A Portuguese Whitework weekend in Parkes

On Friday afternoon, I headed west on the train to Lithgow, then changed to a coach service to take me out to Parkes in Central West NSW. It was a journey of about 7 hours, but it was quite relaxing. I really should have taken a little personal light with me so that I could stitch on the bus, as the lighting was very inadequate. It would have been hard to read, let alone embroider, but embroider I did… just very slowly.

I was warmly welcomed by a member of the Parkes Group of the Embroiderers’ Guild of NSW. On the Saturday and Sunday I taught Portuguese Whitework to members of this group and also a few from the Dubbo Group. We had a lovely time. At times it was silent with concentration, and at other times there was raucous laughter. We had fun!

The students were each making one of the ornaments from Portuguese Whitework. They made great progress, with at least two finishing their ornaments including the construction, in class, and a number of others were quite close.

One of the highlights of the weekend, for me, was learning a “new stitch” which arose from a student thinking she was following instructions, but adding her own little twist. We named the resultant eyelets, Dianne’s Eyelet (or Di’s Eyes for short!). They sat flatter and were more stable than regular buttonhole eyelets. It was a pleasure to learn this new stitch.

I flew home (quite a bit quicker than the train/bus, at only one hour duration!) late on Sunday afternoon, and was treated to a simply gorgeous sunset as we climbed out of Parkes.

Thank you so much to the members of Parkes Group for your generous hospitality. I felt so welcome and was well looked after. I hope to see you all again soon! I do love visiting country groups of The Embroiderers’ Guild.