Book Review: Creative Stitches for Contemporary Embroidery

I received Sharon Boggon's book, Creative Stitches for Contemporary Embroidery, for Christmas. This book is a visual guide of 120 embroidery stitches. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced embroiderer, this book encourages you to create new patterns by playing with the stitches. For example, to manipulate the height and width of a stitch, to overlap and stack stitches, to combine laced and threaded stitches . . . Page 27 has a list of 21 questions to consider when using a particular stitch, such as

• How does this stitch behave on a curve?
• Can this stitch be laced with another thread?
• What happens if I add beads?

Lots of stitch combinations to consider!

You won't be disappointed with the coloured photos throughout the book.

You are probably familiar with Sharon's website, Pintangle. If not, and you are interested in hand embroidery (beginner or experienced), please check it out. 

Another TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday) challenge started today. So it's time to get your threads and doodle cloth ready for stitching!

More links about hand embroidery:

• Nordic Needle   (free patterns)
• Freebie Gallery  
• Needle 'n Thread Network (Mary Corbet)
• Jo Butcher, artist  
• Emma Mattson, artist  
• Needle Work,  Needle Painting
• DMC free patterns   
• Tanja Berlin, Canadian designer 
• EAC, Embroiderers' Association of Canada   
• 10 Contemporary Embroidery Artists   

Enjoy!

Straw Needles

I was just reading about different stitches and needles to use for embroidery. Most stitches can be created by using regular embroidery needles. However, according to Mary Corbet, using the right needle is the key to making perfect French Knots and Bullion Knots. On her blog she says that using a straw needle or milliner's needle is the perfect tool for making these stitches. If you have any of these on hand, you will notice that the shape of the straw needle is different from other needles. There is no bulge around the eye therefore making the shaft and the eye the same size the full extent of the needle. So when you pull the needle through a series of thread wraps, it goes through easily without the eye getting caught up in the wraps. Check out the rest of her article and see a picture of straw needles.

A couple of years ago, I did a three year hand embroidery course. Over the months, one of the class members kept saying that she only joined the class to learn how to make French Knots. This got to be a bit of a class chuckle. After the course was finally finished, we had an exhibit of all our work. We called it, "All I ever wanted to learn was French Knots". In fact most of the ladies who took this course still meet every Thursday evening to stitch, thus the name FETE (friends every Thursday evening).

Tanja Berlin has a lot of information on her site about embroidery needles.
Check out Victorian Embroidery and Crafts for information of selecting the right needle for your project.

Canada Wins Gold!!! Congratulations to all

To celebrate Canada's gold medals at the Olympics in Vancouver, here's gold worth stitching! According to Wikipedia, 'goldwork is the art of embroidery using metal threads'. This is a very specialized type of embroidery requiring a certain level of expertise. Using the proper materials is important.

The gold and blue sampler piece was stitched as part of a hand embroidery (level 5 ) course I took. It is worked on silk.

Inspirational pieces! Have a look at this sampler and this piece.







Check out these books on Goldwork:   
Beginner's Guide to Goldwork by Ruth Chamberlin provides a good introduction to Goldwork embroidery. This book explains the historical development of the style and includes a complete introduction to supplies and techniques used. The photos are excellent!

Goldwork by Valerie Campbell-Harding, Jane Lemon and Kit Pyman
New Ideas in Goldwork by Tracy A. Franklin
Metal Thread Embroidery by Jane Lemon

These are excellent books for Goldwork but I find them to be inspirational as well. You never know what will lead to a new piece of work!

Tanja Berlin has a free Goldwork Heart Design on her site. She has excellent instructions for anyone wishing to try out this particular technique. I've been fortunate to have taken a course with Tanja (not in this technique) and I hightly recommend her as a teacher.