework & Inspiration Around the Traps
May 13, 2010
Hand Embroidery: Lessons from the Past
At the dawn of the 1900’s, the companies that manufactured embroidery silk (known as filo and floss silks) published little manuals of instruction in hand embroidery that were also meant to be marketing tools.
One such company was the Brainerd & Armstrong Company out of New London, Connecticut. In 1899, they published a 140+ page instructional booklet called Embroidery Lessons with Colored Studies. It’s a fantastic little piece of embroidery history, focusing on Society (or Art) Silk Embroidery. I happen to have a copy of it, and when thumbing through it the other day, I found myself here and there chuckling, often nodding in agreement, and finally wondering why I hadn’t read through the whole book before. Continue reading “Hand Embroidery: Lessons from the Past”
May 12, 2010
Estense Embroidery Book Review
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.
Continue reading “Estense Embroidery Book Review”
May 11, 2010
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:
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”
May 10, 2010
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.
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!”
May 9, 2010
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:
RIP.
And now let’s get on with the new! Continue reading “Welcome to the New Needle ‘n Thread!”
April 29, 2010
Needlework Book Sale and Some News…
Interweave Press produces Piecework Magazine, among other interesting needlework publications. Right now, they’ve got their spring sale going on, but … Continue reading Needlework Book Sale and Some News…