This morning, it’s a cup of cocoa while browsing through some needlework news snips for this last Saturday of November!
Please don’t remind me it’s already the last Saturday of November!
Did you hit the stores and shop this weekend? I didn’t venture out for “Black Friday” (I’m not a huge fan of the whole atmosphere that surrounds the day after Thanksgiving here in the US). But I do like to take advantage of some of the sales this time of year, especially on needlework things that have been on my List for a while, or items or services that I wanted to review here on Needle ‘n Thread.
So, below, I’ve included some browsing links, and also some good sale links for today. All of them are of things I’ve actually purchased myself. Some include affiliate links, which means I get a small kickback, which helps support Needle ‘n Thread.
Whitework project tutorial
This week, Luzine Happel posted a nice tutorial for a Schwalm embroidery Christmas ornament. There’s still time, you know!
I’m writing on Craftsy
Speaking of whitework embroidery, last week, I published an article on Craftsy titled “Whitework 101: From Stitches to Patterns.” It’s a general overview of whitework embroidery with lots of really good photos! Stop by and read it, and feel free to comment on it if you like.
Hand embroidery related classes on Craftsy
Speaking of Craftsy, they have a huge sale going on this weekend on classes. They have a few hand embroidery-related classes available now, and I’ve gone through them all. They’re a good way to get the basics. And they’d make a great Christmas gift, for yourself or for beginners (and beyond) in your life. Here’s a list of the hand embroidery classes you’ll find available on Craftsy right now:
Stitch it With Wool: Crewel Embroidery
Embroidering with Ribbon
Embroidering Texture & Dimension by Hand
Design It, Stitch It: Hand Embroidery
Crazy Quilting with Allie Aller
I’m giving a couple of those classes to my nieces for Christmas this year. I think they’ll enjoy them! And this weekend is as good a time to get them as any.
Searching for inspiration
I spent abut five hours doing some research last week and searching for pieces to view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Online Collections. They have a wonderful collections section on their website, and it’s easy to search with key words. You can zoom in on the images and see some nice detail.
If you’re just wanting to see some historical embroidery from a certain era or of a certain technique, use their keyword search and enjoy the browse! It’s the next best thing to being there!
Speaking of history…
I wrote about medieval books mended with embroidery a long time ago, but a reader brought it to my attention again, so I thought I’d share this article on parchment mended with embroidery for those interested – it’s got some glorious photos!
The EGA
The Embroiderers’ Guild of America has their Seminar 2015 classes posted on their website. There are some fantastic classes listed for next year. Gary Clarke’s classes look fantastic!
If you’re not a member of the EGA, you should consider becoming one! It’s a great support group for stitchers, a wonderful way to make stitching friends, and if you’re not close enough to a guild, you can always be a Member at Large. Along with the other benefits of membership, you’ll receive their publication, NeedleArts magazine, several times a year. The most recent issue includes an interesting article on Michele Carragher, who embroiders costumes for movies and TV.
The RSN
With Christmas fast approaching, you might consider the Royal School of Needlework as a great place to shop for gifts! Even if you’re not in London, you can visit their online shop.
They have some day classes coming up in April of 2015 in San Francisco. If you’re interested in hearing about those, sign up for the RSN newsletter.
Other Sales
I’ve received a slew of requests lately about finding Aunt Martha Iron-On transfers, so if you’re looking for all of the Aunt Martha transfers – including state flowers, state birds, and so forth – you’ll find them at Colonial Patterns. They’re having a 10% off sale this coming Monday. It isn’t much, but it could cover the cost of your postage!
Interweave Press is having a very big sale on their website through this coming Wednesday.
I picked up a copy of Mollie Makes: Embroidery for just $10. It’s a fun little book, and will make a perfect gift for one of my nieces. If you have a crafting ‘tween or teen in your life, it’s a good way to entice them into needlework.
The Red Embroidery Patterns collection from PieceWork – ok, I did get the digital version of this, and no, it wasn’t Christmas shopping for someone else. Darn it. It’s red. It’s Folky. And it has embroidered shoes in it. What’s a girl to do?
You can buy individual issues of PieceWork Magazine right now, too, for a good price. I’ve had my eye on a particular copy from May-June, 2001, which features a beautiful padded Mountmellick embroidered frame in it. I lost (or lent!) my copy of this issue, so it’s nice to be able to replace it.
And the PieceWork digital collections are on sale now, too. I like some of the older collections of the magazine that have a strong focus on hand embroidery. The 1998 digital collection of PieceWork, for example, is particularly good.
Stitching Inspiration…
This just showed up in my feedreader…
If you haven’t been following along with Tracy Franklin’s Crathorne Bug project, you should check it out! She’s working on some really nice block shading right now!
Over to you…
And that is that for this weekend. I hope you have a nice, quiet weekend. I’ll be stitching on a little project today, which I’ll share with you down the road!
If you’ve been blogging about a particular needlework project and you’d like to share it with us, feel free to tell us what you’ve been up to and to leave a link in the comments below. Or, if you’ve stumbled across something embroidery-related online lately that you think is worth sharing, feel free to tell us about it and share the link in the comments below.
