I recently picked up an adorable cross stitch kit.  I normally prefer to buy patterns and then pick embroidery floss up separately, but I just couldn’t find a pattern I liked.
The benefit of buying a kit, is that if you only need a foot of a particular color, you don’t need to buy a whole hank of floss.
Of course, the downside is trying to separate 25 different colors of embroidery floss that have been knotted together…
I like to organize my floss in bright, natural light.  I find I get the best color separation in natural light – there is just …read more

I realized that it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything for my hand-stitching friends   Did you know that DMC Thread offers some fantastic free patterns?

I’ve got a soft spot for butterfly patterns – and this one is made using cotton floss.

This design is stitched using their spectacular “light effects” floss.
To view all of the free designs, click here  & have fun!

Yesterday I posted about the fantastic series Noreen has been running at Hankering for Yarn about making your own journals.
I’ve made many covered journals & notebooks over the years and wanted to share two of my in-progress books:

This is a piece of silk paper, machine embroidered using metallic thread.  I then hand-embroidered the center of the
flower & hand-stitched the seed beads on.

More silk paper, but this time I hand-embroidered the design using varigated embroidery floss.  I hand-stitched the beads on using the same floss.
Smaller projects like these can be a great way of learning new techniques or experimenting with something …read more

This tutorial has moved – you can find the whole how-to part one and part two here

image: © C Findlay-Harder

This tutorial has moved – you can find the whole how-to part one and part two here

image: © C Findlay-Harder

I’ve recently started working with felt squares & fabric.  I love the no-fray & easy-to-handle nature of it – of course, the fact that it also comes in pink polka-dots & sparkles is a bonus too!
This is a series of cards I’ve been working on, using felt, embroidery floss & buttons:

I wanted to play with a quilted look so I used long running stitches to embroidery two of the cards.  I liked the look of the pinked edges (even though felt doesn’t fray – pinking is still a great decorative elements)  For the middle card I decided to get a …read more