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
November 9, 2022
Well, after a four-and-a-half-day weekend dedicated solely to shipping (I hope all your goodies arrive safe and sound, and you’re as excited about them as I am!), we are back to packing and moving.
In fact, the Move has Begun. And while it’s going on, I have a slightly different, short-term plan for the blog.
I’ll tell you about it below!
November 4, 2022
I’ve been anticipating and planning for today for a long time!
Today, you see, is a Banner Day! And it’s a Banner Day for many reasons.
Today, we start our final Stitch Snippet journey for 2022, with a beautiful Christmas Tree kit that we’re going to embellish further and finish as an ornament.
The kit set (which includes the embroidery kit for Christmas Tree by Tamar Nahir-Yanai and the finishing kit from Needle ‘n Thread) is now available! You can read how the stitch-along will go in the sneak peek I posted on Wednesday.
November 2, 2022
At the beginning of 2022, I launched a series here on Needle ‘n Thread called Stitch Snippets, where we work together through a manageable embroidery project from start to finish, highlighting some particular aspect of embroidery or finishing (or both).
Along with the stitch-along, we had kits available for you, so that you would have all the same supplies on hand that I was using while we worked through the project together.
This year, we’ve finished three projects together here on Needle ‘n Thread: Bee-Jeweled Pincushion, Cotton Quartet, and the most recent finish Autumn Fire.
And this week, we are ready to launch the fourth and final project of the year! Yay!
Today, I’m going to give you a sneak peek of the last Stitch Snippet for 2022 and explain how this final stitch-along will work (it is slightly different from the previous three), what we will be focusing on, and how you can join in.
I’ll also tell you when the kit will launch and what other products will be available at the same time so that you can save a bit on shipping while taking care of your Christmas wish list!
Please read to the end of the article so you know what to expect and how to participate.
October 31, 2022
Well, here we are! October 31st: Halloween!
To bid farewell to October and herald in November, I thought I’d pay short homage to that ubiquitous winter squash that shows up absolutely everywhere this time of year:
The Pumpkin.
Here in the States, the pumpkin is often (but not always) associated with sweet things – like pastries and dessert (the pumpkin pie, the pumpkin roll, the pumpkin cake, the pumpkin muffin, the pumpkin scone, the pumpkin mousse, the pumpkin brownie (!)…) or sweet drinks (the unfathomable pumpkin spice latte or the more unfathomable pumpkin spice milkshake or the still more unfathomable pumpkin spice cocoa) or cloyingly sweet smelling candles and the like.
Rarely do we appreciate it as a savory and healthy addition to a good meal in its more natural state as squash.
But sometimes we do!
Pumpkins, whether you like them or not as a food item, are iconic here in the autumn. But they aren’t just regulated to Halloween jack-o-lanterns (which was my first childhood exposure to pumpkins). They’re a part of autumn decor all the way up to Thanksgiving at the end of November, at which time they magically disappear in one fell swoop and are replaced by Christmas trees and lights and snowflakes and Santa Clause and creepy elves and peppermint flavored everything.
More and more, the transition between pumpkin and peppermint is happening earlier and earlier – almost to the point that, by the time the kids are sorting their Halloween candy and coercing a Tootsie-Roll-for-Anything-Else Trade Agreement, the jack-o-lantern is replaced by a ho-ho-hoing Santa on the front porch.
But it doesn’t have to be that way! There’s still time to stitch a pumpkin or two!
October 28, 2022
A while ago, while perusing calligraphy websites (I don’t do much calligraphy, but I dabble occasionally), I came across an article on an older blog that looks, in fact, defunct at this point.
But the article is good. It’s on drawing borders, and it contains a lot of principles that can translate into embroidery design, too.
If you like doodling your own embroidery designs and you’re looking for inspiration and ideas, you might enjoy this article!
Calligraphy websites are a rabbit hole that I think many embroiderers might enjoy falling into, because it’s pretty easy to see how calligraphy and illumination can interpret into embroidery.
October 26, 2022
Today’s short little message is more of a Public Service Announcement, especially if you’re interested in picking up some of the specialty books that we offer here at Needle ‘n Thread, or if you’ve been waiting on the Autumn Fire kits to restock.
It’s funny how things work out. We’re packing up the studio for an imminent move to a new space. Everything is going in boxes, labeled, ready to move out, so that we can unpack and re-situate our goods in an orderly (!) and sensible (!) fashion.
But at the same time, new stock is coming into the studio almost every day, as we restock the Autumn Fire kits, as we prepare the last Stitch Snippet kit of the year, as we bring in some delectable stitching accessories, and as books from abroad arrive.
And so we find ourselves packing on one side of a room and unpacking on the other side. We are, in fact, unpacking so that we can pack.
Or are we packing so that we can unpack? I’ve lost the string of logic, but I know that the process – whatever it is we are doing – seems to be working for now.
And on that note, here’s a bit about what’s in, for those of you who have been waiting for specific books that we carry or for those awaiting Autumn Fire kits.
October 24, 2022
Happy Monday! Woohoo! The beginning of another week. I hope it’s going to be a great one for all of us!
If you’ve been hanging about with me on Needle ‘n Thread for a wee bit, you probably know that I’m a sucker for linen. It is by far my favorite fabric – not just for embroidery, but pretty much for everything.
Linen, made from flax, has been around since the beginning of written history and earlier. It’s the oldest excavated fabric.
It’s beautiful. It’s versatile. It’s rough. It’s fine. It’s sacred. It’s secular. It’s elegant. It’s casual. It’s long-wearing, warm, cool, heavy, light. It’s the stuff of heirlooms.
Linen, in short, is Awesome!
