For years I had a hard time embroidering and set it aside because it was confusing & frustrating to [...]]]> In the comments sections of Mary Corbet’s last two posts, one a review of my Portuguese Whitework book, and the other about left-handed Schwalm embroidery, there have been lots of lovely things said about my books.

For years I had a hard time embroidering and set it aside because it was confusing & frustrating to embroider right handed. I bought Yvette Stantons Left Handed Embroiderers Companion and fell in love again with embroidery. Now I don’t feel frustrated. Joy Smith

I own Yvette’s amazing book on Mountmellick. Her instructions are amazing as are her designs. I am working on adapting her amazing florals to a 16 x 16 inch cushion design right now. Her books really are lovely. Anastasia

Yvette Stanton’s leftie stitch dictionary goes everywhere with me when I’m stitching. Julia Wild

Yvette’s book looks great. As well as being beautifully presented this compilation about Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães as a traditional needlework style, with information on its origin and instructional details on stitch techniques, is an important preservation of history. As time passes more of the intended original expression and knowledge of early needleworkers, and other information about the art style is lost, then sadly, remaining historical examples are misidentified or just lumped as whitework. Yvette brought us back to Mountmellick embroidery and now another whitework treasure. Lots of work done with love. Well done. I love it too. Thanks! Louisa

Thank you for saying such lovely things about my books!

I really enjoyed spending time with the other tutors, socialising and talking shop. I was just a little overawed to meet some of the international [...]]]> I had a WONDERFUL time in Adelaide at Beating Around the Bush. Enjoyed the class, and market day, and loved hearing Jenny Adin-Christie last night at the gala dinner.

I really enjoyed spending time with the other tutors, socialising and talking shop. I was just a little overawed to meet some of the international tutors such as Betsy Morgan from USA, and Trish Burr and Hazel Blomkamp from South Africa – what gorgeous ladies they are! I shared a room with Tanja Berlin from Canada, and we had great fun together. And of course it was lovely to spend time with some of the other Australian tutors as well, such as Marg Light, Alison Snepp and Julie Graue. (None of them have websites, so I can’t give you links.)

The students in my Mountmellick embroidery class were a fantastic bunch – really great work was produced. We also shared hints and tips amongst us, including ones that the students had learnt from other teachers earlier in the week. They loved the thread the needle with a piece of paper one that I showed them.

The market day went really well: I launched my new book, Portuguese Whitework, and got back to my stand to find it absolutely crowded with ladies wanting to purchase the book. It was so nice to hear feedback from happy customers who already own some of my books, throughout the day. One lovely lady said “thank you for all you do for us, with your books” – what a nice thing to say to someone!

Thanks to Sally and Fiona and the rest of the team from Country Bumpkin for organising such a wonderful event!

If you’ve rung me or placed and order since Monday, these will be attended to next week. I apologise for the delay caused by my absence.

I’ll be attending Beating Around the Bush as a teacher, and also as an exhibitor at their Village Fair. Sadly, two of my classes will not be running, but [...]]]> We’re getting a lot closer to Country Bumpkin’s needlework conference, Beating Around the Bush, which runs from Saturday 14th April to Friday 20th April, in Adelaide.

I’ll be attending Beating Around the Bush as a teacher, and also as an exhibitor at their Village Fair. Sadly, two of my classes will not be running, but my Mountmellick class will be, which is wonderful news.

At the Stitchers Village Fair, I will have stock of all my books, and probably a selection of kits and supplies. But the MAIN THING I want to be there to show off to everyone is my new book “Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães”. If all goes well, my stock should arrive from the printers in just the few days before the conference, and the plan is that I will bring copies of it with me to share with the world!

If my shipment gets held up on the docks – these things can happen! – then I will at least have my advance copies to show you all, and will take orders to be posted out as soon as the shipment arrives. This is a worst case scenario, and one that I am hoping will not come to pass!

I will also have a display of projects from the book that you’ll be able to see in real life, to inspire you.

If you attend Beating Around the Bush on any of the days I’ll be there (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday), please come and say hello to me! Don’t be shy – I won’t bite!

From February 10th next year, I will be teaching Portuguese Whitework and Mountmellick Embroidery on a cruise [...]]]> A few weeks ago I tantalisingly dropped it into one of my posts that I had been invited to teach on a needlework cruise early next year. I am now allowed to spill the beans on that one!

From February 10th next year, I will be teaching Portuguese Whitework and Mountmellick Embroidery on a cruise leaving from Sydney to go to New Caledonia and Fiji. There will be a great range of tutors, teaching a wide range of needlework techniques, including Prudence Mapstone with her amazing free-form knitting, Alison Cole with her beautiful goldwork, Margaret Lee with Japanese embroidery, and many others.

I’ll be teaching 2 one day classes and one 2 day class, as follows:

Portuguese Whitework panel with Yvette Stanton (1 day class)

Portuguese Whitework bookmark with Yvette Stanton (1 day class)

Mountmellick Pomegranate Oval doily with Yvette Stanton (2 day class)

If you’re interested in learning more about this cruise and booking your place, please head on over to the cruise website. I look forward to meeting you on the cruise!

You’ll see in the comments [...]]]> I have a number of alerts set up that let me know whenever they find certain search terms appearing new across the internet. One of them is for Mountmellick embroidery. One turned up this morning, so I went to visit the blog that was talking about Mountmellick embroidery: Barefoot Shepherdess.

You’ll see in the comments section my thoughts on the style of embroidery that the Barefoot Shepherdess was taught as “Mountmellick embroidery”. I agree with her that it wasn’t quite Mountmellick! If you’re interested in learning more about what does make Mountmellick embroidery its own distinctive style, you can find more information at the Mountmellick page on my website, or in our book Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature.

Barefoot Shepherdess’s work (Mountmellick or not!) is very beautiful, and that’s why I have decided to link to her today. Its a lovely blog to explore, with some really attractive work that she’s made. Have fun with the inspiration she provides!

Its been lovely to be playing with stitch combinations [...]]]> I spent yesterday almost entirely working on a Mountmellick project for The Cruise (of which I cannot yet tell you any more). It was quite lovely to spend the day doing that. It feels like quite some time since I have done a new Mountmellick project!

Its been lovely to be playing with stitch combinations again. Hopefully I will get it finished today or tomorrow.

Of course, the website is still sitting there with nothing happening. This IS a frustration. I’m thinking that cloning myself might be a good idea. Of course, I do already have a clone (identical twin sister) but she’s got her own life to live…!

Learn to work beautiful traditional whitework embroidery from Mountmellick in Ireland. Mountmellick embroidery is highly textured embroidery featuring many knotted and padded stitches. [...]]]> The third class that I will be teaching at Beating Around the Bush is a Mountmellick embroidery class.

Mountmellick lily cushion
With Yvette Stanton
Thursday April 19 and Friday April 20, 2012

Learn to work beautiful traditional whitework embroidery from Mountmellick in Ireland. Mountmellick embroidery is highly textured embroidery featuring many knotted and padded stitches. This cushion features lilies, a favourite Mountmellick motif.

All stitches will be taught in class, with emphasis on stitch variations. The traditional knitted fringe will also be demonstrated.

Skill level: all levels

Kit Contents: satin jean fabric, Mountmellick embroidery thread, hand embroidery needles, knitting cotton. To complete the project you will also need a cushion insert, zip, sewing machine and metal knitting needles. These will not be required in class.

Please bring with you: 15-20cm embroidery hoop, magnification (if required), wash out marker pencil or HB pencil.

Kit Cost: $35.00

To book in, please go to the Try Booking website.

These are for classes into 2013, which seemed such [...]]]> 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

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!)