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Win a copy of Portuguese Whitework

yvette — Mon, 07 May 2012 21:06:05 +0000

If you haven’t yet been caught up in the excitement of my new book, head on over to the website of one of my biggest US fans – that would be Mary Corbet’s Needle’nThread! – and get yourself on the list to possibly win a copy of my new book “Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães”!

I’ve just had a lovely little while reading through all the comments from all the people who want to win the book, and why they want to win it.

I’ve been intrigued by the fact that at least one woman remembers her grandmother doing something like it. I’ve been greatly encouraged by people who say that on the basis of the excellence of other books by me that they own, that they know this one will also be excellent.

I seem to have given some people the horrors by putting cupcakes on one of the pieces of needlework in one of the photos! Many people love the small projects – particularly the ornaments. Can you remember when I was thinking through those ornaments and wondered here on the blog whether to present them as single ornaments or as a swag? Just think – if you commented on that post, YOU had a hand in helping me to create the book! (Thank you!)

And then others love the fact that there are large projects such as the tablecloth. Do you think we should let them know that that particular project nearly killed me?! (Only because I thought it was never going to end!)

It is wonderfully gratifying to think that there are so many people who would love to win the book. I am so pleased that my book has introduced them to something new, and inspired so many to try it. Many seem to be particularly taken by the image on the front of the book – for which I am glad, because the cover of a book *should* attract people!

Thanks to everyone for your encouragement of me. So much affirmation first thing in the morning should make for a great start to the day, especially as I am working on the drudge of preparing my tax for the tax-man…

I spent yesterday cleaning out my office searching for any bits of paperwork that I might need for my tax, and actually found it to be not such a bad experience as I had expected. You see, I kept finding skeins of thread throughout, underneath, on top of and behind all the mess! As soon as I’ve finished preparing the tax stuff, I’ll hopefully be able to get started on a project utilising some of those threads!

Mary’s Portuguese Whitework review

yvette — Fri, 04 May 2012 21:04:54 +0000

Mary Corbet, from Needle’nThread has done it again – a glowing review of my latest book, Portuguese Whitework! Her reviews are so terribly thorough that probably all your questions will have been answered in one go!

Some excerpts from Mary’s review:
Well, here it is! Yvette Stanton’s new hand embroidery book, Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães is out and available. And golly! It is beautiful!

If you’re familiar with Yvette’s other books on various types of lesser-known, beautiful whitework techniques, you won’t be surprised that this one is superb. I have to say, though, out of all her whitework books, so far, this one is my favorite. Perhaps it’s because her books just keep getting better and better, or maybe it’s because I have an affinity for the combination of drawn thread embroidery and surface embroidery. Guimarães embroidery just does this combination so well!

Some more…

Yvette takes the stitcher through every step of each technique, showing you how to turn the corners, how to secure the threads, where to hold your stitches and what’s going on under your fingers while you’re holding them, where and how to start new threads, and so forth. These are the little details that set her books apart – she really covers everything and she doesn’t leave you wondering.

And more…

I probably don’t have to tell you this is a lovely book – you can see that for yourself! If you love whitework, drawn thread embroidery, or regional embroidery techniques from around the world, put this book on your list! It’s a great project book and a great instructional book.

But don’t take it from me, go and read Mary’s entire review over at Needle’nThread.com!

Thank you to Mary for such a wonderful, comprehensive review. You’ve done a sterling job!

So, for those of you who are itching to get started, make sure you take a look at my post on Portuguese Whitework supplies so that you can collect together everything you need from Vetty Creations to get started on your own exploration of Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães.

the mail out begins

yvette — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:59:50 +0000

Now that I am back from Beating Around the Bush, the HUGE mailout begins! Today I will start sending out pre-publication orders of Portuguese Whitework. There is a huge pile of orders to go out – thank you to everyone who pre-ordered! – so it will probably take some days to get through them all.

I am also waiting on the bubblewrap mailing envelopes to be delivered, as I have only a few left in my old box. They should arrive today, but if for some reason, they don’t, the mailing will grind to a halt until they arrive!

So if you’ve ordered a copy of Portuguese Whitework, hopefully you’ll be holding it in your hot little hands quite soon. If you’re not in Australia, the post will take a little longer to get to you, so please continue to be patient.

When you get your copy, I would love to hear what you think of it. If you find any mistakes (I really hope there aren’t any, but it is a fact of life that these things sometimes slip through) please let me know, and I will correct them in the next print run.

It would help me greatly if you could blog about the book, or add your review to websites which accept book reviews, such as Amazon or Nordic Needle. I’d be forever grateful for your assistance with this!

I am not sure when the bulk order will reach my UK/Europe distributors, but it will hopefully be soon. The US stock is supposed to get to my distributors there quite soon as well, so hopefully you will also start to see it out there in the shops very soon.

(I do also have my daughters home from school today, as although the school holidays have ended, they both have pupil-free days where the staff do professional development. This means that I will not be working for the whole day, but combining mothering duties with work!)

Portuguese Whitework tablecloth

yvette — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 21:33:22 +0000

This is my favourite project (and favourite image!) from Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães. I wanted one really big, really impressive project for the book, and this is it!

I started this cloth when I was in Ethiopia back in 2010, so it has special memories attached to it, of our time in Ethiopia.

If you would like to make one of these tablecloths for yourself, the full instructions can be found in Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães. Order your copy today!

Advance copies are here!

yvette — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 23:36:37 +0000

The advance copies of Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães by Yvette Stanton have arrived!

The book really and truly exists now! We just have to be patient for the rest of them to arrive at their destinations so that you can have your very own copy!

Don’t forget that you can pre-order your copy from Vetty Creations today, so that it is posted as soon as our shipment arrives here at the end of April.

For orders from your local needlework shop, give them the ISBN (978-0-9757677-5-7) and ask them to order it in for you. Our European distributor is Search Press. Our US distributor is Dinky Dyes. Our Australian distributors are Craftbook Wholesalers and Ristal Threads. Our New Zealand distributor is David Bateman.

For all those of you who think something is missing from the photo, yes, I forgot to put my glasses on! I’m not being vain, I just forgot, as I often don’t wear my glasses at home. Oh, and as of yesterday I have quite a lot less hair – new haircut – so that’s missing also!

a beautiful project

yvette — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:32:14 +0000

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been a little busy here over the last little while, and my reading of others peoples’ blogs has dropped to practically nil. But I knew that Ruth O’Leary must be nearing the end of her mammoth banner project – St Cuthbert’s Banner for Durham Cathedral – so I went to check on it. I found that it has been finished.

It is magnificent! You can see her post (from a couple of weeks ago!) about the first time it was all put together and tested by being carried around.

I have been watching Ruth’s progress on this banner for many many months, and have particularly marveled at the way she plugged away at the same motifs over and over again. Such dedication!

The end result is completely worth all that dedication. Congratulations Ruth, on an amazing piece of work!

Loved Love Lace

yvette — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:34:00 +0000

Yesterday Lisa, visiting from Canada, and I visited the Love Lace exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum here in Sydney. I had SUCH a wonderful time.

The first thing was that Lisa is a lovely girl, and I really enjoyed talking with her, sharing our similar loves of needlework, and expressing our horror of the same sorts of needlework disasters. I think we could both probably be described as needlework snobs! It was great to get to know Lisa better.

And the exhibition itself was really interesting. Parts of it were fascinating and inspiring, and parts of it were just plain weird! If you’re expecting the exhibition to just be pieces of lace, then you’ll be disappointed. (Though you can find that at the Powerhouse Museum in their excellent Lace Study Room.)

The first piece I saw from the exhibition was the Lacie Lorrie, an old rusty truck, with cutouts all over its chassis, creating a lacy effect. It was amazing, and really gave a taste for how unusual parts of the exhibition were going to be! The one that repulsed us the most was some bodily organs knitted out of human hair…

Amongst the weirdness though, there were some absolutely exquisite creations. Ones that come to mind were a set of lacy porcelain bowls, some felted dresses, a gorgeous white dress with hand-embroidered appliques from India, some beautiful Christening gowns from Canada, and some amazing jewellery. I LOVED the cyclone wire fencing panels with wire bobbin lace motifs worked into them. They were the last exhibit in the show, and they were simply amazing!

It is NOT a traditional lace exhibition, but it IS incredibly inspiring. DO go and see it if you have the chance. (You should have come with us!)

Thanks, Lisa, for suggesting we get together when you visited Sydney, and thanks for a lovely day!

Added later: links to images of each of the mentioned exhibits.

proud mum again

yvette — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 21:15:40 +0000

I told you that I probably wouldn’t post this week, however, for Christmas I received a particularly special gift.

Because I have only just gotten my drivers licence, for the whole of last term, I was taking Rainbow Girl to gymnastics on the train each gym day, and then coming home to Elder Daughter, who spent the intervening time with friends or relatives.

It turns out that she and my mother had embarked upon a project for me for Christmas. All of it was Elder Daughter’s making (except the final construction, as they ran out of time, so my mother constructed it).
So on Christmas morning I was presented with a very pretty hand-embroidered cushion. The design was my daughter’s, and I think it is gorgeous. The colour scheme was my daughter’s, chosen to go with our lounge, and it works beautifully. The embroidery was my daughter’s, and it is very well done.

I was quite overwhelmed with the amount of thought, time, care and love that went into the cushion. I am very proud of my daughter and her creativity! And thanks also to my mum!

Royal Easter Show

yvette — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:09:15 +0000

I had been planning on entering my Portuguese Whitework tablecloth in the Arts and Crafts section of next year’s Sydney Royal Easter Show. It is the embroidery that I have been most proud of in a very long time, and therefore wanted to show it off and see how it went in open competition.

The schedule for the competition was released last week, and on reading it, I had a very terrible realisation: the show is on at exactly the same time that I will be at Beating Around the Bush in Adelaide. The plan is that I will have the book for sale there, and will have a big display of projects from the book at the Village Fair market day. My tablecloth can’t be in two places at once!

I guess that if I could take some REALLY REALLY REALLY good pictures of the tablecloth I could have them enlarged and on display at BATB, and the tablecloth at the Royal Easter Show. But the tablecloth is so absolutely stunning that I’d really love for people to be able to see it in person…

The first thing would be to work on getting some good photos, and then decide.

taxidermy and needlework

yvette — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:26:21 +0000

Let me tell you a little story.

Some weeks ago Rainbow Girl started at a new gymnastics program. Its a bit further from home than our previous gym, and means we have more car time.

We were driving to pick her up one evening a few weeks ago, and chatting as we drove along. Going through a little valley, one of the houses on our right had its front curtains closed. The side ones were open though, and through the side window I spied…

…a deer.

A full sized, taxidermied deer.

We were a bit shocked (no, quite shocked and very surprised), and on our way back, my husband stopped at the kerb so that he could get a better look, and confirm that I was not seeing things.

Earlier this week, on the same trip, I realised that above the front curtains (there’s a gap above – sounds strange, but makes sense when you see it) I could see another antler. Another very slow journey past revealed that there is not one, but two taxidermied deer in their living room. And we have seen the family sitting quietly there in the evening, amongst the wildlife. Obviously it is completely normal for them.

Imagine my pleasure, therefore, on finding a wonderful blog a few days ago Anatomically Incorrect Creatures, featuring cute handsewn “taxidermied” creatures. Bree, aka The Creature Specialist mounts hers onto wooden backboards, as taxidermied heads often are. I wonder if she’ll ever do a range of full-sized stand alone living room animals?

For even more fun, you can also find Anatomically Incorrect Creatures on Facebook and on Etsy.