If you are like me and are just starting out with embroidery, you must visit the Primrose Design Blog. On Mondays, Janet of Primrose Design posts new entries in her Stitch School series. She includes a tutorial with great images and tips and tricks only a pro would know. And she is a pro, check out her online boutique on which she sells her handmade accessories, home décor and kids stuff that are made from and inspired by vintage fabrics.

I’m not quite ready for the French Knot, which is the stitch depicted in the images, but when I am I will definitely be using Janet’s great tutorial! She has about 20-25 different tutorials of embroidery basics and of various stitches including the straight stitch, running stitch, feather stitch, and the lazy daisy stitch.

I’ve recently finished reading Katherine Shaughnessy’s The New Crewel and I am all ready to jump in doing crewelwork.Crewel is free-form embroidery done using tightly woven cotton or most often linen fabric and wool thread. It uses many of the same stitches as free-form embroidery—stem stitch, chain stitch and split stitch–but gives more of a three-dimensional effect because of the thickness of the wool and the tightness of the fabric.

Crewel embroidery has been around for hundreds of years and has waxed and waned in popularity throughout its history. The last big rise in crewel embroidery popularity was in the 1970s, I certainly remember it from my childhood, but it is again making its resurgence in the Crafting/DIY world. Katherine Shaughnessy is partly responsible for that resurgence with her book, The New Crewel, and her great web site, woolandhoop.com. You will find many of the great patterns from her book, supplies and kits for sale on woolandhoop.com.

Here are some other sites of interest, some of which sell patterns, books and kits.

Crewel Work * A Guide to Crewel Embroidery * Marnie’s Crewel Studio * Makezine

Here are some completed projects featured in The New Crewel to help give you ideas on how to you can crewel embroidery.