Launch of Inspirations 70

Yesterday I spent a wonderful day in Adelaide. I was there to be the guest speaker at Country Bumpkin‘s launch of Issue 70, speaking on my time in Ethiopia and particularly my visit to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. This was to tie in with the article that I have written for Issue 70 on my visit to the hospital in 2010. On my return I wrote to Margie Bauer (the editor of Inspirations) and said that I had an idea for an article for the magazine which wasn’t about embroidery but… Graciously they decided that because of its subject matter, that it would still be a perfect fit for the magazine, despite the fact that it wasn’t about embroidery.

Anyway, back to my visit to Adelaide! The new Country Bumpkin shop is lovely! Its full of all the goodies you’d want, and of course looks simply gorgeous. It was great to see CB’s new home.

The magazine launch was across the road at a local pub. It was very nice, and there was a delicious morning tea provided. Fiona Fagan (new owner of CB) introduced all the staff to us, with many familiar faces, and some new ones. Anna Scott, senior editor of Inspirations, then led us through all the projects that are in this issue, which were displayed in front of us. My absolute favourite would have to be a sublime footstool designed and stitched by Hazel Blomkamp (I hope I’ve spelt her name correctly) from South Africa. It wanted to come home with me!

The last project Anna spoke about was my butterfly curtain, worked in shadow embroidery on organza. They said it was the most difficult project they have ever had to photograph for the magazine! Because its organza, it moves if you just look at it(!), and being see-through, it means that you have to carefully consider what’s in the background. Sorry to cause you all so much trouble CB!

And then it was my turn to speak. I talked about our time in Ethiopia, some of the places we visited, and what it was like to live there. I showed them some examples of Ethiopian embroidery, and an Ethiopian woven silk scarf (silk is a new industry in Ethiopia). And then I told them about the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital.

As sometimes happens, there was a small hitch with the day: the copies of the magazine were still sitting on the ship dock, waiting to be released to CB! So there were only two advance copies in existence, and I still hadn’t seen the printed article before giving my talk. It meant that I was unsure of the photos they had used to go with the article, having supplied quite a number. In my talk, I mentioned that they would be able to see some photos of the lush grounds of the hospital in the article. At the end, Anna told me that they hadn’t had space to use those ones in the end! So people don’t miss out on seeing them, I’ve included them here.

The lush grounds of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. The building on the left houses one of the main wards.

A calm and restful beautiful place of healing.

I had been terribly nervous about giving my talk, and felt that it went very well. While I did “tear up” in a couple of places and had to stop to control my voice (talking about extreme poverty can do that to you) I think it showed the depths of my feelings for what I was talking about. There were quite a number who came up to me afterwards to talk further about it. It was lovely hearing from them about their thoughts on it, and how we need to hear more about this sort of thing. There are so many people in need, and they can do with our help.

In the afternoon I sat in on a class that was being run at the Country Bumpkin shop, and was able to talk further with the ladies there about my time in Ethiopia. They had all been to the launch, so some had questions to ask. It was a lovely day! Thank you so much to Fiona for inviting me to be the guest speaker, to the lovely audience, and to all the CB staff who made me feel so very welcome and at home.

It was lovely that a number of the ladies there were pleased to sponsor me in the Walk for Women, which is supporting the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. They were very generous, some giving small amounts, and some larger. ANY sponsorship/donation is greatly appreciated, whether large or small.

As an aside, on arriving home I found an email from the walk organisers to let me know that the donation issues for people who are outside of Australia have been resolved. And I quote:

Overseas donations can be made online at http://www.hamlinfistula.org.au/donate.html
Sponsors should put both the town (or city) and country name in the Suburb field. If the overseas address does not contain a State name, then also put the country name in the State field. Put the overseas postcode in the postcode field, or put 0000.
In the event field, make sure your sponsors put ‘Walk for Women Yvette Stanton’, or if that doesn’t fit, just ‘Walk for Women Stanton’, so that way the Hamlin Fund can keep track of your donations.
Please note that these donations will not be tax deductible for overseas donors.

Donations from within Australia can also be made at http://www.hamlinfistula.org.au/donate.html.