White Threads

Mary’s Portuguese Whitework review

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

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!

Whitework leftie opportunity

If you’re a left-hander (and somehow I suspect that a few might congregate around here…!) and you enjoy whitework (I suspect that we might have a few of them too…!) there’s an opportunity afoot for you.

Mary Corbet of Needle’nThread.com has presented an opportunity for English-speaking left-handers who’ve never tried Schwalm embroidery to work through Luzine Happel’s Schwalm instructions to create a beautiful Schwalm project. In return, you provide Luzine with feedback on her English-language left-handed instructions.

I’ve put my hand up, along with MANY others! There are only 3 kits available for this, so Mary’s going to do a draw to allocate the kits. Because I’m between books at the moment, and don’t have a needlework project on the go, I’d love to try Schwalm embroidery. If you are interested, visit Mary’s blog and register your interest!

Portuguese Whitework supplies

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.)

considerations

I think I told you a little while ago that I had made a provisional decision on what book to write next, just so that I had something to get on with. I didn’t really see the point in sitting around for the next six months just wondering about which one to do next. And so I was decisive, and got started.

However, I’m thinking of changing my mind about which book to write next, and doing a different one than the one I had previously slotted in to my schedule. This is because of conversations I had with students and others in Adelaide, at Beating Around the Bush.

The one I had already started on won’t be wasted. These things never are. I’m sure it can be recycled into something else.

I’m also considering another project, which is quite a new idea, and is right outside of my comfort zone. Its still a needlework focus, but has a different style of delivery than a book. Its a bit cutting edge, but I think it is something that the market might appreciate.

Watch this space…!

Adelaide book launch

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!

Stab stitching thanks

Thanks to everyone who contributed an answer to my question yesterday about what you understand “stab stitching” to mean. Most of you explained it as the same thing that I was thinking of – when you take the needle wholly from the front, wholly to the back, and back again, rather than threading the needle under and over the fabric.

But what I was REALLY interested in were those answers which were not the same. The applique one and the quilting one. That’s fascinating, so thank you to Rachel and Anita for your contributions.

I was asking because I wanted to know if I mentioned the idea of stab stitching, whether you would understand it to mean the same as I did. It seems that most do, so that is really useful to know. Thanks so much for your responses, including the ones that were emailed directly to me.

Portuguese Whitework now available in Europe!

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!

stab questions

My apologies for my absence yesterday; it was a public holiday here in Australia, celebrating Anzac Day. Anzac (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day celebrates the contribution made by our many troops who have fought in wars around the world defending Australia and New Zealand.

I will still be working on despatching orders again today. I think I am nearly through them all, but there’s still a way to go!

So, while I work on that, I have a few questions for you:
What do you understand from the idea of “stab stitching”? Does that mean anything to you? If it does, what do you understand it to mean?

Ethiopian experience take 2

What I didn’t tell you was that during the school holidays my family was not with me. They all went off to Ethiopia again, to visit the school we were at before, and to visit friends.

Why didn’t I go? Because I had already been booked to teach at Beating Around the Bush long before the trip to Ethiopia was planned. At first I had said that there was no way they were going if I couldn’t go, but then I realised that that was just selfish, so I said that I was ok with them going.

Of course, I really would have loved to have gone with them and I missed them terribly.

But they’re all back now, having had a wonderful time, and I am very pleased that they’re home!