Good morning, my friends, and welcome to A Stitcher’s Christmas, 2020, installment #3!

Today, it’s straight out of Italy – specifically, two beautiful gifts from the publishers of the embroidery magazine Giuliana Ricama, which is available in both an Italian and an English edition. I wrote about the magazine a while back, if you’d like to learn more about it.

I’m also going to announce the winner of installment #2 at the end of today’s article, so please venture on to the very end to see if you get to enjoy one of Di van Niekerk’s gifts this Christmas!

Good morning, and welcome to Installment #2 of this year’s Stitcher’s Christmas – a series of delectable needlework give-aways leading up to Christmas!

Today’s give-away includes a gorgeous kit, silk ribbon collection, and books, courtesy of the Queen of Silk Ribbon, Di van Niekerk! More details below…

I’ll also tell you the winners of Monday’s give-away, so make sure you read through to see if your name is on that list!

Also, I’m going to tighten up the give-away guidelines, so please read those carefully. Thanks!

Here on Needle ‘n Thread around Christmas time, we have a little Stitcher’s Christmas party – a series of fun embroidery-related give-aways featuring beautiful needlework goods offered by small businesses who are happy to assist in giving something back to the Needle ‘n Thread community.

So, for the next several weeks leading up to Christmas, you can expect a series of fabulous needlework give-aways! Threads, kits, books, tools – they’re all here, and who knows? They might end up in your stocking or under your tree!

There are a few guidelines for the give-aways – I’ll remind you of those at the end of each give-away.

To kick off this year’s Stitcher’s Christmas, courtesy of Colour Complements, it’s everybody’s favorite – Thread!

Good morning, my friends!

Today, I’m so excited to share a new kit with you and some other delectable Christmas stitching projects. All the projects released today are suitable for beginners and beyond – though the Mini Sampler Stockings include some finishing (which I made super easy for you!).

First, I’m going to tell you a little bit about the Mini Sampler Stocking supply kits and the separate downloadable instructional ebook that are now available! These are my Favorite project right now!

Once you see how versatile they are, how deceptively easy they are, how festive they are, and how quick they are to complete, I think you’ll understand why I like them. I’ve been playing with all kinds of combinations and approaches for stitching these, because … well, once you start, it’s kind of hard to quit!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

No matter where you are, there’s always a reason to celebrate Thanksgiving, so even if you’re not here in the US, I hope you have a very happy day full of many blessings!

I’m so grateful for our wonderful community we’ve built around Needle ‘n Thread! You are such a special part of my life, and I hope you know that! It’s been a rough year for so many of us, but I hope that you can find much to be thankful for and that you find some joy and contentment as the year comes to a close.

Last year, I started putting together these holiday eye-spy games, with a jigsaw puzzle to go with it. So, for your Thanksgiving treat, here’s this year’s Eye Spy. Read the ditty and see if you can find all the stuff! (Or just check for my mistakes!)

I love stitching for Christmas!

And when it comes to this time of year, I love stitching for Christmas as we get closer to it. It’s hard for me to think about Christmas stitching in July. Even in September, it’s not foremost on my mind.

It’s funny – come mid-January, I can stitch ahead for spring without a problem. But there’s just something about the longer nights of late fall and early winter, the inside weather, and the anticipation of the Christmas season that makes me want to stitch particularly Christmassy things right now.

I’ve got a few new things coming out this year for Christmas stitching. All of them are relatively “quick” projects (for hand embroidery, anyway!). I tried to vary them according to how they might appeal for different levels and interests of stitchers, and I hope you like them! Here’s a little sneak peek, and some information on when they’ll be available on the website.

As we move into the weekend, I thought it might be fun to explore some stitch variations. Maybe these will get some ideas flowing for some weekend stitching experiments!

Stitch Fun! is a series of embroidery stitch tutorials here on Needle ‘n Thread, where we explore combinations, composites, and variations of embroidery stitches. There’s a hefty list of photo tutorials in the series, if you want to check it out here.

Today’s tutorial is the result of working on the instructions for these Mini Sampler Stockings I showed you last week, that go with my Christmas ornament kits that will be out in about a week.

Some of the stitch explorations didn’t make the cut, simply because I didn’t end up using them on the models for the e-book. Even so, I’ve included lots of stitches and ideas for variations in the instructions, so that you can explore and experiment to your heart’s content. It’s a great way to end up with a finished ornament or two that are uniquely you!

In the meantime, this is a fun way to play around with fly stitch and beads…