Embroidery for Absolute Beginners – a beautiful on-line class for you

Do you stitch? Or maybe my question should be do you stitch yet? Regular readers to my blog will know I stitch although, somewhat naively. No two stitches of mine appear the same most days and I sometimes wonder if that which appears before my eyes has been invented in just that very moment. I have wanted for some time to learn the plethora of stitches out there yet with few opportunities for interactive workshops this year, on-line teaching seemed a sensible route. I am a kinesthetic learner; in which learning takes place by the student actually carrying out a physical activity, {psynso.com} and I imagined my chosen course might afford me the luxury of practicing at my own pace whilst I enjoyed being lost in a colourful world of glorious thread. I imagined too all those wonderful projects I might be able to go on to create once new skills had been acquired. Join me for today’s story and find out how I set about improving my stitching skills having taken part in an on-line embroidery class for beginners and learn more of a very special offer just for you…

Many, many moons ago my dear Grandmother taught me to sew. And bake and if I remember well, we tried knitting, French knitting and certainly crochet too. I don’t recall much more than cross stitch and a few running stitches; our learning was more make-do-and-mend based than anything else yet it was always a very happy time. Recently I’ve been keen to extend my knowledge and when I learned my beautiful Shepherd’s Hut Belle was to be the subject of a sweet embroidery, I accepted the challenge of joining Nicki Franklin’s Embroidery for Absolute Beginners on-line embroidery class.

Whether like me you have some stitching ability or you are a complete novice there is much to learn in this beautifully collated course. Right from the start Nicki guides you through useful housekeeping tips and offers valuable information on which items are a must for your beautiful tool kit-to-be and which extras you might simply not wish to be without. I so enjoyed gathering together my equipment much of which I already had seemingly waiting quietly for this day. Supplies can easily be bought on-line, from favourite bric-a-brac stores or from Nicki herself.

An early and delightful suggestion for practicing your stitching progress is to create your own unique sampler and here Nicki guides you through this blissfully creative process. Not too dissimilar to this craft, I admit to being lost for a few glorious hours gathering together scraps of my delicate fabrics and tiny fragments of precious material off-cuts saved completely for such a purpose, even though I never knew.

I enjoyed venturing away from my usual predictable off-white and pink floral shades, choosing instead hues and tones in a range of my favourite blues, many of the selected fabrics featuring useful stripes and squares to guide my needle in a tidier-than-usual grid formation. I do believe it is my sheer concentration in forming consecutive stitches which affords me the result of wonky lines. Although fear not if you too are a little haphazard with the needle placement, your own style is encouraged throughout this class. Mixing up the crafting medium is promoted too when creating your sampler and gave me the perfect excuse to fish out my ink pads and stamps and get inventive.

Expect to learn essential outline stitches…

countless and beautiful filling stitches, mine is a work in progress…

and by the time you come to stitch Belle, decorative stitches you possibly only dreamed you would ever be able to sew. I giddily lost hours creating weathered wicker baskets billowing over with summer blooms and door wreaths complete with leaves of lush ivy I thought only possible from those more accomplished than I. This packed-full-of-knowledge class had me rewinding, fast forwarding and pausing long into the night. And with clever ‘page markers’ you’ll never be hunting far to remind yourself how to stitch those stitches which require revisiting. No spoilers here though. Were I to share with you all I have learned, where might your own enjoyment come from?

There have been so few opportunities to join together with like-minded souls this year and discover the joys of learning. Perhaps you might like to treat yourself to learning this beautiful time-honoured craft, tucked up in the warmth of your own home, building your own knowledge until you too can create some of the beautiful embroideries you perhaps covet. Or with Christmas not too far away, maybe this gentle introduction into the world of creating with needle and thread might be just the present you were hoping to gift a loved one. There are details of a special discount just for you at the foot of this post.

I am in no doubt that should you decide to join Nicki and stitch along in her class, you will enjoy creating your own kind of stitching magic putting into practice all you have learned. It will perhaps come as no surprise my mind is overflowing with new and exciting ways to use my newly acquired stitching skills some of which I hope to share with you in future stories on my blog. For now though, thank you for joining me today and I do hope you enjoyed this week’s adventure. Until next week…

I was gifted the Embroidery for Absolute Beginners on-line embroidery class in exchange for this blog post. All opinions expressed in this blog post are my own. Should you wish to purchase this on-line course, Nicki is generously offering a discount of 20% to readers of Whitewood and Linen which will run from publication of this post until the end of November 2021 when the code WHITEWOOD20 is applied at her on-line checkout. This offer is open to all my readers worldwide. Click here for course details.

In the interest of transparency, a small affiliate fee is paid to me for every sale made when this code is used.