Enjoying stitches, colour, thread and fabric

I really really enjoyed making The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion. I loved learning new stitches and playing with them to see what variations I could come up with. I loved pushing them further than I would naturally normally do. Amongst my favourites would have to be Spanish knotted feather stitch, up and down buttonhole stitch and spiral trellis stitch.

I loved playing with colour. Probably this book will shock or surprise a lot of people. “Yvette does whitework” is possibly the sort of thing you’ve labelled me with. And with good reason too, seeing each of my three previous books have been on whitework, and even the name of this blog is “White Threads”.

However, I loved using coloured thread and coloured fabric for the samples in the book. The fabric I used was hand-dyed wool felt predominantly from Colour Streams, but also from Winterwood Toys and Kacoonda (I think!). I loved using the colours of the felt to guide my thread colour choices, either by choosing colours that blended, or contrasted, or both. I chose to use felt for several reasons: because it was nice and thick and therefore less likely to crumple and wrinkle because of my stitches on it – better for photography, because it had a lovely smooth surface so we all wouldn’t be distracted by the weave of fabric, and because the colours were lovely.

I also loved using a wide variety of threads. Some of my favourites were DMC’s Color Variations (which I think have now been discontinued in Australia… WHY??), Colour Streams silks, some offcut/leftovers skeins of wool from Kaalund Yarns, Stef Francis spun silk with flames, and spiral dyed silk by Jacinta Leishman. All of my favourites were variegated threads. I loved the way the colours changing in the thread interplayed with the colours changing on the fabric. The silk by Jacinta Leishman has a wonderful texture which gave interesting results to the stitches.

In planning the book, I figured that unless I had lots of lovely bright, colourful images, the book could look pretty boring, with just page after page of stitch diagrams and their accompanying text. So the point of the stitched samples was to draw people in with lots of vibrant colour, and to show them the fun you could have with the stitches. The stitched samples are what I have used to create a warm, inviting feel for the book.

It was noted by a fellow tutor at Beating Around the Bush that the bright nature of the book will make it very appealing for children. The book was partly written for my left-handed daughter, who loves bright, rainbow colours, so its possible that this unconsciously guided my choices of thread and fabric for the book.

Personally, I feel so very fortunate to have a job in which I can find so much enjoyment. I enjoy what I do, but honestly didn’t expect to enjoy this book SO MUCH. However, I’m very pleased that it turned out that way!

You can pre-order your very own copy of The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion NOW!