Now that you’ve had your fill of chocolate and Easter treats – now that you’re jelly-beaned out – it’s time for some embroidery treats!

I promise you, these embroidery goodies from around the web beat chocolate and jelly beans hands-down, any day of the week and ten times on Tuesdays!

Ready?

17th Century Embroidery – Alison Cole

First up, whether you’re into 17th century embroidery or not, this will delight you!

NGV Melbourne has recently produced a wonderful video of Alison Cole examining and explaining a 17th century embroidery piece. The video is short, but clear and instructive. Not only do you get to see elements of the embroidered panel up close, but, in a short space of time, you get very clear instructions on three unique 17th century embroidery techniques.

In the photo above, for example, see the mossy area in front of the castle?

In the video, Alison shows us how this type of squiggly moss was created on these pieces. Absolutely fascinating!

She also demonstrates how to create a uniform, velvet-like pile filling and detached elements (stumpwork) involving a needlelace filling and pearl purl.

The beautiful embroidered panel and all three techniques are definitely worth seeing. And don’t worry – even if recreating 17th century embroideries is not your thing, the techniques are perfectly transferrable to contemporary embroidery.

Here’s the video:

Isn’t it fantastic? I’ve watched in at least a dozen times. I’m planning on trying a couple of them out myself on a current piece I’m working on. Can’t wait!

New Thistle Threads Needlework Nibble

Speaking of 17th century embroidery, in case you don’t know it yet, Thistle Threads has a brand-new web shop up and running.

And on that website is a new Needlework Nibble – this Middlesex Tree Sampler, which makes up into a little needlebook and scissor case.

Tricia’s Needlework Nibbles are small projects for “tasting” a certain type of stitching technique – or, in this case, a finishing technique. As with the Nibbles available in the past, part of the proceeds go towards the support of various museums, textile collections, and the like. For this particular Nibble, a portion of the proceeds go towards the conservation of some new tree samplers acquired by the Lexington Historical Society.

This Nibble includes all the finishing materials (checked silk, ultra suede, ribbons, and doctors flannel) for the needle and scissors book. It doesn’t include printed instructions (the instructions for the Middlesex Tree Nibble can be download for free here) or threads and linens.

Tricia’s Needlework Nibbles are a terrific way to sample a finishing or stitching technique while helping a good cause!

A Little Spring Needle Painting?

Ahhhh – Spring! Here in the States, I know some of us are still waiting for it to arrive for real!

If you want to get some spring stitching in, and if you’re dying to try some needle painting, then head over to Trish Burr’s blog for this magnificent little needle painting freebie!

The Bluetit & Pansies design includes a materials list, the pattern, and instructions for embroidering this darling little bird in flight over a cluster of pansies.

It’s lovely – thanks, Trish!

Using Line Stitches for Fillings

Over on Craftsy, I’ve published a few articles lately. Check them out:

Filling in the Lines: Using Line Stitches for Embroidered Fillings discusses how a variety of line stitches can be used to fill large spaces in embroidery.

Another recent article: Let Your Imagination Fly with Hand Embroidered Feathers, which discusses different ways of embroidering – you guessed it! – feathers.

I have a few more articles soon to be published over there, too – one on working hand embroidered samplers with a variety of surface stitches among them. And in the not-so-distant future, I’ll be demonstrating embroidered handwriting and making embroidered bookmarks. I’ll let you know when those are out!

Coming Up on Needle ‘n Thread

Oh, I’ve got a couple Stitch Fun tutorials coming up! I love working up tutorials for obscure stitch variations and sharing them in the Stitch Fun! series. If you haven’t checked out the Stitch Fun Index lately, it’s growing and growing and growing. I’m juggling ideas on how to make that a visual index for you. But in the meantime, you’ll find links to over 70 stitch fun tutorials listed on the index.

Tomorrow, we’ll chat a bit about printing on fabric again. And later in the week, we’ll look at some project development.

Have a terrific Tuesday!