I discovered the most amazing blog when perusing pics in the flickr group:
CrazyQuilting.
In the
About section of the rich resource that is her blog,
In A Minute Ago,Sharon Boggon explains her content in much more specific terms then I would, so I thought I'd lift a few bits from it directly to share here:
"In a Minute Ago is a blog of online resources which relate to contemporary and historical textiles, embroidery and needlework, quilting and crazy quilting, fiber arts, paper and book arts. It also performs a “whats new” function for my site, and documents current projects which are of a textile nature.....
Another area of my site is the Stitch dictionary which I hope people find useful. Each stitch is illustrated in step by step photos and I have categorised each stitch as to its degree of difficulty.....
For Crazy quilters there is also diagrams of embellished seam treatments....
For needlework enthusiasts I have also put online images of embroidery samples I have stitched. Some are simply ‘doodle cloths’ others are designed as samplers....."
She writes about samplers and the way they developed in aesthetics and function from the 15th to the 19th century, the broad cultural themes that influenced them, and the way that you see can see this history reflected in these handmade works.
That is so exciting because I had been thinking about doing a sampler quite a while ago, and I knew it had alot deeper meaning than just cross-stitching some cute stuff and maybe your name and the date, but the needlework and embroidery books I had just didn't get into it, and I did not have computer access at the time.
ie:"Before printed pattern books, embroidery designs were passed from hand to hand, many travelling through Europe from the Middle East. The recording of patterns and motifs on fabric for future use was an essential method of storing information. This stitched reference resulted in the creation of a sampler. New patterns and stitches were avidly collected and exchanged...."
On top of all this, she is featuring
100 Details For 100 Days, which is now on Day 66,and is a vast wilderness of inspiration for ways to be expressive with combinations of stitches and trims and buttons! Thank You Sharon B!
As if that wasn't enough, she is offering 2 online classes at
Joggles.com. I am thinking about taking this one:
Develop A Personal Library of Stitches that she explains as "a new class which is aimed at people who are interested in exploring and designing stitches".
I'm interested! I don't think that I'll have time to mess around with thread when it starts in November, but my mind is tossing around the notion that I could possibly, MAYBE, be able to
make the time....
