This morning, let’s have a quick little chat about some needlework-related news bits – some information, some inspiration, and a little instruction, too!

It’s not a big list this time, just enough to get you through a few swigs of your morning brew.

Let’s start with the good news!

The Glasgow Bedspread Crewel Embroidery Kit

Way back in March, I ran a give-away for a Crewel Work Company embroidery kit. I posed a question about what kind of historical crewel kit you’d like to see come out next from Crewel Work Company, and the overwhelming response was a kit for the Glasgow Bedspread.

Now, the Glasgow Bedspread is an epic piece of crewel embroidery – and undertaking a project like this is epic, too, but The Crewel Work Company has indeed produced the kit!

There are several different options available for this kit, from a full kit with all the threads, a half kit with one color of each wool thread needed to complete it, linen and instructions only, and linen only. The piece is pretty huge – 75″ x 55″ – and the design is hand drawn on the linen twill for you.

Right now, there are only three full kit options left at the introductory price. After these three full kits are spoken for, the price on this particular piece with all the wool threads needed to complete it will jump up quite a bit, due to an increase in supply costs.

If you’re game to undertake something this epic and you want to read more about the project, it’s all right here on The Crewel Work Company website. If you want to create this heirloom piece, now’s a good time to sign up for the full kit, before the price increases by about £140.

Farewell to a Great Resource

And now some bad news. Sniffle.

And I can’t even link to the place to tell you it’s gone! Or tell you to go take advantage of it before it goes!

I have several favorite online resources for old embroidery books and patterns. By far, the best one out there now is Antique Pattern Library.

But once upon a time, in the not-too-distant past, University of Arizona had a whole database of documents relating to weaving and other textiles, and it included some real gems in the embroidery sphere.

It is, alas, no more.

On the bright side, you can find many of the U of A PDFs available through Antique Pattern Library. So you might take advantage of that and really browse the catalog at APL to find your favorites and download them.

Funny thing about the internet – you just never know how long the wonderful things we become accustomed to will be available (let alone, for free!).

Some Good Beady Instruction!

Ok, enough bad news!

If you’re keen on embellishing your embroidery projects with beads, you might enjoy reading this very informative article on beads put out by Nordic Needle.

The article explains about all different types of beads, their differences, their sizing, how they’re used – it’s really good reading, especially if you’re new to the bead scene or you’ve just wondered about sizing, shapes, uses, and so forth.

And some Utterly Amazing Inspiration

I saved the inspiration for last, so you can face today with a warm, fuzzy, happy feeling!

The embroidery work of Chloe Giordano is delicate, tiny, beautiful, realistic, adorable, detailed, perfect – there are so many adjectives you could use to describe her work!

Here’s a lovely video featuring Chloe and her embroidery story. It’s thoroughly enjoyable and well worth watching!

Just click on the photo above to go directly to the video on Vimeo.

You can visit Chloe Giordano’s website, too, to see more of her work. She also has a sort-of blog on Tumblr, where you can follow her process and see more of her work in progress.

Go Forth…

…and stitch! I hope it’s a good weekend for you to spend some quality time with your needle and thread!

Here in Kansas, Autumn is finally thinking about making an appearance. We woke up this morning to some gorgeous outdoor weather! Now, if only the flies and mosquitos would take the hint and go away…

This weekend, I’ll be working on a couple little projects to share with you. But first I have to go get some bookshelves for the big September Overhaul of my workroom. Eventually, I’ll share the whole Workroom Kerfuffle with you, too. And what a Kerfuffle it’s been. Golly!

Enjoy your weekend!