Glow-in-the-dark cross-stitch initials!

Have you had the pleasure of stitching with DMC's Light Effects Glow-in-the-Dark embroidery floss yet? I absolutely love this stuff and I have been incorporating it into my recent projects whenever I can. 

I shot the photo above with a super-long exposure after placing the floss under a light for a couple of minutes. Isn't it wild? But it's a simple white in normal light:

I think it was the Creatures of Light special exhibit that recently closed at the American Museum of Natural History that sparked my interest in things that glow. 

This fascinating show explored bioluminesence, the phenomena in which living things such as fireflies actually generate their own light.

We paid a visit to this exhibit in the fall with our dear friends G and J, so when I started thinking about making a little holiday gift for them, I decided to create something that might evoke the glowy magic of the Creatures of Light show.

With a graphic designer for a husband, it's no surprise that I went with something typographic, and cross-stitched their initials:

And here they are in their full bioluminescence:

I'm happy to report that this special embroidery floss is actually a true pleasure to stitch with. Unlike most of its sibling flosses in the sparkly category, which cause howls of frustration in embroiderers across the land as they knot and tangle at will, this stuff just glides through as you stitch.

But it can be hard to find! I went to several local craft shops and was surprised that nobody carried it. I finally hooked myself up at the Thread and Links Etsy shop, which carries a range of lovely needlework supplies. Treat yourself to a skein or two; I'd love to see what you stitch with it!

First Pattern Download on Fourteen Countess!

For some time, I have been wanting to digitize my cross-stitch patterns (I sketch my ideas with graph paper and pencil) and make them available to others. I finally sat down and worked out a simple process using a very basic design, my recent HIV/AIDS awareness ribbon. I wanted to share this one first because I knew it would be the easiest to create, but also because I thought folks might be interested in making use of it for charitable fund-raising purposes. It can be stitched in any color you like: red for HIV/AIDS, pink for breast cancer, the options are endless!


I've added a new page called Free Downloads where this free pattern can be found and downloaded. 


Under the Creative Commons license that I recently created for the blog, folks are free to share my work and create works derived from it for non-commercial purposes, so long as an attribution is given to Fourteen Countess. Enjoy!

Solvy's in!

Woo hoo! My long-awaited Solvy water-soluble stabilizer has come in!

I have never worked with this stuff, but from the way people rave about it, I am very excited to try. I think this is going to make it a lot easier for me to get my designs onto fabric, especially onto felt. I'll be sure to share some results soon!

Crane/stork scissors

I have pretty much always wanted a pair of those beautiful, gold- and silver-colored bird scissors used by embroiderers, but I never got around to tracking down a pair. 


You can imagine my delight when we stopped by my in-laws' place for a quick visit this weekend, and my wonderful mother-in-law hooked me up with these beauties:

Aren't they gorgeous? I'm not sure if they are meant to represent a crane or a stork -- perhaps I'll have to do a little internet research later on to see what I can learn about their history. Either way, I will be looking forward to using these every day!

Crafting the craft room

I have been having a really tough time pulling my craft projects together in the last couple of weeks. In addition to being really busy with other things, I had let my office/craft room get totally out of control. Today I decided to whip it into shape. Here's a before picture. Scary!

But we're really fortunate to have a big closet with lots of shelves in this room, so it was a piece of cake to start corralling all our gear:

My beloved label maker was a huge help:

And here's how the room looks now:

My girlfriend and fellow Beaconite Alison gave me this gorgeous fish hanging after a trip she took years ago to China:

Just look at that needlework! I hung this right by my sewing table because it will be a real source of inspiration for me while I work.

And these watercolors went right over my desk:

Steven painted them when he was in college, and then gave them to me years ago when we were first dating. They're my favorite thing to look at in my pretty new room!

Gloves for achy hands?

Ouch! This has never happened to me before. But now that I'm stitching for up to two hours each day as I commute, my hands have actually started to throb!

I've been wondering if these things would help?

The nerd factor with these is pretty high, but I think it might be worth it if they gave me some relief. Anybody tried them out?

Floss run

I was able to make a quick run for embroidery supplies over the long weekend. I tried out a new craft store -- which shall remain nameless, because I thought it was rubbish and I don't want to be nasty, or you know, get sued -- and I picked up a few floss colors that I needed to replenish:

I really enjoyed experimenting with some twisty floss at the embroidery class I took on Saturday, so I grabbed some bold red and a rich dark brown to play with:

I'm really psyched to try out my new disappearing ink pen.

I can sketch an embroidery design on fabric and it will either disappear all on its own in 48-72 hours (if I use the purple ink), or I can erase it with water (the blue ink). You didn't think I'd just start doing willy-nilly free-hand stitching without some kind of safety net, did you?

A bit of a floss fanatic

We moved last year, and after thirteen years of kicking around in teensy Manhattan apartments, it's pretty marvelous to finally have enough room for all our stuff. For so long, I only hauled my craft projects out at the holidays because I couldn't stand to have them strewn about my living space the rest of the time.

The only craft supplies that I've always managed to keep in really good order are my cross-stitch floss caddies. I've got two of them. One is pretty full:

And the other one is still growing, with some metallic threads and buttons thrown in for special projects:

I've got them organized according to their DMC floss numbers, so it's super-easy to figure out which colors I have on hand and which ones I need to pick up when I start a new project. And since I'm doing my own designs these days, I can easily browse my stash when I'm brainstorming to see what will work for what I have in mind. Whenever I buy a new color, I wind it on a bobbin and add it to the caddy where it belongs.

That reminds me... I'm in the market for a rich dark brown floss... any suggestions?