Welcome to Part 3 of Little Blooms!

If you are just joining along with this stitch along, we’re working through a small project together here on Needle ‘n Thread. You can read the preliminary information in the project preview here, and you can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here. Next week, I will post an index where you can find all the lessons for the project listed chronologically in one spot.

For those who have asked, we will be restocking a supply of Little Blooms kits later in May. We have to wait for supplies to arrive and then prepare them. We won’t be able to start preparing them until the beginning of the second week of May.

If you are a member of the Needle ‘n Thread Community on Patreon, you will find the PDF download for today’s lesson posted later today. If you are signed up as a Dedicated or Avid Stitcher, I’ll have a supplementary video for you later this weekend.

As usual, please read through all the instructions before you begin stitching! Often, the questions you might ask if you jump in to stitch have already been answered a little further along in the article.

Welcome to the second installment of Little Blooms: A Mini Snap Purse, wherein we explore stitching the flowers clustered here and there around the design.

If you are not familiar with the way a stitch-along works, you can find further information on what to expect with this project in the preview of Little Blooms here.

Last week in Part 1, we setup the project. That’s where you’ll find the pattern and the embroidery design, along with information on transferring the design.

Members of the Needle ‘n Thread community on Patreon will find the PDF for this installment already available. If you’re in the Dedicated or Avid Stitcher levels, I’ll be posting a video supplement for you a little later this week.

So that’s the backstory – now let’s jump into the flowers, shall we?

In 2021, Inspirations Studios launched a new book by Margaret Light called A Fine Tradition, and it was very popular for good reason! Packed with lots of very accessible and appealing embroidery projects, the book is suitable for beginners and beyond who want to stitch and finish beautiful embroidered things. You can read my review of A Fine Tradition here.

I’m super excited to say that the second volume by Margaret Light – A Fine Tradition 2 – is now available! So today, we’re going to look at the inside of the book and I’ll tell you what you can expect from this extremely accessible project and instructional book.

Before we go forth to explore the new volume, you should know that I have a limited quantity of both books in stock right now! So if you didn’t have a chance to get the first volume, it’s been reprinted and you can add both to your needlework library. They’re available here in my shop. If these books have been on your radar, now’s a good time to pick them up!

Welcome to the first installment of Little Blooms: a Mini Snap Purse!

I’m going to kick off the stitch-along for this project by sharing the pattern and embroidery design with you, talking a little bit about materials and possible substitutions, and telling you how I set up the project to prepare it for stitching.

For members of the Needle ‘n Thread community over on Patreon, you’ll find Part 1 available as a downloadable PDF over on Patreon already – it was posted yesterday. For members at the $3+ level, I’ll be posting a supplementary video for you this weekend!

Let’s jump right in!

Embroidery hoops – they’re one of those tools that are pretty essential to the embroiderer. No matter what approach you take to surface embroidery, eventually, you’ll run into the need for a hoop.

So whether you’re a stretcher-bar fiend, a slate frame fanatic, or a Q-snap connoisseur, some day, at least for a project or two, you’ll have to be a hoopist. Or a hoopie. Or a hooper? Yes, a hooper!

And if you’re going to be a hooper, you should also be a wrapper.

I bring this up now – and I’ve brought it up before – because, as we launch into Little Blooms on Friday, many of you will be hooping up the project to get it ready for stitching. I want you to have a really good experience using an embroidery hoop on this project. And at the end, I want you to have an equally good experience with the finish work. Your hoop and how you use it can have a lot to do with that!