A Great Link for Embroidery and Hand Sewing

Today I did a Google search on "hand embroidery" and stumbled across the

Heritage Shoppe website This website is an excellent tool for anyone desiring to learn how to embroider and is a wealth of information! As I am new to embroidery, I felt that an entire new world had just opened up for me. I read, made some notes, printed off section four on samplers and even stitched up my first one using some muslin fabric!

The top line is an even basting or running stitch created using A&E Signature Pixelles Size 30 trilobal Polyester thread in the Tropical Brights color with a size 10 Sharps needle. I simply used what I had on hand attempting to focus on small, short stitches creating 16-20 stitches per inch. I believe working from right to left may have affected my stitching and I couldn't for the life of me maintain a straight line on the fabric, LOL! I did , however, improve upon that as I practiced. {smiles} The second stitched line is Uneven Basting stitch, again I attempted to focus on creating 16-20 stitches per inch using two strands of DMC floss in an embroidery needle. the third stitch is another line of the uneven basting, just for practice and I notice that my poor posture assisted with an upward line. I corrected my posture after taking a small break to stretch and wall about before resuming. The forth stitch is a Picking stitch, also called a half back stitch and was created using embroidery needle and thread. This Herringbone stitch was one my favorites and I actually worked left to right creating it using #5 Perle cotton. It isn't perfect but as I worked I could see what I should be doing, how my spacing was wide in places and narrower in others so I tried to improve upon it in the next Chevron stitch. I wondered if maybe a faint line using a ruler and pencil would help me to improve upon it on my samplers only. I do believe it would help. And last, but certainly not least, is the Breton stitch. this is a fun stitch and I believe that I'd like to use these Herringbone and related stitches on my CQ. I am getting excited about creating another block --- this one with no specific purpose in mind other than to actually practice my stitching! I believe I may even attempt to embroider up some of clothes just for a fun decorative effect, of course, after I continue to practice a bit more.