International Embroidery Day

Apparently July 30th is International Embroidery Day!! You can read more about this day HERE. See the English translation of the Manifesto HERE. Interesting, to say the least.

A few blogs have posted about this day too:

• Wild Olive 
• Needlework Society HERE,    
• Mooshie Stitch   
• Piece 'n' Peace  

So, do you have any embroidery that you will be working on today? Unfortunately, all my embroidery is packed away. I just started knitting a pair of mittens so I might find time to do some of that.  
Enjoy!!

A piece by Constance Howard, Royal School of Needlework, UK. Photo by yours truly

Textile Art

I was reading through some emails and came across one from The Quilt Show. Of course, the heading, ' The $45 Million Tapestry ' caught my eye! This price broke the record for the most money ever paid for a piece of Chinese Art. The tapestry, made in the 15th Century, has significant historical value in Chinese history. Please go to the blog page to see it.

Another piece of textile art, this time, a quilt, titled ' Maya's Quilt of Life ', will be going on auction in September. It is estimated that it will go for at least $150,000. See more about this quilt HERE.

If you are interested in reading more about the emergence of textile art, check out an interesting article by the Wall Street Journal.

Here's a couple of articles on Textile Art:

• Textile Artist Organization
• Textile Art Network

Enjoy!

These photos are from a Textile Trip I took to England in 2008.

Embroidery by Constance Howard

Royal School of Embroidery

Unusual Fabrics

So much for trying to do a post every day! Sometimes the topic comes in a flash but not the last couple of days. Yesterday was spend becoming more frustrated by the hour in my studio as nothing was working out.

Last evening was a reprieve from the studio as I attended the Eastern Edge Guild May meeting. We had a wonderful presentation by my friend M, about unusual fabrics. She showed several examples and finished projects from her experimenting with Tyvek, TAP - Transfer Artist Paper, and Lutradur.

The second half of the evening was comprised of  rotating among these three stations:

• Beading in quilted projects
• Shiva Paint Sticks
• Fantasy Fabrics (I did this one)

Everyone had a great evening.
I forgot to take photos.

Talking about photos - please have a look at the galleries from the Royal School of Needlework, UK. It's well worth a look!

Going GREEN At the Oscars - 2013

Skyfall actress, Naomie Harris, wore a stunning dress to the Oscars last Sunday night. It was hand embroidered by embroiderers based at Hampton Court Palace, London, England. According to the news from the embroidery guild, more than 600 hours were spent making this dress. Read more about it here and here.

This dress won the Red Carpet Green Dress contest .

'The dress was made of a Global Organic Textile Standard certified organic silk crepe de chine, embroidered with vintage glass beads and chocolate candy wrappers, and dyed with golden rod and humble camomile, a renewable and biodegradable plant source. No water pollutants or chemicals were used, and the Royal School of Needlework in the UK spent a total of 680 hours hand-embroidering the gown with organic cotton thread. Not using machine-embroidery significantly reduced the dress’ carbon footprint, which is the amount of greenhouse gases emitted during its production.'

Rather stunning, wouldn't you say!