The Stitching Sheep

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The Stitching Sheep The Stitching Sheep is all about my embroidery journey. On it, I share my makes, tricks and reviews as well as other needlecraft projects.

Slow progress is still progress!Cross-stitch is so incredibly slow but I am finally on the last section of my vintage be...
04/10/2026

Slow progress is still progress!
Cross-stitch is so incredibly slow but I am finally on the last section of my vintage bell pull with a Japanese design.
The design is very open so it requires a lot of counting and recounting! Finally the sea with the ships is done and the first of the cherry blossoms has started to appear. 🌸

As you might have seen from my stories I have been in Vienna for the last few days. I had an absolutely amazing time and...
28/09/2026

As you might have seen from my stories I have been in Vienna for the last few days. I had an absolutely amazing time and I would well recommend a visit. There is so much to see, do and eat!

Even though all of the other days have been great too, the cherry on the cake was a visit to M.Maurer Posamenten a factory who have been making passementerie for over 160 years. Finding out about this factory from one of your comments on my visit to the V&A east last year sparked the idea for a visit to Vienna together with my friend who used to live there and knows all the ins and outs.

They also make and sell goldwork threads, wires and other embellishments some of which I had only seen on finished embroideries before but never as items available to buy.

You can’t browse the shop but they have catalogues from which you can select your items and the staff get them for you to look at. As you can see I was like a kid in a candy shop and the staff were so kind and helpful.

I would have loved to have bought their entire range but as the price of gold is as high as it is I had to limit myself to items I would use the most.
Now I have seen the catalogue I can order online or also ahead of time of my next visit (and maybe a tour of the factory) as I will definitely be back.

As summer is drawing to a close it was time for another huge market and this one is the biggest of them all: La Braderie...
06/09/2026

As summer is drawing to a close it was time for another huge market and this one is the biggest of them all: La Braderie de Lille in France. It absolutely enormous (I have taken a photo of the plan and it is the last pic) and impossible to do in a single day. I have marked in black the route I walked yesterday and that was already 13kms! I try to focus on the yellow areas as those are the merchants stalls. The orange ones are those where anybody can set up a stall and the wares can be rather hit or miss.

I hadn’t bought much at all until the last hour when I found a lovely haberdashery stall (there aren’t many at all) in Rue de Réduit and I bought the cotton floche, buttons, spool stand and gold ribbon. The gentlemen told me about another haberdashery stall just around the corner where I bought the floral ribbon and wooden boxes but my eye was caught by the green cabinet in the stall next door. It was full of watchmakers stuff which I didn’t want but I managed to negotiate a price without the contents. After tying it to my shopping trolley and on the way back to the car I spotted this beautiful 1940s leather knitting needle case. What a last minute buy that was!

The first picture shows all of the items I bought as I bought them the other pictures show all of the items cleaned and where necessary restored. It was so nice to be spending another day outside today as well ‘playing’ with all of my new finds!

What is your favourite find?

It is definitely the flea- and antiquemarket season!Yesterday I drove all the way to Temploux in Belgium to visit their ...
23/08/2026

It is definitely the flea- and antiquemarket season!

Yesterday I drove all the way to Temploux in Belgium to visit their annual brocante. It was my third visit and this market is absolutely huge. I walked about 12 kms and many sections I only did once.
It is a market featuring a lot of collectibles (comics, popcultures), advertising and vintage. There is not an awful lot of needlecraft or haberdashery but I still managed a great haul.
As it is a huge market I do find shopping quite difficult as there is just so much.

The collection of French Knitting dolls I only spotted on my second pass of a section as the huge Jeanette drew my attention. I wanted to but only a couple but the owner threw in the rest too as she only wanted to sell as a job lot. I am researching them now and some are even from the 1920s. They will need a clean and some TLC and I will decide which ones will be keepers and sellers.

I also found this ribbon cabinet. I think I want to turn it in to a hanging cabinet for my ribbon stash, so I can make use of it. It will need a little TLC but it is still in really good condition and the glass is intact!

My first purchases were the embroidery book catalogue and the L’Alsacienne fabric dye shop display cart. I also found some more embroidery magazines for my collection.

I also got myself a Rotring technical drawing board. I love drawing patterns and such, I always wanted one when I was little and this new old stock was such a bargain. So excited I got one now!

The final item I got is this La Vache qui rit plate. It used to sit on a shop counter and was used to put change into.

Now I just have to decide what to ‘play’ with first!

Whenever I find some new thimbles for my collection it always requires a bit of reorganization to find space for them. D...
02/08/2026

Whenever I find some new thimbles for my collection it always requires a bit of reorganization to find space for them.

Despite their small size they can be difficult to display nicely. I love the big glass cabinet (see my stories for a full picture) I found, but it is getting close to capacity. One of the sellers at Kempton park has the exact same one to sell her charm and I have expressed an interest should she decide to sell it! The height of the shelves is just perfect to display the majority of my collection. The only annoying thing is that, because it a shop counter display, the door is at the back. Changing anything in the cabinet becomes a tour the force!

I always love finding original stands when they are available. I have got one for my Robert Earwicker cottages, my Wedgwood Jasperware Kings and Queens thimbles, my John Urwin wooden life of Christ thimbles and my RSPB bird thimbles.

The other displays were gifts and lucky finds and I made the stand for my Merryfield cats myself.

Which of the thimbles are your favourite?

After yesterday’s colourful thread rainbows in honour of world embroidery day and different kind of rainbow today.These ...
31/07/2026

After yesterday’s colourful thread rainbows in honour of world embroidery day and different kind of rainbow today.

These are all of the fabulous beehive yarn holders I have collected so far. I got the orange and blueish grey one during my visit to the UK last week.

I know that there is definitely a dark apple green one I am still missing but who knows what other colours might turn up!

These classic beehive yarn or wool holders were produced by NB Ware for Patons to promote their Beehive range of wools. They were first produced in the late 40s but most are slightly younger.

Happy World Embroidery Day!Celebrating with some lovely thread rainbows from my studio 🌈
30/07/2026

Happy World Embroidery Day!
Celebrating with some lovely thread rainbows from my studio 🌈

26/07/2026

My ‘new’ Sylko cabinet is all set up in my studio and I just love it!
I gave it good clean, a light sand and treated the wood. I am still on the lookout for a handle for the front so the glass will be easier to open, but it is very happy for now!
Displaying my collection of Sylko wooden bobbins in it makes it look even prettier!

21/07/2026

After the visit to I visited

It was fabulous to see how needles used to be made and how much of the process has stayed the same throughout the centuries and how much has changed (mainly to make it safer and quicker).

The museum also had a fabulous display of needlepackets, cases and cabinets. Lots of which have ended up on my wishlist now.

The museum also has a space for temporary exhibits. These are usually textile related but this time they had an exhibition about a Polish soldier who served during WWII curated by his grandson. My hometown was liberated by this soldier’s regiment and features on one of the posters. This was such a touching coincidence that I happened to be visiting at this exact time to see this exhibition.

21/07/2026

John James Needles factory visit!

I always use for my stitching so I was very excited to be able to visit the John James Needle factory in Redditch today. I hope my short reel shows how wonderful the visit was.

Dave and Val talked and where possible demonstrated the many steps that go into producing a packet of needles from the start with coils of soft wire, to cutting them into (double) lengths, making the points, stamping in the eyes, making them smooth, hardening and polishing to finally wrapping them up.

It was really amazing to see all of the steps that go into making something so small and yet to trivial to all of my embroidery projects.

Depending on the size of the needle many of steps are still done by hand too which makes those little tools even more impressive.

At the end of the tour I of course popped into the little shop they have on site (and which is open during office hours) and stocked up on the essentials!

Thank you Sue, Vicky and of course Dave and Val for such an insightful and enjoyable visit!

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Needle Mill Lane, Riverside
Redditch
B98 8HY

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