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

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Sweet Marguerite – Kits Available!

 

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Gosh, I was thinking Friday would never arrive this week! I’m so excited that Sweet Marguerite is now duly launched.

You can find the kits for Sweet Marguerite, our next stitch-along project, right here in the shop, just waiting for you.

At this time, we’re out of beeswax petites and we’re out of needle minders. I always have an early shopping event for members on Patreon before I launched a new product in my shop, and – due to the hand-made, slower-made nature of those products – we didn’t have as many as I would have liked. But we are making more. I will let you know when they’re ready again.

We also sold out of the blue option on the kits during the early shopping event, but we have enough blue linen to prepare more and get them shipped right away. I’ve put some more blue in stock for you. Just note that the project is a sample project – it’s to learn a few techniques – and all the colors are the same high quality linen. So if the blue sells out, don’t hesitate to grab another color kit!

Now the kits are ready to ship, let’s talk about how the stitch-along will unfold!

Sweet Marguerite Stitch Snippet
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Sweet Marguerite Introduction & Other New Tidbits

 

This morning, I would like to introduce you to Sweet Marguerite and tell you all about this little Stitch Snippets stitch-along project!

I’ll tell you what we’ll learn during the course of the stitch along and what you can expect as the project develops here on the website, including kit information, scope of the project, and other useful information.

After we’ve discussed Sweet Marguerite, I’ll share a few other bits that I think are pretty exciting, too – especially news about our new line of beautiful and functional needle minders!

Sweet Marguerite: accent linen in whitework and hemstitch
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Hemstitching & the Finishing Touches

 

Good morning and Happy Monday! And Hurray! This is The Week!

It’s the week we’re launching the second Stitch Snippet project of 2023! And we’ll do that on Friday. So, this Friday, we’ll be launching the kits for Sweet Marguerite, which is a small hemstitched linen square, decorated with a sprig of whitework embroidery.

I’ll go into more detail on the project as the week progresses, and tell you a little more about the kit on Friday when it launches. Suffice it to say for now that the kit contains everything you need to complete the project, except scissors and a hoop! I even included a great little pair of tweezers that is ideal for your embroidery workbox. The kit for this project will float around the $22-or-less price range.

In the meantime, here’s the final sneak peek, after finishing up the decorative hemstitching on one of the samples.

Sweet Marguerite: Whitework and Hemstitch embroidery
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Revisiting Antique Pattern Library

 

Well, here we are! Almost back on track! I hope all of you in the US had a grand holiday weekend / week-beginning.

I returned home from a short break in Kentucky just in time for the 4th of July festivities here in Kansas, which were wildly outdone by huge storms that swept through on Tuesday evening, replete with 85-mph winds and loads of rain. It’s still a bit of a mess!

Today, let’s continue with this series of revisiting older topics on Needle ‘n Thread. Instead of talking about a needlework technique, though, we’ll talk about a wonderful needlework resource.

I’ll send you down one of my favorite rabbit holes with some good reading for the upcoming weekend, and I’ll share with you the exciting things coming up next week on Needle ‘n Thread!

Antique Pattern Library
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Gingham Embroidery – Summery and Sweet!

 

We’ve revisited gingham embroidery on Needle ‘n Thread several times over the years, but when summer comes, I always think it’s a subject worth drawing to your attention again.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly ten years since I put together this index devoted to embroidery on gingham (also called “chicken scratch” here in the US). And some of the information and tutorials stretch all the way back the first years of the blog! That’s seventeen years! Crazy!

Gingham embroidery is one of those styles of needlework that evokes a certain nostalgia, I think. There’s something very homey about it. While it seems a bit old fashioned and relegated to a certain era, it isn’t, really. It’s so easy to update the look of gingham embroidery with modern color trends, bright and crisp fabrics, and different types of fibers.

This is a colorful and fun style of embroidery that’s accessible to anyone – from child to adult, from beginner to advanced stitcher.

Revisiting Gingham Embroidery on Needle 'n Thread
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Let’s Look at Lettering in Embroidery

 

There are so many stitches out there in the embroidery world! And there are so many opportunities to use them to write with embroidery!

Favorite sayings, personalization, motivational aspirations – or the comical reverse – can all be said with embroidery. Embroidered words, phrases, names, places, dates – these can all be added to larger projects like quilts, blankets, samplers, decorative towels, pillows and pillowcases, wall hangings, and more. There’s no end to what you can do with embroidery and words.

What stitches work best for embroidering words? Well, it really depends on several factors: the size of your project, the design layout, the words you want to emphasize, the use your project will be put to, or simply the look you like. You have to take into account many factors when you consider what stitches to use.

What’s the best way to know how to determine what stitches to use where? Trial and error, really. Practice over time, experience – these things will help to teach you what works, stitch-wise, in different scenarios.

One of the best ways to get in that kind of practice is simply to stitch. A lettering / text sampler can help, and that’s what I was doing when I put together these lessons for hand embroidered lettering and text some umpteen million years ago.

Hand Embroidered Lettering and Text Tutorials
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