Category Archives: Tiny Homes Online Class

Needle Know How and a Give-away

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You’ll find a lot of hand embroidery information in my new online class, Fused Art Quilts: Tiny Homes. In this class, you’ll learn how to create improvisational fused art quilts and how to embellish them as well. I show you how to make various embroidery stitches and discuss thread weights and needle sizes too.

Why talk about needle sizes? It’s important to match your thread with the correct size of hand embroidery needle. Needles that are too small for the thread are difficult to thread and difficult to pull through the fabric. If a needle is too large for the thread, the smaller thread will not be able to fill in the giant hole the needle makes. Here’s a simple chart to help you match your hand embroidery needle to the correct size of pearl cotton thread.

So match your needle with your thread and happily stitch away. Here’s a simple chart to help you match your hand embroidery needle to the correct size of pearl cotton thread.

Win a Set of Hand Embroidery Needles!

Would you like to win a packet of hand embroidery needles like I use in Fused Art Quilts: Tiny Homes?

Then please leave a comment below and you may be the lucky winner!

Improvisational Design and a Winner!

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I’m not one to plan ahead. Which best explains how I create artwork. Planning or visualizing a completed piece of artwork and then making it just isn’t in my nature. I am an improviser.

How do you create improvisational art? Well, if your join my new online class, Fused Art Quilts: Tiny Homes, I’ll show you my methods from free cutting, to collage building, to auditioning backgrounds.

Improvising is a playful approach to art making and really fun and relaxing. It’s also the best way to make original artwork. Click here to join me!

And the Winner Is!

And speaking of fun things to do, check out my friend, Christen Brown’s new book, Hand Embroidery Dictionary.

She has graciously give an ebook version of the book to a lucky winner who recently visited this blog.

The winner of the ebook is…. Ellen L. Congratulations Ellen!

An Embroidery Give-Away

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One of the embroidery techniques used in my new online class, Fused Art Quilts: Tiny Homes, is repetition of a stitch. Like the cross-stitches, straight stitches, and blanket stitches in the fields above, repeating a stitch builds pattern across the surface of fabric.

And I’m happy to report that Christen Brown, author of the Hand Embroidery Dictionary, agrees with me! Here’s a page from Christen’s new book. It shows how she uses my hand-dyed threads to make netted and laced stitches for patterning on fabric.


Her new book, Hand Embroidery Dictionary, shows diagrams on how to make over 500 embroidery stitches. Detailed illustrations show colorful variations and suggest how you might use the stitches in your artwork.

Win Christen’s New Book!

Would you like to win an eBook version of Christen Brown’s Hand Embroidery Dictionary?

Leave a comment below and you may be the lucky winner.

The giveaway for the free eBook, Hand Embroidery Dictionary, will close on Saturday, Sept. 26 at midnight. Winner of the eBook prize will be notified by email within one week of the giveaway closing.