The new issue of Bust came today, and in it, I found an advertisement for this site: Sublime Stitching. The designs by embroiderer Jenny Hart are retro and cool, "not your gramma's embroidery." The pirate's probably going to jump to the top of the post-afghan stitching pile since the Dude's writing a pirate movie. The mermaids are groovy too. Make sure to read Jenny's story about how she got into stitching; it's pictorial and very touching.
I haven't done a lot of surface embroidery since I was a kid: I did a lot of crewel back in the 70s. Until my dissertation advisor's retirement last year... I contributed a square to a quilt people made. Mine was the only embroidered piece--I did a portrait of Lizzie Borden sneaking up on her father with an axe. I based it on Chris Hamilton's paintings of Lizzie Borden that I found on the web (they've disappeared, though a google images search will take you to the ghost). It makes sense in context: my dissertation was on women's violence. I did it in chain stitch with rayon floss. What a bitch, but it looks great. If I can get a picture of it, I'll post it here. Shoulda thoughta that sooner.