The Embroideress

I'm encouraged to see my dear friend MarthaJeanne blogging from Vienna!!! We met years ago on Compuserve Fibercrafts Forum. We've met in England from time to time and I've journeyed to Geneva to visit MJ and her family.

Hopefully we'll meet again in Vienna. That trip is on my "after the back is fixed list".

Catch her blog at:

http://marthajeanne.blogspot.com

Labels: Needlework Blogs

Okay, so you don't watch craft shows on TV - or maybe you do!!! Or maybe you live where American craft programming is not available.

While I was literally flat on my back last year I watched far too many craft programs. But sometimes they have gems of ideas, interesting guests, great ideas, patterns you would like to use, etc.

Not to worry. Most of the programs are produced by or syndicated to DIY Network. If you tap into their home page you can journey on to your favorite programs for tips, tricks, how-to, etc. OR you can enter a search term that will gather up projects from all the network shows.

A little search for mittens yielded dozens of options from several programs. Give it a try when you are stuck for inspiration.

Labels: Inspiration Sites

It's back to work around here. I finished up the proposals for classes at Rockome in June; have some new designs in the works for the Nashville Trade Show in February and finished the London Tour webpages and uploaded them.

Hopefully I'll have more progress to report soon.

Labels: Needlework Tour, Rockome

The National Archives | Design Registers is another fascinating online resource offered by The National Archives (previously the PRO - Public Records Office) in Kew Gardens.

The Archives is the repository for (I'm sure) millions of documents, objects, compendia, etc. having to do with the UK's national heritage. They are offering more and more online resources and the Design Register has a few costume bits, needlebook designs, etc.

The Archives site is one that can engulf you and have you stumbling away hours later wondering where the time has gone.

Do sign up for their newsletter as well. It not only tips you off to exhibits in Kew but to new offerings on the web and new publications.

Labels: Research Resources

Jack Schmidling's fiber crafts page makes me want to cheer for this guy for sticking to his journey. Thanks to the Calontir Group for pointing out his site.

Labels: spinning, Weaving

The National Archives | Palaeography tutorial (how to read old handwriting) is a little key into those scribbles when reading old inventories and wills hunting textile history (or any other history).

Labels: English History, Paleaography, UK National Archives

Many of us have long been familiar with embroidery historian Mary Gostelow's books of the 70's/80's. Her books are out-of-print but widely available (some at very reasonable price). They are "large" almost coffee-table sorts of books in that they are full of quality illustrations and graphics (many in color). There is invariably interesting text surrounding the illustrations which are often not found in many other publications.

My holiday present to myself this year is a copy of one of her books Art of Embroidery (ISBN 0 525 93064 7) which explores museums, cathedrals and historic sites that house significant embroidery collections in the UK and US. She avoids the large, well-documented collections and brings to the forefront some lesser known institutions such as the Ohio Historical Society and Westwood Manor. 21 different sites are included as well as a few stitch diagrams, author's notes and bibliography.