Nouveau Stitch

I like to think of myself as a trend-spotter when it comes to what’s new and exciting in the world of sewing. Yep. Come by here on any given day and I’ll be knee-deep in unpaid research {most likely cruising JoAnn’s, scanning Amazon for new sewing titles or blog surfing}. What’s that you say? If it’s at JoAnn’s it can’t be new and exciting? Books that have already been published are so yesterday and once something new hits the blog circuit, well then there’s eleventy billion of them in every living room?

I would have to agree so I’ve recently decided to add Twitter to my research routine and ho boy. Talk about staying on top of breaking sewing news! I LOVE surfing Twitt…wait, can you surf Twitter? Maybe twurf? Yep, I twurf Twitter and twy to twinpoint twends and twot twopics!

I’ve also added Pinterest to the mix. {Email me at NouveauStitch at Gmail.com for an invite.} No special language to learn for Pinterest other than the word “pin.” If you’re a sewist you’re probably thinking it’s a shiny pointy thing but a “pin” on Pinterest is virtual. When you see a picture you like, you pin it (click on it) to add it to your virtual bulletin board. You can have dozens of virtual bulletin boards, all divided by topic, room, color, trend du jour, you name it.

Now that I’m officially armed with all that is social media (as of this particular nano-second), what do I see popping up everywhere? What hot new sewing craze is taking the world by storm? ….Wait for it….Hand Embroidery!!! HAND EMBROIDERY??? Wha? Weren’t they embroidering decades ago like in the 1970′s? More like the 1070′s or maybe even the -0070′s. Embroidery has been around forEVER. But what makes it new and fun? People like BariJ and her hot new blog We Love French Knots. She has videos, people! There are no longer any excuses. You can sew a French knot. She [almost] holds your hands. Seriously.

And just look at this. LOOK AT IT! Now does this scream great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother’s embroidery sampler to you? I think NOT! I believe it epitomizes the typical beachy, organic, vintage, European, eclectic, white spray paint, turquoise, Put-a-Bird-On-It home that is so today. Run on over to Alicia Paulson’s site, Rosy LIttle Things and buy the PDF for this sampler. It’s $6 for Heaven’s sake. Do you know how cool this is for $6? Seriously! I’d pay $6 just for the instructions to make the “R” alone, forget about the other 25 letters!”

This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks! Check out Pinterest and you’ll see this

and this

Purlbee.com

And this, OMG!

Anna Maria Horner!

And she has thread, people!

All that is cool and hot and awesome in the new world of embroidery. A nice relaxing non-tech, low-investment obsessio…..uh, way to de-stress. You don’t have to do a whole sampler to partake in embroidery nirvana.

Do what I did. Make a To-Do list.

Follow me!

Twitter ID: Ewigginton

Pinterest ID: Ellen Wigginton