BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Embroidery Hand Embroidery

I really like the whole A-Z Series (when I win the lottery...) There is a link to the first one (Embroidery Stitches) at the Embroidery Store @ Bellaonline. Of course, if you want something inexpensive, the Coats & Clark "100 Stiches Embroidery" is readily available and runs about $3. It makes a great carrying around reference.

Julie

Hi Msbaby

Sorry for the delay in replying - real life keeps getting in the way.

The Jacobean piece was designed by Australian designer Gary Clarke - he usually does Candlewicking designs, but turned his hand to something a little unusual. It was a series of special one-off designs for a workshop he did in Brisbane a few years ago.

However, these sort of designs are quite common and this is fairly typical of crewelwork designs of the period. If you can lay your hands on the Anchor Book of Crewel Embroidery you will find some similar designs.

Another nice piece from you, Voiceovergal! Julie - thank you for the link! The A-Z series is terrific - and I'm proud to think it's an Aussie series. If you visit the Country Bumpkin website you will find them all there available for sale and they are very happy to ship to the USA.

The other series of books that's great for stitch instructions is the Anchor series. They have a whole lot of little books on different types of embroidery with clear instructions and some patterns/designs for you to practice on.

RandiS - nice to see somebody who's been stitching longer than I have on the boards! I sometimes wonder what happened to all of us who learned at an early age - and my grandmother taught me too - and after over 30 years, I still can't match her mastery. I intend to post some pictures of her pieces (and my mother's too) as you literally cannot tell front from back on them unless you look really closely - that's my eventual aim - to be that good!

Your rug sounds lovely- and I look forward to seeing a picture when it's finished. I was recently involved in a community project to make a rug, and it's turned out very spectacularly indeed. Our next project is planned for a set of wall hangings in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry - it will be about 25 - 30 meters long when finished!

Hand embroidery has ceased to be a dying art - fortunately! And more and more people are discovering that theere is more to it than cross stitch. I love that the old traced linen sets are re-appearing in such numbers (I confess to being a doiley addict!). One of these days I will get out my supper cloth I have to embrodier (I've never even opened it since I got it for christmas 15 years ago - it was my last christmas gift from grandma who died less than a month later).

My friends all temm me they prefer to see me embrodiering rather than fiddling. The best way I think of embroidery was actually said by the character Polgara in the David Eddings Belgariad/Malloran series: "it keeps the hands busy and allows the mind freedom"

... and here I am with a massively long post...... and an article idea.....

I do alot of hand embroidery for my crazy quilts. I am self-taught and got great info from Sharon Boggon's stitch dictionary http://inaminuteago.com/stitchindex.html

She will be giving classes in the U.S. in 2007 I think, maybe it is 2008. There is a link to her blog on the web site and info there.

Stumpwork is what I am currently teaching myself from Jane Nicholas' books. I have also taught myself basic Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery and Blackwork. I used to do counted cross stitch but the ol' eyes just can't see them little holes in the fabric anymore. I also do alot of redwork.

So, yes, there are still alot of us hand embroiderer's around. I even try to find antique patterns to either buy or download. <img src="/images/graemlins/tut.gif" alt="" />

Hi, all,

Hand embroidery is how I earned a good part of my living back in New York City. I went back to school at 50 to get a degree in Textile Design in a one-year intensive program at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Unfortunately, the year of that one year was 2001-2002, so 10 days into the school year, 9/11 happened just 30 blocks away. You can guess what happened to the market for our skills.

So when we came out of school in May, nobody was hiring full time. It was freelance or sink. That's when I found out that all those hand skills I had picked up growing up and kept practicing, hand embroidery in particular, coupled with my newly acquired textile design skills, were what made me of interest to companies. Those skills were rare.

So a good part of my income came from doing what are called "first samples". Say they wanted embroidery around the front edge of a jacket, they tell me what colors and what style of embroidery they have in mind and I go off and come back with several possibilities. They choose one or more and send it off to China to be ducplicated, perhaps adapted by machine, in thousands of copies.

You can see some of my work in the embroidery gallery of my website at www.donnajcarty.co.uk.

Now that I live in a part of the UK that is not much involved with the fashion trade, I'm trying to establish myself as someone to do embroidery on reproduction items for historic sites, or for living history costumes.

DJC in Norwich, UK

Hi CQGirl & Donna, and welcome!

Wow - what a job! Doing first samples - it must be a source of pride when one of the designs gets selected and you see a reproduction of your embroidery everywhere.

Doing antique and historical embrodiery is one of my "things" - I get as much fun out of researching it as I do stitching it! It's always important to use the right materials. Floss was very different to what we call floss today. I have some early 20th century silk floss, and it really is like floss! The best modern reproduction is if you use flat spun silk. I know Eterna puts it out. There are also silk floss companies in the UK (can't offhand remember their name, but they've been in business since the 18th century). Donna, you may also want to look at doing one of the Royal School of Needlework courses - I believe tha they actually have one on conserving historical embroidery. But there are a lot of costume museums around the UK where you could hoick your self out to!

Good Luck

CQGirl - you'd be surprised how many embroiderers are self-taught. My grandma taught me, but most of the forms I stitch now are self taught (blackwork, crewel, bayeux work, etc).

I enjoy cross stitch now more than I did when I first started doing it - espeically since it's come such a long way in the last 20 or so years, using many different stitches in it and charms and beads as well. I still hate Aida cloth with a vengance though!!!

Stumpwork is so much fun - and blackwork is another favorite of mine. My alltime favorite, though is thread painting, followed closely by crewel work.

There has been big discussions in Australia amongst embroiderers lately as to whether hand embroidery is a dying art - my view is no - it's not. You'd be surprised at how many previously "cross stitch only" people are moving onto the world of freestyle hand embroidery.

There was a time in the late 80's and through to the mid 90's when it looked like it was dying, but with the resurgence of the traced linen projects that are being released, obviously the market is there. (hooray, says I - I love doing traced linen projects. I can add them to my collection of finished doily, dressing table and supper cloth sets that I inherited from my grandma).

Hello, everyone. I am used to make hand embroidery. It is so interesting, I embroidered my pillowcase and some small handbags. All the things are very lovely, and still in use. Unfortunately I am too busy to do it now, but I really enjoy making it.

Megan,

Thanks a lot for the information. I had checked about studying with the Royal School of Needlework and found out that they wanted their students for the main course younger than me (I'm 55.). But if they have a special course on conserving historical embroidery, maybe they'd accept an old broken down embroiderer (yeah, right) for that. I'll check into it.

I have found some volunteer opportunities, but first I have make sure I'm providing my share of the family income. In time, in time.

DJC

Hi Hellen and welcome to the board! I know what it's like to be too busy for embroidery - I didn;t pick up a needle and thread for almost 6 months at one point. Fortunately, that has now gone and I'm happily back stitching.

I find it best to stitch whilst I watch a good tv show, or movie.

i too like hand embroidery, i think it looks better then machine and will be worth more in years to come then machine.i would like to get software for such a textile but nobody wants to build it. it could be used for more then just hand there is crewel,needlepainting,punch, liquid painting, coloring and this only a few that come to mined.