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Letters and Monograms from the House of Malbranche - Book Review

2009-07-09T04:36:00.000-07:00

While at Threadneedle Street in Issaquah, Washinton, I picked up a new book on hand embroidered monograms that is more than just a book on hand embroidered monograms - it is a fascinating glance into the House of Malbranche, a French institution dedicated, since the mid-1800's, to the creation of beautiful household linens.

Letters and Monograms from the House of Malbranche by Yvonne Van de Velde-Malbranche and Christine Rosenthal is a hard-bound book that contains practical information for the embroiderer - instructions on creating beautiful monograms for household linens - as well as a unique look into an interesting part of textile history: the established "institutions" or "houses" that produced luxury embroidered goods for the rich and the royal.

The text of the book is presented in three languages: French, Italian, and English. The book begins with a history of the House of Malbranche, detailing how the insitute would fulfill orders for custom linens - from the consulting stage, to the designing, to the distribution to embroiderers, to collections and payments.

It then progresses to practical information about the embellishment of fine household linens, including embroidering to appliquéing linens for the home.

The monograms featured range from elaborate in form - scrolly, intricate letters entwined around each other - to simple, clear individual letters.

Technical information on completing the monograms is arranged alongside the photo samples included.

Along with patterns, detailed explanations of stitch direction (especially for satin stitching) are included. This type of information is of great help to the beginner who desires to achieve perfect satin stitching around the curves of graceful letters.

Appliqué and pin stitching are featured on a "modern" looking monogram - quite art nouveau-ish - worked in white on natural linen. Not only do I love the combination of white-on-natural, but I love the clean look of this monogram set!

Diagrams covering different technical aspects of the art of embroidered monograms pepper the book, helping to illustrate the instructions in the text.

One of the most helpful topics in the technical instructions is the stitch direction for satin stitching, as mentioned above. Here, you can see that stitch direction on rounded tips of letters is being discussed and drawn out.

Throughout the book, there are many beautiful alphabets suitable for a variety of interpretations.

If you're interested in whitework, in monogramming, or in the history of textiles, I think you would enjoy this book! The English translation is a little choppy here and there, but the wealth of information and beauty within the pages makes up for this.

I found the book at Threadneedle Street in Washington, but I do not know if they still have it available, as it isn't presently on their website. They can probably order it for you, if you're interested in it. Note, though, that the price tag was pretty hefty - around $50.

You can also find the book through Mad Sampler Books, available for special order at $48. I couldn't find it in too many other places online, so if you happen to know a resource, do please feel free to let us know!

I think, overall, this is my favorite purchase from my recent road trip. I picked up a lot of fun things, but this was a nice find of a not-so-common book, on a topic I like, in a beautiful format, with an interesting story to read. I really like it!

Hand Embroidery Enthusiast in New York City? Advise Me!

2009-07-08T11:12:00.000-07:00

I'm contemplating a very quick trip to NYC to look at some fabric. If I go, I'll be there one afternoon, one day, and one morning in the middle of the week. Any advice on places to go or things to see for the hand embroidery enthusiast? You know - for someone like me?

It may not happen - it depends on some work-related issues - but if it does, I'd love to be able to combine business with pleasure and with blogging, if possible!

I'm looking forward to hearing your advice!

Last Needlework Stop: Lacis in Berkeley

2009-07-08T04:40:00.000-07:00

Located in Berkeley, California, Lacis (pronounced "Lah-cease") is, like I said yesterday, a weirdly wonderful needlework (and more) shop. It's somewhat difficult to explain this place. I would have liked to have spent much more time there, but alas, by the time we stopped, we were behind schedule already. I ended up missing some of the "definites" that I wanted to see (and buy!), and I took lousy photos in general. 3,000 miles or so later, I'm kicking myself for that!

But, still, I'll tell you what I can about this needlework-lace-museum-gift-book-and-antique-shop sort of shop. It's a strange mix, but it works!

Located on a very busy street in Berkely (is there a street in Berkeley that isn't very busy?), the shop has two parts to it: the shop, and the "lace museum." From what I could tell - and I didn't go through the whole thing - the lace museum is an ecclectic mix of collected laces, in a very casual venue. Unlike museums where pieces are kept behind glass, in climate and light-controlled settings, this museum is somewhat hodge-podge-ish, with the various displayed laces pinned to wall displays and draped hither and thither. Perhaps, behind the outside front, there are display cases and so forth, but I never quite made it to the museum proper.

In the shop part of the establishment, vintage clothing hangs from the ceiling, along with hats and bric-a-brac and all kinds of other stuff, taking up just about every display spot in the store.

Below, needlework goods fill the shelves and racks throughout the place.

In addition to needlework supplies, lace-making supplies, millinery supplies, costume-making supplies, and vintage books and patterns, you'll find, mixed in, racks of nostalgic greeting cards and prints and so forth.

Everywhere you turn, you'll find strange little gift and specialty items, like this wooden fish puzzle.

There are an abundance of threads. These are Edmar threads, used often in Brazilian embroidery. Besides the threads visible on display racks, there are drawers and drawers of different types of threads. One thing on my list for my visit to Lacis was to check out the whole range of floche that they have available on their website. I completely forgot! C'est la vie.

Threads for crochet, specialty yarns and lace-making threads - all kinds of threads take up the shelves and racks in the middle of the shop, as do spools of lace and ribbon and so forth.

Once you walk in, your attention may be first arrested by the clothes hanging above you and draped over everything, but it doesn't take long to forget about the stuff above while perusing the stuff below! I thought the vintage apron on this dress was quite sweet.

You can buy vintage lace and vintage handkerchiefs there, as well, although I have to admit, I saw one "wedding hankie" - very fine needlework, indeed! - for $125, and was a little surprised at the price, especially considering that there were about six or so of the exact same handkerchief there (which leads one to think they may have been mass produced?). I bought one similar, in pristine condition, on eBay last year for a mere $18. So with a little shopping around, if you're in the market for antique lace or vintage handkerchiefs or the like, I think you could probably find them at a more reasonable price elsewhere. However, as far as selection goes, Lacis seems to have a pretty vast selection of vintage goods to choose from!

Upon leaving the shop, I felt a bit flurried. It's definitely one of those places that, if you go, allot a good amount of time for serious, concentrated browsing - thought concentration is somewhat difficult, as the shop was crowded with all kinds of shoppers, the staff was all very busy either helping customers or seeing to a variety of different tasks (like ironing fabric, separating buttons, answering phones, and fluttering about), and in general, the place has an overwhelming feeling of "clutter." Weeding through the clutter, though, is fun.

One of my favorite aspects of the store was the back corner, which is filled with all kinds of needlework books on every kind of technique, many of which books are out of print or hard to find, and some of which are foreign. I liked the selection of vintage iron-on transfers for cutwork, as well as some interesting old magazines that I came across.

If you like a clean, tidy, and organized needlework shopping experience, Lacis may not be the place for you. Still, if you're looking for anything related to needlework - even obscure tools - chances are, you'll find it here. If you want a bit of adventure and you like exploring, then definitely put Lacis on your list of places to visit!

I'm still regretting the floche. But I know why it slipped my mind - there was just so much to see!

I didn't purchase much at Lacis - a few books and cutwork patterns and a couple greeting cards, and I think that was about it. I don't think I bought any thread at all. I know they have fabric there, too, but I don't even recall looking at any! It was, to say the least, a whirlwind stop at a whirlwind store! On the bright side, anything I missed, I know I can find on the Lacis website, if I really need it. This, by the way, is the place that I buy my cutwork threads. I didn't bother looking at cutwork threads, as I'm pretty fully stocked with them right now.

After leaving San Francisco, we headed south to Santa Clara, and then to Monterey and Carmel. Though we didn't find our old house in Monterey (there are new homes along the street there), we did see some beautiful places.

One of my favorite aspects of Monterey, and really the whole central coastal area of California, is the sunny-foggy days. The day begins with a heavy fog covering the coastal area, but this tends to burn off by mid-morning, and the sun shines until late afternoon, when the fog starts to creep back in. Here, the fog is moving back over Monterey Bay and wharf.

I'm kind of a sucker for seascapes, marine life, and birds. In Monterey, you can find all three in abundance.

The seagulls are huge and humorous.

Upon leaving the Monterey and Carmel area, we took the coastal road towards San Diego.

We stopped for a humorous interlude with some sea lions that were lounging on a beach. No, they aren't dead. They're just... lounging. I think it's what they do best.

We visited several of the old missions along the coastal route. San Juan Capistrano, famous for its yearly influx of swallows, is certainly a beautiful setting, but it was probably my least-favorite mission stop, as it is so commercialized. The mission itself seems to be overshadowed by the swallows!

We took the coastal road all the way to San Diego, to Coronado, where my folks also lived (before I was born), and where my older sisters went to school for a bit. We found the old school and the old house. The house is about five houses from the beach, on Pine Street. Prime property today, but back in the day, my parents thought $30K was too much for it!

After a quick stop in Coronado, we headed east again - finally - to the rural parts of the country. I longed for open road and reduced traffic! And boy, did we ever get both! Through the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico, there isn't much going on.

We went to the Grand Canyon - the southern and eastern rims - in Arizona. Hm. I'm not sure what to say about it. It's majestic - beautiful - awesome - but the height made me rather woozy. Still - it's something!

Finally, we went to Sante Fe, where we visited the Loretto Chapel to see the St. Joseph stairs, a very beautiful spot, with a very interesting story.

That was our last "tourist" stop on the trip - the rest was just returning to Kansas. To make the occasion of returning home memorable, we ended up in a massive thunderstorm that spawned at least one tornado within a mile of where we sat on the side of the highway, waiting for the storm to pass. Yes, Toto, we're back in Kansas!

The trip began and ended more or less where the red dot is there in Kansas. Not bad, for 14 nights, three of which were spent in Minnesota before really "striking out." It was a heap of fun! Still ... there's no place like home!

Now, that's the nitty gritty of the recent travels, but wait! There's more! Though I won't bore you with anymore road tripping details, I do want to show you some of the needlework loot I picked up along the way, especially the books and a few handy items and accessories for stitchers that I thought looked ... uh ... necessary.

I'll be sharing that with you over the next few days, while I'm trying to get together some upcoming tutorials and videos, and while I'm sorting through some projects and getting to work again. So, keep an eye out!

Next Stop: Needle in a Haystack, Alameda, CA

2009-07-07T06:07:00.001-07:00

The next needlework shop I visited is located in Alameda, California - Needle in a Haystack. Of the four shops I visited, Haystack was probably the best "fit" for me. I'll tell you why...

Located on a busy street in Alameda, a town teeming with activity, shops, cafés, bakeries, farmer's markets, and so forth, Needle in a Haystack is a large, open, airy shop filled with all kinds of delightful things for the needleworker.

I'd say that, out of the four shops I visited, the Haystack has the largest space devoted solely to needlework supplies. It's probably comparable in size to Nordic Needle, but the floor area is not as broken up as Nordic Needle's is.

With lots of floor space and a very open layout, it is a very pleasant place to shop. In the front of the store, tables and chairs invite the stitcher to sit a bit to match threads or to flip through books and so forth. The area is used for classes and stitching groups.

Much of the wall space of the store is covered with threads - lots of threads!

Additionally, they've got drawer cases for Anchor, DMC, and other threads, as well as spinning racks hung with ... threads. Lots and lots of threads! (DId I mention they have a lot of thread?)

In addition to threads, you'll find shelves tastefully arranged with displays of accessories, books, and needlework-related items.

Above the threads along the walls, you'll find heaps of hand painted canvases for needlepoint, including some very enticing historical adaptations of tapestries and slips and whatnot.

What I really liked about Haystack was the variety of embroidery techniques represented by their merchandise. I found some beautiful crewel and needlepainting kits, many books / magazines on cutwork and whitework, fabric for surface embroidery of all types, as well as a vast selection of counted thread charts, historical samplers, blackwork, and needlepoint / canvas work supplies. There was more variety here, as far as specific stitching techniques are concerned, than in any other store I visited.

My overall impressions of the place:

Merchandise: a variety of merchandise is offered for stitchers interested in different techniques. They pretty much have everything, and if, by chance, there's something you want that they don't have, they'll order it. They have the full range of Au Ver a Soie products, by the way, if you're looking for silk, among other types of silks and blends.

Layout of the Shop: Most pleasant - open, airy, easy to find things and relaxing for casual browsing, even when the shop is busy with customers.

Prices: Well. I have to admit, their prices for things that can be bought elsewhere are slightly higher than many online or brick-and-mortar shops. However, it's always worthwhile to keep an eye out for their specials, by subscribing to their newsletter and frequenting their blog.

Service: Very good - the people working are friendly, knowledgeable, and talkative and can help you find anything or make decisions on thread choices, etc. They're also very helpful when it comes to local information, goings-on, and so forth.

So ... in a nutshell... yes, I loved Needle in a Haystack. They have a great online store, too, so if you can't make it to their shop, check them out online! As far as online shops go, they're layout is really nice, too. I like ordering from them, simply for the ease of ordering.

We did non-needlework-related stuff in the San Francisco Bay area, too, by the way. In fact, my family used to live in every place we visited on the West Coast! So, while we were up in the Seattle area, we found the house my folks lived in on Whidby Island. In Alameda, we used to live on Burbank Street, which is still lined with very tall palm trees. Also in the area, we lived in a "modern" Eichler home up on Phaeton Drive in Oakland (and the house still looks great!), and we also lived in Walnut Creek for a while, so we looked for that house, too, and the school we attended as children. We didn't always have luck finding our former homes - in Monterey, for example, the house is no longer there.

Driving into the city of San Francisco, we saw a blimp hovering overhead. I had to take a picture - as a kid, we always looked for the blimp! And it's still there!

Of course, at Fisherman's Wharf, we had to eat sourdough bread...

...and ice cream at Ghiradelli Square. Boudin's Sourdough Bread and Ghiradelli Ice Cream are San Francisco icons...

Before we left the San Francisco area, I did manage to make it to Lacis, which was my last needlework shop on the trip. It's a weirdly wonderful place, so I'll tell you about that one next!

Coton a Broder Questions, Floche, and Danish Flower Thread

2009-07-06T11:40:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've gotten quite a few e-mails asking questions about coton a broder, so I figured I'd address them all in one post, and hopefully those who e-mailed and asked are regular readers and will find the answer here! (Two e-mails bounced back and wouldn't deliver!) So... here are some questions about this embroidery thread, and, to the best of my knowledge, the answers to those questions.

#1: Does coton a broder come in colors?

Yes, it does. Technically, though, I've only seen #25 coton a broder available in a very limited range of colors.

However, if it is #16 and listed as coton a broder, chances are, it is "floche" that you want, if you want it in a range of colors. Floche, by both DMC and Anchor, comes in a wide range of beautiful colors, and can be used for the same applications as coton a broder. The only real difference between the two types of thread is that the thread that DMC calls "coton a broder" here in America is a 4-ply softly twisted thread, while floche is a 5-ply softly twisted thread. But they are completely compatible, more or less the same thing, so if you're looking for a #16 in various colors, what you need to look for is floche rather than what we call "coton a broder," which is more of a whitework and cutwork thread.

This is floche:

#2: What's the difference between Danish Flower Thread and coton a broder?

In America, coton a broder is actually a mercerized thread, which means it has a sheen to it. Danish Flower Thread is non-mercerized, or matte, and has no sheen. However, it seems that, in other countries (South Africa, Australia, New Zealand), coton a broder is actually a matte thread, the term used interchangeably with flower thread. However (again!), in America, what we buy as flower thread is definitely more tightly twisted than coton a broder or floche. You can see the individual twists in flower thread more distinctly than you can in floche or coton a broder. Look:

The top thread is mercerized (it has a sheen) and has a looser twist. It is floche. The bottom thread is not mercerized (it is matte) and the twist is a little tighter. It is flower thread.

#3: Where can I find coton a broder, for cutwork or for colored embroidery?

If you're looking for cutwork thread, coton a broder in white, you can find various sizes available through Lacis. Look under "materials," then "Needlework, DMC, etc." in their online catalog. They have sizes 16, 20, 25, 30, and 40.

You can also find floche in colors on the same page of the Lacis online catalog. However, I like to order my floche from Hedgehog Handworks, where you can order it in large hanks or smaller skeins, and where you can also order Danish Flower Thread, if you're looking for matte thread.

If you're looking for Danish Flower Thread (matte coton a broder, more or less), you can order that through Hedgehog, on the same page as the link in the above paragraph, or you can order it from Nordic Needle. Right now, it looks as if they don't have many colors listed on their website, but I saw a whole rack of the entire range of flower thread, so I'm sure you can probably call them with the colors you want.

For further information on these threads - floche, coton a broder, and flower thread - check out these articles:

Comparison between floche and other common DMC threads

Comparison between floche and Danish Flower Thread

I hope this helps answer some questions about these threads. I'm sorry I couldn't get through to a couple of those who e-mailed with the questions, but since it's useful information for needleworkers in general, I thought it worth a little write-up!

Threadneedle Street in Issaquah, Washington

2009-07-06T06:30:00.000-07:00

After stopping in North Dakota at Nordic Needle for some needlework shopping - yes, I admit it, I bought embroidery supplies at each of these shops! - we struck out west towards the Seattle area of Washington, via Glacier National Park and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. On the way in to Seattle, very conveniently located off Interstate-90 in the town of Issaquah, is Threadneedle Street, a small needlework shop specializing predominantly in needlepoint and counted thread work.

On the way in to Washington, the scenery changes somewhat drastically after the mountains of Idaho and western Montana. The eastern part of Washington is rather desert-like and scrubby.

The Columbia River is an impressive site. There are a couple dams along the river in the middle part of the state, and one is in the vicinity of the highway, making for a nice scenic stopping point. So we stopped. And it was scenic.

Then we headed into the Seattle area, stopping at Issaquah. Really, when I say it's an easy stop, I mean it. If you're on I-90, you simply take the exit, drive into the town on the main street, and pull over to park. It's about that easy.

Of the four shops I visited, Threadneedle Street is certainly the smallest. In fact, if you weren't looking for it specifically, you might miss it altogether!

In case you're looking for the shop some day, though, the pink pig might help you find it. This gal sits at the end of the sidewalk on the same side of the street the shop is on... I didn't inspect her closely, so I'm not sure what she's all about. I suspect she's a grill...

Inside the shop, you'll find very closely arranged (as in, tight quarters!) merchandise - all kinds of threads, tools, accessories, beads, etc. - that are used in embroidery.

You'll find shelves of pre-cut fabric and racks of beads, buttons, and little items.

You'll find racks and baskets full of kits and charts and so forth. And tucked here and there, lines of neat books for sale. (I bought a terrific book here that I'm looking forward to showing you!)

You'll also find some walls devoted to painted canvases, from elaborate Christmas stockings to geometric designs, etc. They're very pretty and colorful!

But to me, the greatest appeal of Threadneedle Street is this. It's the Needlework System 4 stand and all its accessories and parts - and she stocks the pieces in the shop, instead of special ordering each time a customer wants the stand. This means that chances are, if you stop in, you'll be able to pick up a part right then and there. Every other needlework shop I've dealt with regarding this stand keeps a demo model, and then has to special order the pieces you want (and you end up with a 10 - 14 day wait). But here, you can buy the pieces you want, in stock. AND - she has the best prices in the country! If you buy the stand and frame clamp from Threadneedle Street, you're spending almost $50 less here than anywhere else. And you're not having to wait. What a deal!

I bought the extension piece, by the way, for my Needlework System 4 stand. This allows the stand to easily work from the side, over the arm of a couch. (Feel free to read my review of the Needlework System 4 stand, if you aren't sure what I'm talking about!)

So, my review of Threadneedle Street in a nutshell:

Merchandise: There's a vast quantity of merchandise in this little store! She carries all the popular threads for cross stitch and needlepoint, including wools and blends and so forth, as well as a few different hand-dyed threads that I had not seen before. Lots of little accessories are available, as well. There's a good collection of interesting needlework-related books that you won't find on the shelf of a typical bookstore, and a few that I had not seen before, one of which I bought. Seeing some Access Commodities merchandise there, I figure that the folks at Threadneedle Street can pretty much order anything that you want, if they don't have it in stock.

Shop Layout: As needlework shops go, I'd call this one "average" in size. Most needlework shops I've been to are relatively small in general. Threadneedle Street is no exception - the shop is small and seems somewhat crowded, but when you start to look around and see what's in there, you realize there's a pretty clever use of space going on. No space is wasted.

Prices: They actually seem a little bit less, overall, than in most places, though I can't be sure of that with everything there. Certainly, it's the case with the Needlework System 4 stand, but I also thought the threads were just slightly less expensive than in other shops. In any case, there wasn't anything that struck me as outlandish, price-wise, at all.

Service: This is the one shop I can say without reserve that I met with great service - that perfect balance between warm and friendly and open, capped with professional knowledge, and not overwhelming. Just a nice, friendly, open personality, ready to help and having no hang-ups about answering questions. It was, in short, very refreshing to go to a needlework shop and receive really genuine, sincere, niceness for a change. You just don't see that often in needlework shops, thought it's unfortunate to have to say so. Now, their online service may be a bit different - the website notes that they are often busy with customers in the store and therefore may have to call you back if you call to place an order. I have the impression the shop is worked by very few people (I only saw one!), so if you do call them to place an order, expect to be either put on hold or called back.

I liked Threadneedle Street. If I lived in the vicinity, I think it would be the kind of shop that I'd establish a good working relationship with. There's a real niceness and enthusiasm about needlework there that I haven't met at too many needlework shops.

I'd love to see the Threadneedle Street website updated into a regular shopping-cart type website. I think this would ease the ordering situation for out-of-town customers and it would probably make the job on the selling end easier, too.

After leaving Issaquah, we headed to the Seattle area. My folks used to live on Whidby Island, so we went there to see the old haunts and so forth.

Deception Pass is gorgeous! Well, ok - it's water! You'll find that I get overly enthusiastic about anything that looks like abundant water! We drove through Whidby Island, took a ferry to Seattle, stayed overnight, did some looking around the next day, and then headed to Oregon...

...where we saw Crater Lake...

...which is blue beyond belief, and still, and quiet, and cold. Snow still lined the roads up at the top of the mountain, with four-foot cuts of the white stuff in some places along the road. The mosquitoes up there, by the way, were huge and Really Hungry.

From Oregon, we headed into California, where we drove through the Napa Valley, stopping at a few wineries along the way. The contrast between green and lush and dry and sandy in the area is quite intriguing and really beautiful. I love the grape vines! They are something else - I'd love to see them when they are fully laden with grapes.

My favorite stop was at Peju Winery, which is a little boutique winery in the Napa Valley. I prefer boutique wineries to the Big-Wigs (like Berringer, etc.). They're more fun, more intimate, more interesting, and they do fun stuff with their wine. I bought, untasted, a bottle of zinfandel port (port-style wine, anyway) as a gift. They only make this every so many years, and they were down to six bottles left. It was a risk to pay the price without knowing for sure if it was good, but we weren't disappointed! Good Stuff Indeed!

This leg of the trip took us into the Bay Area, where I visited two extraordinary needlework shops... coming up!

Nordic Needle in Fargo, North Dakota

2009-07-05T12:09:00.001-07:00

The first needlework shop stop on my 6,200-mile-road trip was in Fargo, North Dakota, at Nordic Needle. Now, this is a shop I have always and forever wanted to go to! And since I was heading to Minnesota for a three days, I figured this would be a prime opportunity to visit Nordic Needle. This was the beginning of the Great Road Trip Plan that took me in a huge loop to the West Coast and back to Kansas. Really - I was just planning to add a couple hundred miles to the trip and jump up to Fargo! But Mom and Dad suddenly got the "bug" to travel, too, and so the three of us concocted this ever-changing journey that took us to some very interesting spots and some old haunts where my folks lived and raised their kids. So, without further ado, here's Nordic Needle and some other stuff...

We left Kansas on Thursday, June 18th and drove to Minnesota, where we stayed until Sunday morning, June 21st.

Minnesota is beautiful. The lakes that dot the state are especially enticing if you happen to be coming from the Kansas prairies, where water is not always abundant. One morning, we picnicked on the shore of a lake, in the company of a pair of ducks.

On Sunday, we headed north to Fargo, arriving in time to have dinner with some friends and put up for the evening. The next morning would be devoted to Nordic Needle. I didn't plan to spend a lot of time there - I didn't think it would be quite the thing to do to the Agéd P's - but a good hour, I thought, was reasonable.

Of course, it ended up being two hours.

The outside of the shop is rather mundane, but hey - it serves its purpose!

Inside Nordic Needle, you will find practically everything a stitcher's heart can desire, to some degree or another. This is a wall of beads and accessories and little things...

One section of the store is devoted to these rotating book stands that are filled with everything from charts for counted work, to a delightful variety of books (including many books self-published by different designers, that can't be had through Amazon, etc.), to kits of all sorts, including several of Tanja Berlin's embroidery kits (among others).

Being "Nordic" Needle, there is a goodly amount of stock devoted to Nordic embroidery techniques, including Hardanger, huck embroidery and so forth.

And then, there are threads. Oh, are there ever threads! All kinds of threads! This particular section in the photo above is their Brazilian embroidery section of threads, but behind it, on the wall, is the whole line of Treenway Silks pearl and ribbon -- among other threads.

You can imagine that in the midst of all these glorious goods, I was a bit unfocused at first. I just saw, but didn't really "attack" with any clear focus. My eyes went from one selection of goods to the next, without really honing in on my own particular interests.

I have seen huckwork in magazines and books, but have never tried it. Engrossed by the samples hanging on the walls, I took a look at some of their huckwork kits and decided they would be perfect for on-the-road needlework! So I bought a couple. I never touched them. I did not lift a needle (except when purchasing needles) once during the whole trip. *Sigh*

It's difficult to explain the quantity and variety of needlework goods available at Nordic Needle. The main floor of the shop is packed with aisles and shelves and displays filled with threads and tools and kits and designs, as well as display boxes, accessories, and anything you really could want, needlework-wise.

The threads are, of course, the most colorful things in the shop! Racks of them - everywhere! I would suppose that just about any type of thread you would want, you could get through Nordic Needle. Even if they don't regularly carry it, they can probably special order anything. While I saw a whole rack of Danish Flower Thread, for example, I didn't see any floche. But I bet, if you want floche, you could special order it from them. Of course, this doesn't mean they don't have floche - I may have just missed it.

They have a nice corner - much bigger than seen here - full of fabrics on bolts, and also cut fabrics. You can find linens, evenweaves of different types, and just about anything for regular embroidery in their fabric area. Anything they don't have, again, I am pretty sure they could special order!

Nordic Needle has a neat incentive for travelers, by the way. If you travel a distance to visit them, they take a certain percentage off your purchase. If you click the "How Far Will You Go" box on their home page, you can read about the incentive. The shop is less than 1,000 miles from me, so I received 10% off my purchase. BUT - I happened to be there on a Monday, and they have this "Monday Madness" thing they do, where you can draw for a discount on one item (or many - depending on what you draw). I lucked out - I was there on a Monday! - and got 50% off my most expensive item, which was one of Alison Cole's goldwork books.

All in all, by the time I left, I was a pretty happy camper!

Here's my review of the shop, in a nutshell:

Merchandise: Wow! They have a lot of great needlework merchandise. I would have loved to have seen more merchandise devoted to other surface embroidery techniques such as needle painting, crewel work, etc., or even cutwork and other forms of whitework (in addition to Hardanger). They had Trish Burr's books in stock, and some kits of Tanja Berlin's (though not her needlepainting kits - blackwork and shadow-work, basically). They also had a bunch of nice Brazilian supplies. And I'm sure that they could order just about any kind of needlework-anything you might want, so I'm not too taken a-back by the lack of other surface techniques. They have as well a terrific selection of accessories - the best I've seen anywhere - for the needleworker, from all the convenient tools and accessories a sticher needs, to many unique and beautiful stitching-related items, tools, notions, and so forth.

Shop Layout: As needlework shops go, I'd call Nordic Needle "really big." It's crowded and a bit confusing. When it comes to finding something specific, such as a design or a kit, if you aren't used to the layout, you'll probably need help. Still, good use is made of the space they have, and once you get the general feel of the shop, it's easy enough to find your way around or just to enjoy browsing. Never-ending browsing!

Prices: They seemed fair and equivalent to other shops I've been to, or to merchandise I've found online. Nothing seemed outlandish, as far as prices are concerned. Prices were pretty much what I expected them to be. I picked up a couple little bargain bits in their "discount" room, too, which was nice...

Service: Well, this is difficult. It depends on what you want in service. The people were polite enough, though not overly friendly, and they kept their distance. If I needed something, though, I had but to ask, and they directed me politely to it. There was no real "warmth" in any communications, but they weren't rude, either. It was just business. In a sense, this is a good thing. It allows the customer to browse a shop without being hassled or conversed with the whole time so that it's hard to concentrate. I would imagine that, in a shop this size, that's probably what most shoppers would desire. And when it came to my needing anything, I had prompt attention. So in that sense, the service was good - not warm and over-friendly, but there was no curtness or rudeness (which I have, believe it or not, experienced in other needlework shops, and it's one of my pet peeves!)

Nordic Needle is definitely an A+ shop, obviously built through the hard work of the owners into a thorough supply warehouse for needleworkers all over the world. If you get the opportunity to visit the shop, you won't be disappointed, I don't think! If you don't have the opportunity to visit in person, you can always visit their website.

I finished up at the shop before 11:00 am (so, actually less than two hours!) and we struck out west from there, across North Dakota, heading towards Glacier National Park in Montana.

There are some parts of North Dakota that are really beautiful! We stopped for coffee at a friend's house in Mandan, which is located on the Missouri River. Their back deck offered us this incredible view - and it was a perfectly beautiful day to enjoy it!

The majority of North Dakota looked pretty much like this, until we got to the very western edge of the state. The "Badlands" of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota are surprising, to say the least! At one moment, you're driving along through the rolling green hills typical of the photo above, and then you round a curve in the highway, and there you are in the midst of rocky canyons and scrubby landscapes.

We made it through North Dakota and on into Montana, where we turned north to take the "scenic" route to Glacier.

It was .... sort of scenic, I suppose. We spent Monday night in a small town along the way - Glasgow, Montana - and then Tuesday, we headed to Glacier National Park.

Glacier is incredibly beautiful! It is majestic and awesome - and difficult to describe! Unfortunately, we only got to see "part way in," as the road through the pass was still considered too precarious for car travel (avalanche warnings, and so forth). No, we didn't get out to hike it! Instead, we had lunch in beautiful surroundings, saw as much as the park as we could from the eastern and southern parts of it, via road, and then headed to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where we spent the rest of the afternoon and night before heading to Seattle, where I stopped in at Threadneedle Street.

But we'll save that for the next installment!

Home Again, Home Again - and Fireworks!

2009-07-04T06:58:00.000-07:00

Just a brief howdy here, to let you all know I am indeed home, blogging from my favorite computer chair, using my favorite keyboard, having taken a shower in my favorite shower after sleeping all night in my favorite bed, and now looking outside at my favorite fence, listening to my favorite birds, and getting ready to go drink my favorite coffee out of my favorite cup! Guess what? I'm glad to be home!

Today is the Fourth of July here in the States, a date usually celebrated with fireworks, picnics, and so forth. It's good to be back home for the Fourth - but nothing can compare with the fireworks display I saw last night! After 14 days of Perfect Weather in every place we went - from Minnesota and North Dakota, to Glacier National Park to the moutains of Idaho, to Deception Pass to Seattle, to Crater Lake to the orchards of Oregon, to the Napa Valley and the Bay area, to the coastline of California at Monterey and Carmel and the California Missions, to San Diego and to the Grand Canyon, and finally to Sante Fe, NM - we had a really ideally beautiful trip in every direction! The last hour and a half, though, as we moved east along I-70, we were accompanied by an incredible storm, stretching our last hour and a half in the car to about four hours! Stopping now and then along the way when the driving got too rough, we crept towards home while watching the most incredible lightning display I've ever seen (and I live in Kansas, where we get the stuff fairly regularly!)

Though it was rather a chuckle to see the trip end that way, it intensified the pleasure at finally arriving home!

So, here I am! I'll spend the day cleaning up from the trip, doing laundry, getting organized, going through my photos, and catching up with family and friends. Then, I'll be ready to show you some photos and display my needlework purchases, some of which I'll be sharing in a July give-away!

Thanks for the welcome home messages on yesterday's post! I'm glad you enjoyed the articles posted while I was away! I sure am eager to get back to regular blogging, so I'll see you soon!

Needlework Shops along the Way... Trip Update

2009-07-03T05:12:00.001-07:00

When we set out on our little roadtrip (we've topped 5,700 miles so far, and will be close to 7,000 by the time we get home - all in 15 days!), I had every intention of looking up as many needlework shops along the way as possible and stopping at them all. Truth is, I only made it to four! You might well say "You're not home yet," but the last leg, across the tip of the Texas panhandle, through the flatlands of the Oklahoma plains, and on into the prairies of Kansas, is not going to include any extra stops! It is time to get home!

The four needlework shops I made it to were Nordic Needle in Fargo, North Dakota; Threadneedle Street, outside of Seattle, Washington; Needle in a Haystack, in Alameda, California; and Lacis, in Berkeley, California.

I want to be Very Careful about the way I approach my review of these shops. I plan to write up an in-depth review of each shop, tell you what they're like, show you some photos, and so forth. (I may even throw in some "trip photos" along the way...) Believe it or not, I don't plan to gush, gush, gush over each shop. Rather, I'll just be telling you about the physical aspects of the shop, the type of merchandise carried, and the service I received.

You might be surprised at my evaluations, actually. You already know I have "favorite" online shops, and each of these four have been on my "favorites" list. But there are certain criteria I like to keep in mind when actually shopping in a brick-and-mortar store, so I'll be carefully looking at those criteria.

In the meantime, these are some of the things I've bought: some great books, a few threads I have never used before, some tulle for embroidery on net, some needles (well, you can never have too many, and why pay shipping?), a few accessories, some cutwork design transfers, a new type of Solvy I hadn't seen before, and ... wow, I'm not sure what else. I Wanted to buy a couple kits, but in the long run, I didn't, for the sake of conserving funds. But at least I know what shops have what, so if I ever want to order, I can. The books, though - yes, I love the books I bought!

So, on this last day (hopefully!) of the drive home, as I set out from Santa Fe, New Mexico, I'll be compiling and organizing my notes!

I still have a few more articles to share with you from other readers, too, by the way. Unfortunately, before I left, I didn't have time to put them all together. But never fear - we'll get to them after I get home!

I'll be seeing you soon, from Kansas! After all, there's no place like home!

Ribbon Embroidery on Linen

2009-07-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

Ashley's linen napkins embroidered with silk ribbon are gorgeous! Hemstitched linen napkins served as the ground fabric for her first forray into embroidery. This sumptuous spray of flowers is so beautifully executed that it's hard to believe the project comes from a beginner in silk ribbon, let alone a beginner in embroidery in general!

I'll let Ashley tell you all about her first experience with silk ribbon embroidery...

I have never embroidered before and picked up Country Bumpkin's A-Z of Ribbon Embroidery while in a needlepoint store and found it simply irresistible! Knowing nothing about embroidery and especially ribbon embroidery, I typed the supply list into a search engine, ordered the products, and waited on bated breath to begin my new project!

The design is called "Desprez a Fleur" by Lynda Maker. The roses are a gathered ribbon rose with two ribbons (a 7mm yellow ribbon and a 4mm pale yellow) stitched together to give it some depth. In the center of the roses are little French knots out of gold Madeira silk floss. The rosebuds were made by covering a pearl bead with ribbon stitches. The design called from glass beads; however, I decided that was a bit impractical for a napkin, but then so is silk ribbon embroidery! These are definitely going to be "looky lu" napkins only!

Of course, after purchasing all of the supplies, I went on to read about the horrors of silk ribbon embroidery...the fraying, tearing, etc. I was beginning to think I was getting in over my head. Luckily, I didn't have any problems and it all went very smoothly and quickly. After doing needlepoint for the last 6 years, I love the
freedom, creative expression, and delicate femininity involved in embroidery. Needlepoint canvas can be rather limiting, even with all of the stitches that are available today. As my Mom says, needlepoint is earthenware, while embroidery is delicate fine china.

I think my next undertaking will be goldwork on a Bible cover. I have been needlepointing a Bible cover and I am just about finished, so I thought maybe I would try an embroidered cover after seeing one of your posts on them. I begin an internship as a hospital chaplain in the fall, so I figure there's no such thing as too many Bible covers!

I know I am probably being a little over ambitious to move straight to goldwork! But I have a touch of youthful hubris-- if others can do it, why can't I too?!

Thanks, Ashley! Um... I think if you launched this easily into silk ribbon embroidery, you should have no problems at all trying your hand at goldwork! Best of luck!

Indian Embroidery: Kasuthi

2009-07-01T04:53:00.000-07:00

Do you remember a while back, when Jayashree shared with us her hand embroidered sari? Well, today she's sharing with us her tutorial on the embroidery technique called Kasuthi.

Jayashree's embroidered sari is worked in this technique, which is characterized by a geometric look:

Instead of re-typing Jayashree's tutorial here, I've saved it as a PDF file. Feel free to download it and give it a good read-through. It's got some great tips for embroidering over net (or scrim), and she even tells you where you can find the right fabric here in the States!

Kasuthi Embroidery Tutorial (PDF)

Thanks, Jayashree, for sending this along!

Historical Embroidery - Hand Embroidered Coif

2009-06-30T05:19:00.000-07:00

Ashley, of Oooooh, Silk!, though relatively new to embroidery, undertook to embroider, in Holbein stitch, a coif. She is going to tell you all about the adventure...

I was inspired by history to learn blackwork (Holbein stitch, double running stitch). I play in the SCA (a medieval/renaissance reenactment group) and have slowly come to dabble in the beautiful fashions that were present in the mid to late 1500s (about that time that Holbein was painting his lovely portraits featuring blackworked cuffs, collars, and clothing). I thought they were gorgeous pieces, but I didn’t really see myself doing it until I looked through Janet Arnold’s newest Patterns of Fashion book. Her meticulously researched book of patterns, illustrations, research, and pictures of 16th century costuming made me realize that if I ever wanted to take myself seriously as an Elizabethan enthusiast, I had to learn embroidery. The full color photos of blackwork, pulled work, and insertion lace beckoned to me, and I had to have some of my own.

The pattern was created by Laura Mellin, part of a series of headwear patterns from museum or other 16th century sources, usually dating between 1590 and 1620 (when Elizabethan and early Jacobean embroidery was most popular). While several of her patterns have beautiful and (to my eye) highly complicated botanical and animal designs, I was struck by the “Genevieve” pattern, a fairly simple grid work of lines and fleur-de-lis surrounding isolated flower motifs. Thinking that it would be a good starter piece, I purchased the pattern at a local SCA function.

For the fabric, I used a rather unusual source at our local thrift store. My husband and I are still going through our Poor Newlywed phase, so I really didn’t have the budget for the really expensive linens for the project’s ground, and I didn’t want to use the discount linen typically available through the internet, since it tends to be very low quality. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to spend so much time working on a project and end up with something substandard and incorrect to the time period I was going for. It was a magical day when $5 men’s shirt appeared in front of me at the local DI, and I was so impressed with the quality of the fabric (not perfect, but certainly better than I’d seen commercially) that I immediately knew it would be perfect for the coif.

After ripping out the seams, it was a simple matter to stabilize the fabric with wax paper (applied with a hot iron, another tip from Laura Mellin) and transfer the pattern using a micron pen. I congratulated myself for finding a garment that exactly fit the pattern, with just enough room for hoop space and seam allowances!

I am using two strands of RG Splendor silk floss for the embroidery, conditioned with beeswax. I find that the Splendor shreds a bit more than the DMC cotton floss I was used to so the wax goes a long way to keep it smooth and workable. The size of the coif meant I could not easily mount the project on a scroll frame, and while I would have loved to get a good slate frame and even tried to build a simple wood frame, in the end, a simple (and cheap) plastic hoop became the best and most economical option. I was worried at first that it would damage the blackwork or cause odd stretching, but so far it seems to be fine. It also makes it highly portable – I carry it in a gallon size zip lock bag with the thread, wax, scissors, and spare needles, so I can work on it any spare moment I have.

In working on it, I’ve come to love seeing the design appear as I work. The curlicues and loops of the flowers have become some of my favorite parts to work. The one thing I haven’t liked, I have to admit, is the grid work. I’ve found straight lines in double running stitch to be one of the hardest portions of this project, especially in places where my transfer might not have been the greatest (a ruler would not have been amiss in the transfer phase, I realize after the fact). It’s much easier to do the flowing naturalistic designs, and flaws in the stitching are far less noticeable. Sometimes I have to ‘reward’ myself with flowers after one or two passes at the grids. Couching might have been a better option, but by the time I realized that I was already committed to doing them in double running stitch (i.e. I didn’t want to pull out what I’d already done and start over).

Even with the difficulties, I’m really enjoying this style of embroidery. I love the idea of making a project better than the sum of its parts (in this case, about $15 in materials and a whole lot of time), and ending up with wearable, historical art. If I keep up my current progress, I hope to be able to finish it by the end of the year.

If anyone is interested in Laura Mellin’s embroidery patterns, they are available through Reconstructing History (reconstructinghistory.com).

Stitching Into A Successful Etsy Venture

2009-06-29T05:18:00.000-07:00

This post is from Jo in New Zealand, the writer of a popular blog, No Matter Where I Go, I Always Meet Myself There, focusing mostly on crazy quilting and other textile ventures.

Jo's had some really good success with her latest Etsy ventures. Selling the products of one's creative ventures is vastly popular today, as popular sites such as Etsy and Artfire attest. I thought it would be of particular interest to readers on Needle 'n Thread to hear about Jo's adventures, since it isn't unlikely that there are many of you who do, or plan to do, something similar with your arts and crafts.

I think you'll enjoy Jo's article, her sense of humor, and her creativity! Here she is:

No Matter Where I Go…I Always Meet Myself There. This is a saying I heard many years ago, and it stayed with me. I am not sure why, but at the time, I was at a low point in my life, and I thought “Well, that’s it, then. It’s all up to me isn’t it”. I was responsible for me, my own happiness, or conversely, my own unhappiness; there was no one else who could ‘fix’ it , except me.

Over the years I have moulded this it fit the needs of my life at the time. To me now, older and wiser, it means I have to be happy with the end result. I feel it revolves a lot around integrity and doing what I feel is right, and being happy to live with the outcome. Looking at my blog title almost daily reminds me of this.

How am I going to lead this nicely into an article about my craft…I don’t think I am, to be fair (lol), but I don’t think I have ever told the story of my blog title before, and when Mary honored me with a “guest spot” while she is enjoying her down time, I had to think what to write about.

I have been blogging for a number of years now. I never dreamed it would lead me to where I am now. Many friends and acquaintances all over the world, with wide and varied interests that I get to experience and enjoy. I have Round Robined, Swapped, Exchanged, ROAKed, Moderated and Donated. My recent ventures, though, have taken me into the world of ‘retail’….

For a good while, and after a few suggestions from various quarters, I had been considering a book. Just considering, no formal plan (or even informal plan for that matter). It is difficult to know what people would actually want to read. It turned out, however, that words would be surplus to requirements in my foray into publishing. One night – I am a night owl, never in bed before midnight – I received a discount coupon in my email box from an online photo service. It was for a small, spiral bound photobook. I thought it was a good idea.

As a part of my ‘offline ‘life, I spend many hours in conferences. Although usually work is highly embellished with beads and ribbons, sequins and silk ribbon embroidery, my “conference box” has pre-pieced fabric postcards, and a selection of threads. Back to basics, and no plan, except to stitch and experiment. It keeps my brain engaged, and therefore able to listen.

So, I got my coupon, loaded up my photos - deciding to focus on layered seam treatments for Crazy quilting - picked a template, ordered 6, thinking I can give them away if nothing else, and waited for them to arrive. During this time I blogged about my “book” and people expressed an interest. “Great, I might actually be able to sell a couple of these!” I thought. I needed a venue to do this. I have been a member of ETSY for a while as a buyer, so I set about creating my shop and I listed 4 copies. You cannot imagine the thrill to open up my email box the next morning and see that two copies had sold. The other two copies had sold by the end of the day. Within 3 weeks I had sold 30 copies!!

This little venture has been successful beyond my wildest hopes. The reason for its success? Well, it all comes back to blogging, links and connections with people, finding common denominators. Joining yahoo groups, ning groups, facebooks (I haven’t embraced twitter yet…) building a network of likeminded and interested and interesting people, that, 20 years ago would have been next to impossible without the internet. In fact, I believe, next to impossible without a blogging presence online. I could have put this book out, but without those people who take the time to read my words and admire and comment on my work, who would my client base be? I am incredibly lucky and blessed to be part of this online community, and lucky to have been supported so well by its members.

With the success of my wee book, I added some bags I had made to my shop. Both of those sold and I am now working on custom orders for 3 more. I have added a range of Victorian inspired pedestal pincushions, beautiful and functional handmade pieces. They are slower to sell, but then I create “just because”. It helps keep me sane in a life busy with 3 young children!! I am also adding some postcards as I finish them, and I would like to invite you all to enter my monthly giveaway for a hand embroidered fabric postcard. Finally, to link back to my blog title, I strive to create well made, long wearing items, that I know I can be proud of, because no matter where I go…I always meet myself there.

I feel a bit like an advertorial, but when Mary suggested advertising an online shop, I felt it was a great opportunity. I hope that I have offered you some other insight along the way, not being too blatant with asking you "stop by." However, of course, I would love for you to “stop by”! You can find me here at my Etsy Shop and on my blog, No Matter Where I Go, I Always Meet Myself There.

Trip Update!

2009-06-28T00:07:00.000-07:00

Howdy, folks! Just a quick little message to say hi, from Santa Clara, California (and a very nice hotel with an excellent internet connection!) My summer road trip is going great! Very fast, actually. If I told you all the places we've been since we left Minnesota last Sunday afternoon (and this not even a week later), you'd probably think I'm nuts, so I'll just leave it at this: I did manage to make it to both Lacis and Needle in a Haystack, both in the Bay Area, this morning! And a cuple days ago, I managed to stop in at Threadneedle Street outside Seattle. Nice shops, and I picked up some good needlework stuff. I'm looking forward to giving you the details! (And still no stitching - but tomorrow, I plan to peruse a couple new books!)

A Beginner's Goldwork Kit

2009-06-27T05:17:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago when scoping out the path of this road trip I'm currently on (you haven't missed me, have you?), I came across, via Google Maps, a needlework shop in Minnesota called Oak Hill Designs. While browsing their site, which features everything at 40% off right now (perhaps closing down?), I came across a section on goldwork. While most of the stock in the online store seems to be sold out or dwindled to one left (still worth taking a look!), I was happy to see that the goldwork section had four interesting looking kits in it. I bought two, and here's one of 'em.

According the goldwork section on the Oak Hill Designs website, which I double-checked while writing this post (June 17th), there are still four goldwork kits available on the site. I was a little disappointed to see that the Goldwork Rose kit (below) is listed as $22.95 on sale - when I bought it, it was $10.00, which was exciting. I thought it might be a really good opportunity for those of you who want to try goldwork to be able to do so affordably. I'm not sure, actually, if the $22.95 price is worth this little kit, but for $10, I didn't think you could go wrong. If you are looking for a goldwork kit, though, the Fishes from Bangalore is also $22.95, and I think it's (overall) a better kit - more color, kind of fun!

Anyway, should this little goldwork rose kit be reduced in price again, and if you're interested in trying your hand at goldwork, here's a little information about the kit. Maybe you'll be able to track down other similar kits by the same designer or company that produces this one.

The kit comes in a swell little gift bag. I thought that was kind of neat - everything packaged in a little bag, with a color photo of the finished project on the front.

Kit contents:

Moire fabric, on which the design is worked. I would personally back this with muslin, as I've stitched on moire before for goldwork, and without the muslin backing, there isn't enough support. The design is not printed on the fabric.

Needles in three different sizes for the various parts of the design.

Instruction booklet with design page.

Threads: Rajmahal art silk in pinks and greens for the colored threads that are used for couching and also for the embroidered details; gold-colored Rajmahal art silk for couching the gold threads; Imitation Jap gold; a fine gold thread; and two short length of purls (about 3 inches each), one check and one smooth.

The little instruction booklet covers everything from transferring the design, to setting the project up on a frame, to the various stitches used and where they're used, to color placement - in short, everything you need to know to complete the project.

Ut-oh! While the little gift bag packaging on the outside is fine, the packaging on the inside leaves a little to be desired. The purls were crushed by the other content in the kit. Not good, but this certainly doesn't mean that it would be the case in each kit. For $10, I still think the kit is worth it. For $22.95, I'd have second (and third) thoughts before buying it.

Overall, though, I think the concept is great, don't you? A small beginner's goldwork kit, all neatly packaged.

The concept is great - a small beginner's goldwork kit with a simple design at an affordable price. (Again, the $22.95 might be a bit steep for the contents herein!)

In any case, I thought it would make a great gift for a young needleworker who would be willing to give it a try!

Nita's Aquatic Sampler, Part II

2009-06-26T04:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I posted Part I of Nita's explorations of applique, embroidery, and other textile techniques in her aquatic sampler, which she finished into a gloriously vibrant banner. Today, I want to show you the rest of the photos and the finished piece!

I really think there are few scenes in nature that provide such color and variety for the artist or embroiderer as the coral reef does. Though I can rarely look at such scenes anymore without automatically wondering where the heck Nemo is, I can't help being drawn to them! Perhaps it's because I live in Kansas, and the only water we ever see is a half-empty muddy river, or an occasional flooded, murky field. I grew up, though, on both coasts (West and East, chronologically), with my high school years being spent in Florida. We were never very far from the ocean wherever we lived, and this is the only thing I ever really miss living in Kansas. *Sigh* Water sure is likeable stuff.

Anyway, on with the aquatic sampler!

This big fishy fellow is worked in a foiling technique using Misty Fuse. He has that scaly irridescent look, doesn't he? What a perfect combination of techniques to achieve the fish look.

Here you've got some of Nita's gazillion French knots highlighting the green coral. Note the variety of colors of green and blue-ish green...

Stepping back a little so that you can get the effect of the stitching, notice the ripples in the water and the different types of bumpy coral.

Turkey work was used to create this bunch, which looks as if it's swaying in the water. The shading on this is perfect!

Woven picots are featured here in the front of this shot, and on the right, you can see the single feather stitch.

Here, felt beads are used to make clumps of coral. The felt has been sliced open to reveal the colorful insides.

Bullion knots add dimension to this piece of appliquéd coral.

And absolutely my favorite part of the sampler - the rippled water, created by a combination of cast on stitch (the ripples in the water) and beading (the edge of the water). Beautiful effect!

And finally, the masterpiece!

Thank you so much, Nita, for sharing all these gorgeous pictures with us and telling us about the techniques you used! It's a stunning piece!

Reader's Embroidered and Appliqued Aquatic Sampler, Part I

2009-06-25T04:32:00.000-07:00

Nita's Aquatic Sampler is just about everything you would expect an aquatic sampler to be - and then some. A combination of applique and embroidery, this colorful banner is, to say the least, bedazzling! I have always been drawn to aquatic landscapes (I even went through a phase in my life - I think 11th grade? - when I thought I wanted to be a marine biologist!), and I love the vivid life of the coral reef. To see it come to life in stitching and embellishment is pretty exciting!

I'm going to let Nita tell the story behind this textile sampler. I've divided the project into two posts in order to include all the pictures...

I used this project to practice embroidery stitches I wanted to learn as well as other techniques, eg. trapunto, foiling with Misty Fuse and Bonash, Angelia fibers and applique.

I started with a scrap of a fabric panel from Michael Miller, called "Scuba Time" which had various fish fussy cut out of it. My Mom got this piece from a scrap bin somewhere. I also used a fat quarter of the water bubble material that I got from the Sarasota Quilt show and a little over a yard of a beautiful batik fabric for the back and for water stripes that I got from my favorite fabric store in my area, Fiberologie, in St. Petersburg, FL.

I cut the fabric panel and reattached to eliminate the big holes, I also used some fish and coral sections to applique on to panel.

I started by using "Designs for the Needle" 6 strand cotton floss and then bought some "DMC" 6 strand floss and perle cotton. I used a yellow eyelash fiber and a red fiber I picked up somewhere along the way.

I used felt beads that I bought at Fiberologie and cut some in half to show the beautiful colors inside at the suggestion of Karrie Klement, owner of Fiberologie.

I experimented with a number of stitches, a gazillion french knots on the coral, bullion knots, feather stitch (wasn't 3-D enough) then I played with cast on stitches, drizzle stitch, turkey work, woven picot.

I used your video library of stitches for at least the turkey work if not other stitches. I used the stitch dictionary at In a Minute Ago for the drizzle stitches and cast on. I know there are other on-line resources I used but can't remember which!

I used the Pat Trott book I show in the photo for woven picot, among others. I used a lot of books from the library including Reader's Digest "Very Easy Crazy Patch Work" and Reader's Digest "Complete Book of Embroidery" among many other that have since been returned.

As a beginner embroider I found the laminated pocket guide that I picked up at the Tampa Sewing and Quilt Expo invaluable when I am mobile with my embroidery.

I also took a class with Marlene Glickman, a very talented fiber artist and great teacher at Fiberologie, in which she taught a collage class using various fusing methods such as the Misty Fuse and Bonash with foil. It was by far the most interesting and fun class I have taken. (I also took her silk dye class the same day, great class also)

Aren't you dying to see the completed project?! Well - check back in tomorrow!

Thanks so much, Nita, for the gorgeous photos, the interesting write-up, and the refreshing splash of inspiration!

Categories on Needle 'n Thread

2009-06-24T04:38:00.000-07:00

As promised, here's a list of the various categories on Needle 'n Thread. I'll add this list to the right-hand column under "Editor's Floss" for quick access, as soon as I get back from vacation!

These categories are all arranged alphabetically. When you click on a category, you'll get all the posts that are assigned to that category. Most posts are assigned to more than one category, so if you browse this way, you'll probably end up running into repeat posts.

If I add more "tags" or categories on Needle 'n Thread, I'll also add them to this list.

I know that I could automatically generate a category list for the right column of the blog, but it looks messy. So I'll do it manually for now! (And hopefully, I'll keep up with it!) I try not to add categories randomly anymore, though I'm afraid that's exactly what I did do when I first started adding categories, so some of these are not only rather random, but they are somewhat disorganized!

Enjoy browsing!

15 Minutes

Baby Booties

Beads

Beetle Wing Embroidery

Beginner Embroidery

Biscornu

Book Give-Away

Book Review

Bookbinding

Breath of Spring

Canvas Stitches

Christmas

Counted Thread Embroidery Techniques

CQMag Online

Crazy Quilt

Crewel Work

Crochet

Cutwork

Danish Flower Thread

Drawn Thread Embroidery

Ecclesiastical Embroidery

Embellishments

Embroider on Paper

Embroidered Buttons

Embroidered Clothes

Embroidery Books

Embroidery Design

Embroidery Designers

Embroidery for Children

Embroidery for Fun

Embroidery for the Home

Embroidery Kits

Embroidery Links

Embroidery Projects

Embroidery Resources

Embroidery Tips and Tricks

Fabric for Embroidery

Finish Work

Floche

Free Embroidery Patterns

Gallery

Gift Ideas

Gilt Sylke Twist

Goldwork

Guild

Hand Embroidered Cards

Hand Embroidery Information

Hand Embroidery Stitches

Heirloom Sewing

Historical Needlework

Hobby Room

Holiday Stitching

In a Minute Ago

Inspirations Magazine

Iron-on Embroidery Transfers

Jacobean Embroidery

Knitting and Crochet

Kumihimo

Lighting

Linen

Miniature Embroidery

Miscellaneous Embroidery Musings

Monograms

Needlecase

Needle Lace

Needlepainting

Needlepoint

Needles

Needlework and Travel

Needlework Care

Needlework Classes

Needlework Magazines

Needlework News

Needlework Pictures

Needlework Products

Needlework Tools

Needlework Tutorials

Needlework Websites

Online Needlework Books

Organization

Passementerie

Personal

Pictures

Reader's Embroidery

Reader's Question

Regional Embroidery Techniques

Ribbon Embroidery

Royal School of Needlework

Sampler

Silk

Silkwork Sampler

Slate Frames

Smocking

Stash Contest

Stitch Along

Stitch Challenge

Stitch Along Lessons

Stumpwork

Supplies

Threads

TIF Challenge

Trestles

Trish Burr

Video Tutorials

Vintage Embroidery

Website News

Welcome

Whitework

WIP

Wool

Wool Felt

Yarn

Yvette Stanton

Taveling Travails - Not a Chance to Stitch!

2009-06-23T23:01:00.000-07:00

Hi, All!

Just a quick update to let you know that I did indeed go to Nordic Needle in Fargo, North Dakota, and it was everything I had hoped it would be and more! I took pictures, so I'll be posting them as soon as we stop early enough at a hotel to do some real internet work. It's 11:02 pm Pacific time (1:02 am on "my time"!), and after days of driving long hours, I'm completely pooped! But the trip so far is fun and incredibly beautiful! Unfortunately, doing the driving has left me no time to do any stitching in the car. Not only did I bring along two feasible car projects, but I also picked up a couple new ones at Nordic Needle. Later in the journey, I hope to have a chance to at least do something with needle 'n thread!

Tomorrow, if all goes well, I'll be stopping at another needlework shop. If I don't make it there tomorrow, though, the next day is a definite. I'll keep you posted!

Thanks for all the recent comments you've left on the site, and for the good wishes for my trip!

And the Moral of the Story is... Embroidered in Cutwork

2009-06-23T04:32:00.000-07:00

Thematic designs in embroidery are really no new thing, right? You've got Day-of-the-Week towels, Nursery Rhyme quilt blocks, State Birds, State Flowers, and so on and so forth - all developed into embroidery designs over the years.

But I want to tell you a story about another thematic line of embroidery, available online, and for free!

Once upon a time, a little girl sat on the stool outside her cottage, bent over her handwork. Along a came a fox (yes, that's the bad guy - for some reason, the fox is always the bad guy!) who tempted her away from her work, telling her about the grapes he couldn't reach over in the vineyard, and that he insisted were sour anyway.

As the little girl walked toward the vineyard, a mouse skittered by her feet, holding a spinter between its tiny mouse teeth! "Yikes! A mouse!" cried the little girl.

But the mouse was nothing compared to the lion that was lumbering away in the other direction, limping slightly from some sligh foot infection undoubtedly caused by the splinter that just skittered by. The light girl was mighty glad the lion didn't see her.

She continued toward the vineyard, neglecting her embroidery left on the stoop outside the cottage door. Naughty girl!

Arriving at the vineyard with the beguiling fox beside her, the little girl reached up for a bunch of grapes. The cunning fox licked his lips, knowing that finally, those grapes would be within his reach! Yum! Grapes! The girl plucked one from the bunch, popped it in her mouth, simultaneously holding out some for the fox, who gobbled a few in a gulp. And simultaneously, they both started sputtering.

"Unbelievable!" cried the fox, perturbed. "They really ARE sour!"

With her worst sour face, the dismayed little girl returned to her stoop in front of the cottage door, with every intention of picking up her handwork and plying her needle diligently.

At that moment, though, the rooster (there's always a rooster!) perched himself on the edge of the thatched cottage roof, right above the stoop upon which rested the little girl's beautiful handwork. With all his rooster might, the bird began to crow. As the little girl approached the stoop, the rooster stopped his infernal crowing, paused, and then did what roosters and chickens so readily do at any given opportunity. Splat! Right on the embroidery. He then strutted away.

The moral of the story is... Well, there are numerous morals, some of which I'm sure are too deep to attempt drawing out here!

Fables are brief stories involving the personification of animals and ending with a clear moral. Aesop's fables are the most famous fables in Western literary tradition, and they've been re-told and re-written and illustrated in numerous books down the centuries.

Now, how does this all tie in with needlework? Well, how about embroidered fables, in cutwork? Sure enough, at Antique Pattern Library, there's a terrific illustrated book of fables, and the illustrations are ---- wait for it! ---- cutwork patterns! Really and truly!

Above, for example, is the design for the The Rooster (told you so!), the Cat, and the Young Mouse, which ends with the terse moral, "Remember while you live, It is by looks that men deceive."

In its 73-page PDF, the book, an edition of Broderies & Ouvrages de Dames titled "Les Fables de La Fontaine," includes the illustration of the fable by way of an embroidery pattern, followed by a translation in English of the fable illustrated. It's entertaining to read and the pictures are perfect for illustrative embroidery. Don't think they're limited to cutwork, either! You can easily turn the designs into regular surface embroidery projects!

So stop by Antique Pattern Library and brush up on your fables while perusing the patterns presented in this fun little book!

And if the books sparks any creative ideas, drop back by and let the rest of us know!

Reader's Embroidery: A Lovely Quilt

2009-06-22T03:57:00.000-07:00

Mabel recently embroidered a beautiful quilt for her granddaughter. It's really a pretty piece of work, with each different heart embroidered in flowers and featuring a little inspirational word - like happiness, hope, friendship.

The "fancy" flowered hearts are embroidered on every other square on the front of the quilt, and in between each of those squares is a simpler square, with four hearts embroidered that meet in the middle of the square.

Mabel used one thread of DMC throughout, and stitched each heart differently.

I think the colors are really beautiful! I love the addition of that little word in each square - a perfect little touch for a little girl's blanket.

Every other square is embroidered with this motif of four hearts, meeting in the middle. The running stitch outline is perfect here - a nice, simple approach to contrast with the surrounding fancier squares.

This is the whole quilt - you can see the layout of the various embroidered squares.

The center square is the L-O-V-E in a Box embroidery pattern available here on Needle 'n Thread. Originally, Mabel worked the letters in running stitch, but she wasn't satisfied with the way they looked, so she laced a darker pink thread into the stitching. I like the somewhat "wavy" effect on the letters that this technique of lacing creates.

On the back of the quilt are embroidered certain inspirational verses. This one reads, "Dance like nobody's watching, Love like you've never been hurt, Sing like nobody's hearing, Live like it's heaven on earth." Mabel asked is I thought she should re-embroider those in darker thread. What do you all think? I tend to think that, if the thread color she has used corresponds well to the threads in the front of the quilt, to go ahead and leave the verses as they are. From up close, they can certainly be read, and that's what matters, anyway, because that's how her granddaughter will see it. But... what do you all think?

On the back of the quilt, what better signature than "Super Grandma"??

And, of course, there's the lucky recipient of this hand embroidered treasure, Sienna-Lee, who will be one in August and is reported to be a very fast crawler! She's cute as a button, that's for sure!

Mabel also mentioned that she has just started quilting, so this is a beginner project for her. The bumps on the quilt, she said, bear witness to this. I'm not a professional quilter, myself, but I have made quilts and went through a phase of reading a lot about quilting techniques. So, for all you quilters out there, here's my question: I'm wondering if, in the long-run, Mabel might be a bit happier with the finished product if she were to quilt the quilt a bit more with a neutral-colored (white) quilting thread, in order to help eliminate some of what she calls the "bumpy" spots. I foresee the filling shifting with use.... It would not take away from the embroidery at all, to quilt a little bit around the hearts, for example, or maybe just another quilted line half an inch in from the ribbons around each square? Even if she quilted, say, another small heart within the hearts, using white thread, that would help secure the batting and anchor everything in place.

I know that sounds like a lot more work to add to the project, but after all this gorgeous embroidery has been done on the quilt, I would hate to see it lump up after a bit of use!

Perhaps some other quilters out there might offer some advice on this point for Mabel?

The embroidery on this project is really gorgeous, and of course, the whole quilt is made with such obvious love! What a perfect gift for a gorgeous granddaughter, and I'm sure she will treasure it all her life (and hand it down to her own kids, hopefully!). Congratulations, Mabel!

Nordic Needle!

2009-06-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

I haven't been to Nordic Needle yet, but will be going soon! Just a quick note to say "hi" to all and let you know that I plan to hit as many major needlework shops along the journey as possible! So far, I'm certain of only three, but I'm contemplating two more.

After spending last Thursday evening, Friday, Saturday, and this morning in Winona, MN, I've headed northwest to North Dakota, where I plan to stop in at Nordic Needle in the next day or so. Then, I'm heading due west, and will keep you posted on anything interesting along the way, when I have the ability. Hotel internet connections are not always so certain!

So far, the trip has been a lot of fun! I'm afraid that this morning, I missed the exit to see the World's Largest Turkey. I'm trying to live with the disappointment!

I'll be in touch! I hope you're enjoying the daily posts! (OH NO - I just noticed they haven't posted. I fixed the problem, and now there should be a couple new posts on the website! Sorry about that!)

Have you Tried Mulberry Silks for Embroidery?

2009-06-20T04:40:00.000-07:00

As a serious thread junkie, I'm always on the lookout for nice embroidery threads, especially silks. Margaret brought my attention to this website, which looks like it offers some delectable silk threads for hand embroidery!

The website is called Mulberry Silks, and it's located in the UK. It looks as if they carry a variety of types of threads, but for some reason, I seem to be drawn to the hand embroidery threads. Huh. I wonder why?!

The different palettes of color are really pretty! The silk is wound on spools, and the range of colors in all those lined-up spools just sets my thread-loving heart a-flutter!

Above is one of the brighter palettes...

... and this one, the Garden Palette, is by far my favorite (though it seems to be lacking yellow, doesn't it?)

I suppose I'm not actually recommending the threads, because I haven't tried them, so I don't really know what they're like. But they're somewhat intriguing, aren't they? I've added them to my Ever-Growing-List-of-Threads-I-Want-To-Try, though, so when I do, I'll let you know what I think of them.

In the meantime, since I haven't tried them, I thought I'd ask if any of you have? If you have tried Mulberry Silk hand embroidery threads, can you give the rest of us the low-down? Are they worth the investment, given shipping and exchange rate? I'd love to hear any opinions on them, especially before making that kind of investment in a thread purchase!

Thanks!

Great Needlework Pattern Source!

2009-06-19T04:45:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite resources for embroidery patterns and inspiration is Antique Pattern Library. There, you'll find such an extensive list of books in the Library that it's impossible to get through them all! But there are some real gems in there (like the one mentioned below), so it's definitely worth exploring...

This particular publication is called La Brodeuse, a periodical published in France in the early 1900's, featuring plenty of embroidery patterns. Somewhere, I have at least one original La Brodeuse pamphlet, sent to me by an antique-crazy fiend... I mean friend... who lives just outside Paris. (Thanks, Suzette!) I don't know if it's the same one, but one of these days, I suppose I'll go bookshelf-diving to find out.

These publications are very similar to La Broderie Blanche, which is the publication from which the first monogram alphabet posted here on Needle 'n Thread came.

In the meantime, though, it's there in electronic form on Antique Pattern Library for all to enjoy!

You can download the PDF copy of La Brodeuse and save it to your computer for a ready resource. It isn't too long (only six pages), so printing it out is an easy proposition, too. To enlarge the designs, a photocopier comes in handy.

For tips and tricks on transferring designs, please visit my Tips and Tricks for Hand Embroidery list, where you'll find a section on transferring patterns.

Enjoy!

Tutorial: Mitred Corners on a Linen Square

2009-06-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

After finishing the embroidery on the main part of the pall, I made a small, square, detachable back for it, so that the back can be removed and washed without having to take the whole pall apart for cleaning. The detachable back of the pall is made from linen, and it is hemmed all around with a small hem with mitred corners. Then the center is embroidered with a tiny red cross.

For the embroiderer, it's handy to know how to mitre corners on a hem. Imagine making a long table runner with a drawn thread line running just inside the hem. Wouldn't it be nice to know how to finish the corners on that hem so that they looked professional? What about a fine hanky, where people will see the back of the work? Sloppy corners just wouldn't do, would they?

So, today I'm going to show you how I created a quarter-inch hem on a small piece of linen and mitred the corners. You can take the concept to any proportion hem around a piece with 90-degree corners.

I began with a square of linen one inch larger all around than the finished piece would be. This allows for half an inch extra on each side of the fabric, out of which the hem (two quarter inch turns) will be made.

Using a stiletto that doesn't have a super sharp tip (it's not like the tip of a needle, more like the tip of an ice pick) and a ruler, I marked off my folding lines by "scoring" the fabric. You can use any tool here to make marking lines on the fabric, though you probably wouldn't want to use scissors or anything that would cut the fabric.

I scored the fabric in two quarter-inch increments on all four sides of the square. Scoring is simply running that tool firmly over the fabric, along the edge of the ruler. It marks the path of the of your folding lines with a slight dent in the fabric, making folding along the measured line much easier.

After scoring two lines in quarter inch increments (from the edge of the fabric) all around on all four sides, I finger pressed the hem in.

First, I folded the fabric from the edge inward on all four sides at the first quarter inch line. Then, I folded these folds (on all four sides) one more time on the second quarter inch line.

I firmly pressed each fold as I made it, using my fingers (not an iron).

Unfolding the folds, this is what the fabric looks like. You can see two distinct quarter-inch lines where the fabric was folded and finger pressed.

Notice the intersections of the lines.

See how the green dotted line passes through the diagonal on the second square in from the corner?

Using the diagonal on that square, form a cutting line by laying your ruler across the square diagonally.

Cut the corner off. A rotary cutter is helpful here, but really, you can just eyeball the cutting line along the diagonal and use scissors just as effectively!

After cutting the four corners off, finger press the diagonal cut an eighth of an inch in. The fold will actually be as deep as the lower tip of the remains of the second square in from the corner (the top of which you just cut off). Finger press this small fold right across the corner...

...and then, using your previous fold lines as a guide, fold your first quarter-inch fold all along the outside hem and finger press it is firmly again...

... and then make your second quarter inch fold all around the hem, finger pressing the turned edge in, and aligning the corners so that they fit up as in the photo above.

Then, pin everything. Since my square is relatively small here (the finished size is 6.25 inches), I didn't use many pins. Pin through the mitred corners to hold them in place, and then pin down the edge of the hem.

You can then do whatever kind of stitching along the hem that you want to do. I just used a regular small whip stitched hem. When you get to the corners, you want to stitch them neatly, either using a blind stitch or even a regular whip stitch.

I stitched inside the fabric in a blind stitch fashion, and then I pulled the thread tightly, to form a slight ridge where the corners meet up. This is actually a mistake - the corner should be smooth and flat - but once I did it on one, I went ahead and did it on all four, so that they match. (That way it doesn't look so much like a mistake!) There shouldn't really be that rounded bulge at the edge of the corner. One of the reasons for this (besides butting up the corners too tightly there) is that the small quarter inch hem is rather thick, in a small space, so it's kind of tight in there when you're stitching. Still, I could have avoided that with looser stitching on the corner, so keep that in mind as you stitch up your mitred corners.

And that is how you mitre corners by hand on the edge of a squared hem!

Hope you find the technique handy!