Me n’ Beth (and great grandma), ca 1977

I have two very cool sisters.  This one has been my very best friend since the day she was born.  (We don’t pay any attention to those years around junior high school when she was a lowly elementary school kid and I thought she was annoying.)  We frequently run across a book or cute something on etsy and send it to each other, only to find the same thing in an email from the other one crossed in cyber space.  We know all the same words to all the same songs (R-E-S-C-U-E, Rescue Aid Society, Heads held high, touch the sky, you mean everything to me…) and can carry on a conversation via text message that no one else would be able to make any sense of.  She is smart and funny and has a nearly endless supply of patience and compassion.

Anyhow, it’s her birthday today and I just wanted to say Happy Birthday little sister.

I just learned about a new e-zine all about embroidery that launched just in the last week or so.  It’s called &Stitches.  I am not really up on all of the embroidery blogs (I am not sure why not!), so I am glad I heard about this!

The blurb on the &Stitches website says:

This issue (the first one!) is all about colour! How to find colour inspiration for your stitchy projects, a bit of colour theory and of course we have patterns too. One pattern is by our guest contributor and first interview-ee, Corinne McHie of SeptemberHouse.

We also asked a few other stitchers where they find their colour inspiration and we also manged to fit in a couple of book reviews.

&Stitches is written by Carina Envoldsen-Harris (Polka & Bloom) and Nicole Vos van Avezathe (Follow the White Bunny), both avid stitchers and embroidery pattern designers.

I was intrigued and so I bought a copy.  (You download it as a .pdf.  Super handy. )

The verdict:  It is beautiful!  The color theory article is worth the price alone.  I know color theory pretty well, but trying to explain to other people is sometimes a challenge and this is a really visual guide.  I am going to add a link to this “Colour” issue to some of my class handouts as a reference.  I also learned a new embroidery stitch that I didn’t know and I really like Corinne’s fishes pattern (but you know I am pretty fond of fish).  I am really looking forward to future issues.

If you read the comments for that previous post, you will see that Corinne is one smart cookie.  Both patterns were made from this photo of a butterfly, taken while walking the dog this summer.

I like that second pattern well enough that I think I am going to order some printed fabric and make a summery blouse.