I embroidered this little hand onto silk organza. I used a vintage palm reading chart for the pattern and got the idea of using lines to mimic finger prints from these cross contour drawings. The stitching went smoothly – there are a few hoop marks, but […]
Hand embroidery basics
In this blog post: The basics: Put fabric in a hoop Split strands of embroidery floss Thread a needle End your thread Additional tips and tricks: Tie a knot – the fancy way Begin your thread without a knot of the back Weigh down your […]
Slowly but Surely
I started embroidering this ‘Dia de Los Muertos’ painting by Mab Graves last year. It’s a Christmas gift for a (very patient) friend who loves Mab’s work and Blythe dolls. Check out Mab’s Website / Etsy shop / Pinterest to see more of her delightful illustrations. I picked […]
A wallet fit for a queen (stitch)
This is my second entry for the &Stitches: Old Stitches, New Tricks competition. For this project I wanted to use an antiquated stitch with a contemporary pattern. I settled on queen stitch, which I’m using to create a wee wallet for my credit cards. […]
Wonder Woman
Here’s my first entry for the &Stitches: Old Stitches, New Tricks competition – wish me luck! I had a lot of fun learning and improvising new stitches for this project! I wound yellow thread through black backstitching to mimic rope for the Lasso of Truth and combined […]
FREE PATTERN: Hmong Hat, Textile Museum of Canada
Source: Hmong hat, 1930-1970. Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto. Hmong embroideries and textiles are called pa ndau or ‘flower cloth’ because of the bright, contrasting colours. This hat is looking a bit faded – it must have been well loved! To see some more of these fabulous hats check […]
FREE PATTERN: Tudor Rose, 1749, V&A
Source: Embroidered sampler, 1749. Victoria and Albert Museum, London This tudor rose motif is from a British sampler dated 1749. Check it out on the V&A’s site for more info. I learned quite a bit about samplers while interning at the Harris Museum & Art Gallery in Preston, UK. […]
Learning from Ecclesiastical Needleworkers
Needleworkers of the Anglican Diocese of Toronto gather on Mondays to work on hand-made embroidery for churches across Canada. I was lucky enough to spend a few Mondays with them and learned a lot about traditional techniques – like how to transfer a pattern without using […]
Vogue Charity Fashion Show 2007
Vogue Charity Fashion Show is an annual fundraiser at Queen’s University which raised $23,000 for Kingston General Hospital in 2007. As a second year student at Queen’s University, I teamed up with a friend to design and construct what turned out to be the winning collection. […]
cross stitch scrabble
Here’s a little card I made for a scrabble lover. It’s worked in cross stitch with one strand of DMC embroidery thread.
‘calm like a bomb’ motto sampler
This is a motto sampler I’m working on for my friend Katherine. She’s a graphic designer so I wanted to have fun with the typography. I stole the lettering from a motivational poster I saw on pinterest. I liked the colours and how they changed when […]
hand stitching with machine embroidery thread
I wanted to embroidery this little octopus as soon as I spotted him on a poster for the ‘Carefully Planned Festival.’ After stitching him, I was delighted to find out that the illustrator – Amy Tidmarsh – studied embroidery at Manchester Metropolitan University! I used machine […]
Shannon Quigley 