Exploring the needlework internet this week

On my travels round the needlework internet this week (no, there isn’t an internet specifically devoted to needlework, though wouldn’t that be nice?!) these are some of the noteworthy things I’ve seen:

In preparation for the coming Easter season, I’ve been inspired by some embroidered Easter eggs.

• First, we have Luzine Happel’s gorgeous Schwalm embroidered eggs.
• Then there are Mary Corbet’s actually embroidered eggs – no fabric, the embroidery is worked into the egg itself. The mind boggles about the care and patience required for this!
• An old favourite, with some smocked easter eggs, which I found on Facebook. When I went to the linked website – Pinwheel Ponders – the actual photo of the smocked eggs wasn’t apparent, but there was an excellent tutorial on smocked balls, which is the same method as could be used for the eggs.
• And finally, some more rather amazing examples of embroidery stitched directly onto eggs.

For some people, Easter is all about bunnies, chocolate and eggs. For me, Easter is about the death of Jesus, and his raising to life again. Eggs at easter represent new life, and for me that means the new life I have in Christ Jesus.

Back to embroidery, we have a fun article about old lady hobbies that people should take up in their twenties. And number one on the list is… Embroidery! 🙂

I read about a French company who sells silk threads dyed with plant-based dyes. For people doing re-enactment clothing who would prefer their silk dyed with vegetable dyes, this could be an excellent resource.

I found a stitched version of my Claire Hardanger doily on Sophia Weng’s blog. She’s done a lovely job, and made some adaptations to the original design that work very nicely. The pattern for Claire can be found in Elegant Hardanger Embroidery.

And finally, on my Big List of Online Textile Collections, I’m up to 55 museums. Take another look if you haven’t lately. There’s some great stuff there! I do have a lack of South America museums, and there is a lot of embroidery in South America, so that’s the next area to address.