To celebrate my blog anniversary, I am doing a give-away! My aunt and uncle sent me a pile of silk scraps from the Kyoto flea market (Japan!), and I have divided them up into FIVE piles! These are mostly from old kimonos and obis, and have quite a variety of patterns and textures. Here they are:
To enter, you must comment on this post, answering the questions below. You have until 11:00pm CST on Sunday, December 4. I will close comments at that time.
- What is your favorite post on my blog? Why?
- Give (at least) one idea for what you would do with them.
- What’s the oldest piece of embroidery that you own?
Also, you must leave your email address when commenting, so that I can contact you to get your mailing address if you win! Relatives and offline friends of mine do not get to enter.
I will select five of the comments at random after the deadline, and announce them on Monday, December 5. Which of the piles you receive will also be random. If you are one of the five, I will email you to get your mailing address.
embroidery for ducks 
My favorite posts are your progress on the Elsa Williams embroidery. I really love all your posts, with such good pictures showing lots of detail. I think I would use the silks to back pieces of my needlework or maybe even stitch on them if the background is plain and sturdy enough.
My oldest piece of needlework is a piece of needlepoint I stitched in the earl 70s. I cherish it. I finally finished stitching in 2009 Elsa William’s piece, Merton. It is lovely.
Mary
Heather,
I have to say my favorite post(s) would be the “lots of flowers” from 10/25/11. As a long time needlework fanatic and a new henna artist the flowers portrayed translate to henna amazingly well!
My oldest pieces of embroidery are the stamped cross stitch duck squares my maternal grandmother gifted me with in 1962, when I was 5. Growing up in Central New York (Syracuse) we had lots of time in the winter to learn new things. She sat for hours showing me how to thread the needle and work through the color chart, I found out after she passed away in the early 2000’s that she was not fond of embroidery, but encouraged me anyway! She started me knitting at 4. My fondest memories of her are the hours of endless lessons she taught me from gardening to reading, cooking and all kinds of needle work!
I hope your Thanksgiving was lovely and wish you all the blessings of Christmas and the New Year!
Michelle Ross
Shala Henna Studio
Huntsville, Alabama
I’m Hannah, not Heather. 😀 haha!
Hi Hannah –
Who can resist a chance at a giveaway? Especially with interesting material/patterns to work with!
My favorite post(s) were on color and design wheel, as this is an area I feel I need to understand to improve my designs. Why? The descriptions were particularly clear, and you gave some good links/resources to pursue. But I also very much enjoy your posts on different ethnic styles of embroidery, and the different motifs, materials and threads used in them.
I would use some of the scraps as liners for say : a needlebook project (for the interior), the back of a key chain or lining for a scissors keeper, and maybe even as a set-in border for an embroidered cushion front. Lots of possibilities!
I do not own any older pieces or heirloom embroidery as I just began embroidering myself two years ago.
-Sharon in France
Hi Hannah,
First of all I admire your generosity.
I enjoy all your posts, since each one of them gives me such a desire to keep stitching, and it is difficult to choose just one.
But I have to say I enjoyed the embroidery and the free patterns from a lady, believe she is from the Middle East, and also the book from an author from Turkey.
Sorry I don’t have handy their names, but i have saved them all in my favorites.
If I’m lucky and win, I would use these pieces to make a crazy quilt picture, and frame it,for everyone to see it, since it’s source, as it is in this case is one of a kind.
I have a very especial bell pull I made for my mother and father – in law, many years ago. (1969?)
It was given back to me, after they passed away. They were wonderful people!
Thanks again Hannah, and have a nice Holiday Season.
Julia
Perhaps the posts you mention are Book Review: Turkish Embroidery and Medieval Middle Eastern Counted Thread Embroidery?
I’m loving the posts on your Joker project, because I am a nerd and the whole project is an awesome showcase of your skills. I would probably make flowers with these scraps (kanzashi seems to be my go-to for any scrap fabric). The oldest piece of embroidery I own is a vintage embroidered mexican dress. It’s gorgeous.
I love your work, it is so inspirational and beautiful.Everything in your blog is eye candy and I have sspent a good time studying everything you make.
I would make a Crazy quilt and add some of the silk pieces I have been saving for a special occasion, like this one.
The oldest embroidery I own is a hanky my grandmother embroidered for me in 1949
Hannah,
Just to let you know you are part of a set of ‘favorites’ that my sister calls our own brand of ‘p_rn’ meaning a site that we love to visit over and over again. I truly wish that I had just one thing about your site that I found to be a favorite post but I have truly enjoyed so many different things. I especially enjoyed the information on the Castelo Branco form of embroidery and explored the different sites you had in the various articles. The bell pull and trying to figure out which colors work best was a real treat. The Joker embroidery is coming along very nicely & I just love it.
You are doing such a great job.
I belong to a crazy quilt group and would use the fabric in one of our round robins.
My oldest embroidery is from the 1970’s and I did it.
I do have baby quilt my grandmother made for me but it is appliqued using the buttonhole stitch and embroidery for the details. She did this in the 1950’s (now you know about how old I am). So I guess this could technically be called my oldest embroidery.
I just want to encourage to continue with your site. It is so informative and fun to read.
Since I have not long been following your blog (since Sharon B’s recommendation) I don’t have much to judge my favourites by, but I have enjoyed the posts about Dr Shirazi’s collection and her work (which I also admire greatly).
The pieces of silk – I will not call them scraps, lol – would look delightful in amongst others of their ilk in my crazy quilting or other pieces of textile art.
Thank you for sharing your work, ideas and now pieces.
I am having a really tough time trying to decide which of your posts is my favorite!! I love the Hand & Lock posts and all the neat photos. I also like the post about embroidery with human hair (although the whole idea creeps me out a little), and any post about chain stitch is great too. Basically I enjoy reading anything about different types of embroidery, things that I might never have heard of except for reading it in your blog!
What would I do with the silk pieces? I know that at first I’d just look at them and feel them, see if they would tell me what they want to be. Then I’d probably use them for some special applique.
The oldest piece of embroidery that I have is a table runner that my great-grandmother embroidered for her daughter (my grannie) to have when Grannie went to a boarding school for girls. It’s a simple runner, just creamy white cotton with a crocheted lace edge and an ornate satin stitch capitol S at each end. Grannie was born in 1897 in England and probably would have been at boarding school when she was an early teenager so the runner must be at least 100 years old.
Thank you for the giveaway, and for posting such a variety of information!
I too enjoyed the posts about Hand & Lock, although I’m always fascinated and delighted to see the progress you are making on your current projects, and in particular when you discover a new technique to make some stitch easier!
I’m intending to make myself a new set of needlework accessories (scissors keep, needlecase, etch, and would be inclined to use the silk as embellishments or linings..
I have two embroidered infant gowns which may date from the early 1910s, although I’m not sure. The embroidery we are certain about is my grandmother’s and dates from the early forties.
Pingback: One Hundred Birds: Part 1 | enbrouderie
I especially enjoy your updates on the Joker. It is inspiring to watch the design process in process! I loved the post about your mother’s piece. What did she decide to do with it? An update is in order, I think!
I would use the silks in a crazy quilt sampler, that might become a bodice for a jumper or patch pockets on a jacket, some kind of clothing embellishment (unless I deem it too nice and must frame it). I love crazy quilting as it allows me to join two crafts that I love.
I have a needlepoint chair back with petit point center in a floral wreath that was started by my grandfather’s “aunt.” She was actually a contemporary of his, but the aunt of his second wife. She did not finish the background (navy blue, of course) before she died. He gave it to me to finish before he died. I do not have enough yarn for the background so am debating my options. Probably won’t finish it as a chair back, but maybe something smaller.
I thoroughly enjoy reading your blog! Thank you for sharing your work and your “finds”!
I love to look at the progress pictures and posts. I get a really good feeling when following an embroidery in progress. It is so much more inspiring than just the post about a finished project. I am following your bluebird project closely, and look forward to seeing how it turns out.
I am always excited when people start a new project so my favorite post so far http://enbrouderie.com/2011/11/21/new-project-bluebird/ is the start post of the bluebird floral.
Tania from Denmark
Hi Mary! First I want to say that I absolutely LOVE needle n’ thread and I’ve read and watched just about all your tutorials and they make a world of difference when it comes to learning them vs. reading it in a book. Also I really like that you have a bunch of pretty patterns available to download; I could go on and on about your website but anyway.
My favorite post would be Hungarian Embroidery Design: Lily’s Legacy, because I found the story to be very inspiring and also I thought it was a really great thing that you posted it showing that there are still some people who really care about what others leave behind. I liked reading about Lily’s life and the designs she made and I feel it would be a sort of honor to Lily in a way to actually embroider one of those designs. I’m thinking of enlarging the Floral Square and making it into a tablecloth. Although it’s a ways a way at the moment as I’m working on a Sunbonnent girl quilt.
As to what I would do with the pieces this may seem odd but I would try and use them to make a doll. I’ve actually tried to make a cloth doll once and my great-grandmother knows how to make them too, it’d be like taking crazy quilting and making a crazy quilted doll with an embroidered face. Sounds odd right? I think it would be really neat and kinda pretty deffinitly a little misshapen but I think it would be a lot of fun to make. 😀
The oldest piece of embroidery I own is a pair of pillowcases that my great-grandmother made for me and sent one year for Christmas a few years ago. I know it’s not very old but whenever I look at them I can’t help but be in awe of them they’re absolutely gorgeous and I will treasure them always. I hope to keep them in the condition they’re in or at least close to it that way maybe when I’m old I can give them to my granddaughter or great-granddaughter.
I hope I win because I absolutely love Japan and everything about it! Keep up the wonderful work and the posts on Needle n’ Thread I’d be lost without ’em!!
Dear laketear,
I very much appreciate your comment and will enter you in the giveaway, but I’m Hannah and this is the blog enbrouderie (not Mary at Needle’n’Thread)! It was extremely nice of her to link me from Facebook, but I think you are slightly confused still 😀
Hannah
:O Oh my god, I’m so sorry and also embarresed! I just assumed because it was on the Needle n’ Thread facebook page it was Mary, (facepalm doh!) thank you for entering me into drawing anyway I really appreciate it.
This is the first time I have visited your site. Your work is beautiful and unbelieveable. I have embroidered in past years through kits and had put it away. I am awed by the beauty of your work. Thank you for sharing your work and experience with us. I feel inspired to give this another go! Also, thanks to “Craft Gossip” for mentioning your site.
Welcome! And thanks so much for the sweet compliments.
I really enjoy seeing your works in progress. My favorites were the Trish Burr threadpainint, since I am working on one of her projects right now. For such a simple stitch to execute, it is really tricky to get it to look right. I also enjoyed the Palestinian embroidery, which I had not seen previously. Beautiful.
Happy anniversary and keep up the good work!!
Thanks! Yes, even though I can get long-and-short stitch on larger areas (like the flowers/leaves in my Bluebirds project) to look very nice, the Trish Burr project is definitely a learning experience. I understand the theory just fine, but somehow implementation is tricky.
Pingback: Give-away AND Crazy-quilts | enbrouderie