Now this is just bizarre: fluoro coloured silk spun by silk worms. That is, not dyed, but spun already coloured.
I have no idea what to make of that. If it doesn’t hurt the silkworms then I don’t suppose there’s a problem?
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I’m taking the week off writing my book this week, to get other work done. I spent the weekend making clothing. I made a pair of pants for myself (fabric bought way back on my trip to Remnant Warehouse). The fabric cost me less than $10, and so after I put it away, waiting for the chance to make the pants, I started to wonder whether I’d bought awful quality, and it was all going to look disgusting. As it turns out, I loved sewing with the fabric, and I love the feel and look of the new pants. So my niggling worry in the back of my mind was all for nought! I also made two leotards – one for my daughter and one for her friend. My daughter’s – the rainbow child – leotard is made of fabric with rainbows and holographic silver spots all over it. She’s going to be so excited when she receives it for her birthday! The one for her friend is in red and white (her favourite colours at the moment). This week I’ll be working on an article for a magazine, an author talk for my daughters’ school, embroidery class samples… and… and I’m sure there’s something else! Oh well, I’ll figure it out, I’m sure. Thank you all for your responses to my how would you do it? question on Friday. They’ve confirmed what I thought, namely that while there are always exceptions, most people would do it the way I thought they might. Thanks so much for helping me with that. OK, imagine you have a square piece of fabric, and onto that you must sew a border of embroidery some distance from the edge. You’re doing it in hand, rather than in a hoop. I figure that left- and right-handers might do this differently. As a leftie, I will hold the right edge of the fabric in my right hand, and sew with my left, travelling in an anticlockwise direction around the fabric. I am wondering if right-handers would prefer to hold it in their left hand, sewing with their right, moving in a clockwise direction. Or maybe you’d do something else. What would you do? In your answer, please note whether you are left or right-handed. No, this is not a trick that’s going to tell me something about your psychological make up or your deepest darkest secrets. Its a bit of market research. 🙂 Thank you! Yesterday was International Women’s Day (in the middle of Bacon Week – bet you didn’t know that!) and was the day that I found out that I’ve made it on the cover of the next issue of Inspirations Magazine.
There’s a bit of a story behind my article. When we spent our three months in Ethiopia, I had actually hoped to do some embroidery teaching at the hospital. For various reasons it never happened (which was fine) but my husband and I did arrange to do a tour of the hospital. We finally visited on the Thursday before we left (which was cutting it a bit fine!). We learnt about the amazing life-giving work of the hospital. I came away with my brain percolating – a story was brewing… Straight after our visit, I sat down at my laptop and the article just flowed out of me. I always considered it to be a complete gift, that story. And now you’ll just have to wait until the magazine comes out now, and unfortunately I don’t know when that will be! I’ve been in contact with a buyer for one the distributors I use and they’re very keen on the idea of my new Portuguese whitework book. This is great news! However, in order to get the book done by a certain time, it means I’m going to be working my backside off in the next few months. My guess is that it means that I’m not going to be able to generate much to write about on the blog. I may become a little bit more sporadic with my posting. I hope that you can forgive me for this, if it means that my beautiful new book comes out sooner rather than later. Can you forgive me? A little bit of fun today, seeing I’ve been so busy working on my book lately. Fiona Goble has created some very inspired mementos of the upcoming royal wedding. Make your own knitted set of characters, and act it out in the comfort of your own home. Or enjoy the spectacle that has already been created for those who can’t wait for The Big Day, on YouTube I believe the book “Knit Your Own Royal Wedding” should be available about now. Get knitting! Love the corgis!
About The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion, Judy Rogers and Jill Wilensky commented:
Read the rest of their review. Amy herself reviewed The Right Handed Embroiderer’s Companion:
You can read the rest of her review on Amy’s website. Amy’s Golden Strand is in Memphis TN, and you can purchase the books from Amy using the links I have provided to the reviews. I also had a call this week from a lady who had borrowed The Right Handed Embroiderer’s Companion from her local library. She loved it so much that she was calling to purchase her own copy. Trying before you buy, through your local or guild library is a great way to learn how very useful a book can be! Those who are eagerly awaiting my new book on Portuguese embroidery will be pleased to know that I have been really getting stuck into writing the stitch instructions for it. I think I’d sort of been putting it off, feeling a little bit lost with what needed to be explained. However, with my class up in Brisbane on the weekend, where they all would have liked to buy the book yesterday, I came back very enthused. I decided the best thing to do was get in there and do it, as otherwise its just not going to get done. Funny that! When I start writing, I find I keep thinking of more things that need to be explained. While that means more work for me, it means you get a much better product! I think I’m going to have to carry a little notebook everywhere with me, because I keep thinking of things on my walk to school in the afternoon to pick my kids up. (Nothing like fresh air to get the brain working!) So the book is progressing well, and all those who have been reading the blog for a while will be pleased to know that I am regularly backing the file up in case it gets corrupted again. 😉 Oh, and as a sneak peak, the project shown underway in my hoop (yesterday) is one of the projects for the book.
NB: embroidery and hoop binding NOT included with product. Shown for illustrative purposes only. I still remember the day I first got mine. I was so excited, and I just sat there embroidering, periodically exclaiming “I love my new hoop!” I think the family got sick of hearing me! I love the way that I can use it with both hands, adjusting it to the height that I want (so I don’t hunch over, doing dreadful things to my back) and the angle I want. It really is one of my most favourite pieces of embroidery equipment. Its just compact enough that I can take the hoop out of the stand and take it with me to embroider while waiting for the kids various activities. The hoop is deep, making it very stable and sturdy, and giving extra “grip” than a narrow hoop does. The wood is gorgeously smooth – there’s no burrs on this wood, like you sometimes get with cheapy hoops. This is a product of quality! The hoop size that I am selling is 215mm/8 inches diameter. Other sizes are available, so if you would like one of the following, please email me and I can do a special order.
All these sizes of hoop are useable in the one stand. I have a couple of different sizes, and can change between them, depending on the projects I am working on, and the size I prefer for that. I started with the one size hoop, and then added a larger size to my collection later on. If you’d like to enjoy the same embroidery hoop love that I do, you can now purchase these lovely embroidery hoops and stands from Vetty Creations. Get one today, and I know you’ll love it!
While I didn’t buy any of the Cottage Garden Threads, I did pick up a few Cosmo Seasons skeins. It seems that they have been around for a little while, but Kerryn’s only had them for a couple of weeks. They’re from Japan, and my initial impression is that they feel very soft and they have quite a lovely sheen. They come in an 8m skein, in really lovely variegated colour schemes. I did think that their selection of reds was not very good (the one second from the right is the closest thing they have to red), but they have some lovely blues, greens and purples. I didn’t buy any of the pastel type colours, but the range extends from the darker colours like I bought, right through to lovely pastels and even variegated “whites”. Kerryn said that she’ll be interested to hear what I think of stitching with them, as she hasn’t had the chance yet. Hmmm… I’d love to stitch up some little somethings in them, just because the colours are so pretty. I wonder what? And more to the point, when?! |
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
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