Category Archives: tutorials

What’s Next?

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Thanks to the many thread-a-holics out there my stock of hand-dyed threads for sale is totally depleted. (Except for the ones I’m hoarding for myself!) I’ve received many kind notes from stitchers who have used the threads in their artwork. And I want to thank you all for all your well wishes and support over the years.

So what’s next now that I’m no longer dyeing thread for the masses? I’ll tell you what!
My intention is to make even more artwork, exhibit my art, and explore new art forms.

And I’d like to encourage you to make more art too! That’s why my online Tutorials are still available for you to try. And why I will continue to create classes for Creative Spark Online Learning.

Again, thank you so much for supporting this working artist over the years!

Creative Stitch Combinations Class

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My new online class, Creative Stitch Combinations, is all about combining basic hand embroidery stitches to create dynamic textures, patterns, and shapes with thread for your free-form embroidery projects. I hope you can join me!

I’ll show you my favorite ways to combine stitches using 15 embroidery stitches to create exciting and enjoyable art. Colorful examples and helpful tips are given in each of the three lessons. And there is a bonus project too!

A bonus PDF for this project, Lovely as a Tree, includes step-by-step directions and colorful illustrations on how to make this small landscape full of texture, pattern, and shapes. It’s the perfect project to put all you’ve learned into practice.

Read more about the class here on the C&T Blog. Or visit my introduction to the class on Creative Spark to learn more.

What We’re Stitching 4

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Now that their felt fabric pieces for the design are in place my students in the Mi Casa es Su Casa class at the Asociación Española de Patchwork Festival will begin to add decorative details with thread. I know it is sometimes difficult to make color decisions when adding hand embroidery. But remember, you can always remove the thread if you don’t like it!

One tip is to repeat colors throughout the piece. Here you see blue French knots added to the V shapes of the fly stitches around the roof top. The blue house and blue threads in the grass repeat that color. And I’ll be sure to add more blue to the design elsewhere as it progresses.