Happy Friday!

To whet your appetite for upcoming projects on Needle ‘n Thread, this morning I thought I’d give you a sneak peek at our first Stitch Snippets adventure for 2023, and introduce newcomers to the concept of the Stitch Snippet Series here on Needle ‘n Thread.

I’ve had a lot of feedback from last year’s series, and it seems that participants really enjoyed it! I’ve also had some constructive feedback that I very much appreciate!

What’s a Stitch Snippet?

To summarize the Stitch Snippets in a nutshell, they are (relatively) small embroidery projects that emerge here on Needle ‘n Thread as a stitch-along.

Each Snippet is meant to teach some specific aspects of embroidery or finishing, or to introduce embroiderers to different threads and materials that they may not have ever used.

The stitch-alongs are casual. You follow at your own pace. There’s no fee for joining. And you might not even work the project, but you will certainly pick up tips and techniques to employ in your own embroidery projects.

I put together a materials kit that you can purchase, so that you can have all the same materials that I’m using to complete the project easily on hand, without having to scour many different online sources to find them. I do my best to keep these kits reasonably prices so that the projects are accessible.

For Patrons of my Needle ‘n Thread community on Patreon, as each Stitch Snippet unfolds here on the blog, it is made available as a PDF that can be easily saved to your computer for later use or printed for ease of use away from the computer. The PDFs often contain additional little bits of instruction. And patrons also enjoy a private shopping event before the kits are officially launched on the website.

As some of you guessed after I wrote about making up lots of floche twists the other day, the first Stitch Snippet of 2023 involves floche in a variety of colors.

As you can imagine, floche has been on my mind lately! We’ve been working with loads of it. Last year, we used floche in one project, but only in white. Floche is beautiful in white, but it really shines in other colors, too, especially in surface embroidery techniques.

Because this project will take us into the first hints of spring here in the northern hemisphere, we’ll be working with a spring palette on a natural colored linen that we haven’t used before, and we will be created a finished Something… which I’m not quite ready to reveal yet.

But I’ll tell you this much: it’s not a pincushion, it’s not a tool wallet, it’s not a framed piece, and it’s not an ornament. We did those last year!

The Tips & Techniques We’ll Explore

What will you learn in this year’s first Stitch Snippet project?

First, you’ll see how to set up the project for stitching.

We will explore a particular type of very precise (but also quick and easy!) design transfer that’s useful on fabrics that are difficult to trace on.

We’ll embroider with a lovely color palette of cotton floche, on excellent-quality linen in a natural color which further enhances the thread colors. We will discuss coordination between fabric and thread, and why I chose this particular palette for this particular fabric.

We’ll employ a variety of stitches that we will build and manipulate, so that you can see how to take simple stitches to something more complex.

And finally, we will finish the piece of embroidery into something beautiful and useful, using finishing techniques that you can apply to your own future projects.

But Wait! There’s More!

(I feel like one of those ads for steak knives…)

Along the way, we also talk about tools and materials. I’ll tell you what tools I use and why, and I’ll tell you where you can find them if you’re keen to use them yourself. Sometimes, finding good quality embroidery tools, supplies, and materials is a real battle, but I’ll help you through that!

And we’ll do this all in a somewhat leisurely pace, working through a manageable project from start to finish, so that you don’t feel pressured, and I don’t feel pressured, and the whole project ends up being enjoyable for all of us.

While the Stitch Snippets unfold on Needle ‘n Thread, the lessons are spaced out between the other articles about embroidery that I write about here on the website. So again, even if you’re not following the stitch-along, you’ll still be receiving great content on hand embroidery.

The best way to follow along with any of the content here on Needle ‘n Thread is to subscribe via email to my newsletter, which lands each article in your inbox. You’ll find the subscription form in the left column here on the website, and also on this page. If you’re on a mobile device, click the menu stack and scroll a tiny bit to find the subscription form. (You’ll receive a confirmation email after subscribing. Make sure that you confirm your email subscription and add my email address to your “approved” inbox list after subscribing, to ensure consistent delivery.)

Timing?

I don’t expect to launch this first Snippet until some time in February. We are still awaiting supplies for the kits, and I don’t want to begin the lessons until I’ve got the kits ready for you. Last year, we launched the first Snippet (this bee-jeweled pincushion) at the end of January, but, due to circumstances beyond my control, we’re off to a slower start this year!

And speaking of those circumstances, the front half of my house must be demolished. (Insert panic face here.)

Have a wonderful weekend!