There’s something about Punch Needle
Amy Oxford Punch Needle: how to choose yours! We’ve let them finally land in Europe, by popular request: the punch needles from the US reference brand – Amy Oxford (who’s also the best-known punch needle teacher in the US) – and w have studied them very well, to give you all the information you may need, to select the most suitable punch needle for your project. Selecting your punch needle might not be that simple, if you’re a beginner. In the instance of Amy Oxford punch needles, the numbers 8, 9, 10, 13 and 14 refer to the length of the needle (that’s not adjustable in these needles) and not…
Freudenberg: not just for sewing and quilting
Starting from this Fall, the brand manufacturing the most famous battings and fusibles in the world has decided to also deal with the world of embroidery. Freudenberg isn’t stranger to this world, to be true, thanks to their stabilizers and interlinings and, among them, the following ones: Filmoplast H 54, Solufix, Soluvlies, Stickvlies and Fixier-Stickvlies. However, a wide selection is often the reason for this question: “what’s the stabilizer fitting my embroidery project?”. So, to answer this question quickly and comprehensively, Freudenberg has developed the brand new “Vlieseline® Embroidery Set”, including all the five, above-mentioned stabilizers, in A3 size (297 x 420 mm), ready to test and coming with all…
Sprinklets: the little ones for great ideas
They have a “revealing” name, coming from “sprinkle” And they’re actually designed to be “sparkled” on any crafty project: starting from your birthday and Xmas cards, for example, and for any type of card. Take a look at those in the pictures here! They’re little embellishments (each piece is about 5 mm) to glue onto any kind of surface, made of a special polymer clay, making them light and colorful. Each pack contains a selection of different motives, such as little stars, flowers and pinwheels and, besides them, there are special-themed packs, with little hearts, mouse ears or other flowers. Gluing them on your craft projects, however, isn’t the only…
Maple Farm: Autumn is starting under the sign of Tilda
The latest, much longed for, collection from Tone Finnanger is finally here! Fabrics, kits, buttons and more that, this time, feature as their leitmotif – as well as unmistakable trait d’union – the earthy shades that we can see when the hot Summer gives way to the placid Fall, renewed in pastel look, in the perfect Tilda’s style! Umber, slate, dijon, mauve and rosehip get milder, in their softer shades, surrounding Autumn berries and leaves, together with retro florals and roses, resulting in a very romantic mood, ideal for soft Fall quilts, cushions and any other creative sewing project. This collection also includes four, brand new solids, making a wonderful…
Join the new Lanarte Secret Stitch Along!
It’s time for brand new, mysterious cross stitches and, once again, they’re from one of the best known and most appreciated kit manufacturers. The start is scheduled on Friday, October 9th, 2020 and we’ll be stitching for 10 weeks, with a new part of a secret pattern revealed week after week, directly emailed to each stitcher joining the SSA, according to the “magic formula” that Lanarte has got us used to! Joining is very easy: purchase the necessary kit at Casa Cenina, register your participation (from September 9th), in the Lanarte website. And stitch this mysterious subject together with thousands of other stitchers around the world, piece by piece and cross stitch…
Talking again about Needlepaints.
All the fans of Marilyn Leavitt Imblum – the very famous founder and designer of the immortal brands “Lavender & Lace”, “Told in a Garden” and “Butternut Road” – have certainly met, in her patterns, the Needlepaints threads: a limited range of floss created by Marilyn herself and dyed in Japan. They were finely variegated threads, organized in color shades with numbes from light to dark: 6 shades of Lavender/Blue (2001-2006) 5 shades of Orchid (2007-2011) 6 shades of Robin’s Egg Blue (2101-2106) Sadly, Marilyn died in 2012, but already when she was still alive and designed, she stated she had “trouble keeping these manufactured”. That’s why she thought of…
“How do I fix my fabric to this embroidery frame?”
This is definitely one of the most frequent questions we are asked. A, year after year, at Casa Cenina we have tried to steadily find embroidery frames that could ensure highest convenience in this sense. With the traditional embroidery frames from Dubko, we feel like we have found a very good solution. Not just because these frames are still made following artisanal methods in Russia (a country relying on a very old needlework tradition, including bead embroider, that’s a very challenging and quit complicated crafting technique), and not only because they’re made of finely carved wood, but because they’re frames with a quick and easy system to fix your fabric!…
Brief and useful notes: why are some DMC colors so hard to find
It’s true: some colors of the large range of the most loved stranded cotton from the famous French brand seem (and are!) truly impossible to find! You often ask us info about them, since – as often – they seem to have suddenly disappeared. And you often ask about some other colors that – even though listed in the color key of several patterns – here in Europe are simply impossible to find. Well, in the first instance, we’re referring to colors that DMC sometimes discontinue. There can be different reasons for that, though the most frequent ones are connected to textile dyes that the European Union has stated as…
Can you be eco-friendly even when crafting?
Sure, we can! As we’re taught by a number of people keen on creative recycling, who create amazing things, just giving a new life to materials usually considered as scrap materials. To explore this theme – definitely so topical and much discussed today! – you can now count on two brand new books (both in French, but with clear step-by-step pictures showing whole processes) with a whole lot of truly lovely, easy and 100% green projects: Couture maison durable & Atelier zéro déchet The former one includes 20 eco-friendly, sewing projects to create everyday objects (from shopping totes, to make up remover pads, just to mention some); while the second is…
Cotton VS polyester sewing floss: what’s better?
A quick guide to choose the right one. Here at Casa Cenina, we’re often asked this question and we’d like to clear up all doubts: in our opinion, there’s no “best one”, while there are different answers, according to the kind of sewing project we’d like to realize. On the one hand, it is true that cotton threads are often considered better quality, somehow “more precious”, than polyester threads. But, on the other hand, polyester swing floss is stronger than cotton ones and ensures thinner (though more resistant) seams, with less impact on the look of the finished item. However, cotton sewing threads is definitely better when it comes to…
