White Threads

Housekeeping – copyright issues

Books by Yvette Stanton

Writing books about embroidery is my livelihood. This is how I work to pay my bills. I work to support my family by doing this. I create books, illustrations, photos, diagrams, text and more that are my intellectual property.

Each of my books has a copyright statement in the front. It boils down to this: This is my work and you cannot reproduce it in any form without prior permission from me/my publisher (that’s me), in writing.

No one is allowed to photocopy pages from my books to use in their own classes. No one is allowed to copy my stitch instructions to teach anyone else (that includes photocopying, scanning, videoing and more). No one is allowed to make copies to give to their friends. No one is allowed to copy and sell instructions that come from my books.

If you do, you are breaching the laws of copyright. Even if you don’t care for the law, you are also breaking trust with me. You are stopping me from earning from my books, because you’re giving away my intellectual property for free or even making people pay you for it!

If a class all uses one copy of a book to learn one of my projects, you are also stopping me from earning from my books. Each student or participant should own their own copy.

Otherwise it’s stealing. Pure and simple.

Maybe you think I’m being greedy by saying this. I’m not being greedy. I deserve to be paid for work done.

If you go to the supermarket, you have to pay for the goods you leave with. If a plumber does work for you, you have to pay the plumber. Why do people think that taking from authors and designers is any different? We deserve to be paid for our work.

I have, just today, learned of a huge breach of trust with regards to copyright. I am really upset. I am completely gobsmacked. I am simply reeling.

Just don’t do it. To me or anyone else. It’s stealing.

Hardanger Filling Stitches – buttonhole eyelet at intersection

In this sample from the Hardanger Filling Stitch sampler in my new book Hardanger Filling Stitches, we can see a buttonhole eyelet. This is another example of a stitch that can be worked on an intersection.

This is a single buttonhole eyelet, which is worked as a focal point in a section of needleweaving. They could be worked across entire sections on every intersection if you wish. I will just caution you to say that “just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should”! In the right circumstance it could look great, but across a whole section, it could end up being way too much!

We’re part way through a series exploring the stitches that are featured in my forthcoming book, Hardanger Filling Stitches. If this is the first post you’ve seen in the series, have a look for the others.

Hardanger Filling Stitches by Yvette Stanton, will be arriving in Australia in December 2023, New Zealand shortly after that, UK in February 2024, and the US in March. You can order it from your favourite needlework store, worldwide. If they don’t know where to get it from, you can ask them to contact me, and I will direct them accordingly.

Vetty Creations have supplies packs for the Hardanger Filling Stitch sampler featured in the book.

Portuguese whitework sampler

While I have a new book coming out, so understandably am promoting what’s in it because people are interested, I’m conscious that I don’t want to drown you all in Hardanger!

To give you some variety, this is the sampler project from my book Portuguese Whitework. It features 36 different motifs. Portuguese whitework, which is known as Guimarães embroidery or bordados de Guimarães, (embroidery from Guimarães) features a mix of counted and non-counted embroidery.

A framework of drawn thread work wrapped bars is worked first, to set up areas on which to work pretty motifs made of predominantly bullion knots and eyelets.

When this project is on display, it always seems to catch eyes! The bullions can be off-putting for some people, but I always say that a Portuguese whitework project is an excellent way to learn to master bullions, as you’ll do so many of them! The method I teach in the book, for working bullions, is different to that which many others teach, and I’ve found that it can bring success for people who haven’t previously had bullion success.

Hardanger Filling Stitches – ringed crossed dove’s eye

Ringed crossed dove’s eye is a dove’s eye variation. It combines twisted diagonal spokes, a dove’s eye and an extra ring. Put together, they make a very pretty stitch. This stitch is best worked in a medium sized hole. Too small a hole, and it becomes cramped and loses definition. Too large a hole and it just doesn’t seem to fill the space properly.

Vetty Creations have supplies packs for the Hardanger Filling Stitch sampler featured in the book.

Hardanger Filling Stitches – Buttonholed square

This is a buttonholed square, which also has a dove’s eye in the centre. Alternative stitches could be used in the centre.

In this motif, buttonhole stitches are worked around the outside edge of the square. I have seen this worked where there is a stitch between every single thread around the edge of the square. This leads to the corners filling up way too quickly and it becomes difficult to have the stitches in the corner sit nicely. I made some changes to the way the stitch is done so that it is much easier to create a good result.

Vetty Creations have supplies packs for the Hardanger Filling Stitch sampler featured in the book.

Magazine articles and projects

Yesterday I mentioned a project of mine that can be found in an old magazine. Over the years I have had many projects and articles featured in various embroidery magazines. Not so much recently, because I’ve been more focused on writing my books and teaching embroidery. However, there’s a lot of content out there that is from my hands.

On my website I have a non-exhaustive listing of my magazine projects and articles. If you have an old stash of embroidery magazines, you might like to look some of them up.

https://www.vettycreations.com.au/magazines.html

Hardanger Filling Stitches – edelweiss

Edelweiss is one of *those* stitches – it looks amazing, but it’s difficult to get it looking amazing. This one is all about tension. See how those ribs radiating from the centre curve? That’s what you’re trying to achieve: lovely curves which make the stitch sing. Without those curves, the stitch looks stilted. With them, it’s dynamic!

For this motif, I stitched it again and again and again. I tried all sorts of different things. I’ve honed my instructions to hopefully help you achieve great results by pulling threads in the right directions at the right times. If you’re learning it, don’t expect great results the first time. It does take practice. Just try to learn from each one and with practice, you’ll get there!

Vetty Creations have supplies packs for the Hardanger Filling Stitch sampler featured in the book.

From the archives – Hardanger with a sheer overlay

Hardanger bag with chiffon overlay

A long time ago I played around with Hardanger using an organza or chiffon overlay. This is a bag I made using the technique. I have always loved how it turned out.

When you’re stitching through a sheer overlay on evenweave fabric, let’s just say it’s *difficult*. It’s really slow, because when you just have the evenweave fabric, it’s a reasonably simple exercise to put your needle in the right place. Using an overlay makes it so much harder.

The embroidery itself is quite a simple design, with no cutwork at all. I figured that cutwork would mean we’d end up with a gazillion chiffon thread whiskers, and that didn’t seem to me to be a great idea.

I added Swarovski crystals and some beads to give the bag some sparkle. It all came together to create the opulence I was aiming for.

If you’d like to give this project a go – my applause if you do, because it is HARD! – the instructions can be found in an old, out of print magazine: “Embroidery and Cross Stitch” Vol 15, No 3. If you want the red chiffon fabric, contact me, because I still have some of it!

In my first Hardanger book, Elegant Hardanger Embroidery, there’s a bolster using the same technique.

Hardanger Filling Stitches – chain stitch flower

Not all Hardanger filling stitches are about the spaces. Sometimes they’re about the intersections between the spaces. This is a chain stitch flower which is stitched on an intersection.

The bars around it are wrapped, but they could just as easily be woven. If the bars are woven, the flower will be less pronounced because woven bars are a little wider than wrapped ones. (And note, I said a *little* wider. They should not be wide!)

Vetty Creations have supplies packs for the Hardanger Filling Stitch sampler featured in the book.

there may not be a “next time”…

Yvette teaching a workshop

When I announce classes that I’ve been accepted to teach at conferences, conventions and various other venues, nothing is certain about those classes. Being selected does not mean the classes will go ahead. If they don’t fill, I don’t go. No-one will pay my way to teach a class that doesn’t have enough enrolments – it’s a simple matter of economics.

And as I learned from my classes at a recent convention not going ahead, it can feel *absolutely brutal* when you’ve had that carrot dangled in front of you and then it is taken away.

Some time back, someone told me that they were going to that convention, but they hadn’t booked in to a class with me, “because I can do a class with you any time.”

I’d like to refute that statement. No, you can’t do a class with me any time.

1. I’m not teaching classes all the time.
2. If classes at a particular event don’t go ahead, the teacher is much less likely to be invited back, and much less likely to have any classes that they submit being selected at future events.

If people don’t take the opportunities that are there, to do classes with me, those opportunities dry up.

Organisers don’t want to hire someone whose classes were unpopular last time. Whether it is warranted or not, you/your classes get a reputation. I know this because I’ve been told by organisers as the reason why they wouldn’t hire me, “we can’t sell whitework classes.”

From my point of view, *I* don’t want to keep submitting for things when I keep getting knocked back or my classes get cancelled due to low numbers. I’m human. It hurts. I feel like a loser. Believe me, it HURTS. Out of self-preservation, I might choose not to put myself through that heartache again.

So if you see a class that I’m teaching and you’re considering signing up for it, then if you have the wherewithal to do so, sign up for it! The opportunity may not come up again. Don’t make the assumption that “I can do a class with Yvette any time” because it just isn’t true. Don’t assume that you can do a class with me “next time”. There simply may not be a next time.

White Threads

Housekeeping – copyright issues

Hardanger Filling Stitches – buttonhole eyelet at intersection

Portuguese whitework sampler

Hardanger Filling Stitches – ringed crossed dove’s eye

Hardanger Filling Stitches – Buttonholed square

Magazine articles and projects

Hardanger Filling Stitches – edelweiss

From the archives – Hardanger with a sheer overlay

Hardanger Filling Stitches – chain stitch flower

there may not be a “next time”…

New book now available!

Archived posts

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