This year, the Queensland Country Womens Association (QCWA) has the Republic of Ireland as their country of focus. To celebrate this, and to help them learn more about the country, they do a soft-craft and a hard-craft. I don’t know what they have been doing as their hard-craft, but their soft-craft has been Mountmellick embroidery – a fact that warms my heart!
All year I have been receiving calls from ladies all over Queensland wanting to buy copies of our book Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature, and Mountmellick embroidery supplies with which to do their projects.
But now that there are so many Queenslanders out there doing Mountmellick embroidery, I want to see some of it! I am really hoping that there might be an exhibition of all these lovely Mountmellick embroideries at some time in the future that I might hopefully be able to go and visit.
Does anyone know if this is likely to happen? I know I have at least one QCWA reader – Yvonne, are you there?
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
Hi Yvette,
I don’t know about an exhibition of Mount Mellick embroidery but if you are in Brisbane around 26 – 29 October,our State Handcraft entries will be on display during the time of our State Conference. Entries of Mount Mellick embroidery will be on view along with beautiful examples of around 40 – 50 other crafts.
The craft displayed will be the finalists from branches and divisions all over Queensland – having already been processed through branch and division competitions throughout the year.
The hardcraft article this year is a Shamrock brooch – any medium. In my case, I have made a pretty brooch with Swarovski crystals – whether it will get to State finals remains to be seen. With luck and frantic burning of the midnight oil, I will also have my Mount Mellick piece ready by this Friday morning for our Division Finals – or not!
regards
Yvonne
Hi Yvonne – thanks for letting me know! I’ll be in Brisbane to teach for All Threads, but I think that’s in November…
Good luck with getting your Mountmellick done in time. When its finished, we want to see photos. 🙂
Hi, I live in the west of Ireland and am a member of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA). Our ICA Guild (Roscahill, Co. Galway) are currently learning Mountmellick embroidery. It’s amazing to hear the a similar group in Queensland are involved in a similar project – good luck to them! We find that your ‘Mountmellick: inspired by nature’ is a wonderful resource. Our left-handers have also purchased your ‘Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion’ and rave non-stop about how brilliant it is! We are hoping to have three small pieces of Mountmellick completed by the end of summer – so we have a big challenge ahead!
Regards,
Angelina
Hello Angelina,
How wonderful to hear from you! Isn’t that interesting to hear that two groups are doing similar projects at the same time? How well known is Mountmellick in Ireland? I assume that it is very well known, but I suppose that even if it is well known, it doesn’t mean that everyone knows how to do it. I would love to see photos of your Mountmellick embroideries when they are done (or even before!)
Thanks for the feedback on my books. I am so pleased that your group is finding them helpful. 😀
You’ve brightened my morning!
I visited Mountmellick when I was in Ireland in 2005 and spent a delightful morning at their tiny embroidery museum talking with the woman who was “manning” it that day. She was rapt that someone would come all the way from Australia to check it out. Some lovely pieces with fabulous back stories!
Rose, great to hear from you. Just want to let you know that I have not forgotten forwarding you those emails – its still floating there in the back of my mind, and I will do it (but AFTER this week!). Remind me if you want to!