White Threads

back to work

I arrived home from Hobart late on Friday night, very pleased to be home with my family again. On Saturday we had a day together as a family, and it was so very nice to be with them. Yesterday I made a dress for my elder daughter for her end of school year farewell. I was pleased that it only took a day, and she loves the dress.

Yesterday was a public holiday here, giving me a long weekend. Today is back to normal. I’ll be spending the day catching up on retail and wholesale orders, and ordering a new print run on The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion, which is selling amazingly well.

Last week I heard from a shop owner that it (and The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion) outsells the A-Z books, and customers love that my books are so very clear in their step-by-step instructions. How very lovely!

hand embroidered babushka dolls

We had a wonderful day in class yesterday, exploring Mountmellick stitches. I don’t think the students had realised there were quite that many variations on some of the stitches we worked!

During the day, Natasha from The Snow Queen’s Garden dropped in to visit Mary-Anne, and we got to see some of her gorgeous hand-embroidered babushka dolls. They were simply stunning, and one of them will be coming home with me! I will show it to you when I have the chance to photograph it.

If you’re ever in Hobart, do take the opportunity to visit A Stitch in Time. It is a beautiful shop with an excellent range of threads, fabrics, ribbons, buttons and more. I’ve loved visiting it.

A grey day in Hobart

Today I’m in Hobart, ready to start a Mountmellick class at A Stitch in Time. I met Mary-Anne, the owner, for the first time yesterday and she is lovely. This will be a fun few days, I’m sure.

When I was at Springwood on Monday we were discussing my unusual and difficult stitches class that I will be teaching at Beating Around the Bush next year. As you must have noticed by now, I love using and playing with stitches. One of the students related to me a conversation she’d had with an embroidery teacher who questioned why she would want a book showing more embroidery stitches, as this particular teacher only ever uses less than ten…

Oh to be so easily satisfied! I need more variety in my life than that! Each to their own, I guess.

So, anyway, today we will have fun experimenting with stitches and stitch variations. Its a small class so I imagine we’ll get lots done.

home again

I’m back home again today, for a very short while before heading off to Hobart tomorrow for a Mountmellick class on Thursday and Friday. Yesterday’s class went very well, up at Springwood. It is lovely to introduce a new style of embroidery to people and have them “get” it.

The ladies really enjoyed themselves. I knew quite a few of them from my last class at Springwood, which was a merezhka class. Because they’ll be having an exhibition of work at The Springwood Community Arts Centre this weekend, there were a few framed merezhka pieces there (amongst other things), ready to go on display. It was great to see how well they had done with the class project.

I took my Portuguese whitework tablecloth with me to work on the train, and so that the students could see it and other projects from the book. By the end of the day several of the students realised *just* how much work is in that tablecloth, seeing they had taken the whole day to do what would amount to a tiny portion of the cloth.

I must admit, the tablecloth has been getting me a bit down. It is just going so slowly and taking so long. It really has put the book back by several months. I really hope that people DO make the tablecloth for themselves after seeing it in the book, as its taken up such a large chunk of my life for their benefit!

But I will be so terribly proud of it when it is done. I’ll have to see what competitions I can enter it in, to milk it for all it is worth!

A day in Springwood

Today I am off to Springwood for a Portuguese whitework class. We will be working a small square panel, with a border of drawn thread work, and a central motif of bullion embroidery.

As all always, I will be teaching the bullion stitch method for which you require a hoop. This is the method taught to me several years ago by Effie Mitrofanis. It is an ingenious method which often allows a student to feel confident about bullions for the first time ever. The method is *that* good!

It is not quite the sunny day I had on Friday, heading off to Lake Macquarie. It keeps changing between showers and sun. However, we will be warm and dry in class.

The class on Friday went very well and I think a lot of progress will be made before I get back there next month.

A day in Lake Macquarie

I’m on my way to Lake Macquarie for what promises to be a most enjoyable class. The sun is shining and the air is warm. I’ve already done nearly an hour’s worth of embroidery on my Portuguese whitework tablecloth. What fun!

I’d better get on with some more embroidery. This train journey which provides time to do so much, is simply gold!

kits for Mountmellick classes

I supply kits for my Mountmellick classes and I expect that all students will have one of these kits. I don’t consider them to be optional. There are good reasons why, and its nothing to do with me making a bit of extra money on supplying a kit. Its everything to do with making sure we’re all working on the same page.

You see, Mountmellick embroidery is a little bit unique in terms of the fact that its supplies are quite difficult to get. If you were doing a Hardanger class, it would be reasonably easy to collect together your supplies from local or internet shops. It would be reasonably easy for the vast majority of people to turn up with the right things.

Some people think that its ok to use perle cotton or candlewicking cotton, and damask fabric for Mountmellick embroidery, but I do not. None of these were traditionally used, and if you use them, you will not get the feel for working with the correct products, or creating an authentic effect.

I maintain that if you’re going to learn something new, you should learn it properly. That means with the right supplies, and the right techniques. For Mountmellick embroidery, there are very few suppliers who have the right products, and Vetty Creations is the main one. So therefore, it makes sense for me to supply a kit. You’ll be getting the right products, and therefore have an authentic experience.

If I asked people to bring their own supplies for a Mountmellick class, I’m pretty sure that some people would bring the right things. But some people would collect together things that are “close enough” from their stash – I know this, because most of us do try to use up what is in our stash, and that is an admirable aim!

But if you were going to do a stumpwork class with Jane Nicholas and she asked you to bring specific silk threads, and specific silk fabric, and you turned up with rayon threads and homespun fabric, you couldn’t expect to get the same effect as on Jane’s class model. You would find working with those threads and fabrics quite a different experience than Jane had intended.

Neither could you expect to turn up to one of my Mountmellick classes with other supplies and expect to get the same experience as I had planned for you. This is why I supply kits for my Mountmellick classes. If you use something else, I cannot give any sort of guarantee of a similar result or experience.

Please understand that I am not trying to bleed you of more money. My kit prices (especially for classes because there is no postage included) are quite reasonable. It is all about giving you a experience that is pleasurable and the same as the rest of the students in the class.

Christina Hendricks’ beaded gown

With the Emmys on yesterday, there’s lots of pictures of beautiful red carpet gowns around the place today. But Christina Hendricks’ gown was interesting in that it featured amazing hand beading. It was made here in Sydney by an Australian designer, Johanna Johnson.

I found this article about the dress this morning, in the Sydney Morning Herald. It also features an interview with the designer. I would have preferred that she talked more about the techniques that were used for the beading, but perhaps I have a more specialised interest in this than the general population!

You’ll know that I have an interest in embroidery beading, having mentioned the lovely Karen Torrisi on occasions before, and a wonderful book by Maisie Jarratt, called How to Bead – a fabulous book that you should get your hands on if you are interested in embroidery beading. I also had the pleasure of beading a dress to wear to a wedding last year, which you may remember.

upcoming classes

Over the next two weeks I have 3 classes, so I’ll be just a tad busy getting ready for them, and then teaching them. On Friday this week I will be teaching a Mountmellick workshop at the Lake Macquarie Embroiderers Guild Group. Then the following Monday I will be teaching Portuguese Whitework at the Springwood Arts Centre. On Thursday and Friday of next week I will be in Hobart teaching Mountmellick at A Stitch In Time.

It will all be lots of fun. The people who turn up to my classes are always so very lovely, and what could be better than spending a day stitching in company?

However, it will also mean that I am away from the office a bit. You may hear from me just a little less, and orders may be delayed a day or so. I apologise for this, but am pretty sure you’ll understand!

the road less travelled

When I was in secondary school, we studied some of the poems of Robert Frost, including “After Apple Picking”, “Mending Walls”, and my personal favourite “The Road Not Taken“. This poem really resonated with me.

(I’m providing a link to it – above – as I don’t know the legalities of me writing it out here.)

Years later, when my husband and I were planning our wedding, we decided to have it read as part of the ceremony by my sister-in-law (Hi S-I-L, I know you’re reading this!), as it was special to both of us.

The other day we were driving down a road where a little walking track goes off from the road. The vista made me think of Robert Frost’s poem. As I recited it to myself in my head, I found myself realising that in our family’s life, we really have taken that road with many of our choices. It was an interesting discovery to make, and one that I am very pleased about.

I don’t want to live an “average” life. I don’t have to have the same life as everyone else. I am happy to make choices that others might be afraid to make. I am happy to be counter-cultural. I am happy to be led by my God onto roads less travelled.

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And as a report on yesterday, I had a lovely morning yesterday with my blog reader friend and her friend. We talked, ate, discussed fabric, embroidery and sewing. It was lovely. Thanks for a great morning! We also enjoyed our Thai green curry last night with our friend, though only about 3/4 hour before he was due to arrive, I discovered the curry paste that I was sure was in the fridge must have been finished as there was none to be found! A quick trip to the local asian supermarket by my husband, and we were right again!