White Threads

NZ teaching trip report

I posted regularly about my NZ teaching tour while I was there, on social media. I wasn’t able to also post here, as it is a little harder to do. So today I’d like to share with you some of the images from my trip.

I had a wonderful time, and really enjoyed sharing my knowledge with the students. The trip was simply wonderful and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to do it!

I’m on my way!

Smøyg in Auckland

We had a lovely time over two days with smøyg in Auckland.

Stitching in a beautiful, naturally lit room

Making good progress

Frisian Whitework in Waikato

In Cambridge, we had two days of Frisian whitework, working on my Tree of Life design.
Frisian whitework in waikato

Frisian whitework in waikato

Where I was staying, while teaching for Waikato Guild, was simply lovely. Look at the view! Look at all that green!
look at that view!

Hardanger Mystery Sampler in Waikato

We planned this trip only shortly before I went. That meant that when I was proposing the classes, I hadn’t yet designed or stitched this project, so it was known as the Hardanger Mystery Sampler. I thought that they were quite game signing up for a project that they had no idea what it was, other than Hardanger!

Hardanger in Waikato

At the end of the class, they’d achieved all this! I was thrilled!

Mountmellick in Waikato

My last two days for the Waikato Guild were on Mountmellick embroidery. They learned a heap of stitches and started putting them on their cushion fronts.
Mountmellick class

Mountmellick class

While in Cambridge, they wanted to thank me for the huge amount of pre-stitching I had done for the Hardanger class – 2 hours for each student – and so they presented me with a medal! It was such a lovely surprise!

Carole presented me with the medal.

super star teacher

It was in Cambridge that I was finally able to meet Barb, the wonderful woman who took a chance and invited me to come to teach them in New Zealand. On 25th August, Barb made a phone call asking if I was available, seeing I wasn’t going to London anymore. Why not?! And so, on 31st October, I was on the plane heading to NZ. THANK YOU, BARB! You’ll never know how much it meant to me that you did this!
me and barb

Hardanger in Auckland

Back to Auckland for another class; this time Hardanger.
Hardanger in Auckland

Hardanger in Auckland

Mountmellick in Whanganui

The final destination for my whistle-stop tour was Whanganui, where I had an enthusiastic class of Mountmellick stitchers.

Off to Whanganui. Not the smallest plane I’ve ever been in, but certainly not huge!

Mountmellick in Whanganui

And then it was home, in a happy but exhausted state!

Thank you to Barb for the invitation and for all your organisation. Thank you to Trudie and Ann for organising your parts as well. Thank you to my billet hosts Penny, Louise, Cheryl and Anne.

Thank you to all the guild groups who hosted me: Auckland, Waikato and Whanganui. Thank you to all the students who came. Thank you for your beautiful stitching.

Thanks for all the fun we had together, the laughs, the sharing of ideas, the sharing of food, and thankfully not too much of the sharing of viruses!

I look forward to coming to New Zealand next year for the ANZEG conference in July, in Dunedin. My classes are already fully booked. (Hooray!)

First finishes from NZ trip

Whenever I teach a class, I always tell the students that I love to see photos of finished work, even if it is 10 years down the track! The first two photos have come through, following my recent New Zealand trip.

Lesley Anderson completed her Frisian Whitework Tree of Life within days of the class, and she’s now mounted it, ready for framing. It is beautiful, Lesley!

Andrea O completed her Hardanger Sampler, doing a simply marvellous job of it.

I really am delighted with how these have turned out. Congratulations ladies!

And just so you know, I never share such photos without first obtaining permission, and I always ask under what name the stitcher would like to be credited.

PS. I’m still sick and not back in the office yet.

Hardanger Filling Stitches advance copies

I’m back from NZ, safely at home, and I’m supposed to be back in the office, but I’m unwell. Not covid, thankfully, but also not surprising, given how exhausted I was from the trip!

Holding Hardanger Filling Stitches in my hands
I thought you would like to see what arrived while I was away: the advance copies of “Hardanger Filling Stitches”! To state things plainly, I DO NOT YET HAVE THE BULK SHIPMENT OF BOOKS, and as such, I am not yet posting pre-orders!

Advance copies are the six copies (that’s right, only six) that are sent in advance of the bulk shipment. They’re the last time I get to check the book before they are shipped. At this stage, you’re basically checking that they’ve printed the book on the right paper, and all the pages are there. You couldn’t change anything at this stage because the books are already printed.

So, the books are currently being shipped, and I don’t know yet when they will get to me. Some time in December, all going well on the docks at Sydney. Last week one of the major dock companies had a cyber attack which shut them down for a few days, and shipments started to bank up on the docks. Hopefully this will have no effect on my shipment.

As I am unwell, I’m not yet back in the office. I’m sorry, you’ll need to be patient with me. I’ll get to the orders and enquiries that came in while I was away as soon as I can. While there’s a mountain of work to be done, I need to rest and recover.

Heading to New Zealand

From one tree hill, Auckland

Today I start heading in a New Zealandly direction, and the Vetty Creations office is closed. I won’t get to any more orders other than what has already come in, and therefore will have to send any that come in today, upon my return. All orders and enquiries that come during my absence will be attended to upon my return. There is a note on my website advising of this.

I’m really glad that so many have told me that you’ve been enjoying my series of sneak peaks of the stitches in “Hardanger Filling Stitches” and other embroideries from my back catalogue. I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to continue that while in NZ, as even though I can schedule posts in advance (most of the time I schedule the bulk of a week’s posts in advance) there’s a time factor involved.

I still have heaps of preparation to do for my classes before I leave (with the very short lead time for this trip, it has been a bit of a struggle to get everything done in time!). So if I get to scheduling posts, I do, and if I don’t, I don’t. My plan is to have some internet access in NZ, but while I’ll hopefully remember to take photos in my classes and post them, I don’t think that I’ll have the chance to do much else.

So there may be a little break in the proceedings for a few weeks, and then I’ll be back, probably very tired but wonderfully inspired and beaming with delight following my time with talented stitchers in New Zealand. Being with fellow embroiderers and sharing our passion is always life-giving.

Photo is from One Tree Hill in Auckland last time I was in NZ to teach at The Great Escape in 2019.

Hardanger Filling Stitches – Greek cross

A very popular Hardanger filling stitch is the Greek cross, sometimes also known as the Maltese cross. This is beloved by many because there are so many things you can do with it; so many lovely variations! We will explore some of the other variations later in this series.

We’re part way through a series exploring the stitches that are featured in my forthcoming book, Hardanger Filling Stitches. If this is the first post you’ve seen in the series, have a look for the others.

Hardanger Filling Stitches by Yvette Stanton, will be arriving in Australia in December 2023, New Zealand shortly after that, UK in February 2024, and the US in March. You can order it from your favourite needlework store, worldwide. If they don’t know where to get it from, you can ask them to contact me, and I will direct them accordingly.

Vetty Creations have supplies packs for the Hardanger Filling Stitch sampler featured in the book.

Sardinian Knotted Embroidery square mat

In a very similar vein to my recent post about my Portuguese Whitework sampler (square mat, always catches eyes!), today I thought you might enjoy the Square Mat from my book Sardinian Knotted Embroidery.

Sardinian knotted embroidery is known as Punt ’e Nù, and comes from the town of Teulada in Sardinia. (That’s Sardinia, off the coast of Italy, below Corsica. Not Scandinavia, as people often read it as! The number of people who read the cover and say “Oh, Scandinavian Knotted Embroidery” always surprises me.)

This is a really unique style of embroidery, which is worked so that the stitching sits almost entirely on the front of the fabric. When people turn it over, they’re surprised by how little there is visible on the back.

The patterns are worked with hundreds or thousands – depending on the size of the piece you’re working – of tiny little knots that sit on the front of the fabric. It makes a very textural embroidery.

Because they’re all knots, if you make a mistake, well… they’re knots… 🙂 so it’s best not to make mistakes! The knots are coral knots, which is a the most simple knot, apart from the knots that form themselves unhelpfully in our thread as we’re trying to stitch! Working them is not difficult. Getting them in the right place can be.

I designed this project as a “wow project” to go on the cover of the book. The motifs include cockerels, hearts, cherries, teeth (I’ll never forget a lovely Sardinian lady who was explaining some of the traditional motifs, tapping on her teeth and saying “dentini!”), and crosses.

Thank you

In response to yesterday’s copyright post:

Thank you for the lively discussion. This is my page and I expect a certain level of behaviour here. I ask that you be kind and respectful. I retain the right to shut down discussion when needed, like if I have way too much to do to monitor the discussion.

Thank you for all the words of encouragement and for the private messages of support. Thank you to those who shared my post widely, especially other designers and authors, as we all experience this.

Thank you to all who call out this behaviour when you see it. I am incredibly grateful for you standing up for those of us who this affects directly. I am grateful that you can see that it affects our industry as a whole, because there is more than one designer who has ceased trading because of copyright breaches. I know that most people do not breach copyright, and I am grateful for that.

I want to state plainly that there are NO places on the internet where my books can be legally downloaded. If you come across any of my books for download, they are illegally put there by someone with no right to do so. Whether it is free to download or costs you money to download, it is illegal. If you have paid money in the past for this, that money does not come to me in any shape or form. The only format that my books can be purchased in legally, is real, hold-them-in-your-hands books. Anything else is illegal.

I also want to state plainly that copyright breaches are not an unusual occurrence. It happens to ALL designers, ALL authors, ALL the time. Yesterday was just a day where I felt disgusted enough to post about it. It is constant, and I could spend all my working hours trying to get my illegally posted intellectual property removed from the internet. It’s been a huge problem for a very long time.

Thank you to those of you who stand up for what is right. Thank you for refusing to copy that chart, project or knitting pattern for the person in your craft/FB/friendship group who asks for a copy. Thank you for saying why you won’t. As JK Rowling says via Dumbledore, “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”

Hardanger Filling Stitches – woven fan with two spokes

This is a woven fan with two spokes. There are many variations of woven fans of which I will show more during this series. This one has two spokes which are used as the framework for the weaving. Others have three spokes, or even more.

Vetty Creations have supplies packs for the Hardanger Filling Stitch sampler featured in the book.

Housekeeping – copyright issues

Books by Yvette Stanton

Writing books about embroidery is my livelihood. This is how I work to pay my bills. I work to support my family by doing this. I create books, illustrations, photos, diagrams, text and more that are my intellectual property.

Each of my books has a copyright statement in the front. It boils down to this: This is my work and you cannot reproduce it in any form without prior permission from me/my publisher (that’s me), in writing.

No one is allowed to photocopy pages from my books to use in their own classes. No one is allowed to copy my stitch instructions to teach anyone else (that includes photocopying, scanning, videoing and more). No one is allowed to make copies to give to their friends. No one is allowed to copy and sell instructions that come from my books.

If you do, you are breaching the laws of copyright. Even if you don’t care for the law, you are also breaking trust with me. You are stopping me from earning from my books, because you’re giving away my intellectual property for free or even making people pay you for it!

If a class all uses one copy of a book to learn one of my projects, you are also stopping me from earning from my books. Each student or participant should own their own copy.

Otherwise it’s stealing. Pure and simple.

Maybe you think I’m being greedy by saying this. I’m not being greedy. I deserve to be paid for work done.

If you go to the supermarket, you have to pay for the goods you leave with. If a plumber does work for you, you have to pay the plumber. Why do people think that taking from authors and designers is any different? We deserve to be paid for our work.

I have, just today, learned of a huge breach of trust with regards to copyright. I am really upset. I am completely gobsmacked. I am simply reeling.

Just don’t do it. To me or anyone else. It’s stealing.

Hardanger Filling Stitches – buttonhole eyelet at intersection

In this sample from the Hardanger Filling Stitch sampler in my new book Hardanger Filling Stitches, we can see a buttonhole eyelet. This is another example of a stitch that can be worked on an intersection.

This is a single buttonhole eyelet, which is worked as a focal point in a section of needleweaving. They could be worked across entire sections on every intersection if you wish. I will just caution you to say that “just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should”! In the right circumstance it could look great, but across a whole section, it could end up being way too much!

Vetty Creations have supplies packs for the Hardanger Filling Stitch sampler featured in the book.

White Threads

NZ teaching trip report

Smøyg in Auckland

Frisian Whitework in Waikato

Hardanger Mystery Sampler in Waikato

Mountmellick in Waikato

Hardanger in Auckland

Mountmellick in Whanganui

First finishes from NZ trip

Hardanger Filling Stitches advance copies

Heading to New Zealand

Hardanger Filling Stitches – Greek cross

Sardinian Knotted Embroidery square mat

Thank you

Hardanger Filling Stitches – woven fan with two spokes

Housekeeping – copyright issues

Hardanger Filling Stitches – buttonhole eyelet at intersection

New book coming soon!

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