White Threads

drawing exhibition

If you’re anything like me, you’ll possibly agree that William Morris is a hero. I have always admired the talents of the man, who was jack of all trades, and master of all of them! His work is amazingly beautiful, and I always find it inspiring.

I recently learned that the Art Gallery of NSW is having an exhibition entitled The Poetry of Drawing: Pre-Raphaelite Designs, Studies and Watercolours. The exhibition focuses mainly on the work of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, comprising Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt, but some of William Morris’ works are also included.

According to the Art Gallery website, the exhibition “includes over 140 works–drawings, sketches, watercolours, illustrations and designs for textiles and stained glass”. It is showing until 4th September.

You can be assured that I will be visiting this exhibition during these school holidays!

School holiday break

It is school holidays here – the winter break – and we were all very ready for it! Because of this, I am giving myself a week off from work. I apologise that I will not be able to attend to your orders or your questions while I am busily lazing around doing nothing. (Actually, I probably will still be embroidering for the book, but that’s because embroidery is also my hobby and I love it, not just my work!) I may occasionally read my email, and I may occasionally approve blog comments. I may even write a blog post or two, if I feel so inclined. But the point is that I am going to have a break from working hard.

We all need one, and this is when I have chosen for mine.

Sorry if it inconveniences you. I’ll be back on deck from Tuesday 12th.

portuguese whitework email list

I have set up an email list specifically to send people updates about my upcoming book “Portuguese Whitework: Bullion Embroidery from Guimarães”. Yesterday I sent out my first update, mostly just to welcome people to the list, but it does also give a sneak peak preview of the cover of the book.

If you’d like to join, please let me know in the comments section. I should be able to get your email address from that. Alternatively, you can go to our contact page and fill in the form there, to let me know of your interest, and your email address so that I can add it to the list.

And for all those who follow the Australian financial year calendar, Happy New Year! 🙂

whitework and mud

Yesterday was my girls’ school’s athletics carnival. I had been planning on going from about lunchtime onwards, but then I realised their races were in the morning, so that I really had to go then. I had wanted to get some work done at home in the morning, and the fact that it was going to be overcast with a chance of showers did not thrill me.

So off I went, with folding chair in hand and whitework embroidery in bag. I set myself up and got stitching, with periodic breaks to get up and cheer loudly. When the sun came out it was quite pleasant; when it rained it wasn’t.

The ground was quite soggy and therefore with the rain, quite muddy. One or two people commented that I was very game bringing my white embroidery to the carnival with me, but when that’s the work you have to do, that’s what has to happen!

At one stage my ziplock bag of supplies did fall into a puddle, but thankfully it was a new ziplock bag and didn’t have any holes yet so everything was safe inside. Phew! So my whitework made it through the day intact, and happily I got quite a lot done.

cushion inspiration

Yesterday I spent some time fiddling around with a cushion design. I design on computer, placing motifs and elements on a grid which represents the fabric. This means I can move things around easily, try things out, and get a good visual idea of how things are working.

I went through a few different possibilities and none of them were really “working”. They just weren’t right, and therefore I wasn’t happy with them.

And then, inspiration struck! I came up with an idea that I had never thought of before, and hoped it might work. So I moved things around on my screen, and I loved the result!

Thanks to Veronica’s (The Creative Finisher!) great cushion finishing suggestions early in the day yesterday, I decided that a cushion with a flat flange was the way to go. I like the simple understated elegance of this style of cushion. I’ve made them before, and I really like the look. (See how easy it is to convince me?!)

No, I haven’t yet finished the tablecloth, but I’d like to work on a smaller project next week. Therefore I want the new design and the supplies all lined up, ready to go.

cushion edges

Now that the craft show is over, I am getting stuck back into writing the Portuguese whitework book, and its certainly not a chore!

I have done the stitching for possibly about half the projects, but still need to work on some more. I think I’d like to work on a cushion next, but the idea for it is just not forming in my head. I think I’ll need some more inspiration. Might need to go for a wander in some soft furnishing shops today.

What types of cushion finishes do you like? For those of you who do not usually use the word cushion, I mean the pillow things that sit on your lounge or on the bed, just looking pretty! I’m not one for frills and ruffles, but maybe that’s what you like. What about a flange? – a flat border of the same fabric extending from the edge of the pillow section. Do you like cushions edged in cord? Or lace? Are there other options I haven’t suggested? What type of cushion edge do you like best?

I look forward to hearing your preferences.

the carnival is over

Well, the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair for 2011 is done and dusted! We had a great time. I really enjoyed meeting so many wonderful customers and spending the five days with Janie and Belinda. It was lots of fun and especially over the final few days (as we were getting more and more deliriously tired) we shared a lot of laughs!

It was an absolute pleasure to meet some of the people who read this blog. Thank you so much for making yourselves known to me! I was also visited by some past students, and it was good to hear what they’re up to these days.

For those of you who weren’t there, here’s a photo of my section of the stand. It changed a little bit over the show, as I tweaked the display and reorganised things.

Yesterday in the morning I had a chat with a lady who was considering purchasing a copy of The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion. She had a really good look through it and decided that it was something she could use and benefit from. In the afternoon, she came back especially to tell me that she’d been reading it over lunch and thought it was so wonderful that she had to come back and congratulate me on it. She said that she has many other stitch books, but that mine really stood out from the rest. I was so pleased that she made the effort to come back to tell me! Its one thing to enjoy a book, but its another to let the author know just how much you enjoy it!

On each of the five days I taught a 1 hour class on basic embroidery for left-handers. I love teaching this class, as often the students have had less than happy experiences in classes before. Some of them related stories of how they have paid their money to attend classes then at the class had embroidery teachers walk away from them saying that they cannot help them as the student is left-handed. (I’m sorry, but that’s just not good enough, and it makes me very cross!)

Anyway, it was great to see their delight at having a left-handed teacher and learning the stitches in a left-handed manner. They all went away very satisfied, knowing that they too can do embroidery, even though they are left-handed!

One of the nicest things about my left-handed class was the fact that I taught about 6 students who were younger than me. This doesn’t happen very often, so it is always a thrill to know that my skills are being passed on to a younger generation.

There was a lot of interest in my Portuguese whitework book, with many people gathering around during my stitching demonstrations at the stand. Many people mentioned how much they are looking forward to the book being available – so am I!

And on that note, I’d better get back on with writing it, now that the carnival (show!) is over.

Cottage garden delights

Yesterday I spent my demonstrating sessions at the show working on a Hardanger embroidery. I had bought some Cottage Garden Threads the day before, and was eager to try them out. I was a bit disappointed that the perle threads don’t come in perle 5, so I bought stranded cotton instead. Who says you can’t use stranded floss for Hardanger? I certainly don’t!

The colour I was using was Raisin, a gorgeous mix of reds, oranges and purples. Not a colour scheme I would normally try, but it just looked so yummy that I couldn’t resist! I took a selection of like coloured skeins with me from home to use in conjunction with the Raisin Cottage Garden Thread.

It turned out that I really needed a better purple than the ones I had in my stash. So on my way home last night I stopped off at a local craft shop to get one that was more suitable. It wasn’t as easy as I had hoped.

When we had our discussion of red thread last week, Elmsley Rose pointed out to me that the purples in the DMC range are a bit lacking. Last night, I realised that what she said was very true! There really wasn’t much to choose from in a rich, dirty, warm purpley aubergine colour. In the end I chose two skeins and hoped that one would assert itself over the other when put next to the rest of the stitching. (It did.)

I’m going to be a real tease and not show you the embroidery, because its probably going into a magazine, and therefore they need it to have not been “seen” before.

So instead, I’ll show you my selection of colours, some of which I used, and others I did not.

'Raisin' Cottage Garden Thread on the left, with DMC skeins to go with it on the right.

To report on the Cottage Garden Thread, I found it lovely to work with. The colour gradations change VERY often. I’m not sure if I was imagining it, or if it was actually true, but they seem to change colours more often than other variegated threads. In some instances, this would be a good thing, and in others, it might not. However, it worked fine for me and my satin stitch kloster blocks on my Hardanger. I particularly loved the colour of the “Raisin” I was using. I’ll definitely be using their threads again.

For a great run down on yesterday at the show (with photos!), you can also read Janie’s blog.

new book excitement

Yesterday at the show was a great success, despite the fact that I started off with a big boo-boo! I left my name badge at home. Oh dear. Fortunately in amongst my stuff at the show, I had my badge from last year, and they’re exactly the same this year. So once they’d verified that I was on the list of exhibitors, they let me in the door and I was simply able to use last year’s badge for the day. I did feel like a right dill, though!

The three businesses working together (Vetty Creations, Cassis Craft and Janie Hubble Designs) is working really well. Because there are the three of us, we can have one person demonstrating at all times, which always draws a crowd.

I demonstrated Portuguese whitework, which people really seemed to like the look of. I am working on my tablecloth, so its a nice big visual feast. I have a dummy of the cover of my new book “Portuguese Whitework” standing on the table, and I think a few people have been disappointed to pick it up to look through the book and find that its only a piece of cardboard! Sorry, you’ll have to wait until it is published in early 2012. But having the cover done does make it seem a whole lot more real!

Lots of people signed up to be kept informed about the book as it progresses. If you’d like to be added to my email list for that purpose, just let me know. I plan to send out emails as the book progresses, such as “The book went off to the printers yesterday.” (Which it didn’t – that’s just an example!)

I was very tired last night, but all three of us agreed it was a really good day. We have great neighbours, and seem to be in a really good position on the show floor. They’ve completely redone the layout this year, so we’re all still learning about where the dead zones are, but we seem to have scored a pretty good position! There were people commenting that they would have been happy to have only had our aisle in the show – and ignored everything else. That’s a pretty nice compliment about us and our neighbours!

I really haven’t had the chance to look around much – in fact I don’t really get the chance at all. Unfortunately I’m there to work, not play!

Onwards and upwards for today!

Let the show begin!

At 9am this morning the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair begins! It will run 9-5 each day, until it ends on Sunday.

Janie, Belinda and I all arrived at the Darling Harbour Exhibition Centre yesterday morning at about the same time, and managed to get everything set up in about 3 hours. We were pretty pleased, and the stand looks great!

The great mess of setting up!

Janie Hubble Designs on the left, Cassis Craft in the middle, and Vetty Creations on the right.

Me being a little bit silly in front of my bit of the stand.

You can see the range of things I have for sale: kits and patterns, books, thread, knitting cotton, needles, fabric, embroidery hoops, booklights, left-handed scissors etc. Lots of fun things!

Dazzlingly brilliant in our lovely safety vests (which have to be worn during setup due to occupational health and safety regulations).

When we were leaving, there were many others who still had a lot left to do, and with flights in and out of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra somewhat or completely disrupted due to the ash cloud from the Chilean volcano, I wonder how many are not even going to be able to set up beforehand or even make it to the show. Janie was very pleased to have arrived from Perth the day before, rather than yesterday, and I was pleased for her too!

First up at 9:30am today, I’ll be demonstrating Portuguese whitework at our stand (Stand K39), which is near the entry to the quilt show. I haven’t really checked out our neighbours yet, but I do know that we have the lovely Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched just around the corner from us. I’ll need to see who else we have in our neighbourhood today.

Its going to be a fun but tiring five days. Yesterday it seemed like a little bit of an anticlimax, setting it all up and then going home again, to wait. But it did mean that I could get some things done at home – family things, not business things!

Off to the show I go!