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Get started with punchneedle

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coverLast summer, I had this great idea to include punchneedle embellishments on my fabric collages. I bought the necessary equipment and read all the instructions, traced off my pattern, and set to work. D-i-s-a-s-t-e-r. Frustrated and disappointed, I tucked all my new paraphernalia away in a drawer, promising myself to get back to it…someday.

Well, the day is here. Because (thanks to Diane Gilleland of CraftyPod) I found June Gilbanks‘ wonderful ebook, The Punchneedle Handbook. The book is brief, clear, direct, logical. It includes everything you need to know to get started. And, best of all, June tips us off to the most common errors and explains how to avoid or correct them. I know exactly what I was doing wrong now (several things), and I can’t wait to try it again — if I can just figure out in which drawer I buried my tools and supplies.

The ebook download is just US $8.50 from June’s site. And if you purchase during the introductory special, you also get one of six punchneedle patterns free. Check it out.

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How to Store Embroidery Needles

I have a complicated relationship with my embroidery needles. Which is a fancy way of saying I don’t really take care of my needles at all. Even though I know I have embroidery needles to use for cross stitch and sewing, needles that are certainly still in their packages, I can rarely find them when I need them.

So when I saw this post from Crewel Ghoul about how to store your embroidery needles, it hit close to home for me.

It doesn’t really say anything I didn’t already know, but it is good advice that might also serve as a reminder for you to take better care of your needles when you cross stitch or do other hand-sewing projects so that you’ll be able to find your needles again when you need them.

It would help me a lot if I had a dedicated place to keep needles I’m not using, including the needles that are still in their packages from when I bought them. You’d think I would keep them with my embroidery floss but apparently you would be mistaken about that.

Another good idea for me is to have a place to put needles I’ve been using when I am done with them. Because goodness knows I’m not going to put them back in the package. (Which may actually be a good thing because then I know which one I’ve been using and which ones are fresh. Not that I replace my needles regularly, but still.) I own pincushions but I don’t really use them for anything, which is silly.

Check out the post at Crewel Ghoul to see all the options available for storing your embroidery needles properly. I’d love to hear what you do, especially if you have a better system than I do (which, honestly, would be any system at all).

[Photo: Crewel Ghoul]