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Darling Harbour Craft Show coming soon

yvette — Sun, 13 May 2012 21:03:45 +0000

As with the last two years, this year I will be again exhibiting at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair at Darling Harbour in June. This time I will not be sharing, but will have my own stand just for Vetty Creations. I would actually love to be sharing again, because I have really enjoyed sharing with friends’ businesses in the past. The friendship makes it a fun week. However, circumstances with those friends’ businesses have changed and this time they were unable to do the show.

Therefore, onwards and upwards to my very own stand!

I’ll be over near the entry to the quilt show, and will have all my books on display and a great range of embroidery supplies including Mountmellick embroidery supplies and Portuguese Whitework supplies. I’ve just received a big order of sitting stands and 8 inch hoops, so I will have them with me as well.

On display will be all of the projects from “Portuguese Whitework” so that you can see them all up close and personal.

The last two years I have taught a left-handed beginners embroidery class. Unfortunately I won’t be able to teach it this year as there is no opportunity for me to escape to a class – I won’t have anyone to cover for me on the stand! (How I am going to manage toilet breaks, I am not entirely sure!) But in the quiet periods, you might be able to come and see me doing a little Portuguese embroidery stitching demo at the stand.

Now, because I won’t have the camaraderie of someone to share my stand with, I’m going to be relying on all of you who are local to visit me and say hello. So please come and make yourself known to me! I look forward to sharing “Portuguese Whitework” and all my other products with you at the show, and meeting you!

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.

getting started with Portuguese Whitework

yvette — Fri, 04 May 2012 09:47:31 +0000

I have just finished adding the Portuguese Whitework supplies to the Vetty Creations site. You can now get all you need to explore Portuguese Whitework, in one place!

If you’re wanting to get started, I suggest you’ll need the following:

A copy of Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães
A fat eighth of Graziano Nuovo Ricamo linen
2 balls of white Pearl cotton 8
No 4 straw needles
No 24 tapestry needles
A hoop and stand

The book will provide you with the choice of a number of projects on which you can start. The fabric and thread will be ample to work one of the smaller projects in the book. The tapestry needles are used for the drawn thread work, and the straw needles are used for the surface embroidery. The hoop and stand hold everything nice and still for you while you happily stitch away.

So what are you waiting for? Happy days!

Portuguese Whitework supplies

yvette — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:37:11 +0000

Now that the book, Portuguese Whitework, is getting out there, people are starting to ask “Where can I get the fabric?” The answer is “RIGHT HERE!”

Over the next day or so I will be adding a complete range of Portuguese Whitework supplies to the Vetty Creations website. I already have the stock, so if you can’t wait, give me a phonecall, and I can take your order over the phone.

We will be stocking 38 count linen, needles, and pearl cotton in white and the other traditional colours. We also stock embroidery hoops, which can be used with the embroidery as well.

(As the products are added to the website, I will create live links in the listing above so that you can go directly there.)

Adelaide book launch

yvette — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 21:24:38 +0000

While in Adelaide, I had the opportunity to launch Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães. Months before, I had talked with Fiona from Country Bumpkin about the possibility of doing this, but I wasn’t sure that it was going to be possible until I knew that the books were here in Australia in my possession, and that I would therefore be able to ship a good number of them to Adelaide in time!

So finally in the week before Beating Around the Bush, I was able to confirm with Fiona and Sally (the event organiser) that I would indeed like to launch Portuguese Whitework.

On the Market Day, Fiona launched the new issue of Inspirations, and CB’s exciting new product range of Margaret Lee’s Chinese embroidery kits. Then it was my turn.

Launching time at Beating Around the Bush market day. (Photo courtesy of Country Bumpkin Publications)

I stood on the stage in front of the crowd and told them about the process of the book being published, how it had gone from me being amazed by a photo of some obscure Portuguese embroidery in a old book, to going to Portugal to research the embroidery, to many hours of hard slog, to being a fully formed book in my hands.

I came down off the stage and was crowded by people telling how much they love my left-handed stitch dictionary. It was quite lovely. Eventually I got away, back to my stand and found Sally there, “holding fort” until I could come back and serve the throngs!

It was a really successful launch, and I was very pleased with how many people were interested in the book. While signing each copy I sold slowed things down a bit, it did make it more special for each of those who purchased the book.

It is not often that I actually get the opportunity to “launch” a book, but it was great that I did on this occasion!

For those who haven’t yet see the book’s video yet, why not pop on over to watch it on the Vetty Creations website? Please share it with your friends!

Portuguese Whitework now available in Europe!

yvette — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:42:42 +0000

Portuguese Whitework is now available in Europe!

Its early days yet, so while the big online book retailers (I think you’ll know the ones! Amazon, Book Depository etc.) have it already, it might take a little longer to make it to your favourite needlework store or bookstore. If you want your favourite store to get it in, the easiest way for them to source it will be for you to give them the ISBN (International Standard Book Number): 9780975767757. You can also tell them to contact Customer Service at Search Press, who are our distributors in Europe.

The books should be arriving with our US distributors in the next day or so, and also at our Australian distributors early next week. Its all systems go around here, and I am finally near the bottom of my pile of orders to despatch! Thank you all for your patience.

When you get your copy, please write a review and post it anywhere you can think of: on your blog, on a needlework forum, in a guild magazine, on Amazon, on Book Depository, on Nordic Needle, on your favourite needlework store’s website. I will be forever grateful! Thanks!

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!)

I’m back!

yvette — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 03:35:11 +0000

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.

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!