All One Thread subscribes to the Cloth Roads news letter [email protected]. They often post blog stories about hand embroidery crafts people from around the world. You must have a look at their recent post about Shipibo embroidery from the amazon.

"The Shipibo women handstitch complex linear fractal patterns onto cotton cloth using brightly-colored threads–each square a unique, imaginative design. Girls learn to embroider patterns at about age 6 or 7, learning from their mothers or grandmothers. The stitched patterns express identity and their creative style." by MARILYN MURPHY

We will be sharing our WED submissions over time. Here is one from Christina Free. Thank you Chris!

This piece started life as an Arlee Barr indigo-dyed piece of cotton. When I first bought some of her natural-dyed fabrics I was nervous about adding embroidery to them but Arlee said once I had paid for them they were mine and I could do what I like with them; however I still like to acknowledge her input as without it what I do would be very different.
 
I immediately saw night in this one: night, water, trees with a clear division down the centre.  I know all the books tell you not to divide a picture plane in this way but here there wasn’t an alternative and in any case I like breaking rules.  So on the left side is the tree trunk, embroidered with literally millions of french knots and other stitches and on the right is the water embroidered in essentially kantha stitch.  The shapes on the water I see as reflections of the moon, or drifting leaves or ? – it all depends on my mood at the time.
 
It took me over a year to embroider this piece but that is all right.  I don’t mind spending the time to get something the way I envisage it.  Often a piece takes on its own life and dictates where it wants to go but this one was very willing to stay with my vision. 

Our World Embroidery Campaign has been sent and we have started to receive photo's and stories. Its' a great start to building our global hand embroidery collage. Thank you, thank you.
Stay tuned for our WED facebook page!

We are excited to announce the 5th anniversary of World Embroidery Day. All One Thread is inviting you to participate in WED by sending us a photo of your favourite hand embroidery piece along with a short description to tell us what makes it your favourite! Check out our Special Events tab or send to [email protected]

This could be something you created, a gift you received, something you bought, or a piece given to you from a past generation.

Our target is to collect pieces from 20 countries around the world and create a collage to celebrate the heritage and continued importance hand embroidery plays in our world today.

We are hoping to make this years event the biggest yet!

Greetings from New Mexico, where Paula Claycomb, one of All One Thread's founders, lives. Our other director is Lynn Sim, who moved in mid-2014 from Egypt to Mexico. Both of us are amateur embroiderers and admire greatly the workmanship and creativity that all our members possess. The more we see of the fantastic embroidery that is produced around the world, the more we are convinced that All One Thread has an important role as a global network. 

Each of you has come to All One Thread for one or more reasons, and we think our five objectives cover the gamut. From wishing to market their embroidered goods to wanting to get together with other embroiderers to hoping to contribute to a central archive of stitches and designs, individuals have found All One Thread. 

Like all of you, we have many other roles in our lives. We are mother and grandmother; Lynn is a yoga enthusiast; Paula is a consultant in Communication for Development and travels to several countries every year. That being said, we continue to make small steps towards our bigger dream of bringing embroiderers from many countries together and of creating a database for all things related to embroidery. 

All One Thread also has three wonderful Board members and next month's blog will introduce them to you. If you can't wait until then, go to the "About" tab on the website and visit our Board page.

Please let us know what you are doing and if you would like to be more involved. Share your stories and photos with us and we will share them on the website.

All for now, Lynn and Paula

2015 poses to be an exciting year for All One Thread. Thanks to the hard work from our board and other members, we have created a strong foundation from which to grow.

We are happy to share that AOT is now registered as a non-profit organization. This means that we can receive tax-exempt donations and funding for projects.

During 2014, we have developed relationships with textile artists; the Ivan Honchar Museum, Ukraine; Network of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (NEED), Lucknow, India; several 
e-commerce fair trade organizations; and many other hard working groups supporting hand embroiderers. The network is certainly growing!

One of our first major projects for 2015 is to coordinate a number of events to celebrate World Embroidery Day, July 30, initiated by the Swedish Embroiderers Guild in 2011. Some of you have sent ideas and expressed interest in making a splash on social networks. We also have some suggestions to hold events in India, Nepal, Ukraine, and Mexico. Please send us your ideas so we can help make them happen.

This monthly blog is intended to be a space where anyone can share a story, issue, or showcase hand embroidery products and artwork…anything that can raise awareness about hand embroidery from one corner of the world to the other.

We look forward to your posts!