White Threads

Mountmellick again

I spent yesterday almost entirely working on a Mountmellick project for The Cruise (of which I cannot yet tell you any more). It was quite lovely to spend the day doing that. It feels like quite some time since I have done a new Mountmellick project!

Its been lovely to be playing with stitch combinations again. Hopefully I will get it finished today or tomorrow.

Of course, the website is still sitting there with nothing happening. This IS a frustration. I’m thinking that cloning myself might be a good idea. Of course, I do already have a clone (identical twin sister) but she’s got her own life to live…!

Knitting and stitching

Knitting and stitching, knitting and stitching, knitting and stitching. (Sounds like a Mountmellick project, doesn’t it?!)

And thinking about which book to write next… in another possible economic downturn.

Do you think the economic downturn has affected your craft/needlework buying habits? For products that you will use up, like thread and fabric, and for products like books that you can use over and over, again and again for years?

bits and bobs

Over the last few days I feel like I’ve been doing a bit of everything! Last Thursday, when I was at the Powerhouse Museum with Lisa the colour proofs of my book arrived.

I’ve spent the last few days checking them, finding more mistakes (most of which were my doing!) and fixing the mistakes. When I had confirmation yesterday that the one problem that wasn’t caused by me, was ok, I sent the proofs back to the printers in Hong Kong for them to continue the printing process.

I also received a phone call late last week inviting me to teach on a needlework cruise next year! Woohoo! After a fair amount of consideration to make sure I could get the classes to work under the conditions that will be placed upon me, I’ve accepted. The idea of the cruise itself didn’t take much getting used to. 🙂 Watch this space for more news!

And so I’ve been working on class preparations for the cruise and other classes that are upcoming, costing kits, and making samples. Written instructions come much later in the process. I still have more making to do today, so hopefully I’ll finally get back to my website revisions later this week.

And here’s a picture of me and Lisa in the Lace Study Room at the Powerhouse Museum last week.

Mountmellick Lily Cushion class

The third class that I will be teaching at Beating Around the Bush is a Mountmellick embroidery class.

Mountmellick lily cushion
With Yvette Stanton
Thursday April 19 and Friday April 20, 2012

Learn to work beautiful traditional whitework embroidery from Mountmellick in Ireland. Mountmellick embroidery is highly textured embroidery featuring many knotted and padded stitches. This cushion features lilies, a favourite Mountmellick motif.

All stitches will be taught in class, with emphasis on stitch variations. The traditional knitted fringe will also be demonstrated.

Skill level: all levels

Kit Contents: satin jean fabric, Mountmellick embroidery thread, hand embroidery needles, knitting cotton. To complete the project you will also need a cushion insert, zip, sewing machine and metal knitting needles. These will not be required in class.

Please bring with you: 15-20cm embroidery hoop, magnification (if required), wash out marker pencil or HB pencil.

Kit Cost: $35.00

To book in, please go to the Try Booking website.

Loved Love Lace

Yesterday Lisa, visiting from Canada, and I visited the Love Lace exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum here in Sydney. I had SUCH a wonderful time.

The first thing was that Lisa is a lovely girl, and I really enjoyed talking with her, sharing our similar loves of needlework, and expressing our horror of the same sorts of needlework disasters. I think we could both probably be described as needlework snobs! It was great to get to know Lisa better.

And the exhibition itself was really interesting. Parts of it were fascinating and inspiring, and parts of it were just plain weird! If you’re expecting the exhibition to just be pieces of lace, then you’ll be disappointed. (Though you can find that at the Powerhouse Museum in their excellent Lace Study Room.)

The first piece I saw from the exhibition was the Lacie Lorrie, an old rusty truck, with cutouts all over its chassis, creating a lacy effect. It was amazing, and really gave a taste for how unusual parts of the exhibition were going to be! The one that repulsed us the most was some bodily organs knitted out of human hair…

Amongst the weirdness though, there were some absolutely exquisite creations. Ones that come to mind were a set of lacy porcelain bowls, some felted dresses, a gorgeous white dress with hand-embroidered appliques from India, some beautiful Christening gowns from Canada, and some amazing jewellery. I LOVED the cyclone wire fencing panels with wire bobbin lace motifs worked into them. They were the last exhibit in the show, and they were simply amazing!

It is NOT a traditional lace exhibition, but it IS incredibly inspiring. DO go and see it if you have the chance. (You should have come with us!)

Thanks, Lisa, for suggesting we get together when you visited Sydney, and thanks for a lovely day!

Added later: links to images of each of the mentioned exhibits.

Portuguese Whitework Handtowel

The second class that I will be teaching at Beating Around the Bush is a Portuguese Whitework Handtowel.

Portuguese Whitework Handtowel
With Yvette Stanton
Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th April 2012

From my upcoming book “Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães” comes this exquisite whitework handtowel, featuring a style of embroidery from Guimarães in the north of Portugal. With drawn thread work and a profusion of bullions and eyelets, this is a lovely mix of counted and surface embroidery.

No need to be scared of bullion knots; you’ll come away from this class highly proficient at working them! The method I teach for working bullions is different than the method many people use, and often using this different method gives great results that were previously unachievable for many stitchers.

For many, this will be the first chance you will have to discover the delights of Portuguese Whitework, and believe me, I am completely enamoured with it! 🙂 It is a delight worth discovering!

Skill level: all levels. This project includes both counted embroidery and surface embroidery. Make sure you can count well – magnification will help!

Kit Contents: 38 count linen fabric, pearl cotton, needles, copy of “Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães” by Yvette Stanton

Please bring with you: 15-20cm embroidery hoop, magnification (highly recommended), wash-out marking pencil or HB pencil, embroidery scissors

Kit Cost: $85.00 AUD

To book in, please go to the TryBooking website.

Lace exhibition reminder

Today I am interrupting the Beating Around the Bush class descriptions to remind you that tomorrow a visiting Canadian stitcher and I, will be visiting the Love Lace exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum here in Sydney, and that you are welcome to join us.

We’ll be meeting in the foyer just before the ticket desks at 10:15am tomorrow. If you’re planning to come, let me know, so that we can look out for you.

Elizabethan Strawberry Roundel

I thought I might spend a bit of time over the next few days giving you more information about the classes I’ll be teaching at Beating Around the Bush.

Elizabethan Strawberry Roundel
With Yvette Stanton
Sunday 15th April 2012

This charming strawberry ornament features Elizabethan embroidery stitches such as buttonhole filling, reverse chain stitch and plaited braid stitch. Working with silks, paillettes and good quality imitation gold threads, this project will introduce you to the delights of Elizabethan embroidery. In red, green and gold, it would make a lovely Christmas decoration.

Many people admire plaited braid stitch but are scared of attempting it themselves. In this class, you’ll learn how to stitch it, with personal instruction from both me and my written instructions.

Skill level: intermediate stitchers (not complete beginners). This is because we will have a lot to get through in the one day, so instructing complete beginners would suck up a lot of my time, meaning the other students would miss out on me. Because I want everyone to have equal access to my tuition, stitchers with some experience – even if they’ve never done THESE PARTICULAR stitches before – are welcome in this class.

Kit Contents: Linen fabric, cotton backing fabric, silk thread, imitation gold thread, pailettes, needles, padding, card, instructions

Please bring with you: 10cm embroidery hoop, magnification (recommended), wash out marking pencil or HB pencil, embroidery scissors

Kit Cost: $23.00 AUD

To book in, please go to the TryBooking website.

Treasure Chest hardanger project

On Friday I received my copy of the latest issue of “Inspirations” magazine. In it I have a new Hardanger project published. The project was a collaboration between me and Janie Hubble.

At the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair last year I found some lovely scrummy Cottage Garden Threads colours and felt that I just *had* to use one in a project. And so I quickly designed a Hardanger on my computer one night after the show, and started stitching it on the train on the way in to the city the next day.

I asked Janie, who I was sharing the stand with, if she’d be interested in collaborating on it with me. Janie makes beautiful fabric covered boxes. She happily agreed and so our Hardanger-topped box came about.

My only photo of the embroidery is where the fabric isn’t totally flat, but I guess its better than nothing. Its not mounted on the box lid because I then sent it off to Janie for her to do all that, of which she did a lovely job!

There are much nicer photos of the project – they’ve called it “Treasure Chest” – on the Country Bumpkin website and in the magazine!

If you’d like to make it, you’ll need to avail yourself of Issue 73 of Inspirations magazine.

Australia Day

Yesterday here in Australia, it was Australia Day, and for that we get a public holiday. (Australia is often known to Australians as the land of the public holiday, however, having spent time in Ethiopia, I now believe that Ethiopia is the true holder of that title!)

We spent the day with friends, eating great food, enjoying lovely company, doing a jigsaw puzzle. It was a wonderfully relaxing afternoon, and we enjoyed it greatly. Back to the grindstone today – more website. 🙂