Chris Rogers' Beaded Herringbone Mandala
I found Chris’ blog, Ella’s Craft Creations, though her participation in Sharon B’s TAST challenge this year. She is doing amazing things with all the stitches so far, using beads and mandala forms.
At the end of the year, she is going to put all the mandalas together into a wall hanging and auction it for St. Luke’s Hospice Charity in the UK.
In the meantime, we can all enjoy her beautiful work as she posts detailed photos on her blog!
I found this wonderful Seascape via Pinterest (which is a great site. I pin a lot of my favorite embroidery photo finds there, so if you want a fix on a day other than Monday, this is the place to look!).
Anyway. Sophie Gelfi is an amazing textile artist, mosaic creator and scrapbooker. I don’t know exactly where she is from, but it’s one of the French-speaking countries! 
(I couldn’t find an “about” page on her site, but she writes in French.)
I started at the seascape page, but found myself clicking images almost obsessively because everything was so pretty! Go. Look. Enjoy.
Back in 2008, Karen at kcEnamels took part in a bead journal project. This was April’s entry. I’m in love with the purple elephant.
I was browsing blogs Sunday and found this wonderful vintage purse (and a crewelwork screen below it). It really is amazing what we can find in little shops around our own towns!
If you enjoy quilting or other textile arts, the rest of her blog is also a wonderful read…
I highly recommend sliding into your local antique or junk shop. You might find a treasure like my poppies or the purse above…
And so little time to play with them!
Just offhand, I can think of bargello, berlin, broderie anglaise, hardanger, mountmellick, stumpwork, cutwork, punto in aria, zardozi, bunka, japanese embroidery, wessex embroidery, counted cross stitch, band samplers of every ilk, canvaswork, goldwork, shisha, macramé, blackwork, or nué, crewelwork, schwalmwork, Dresdenwork, Assissiwork, and so on…
My problem, of course, is that when it comes to thread I am a glutton. I want to learn everything and try every technique, no matter how complex. Of course, this isn’t feasible, especially when you realize that I include all thread work in that desire – including knitting, crochet, bobbin lace, needlelace, sprang and any number of other techniques that escape me at the moment, including plain sewing. (I have made a conscious decision NOT to try naålbinding — knitting on TWO needles was confusing enough for me. I don’t really want to try knitting with only one, however historical it is.
There isn’t, of course, enough time in the day to explore everything I want tot do. I try not to let that stall me, and just keep going. I do find myself back at three in particular that I love: cross stitch, silk shading, and crewelwork. I’m sentimental, and these are the three that my mother and grandmother taught me. Somewhere I still have my first cross stitch sampler — the one that took me four years to finish because I kept getting bored. When I find it I’ll post it. I have some sort of idea of charting it (it was stamped on cheap muslin) and doing it again in my current ability level and then framing them side by side. I think it would be cool. Will I make the time? Who knows.