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Treasure Chest hardanger project

yvette — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:20:40 +0000

On Friday I received my copy of the latest issue of “Inspirations” magazine. In it I have a new Hardanger project published. The project was a collaboration between me and Janie Hubble.

At the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair last year I found some lovely scrummy Cottage Garden Threads colours and felt that I just *had* to use one in a project. And so I quickly designed a Hardanger on my computer one night after the show, and started stitching it on the train on the way in to the city the next day.

I asked Janie, who I was sharing the stand with, if she’d be interested in collaborating on it with me. Janie makes beautiful fabric covered boxes. She happily agreed and so our Hardanger-topped box came about.

My only photo of the embroidery is where the fabric isn’t totally flat, but I guess its better than nothing. Its not mounted on the box lid because I then sent it off to Janie for her to do all that, of which she did a lovely job!

There are much nicer photos of the project – they’ve called it “Treasure Chest” – on the Country Bumpkin website and in the magazine!

If you’d like to make it, you’ll need to avail yourself of Issue 73 of Inspirations magazine.

Class proposals

yvette — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:36:36 +0000

Over the next few days I have to get stuck into some class proposals. I’ve had a few letters over the past months asking for class proposals, but just haven’t had the chance to do anything about them. Thankfully the submission dates have not yet passed.

These are for classes into 2013, which seemed such a long way off when we were in 2011, but now I guess its not really all that far away!

Elizabethan panel

I’ll be submitting a range of proposals, including Portuguese Whitework, Mountmellick, and do you remember the Elizabethan style embroidery I did for fun a few years ago? I’m also thinking of doing a small one-day class proposal using some of those techniques.

So this means that apart from sorting through projects already made for classes to see which ones I’d like to teach again, I’m just going to *have* to design and make a small Elizabethan project in the next few days. Oh what a dreadful chore! (wink!)

video preview under way

yvette — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:31:23 +0000

I spent a bit of time on Friday and Saturday working on a video preview of “Portuguese Whitework”. It’s been quite fun.

I have no idea about video – my brain designs better in two dimensions – even though I did some really basic stuff at uni when I did my design degree. At the time I decided video wasn’t really for me. However, I am enjoying the challenge of making the video!

My husband and I chose some music for it the other night. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed about the music, because looking for some royalty-free music to use was also something I had never done before. We found some websites where these sorts of things are available, and searched through the ones with “Portugal” or “Portuguese” amongst their keywords. Found some lovely classical guitar type pieces, and eventually whittled it down to the one that works best with my video. I’ll probably purchase the music today.

I also need to speak with my shipping agent today to work out when the books are likely to get here, so that I can set a release date. The printer has given me a shipping date, but I just need my shipping agent to give me an idea of how long it might take to get to Sydney, through the dock system and customs.

Its all happening here!

photographing cupcakes

yvette — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:34:37 +0000

I spent some time on the weekend taking more photographs of embroideries for “Portuguese Whitework”. I took delivery of the cupcakes I had ordered from a friend so that I could use them as props for one of my photos. They were absolutely gorgeous, and I was really pleased with how the resulting photo of the embroidery turned out.

Yesterday I spent several hours removing the wash-out pencil from and damp stretching the tablecloth. It is now drying on the floor in our lounge room. I had hoped to photograph it this week, but it looks like the weather is not being my friend. I had hoped to try photographing it at my sister’s – she has a nice outdoor area with a table that might work – but with showers forecast for the whole week, I don’t think it will be happening this week!

I also started work on the final projects for the book – a set of Christmas tree ornaments, though of course they don’t need to only be used on a Christmas tree!

When all the embroideries are finally finished and photographed, I will be sending out another of my email updates about the book with some sneak previews of some of the projects. If you’re not signed up for the email list specifically for “Portuguese Whitework”, you may like to get yourself on that list.

If you’d like to join, please let me know in the comments section. I should be able to get your email address from that. Alternatively, you can go to our contact page and fill in the form there, to let me know of your interest, and your email address so that I can add it to the list.

dreaming of bullions

yvette — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:31:46 +0000

I feel like a lot of my dreaming time was filled with making bullions last night. Perhaps that reflects how many I have done recently? It reminds me of the nightmare I had when I sent my stitch dictionary off to the printers. I think that my day job is invading my sleep too much!

A few weeks ago a friend asked if there was going to be a bookmark in the book, as she felt that would be an excellent project for a beginner like her. I said that there was not as the bullions would be too thick to fit in a book as a bookmark, but that there would be other small projects suitable for a beginner.

But she got me thinking. One of the things about a bookmark is that it also requires very little finishing expertise. It doesn’t require a sewing machine, and has no fiddly construction bits. It really is an ideal project for a beginner.

So yesterday, after spending some time damp stretching the Portuguese Whitework sampler project, my mind was free to move on to new things. On the walk to school in the afternoon to get the kids, I devised a bookmark design that was simple to stitch and make, and where the thickness of the bullions would not be within the pages of the book.

I started it last night, and will finish it this morning. It is simple, but effective, and will be an excellent beginner project and quick gift. It is nice to get a project done so very quickly! Thanks for the inspiration, Belinda!

BATB Hardanger bookmark kits

yvette — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:40:12 +0000

Because the advertising for next year’s Beating Around the Bush conference is now out, I have already had a few enquiries for the kit for the Hardanger Bookmark that I will be teaching.

I think it is lovely that people are keen to try this project, but the kit is not yet available. I have not yet even written the instructions! I ask that you be patient, as I won’t have the chance to even think about this until after the book I am currently writing is finished. Being completely realistic, I will probably end up writing the instructions and putting the kits together in the month before the conference.

The kits will only be limited editions – once they are gone, they are gone. This is because I don’t generally stock Hardanger fabrics and threads for sale – there are so many different types and colours of fabric and thread that it could take over my business. Writing books is my core business, not selling Hardanger supplies, and there are many excellent businesses out there who will happily sell you Hardanger supplies.

If you are interested in the kits though, and would like to be one of those who purchase a limited edition kit for the bookmark, you can register your interest here. That will help me with numbers for how many kits I should make up.

The advertised kit cost in the Beating Around the Bush programme does not include any postage (because I will hand deliver them to the students in my class!) and therefore is different than what will eventually be here on the Vetty Creations website. I am sure you understand this.

So, in short, the kits for the Hardanger Bookmarks that I will be teaching at Beating Around the Bush will be available after the conference in April 2012. They will be limited edition kits, but you are welcome to register your interest now, to purchase one. Thank you for your patience.

new project

yvette — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 19:22:55 +0000

A little while ago we purchased a new iron as our old one had gone up in a puff of smoke. The one we purchased had a really bad design fault: the cord came out the bottom of the iron and interfered with the stability of the iron when it sat upright on the ironing board. The manufacturer agreed that this was a fault and said that if we returned the one we purchased, they would replace it with the newer, redesigned model designed to be stable.

The problem with this was that it meant we were going to be without an iron for about 5-10 business days. Who can go without an iron for that long, especially when much of their life revolves around fabric?

Fortunately we were able to borrow an iron for part of the period, which made it a bit more bearable. And then the new iron arrived yesterday morning. The fault is indeed fixed.

Starting a new embroidery project for the book seemed like the perfect way to celebrate the arrival of the new iron! Yesterday I began a sampler project, with a huge collection of bullion embroidery motifs. Its not quite as large (in terms of the embroidery quantity, not size) as the tablecloth, but its not a small project either. Hopefully it won’t take too long!

Mountmellick in Hobart

yvette — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:26:23 +0000

If any of you are in Hobart (or nearby) you might like to know that I will be teaching a Mountmellick embroidery class at A Stitch in Time on 29th and 30th of September. The project will be my Honeysuckle and Rose Doily.

You can find out more details and book through the shop itself: A Stitch in Time. I’d love to meet you there!

I spent the day yesterday working on making up my Portuguese whitework cushion. Mmm… I love it very much! Today I will make the inner cushion to stuff it with, add the button closures to the back, and then it will be all done. I was writing the instructions as I went, which is much easier to do than trying to remember later how it was done.

Next comes the fun part of photographing it.

portuguese page

yvette — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:01:39 +0000

Just wanted to show you that there’s a reason for having very little to say at the moment – I’ve just been too busy with technique pages for my Portuguese Whitework book. So here’s a page from the book that I did yesterday.

To give you an idea of how slow-going it can be, I did just two pages like this yesterday. At about 10am, I had nearly finished the first page, then about one diagram later, it was nearly 11:30am. Still, I remember when I was working on the Ukrainian book, one particular diagram took me about 6 hours. (Yep, just ONE!)

The page hasn’t been edited, checked or anything like that, so it could completely change before you ever see it in real life. Probably I’d like to fit a photo in there somewhere too…

cushion inspiration

yvette — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 20:28:40 +0000

Yesterday I spent some time fiddling around with a cushion design. I design on computer, placing motifs and elements on a grid which represents the fabric. This means I can move things around easily, try things out, and get a good visual idea of how things are working.

I went through a few different possibilities and none of them were really “working”. They just weren’t right, and therefore I wasn’t happy with them.

And then, inspiration struck! I came up with an idea that I had never thought of before, and hoped it might work. So I moved things around on my screen, and I loved the result!

Thanks to Veronica’s (The Creative Finisher!) great cushion finishing suggestions early in the day yesterday, I decided that a cushion with a flat flange was the way to go. I like the simple understated elegance of this style of cushion. I’ve made them before, and I really like the look. (See how easy it is to convince me?!)

No, I haven’t yet finished the tablecloth, but I’d like to work on a smaller project next week. Therefore I want the new design and the supplies all lined up, ready to go.