Am working on a small piece of embroidery
for a wedding gift right now. . . and feel a lot less "cheap" seeing this price tag! Surely justified in terms of time and effort. . . but MY GOODNESS what a large number nonetheless!

I've been noticing that this type of embroidered purse is really hot in fashion magazines in the US in the past two months. Most of them are just bargello with beads - this is the first queen stitch'd one I've seen. The price is a bit much for the size, but I'd say she's right somewhat on the time-consuming description. It's not a difficult stich, BUT getting the tension right is the difficulty factor.

I think the sampler on the masterclass took me about two months of straight queen stitching, with not doing any other embroidery at the time. The first month was hard - I fought it and didn't like it. The second month, I loved it and didn't want it to end. I'm looking forward to using queen stitch in the future.

Doing the Masterclass stitching is infinitely valuable, at least to me. I've noticed that even my regular hand embroidery has improved dramatically. I've improved in ways I didn't expect or hope for. Yes, I have the other two classes going on as well. I sat down last week to make a glasses case from an old Inspirations pattern, and wow - I can't wait to show you! It's almost done too. So glad you're doing well, and I promise I will come out of my cave this week.

Mary Alsop sounded SO familiar I had to google it and there a bunch of entries - this one has pictures: http://www.marybeale.com/journal/2003.html
And this one is an essay that includes a lot of references to her stuff: http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=umpress_tne
I also laugh at the word "tedious" - obviously NOT written by a stitcher!

I do find myself wondering who wrote this and who they are expecting to sell to. I wouldn't want to buy something that the maker thought was tedious, and certainly not for that price. Which, I expect, is about three times what the maker will see for it...

Normally I'd agree with the couldn't be a stitcher... I don't know about the "not written by a stitcher" thing... There were a bunch of handwork artisans a year or two ago that did a "publicity" video based on the idea of would you want to do this boring work? Theoretically so they could raise their prices. Raising prices (maybe not to the $1200 range) is a good thing, but telling people that we find our chosen job tedious kind of turned me off to the group! (And, I suspect the people they thought they were educating so they could sell things to...)

This is the site, if anyone is interested: http://thisishandmade.tumblr.com/
While I understand the sentiment, frankly, if it really WERE that boring for me, I wouldn't be doing it at all, let alone for pay. :)

Hi, it's been awhile since I have gotten a chance to visit. Hope this finds all well with you! What a lovely piece! So much work and it turned out beautiful!

Hi! I have really enjoyed reading your blog and expect to spend quite a bit more time here. I did a lot of embroidery growing up and am interested in it at this point from a historical bookbinding perspective. I want to make an embroidered book with a 17th century binding structure eventually and your blog is a great resource! I wanted to mention a book to you that you might find interesting - A Devotional Miscellany by Margaret H. Swain (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1966). It is a printed facsimile of a 17th C embroidered book where each page is embroidery on parchment. Very lovely designs! Thanks for taking the time to blog about your work! You do a fantastic job!

The sad truth is that, at $1250, for what she states is "months" of work - and we all know that's no exaggeration - it probably comes down to less than minimum wage (as we call it in the States), which no one can live on.

From what I've read, embroiderers were paid better in Elizabethan times (no to say they were wealthy, by any means), but it was equivalent to construction type work. I can't recall what book I read that in atm. Imagine today an embroider's work being considered equal in pay to a construction worker!