Embroidery Stitches
February 22, 2008 by Melinda
An excellent desk reference to own is a book called “Embroidery Stitches” by Mary Webb published by Firefly Books. It is a collection of more than 400 stitches for use in embroidery, needlework and needlepoint. This book was recommended to me as a resource, one which many of you are already familiar with, I am sure, but some may not be. My first stitches to practice from this book will be the hem stitches, particularly the Ladder Hem Stitch, Serpentine Hem Stitch and Italian Hem Stitch. (Thanks for the reference referral Marge!)
A project I have taken on this year for my local EGA Chapter is to design a project for an upcoming regional seminar called “Hands to Stitch”. I will be designing a needleroll for the participants of the seminar and hope to devise an interesting and thoughtful project for them to work on. There are many beautiful examples of needlerolls wrought by others in the needlework community. My goal for this project will be to explore new and interesting ideas that have not already been done.
There are so many possibilities for a project like this. Contemporary or traditional? Include a line or two of poetry or a verse? Have a central motif or make it along the idea of a band sampler? Color scheme? Charms, beads or buttons? How many specialty stitches to include for ease of skill level or proficiency? For such a small project there certainly are alot of items to consider!
Because there are so many possibilities, I’d love your thoughts and opinions for a direction to travel in with this project. This will be my first needleroll design and I don’t want to duplicate another’s design or intent, but what examples of others are your favorites and why? What would you most like to see for a needleroll design? Your thoughtful input is greatly appreciated.
