This book review is about Hazel Blompkamp’s newest book (and an online flip book) “Bead Embroidery Stitches and Techniques for Surface Embroidery and Crazy Patchwork.” It’s 180 pages, and covers information about various types of beads, materials, forty bead embroidery … Read More
“Bitten by Witch Fever” by Lucinda Hawksley, published by Thames & Hudson (in association with the National Archives) is an absolutely stunning and fascinating book about the history of arsenic used in fabrics and home decor items like wallpaper in … Read More
Get your Pride on and learn how to stitch up this fun little Pride Flag! In this tutorial you’ll learn how to use backstitch and satin stitch to create this project, and of course once you learn the basics you … Read More
To help get you in the mood to go exercise your civic duty (and to encourage your friends and family as well), I’ve created a free Vote hand embroidery pattern and tutorial for you! This is completely free to download, … Read More
If you’ve ever wanted to try the DMC Diamant metallic needlework thread, then this review should help you out! Discussing both DMC Diamant and the new DMC Diamant Grande, learn about the differences between these threads and DMC Light Effects, … Read More
For many stitchers, they are happily stitching along and then all of a sudden, they run into a weird symbol on their chart, like the stitches have gotten squashed vertically or horizontally. After running to grab their reading glasses, they … Read More
If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re defective because you can’t quite figure out why your stitches keep popping out or sliding when you try and stitch over one on linen and evenweave, don’t fear grasshopper. This tutorial will show you … Read More
If you’ve heard all about the new DMC Étoile embroidery threads but haven’t had a chance to pick some up yet, this quick review should give you a good idea whether they’ll be a yay or a nay for you. … Read More
If you’ve ever wondered when to use a stabilizer for cross stitch or embroidery projects, this tutorial will help you learn which of the myriad of options is best for your project. Sulky makes a wide range of stabilizers, and … Read More
One of the best things about being a stitcher is getting to experiment with so many amazing threads, fabrics, and tools. This tutorial is demonstrating some of , particularly those that are great for cross stitch and embroidery. In the … Read More
Sometimes when you write delicate text onto your fabric from an embroidery pattern, your lines may look “wobbly”, especially if the letters are quite small and delicate (like a single line of backstitch). So, to ensure your text stitches up … Read More
For some embroidery or cross stitch patterns, it’s normal to want to change some colours (say of a girl’s hair, or a dress, etc). Changing colours is not as simple as it can seem at first, so below is a … Read More
The leaf stitch is such a pretty hand embroidery stitch, it can be used in all sorts of ways. Similar to the fishbone stitch, the leaf stitch is a great textural stitch (which is obviously perfect for leaves). It looks … Read More
Satin stitch is a lovely embroidery stitch, but many people find it intimidating. We’re so used to seeing “perfect” satin stitch as done with machine embroidery on badges, labels, baseball hats, etc, so it’s easy to forget the beauty that … Read More
One of the prettiest embroidery stitches is the chain stitch. There are a lot of variations to it (like a square chain, twisted chain, cable chain, etc), but in essence the chain stitch is a very simple graphic stitch. Obviously … Read More