Monday, April 7, 2014

Needle & thread - hand embroidery


A few weeks ago I took an embroidery class from Alison Glass at Sew South.  She was incredibly gracious with her time, knowledge and supplies and made learning new stitches a breeze.  Once I learned the couching stitch, I wanted to couch all the things.  That is until I learned the chain stitch.  Then I wanted to chain stitch all the things.  And so on.  The needle book pictured above was a pattern supplied by Alison and the start of a new obsession for me.


Since then I've been stitching different random fabrics to get a feel for what weight works best.  I've also been trying to learn new stitches.



I liken hand embroidery to coloring for adults.  And now I'm looking for a website or hand embroidery stitch book that can teach me lots and lots of new stitches.  Any recommendations?

-dana

P.S.  Due to numerous requests, Alison is now selling the needle book pattern that she provided to Sew South attendees.  You can find it here.  You can even find the exact Perle cotton sampler that I used here.

20 comments:

Jo said...

Wow, that looks stunning and has made me want to get my threads out! x

Kym said...

I learned an awful lot about embroidery by following Jenny at sublimestitching.com. She has a fun retro-modern aesthetic, and her online tutorials and books are great at teaching the basics. I also own The Stitch Bible by Kate Haxell, which tells you just about everything you'd ever want to know about hand embroidery.

Embroidery was actually my gateway to sewing and quilting, and I still fall back on it when I need to relax!

Jacque. said...

Lovely work, Dana! I do some basic stitching...it can be relaxing while watching tv in the evenings.

Kar said...

Love all those gorgeous colors and your stitching is great! It's so relaxing and addictive. I have worked on any of my stitch work for ages.

www.randomthoughtsdoordi.com said...

Your project turned out beautifully unique just like you

Beth Karese said...

What fun! I highly recommend Mary Corbet's Needle 'N Thread site. She has lots of tutorials and videos on her site - with amazing close ups - for all kinds of fun stitches, and GREAT tips and techniques!

Megan said...

those circles at the end get me!

Paige said...

Dana, these are all amazing!

Unknown said...

I've just started hand embroidery this week! YouTube has been amazing. I've discovered great blogs and how tos on there. Good luck!

Jennifer said...

Try Laura Wasilowski and Sue Spargo - both quilters who incorporate hand stitching into their projects. They have both taught at our guild and had great work!

Beth said...

I was going to recommend Sue Spargo as well. Laura's stitches are great but she doesn't have tutorials on doing stitches...Sue has a book and it is great.
I actually have 2 different books with embroidery stitches I will find the exact titles and let you know.

Jackie said...

Wow. Hand embroidery looks like a neat thing to try. I enjoyed cross stitching many years ago, haven't gotten back to it in a while though. Good job Dana!

Kim said...

How fun, I do love embroidery and this is one of the cutest I have seen in a long time.

http://temeculaquiltco.blogspot.com/search/label/Saturday%20Stitching

Enjoy the process and like anything the more you do the better you get :0)

Happy Sewing

Julie said...

Sharon from Www.pintangle.com has a "Take a Stitch Tuesday", where she chooses a stitch, shows how its done, and everyone does whatever they want with that stitch, and then comes back tompost all of their photos! It's a lot of fun!

I found many good stitch books at the library too. One in particular was so great. It is called Complete Guide to Embroidery Stitches by Jennifer Campbell and Ann-Marie Bakewell.

Shirley said...

Dana, your embroidery is awesome! Love the layers you gave the flowers. I think I'm addicted too!

Deb said...

These are amazing!! Great job Dana :)

Afton Warrick said...

Check out http://www.embroidery.rocksea.org.

Corinnea said...

So now you just want to embroider all the things?? Ha ha I embroidered a lot and then it fell out of fashion... Now I'm trying to learn all over again.

Yours is gorgeous!

Sandra said...

Wonderful! I love that embroidery is making a comeback, especially amongst the young people.
The A-Z books on embroidery stitches are excellent. I would start with volume 1.

Tracy said...

It's all very lovely, but I especially love the orange peel design in the last photo.