White Threads

Needlework cruise

A few weeks ago I tantalisingly dropped it into one of my posts that I had been invited to teach on a needlework cruise early next year. I am now allowed to spill the beans on that one!

From February 10th next year, I will be teaching Portuguese Whitework and Mountmellick Embroidery on a cruise leaving from Sydney to go to New Caledonia and Fiji. There will be a great range of tutors, teaching a wide range of needlework techniques, including Prudence Mapstone with her amazing free-form knitting, Alison Cole with her beautiful goldwork, Margaret Lee with Japanese embroidery, and many others.

I’ll be teaching 2 one day classes and one 2 day class, as follows:

Portuguese Whitework panel with Yvette Stanton (1 day class)

Portuguese Whitework panel class with Yvette Stanton

Portuguese Whitework bookmark with Yvette Stanton (1 day class)

Mountmellick Pomegranate Oval doily with Yvette Stanton (2 day class)

Mountmellick Pomegranate oval doily class with Yvette Stanton

I’m really looking forward to the cruise. I’ve never been on a cruise before (though I have been on boat trips, and managed ok without seasickness!) and I think the idea of some needlework, some relaxing and some touristing is a fabulous one! I actually thought some years back that teaching needlework on a cruise would be an excellent thing to do. I’ve just had to wait for the market to catch up with me! 🙂

If you’re interested in learning more about this cruise and booking your place, please head on over to the cruise website. I look forward to meeting you on the cruise!

Craft and sewing show report

On Friday I invited my sister and my mum to come with me to the Craft and Sewing Show at Rosehill Racecourse. I was hoping to pick up some fabric and thread for using in my new book. My sister was hoping for some of the indie crafts vendors who had been at the show a few years ago when we previously visited it together. My mum wanted some card making supplies, particularly some nice stamps.

We were severely underwhelmed.

There were TWO (count them) vendors selling nice embroidery thread. And neither of them had anything suitable for what I wanted. I did buy some silk blend brocade type fabric, which I might use for something. There were NO (can’t count them!) indie craft vendors for my sister. Mum did get some cardmaking paper, but not stamps.

There was very little knitting stuff. Very little embroidery stuff. It seemed to mostly be patchwork and quilting stuff – and nothing very inspiring of that. My sister commented, “I didn’t see ANY Amy Butler fabric,” meaning there was nothing particularly contemporary. There was papercraft stuff, but mostly for scrapbookers. I have no idea what people use all those stick on sparkly things for. And there was lots of old lady lace.

My sister felt there was precisely nothing of interest for her at all. I did at least get to catch up with some stall holders who I hadn’t seen in a while, and introduce myself to some others, who I needed to meet.

When we were leaving, I saw the guy who actually runs the show. I pointed him out to my sister, and said “He’s the one you need to speak to.” So she waited until he was free, and offered him her feedback. It was a very interesting conversation. Apparently the average age of attendees for that show is 37. That’s ME! But if that is the average age, I think there will be a lot of people who won’t bother coming back again.

He told us that the show that had the indie crafts there a few years ago (it was not the same show, and had different ownership) went bust because of those indie craft vendors. I’m not sure how, but apparently the other stall holders resented them being there, and they just didn’t fit.

I remember that show. Downstairs, there were all the normal stalls, like the ones we saw on Friday – really uninspiring. Upstairs, there were all these little stalls with indie crafts, such as Prints Charming, Ink and Spindle and others. I found some really lovely hand-dyed felt which was perfect for what I was working on at the time (my stitch dictionaries) at a Rudolf Steiner-esque stall. My sister and her friend had walked up the stairs, found the stalls and exclaimed something along the lines of “THIS is more like it!”

It was really interesting and inspiring and exactly the sort of thing they were looking for. But unfortunately apparently it doesn’t work for mass market, and therefore there can’t be a show for that sort of suppliers. (SURELY someone can make it work, even if it isn’t the people who currently organise these mass-market craft shows?)

The guy who runs the shows talked about the difference in audiences between the Darling Harbour show (which I exhibit at) and the Rosehill show. It confirmed for me that Darling Harbour is the right place for my business. He also talked about demographics. It was quite fascinating. He’s the sort of person I could grill for a whole day and learn so much!

So even if the show itself wasn’t much chop, the conversation I had with the fellow who organises it probably made up for it.

I don’t think I’ll bother going to that show again. Its sad, because it COULD be so good!

the next book

I think I have decided on what the next book is going to be. I’m not going to say what it is yet, because the decision could change. But I figured it was better to get started on something, rather than just sitting around for months pondering what my decision should be.

Someone very wise once said to me that it is better to be moving than stationary. If you’re moving, the direction can change, but if you’re stationary, it takes a lot more effort to get started to do anything.

I even created a new QuarkXpress (the graphic design layout program that I use for laying out my books) file yesterday, to start putting things on pages. While up at the local shops waiting for the car to be serviced, I purchased a notebook and went to the library and started making notes and jotting down ideas.

When starting a new book, sometimes I find it useful to start off by writing the blurb for the back of the book. It helps me to crystallise what the book is going to be about. If I can explain it to someone else, it means that I have a good idea where I’m heading with it. So I had a go at the blurb yesterday, and eventually came up with one that I think captures what I’m trying to achieve.

Onwards and upwards!

International Women’s Day

Happy International Women’s Day!

I’m not really sure what the point of it is. Are we supposed to celebrate it? If we are, I don’t know what or how we’re supposed to celebrate. By doing something womanly?

Anyway, if International Women’s Day is important to you, I hope you have a wonderful womanly day.

Personally, I think this being the International Year of Reading is much more worthwhile. I love reading, and can happily think of many ways to celebrate it! 🙂

I wonder when we’ll get the International Year of Embroidery?

Hardanger step-by-steps

In the most recent issue of Inspirations magazine I have a Hardanger project – Treasure Chest – a collaboration with Janie Hubble.

One of the features of this design is needleweaving that has groups of three parallel woven bars. The process for doing these neatly so that the thread doesn’t show up obviously between the bars, is a precise one. I sent detailed step-by-step photos and instructions to Country Bumpkin to help them prepare the instructions to go into the magazine. They always do their own photography of their own step-by-steps so that they fit with the style of the magazine, based on what the designers supply them.

Unfortunately what went into the magazine did not show exactly the same process that I had shown. At times, mistakes happen. 🙁 As soon as I noticed, I let them know, and in an effort to rectify the mistake, they have now placed revised instructions on their website.

http://www.countrybumpkin.com.au/article_info.php?articles_id=693

Please note that the bars they have shown do not have the correct tension. Bars should be thin and narrow – not fat and wide as they are shown – as that is how they were worked on historical examples. However, if you keep that in mind and work with these instructions, you’ll now get the correct results.

Thanks for supplying these correct instructions, Country Bumpkin!

magazine listings updated

There’s a page on my website that many of you have probably never visited. Its a listing of all the different articles and projects I have had published in various needlework magazines over the years. For the website revision, I have updated it.

You will notice that early on in my career I had lots of projects published in magazines, but this has tapered off quite dramatically in recent years. This is mostly due to the fact that I am now putting more effort into *my* publishing exploits – my books!

However you will also notice that I have written more feature articles in recent years. I guess that’s just because I’ve had more to say! And I really do enjoy writing articles for magazines, because they can be on such a large range of subjects, even within the confines of a needlework magazine!

So please take a look at the listing, and you might just find you have a few more of my projects that you could do than you realised!

Portuguese Whitework video

Because of all the effort that I put into creating my video preview of “Portuguese Whitework”, I’m going to wave it under your noses yet again and embed it here today. I hope you’ll indulge me!

Please share the video with your friends – its a great way to introduce the delights of Portuguese Whitework to them!

One of the hardest things about a new book is wondering what’s in it, when you haven’t actually got it in your hot little hands! So, right near the end of the video (at about 1:30), where the quote from Mary Corbet is, you can see all 10 projects that are featured in the book.

Order your copy of Portuguese Whitework today so that you can be one of the very first to receive it after our shipment arrives from the printers at the end of April.

new website online!

The new website is online now!

I think I have ironed out most of the major problems, but if there’s anything you find that’s not working, please let me know.

You’ll see that the top of the page has a whole new look (not yet here on the blog – I haven’t figured out how to do that, and it might take a little bit more work yet!).

The most exciting new bits are the following pages:
Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães
Portuguese Whitework video preview
Portuguese Whitework overview

You can now place orders for “Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães” using the link above. These orders will be sent when the shipment arrives AT THE END OF APRIL, and not before. I’d love to send them out sooner, but it just isn’t possible! 🙂

You can explore what the book is like and what’s in the book with the video preview, and you can learn a bit more about Portuguese Whitework in general on the overview page.

Thanks for your patience, and I hope you like the new look!

website nearly there

I’ve only got about five more pages to go with the website re-do. And then there will be checking, checking, checking. I hope that tomorrow morning’s blog post will be a jubilant announcement that the new website is online. Don’t hold your breath though! 🙂

The last of our three window sets went in yesterday. Dad and I did it together. It was a very tight fit. Dad commented that my husband is rather a precision measurer! But we got it in, with a little bit of squeezing (along the lines of “how about we whack that support post a little way in that direction?” It did the trick!).

Now I just have heaps more painting of the windows to do. But with the weather event I’m not sure when that’s going to happen! They say the dam will spill tonight. Apparently the water level rose 3m yesterday and only has about 85cm left to go. We were only able to do the window yesterday because it was on the verandah, completely under cover.

a friend’s new book

I received a message yesterday from a friend of mine, Melody Lord, saying that she had received the advance copy of her new book Knitting Basics.

I’ve known Melody since I was a teenager. We lost contact for some years, then found each other again through craft publishing links. Melody worked for many years as an editor of craft books, and also did an excellent stint at Australian Homespun magazine as the editor. I’ve worked with Melody on a number of publications. So it was a lovely surprise to learn that she’s now written a book – and a lovely book it looks to be too.

Since writing The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion I’ve had many people ask me for a left-handed knitting book, but despite the fact that I am left-handed, I knit right-handed! So my question for Melody was, “Does it have a section on left-handed knitting?”

Her response: “it has instructions for both English and Continental style (“throwing” and “picking”). Many left-handers prefer the “picking” method because the yarn is controlled by the left hand. Maybe that will help…”

The book will be out in Australia in May, and sometime around then in the UK. Melody is as yet unsure of release dates elsewhere. It looks like a really attractive and useful book, and is sure to be worth seeking out.