White Threads

lots of little things

I’ve been doing heaps of little not always very exciting things over the past few days. Yesterday I did some more work on the app, and quickly found an issue that I wasn’t sure how to work around. An email to my developer followed!

On the weekend, the Reader and I went back to our pattern drafting course. We had our bodice fitting shells with us, ready to be fitted. Somehow we’d both managed to make different mistakes. 🙂 Changes have been noted, and we’ll be making new shells before the next lesson to check further. We also started drafting skirts, which are delightfully easy compared to bodices with lots of darts and the moving of darts. We’ll need fitting shells of a straight skirt each before the next lesson, again to check fit.

I’ve also been looking at changing my logo for Vetty Creations. Lots of umming and ahhing. I should probably just take the plunge and do it, but I feel its akin to changing your name – its quite a big deal! There are a number of reasons why I want to change the logo – a main one is that the current logo does not work particularly well in a digital environment because of its shape. This wasn’t really an issue when the logo was created!

I think today will be another day of getting orders ready to post, and working on the app. Hopefully my developer will get back to me so that I can continue on the bit I was working on.

dream job

I saw a Venn diagram on Facebook yesterday that had three circles along the lines of “stuff you like doing”, “stuff you are good at”, and “stuff people will pay you to do”. The intersection of those three circles was your dream job.

It again made me realise how wonderful it is that I do have a job that I love so much. Sure, there’s things about what I do that I don’t enjoy (resaving pics and text to go into a phone app, anyone?!), but there’s so much that I do love.

Over this past week, doing the projects for the Quilting in the Highlands Retreat, I have just been so energised and had so much fun.

Of course, there’s no regular paycheck, and I don’t contribute much to the family finances, but I love what I do, and it fits beautifully with our family’s needs.

I hope I’m able to keep doing what I do for a very long time yet! (And with the number of book ideas that I have, it is quite possible that it could happen!)

Teaching at a quilting retreat!

I’m sorry for my silence lately. I have been very busy whipping up a couple of projects for… (drum roll) The Berrima Patchwork “Quilting in the Highlands” Retreat for 2013!

About two weeks ago, late one evening, I received an email from Tamsin and Sue at Berrima Patchwork, inviting me to teach at their quilting retreat next year (27th-30th July 2013). My first thought was, “But I don’t quilt!” I had my suspicions that Michele Hill who was one of their teachers at this year’s retreat had been singing my praises to Tamsin and Sue. (Michele recommends my left and right-handed stitch dictionaries to all her students.)

When I spoke with Tamsin the next day, she said that she was unaware of Michele’s love of my books and that they had actually been watching my work for a while, and did want me to teach embroidery (not quilting, phew!) for them at their quilting retreat. We discussed some possibilities for classes – they wanted two two day classes – and I went away and put my brain in gear.

For a while we did consider the possibility of using one of Michele’s designs in a collaborative sort of project. I love Michele’s gorgeous William Morris style designs, but in the end, I decided I wanted the fun of designing something myself.

Since Tamsin and I spoke, I have been madly working on the two projects for her – and having a WONDERFUL time! I did a quick trip down to their shop one day last week (Berrima is in the highlands south of Sydney) to look at fabric and choose some to work with. For someone who has only had her driving licence since last December, I did 5 hours of driving that day, which was quite a big deal!

I finished the first of the two projects on Saturday, and then the second one yesterday morning. I had to photograph them and send off the photos to Berrima. They loved them. “The photos look amazing, they really have left us speechless!”

Hopefully in the next few days I will be able to reveal to you the photos of all the fun I have been having over the last few days. One of the projects is completely what you would expect me to come up with. The other is not in my normal style, but was so much fun to do and I was really happy with the look.

If you’re interested in the retreat, Berrima Patchwork held their first one this year, and it was a raging success. You can read about it on their Facebook page – which is also where the teachers and classes are being revealed.

Maybe I will see some of you there?!

Choosing threads

I had a lovely day working with fabric and threads yesterday. So many gorgeous colours. I took my fabrics to a local shop to buy threads to go with them.

I have a little app in my phone where I have all the embroidery threads that I own listed. It means that I can go to the shop, choose a thread and then check whether I already have one of those skeins at home. It is very useful and means that I don’t end up buying more skeins of something I already own!

I chose threads that went with my fabrics, and checked the app. I didn’t have ANY of those threads already (and they were just DMC stranded threads, so nothing unusual!). It made me realise that the colours I am working with are a completely new colour scheme to me – how exciting!

When buying some extra fabric, the lady in the shop asked what I was making. I showed her my design and she oohed and aahed. It was a lovely response and quite encouraging!

I guess you’re wondering when you’ll get to see photos of this mysterious project. All in good time. Probably not too long, actually. 🙂

Colour palettes No 2

Yesterday I spent a few very enjoyable hours choosing colour schemes and patchwork fabrics for a class project. The first colour scheme wasn’t too hard, as I had already planned it out. It was simply a matter of finding fabrics with those colours.

The second colour scheme was much harder, as I had not properly planned a second colour scheme and was sort of winging it! I stumbled around looking at fabrics, not really making any progress. The shop owner felt a little sorry for me and started suggesting some things.

And then I remembered the second post I planned to write on colour palettes! (You can find the first one here.)

When you’re stuck for a colour scheme as I was yesterday, one way to figure something out is to work with what someone else has already worked out. By this I mean use the colours in a patterned fabric.

If you look along the side edges of a fabric (called selvedges or selvages) you’ll often see a white strip on one of them, sometimes with the name of the fabric design, the designer, and little spots of colour.

You can see the spots in this example. They show all the coloured fabric inks that have been used to print the fabric.

Looking along the spots, you can choose all or some of them to use in your colour scheme. I’ve chosen spots 2, 4, 5, 9 and 10. (I realise it is not a terribly exciting or inspiring colour scheme, but it is just an example!)

Yesterday I was eventually able to come up with a very satisfactory second colour scheme by using the one that a fabric designer had already worked out. (Not the one shown!) It made things so much easier!

forget-me-nots and daisies

I spent the day working on a new Mountmellick project yesterday in preparation for a class next year. I had such a lovely time sitting there stitching away all day. It is to be a cushion, and the plants on it are forget-me-nots and daisies. Very pretty, dainty flowers!

I tried out some new stitch combinations and new ways of using a very old stitch, and was quite pleased with the results.

Today I’ll be doing some preparatory work for another project. This one explores using different stitches for raw edge applique. You know how when people do raw edge applique, they always seem to use blanket stitch? Well, there are SO many other stitches that could be used! My project will explore how to use other stitches instead.

So, lots of fun ahead!

bodice patterns drafted

The Reader and I started our CIAM pattern making course on the weekend. We drafted front and back bodices, according to our measurements. In the two weeks before the next class we have to use one of the patterns we drafted (we drafted more than one, because there are different dart placements possible, especially for the front) to make up a fitting shell.

The Reader has not used a sewing machine much before, so that is a skill I will be teaching her. She also has a few school assignments on the go at the moment, so if she doesn’t have the time, I will make up her shell, and we’ll learn the sewing bit later, when there is more time.

Next time, we will try on our fitting shells and learn what individual adjustments we each need. I know that mine will need to come in in the shoulders, as my shoulders are not wide, and that’s an adjustment I always need to make on commercial patterns also.

On Friday I finished my Portuguese Whitework class with the Miranda guild group. We did eyelets (two types), bullions and stem stitch. Some of the ladies decided that Portuguese Whitework is not their thing – that’s ok, we’re all different! – but there were a good number who really enjoyed it and were very enthused. I had a lovely time with them all.

I also spent a bit of the weekend knitting and sewing. I’ve knitted a fringe for the Mountmellick cushion that I’ll be whipping up this week, as a class sample. And I also spent time working on a test stitch of another project. I was playing with colours and stitches. Some of it was successful, and some of it was not, but that’s why you do a test stitch – to find out what does work and what doesn’t!

Yesterday Rainbow Girl had a gymnastics testing day, so it was useful to take the fringe with me to knit. She enjoyed the morning, and I got a bit of knitting done, and made a very large knotty mess of yarn. It took me more than an hour to sort it out! Not highly productive…

colour palettes

If you haven’t seen Design Seeds, you need to go and have a look. If you’ve ever wondered how to create beautiful colour schemes, Design Seeds shows a great way to do it. You can use one of the palettes they suggest, or use images and the world around you to create your own.

When I was working for a publisher many years ago, one of my fellow book designers suggested to me that a good way to come up with a colour scheme was to find a picture in a magazine or book that you liked the colours of and then pick colours out of that image.

This is essentially what Design Seeds does. And they do it so very well!

Mind a-whirr with design possibilities

The other day I was honoured to received an invitation to teach at a new (for me) venue. They’re asking for something a little different than what I would normally teach, and so I am delighted to consider some new design possibilities.

As Sir Humphrey Appleby (or was it Bernard Woolley?) would say, “in the fullness of time” all the details will be revealed. In the mean time, I’m going to have some fun thinking through design ideas and giving some of them a go, to come up with a new project or two.

Apart from that, there’s just been more slogging away at the app diagrams. One day it will be done… And of course, I have been filling lots of orders, as well. Sometimes I wish I had minions to do the mind-numbing boring stuff for me. Probably we all wish that on occasions!

Happy (late) left-handers day!

Oops! It passed me by that yesterday was International Left-Handers Day, but I take comfort in the fact that while it is well and truly Tuesday here now, it is still Monday in some parts of the world! However, as the writer of a left-handed embroidery book, I feel I do need to acknowledge the day.

To all the left-handers out there, Happy Left-Handers Day!

I hope that you have a wonderful left-handedly dextrously-able day, and why not take the opportunity to enjoy some left-handed embroidery using my book, The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion?

Thank you to all those lefties who have told me how much they appreciate my left-handed stitch dictionary. It really is lovely to think that it has made your embroidering so much easier.