Do you want to learn new needlework tips and techniques?

Counted thread techniques - Surface embroidery techniques

Are you at your happiest with a needle and thread in your hands? Do you love to create beautiful hand embroidery? Would you like to expand on the needlework tips and techniques that you know and love and try something different, or are you a total beginner who needs basic instructions and guides to get you started?

Let me introduce you to the wonderful world of creative needlework. With so many different forms of embroidery to learn about and enjoy you may need to go grab a cup of coffee and sit a while while you peruse this site and stitch with me. This can be our own special little place on the world wide web.

Now it is just possible that we have actually met each other. As a teacher and designer I have traveled around England attending shows, workshops and shops, teaching blackwork, cross stitch, hardanger, needlepoint, and more for the last 12 years.

I certainly met lots of stitchers when I visited the Heart of Cross Stitch show in Cherry Hill, USA in 1999. But even if we have never seen each other I would like to think that we are like-minded friends.

With so many different needlework techniques to share, you may like to bookmark this site and pop back and visit often. Read an article, download the chart, go sit somewhere comfortable to stitch, then come back and tell me how you got on. If you get stuck feel free to ask questions, after all its the best way to learn.

You may like to join the happy group of stitchers that receive my monthly newsletter, Stitchin'Time. Together we have been, and will be, creating some exclusive needlework projects issue by issue and every now and then you will receive unique designs that are only available to subscribers. The best bit? Its FREE (although some subscribers have told me they would gladly pay for the mystery element of not knowing what the next band in the sampler will be).

Counted thread techniques

Working to the counted thread from a printed chart is common across a number of needlework methods. From dainty pulled work to chunky needlepoint even a beginner can produce a work of art.

Blackwork

Blackwork is my favourite needlework technique of all! I adore the crispness of traditional black on white stitching or the fun of creating modern pictures in colour. Using double running stitch we will create intricate looking patterns, stunning motifs, borders or bands, ladies from times past, all types of flora and fauna and much more.

Cross Stitch

Simple enough for children but satisfying for everyone, you can relax and let the worries and cares of everyday life float away while you work your cross stitch. Its amazing how these little crosses bring animals to life. Watch as flowers grow on your fabric. Or even let your imagination go wild as you create fantasy scenes of dragons and wizards.

Hardanger

Stitched with white on white, hardanger embroidery designs remind me of freshly fallen snow. Clean, crisp and beautiful hardanger with its solid blocks contrasting with lacy open work and untouched areas of fabric is a joy to behold.

Other whitework needlework techniques

In some types of embroidery the stitches are not meant to be seen. Take pulled thread work for example, the stitches pull the fabric threads together into patterns that create the look of lace.

In drawn thread you remove some of the fabric threads and fill the gaps with striking stitchery.

Cutwork embroidery is one of the earliest forms of whitework.

Or how about needlelace (also known as needlepoint lace) where you actually create the fabric itself. The Italians called this exciting technique "stitches in the air" which describes it perfectly.

Needlepoint

Moving on to more practical forms of needlework, needlepoint (or canvas work) can be used to furnish and decorate our homes. Sumptuous cushions, colourful rugs and even belts and bags are not only beautiful but hardwearing. The tactile nature of the many stitches that can be used appeal to more than just our eyes.

Surface embroidery techniques

Not all needlework is worked to the counted thread. Free-style or surface embroidery can also take many forms. I will be covering many of them in the pages of this site but to start with why not try:

Redwork embroidery

Redwork is a simple form of needlework where just the outlines of a design are stitched, using just a single colour of thread, usually red, blue or green. With few stitches to master and no filling to do, redwork embroidery patterns stitch up quickly. The finished pieces are often stitched together into quilts.

Crazy Quilting

A Victorian craze, that of joining odd shaped fabric scraps into a crazy quilt and then embellishing with surface embroidery, is again popular. Simple stitches combined in interesting ways are used for seam treatments between patches, while motifs are stitched on the patches themselves. Beads, buttons, lace and other trimmings are used to give an encrusted look to this form of needlework.

Needlework tips

On a more general note you will find tips on things like how to separate your floss into strands, what embroidery fabric to use, how to work basic embroidery stitches and how to remove stains from your embroidery. If you are interested in desiging your own needlework don't forget to take a look at the DIY (Design it Yourself) section for hints and tips on using computer design packages.

Finishing school

After all the time and care you take to create your needlework it would be heartbreaking to know it was then tucked away in a drawer somewhere. There are as many ways to finish your work as there are methods of creating it.

Let it be seen! Show it off, revel in the oohs and aaahhs when people see it and comment on its beauty. Enjoy!

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Keep up the good work!

I enjoy your newsletter very much and sincerely appreciate your instructions and tips.

I could not have learned hardanger or embroidery basics if it were not for your website. Thanks.

Nancy from the USA

Thanks Carol

I've been a fan of cross stitch for some time - but due to your excellent encouragement on the site I want to try blackwork now."

Jackie Campbell, UK

Thank you for your blackwork e-book

I purchased your e-book as soon as I got the e-mail announcing it.

Thank you. It is terrific !! and electronic delivery is so easy to use.

Ellyn in Manhattan

I look forward to your newsletter

I enjoy your 'walk through' of the stitches for the pattern very much.

It is very helpful, especially for beginners like me and at the same time makes one understand where to start a row and how to proceed.

The back issues are real treasures to be referred to whenever I have doubts.

Viji from India

Thank you from Spain

I read your monthly ezine and I begin to embroider blackwork. I did not wait for "20 years" thanks to you.

I understood all the instructions and for that reason I put a link to your page in my blog in Spanish.

Please excuse my English I read the pages with the help of a translator and I am astonished at this I discover about the embroidery in others countries.

Maria from Spain (where blackwork originated!)