White Threads

Errata notice

Thank you to Joylene, who recently contacted me to alert me to a problem with some of the instructions in “Sardinian Knotted Embroidery”.

Page 58 (left-handed instructions for Peahole Hemstitch), step 1 should read:
1 Knot the end of the thread. From the front, insert the needle in the woven corner square in the lower woven strip. Counting along the hemstitched pairs, bring the needle out in the middle drawn thread gap, between the sixth and seventh pairs.

Page 61 (right-handed instructions for Peahole Hemstitch), step 1 should read:
1 Knot the end of the thread. From the front, insert the needle in the woven corner square in the lower woven strip. Counting along the hemstitched pairs, bring the needle out in the middle drawn thread gap, between the sixth and seventh pairs.

The diagram in each case IS CORRECT.

My sincere apologies for this mistake.

If you EVER find any mistakes in any of my books, PLEASE let me know. I am very happy to put errata notices here for the benefit of everyone, and when the books are next reprinted, corrections are made.

Profile and review on Into Craft blog

Into Craft blog featured a profile of me and my new book “Sardinian Knotted Embroidery” last week. You can read it here. At the time of writing this, there was also a very lovely comment at the bottom of the article, from a happy customer. (I’m not expecting that her comment will disappear, rather that by the time you read the article, there may be more comments!)

I spent the weekend working on finishing The Gymnast’s outfit for Multicultural Day at school today. She’s finally outgrown the Ethiopian clothes we bought about 4 years ago when we were living in Ethiopia! She and I also made some biscuits for her to take to share with the class today for Multicultural Day.

The Reader and I went to our pattern drafting class on Saturday. I finally finished working my way through the book, so for me, the class is officially over unless I want to continue on to book 2. It will fit better with our family for us not to move on to book 2. However, The Reader still has a bit to go, so I’ll continue with the classes for a little longer, just drafting some things that I want to draft. I’d like to include another garment in the next book, but it requires a lot of problem solving to make the embroidery fit the different sizes that I’ll need to include.

I’ve also been working on a new embroidery for the next book since late last week. I’ve enjoyed it very much, trying out several new stitches or variations of stitches I’ve done before. It’s only a small project this time, so I will hopefully have the embroidery finished in the next few days.

What are you working on currently?

a quiet week

It’s been a very quiet week with The Gymnast at home with winter sickness. I’ve been writing lots of stitch instructions and doing their accompanying diagrams, so there are more pages in the next book looking more full now.

However, I’ve been a few days without stitching, so it is time to do some more. After the last project (which is nearly finished, but put aside for now) which was very large, I’ve decided I need a small project to make me feel like I’m making more progress. I had a design that I’d been working on a few weeks ago that I was reasonably happy with, so tweaked it a bit and started stitching last night.

On stitching I quickly found something I needed to change. Then I found that the scale of one of the stitches was too heavy and was drowning the nearby stitches. It needed to be changed. I tried changing it on the fabric, but I got myself all confused. Things weren’t lining up the way I expected them to. It was time for bed.

With a lot of moving around of elements and fiddling with the design on computer this morning, I think I’ve got it sorted. I’ll start again on a new piece of cloth this morning, and keep the old one as a test cloth for various stitches.

Now, I have some questions that I’d really like some feedback on. We did discuss this on the Vetty Creations Facebook page yesterday, but I’d love your input too.

I’ve been thinking through ideas for projects for the book, and trying to work out what I could make the embroidered articles into. Would you be interested in making an embroidered clock face? The idea would be to make the embroidery, put it in a frame and then mount the clock mechanism in the centre.

Would that be something you’d consider making? Do you think you’d baulk at finding a clock mechanism, and/or mounting it in the right place (though your picture framer could probably mount it for you)?

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, this link to Elisabetta Ricami takes you through to pictures of very pretty embroidered clock faces. Mine would obviously look nothing like the ones shown, given that Elisabetta’s are surface embroidery in colour, and mine will be white on white and counted!

Putting it in a more general way, do you want to love all the examples in a book enough to stitch them? Or is most of them enough, or some of them? Is “admiring and not stitching” enough?

I know that for me, I don’t need to want to stitch any of the projects in a book. Usually for me it’s about learning the technique. But that’s mostly because I have too many of my own designs to stitch, to even think of doing one by someone else! It would be very helpful to hear how others weigh up the usefulness or not of a book.

blasting away stitch assumptions

Sometimes a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Last night and this morning I’ve been poring over the many photos I took on my trip to Mystery Country earlier this year. I’ve been trying to figure out the counting of some stitches. I knew a little about some of these stitches already from previous embroidery that I have done. Stitches often span cultures and what is used in one traditional embroidery can also be used in another, but often in a different way. I made some assumptions based on what I already knew.

This morning I have had several “OH!!!” moments when I have finally looked close enough at the photos and counted properly and learned that my assumptions about the counting of these stitches was WRONG for this style of embroidery.

What a good time to find these things out!

Again it cements in my mind what an important thing it is to go to the primary source to learn. A trip to the location the embroidery comes from, to see historical examples, is something that cannot be substituted. I have gained SO MUCH from my trip, including an understanding of the culture from which the embroidery comes, a sense of place for it, but most importantly, highly technical understanding of the stitches and their use from seeing THE REAL THING.

There is nothing like seeing the real thing to blast away assumptions.

Reader question: thank you

Thanks to all who contributed their thoughts to the reader question I posed the other day. I’m very grateful for your thoughtful answers. You put yourself in the shoes of a young mum and tried to understand how it might be best to learn the things she wants to learn.

I hope that we’ve given Young Mum a good list of ideas to work through. I hope that she soon will be well on the way to learning something new.

Best wishes Young Mum! In the future when you have any successes to share with us from your new exploits, I’m pretty sure we’d all be happy to see them and read of them here. 😉

Happy International Left-Handed Day!

Today is International Left-Handed Day, and as I am left-handed, I do enjoy the fact that we get our own special day!

I’ve had many interactions over the years with other left-handed stitchers, and many have loved having me as a left-handed embroidery teacher. I have heard horror story after horror story of them being told by right-handed teachers how they cannot teach them anything. Can you imagine if I, as a left-handed teacher, said that to all the right-handers in my class? I’d never get invited back.

Right-handers regularly say “all left-handers need to do is sit opposite the teacher, and then they can do it”. Well, NO, actually.

NO.

In the world of embroidery, swapping from right-handed to left-handed is NOT always as simple as flipping or working in mirror image. Yes, sometimes that works just fine. But not always. Sometimes, turning the work 90 degrees or 180 degrees is the best solution. It is all to do with thread twist, and the mechanics of some stitches. The trick is knowing which answer works for which question.

Once at a craft show, I had my book The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion on display. A grumpy woman walked past, stopped, looked at the book and said accusingly, “There’s no need for a book like that!” I smiled and let her go on her uninformed way, standing strong in the knowledge that there IS a need for “a book like that”. No, she might not need it, but from the feedback I’ve had from so many grateful left-handed stitchers, it DEFINITELY has been appreciated by many stitchers.

My favourite objection to the book though, would have to be the one where the person thought it was ridiculous that I should think that I could dictate to all left-handers that this was the correct way to stitch. Um, did I say that? Or, like all other embroidery book authors, did I just present *A* way to stitch, in this case *A* way that just might work better for left-handers than right-handed instructions?

Who would have known that a left-handed embroidery book could be so controversial?!

Other embroidery books MIGHT have a section for left handed embroiderers, but usually only basic stitches are presented. This book is a treasure trove of stitches that we left handed stitchers can now learn to do the correct way. It is the best embroidery book that I own. The steps are all pictured clearly and are easy to follow. THANK YOU Yvette Stanton for recognizing the need and creating this embroiderer’s bible. W.S. Massachusetts

I get it! No more confusing translations from right to left hand. Even the very complicated stitches are crystal clear! Where has this book been all my life? If you are a lefty, you owe it to yourself to get this book. M. Dilworth

The sheer quantity of written and in-person thanks that I have received tell me that many left-handed people really do love The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion. Ignoring the knockers, I am so pleased to know that I have opened the way to embroidery for many left-handers. It makes it very rewarding to know that because of something I have done, someone else can now do something that previously had defeated them. 🙂

Happy International Left-Handed Day!

Reader question: Getting into stitching for the first time

Last week I received this email from a reader:

Hello,
I want to get into stitching but have never really done it before. I’m an at home Mum. Where do you suggest I start?

Whoa! That’s actually a really hard question to answer. Of course I’d love to encourage this adventurous lady, but I’m a bit stuck to know how to advise her. She’d like to learn to sew using her sewing machine (to make clothing for her children), and also do a little bit of embroidery.

What would you suggest? I really look forward to hearing your answers so that hopefully together we can encourage a beginning stitcher. 🙂

Florence Broadhurst dress

You may have noticed the dress I was wearing in the photograph that I posted yesterday. At least one person did, because I received an email saying, “You should mention the lovely dress you are wearing in photo.” This suited me fine, because I was planning on talking about Florence Broadhurst today!

The dress is the one I made some time back from Florence Broadhurst “Peacock Feathers” fabric. I talked about it a bit at the time, here on the blog and on the Vetty Creations Facebook page. The story of this dress and the designer of its fabric is told in the current issue (Issue 82) of Inspirations Magazine as part of an article I wrote on Florence Broadhurst.

Florence was a powerhouse of a woman. Whatever she turned her hand to, she threw herself into it wholeheartedly! She churned through many careers in her life, the last of which was wallpaper designer. “Peacock Feathers” is one of her wallpaper designs, and when I saw it, I knew it was the perfect fabric for my dress.

The colourway I chose was a great neutral colour scheme (though Florence also did it in some quite bright colourways!), which I thought would be great for both summer and winter. The feathers form a really dynamic design and are very striking. Whenever I wear the dress I get lots of comments on it.

I designed the dress myself, using skills learned from the patterndrafting course that The Reader and I have been taking with CIAM Patternmaking Australia. We’re off to our class again today, and we may find out our results from the recent exam we did. 🙂

Signature Prints hold the rights for all Florence Broadhurst’s wallpaper designs. Mostly the fabrics are printed on heavy fabric for upholstery (which was perfect for my dress), rather than dress weight fabric.

Below is a photo from the day I was cutting out the dress. It gives you an idea of the fabric itself. Lots of beautiful peacock feathers!

Craft book of the Year

Back in July at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair my book “Sardinian Knotted Embroidery: Whitework from Teulada” was awarded Craft Book of the Year in the 2014 Australian Craft Industry Awards.

Yesterday I finally obtained a copy of the photograph that was taken of me receiving my award, and permission to share it!

To see for yourself why it won Craft Book of the Year, you can purchase your copy of Sardinian Knotted Embroidery from your local needlework shop or right here from Vetty Creations.

If you’re wondering what the wall behind us actually says, the slogan for the craft fair was “Some things you just make time for”. And yes, many of us do make time for our embroidery, because we know how good it is for us!

Stitching and writing

My poor wren is languishing, not quite forgotten. 🙁 However, I’ve been busily stitching and writing for the next book this week. Oh, I love what I do!

How pleasurable to wake up in the morning, answer a few emails, get on with writing stitch instructions and drawing their diagrams, and then stitch. Of course, interspersed with all that writing and stitching is all the family stuff and sending out orders.

I’m making good progress on my current project, which is probably about half done in terms of its embroidery. It is quite a large project, so after I’m done with this one, I’ll do a few smaller projects so that I can feel that I’m moving along with the book as a whole.

I’m trying to get a bit done on the book pages each day. Little by little it all grows, and little by little the book gets closer to being finished. We’re still a long way off yet though!

White Threads

Errata notice

Profile and review on Into Craft blog

a quiet week

blasting away stitch assumptions

Reader question: thank you

Happy International Left-Handed Day!

Reader question: Getting into stitching for the first time

Florence Broadhurst dress

Craft book of the Year

Stitching and writing

New book now available!

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