Mary Thomas, chapter 1

stitched by KittyStitch

I was on the hunt for all things couching for my next January stitchalong post when I found this amazing gem, stitched by KittyStitch. It seems she rendered all the stitches in chapter 1 of Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches. I am in awe of her color choices and the lovely precision with which she carried this out. Challenge: can you spot the couching? :)

I was really curious about the book, which I'd never heard of - it seems the original title was published in 1934, and looked like this (I love that sturdy 1930's typography):


photo courtesy of Savage Pink

A bit of googling led me to this helpful review of the book by savage pink and a nice review on Needle n'Thread. It seems the book is back in print and available on Amazon, and the updated photography in the preview looks amazing.

Does anyone own the updated or original versions of this book? I'd love to hear what you think of them! :)

Beautiful Birds

Stitched by Geninne

Wow. Isn't this incredible? And, perfect inspiration for John's printed fabric stitchalong this month...

We don't expect you to painstakingly print your own fabric like Geninne did. She's an amazing artist we've featured before on Feeling Stitchy. But hey, we'd love to see it if you try it! :)

Can't wait to see what everyone stitches! :)

Sweet family portrait

Family Portrait, originally uploaded by DetroitMommy.

How adorable is this 'portrait'?!

Such a sweet and simple idea. And quite moving, I think.

Love it. :-)

Stitchy and Nice

Stitchy and Nice, a gallery on Flickr.

I have a wee favour to ask you! When you add your stitchy beauties to the Feeling Stitchy Flickr group, would make sure that anyone can blog the photos? Because, you see, I come across a lot of cool stuff there, but often the settings on the photos are such that only a link to it is available.

So if I want to post it, I have to contact the person to get a copy of the image or have them change the settings and such. I don't always have time for that, unfortunately, so I move on to the next photo, which will let me blog it.

It's up to you if you want to allow people to share your photos, of course! I get that there are reasons for not wanting to. All I'm sayin' is: we want to share your work, but sometimes we can't.

In cases where I can't blog a photo here on FS, I've taken to adding them to galleries on Flickr, so I have a "collection" of that I think is stitch and nice. ;-)

I'm going to post those from time to time, so all those stitchy niceries will get a wee bit of a shout out at least. :-)

Edited to add:
In case you do want to allow others to blog your Flickr images you can do so by following this link. :-)

Lost polar bear

Stitched by peppersprouts & upstatefancy

I don't watch Lost, but I'm loving this. Love how so many of you are inspired by TV shows. Makes me feel less guilty for watching so many.

VWroooooom!

VW embroidery, pattern from pepperstitches, originally uploaded by chunkychooky.

hey, isn't this great?!

I think it is! There needs to be more stitched cars in the world.

I would also be very interested in seeing stitching ON cars - how cool would that be?

sew your own

1. A Riot in the Garden, 2. Peace Garden Tags, 3. veggie garden embroidery, 4. sky blue garden flowerpot wrap

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A few garden themed favourites from the fs pool. I particularly love the veggie felt applique embroidery by Laura Hartrich - great work, guys!

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Blossoms

Stitched by Kirsten's Fabric Art

Wow. Simply wow, Kirsten!

Stitched-up doll

Stitched by annaleahart

I love this little doll Annalea stitched for her little girl when she split her chin and had to have stitches. How special would you feel when your mom handed this to you? Love the bright blue stitches on her chin! :)

A quick hello

Wow, it’s lovely to be here, I’m really looking forward to being part of the Feeling Stitchy team. Thank you to Floresita for her kind words earlier and for allowing me to host the first ever Feeling Stitchy blog swap!

I will leave you with a few of my recent favourites from the embroidery pool, but will be back later today with the sign up details for our new swap!

Happy Saturday x

Australian Bass hand embroidered on hemp by edwardandlilly

sneak peak by sew~amy

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... top image - Hello by kyabe

Red bellied woodpecker

Stitched by fionabearclaw

This girl knows how to stitch. Wow!

Gorgeous stitch sampler

Stitched by Lisa's Tea Time

I just love the amazing variety of lines, colors, and textures on this. I'm also really impressed when people embroider anything freehand on Aida cloth - for some reason I find the large weave intimidating for freehand work... Bravo, Lisa!

Silhouette

Stitched by crazybutcute

Love it! This proves that a minimum of lines and just one color can be quite impressive.

Happy Robot Family

Stitched by crafty so and so

This happy robot family made my day.

Embroidered boots

Stitched by Veronica TM

Isn't this a great idea? I'm also loving these embroidered boots, too. I see lots of sad winter boots when I'm riding the subway this frigid winter, and a little pop of color like this would make me really happy. Bravo Veronica! :)

Have you embroidered your boots? Be sure to add a picture in the Embroidery pool!

Sweet elephant

Stitched by melissann

Anyone else feel like an elephant after all the holiday eating? Well, maybe embroidering this cute little guy will help take your mind off the 10 workouts you have planned... Stitched from a free pattern by Quack the Wooleyduck.

Get the free pattern here!

This New Year's, don't act like a

Stitched by cauchy09

Reminds me of one of my all-time favorite random phrases, "catbutt." Awesome work, as usual, Ms. cauchy09!

Hope you all have a wonderful and safe New Year's! Also, I'll do my best, but I can't guarantee I won't act like a monkeybutt...

Coney Island

Stitched by sarahbest

Love all the detail on this. And the fact that it commemorates one of my favorite New York places.

Hearts

Stitched by good canary

Isn't this an amazing idea? So gorgeous!

Um, awesome?

Stitched by fionabearclaw

You know, Ms. fionabearclaw - your stitching rocks!

By the way, have you guys watched The Fantastic Mr. Fox? Totally worth a watch!