Introducing myself, for anyone new here…

In case you’re new here, I thought I would introduce myself. I’m Yvette Stanton. I live in a small country town, about five hours north of Sydney, Australia.

I’m passionate about embroidery, particularly whitework. My twin sister, Prue, and I were always creative, and when I was in high school I really began to focus on embroidery. Following school I studied graphic design at university, majoring in book design. From there, I brought my two loves together: embroidery and design.

I now write books about embroidery, usually focusing on regional styles of embroidery, and helping to preserve them by teaching others about the historical styles, and how to make them.

I enjoy researching traditional styles of embroidery, and my expertise comes from careful study of historical artefacts in museums around the world, and learning directly from the cultural custodians of the work where that is still possible.

I have written two stitch dictionaries and a growing number of instructional embroidery books on historical styles, particularly whitework, leading some to give me the moniker “Whitework Queen”! I’m left-handed, and so all of my more recent books include left-handed instructions.

I enjoy teaching embroidery through my online and in-person classes and my YouTube channel, White Threads FlossTube. I particularly love having left-handed students in my classes, as I am well placed to help them!

As a whitework expert, I am exceptionally proud of the fact that I am self-trained in embroidery, which means that I am not slave to someone else’s “rules” about how embroidery “should” be done. The only rules I am slave to are the ones imposed by the embroidery style itself!

I love embroidery and I love sharing it with others!