favourite needlework items

Valentino in Brisbane

I’ve just found out that there’s currently a Valentino exhibition on in Brisbane! A few years ago when we were in Paris, there was a fabulous exhibition of Valentino gowns at the Musée des Arts Decoratifs. It was wonderful.

I found a selection of photos from the Brisbane exhibition on the ABC news website. I recognise [...]

my favourite stitches

Because I have set you the challenge of thinking about your favourite stitches, I have been considering what mine are. Its not so terribly easy, is it?!

So the easiest thing for me to do was to look through my left and right-handed stitch dictionaries. So here’s my list:

up and down buttonhole stitch (p28) – there’s [...]

Book review: Embroidery in Britain from 1200-1750

“Embroidery in Britain from 1200-1750″ is a book that I keep coming back to. I love soaking up the visual delights found in it.

This book is a visual survey of some of the delights of the V&A’s textile collection. It includes a couple of essays, then a listing of the plates with sizes and descriptions, [...]

Book review: How to bead

I would like to share a book with you that I keep coming back to, time after time. “How to Bead: French Embroidery Beading” by Maisie Jarratt.

Before writing this, I headed over to Amazon to see if they had any reviews. Yes, they do, and some of the reviewers did NOT like this book. I [...]

surprise purchases

I went along to my local craft, knitting, quilting and needlework shop yesterday. I am very fortunate because I can walk only 15 minutes from my home and be there. I realise that this will make many of you jealous!

I was wanting to look at fabrics to use for my samplers.

I knew that some time [...]

Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital

Yesterday my husband and I went to visit the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. (The girls were at school and my husband was happily granted permission to play hookey for a number of hours!)

What a special place that is! I had wanted to visit for a very long time, having read both the books about it [...]

Wishing on a star...

Still thinking about needlework books (actually, come to think of it, when do I ever stop?!).

Since my post the other day about favourite needlework books, I’ve got some of you thinking about the embroidery books you can’t do without. What about the books that you have to do without because they haven’t been written [...]

Favourite needlework books

Over the last few days I have reviewed some of the books on my bookshelf. These were some that I used during the writing of my stitch dictionary The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion: a step-by-step stitch dictionary. There were of course, others, and we may get to them in the future.

Coming to spend three months here [...]

New clip-on embroidery light

Another new product today: The Mighty Bright booklight. But we don’t use it as only a booklight – it makes a fabulous portable light for doing embroidery by!

I’ve used one of these, and found it to be absolutely wonderful. At the Beating Around the Bush mini market day, these little lights just walked out the [...]