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
May 16, 2010
Wool felt’s a great fabric to have on hand for hand embroidery projects. I use it underneath goldwork, for example, and it can also be used to pad regular stitching and make it sit up a bit off the fabric. I also like to make things out of it, like needlebooks that are covered to bursting with embroidery.
May 15, 2010
This week, the “new” Needle ‘n Thread was launched, and the first week has slipped by very smoothly for the new website. I think it’s time for a housewarming party, and instead of you giving me gifts, I’m going to give you gifts – or at least, the opportunity to win a gift!
To celebrate the new Needle ‘n Thread, I’m giving away two gift certificates to Hedgehog Handworks! (Update, 2017: Hedgehog Handworks is no longer in business, as the owner has retired…)
May 14, 2010
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
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 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.
May 11, 2010
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
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!”