This is a close up of this project. Did I mention it’s small? I’m stitching it in a 3″ hoop, so that gives you an idea of the size.

But I want to really talk about is the fact that it’s on blue linen. And that it’s on a blue even-weave linen. Even though it’s surface embroidery, the even-weave takes the surface stitches really well, without having to use any kind of backing to help hold the stitches.

And why is that?

If you wanted to use most of the even-weave linens widely available today for surface embroidery, you normally would have to back the fabric with another fabric, to give your free-style surface stitches something a little more stable to bite into. Most widely available even-weaves usually have a lot of space between the threads of fabric, and those fabric threads tend to vary greatly between thick and thin.

The linen I’m using has a nice plump weave. It’s fantastic for counted work (at 37 threads per inch), but glory be! It works great for surface embroidery, too.

I love it when an even-weave serves the dual purpose of counted and surface work.

For one thing, it’s obviously more versatile among stitchers who work on the grid and off the grid.

For another thing, it opens up all kinds of possibilities, design-wise. Why not combine counted and surface work in the same project, with the freedom that a good linen provides for meandering stitches?

It’s hard to capture the color of that blue fabric – it’s like a cool deep blue sky. I love it!

And that brings me to this point:

As I mentioned previously, I’m adding colored linen fabric packs to my shop, for those who want to affordably try very good Italian linen in smaller cuts, in colors. This is an expansion of the previous linen fabric packs that I’ve put together (in white and natural), which will be available again soon. (I’m waiting on some linen to arrive.)

The colored linen is this beautiful even-weave Italian linen that I’m stitching on above. It is a 37 count linen (37 threads per inch), in four colors that may or may not be showing up exactly like themselves on your screen. (It’s always hard to judge color on a screen).

The colors are spring-like: a lavender-pink, a warm buttery yellow, a bright grass green, and this deep blue sky. They’re bright and happy colors taken together, and taken singly, they are gorgeous for individual projects. I can’t wait to do some white-on-blue with the blue! I’m already working on my reticello sampler on the yellow, and I’m planning some small projects for the lavender-pink and the green as well.

I do love beautiful linen in beautiful colors! My plan is to extend the fabric sample packs even further, to include other high-quality, colored linens in various weights. We don’t see these fabrics available much in the US, so I figure this is a good way for folks to try them, and then, if you like them and you want larger pieces, we can help you get them.

Where & When

I’ll be launching the colored linen fabric packs this coming Monday, at 10:00 am central time, which is 11:00 am Eastern Time and 8:00 am Pacific.

In addition to the colored linen packs, there are a few other products that will be going live in my shop, including a very limited number of Cohona scissors, pictured below, and a good selection of my favorite and most-used sizes of Tulip needles.

I also have these scissors in Burnt Sienna (a deep mahogany) and Vermillion (what I call lipstick red). The red have not arrived yet, alas! But I expect them soon. The product listing for the Cohana scissors will explain more about them.

These are very popular scissors, for good reason. They are lovely, and they work great. I’ve been using mine every day, and I like them a lot, which is why I decided to bring some in. The colors above are limited editions, and they’ve been pretty slow getting here, so I don’t have a lot to offer. But what I do have, I will list for you.

If anything here intrigues you, keep an eye out on Monday morning!

In the meantime, I’ll finish my little project-on-blue this weekend. I can’t wait to show it to you, finished, and photographed under better lighting conditions. It’s really a glorious blue…..

Have a wonderful weekend!