White Threads

PDF downloads

Since putting my new pattern up on Facebook, my blog and on my website I’ve had a particular question a few times (or variations of it!).

“Why don’t you sell this as a PDF download?”

This is an excellent question, so let me answer it for you.

PDF delivery is fraught with so many problems. It is SO open to people sharing the pattern electronically with 100s of their nearest and dearest friends. There are websites specifically set up for the illegal sharing of patterns. (If you didn’t know this, please don’t go looking for them. And if you are a member of one of these sites, may I encourage you to leave it.)

I put many, many hours of time into pattern development, and I need a return on that time. Coming up with a new pattern is no small deal. There is the designing time, the stitching time, the instruction writing time, the diagram creating time, the photographing time, the graphic design time, the checking time. It is a long and involved process, and it is only fair that I am paid for that. (Otherwise where will I find the time to design more?)

Whenever someone illegally shares a pattern, they are stealing from the designer. You may be familiar with the now-closed online embroidery magazine “The Gift of Stitching”. Kirsten had to close the magazine because of people illegally sharing.

While PDF delivery is a great thing for the customer, it is too dangerous, in my opinion, for me as a designer. While others have weighed up the risks and decided to offer their patterns via PDF download, I have decided the risk for me is too great.

Usually this question is asked by someone who would NEVER consider illegally sharing patterns. It is so easy for stitchers to forget that not everyone is as honest as they are. But unfortunately dishonest people are out there, and the difference that they make can be large – as in Kirsten’s case with The Gift of Stitching.

I understand that downloading patterns is terribly attractive to stitchers – you can have it almost instantly, and assuming you’ve got a lovely large stash from which to draw, you could get started on it almost immediately. You wouldn’t have to wait for the pattern to be posted to you. I get that. I think it would be great too! However, post does not actually take that long. My patterns are sent as large letters, and the Australia Post website generally says that even if they are being posted internationally, they should only take 3-10 working days to arrive. Within Australia it can be much quicker, sometimes even arriving the next day!

If technology changes to the point where PDF downloads become possible to control in terms of illegal sharing, then I will certainly consider it. However, at the moment I just don’t feel the technology is there. I am sorry if this disappoints you!

This is a conversation I am very willing to have, so if you have thoughts on the matter, I am happy to hear from you. You can leave your comments below, and then we can all join in the conversation.

Hardanger Needlecase pattern now available

When I was in Singleton recently, I took my own needlecase with me as that’s where I store my needles. One of the class participants was quite taken with it, and wanted to know if the pattern was available.

It is now!

Hardanger Needlecase Pattern by Yvette Stanton
Available from Vetty Creations.
The needlecase features a traditional-style Hardanger band design which stretches around the front and back of the case. The embroidery is worked in colour (pretty cream, pinks and green) for a more contemporary appearance.

The pattern contains step-by-step instructions with accompanying diagrams. So while the embroidery is of an intermediate level, the instructions take you by the hand and lead you through. The fabric used is 25 count linen, so it is not too fine a count of fabric for tired eyes.
The inside of the needlecase has two pockets – one at the front and one at the back, for storing packets of needles, a needle threader, a card of thread etc. The needles themselves are stored on woollen doctor’s flannel, as wool retards rust. The needlecase closes with a bead and loop clasp.

I have used mine for about 6 years now, and it is still going strong!

The Hardanger needlecase pattern is now available on the Vetty Creations website, and will also be available at my stand at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair from 12-16th June. (Not long now!)

Not a movie star

My sister went to see The Great Gatsby tonight. She watched with eagle eyes and bated breath, but while there was a hankie in the movie, it was not either of the ones that we had embroidered. :'(

It was fun to be involved and to have the anticipation that something I made might be included in a movie. It wasn’t, but that’s ok. 🙂

I don’t think there will ever be a “next time”, but then I never expected there would be a “this time”, either!

Great Gatsby Hankie Watch

I have received a Great Gatsby Hankie Watch report!

From Emily, one of my long-term readers:

Gatsby Daisy Buchanan Carey Mulligan handkerchief

Daisy Buchanan’s handkerchief for Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby

“I went to a screening of the movie last night. It was fabulous except I will have to go and see it again because I spent the whole movie just on the lookout for the handkerchiefs embroidered by you and your sister! I think I saw one of them in a scene near the end where Daisy, Tom, Nick, Gatsby and Jordan are in the room at the Plaza. She was certainly holding a hankie and it looked like it could be the one that you kept and took a photo of, rather than the one your sister took a photo of. I was with my mum and I had shown her your blog post so we were both on the lookout.”

Oh dear, I did tell readers not to spend the whole movie Hankie Watching just for my sake! I’m sorry, Emily, that you’ll have to go and see it again now, to actually watch the movie itself! However, thank you very much for the report!

My sister is going to see The Great Gatsby tomorrow night (some sort of corporate premiere which a friend of hers has managed to snaffle some tickets to and invited her along. Why they need to have another “premiere” a whole week after the official Australian premiere, I have no idea…!) so she’ll be armed with Emily’s information, and also her own eagle eyes.

I await my sister’s verdict. 🙂 My guess is that our hankies won’t have made it in, but I am happy to be surprised!

Spanish whitework

Thanks for the comments on the blog yesterday. It was interesting to see that everyone agreed with the article I linked to. You don’t have to agree, you know. 😉 I have seen other comments elsewhere where people definitely did not agree! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It was lovely to read them.

Today’s post we move on to the final of the images I will share with you of the embroideries that Irene loaned to me. This last one is a cloth from Spain.

The work is done on a cloth that is quite lightweight and very fine. The drawn thread work has borders of stepped satin stitch blocks. Threads are cut and removed, and then the resulting mesh is re-worked with a dove’s eye filling.

Some years ago we were in Seville in Spain and visited a small regional museum. We saw some amazing whitework embroidery there. So fine, so detailed and so beautiful. There is a very strong tradition of whitework embroidery in Spain, though as with the embroidery I shared from South America, some of it is not necessarily in styles unique to the area. Whitework is loved the world over, and some of the styles are loved and worked the world over.

a rant about quality

While looking down my Facebook feed this morning, I found a link to this article on The Dumbing Down of the Quilting and Sewing Industry.

Oh, yes, I do so agree.

I know that mistakes slip through in my books and patterns sometimes, but it is my strongest desire that they do not! One of the hardest things in kissing a book goodbye and sending it off to the printers is that you KNOW you will have missed something, and it will go into print and be there to embarrass you forever more! (If you find a mistake in one of my publications, PLEASE let me know, because it can be corrected in a future printing.)

The standard of finishing is dropping dramatically, mostly because people just don’t have the skills or the inclination to do things properly anymore. I think this is partly brought about by living in a society where we just don’t tolerate things that take time. It needs to be quick, and if it is not quick enough, sometimes people cut corners to make it quick.

But no, there is so much satisfaction in learning to do something well. I personally get so much enjoyment from taking the time to do things properly. If I do want/need to rush, invariably I will make mistakes. Being the sort of person that I am, I can’t live with leaving things that are of a lower standard than I want them to be. And then mistakes will just need to be fixed, which usually takes more time and effort than doing it right the first time.

In terms of design, I really really push myself to come up with the best I can. When I design an embroidery, I never go with the first version. It can always be improved and if it is a moment of sheer inspiration, even a great first design can always be tweaked! This is something I try to teach my daughters for their school work. First draft is never the final draft!

Embroidery takes time. Especially the sort of embroidery that I enjoy and have in my books. So probably you, my lovely readers, are in the same choir that I am. We don’t mind if a beautiful project takes effort and time, because we actually enjoy that. I do hope though, that as time goes on, society’s need for quick doesn’t mean that no-one else joins our choir.

This post is a little half-baked as I really haven’t had the time to think it through a lot. However, dropping standards IS something I have noticed.

I think, for me, it all comes back to the old adage: If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.

What do you think about this?

South American whitework

In addition to the Cuban whitework that Irene loaned me, she also sent some embroidery that was described as South American. There was a needlelace doily, and two hand towels.

The doily is in a very similar vein to one that I found amongst my great aunt’s linen some time back.

You can see that the doily has a framework that has been closely buttonholed, and the fillings are patterned detached buttonhole.

From the back you can see that the framework definitely sits on the front of the work.

The two hand towels are made with a similar design to each other, but one has coloured floral embroidery and the other has only white. The end of each towel is worked in a style of tape lace, where woven tape is used as the framework, joined together with needlelace.

There are detached buttonhole fillings and buttonholed picots.

The embroidery on the towels features delicate drawn thread work, as well as satin stitching.

I am not sure where in South America these embroideries come from – South America is a large continent! They do not appear to be styles that are unique to South America, as beautiful whitework in similar styles can be found in other cultures. However, they are beautiful and worth enjoying together!

Singleton Embroiderers Guild group

On Tuesday and Wednesday Singleton Embroiderers Guild group welcomed me back to teach Portuguese Whitework. A couple of years ago I did a Mountmellick workshop with them, which they greatly enjoyed. It was lovely to see several of the completed projects which they proudly brought along to show me!
Our Portuguese Whitework class got off to a slow start, partly because (as planned) I caught the train up from Sydney in the morning, and part of the way had to go on a bus, due to trackwork (not planned!). That added an extra half an hour to my trip, making it a long 4 hour journey.

It was quite cold, but we got our needles moving on our biscornus. (I can’t say that was really enough movement to warm us much, though!) The sun streaming in was very welcome!

The ladies in the group are very talented stitchers. They produced beautiful work. Even those who said that they were “not counted embroidery people”, did a wonderful job, and you couldn’t tell that it wasn’t really their thing from the quality of their stitching!

Hopefully next time I visit, I’ll get to see a lovely selection of completed Portuguese Whitework biscornus. Thank you to Shirley for your wonderful hospitality, and to Elaine for organising everything and doing all the little and big things to make my trip run so smoothly. Thank you to the whole group for your warm welcome. I enjoyed my time with you all.

Off to Singleton for Portuguese Whitework

Sorry for my silence lately. I have been rather snowed under with preparation for classes of all kinds (ones I am teaching and ones I am learning from!) and travel. I have to start preparing for the upcoming Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair too, because that is fast bearing down upon me!

When you wake at 2am and your mind goes into overdrive, you know you have too much happening. But unfortunately the only way I can reduce some of that is to get it done!

First things first: tomorrow I am off to Singleton in the Hunter Valley to teach a Portuguese Whitework class tomorrow and Wednesday. We’ll have a lovely time, I am sure. I have visited the Embroiderers’ Guild group in Singleton before, so it will be great to visit them again! While I am gone, the office will be unmanned, so if you place an order in the next day or so, I will attend to it on my return. I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

The next big outing after the Singleton class is the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair, 12th-16th of June, at Darling Harbour. I will again be exhibiting in Stand L42, which is the same number as last year, so I expect it should be in the same place as last year! I’d love you to come and visit me. I am planning to have some of the projects from my next whitework book on show. (Ooooh! Letting the cat out of the bag!)

There is so much to prepare for, as well as continuing with writing books etc. If only I didn’t feel so harried and stressed… 🙁 So much to do, way too little time! I must remember to get enough sleep, as that will definitely help. 🙂

Cuban whitework

When I was on the needlework cruise earlier this year, I had some really interesting conversations with some of the students. One lady, Irene, said that she had visited Cuba and while there, she had seen people working whitework embroidery. She wondered if I would be interested in seeing some? Would I ever!

After the cruise I duly received a package in the mail from Irene, with a variety of whitework embroidery in it. What a delight!

The work is on a very finely woven fabric, which looks to be cotton, though may have some additional other fibre in it. The thread is also very fine – about the thickness of one strand of floss – and has quite a bit of sheen to it. I’d say it is some sort of synthetic fibre.

The central motif of an eight pointed star is worked on a mesh of drawn thread work, with the star itself woven into the fabric.

The drawn thread work around the central motif echoes the central eight pointed star, using the same shape, but worked in a very complicated drawn thread work pattern.

It was lovely to see this example of whitework from a place where I had no idea that there was a whitework tradition! Thank you Irene, for sharing this embroidery with me! Next post, I will show you some more of the embroidery that she loaned to me.