White Threads

drawn thread work done!

I did it! Last night I finished the drawn thread work for the tablecloth for my Portuguese whitework book. What a feeling of accomplishment! One only slightly dampened by the fact that I now have about a million and one bullion knots ahead of me…

The drawn thread work base just by itself looks gorgeous – really elegant. However, I know that with the bullion embroidery and eyelets on the drawn thread work squares, it will look even more gorgeous.

The fabric I am using for this project is 20L linen from Portugal, sent to me by a lovely Portuguese friend. All pressed and ironed, it looks so good! It irons up really well (no stubborn creases), and makes a very pleasing result.

My *aim* (and that means it may not happen!) is to have a corner of the surface embroidery on the tablecloth completed in time for the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair from 22nd-26th June. I’ll be exhibiting on stand K39, and will have a range of embroidery on display to inspire you, including some of the Portuguese whitework. Of course, I’ll also have my books, kits and embroidery supplies for sale!

My colleagues (Janie of Janie Hubble Designs and Belinda of Cassis Craft) and I will be demonstrating various craft techniques throughout the day, depending on our specialties. Of course, my demonstrations will be embroidery techniques! I will also be running a Craft Circle each day from 1:30-2:30pm on Basic Embroidery for Left-Handers. Prebooking for the Craft Circle is required at stand K39. The class is free, but $5 payment for kit cost is required when you book in.

Now, hopefully I’ll get the chance to start the surface work on the tablecloth today. In amongst cooking a huge amount of Ethiopian food today (for a special Ethiopian night tonight), maybe I’ll get my hands clean enough and find the time to get on with my whitework! Must remember that turmeric and berbere spice mix don’t go well with white thread and fabric…

drawn thread work

Yesterday I spent the day trying to finish stitching the drawn thread work base for my Portuguese whitework tablecloth for the book. I really hoped I’d get that part done, but time got away. Maybe I’ll get it done today.

And while that will feel like an achievement of sorts, then I have to embark on the process of working the surface embroidery of mostly bullion stitch. I feel like I have a looong way to go on this tablecloth yet!

Yesterday I also received a lovely message from Paula, a Brazilian teacher of embroidery, which she gave permission for me to share with you:

Now that I use the The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion I am also loved by the lefties even being a right handed teacher! To avoid problems I keep both books in the classroom – really great books!

The books that Paula is talking about are my left and right-handed stitch dictionaries, The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion, and The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion.

I wholeheartedly support the idea of teachers having a copy of each of these books in their classrooms when teaching. As a teacher myself, I find that they are invaluable for those moments when I can’t be everywhere at once (no, I still haven’t mastered that…!) as it means that students can get started or sort our their difficulties because the instructions are so clear. I often make my way round a classroom and find that I’m not really needed there, because students are so happily working from the instructions in my books!

Of course, I do understand that some need additional help, perhaps manipulating a needle or getting started, and some just need to be shown. And that’s why I teach classes – because sometimes a real in-the-flesh teacher is what people need.

But for those times when a real in-the-flesh teacher is not available (perhaps even during a class) then The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion, and The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion are great to have on hand. If you’re a teacher, just like Paula, your students will love you for it.

Green beading

I received the latest copy of Embellish magazine yesterday. This issue I have a green beaded shrug in it. The beading is a band along the edge of the sleeves. Its quite simple, but really adds that little something special to the garment. You could also bead similarly down the front of a cardigan or even on the collar of a shirt.

My favourite article in this issue is about a type of shibori that is based on origami techniques, called orizomegami. Its quite beautiful!

The magazine will be out in shops around June 2, so look out for it!

temari – if only I had more time

I don’t have much of my own to say today, so I’m directing you to a place where I go to drool and wish. If I had all the time in the world, I’d learn temari. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can fit much more into my life at the moment, so temari for me remains a thing purely of inspiration and admiration.

Temari is a Japanese craft, where balls are covered with thread and then elaborate patterns are stitched onto them. The range of designs and colours can be simply amazing.

Barb Suess is a temari expert. She has a blog, a website and a couple of books about temari. She also teaches classes. I was first introduced to Barb and her work in Inspirations a couple of years ago (issue 62). My whole family and I drooled over the pictures of the gorgeous temari balls that were included in the article. There were also instructions for “Oliver Twist”, which is a very pretty temari project designed by Barb. It *looks* difficult, but apparently it is not!

If you have the time that I don’t have, why not spend some time learning this exquisite craft from Barb? I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

Upcoming Sydney craft show

I will again be exhibiting at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair at Darling Harbour this year. The show runs from 22nd to 26th June. I will be sharing stand K39 with Belinda of Cassis Craft and Janie of Janie Hubble Designs – two lovely ladies!

I just had notification the other day that I have been allocated a Craft Circle for my “Basic Embroidery for Left-Handers” class, which will be from 1:30-2:30pm each day. The class is free, but has a kit cost of $5 for materials, payable in advance to me at the Vetty Creations stand (K39). Please prebook at the show, with me before the class. First in best dressed!

If you are on the mailing list for the Craft Fair Friend, the brochure that the organisers send out with information about the show, you may find me amongst the pages. Apparently I’m one of “the” people who will be at the show, and you need to come and meet me! The organisers had a photo of my books, but asked me for a photo of me instead to use for the Craft Fair Friend. I went one better and provided them with a photo of me *with* my books! (You can see it at the top of the email if you’re reading this via email, or at the top of the right-hand column if you’re reading on the web.)

Janie and Belinda and I will also be demonstrating our specific craft techniques on a rotating basis on our stand throughout the day. There’ll be lots to see and learn! If you have specific questions for me, please come and ask me!

I really look forward to meeting any of you that might be able to come to the show. I don’t bite, and most of the time I’m really quite pleasant to be around. 🙂

playing with stitches

When you try out a new stitch, what do you do? When I try out a new stitch, I try to play with it as much as possible. In my playing with unusual stitches class in Maitland last week, my aim for the students was to get them to try some new stitches, and then to play around with them to see the different effects they could get with them. And they did well!

When you try out a new stitch you can (not all of these will apply, depending on your stitch!):

change the spacing between stitches
change the width of stitches
change the length of stitches
change the angle of the stitches
work it from narrow to wide, and back again
change the type of thread you’re using, e.g. fluffy, smooth, highly twisted, loosely twisted
change the thickness of thread you’re using
work it in a circle or ring
if the stitch, such as buttonhole, has distinctly different sides, try alternating it, so that it swings from one side to another e.g. with buttonhole, if you do this, you’ll get feather stitch
work it in a zigzag
combine it with another stitch e.g. one chain stitch then one buttonhole

Grab yourself some fabric, and a variety of threads, a copy of either The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion or The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion and have a play. My guess is that you could happily spend a few hours being creative in this way, and you might even discover a new favourite stitch! If you want some suggestions of stitches to try, how about Palestrina stitch, cretan catch stitch or sorbello stitch?

For some inspiration, here’s an embroidery I did last year that’s all about playing with stitches.

special linen

I had a lovely trip to The Crewel Gobelin yesterday. I took my Portuguese embroidery to show them (they oohed and aahed appropriately!), and my current embroidery to find the perfect thread for it. I found a lovely Gloriana silk which will work beautifully.

We were talking about the Portuguese embroidery and the linen that Margaret will need to stock for it. She likes to be very organised, seeing the book’s not going be out for some time yet! She suggested we have a look through what she had in stock to see if any of it would be suitable.

Now, at The Crewel Gobelin, all of the back wall is covered with bolts of linen and similar such fabrics. But that’s not where Margaret took me… she took me over to some drawers, opened them up and showed me a veritable treasure trove! I had NO IDEA that she had those drawers full of “special” linens! I asked why I had never known that they were there. She said, “you never asked.” I replied, “I didn’t know they were there to ask about!”

In these drawers she had bisso linen (a gossamer linen that has to be seen to be believed), linen cambric (I didn’t know such things still existed!), ecclesiastical linen, lots of legacy linen in different weights, and other rapturous stuff! Oh, it was pure delight! Many of the fabrics I recognised as ones that Mary Corbet has talked about in her wonderful descriptions of the linens she loves to use.

I still can’t believe that she’d never shown me these gorgeous linens before. I am the sort of person who would rather pay $$ for beautiful stuff like that than stoop to using boring linen like Zweigart… I just find Zweigart linens very ho hum.

I told Margaret that I was going to blog about it, because others need to know about these gorgeous linens as well. So, if you’re ever visiting Sydney’s northern suburbs, do drop in and see my good friends Margaret, Gill, Julie and Lyn at The Crewel Gobelin and ASK them about their drawers of gorgeous “secret” linen!

Magazine project

As you may know, I have been regularly contributing to Embellish Magazine, which is a young magazine primarily about the embellishment of fabric and clothing. I have been asked to provide an embroidery project for each issue. Sometimes they send me the clothes to work on, and sometimes I provide something.

The issue I am currently working towards is one we have been thinking about for absolutely ages. Its for the spring issue, and I’m doing something embroideryish with a spring racing hat. The hat was sent to me, and has been sitting on my desk for months, silently asking me “What are you going to do with me?”

When we went to Canberra some months ago to see the Ballets Russes exhibition, you may recall that I purchased a book called 1000 Artisan Textiles. I found this book to be very inspiring, particularly for my spring racing hat project.

I can’t tell you too much, but let the following words inspire you: hand painted silk organza, crystal organza, variegated thread, rings, wonky circles, cream, purples, blues, greens…

I did the setup work for the embroidery yesterday, creating the base on which to embroider. Today I’ll be working the embroidery. I’m actually thinking that I’m going to need another thread to work with. That may possibly mean a trip to The Crewel Gobelin to get something just perfect. Its going to be a fun day.

finished the forest

I was due to go out with friends on Saturday night, and so knitted furiously that afternoon. About an hour before I was due to go out, I finally finished knitting my forest jumper (sweater), which meant that I could wear it out to dinner. I changed the pattern (Baby Cables and Big Ones Too) just slightly by adding a tall neck to it (I like warm necks!).

Actually, in finding the link to go in the previous sentence, I’ve discovered I knitted the sleeves slightly differently too. Instead of just adding a garter stitch panel around the cables on the sleeve end, I’ve made the whole bottom part of the sleeve garter stitch. I like my accidental misfollowing of the pattern better, as it happens! (There was a part of the pattern about a garter stitch cuff that just didn’t make any sense to me. Now I understand what that was all about!)

I’m really happy with it, and it is lovely and warm to wear. I’m very pleased with the Melody yarn in Forest colour from Bendigo Woollen Mills. Melody is wool, cashmere and microfibre, with a high twist. It is smooth and creates a lovely knitted fabric. It looks to me like it won’t pill, but time will tell on that one!

At some point I’ll take a photo and share it with you. 🙂

moving with the times

Over the past few years, postage has regularly increased and I have absorbed the rising costs. Wholesale product prices have also increased and I have absorbed the costs.

Eventually this can’t keep happening, and so today it is not my delight to warn you that unfortunately I will have to increase the prices of Vetty Creations products. I plan to upload the new prices to the Vetty Creations website on 1st June 2011. I will also have mail order catalogues with the updated prices available from 1st June. You will note that in your printed catalogue and on our website, it does say that we reserve the right to change prices at any time, without prior notice.

At this stage I am not sure that everything will increase, but most will. Mostly it will just be the postage component that increases, but as we list prices with all postage included, it will just mean that the product price appears to increase. We list prices with postage included so that you know up front, the whole price that you will have to pay. There’s no nasty sting in the tail with our pricing – what you see is what you get.

I really apologise for this, but unfortunately, that’s the way business works. Take advantage of the warning, and place your orders before June 1 in order to access the current prices.