Blog / embroidery

The holidays are upon us! In case you're looking for gift ideas for your crafty, embroidery-loving friends and loved ones, I've pulled together a round-up of a few of my favorite embroidery supplies to inspire you:

 

1. Not only are Tulip embroidery needles lovely to sew with, they come beautifully packaged in a glass vial that can be used for storage later on. 
2. Wooden bobbins are a pretty way to organize a growing stash of embroidery floss. 
3. I design a handful of embroidery patterns, which have the designs printed directly onto the fabric. They're perfect for creating a custom kit to gift to a friend, or you can stitch one up yourself and gift the finished piece. 
4. A needle minder keeps needles right where you can see them.
5. Purl Soho always does such a nice job of stocking beautiful, high-quality, curated craft supplies, and their bundles of embroidery floss are no exception.
6. A monthly subscription to Sarah K. Benning's Pattern Program would make such a thoughtful, ongoing gift. Her unique and original PDF patterns include crystals, plants, and landscapes. 
7. These black silhouette scissors are perfect for snipping threads. 
8. A sew-your-own needle book kit by Sotak Handmade is both a fun sewing project and a great way to store needles and pins.
9. I love using a zipper pouch to store all of my embroidery supplies and pack them for flights. I think this beautiful leather pouch made in Oregon would be especially nice for that purpose. 

P.S. I put together a gift guide for quilters last year, in case you're looking for even more ideas!

We moved into our current house this past May, and I feel like I'm finally settled into my studio enough to share some pictures with you! So I did a bit of straightening up (trust me, it's not always this organized!) and took some photos around the room, if you'd like to see.


The house that we're renting was built in 1898, and my sunny sewing space is on the second floor. It's the largest work...

This mini quilt started out as a simple embroidered heart, which I stitched for a class that I taught a few years ago. While I often frame my finished embroidered pieces in either hoops or on stretcher bars, I wanted to take a different approach for this piece.


I pulled a number of solid pink and red fabric strips to coordinate with the monochromatic satin stitching I'd done to fill the heart....

When I worked at Spoonflower, I had the chance to teach a number of classes in the company's public meeting space, The Greenhouse. Hand embroidery is one of my favorite things to teach---it's portable and so addicting---and with the ability to print patterns directly onto the fabric of your choice through Spoonflower, it was the perfect opportunity for me to design a few simple patterns for my...