Portuguese whitework in Brisbane

Back from an excellent weekend in Brisbane last night. I’d been at AllThreads Embroidery teaching Portuguese whitework on Saturday and yesterday. We had so much fun!

We started off the class with me showing the photos I took of the embroidery and the town in comes from in Portugal, from my visit there in 2009. It helped to give context to an embroidery style that was completely new to them.

They learned how to work the wrapped bar framework, and then the bullion embroidery motif in the centre. One lady had never done any drawn thread work before, and therefore had never done any precision cutting of thread before. She learned how to, at this class, and was rightly pleased with her results. Most of them found my technique of working bullions (stab style, rather than scoop style) easier than any they had ever done before. One commented, “I’ve never found bullions easy before today.” She was very pleased.

Most of them nearly finished their embroidery (one did!) and they loved the style. I took with me the square mat project I have already finished for the book, and another one, a runner, which is currently underway, as inspiration. I think a few of them would have been very happy for the square mat to go home with them…! They were absolutely champing at the bit for me to have my book on it ready for them to purchase. They’ll just have to be a bit more patient yet!

Thanks to Kerryn from AllThreads Embroidery for having me. I had a lovely weekend sharing a new (to them) form of embroidery with other embroidery lovers. I also loved seeing Kerryn’s expanded shop, which is much bigger now than when I was last there about two years ago. I reckon she has a better selection of threads and embroidery products than any other shop I’ve been to. The shop really lives up to its name!