The French Needle Blog
It takes a village…
NOTE: Originally posted in 2011
Stamp Quilt Detail
I was so excited to get my “new” quilt in the mail today. This one has been eighty years in the making.
My mom grew up in a small village on the western slopes of Colorado.
Her neighbor made this “stamp” quilt top for my grandmother when the
neighbor was 91 (born circa 1860?!). I am not sure why it was never
quilted.
My mom gave it to me recently and I sent it off to M...
Fête du muguet
Say what you will about the French, but they do have a few really charming customs. My personal favorite is the Fête du Muguet, which somehow is intertwined with the French Labor Day.
On the first day of May, it is customary to present friends and loved ones with tiny bouquets of Lily-of-the-Valley. The flowers are symbols of good luck and mark the arrival of spring. And, I guess, a day off work.
At any rate, they are sort of the flower opposite of a riotous tree peony. For some reason these ...
True Confession
ein kleine gluck UB chart
I am really not a good cross stitcher. This is probably due to my
lack of mental rigor and discipline in following a chart. And the
reluctance to correct a mistake early in the game.
I have noticed that some people are genetically wired to cross
stitch. Take my friend Donna. She stitches models for me and I can
almost not tell the back from the front (in a good way). And she is FAST. She must not stop to eat or sleep when she gets one of my packages in ...
Girl Time
Not that I don’t like traveling with my
boys, but three days this week alone with my 15 year old daughter in
Savannah, Georgia were pure heaven.
Savannah - Spanish Moss
The goals of our trip were more Scones and Pralines than Great
Generals of the Confederacy. But we were meticulous in our research. I
am quite sure we did not miss any needlework boutique, vintage jewelry
shop or tea room within Savannah city limits.
We walked and walked the beautiful town an...
My Plucky Garden
Here in the Washington D.C. area, there are but a handful of days
when it is not too cold, too windy, too hot, too rainy, too humid, or
too buggy to be outside.For me, at least.
So, although I like to consider myself a “gardener”, my “gardening”
consists mostly of planting something and running inside to watch it
grow from the window.
As I don’t believe in pesticides or fertilizers, and I won’t wrestle
with the the hose, the plants that survive in my garden are really plucky plant...
Origami Paper Covered Easter Eggs
While today’s post has nothing to do with my first love, French needlework, it does discuss one of my favorite spring tasks.
Easter eggs covered in origami paper… I don’t remember where I first saw this idea, but it handily fulfills my Two Cardinal Rules of Crafting:
1. A monkey can do it.
2. Supplies, in this case origami paper, need to be amassed in every color under the sun.
(For some reason buying an insane number of colors of something is integral to my idea of cr...
Surface Embroidery Flower Theme Linen Tablecloth Kit
NOTE: Originally posted in 2011
I wish I could say this is a recent project, but in fact I have been working on this since the summer of 2009…
Linen Embroidered Tablecloth Kit
I am thinking that posting it might make me accountable enough to
pick up the pace…as the Queen of Starting New Projects, something this
large is a major commitment and I get distracted…but I will finish it. Maybe getting sidelined is part and parcel of owning a needlework business…
Embroider...
