DMC have just launched this great new board game. It's a stitcher's take on that world famous board game Monopoly. I'm going to have to get one for my best friend Debbie! Now you know what we will be doing one weekend with a few bottles of wine.
DMC - ‘A fun, new property trading game to share your love of needlework with friends and family.
Players select their favorite needlecraft token to represent them as they navigate the board. Each player collects needlework techniques and becomes an expert by buying and trading different needlecraft stitches. The goal is to "Start Stitching" and progress around the board without having to "Pull Out Thread" or "Lose Your Needle" while building your own needlework studio and empire. Players get chances to "Go Shopping" and look in the "Needlework Stash" pile of game cards that keeps the play fun and exciting. Game includes directions for standard play or shorter version.'
Have you ever tried huck embroidery? Also referred to as Swedish weaving and huck towel embroidery, this technique is incredibly simple, fast, and pleasing in the effects that can be achieved. Traditionally done on huck toweling (a thin cotton fabric with raised threads--if you ever used one of the old-fashioned cloth towel machines in a bathroom, you've seen huck toweling), huck embroidery is frequently done in a larger format on Monk's cloth to create afghans and throws.
Huck embroidery basically consists of following a simple charted pattern to guide fiber through raised threads to create geometric designs and borders. Some can be simple, some can involve many rows of threads overlapping for a complex result that's further enhanced by creative choice of colors.
I've done a lot of huck embroidery over the years, making everything from dish towels to placemats to table runners. Although there's no knotting of the thread, the woven fibers stay in place on the surface of the huck fabric very well, and the end products are quite durable.
If you're interested in trying this embroidery technique, go to this week's website: Avery Hill Designs. Here you'll find history and instructions, FAQ, design books and supplies available for order, a free pattern, and color examples of huck embroidery.
Do try this technique. It's so simple and effective, and offers many opportunities for creativity!
What a busy time I've been having, both at home and at work.
I'm having a new kitchen installed and there's dust everywhere so we are trying to limit the amount of rooms we need to go in. The easiest thing is for us all to stay in the lounge for most of the evening. My husband can watch the TV to his heart's content and I've managed to really steam ahead with my latest cross stitch project. I'm stitching an adorable design from Faye Whittaker's book ‘All Our Yesterdays Cross Stitch Collection'(UK edition). To see the design I am stitching see our group's gallery. It reminds me of when I was young when my dad and my uncle made a swing outside our beach hut for my cousin and me. I'm going to use it to cover a photo album and give it to my mum for her birthday. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is doing the French knots. Does anyone else struggle with them too or does anyone have an easy way of doing them?
The National Academy of Needle Arts (or NAN) is "an organization devoted to the advancement of embroidery as an art form." The Academy focuses on edutional advancement opportunties for teachers, judges, artists, designers, authors, and technically proficient embroiderers. NAN was established in 1985.
The website includes The Exemplary, a showcase of outstanding needlework by embroiderers at all levels; complete information on NAN's certification program for teachers and judges; sample articles from past issues of NANthology, the organization's quarterly newsletter; and, of course, membership information.
There's also a section devoted to some enticing free patterns, including a series of seasonal trees offered in both canvas work and surface embroidery, small enough to fashion into brooches. If you're interested in taking classes, the site provides information about the annual Assembly for Embroiderers, a seminar open to all students of embroidery. (The 2008 Assembly was held in March; check the site for news of next year's seminar.)
I found this week's site in the links section of Wyndam Needleworks, which is one of my favorite places to look at all the wonderful charts available (not to mention fabrics and fibers--and I buy things as well, of course). Linked as "Kathy Dyer's Page," the site is actually called the Counted Cross Stitch, Needlework and Stitchery Page. Here Dyer offers cross stitch tutorials in Japanese, French, and Italian, as well as English; FAQs on entering competitions and selling finished products and designs; short descriptions of various embroidery techniques; and color names and conversion charts for the top brands of floss.
If you're anywhere near as mathematically challenged as I am, you'll value Dyer's "How Much Fabric" calculator and "What Fabric Count" calculator. "How Much Fabric" provides an online calculator for Aida and one for linen/evenweave fabric (wth a separate set of calculators for metric conversion). "What Fabric Count" figures the size in both inches and centimeters for fabric counts 6/inch through 40/inch. (Trust me, it's far easier to use than to explain.)
Explore this site and take advantage of Dyer's terrific "gadgets."
