White Threads

A snowy Christmas

I’ve explained that here in Sydney we don’t get snow at any time of the year, but particularly not at Christmas! However, due to a bit of a ridiculously out of season cold snap, the Snowy Mountains (quite some hours south of Sydney) DID get snow right near Christmas time!

My snowy Christmas arrived in a box just before New Year, from Veronica, as part of our Christmas ornament swap. Here’s how I described the experience of opening the box and finding a very cute snow man Christmas ornament:

“I loved the pretty box, and on opening it I immediately saw all that lovely smocking. Then I saw the scarf and the hat replete with snow. And then the carrot nose (it was facing the other way when I lifted it out of the box!). It all works together so well to create such a stunning ornament.”

Veronica told me about how he came to be:
“I recently learned to smock. I made the carrot nose from the new memory thread and even crocheted the little scarf from a varigated yarn. Since you don’t have snow I thought the little bit of snow on his hat might cool you off if the weather gets too hot!”

Thank you to Veronica for the gorgeous ornament and for all the work that went into it. We’ve decided to keep our Christmas tree up until Ethiopian Christmas (they celebrate Orthodox Christmas) so we’ll be enjoying it for a little while yet, this season, and then each Christmas from now on.

Happy New Year!

This time last year we were in the Simien Mountains in Ethiopia, enjoying the magnificence of God’s creation. It is really very strange to think that our Ethiopian experience was a year ago.

The past year has been a really good one for me both personally and professionally. We had our fantastic Ethiopian sojourn, I remained well (no Chronic Fatigue Syndrome relapses!), and my two stitch dictionaries have been great successes.

Not being a tea leaf reader, I have no idea what this year holds, but I hope that it brings the completion of my next book, which will be on Portuguese embroidery. While I do set personal goals for my work, I am more flexible with them now, post CFS. I need to be kind to myself. I look forward to what my God has in store for me.

I hope that 2011 is a year when you are kind to yourself, and life is kind to you.

a few days in Canberra

I’ve been absent without leave the last two days. You probably only noticed if your comments hadn’t been approved yet. We went down to Canberra to see the National Gallery of Australia’s Ballets Russes exhibition. It was wonderful! Of course, I couldn’t take any photos, so I’m sorry that there’s none to share with you. The catalogue was only $40 though (compared to the $70 for the Valentino catalogue!) so that became a business expense for me. 🙂

The exhibition included 130 costumes from various ballet productions of the Ballets Russes. Some were plain and simple, others were over the top with their elegance. The National Gallery has one of the largest collections of costumes from the Ballets Russes, and this was a wonderful opportunity to see many of them. Highly highly recommended if you’re going to be in Canberra any time before it ends in March.

We also explored the bookshop at the National Portrait Gallery, and I bought a wonderful book full of inspiration that I will review in due course.

So with the exhibition and the new books, I feel full of inspiration!

We decided to visit some places that we’d never been before, while in Canberra. We drove up Mt Ainslie after dinner on Wednesday night to have a look over the city. There were so many ladybugs, butterflies and birds up there. The air was filled with the songs of the birds, and the fluttering of colourful wings. I have never seen so many butterflies and ladybugs at one place before. Unfortunately some people seemed to think that squashing ladybugs was fun; why, I will never understand…

On Thursday we went to the Australian Sound and Film Archives which was very interesting, and we got to share some of the original sound and film recordings that we often quote to the girls, with them. Things like “Miranda! Miranda!” (from Picnic at Hanging Rock), “Hurry up…” (Blackboard from Mr Squiggle), “Well may we say ‘God save the Queen’ because nothing can save the Governor General” (Gough Whitlam, 11th November 1975, on being thrown out as Australian Prime Minister by the Governor General).

We saw bits of “The Story of the Kelly Gang” which is possibly the world’s oldest feature film, of which only about 15 minutes of film still exists, pretty much all found by accident! We saw a bit of a documentary about the restoration of a portion of it that was accidentally found in the BBC archives some years back. It was very interesting.

After exhausting our options for entertainment there, we moved on to the National Museum of Australia, a decidedly underwhelming experience. I was asked by a lady if I’d ever worked at Canberra Hospital, as I apparently have a double. “No, sorry.” I explained that I do have an identical twin (cruelly getting her hopes up) but that she’d never worked there either (cruelly dashing them). Very odd, however this is the same lady who had walked straight past the ladies toilets not recognising that they were the ones for her. I’d say her powers of recognition were a little underdeveloped…

We have been to the museum before, and for such a large and architecturally interesting building, they just don’t seem to have much displayed in it. I am unsure what the focus of the museum is. Is it natural history? History of the people? Decorative arts? I wonder if the museum has a bit of an identity crisis? Maybe if they figured out what their focus is and redeveloped the museum according to that, it might seem a little more interesting and cohesive. But maybe I’m being harsh. Maybe visitors to Australia find it interesting?

We came home via Bungendore, to see an amazing woodworking showcase there. It was quite incredible. There was an astonishing table worth $50000 (count the noughts!) which absolutely glowed. The grain in the wood was incredible, and it was oh so beautiful. Can’t really see it in our house though. It would end up encrusted with my youngest daughter’s Weetbix and smears of glittery stuff from her glitter gel pens. Not a great way to show respect for a $50000 table. I think we’ll let someone else purchase it. (So magnanimous of us…)

Had a great couple of days.

More Christmas swap ornaments

Today I will show you a couple more ornaments from our Christmas swap. We have one made by Cindy, sent to Veronica, and one made by Desiree for Kathy. I must say that Hardanger seems very popular this year!

Cindy’s description of her ornament:
“My ornament was stitched on 22 ct. Congress cloth to give it a little stiffness. I used Vikki Clayton threads that I got several years ago. They are silk perles, and have been discontinued, but I love them anyway and use them whenever I can. They are a dream to stitch with.”

Made by Cindy for Veronica

When Kathy received her pretty ornament from Desiree, she let me know straight away, and said “It’s so beautiful and Desiree has done a very nice job. I think it is my nicest ornament.”

Made by Desiree for Kathy

Christmas swap ornaments

Today I will start showing you some of the ornaments sent and received in our Christmas swap. Mine still hasn’t arrived, but we have not yet had any further mail deliveries since Christmas, so that is not surprising! Hopefully in the next few days… 🙂

Today I have two ornaments to show you. One made by Agne, and one sent from Kathy to Agne. Both were photographed by Agne in the beautiful frosty snow – this delights me greatly seeing I just cannot imagine a snowy Christmas!

Front of ornament, made by Agne

back of ornament, made by Agne

Front of ornament, made and designed by Kathy

This too could be the front as it is also beautiful! Made by Kathy

Naming a class

I will be teaching a class in 2012 on obscure stitches and ones that people often feel are too difficult to attempt. Stitches like plaited braid stitch, spiral trellis, cable plait stitch (they’re the more difficult ones) and diamond stitch, crested chain stitch, spanish knotted chain stitch, and sorbello stitch (they’re some of the unusual ones).

I have been wondering what to call the class. It will not be a class for beginners – this will only be for experienced stitchers who would like to expand their repertoire into more esoteric areas.

I have a few ideas, but I am not sure that they well communicate what I want them to:

Difficult and unusual stitches (would the word difficult put people off?)
Difficult and obscure stitches
Weird and wonderful stitches
Exploring unusual stitches
Strange stitches
Expanding your stitch horizons: exploring unusual stitches
Advanced embroidery stitches

Any thoughts? Any ideas?

Post Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas. Church in the morning was the happiest celebration of Jesus’ birth that I have ever been to – it was great! Then my MIL’s for lunch with those of the family who were around, and all the cousins enjoyed playing together. It was a warm day, so their highlight was probably running around under the hose in the backyard in their underwear! Dinner was at my sister’s, where the kids again enjoyed getting wet, this time in the pool. Both meals were a lovely time with family.

This year we tried to minimise the number of gifts, and by our careful choices, our girls have probably had their best Christmas ever. They were so pleased with their gifts from us and family. Eldest just loved her rollerskates (knew she would, but I’m still pleased because they were very difficult to obtain!) and Youngest loved her two rainbow skirts.

My most special gift was finally receiving my copy of the Valentino catalogue. Mmmm… mmm… mmm… So, so beautiful.

On Christmas Eve I finished my Portuguese embroidery piece that I had been working on – the first one for the new book. I was so happy with it, and so pleased that I finished it by my self-imposed deadline (Christmas Eve).

Post Christmas for me means working on my three project samples for my classes at Beating Around the Bush 2012. They need to be completed and photographed by the end of January. I started yesterday and am already having fun!

Boxing Day yesterday was a quiet day. We got up very late, and had breakfast after about 9am. This is very late when you have young kids! At about 1pm, I started to think about lunch, and decided it was the day to try my hand at making tortillas. I had a recipe from a friend in Ethiopia which I hadn’t yet tried. The instructions were slightly confusing, and I think I ended up with my mixture being too wet. They didn’t turn out well, but the family were very encouraging and at least while they looked terrible, they tasted fine. We finally had lunch just before 3pm! I found a video on YouTube on how to make them and will make my mixture less wet next time and give it another go. I did also manage to burn a finger while cooking, which meant that I couldn’t do anymore embroidery for the day. I think it will be ok today to continue.

We went off to church last night because even though it was the day after Christmas Day, it was Sunday. They’d collapsed all the normal services into one for the day at 5pm. Despite that, there was still hardly anyone there! (And this is in a church of several hundred per service normally!) We all took leftovers along and enjoyed a meal together. Eldest took her rollerskates, and Youngest took her new handball, and each kept themselves happy with them before and after.

I have been feeling quite pensive over the last day or so. Yesterday was the anniversary of the day we flew off to Ethiopia. It seems terribly strange to think we went a year ago. I miss Ethiopia so much. I have even started dreaming about it (I often have very vivid dreams). And I find that I can just be living my everyday life when a memory of a time or place in Ethiopia will flit through my head. I hope we can go back there one day.

Today I think we’ll have to brave the shops as we have a friend coming for dinner tonight. Other than that, the relaxing will continue. 🙂

Merry Christmas from Vetty Creations

To all my wonderful customers, readers, family and friends, I wish for you a very merry Christmas.

I’ll be celebrating my saviour’s birth with my church family and my own family on Christmas Day.
It’s all about the babe.

beautiful close-ups of old embroidered gloves

Stitch this snail for storage!

If you haven’t been to visit The Embroiderer’s Story lately, I suggest you do. Tricia has a number of posts featuring close up photos of gorgeous old embroidered gloves from the Gloves Collection Trust, courtesy of the Fashion Museum, Bath and North East Somerset Council.

They are simply stunning, and to see them in close up means that you can really see the stitching and the threads they’ve used.

In support of old gloves, you can also Stitch a Snail for Storage, and thereby help raise funds to rehouse a collection of beautiful old embroidered gloves. You purchase the kit from Tricia, and some of the funds go to the glove storage project. See Tricia’s blog for more details.

new merezhka pattern

Newly released Merezhka daisies cloth pattern

I know that there are some of you who have really wanted me to produce some new Merezhka designs. In an effort to keep you happy, I’ve been through some of my teaching projects to see what there is that can be released for general sale.

A new design is now available: Merezhka daisies cloth pattern. This pattern makes a beautiful table centre for any table. It features a contemporary design of daisies, and would add a freshness to any setting.

Merezhka is drawn thread embroidery from Ukraine. This particular type of merezhka (there are a number of different styles) is from the Poltava region, and uses the small scale method with wrapped bullion corners.

The design is for an intermediate to advanced merezhka stitcher.

Purchase the pattern and find more information about the Merezhka daisies cloth at the Vetty Creations online shop. You can also learn more about Merezhka at the Vetty Creations merezhka page, and from my book Ukrainian Drawn Thread Embroidery.