White Threads

back from Maitland

On Tuesday and Wednesday I was in Maitland (in the Hunter region, north of Sydney) for two classes. One was a two day Mountmellick workshop, and the other was a two hour evening class where we played with some unusual embroidery stitches.

By all reports and by the responses I heard, people really enjoyed the classes. I certainly did. I feel extremely privileged to have a job I love doing so much. What could be better than sharing embroidery with other people, and introducing them to new stitches and ways to use those stitches?

Thank you to the lovely ladies of Maitland Embroiderers. Your welcome was so friendly, and I felt very at home. Your hospitality was wonderful. I was very impressed with the standard of embroidery, and I really noticed how well you run your group. It seems to work very well, with great participation, even in the organisation parts. I think that’s the sign of a very healthy group.

If you’re in the Hunter region, near Maitland and looking to join an embroidery group, I highly recommend Maitland Embroiderers.

If you were in either of my classes over the past two days, I would love to see photos of finished works, and I am sure that readers of this blog would be interested to see them also!

Hazel Blomkamp

I mentioned the other day that my favourite project out of the latest Inspirations magazine is a footstool by Hazel Blomkamp. I can’t put a photo of it here without breaching copyright, but I can provide a link to a page where there is a photo of it for you to see. If you click on the magnifying glass below the picture, you’ll get a larger version of it popping up.

Isn’t it exquisite? I had a look at it closeup at the magazine launch and she has used some really lovely stitch combinations, and gorgeous colours.

Hazel is a needlework designer from South Africa. I found that she has her own website for her business, Daaft Designs, and in 2012 she’ll be releasing a book of her designs. That’ll be one to look out for!

Stitches in class sample

Well, you’re not a very adventurous group, are you? I only had one response to asking if anyone could guess the five stitches in my Playing with Unusual Stitches class that I’ll be teaching tonight!

Rachel suggested “Spiral Trellis and Palestrina stitch, maybe Herringbone? And Braid stitch”. Not bad, Rachel.

The five stitches are:

Cable plait stitch (also known as Braid Stitch)
Spiral Trellis
Cretan catch stitch (a cross between herringbone and cretan stitch)
Sorbello stitch (a variation of Palestrina stitch)
Raised chain band

How did you go with identifying them?

Step-by-step instructions for all of these stitches can be found in The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion and The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion. Why not audition a new stitch and see if it will work in your latest project?

Fistula Hospital Walk for Women

Anna Scott and Yvette Stanton at the launch of Inspirations 70

Anna Scott of Country Bumpkin Publications and Yvette Stanton at the launch of Inspirations 70. Yvette is displaying an embroidered Ethiopian blouse

Welcome to all those who have come to visit via the Country Bumpkin webletter! While you’re here, why not sign up to enjoy White Threads delivered to your inbox daily? Just click on the “subscribe by email” link at the top of the right-hand column, and follow the instructions.

I apologise to all those who are regular readers of my blog; you probably feel like I am flogging the Walk for Women to death. However, we have newcomers amongst us who have come to find out about it, so I’m going to tell you all about it again! 🙂

On Saturday 11th June, I’ll be taking part in the Walk For Women, a fundraising walkathon for the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia, where the amazing Dr Catherine Hamlin and her wonderful team are working to surgically cure women of fistulae. I visited the hospital in March 2010, and it was an incredible experience. I have written about my visit in the latest issue of Inspirations magazine (Issue 70).

The Walk For Women is a 50km walk across Sydney, though you don’t have to do all 50km. Due to major health issues over the last few years, I don’t feel it is necessary or wise to push my body to the limits and do all 50, so I’ll be doing just over 20km. However, while we’re considering that a 50km walk would take most people about 10 hours, and my 20km will probably take a little less than 4 hours, spare a thought for those women with fistulae in Ethiopia and other developing countries who have to walk many days to get to medical care, also coping with the horrible nature of a fistula.

Putting it simply, a fistula is a hole. The type of fistula we are talking about is a birth-injury brought on by extensive labouring without medical intervention. It creates a hole, meaning that liquid or solid waste (or both) constantly leak from the woman. This causes her to be outcast by her husband, family and community, leaving her destitute. The only cure is surgery.

I can surely do 4 hours of walking to help these women, who for all intents and purposes are just like you and me but with a birth-injury that makes them detestable to those around them. And I hope that you will be able to sponsor me doing it. If you’d like to donate (and all donations, large and small, are welcome) please go to the Hamlin Fistula Fund website Donate page. Please enter your details. If you are not in Australia, please put 0000 in the postcode field. For “Event”, please put “Walk for Women YStanton” so that the fund can track donations for the individual walkers. For Australian residents, donations of $2 and over are tax deductible.

It would also be lovely if you could let me know of your donation, so that it encourages me in my endeavour, and makes me feel warm and fuzzy. 🙂

Please do support the wonderful work that Dr Catherine Hamlin and the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital are doing to give women with fistulae a second chance at life, by sponsoring me in the Walk for Women. I came away from my visit to the hospital feeling that the work they do there is very right.

My previous posts on the Walk for Women also include photos of the hospital and Ethiopia, so you might find them interesting:
Launch of inspirations 70
Training for the walk for women
Walk for women

You can also find out more about the hospital and its work at its websites:
Hamlin Fistula International
Hamlin Fistula Relief and Aid Fund, Australia

knitting up a forest

I realised yesterday afternoon that I never told you which of the two wools I decided to go for. I chose the Forest coloured Melody wool – the smooth one. I decided not to just get both, as my life really is quite busy, and while I might be able to devote enough time to knit one jumper, I really don’t think I can find the time for two right now!

I ordered my wool on Thursday last week, and then have been waiting waiting waiting very impatiently ever since! I had hoped that it might arrive on Tuesday so that I could take it on the long trip to and from Adelaide with me. I could have had about 7 hours of knitting time (with bamboo needles)! But that didn’t happen. 🙁

However, it did finally turn up yesterday, and it is lovely. It is so soft and smooth, and really nice to work with. I took my knitting needles and a ball and knitted by tension/gauge swatch as I walked to and from school in the afternoon, to pick up my girls. I walk through a park, with no paved paths – just a track – but tree roots and that sort of thing are not going to put me off walking and knitting!

The other mums thought I was a bit obsessed, bringing it with me like that, and really, they’re quite right!

So I think I’ll be eeking as much “spare time” out of my schedule as possible this next week in order to knit. I am off to Maitland for some classes over Tuesday and Wednesday, so there’s more long train trips there, during which I can knit.

The jumper I am knitting is worked on circular needles. The pattern specified two different length circular needles and some double pointed needles. Rather than get all those together, I decided to look into the technique called magic loop, that my friend who is a dedicated knitter told me about some time back. Wowee, that’s an amazing technique, and means that I can get away with just having the longest length of circular needle. If you’ve never seen it before, check out magic looping!

Launch of Inspirations 70

Yesterday I spent a wonderful day in Adelaide. I was there to be the guest speaker at Country Bumpkin‘s launch of Issue 70, speaking on my time in Ethiopia and particularly my visit to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. This was to tie in with the article that I have written for Issue 70 on my visit to the hospital in 2010. On my return I wrote to Margie Bauer (the editor of Inspirations) and said that I had an idea for an article for the magazine which wasn’t about embroidery but… Graciously they decided that because of its subject matter, that it would still be a perfect fit for the magazine, despite the fact that it wasn’t about embroidery.

Anyway, back to my visit to Adelaide! The new Country Bumpkin shop is lovely! Its full of all the goodies you’d want, and of course looks simply gorgeous. It was great to see CB’s new home.

The magazine launch was across the road at a local pub. It was very nice, and there was a delicious morning tea provided. Fiona Fagan (new owner of CB) introduced all the staff to us, with many familiar faces, and some new ones. Anna Scott, senior editor of Inspirations, then led us through all the projects that are in this issue, which were displayed in front of us. My absolute favourite would have to be a sublime footstool designed and stitched by Hazel Blomkamp (I hope I’ve spelt her name correctly) from South Africa. It wanted to come home with me!

The last project Anna spoke about was my butterfly curtain, worked in shadow embroidery on organza. They said it was the most difficult project they have ever had to photograph for the magazine! Because its organza, it moves if you just look at it(!), and being see-through, it means that you have to carefully consider what’s in the background. Sorry to cause you all so much trouble CB!

And then it was my turn to speak. I talked about our time in Ethiopia, some of the places we visited, and what it was like to live there. I showed them some examples of Ethiopian embroidery, and an Ethiopian woven silk scarf (silk is a new industry in Ethiopia). And then I told them about the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital.

As sometimes happens, there was a small hitch with the day: the copies of the magazine were still sitting on the ship dock, waiting to be released to CB! So there were only two advance copies in existence, and I still hadn’t seen the printed article before giving my talk. It meant that I was unsure of the photos they had used to go with the article, having supplied quite a number. In my talk, I mentioned that they would be able to see some photos of the lush grounds of the hospital in the article. At the end, Anna told me that they hadn’t had space to use those ones in the end! So people don’t miss out on seeing them, I’ve included them here.

Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, Dr Catherine Hamlin

The lush grounds of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. The building on the left houses one of the main wards.

A calm and restful beautiful place of healing.

I had been terribly nervous about giving my talk, and felt that it went very well. While I did “tear up” in a couple of places and had to stop to control my voice (talking about extreme poverty can do that to you) I think it showed the depths of my feelings for what I was talking about. There were quite a number who came up to me afterwards to talk further about it. It was lovely hearing from them about their thoughts on it, and how we need to hear more about this sort of thing. There are so many people in need, and they can do with our help.

In the afternoon I sat in on a class that was being run at the Country Bumpkin shop, and was able to talk further with the ladies there about my time in Ethiopia. They had all been to the launch, so some had questions to ask. It was a lovely day! Thank you so much to Fiona for inviting me to be the guest speaker, to the lovely audience, and to all the CB staff who made me feel so very welcome and at home.

It was lovely that a number of the ladies there were pleased to sponsor me in the Walk for Women, which is supporting the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. They were very generous, some giving small amounts, and some larger. ANY sponsorship/donation is greatly appreciated, whether large or small.

As an aside, on arriving home I found an email from the walk organisers to let me know that the donation issues for people who are outside of Australia have been resolved. And I quote:

Overseas donations can be made online at http://www.hamlinfistula.org.au/donate.html
Sponsors should put both the town (or city) and country name in the Suburb field. If the overseas address does not contain a State name, then also put the country name in the State field. Put the overseas postcode in the postcode field, or put 0000.
In the event field, make sure your sponsors put ‘Walk for Women Yvette Stanton’, or if that doesn’t fit, just ‘Walk for Women Stanton’, so that way the Hamlin Fund can keep track of your donations.
Please note that these donations will not be tax deductible for overseas donors.

Donations from within Australia can also be made at http://www.hamlinfistula.org.au/donate.html.

Off to Adelaide

Today I’m off to Adelaide to speak at the launch of Inspirations magazine Issue 70. I have an article in the magazine on my visit to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, when we were there at the beginning of last year. I also have a project in the magazine: a shadow embroidery curtain featuring fluttery butterflies.

They’ve asked me to talk on my visit to the hospital, but rather than simply rehash the article, I’ll also talk about our time in Ethiopia in general, Ethiopian embroidery, AND my visit to the hospital. Of course, I’ll also be mentioning my participation in the Walk for Women, and that people can support the hospital by sponsoring me!

If you’d like to sponsor me, please do. You can donate through the Australian Fistula Fund’s website. Please specify “Walk for Women: Yvette Stanton” in the ‘Event’ field. If you know me in real life, you can also hand me the real money, and I will fill out a donation form for you, and the fund will issue you with a receipt. All donations of $2.00 and over are tax deductible.

When I last invited sponsorships, one of my valued readers in the UK let me know that she was unable to, as she didn’t have an Australian postcode. I have asked the fund to resolve this problem, and apparently they are still working on it. I will definitely let you know as soon as I know, when it has been fixed. You could always just enter a spurious one, such as “2000”… but then the receipt might not make it to you… 🙁

Anyway, I plan to have a lovely day in Adelaide (and on planes and in airports…) meeting with nice embroidery type people. 🙂

Getting ready for classes

I’m not wanting to make my blog into a ranting political statement, but here’s my thought for the day:
“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now, onto embroidery things. I’ve been getting ready for my classes in Maitland next week, over the past few days. I’ll be teaching two classes: a two day Mountmellick class, and a two hour exploring embroidery stitches class.

I’ve been putting together the embroidery stitches class kits, and having a lovely time selecting fabrics and threads. I’ll be supplying a piece of fabric, and thread, teaching five lesser known stitches that people often don’t think to use, and then letting them loose to do what they want with it all.

Here’s what I did with my stitches, thread and fabric. Can you identify the five stitches? (Hint: they’re all in my stitch dictionaries!)

Roberto Capucci – colour and form

When we were away on our little break over Easter, I bought a book called “Roberto Capucci: Art into Fashion”. First impression: WOW! This is a book filled with images of incredible fashion creations. The colour and form of the dresses was simply amazing.

My second realisation about the book was that it an exhibition catalogue for an exhibition of the same name at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. If only I was anywhere near there, I would certainly visit!

I poured over the book, drinking in the images of his fantastic creations. He makes such amazing use of colour, predominantly using silk taffeta in a rainbow of colours. The shapes that he created with fabric, using such techniques as pleating, fabric sculpture, beading and embroidery, left me quite gobsmacked.

Being a person who believes that just because something is beautiful doesn’t mean I have to own it, I put the book back on the shelf, prepared to just enjoy the memory of it. But as the next few minutes passed while my family was continuing to look at other books, I realised that if I did not purchase the book, I would really regret it later. Sometimes, when you see a book that is really unusual and love it, you have to get it on the spot, because it can be too hard to find again later if you don’t get it at the time. (Can you tell I have learnt that from experience?!)

If you do an image search on Google for Roberto Capucci, you’ll see a wonderful array of some of his creations. I highly recommend taking some time to browse through them.

beautiful merezhka

Merezhka bellpull from Ukrainian Drawn Thread Embroidery by Yvette Stanton. Beautifully stitched by Lisa in Canada.

Lisa from Canada emailed me last week to show off her latest finished project: its the bellpull from my book Ukrainian Drawn Thread Embroidery: Merezhka Poltavska. Hasn’t she done a sterling job? You can’t tell the difference between hers and mine… oh, except the black thread ran on my when the steam iron spurted on it… Happily, Lisa’s doesn’t have any such blemishes!

Congratulations Lisa – its beautiful!

If you have photos of any of your finished embroideries that are from my books or my designs, please share them with us! You can email me at yvette at vettycreations dot com dot au, changing the words to symbols, where appropriate.

If you’d like to make one of these bellpulls for yourself, you can find the pattern and full instructions in Ukrainian Drawn Thread Embroidery: Merezhka Poltavska by Yvette Stanton (me!).