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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Cotton Quartet: The Next Stitch Snippet – Coming Soon!

 

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Yay!! It’s time to get ready for the next Stitch Snippets project here on Needle ‘n Thread!

Stitch Snippets is a series of follow-along embroidery projects here on Needle ‘n Thread. We began the series this year with the Bee-Jeweled Pincushion project.

The idea behind the series is to explore projects that are small enough to be completed within a relatively short frame of time. Developing from start to finish, the result is a completed work that is either functional or decorative (or both!), that’s not languishing in an unfinished state. So whether we construct something (like the pincushion or the project below) or simply prepare a small and beautiful piece of embroidery in a frame, we will do it together, from the beginning to the very end.

With each Stitch Snippet, there is an instructional or exploratory “angle.” For example, with the Bee-Jeweled Pincushion, we learned how to work with beads in embroidery and we learned how to build a pincushion.

Cotton Quartet: a Sampler Case
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Weekend Viewing: Bayeux Tapestry History

 

Just a short little visit today to point you in the direction of an interesting conversation on the Bayeux Tapestry, hosted by The British Museum.

I love little bits of exploration on topics that have to do with historical needlework. There’s no doubt that the Bayeux Tapestry is one of the greatest extant pieces of historical needlework, so this discussion is right up my alley. I’ve always had a fascination with the Bayeux Tapestry, and I know many of you do, too.

Bayeux Tapestry Video from the British Museum
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Easter Windows: Reticella, Mistakes, and a Question

 

On Monday, I showed you the little reticello sampler I’m dabbling with. It’s an exploratory thing, just for my own information at this point. Many of you have asked if this will be in the Stitch Snippets series this year. No – no no. Oh no. Nope! That’s not to say it won’t develop into something else, but the Snippets for this year are pretty much planned out already.

This piece is really just for my own information, learning, trials and errors, and so forth.

I have a question I want to ask you about it, though, so I’ll do that at the end of today’s article.

Reticella sampler progress
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Reticello Sampler & Explorations: Watch this Space

 

I’m making up a little reticello sampler.

Reticello is a style of Italian cutwork + needle lace, or cutwork lace. I’ve been exploring it, by following the directions in some new Italian needlework books that I plan to show you soon.

I figure if I really want to test the book’s instructions thoroughly, I need to pick up my needle and do as the book says. So far, so good.

I’m having a wonderful time exploring, and I’m learning a lot. This is a style of needle lace that I have loved for a long time, and although I’ve dabbled in it, I’ve never really explored it thoroughly.

Reticello Sampler & Explorations
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Stitch Challenge: Trilby Stitch

 

Let’s do something a wee bit different today, shall we?

Normally, when we explore stitches together, I launch right in and show you the stitch and how I do it. You can see examples of this approach all the way through the Stitch Fun series that you’ll find here – lots of stitches to explore there!

Today, though, let’s take this in a different direction. I’m going to challenge you to work the stitch from a set of old instructions, and then I’ll show you my explorations with it in the next article, with some reflections and ideas and whatnot.

Stitch Challenge: Trilby Stitch
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Bead Storage & Organization, Revisited

 

Several years ago, we chatted about organizing and storing beads. If you dabble with beads in your embroidery, chances are, you’re going to acquire some containers of beads along the way, and it’s nice to be able to put them in some kind of tidily organized storage solution.

My bead collection has expanded quite a bit since then, and I’m still using the same storage system. But… I’m using it with some reservations now (I’ll explain below).

So, I thought I’d update you on my bead storage and show you one thing I’ve changed (at a reader’s suggestion) that has worked out well.

Beads for Embroidery: Storage and Organization
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