Recently I took a short trip to England, and while I was there I was delighted to visit the home and studio of artist/author Cas Holmes in Maidstone. We recorded an intimate tour of her studio, and interview about her work, which I hope you will enjoy. I am featuring a detail of her hand-stitched piece “Derek’s Garden”, plus her book currently in stock. We just love her books because they have a yummy cloth cover with lots if visual inspiration inside.
As I am sure you are aware, embroidery has made a huge comeback. My grandmother was an embroidery artist so I have several treasured pieces of her work. I collected Sashiko-stitched pieces during the years I traveled to the Tokyo Quilt Festival. The Slow Stitch movement was amplified during the pandemic, and now there are many online groups producing and sharing a wide range of embroidered/hand-stitched works, from traditional to sassy. The Modern Quilt movement has its own version of Big Stitch treatments, and many makers are enthusiastically pursuing folk art and ethnic embroidery traditions. All of this can be included in our quilts, our garments, and our fiber art.
Over the past several years we have been expanding our selection of threads for those who love to embellish with big stitching. I am also featuring here, the perle #8 in several color collections from Wonderfil. Whether you like to embellish with Sashiko Thread, Perle 8, Hand-Dyed Japanese Embroidery Floss or imported Metallic threads…you’ll have fun considering the options in this category.
You can’t do hand-stitching without those big stitch needles, and there are a smorgasbord of thimbles available these days for the serious stitcher. As you know, the Japanese quilters are famous for their hand-stitching and hand applique, so many of these specialty thimbles are imported from Japan.
Summertime is a great time to put together a hand-stitching kit to take along on a road trip. Personally I like putting my embroidery stash in a vintage metal lunchbox, like I had as a kid. I was inspired to do this when I sat next to historian Barbara Brackman at a quilty luncheon, and she whipped out her hand applique project. We had a nice chatty whispered gossip session while she fished needle and threads out of her vintage lunchbox.
If you don’t have a 1960s metal lunchbox, the next best thing for a travel kit, is Yazzi Craft Organizers, which are often trimmed and embellished by their owners to reflect their own personal crafty interests. Personally I am just crazy about our Hand-Dyed Rainbow Rickracks, and our colorful Button collections, to decorate bags, garments and artsy wall hangings.
In closing I would like to express my sorrow at the sudden loss of Ellen Brown, the director at Timeless Treasures Fabrics in New York. She has been a true friend and supporter of eQuilter for 25 years, and we send our deepest condolences to her family and staff.
Sharing your love of fabric…
Luana and Paul
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Travel/Quilt Dates:
June 19-22 – Quilt Canada, Edmonton
June 27-28 – Intl Quilt Museum, Lincoln NE
July 29 – Aug 5 – Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK
August 27-31 – Speaker at World Wilderness Congress, Rapid City SD
December 5-13 – Textile & Costume Tour – Italy. Alpine Xmas Market Extension Dec 13-15.
