I love to embroider. Pretty much for as long as I can remember (in off and on phases, of course), I've enjoyed spending time hand stitching. It bums me out that I can't remember how or when I first learned embroidery. It was either from my Mom who embroidered a little, (and needlepointed a lot), or during 7th grade home economics class where I also learned to use a sewing machine. I swear, that home economics (and the typing class) I took as electives in middle school have been two of the best, most used school learned knowledge! Not sure what that says.
Anyway...last night I finally finished up one of my own sampler pattern designs:
Why do I always forget how good finishing feels?!? Going to keep track this year and finish all (whoa there Pam, maybe I should say most?) of the many started projects I've got going.
Here are some close-ups of my first finish of 2014:
My sampler patterns don't currently come as a kit or include stitch instructions. I'm thinking about changing that, as it's been requested as an option. I'll have to see after finishing some other things first. I am going to figure out a way to offer a how to on a popular embroidery project from the past and I'm wanting to drop everything and get started on it. So the way with me, thus I must remind myself how good finishing feels and focus on that first! When it does happen,I think you might want to play along, if you enjoy stitching. It's a good one. See my recent instagrams for a big hint. Do you stitch? If you don't yet but what to, I always suggest a search on google for "embroidery stitch videos" there are tons of free, really good tutorials. Or, Rebecca Ringquist has an excellent beginning stitch class over at Creative Bug.
Also, even though I've been stitching for years, I still consult these reference books:
Carol sent this one and this one to me after I raved about hers. I love them both. I also keep this one in my embroidery in progress basket for easy consulting. It's spiral binding means it opens up and stays open so you can keep both hands on your stitching. And hey, check it out! I just found this when searching for the other links...Jenny has a new book coming out and I've got three stitching projects that I really love in it. Available for preorder now. That was a fun surprise, I can't wait to see it...I know I'll want to make some of the other contributors' projects already, having been privy to sneak peeks. Well, that should be enough to get you started if you want to, but here's one last reference just in case. Happy stitching!
