Happy Monday!
For your browsing pleasure, here’s a round-up of interesting embroidery-related bits I’ve come across online lately. Some are information, some are inspirational – I hope you find them a fun way to start the week!
Pour yourself a cup of your favorite morning beverage – it’s tea for me this morning – and join me in a brief browse through some recent favorites.
Let’s start off with something really enticing! Well – I think it sounds fun, anyway!
Win the Houston Quilt Festival!
Stella Lighting is having a Sweepstakes! It’s called Stella’s Fly Away $2500 Sweepstakes, and the prize is a trip for two to Houston’s Quilt and Creative Festival in November of this year. The prize includes $1000 airline voucher, four nights in a hotel close to the convention center, a $250 visa gift card to use while exploring Houston, and two of the new Stella task lamps.
I’ve always wanted to go to the Houston Quilt Festival. Wouldn’t this be a great way to do it?
Anyway, no affiliation here – it just looks like it would be a good contest to enter. (It’s open to US residents only, according to the Official Rules.)
A Bit of Wooly Inspiration
Laura Wasilowski, over on her blog Artfabrik is running a neat little series about stitching on boiled wool pieces cut from repurposed boiled wool jackets. I’m going to enjoy reading this series as it unfolds! It starts with this article.
Once upon a time, I had a few boiled wool jackets that I just loved. They eventually went the various ways of out-of-style, out-of-fit, worn-ragged, and developed-a-huge-hole-in-an-awkward-spot-for-no-apparent-reason. But you know what? I still saved ’em! And now I know why!
Make Your Own Snap Frame / Stand – All in One
Kathy Shaw, over on Shawkl Designs, has a wonderful DIY tutorial for making a PVC snap frame for embroidery. It’s built in two levels, so that one level serves as a lap stand or table stand. It’s quite clever! And it looks pretty easy. So if you’re even remotely a Do-It-Yourselfer, you could have a pretty nice table stand with a just a quick trip to the hardware store!
A Schwalm Filling
Luzine Happel’s been adding some nice articles to her blog on Schwalm Whitework. I like this latest filling tutorial! If you like whitework and you’re looking for ideas for creating drawn thread or pulled thread filled areas in your embroidery, you should check out all the tutorials on Luzine’s blog – she has quite a few!
Goldwork & Silk & a Historical Pattern
Here’s a bit of inspiration for you!
You might remember this article I wrote quite a while ago, about The Lady’s Magazine and their stitch-off using old patterns.
Well, here’s an article by Mary Martin, who used one of the patterns and developed it into a lovely goldwork and silk embroidery piece. She takes us step-by-step through the process. Definitely worth reading! And the end product is gorgeous! Don’t forget to click on the photos in the article, so that you can see them nice and large.
Fun Information about Textiles, Samplers, Needlework
Nicola over on Stitching by a Cornish Sea has really been upping her blogging lately, providing heaps of interesting and fun information about all kinds of aspects of textiles, stitching, and historical stuff related to textiles and stitching. For example, this article on the color purple. Or this article on workboxes. Lots of good reading going on there! For some reason, the blog format is a bit wonky right now (at least in my browsers), but you can still read the articles easily enough.
But What Does it Mean?
The EAC (Embroiderers’ Association of Canada) has a cute little article on their blog, featuring a list of commonly used acronyms in the needlework field. Admittedly, I’ve never used “STASH” as an acronym, but I think “TOAD” is a pretty good one! Anyway, it’s a nice little list to know, if you’re just immersing yourself in the online quilting or needlework world and wondering what it all means!
Scenic Paper!
I know this isn’t particularly stitching related, but it’s definitely inspirational, and I could see some stitching ideas flowing from the concepts! On All Things Paper, just this morning, Ann posted an article highlighting the paper cutting artistry of Sarah King. Love it!
Well, that’s this morning’s browse, my friends! The list could go on and on, but my tea cup is empty, and the day begs to begin.
I’ve got some good stuff coming up for you later this week, so we’ll meet again a couple days hence, ok?
Wishing you a sunny and productive week with your needle and thread!
Definitely one of your best posts! Full of interest, thank-you.
I am lucky enough to live in Houston so I have hardly missed the Quilt Festival (maybe once or twice) over the last dozen years. It’s so much fun! And can be overwhelming. Since I live here and don’t actually quilt, I have always visited it on a single day. In 2016 I’m thinking about buying a multi-day pass.
The George R. Brown Convention Center is enormous. My sister and I rent electric carts to get around. She has Parkinson’s and I have bad knees!
Usually I see vendors selling supplies for a variety of needlework projects, not only quilting. At the 2015 show, not so much. Or maybe I just zipped through too fast. Anyway, that’s another reason to take more than one day in 2016.
Dear Mary
I hope you had a lovely Birthday. The News Snips are interesting I like the Goldwork and Silk historical pattern and the Schwalm filling. I also really like the scenic paper so interesting. Thanks for the information on the snips bits and the different crafts that are around and I can’t wait for the good stuff later this week.
Regards Anita Simmance
Hi Mary –
Thank you for this morning’s snips. Here in central California, it’s an overcast grey day, and it was lovely to sit with my hot coffee and visit all these wonderful, creative, and colorful sites!
Katrina
“Trashed Object Abandoned in Disgust!”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Thanks for the great set of links and fun browsing opportunities. you didn’t mention any birthday festivities….so i hope they were either really awesome and you are still recovering! or that they are planned for another day(when you will be home?) at any rate, Happy Birthday again. I am a sucker for birthdays and believe that we are never too old for a party hat!
Mary,
Thank you for these references. I have just received my materials for an EGA Group Correspondence Course in Schwalm work, so I’m happy to have found Luzine’s blog. I’m sure you have referenced it before, but I must have missed it. Very informative!
What interesting tidbits to read while I sit around trying to recover from an awful flu. Gives me a new sympathy for all who are much sicker than me.
One thing I didn’t find out was how the term FROG came about. I see it in all kinds of handwork/sewing contexts and it obviously means to rip something out. Can anyone here tell me why?
Because you “rip it” (incorrect section) apart. Rip it sounds kinda like ribbit, hence FROG.
At least that’s the explanation I’ve heard.
Because you “rip-it. rip-it, rip-it!”
I’m always happy when you do one of these posts Mary – I know there’s going to be several things of interest and this one was no different. Thank you for doing these!
My mother, sister, and I go to the Houston Quilt Festival each year. We have been doing this “girl trip” for 12 years now. We have the best time together!!!! I certainly cherish the time with my family and the festival is a great place to go. I can heartily testify that it is a great trip!!!! Enjoyed all your other tidbits too Mary.
I had no idea “ort” was an acronym and not an actual word!
And my Stash is lying about for anyone to see and covet or lament.
They forgot SABLE, Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy. (Although it showed up in the comments.)
Hi, Barbara – actually, “ort” is a real word. It just isn’t used much anymore, except in needlework circles. It used to be primarily used as a scrap of food or leftover.
Mary, this relieves my mind. “Ort” is such a wonderfully arcane term.
Thank you so much for this post. I was in a creative “slump”, but you jolted me out of it!
LOL! Now when I’m ripping something out, I can mutter to myself in a good froggy voice – ribbit, ribbit. My husband claims that no project is truly started until I’ve ripped it out at least three times, which is way too true for my knitting.
Thanks so much for sharing the link to Sarah King’s papercuts, Mary! I’m glad you found her gorgeous work inspiring.