Heart Felt Wishes to you all! I love hearts, I love the shape, I love to decorate the house at Valentine’s Day, and I have a lot of hearts… so I decided to post A Heart a Day for the entire month of February.
“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” – Dr. Seuss, Author
Happiest of heartfelt wishes for a wondrous day! ~Christen
If I could pass on one important thought, it would be that practice just makes sense. Perfection is not something that I strive for, but I myself feel more confident when I understand the stitches that I am working on.
My book Embroidered and Embellished, by C&T Publishing is divided into four chapters, each chapter includes 20 stitches and 2 projects. I grouped the stitches according to the type of stitches and the materials that were used in each of these chapters.
At the beginning of each chapter I have included a sampler which utilizes all of the stitches included in the chapter. I used the above embroidery template (page 89) as a guide, and embroidered the design around the guide.
The Embroidery Journal Project above, is from my book, The Embroidery Book, by C&T embellishing. There are instructions in the book for making this little journal on page 43. Each page is 10″ x 6″, with the embroidered sections worked on each 5″ x 6″ half. You can refer to the samplers in the Visual Guide for the stitches to use, or use the samplers at the beginning of each chapter.
In my class The Embroidery Corner, I taught a 17 week course on embroidery. Each week, working with one stitch family, the student practiced their stitching on a 6″ piece of fabric. Here are some of my examples:
For a book that includes over 500+ stitches, see my book Hand Embroidery Dictionary, by C&T Publishing. If you would like to make a sampler of your own, you can download the free PDF lesson, Sampler Roll of Stitches.
I am confident that you will agree that by allowing yourself the time to learn and experiment with a new technique will never be a waste of time. You are worth the time that it takes to prepare for your journey into embroidery. May that be a long enjoyable journey, and may your needles fly!
Happy Stitching, enjoy~Christen
This is a sampler of raised and textured stitches which include whip-stitch rose and variations, spiderweb rose, petite twisted rose, bullion stitch, bullion posy, cast-on buttonhole stitch, buttonhole rose, tatted stitch, tatted posy, spiral tatted stitch, tatted rose, Chinese knot stitch, and Christen’s shisha mirror stitch. These stitches and more can be found in my book Embroidered and Embellished by C&T Publishing.
Happy Stitching, enjoy~ Christen!
This is a grouping of some of my favorite embroidered treasures. I keep these in baskets on my work table and book cases so that I can see them and love them everyday! These can be found as gallery examples in my ribbonwork and embroidery books from C&T Publishing.
Happy Stitching, enjoy~ Christen!
This is a up-close view of the needle-case that is the focus of my class Creative Thread Embroidery. The stitches are raised and textured and include tatted stitches, whip stitches, bullion stitches and cast on buttonhole stitches. This needle-case and the stitches can be found in my book Embroidered and Embellished, by C&T Publishing.
Happy Stitching, enjoy~ Christen!
The complete visual guide to hand embroidery & embellishing
This richly illustrated reference guide from embroidery expert Christen Brown covers everything you need to make beautiful magic with needle and thread. Learn to sew traditional and silk ribbon embroidery, make raised stitches, and embellish with beads, charms, buttons, and mirrors. Christen shows you how to combine and place stitches to enhance a finished piece and how to work with embroidery threads, ribbons, fabrics, laces, beads, buttons, and other embellishments.
• Step-by-step photo instructions show exactly how to sew 85 different stitches
• Includes 8 complete embroidery projects to stitch and embellish
• The essential embroidery reference for everyone from beginners to experts
My new book is now available through C&T Publishing.You can see a few of the projects here, on C&T’s Blog.
I will be teaching several classes from the book this year in Houston at Quilt Festival in the fall, and next year at Road to California, in January.
Happy Stitching, enjoy ~Christen
I am so excited to announce my second book, Embroidered and Embellished, will be published in June 2013. You can find it here on C & T’ Publishers, and Amazon’s. I just got a peek of the inside of the book yesterday, and I can tell you honestly that I am thrilled, it will be so beautiful!
The book is evenly divided into the four categories of embroidery that I love. Traditional, Silk Ribbon, Raised and textured and Bead Embroidery. There are two projects per category, ranging from simple to more complicated; with a total of eight projects all together. There are about 20 stitches in each embroidery chapter, with a few extras thrown in for a total of 85 stitches.
I took all of the step-out photography as I did for my first book, Ribbonwork Gardens. I also illustrated the embroidery diagrams and drew steps for sewing, which were translated digitally by the staff.
There will be plenty of inspiration in the Gallery section, from wall hangings, to purses, etuis to pillows, garments and jewelry. There is also one special purse that was created by my dear friend Maryanne Gross, you can find more of her work here at Zingala’s Workshop.
Hope that you find inspiration in every day, and enjoy!
~Christen
Christen's Creations 