On Tips and Tea on Tuesdays, I will cover a topic and hopefully provide you with some tips that will be helpful! And just as an afterthought, tea may occasionally be a cup of Joe!

Tea today, is Darjeeling black tea, it has a nice citrus/fruity flavor, and tastes a little milder than some of my other black teas. I have been decorating for spring, and brought out my collection of vintage French beaded wire flowers. These are so lovely, and I treasure the few that I have.

Today I want to touch on a subject that I think many of us can relate to. Mainly the “voice of criticism in our head” that either stops us from creating, learning, or doing something different. Often criticism, no matter how gently delivered can live in our heads for a long time.

I was teaching a seminar on Embroidering Within the Lines, at the Houston Quilt Festival in the fall of 2023. The table was laden with samplers my from books and classes, and my friend Diane who was helping me, took this image of the table. It was a fun seminar to teach, and the audience seemed to learn quite a bit.

During one of the presentations, I had a member of the audience say, what does the back of the embroidered piece look like. I showed her the back, and she said, “OH”, (with disappointment), and went on to say “it is just as messy as mine, as my mom pointed out”. I was a little taken aback, but she went on to explain “that it doesn’t look like the front”.

This is a common question, and misconception that I would like to address today. The front of the embroidery stitch, rarely will look like the back, due to the way the stitch is formed, as shown in the examples above. I can think of only two stitches that will look the same both front and back, the first is the satin stitch, which is a series of closely worked straight stitches. The other is a quilted or running stitch which is a series of straight stitches worked along a row.

Tip: This is a simple one, think about how the criticism was offered. Did you learn something? Do you work better because of the comments? Or, is it the opposite, and does that keep you from doing something that you may enjoy? The voice may have had a purpose then, but does it now? You decide.

If you would like to learn more about embroidery, and the specifics I have an on-line class that I teach on Creative Spark, called, Hand Embroidery Basics and Beyond.

Happy tea drinking and stitching to you! ~Christen

PS: If you have any questions or thoughts, just leave a comment! See Tips, Tricks, the Basics, for more helpful ideas.