White Threads

Pre-Christmas stitching

I can’t remember a year when the kids have finished school so far before Christmas in the past. They finished last Wednesday, which gives us about 8 days before Christmas. It means that all the end of year breakups have already happened, and all the gifts for teachers, staff, students etc have been made and given. I have just a couple more Christmas decorations to make for relatives, and then that’s it pretty much for Christmas preparations.

Portuguese embroidery in progress

All the other gifts have been bought and stashed away, as we like to get that done without the kids around as much as possible. I will have a couple of couscous salads (remember, typically its hot here on Christmas Day!) to make on Christmas Day for family get togethers, but if you’ve cooked couscous before you’ll know its quick and easy!

So in the meantime, we’ve been enjoying some relaxing times at home. We’ve begun the jigsaws and already completed two 1000 piece puzzles. We’re working on a 2000 piece puzzle at the moment.

I’ve also been working on more embroidery for my next book, and the one I’m currently stitching is coming along nicely. Truly, this embroidery is just gorgeous. (Nothing to do with me, its just an incredibly beautiful traditional style!) I just keep loving it more and more. My initial impressions (“I HAVE to know more about that embroidery!”) have lasted, and I can’t wait to share it with you all. No, that’s not true, actually I can wait, because I’m going to have to so that you can see a finished product, not a half-created one!

errata notice

Ukrainan drawn thread embroidery: merezhka bellpull

Merezhka Bell Pull from 'Ukrainian Drawn Thread Embroidery' by Yvette Stanton

In my book Ukrainian Drawn Thread Embroidery: Merezhka Poltavska there is a gorgeous bell pull project. This week I received an email from a customer wanting to check an instruction with me. (Thank you!)

Embroidery instruction, No 3 should read: From the pin, count 29 threads across to one side. From this point work the satin stitch bar (59 stitches, four threads wide) across the fabric, inside the line.

The graph shows 59 stitches, and is correct.

Sorry for any inconvenience this error may have caused. If you ever find a mistake in one of my projects or books generally, I want to hear about it so that I can issue a correction, and change future editions. That would really help me and others!

Holiday reading

In the evening after my daughters have gone to bed, I’ll often do some embroidery or read. We don’t have a TV, so I don’t have to waste hours in front of it. Some time back a few of us recommended some books to each other. One of the books that was recommended to me was “The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas”. Well, I read it. Oh wow. What a book – thanks to whoever it was who recommended it!

Because my husband is a school librarian, we usually have quite a few books out from his library. And Christmas holidays are no exception to that. Just after his holiday started he and I were in the area of his school, so we dropped in a selected some holiday reading for us and our girls. I got a nice stack of very thick books for myself.

I started on one last night: Jodi Picoult’s “House Rules”. Oh my – it is VERY compelling! I read an article in the newspaper not so long ago about the fact that the literati don’t like Jodi Picoult and the criticism is that she takes every new hot-button issue and writes a book about it, which makes her a very populist writer. Hmm… to me it just sounds like she’s very cleverly selecting extremely interesting, contemporary topics and using them as her subject. Is there anything wrong with that?

Yesterday I also did some more preparation for my stand at the Sydney Craft and Quilt show in June next year. Yep, I like planning ahead! My stand went really well last year, and this year I will be sharing with two other businesses in a larger stand. I’m having a rethink about what stock I take and how I will display it. I want to get as much off tables as I can, and display it vertically, therefore taking up less floor space. Its requiring a lot of creative thinking, (which is always fun – I love the feeling of solving a problem like that!) and that’s why I’ve started so far in advance.

I hope the Christmas madness is not getting you down. Here’s a video you might find thought provoking. I did.

Completed lampshade

Yesterday I completed the lampshade for my new niece. Elmsley Rose suggested using two colours for the binding, which I hadn’t thought of, and that made me think of using piping with the binding. So, thanks to Elmsley Rose, I ended up using pink binding with green piping.

I wanted the piping to be rather fine, and learned that of the three shops locally where I can get piping cord, only one has the 00 cord that I wanted! Not many people must want such fine piping. I just felt that because it was for a baby’s room, I didn’t want it to be heavy and chunky! And the rest of the design is very delicate, so light and fine suited much better.

The lampshade turned out well, and I’m very happy with it. I hope my six week old niece likes it too. 🙂 I’m sure she’ll form an opinion immediately!

last day of school

Today is the last day of school for the year for lots of children in New South Wales (a state of Australia). And then it will be school summer holidays for about 6 weeks. I guess this is quite a bit different to what those of you in the Northern Hemisphere are used to! All the weather reports are warning that this will be a wet summer, so we’re expecting lots of jigsaw time – a great holiday activity!

We’ll be staying home for the holidays, due to the fact that we’ve already had rather a large trip away this year (to Ethiopia for 3 months!), but we may take a short trip down to Canberra, as the National Gallery is showing an exhibition of 150 costumes from the Ballets Russes.

I’d forgotten that the exhibition was coming. We heard of it when we were down there last year (I think!), but it had since been replaced by other things in my head! My husband and I heard an interview with the curator on the radio the other day and decided we’d have to go! I’ve just had a little look at the gallery’s information about it on their website, and it looks wonderful. I can’t wait!

Anyway, due to it being school holidays from tomorrow onwards, I might be posting a little less regularly, as my family will be around a lot more and will require more of my attention!

Given that this is the end of the school year, I’d also like to say how proud I am of my daughters, both of whom have had a fabulous year at school. Also, thanks to their two wonderful teachers. The girls have really enjoyed being in your classes. They’ve learned heaps, and we have appreciated your care of them.

Christmas ornaments swap

2010 Christmas ornament by Yvette Stanton

My ornament sent to Carole. 'Green and Gold' by Yvette Stanton, published in November 2010 issue of The Gift of Stitching magazine

There are a number of us taking part in a Christmas ornament swap this year. I know that some people have sent theirs off to their recipient, because they’ve told me. And I know of one person who has received hers (the one I sent, actually!), because she’s told me and thanked me. I know of someone else who has sent hers off, but hasn’t heard yet whether it has been received.

I’m just wondering if the others who are taking part might be able to give a report on whether they’ve received theirs yet, so that their senders can know that the ornament they sent has been received.

It would also be really lovely if we could share photos of the ornaments we have given and or received. You are welcome to email them to me so that I can post them here on White Threads. If the design is by someone else other than you, please let me know of the design’s name and designer so that we can give credit where credit is due.

Looking forward to hearing about your swap experiences. As soon as mine arrives, you can be sure that I’ll be telling you about it!

I’ve got butterflies

Here’s a picture of my niece’s shadow work lampshade in progress. (I think I’m fairly safe in posting this here, because I don’t think my sister reads my blog, so no cats will be let out of any bags.)

I’m in the process of stretching it onto the frame, and when that’s satisfactorily done (which its not yet!) I will stitch the top and bottom edges to the frame and then cover them over with suitably coloured bias binding. I’m not sure whether to go for blue, green or pink.

I’m having fun making this. Its been much faster than the butterfly curtain because these are much more simple butterfly shapes.

More shadow work butterflies

This week I have been working on a Christmas present for my 5 week old niece. I made a lampshade for each of the other children in the family when they were born, so my new niece “expected” one also from Auntie Yvette.

I really like the idea of shadow embroidery on lampshades because it really comes into its own when the lamp is on. Given that I enjoyed stitching shadow work butterflies earlier in the year on a curtain, I decided that simplified butterflies would work well on the lampshade too.

The colours were easy to sort out as my sister loaned me the “Wallies” sticker decorations they were given as a gift for decorating the baby’s room. I was simply able to match the colours – ready made colour scheme!

I should be able to finish the embroidery today and cover the lampshade frame next week. Its been quite a relaxing project to be doing in the lead up to Christmas. Have you been working on any embroidered gifts for Christmas?

Gingerbread house

The other night, my friend Belinda who ran Vetty Creations for me while I was away in Ethiopia, and I went along to my church and along with about 140 other people, constructed and decorated gingerbread houses. They’ve done it many times before at church, but I’ve never done it before, and neither had Belinda.

We had such fun! We were supplied with the gingerbread shapes, all cooked and ready to construct. There was a pack of assorted lollies (candies) and a bag of “glue” (icing). There were minimal instructions, but after figuring out which gingerbread parts were the roof and which were the walls, we got on with constructing.

People kept commenting on how neatly mine was going together. I informed them that I did model making at uni, so I had a bit of experience with constructing models. I must say though, that none of my uni work was made from gingerbread or icing!

Here is my finished house. Its currently sitting in the middle of the dining room table, and my younger daughter is champing at the bit to get into it!

front and side of gingerbread house

back of gingerbread house

We enjoyed it so much that we’ll be doing it again next year!

A special card

Yesterday I received something very special in the mail. I have a friend whom I have never met, but we have a reasonable amount in common. We are both left-handed, share a love of embroidery and also a lack of love of prolonged serious illness. I don’t remember where we first “met”. Probably some blog or forum somewhere. Actually, thinking about it, it was probably around this time last year that we really started corresponding.

I received a gorgeous ribbon embroidery card that she made just for me. Its particularly special because she doesn’t have the ability to stitch for long periods of time – its just too taxing with her illness.

It features two very pretty ribbon flowers (daisies?) with a whipped chain stitch stem, and the prettiest little feathery leaves! Its on beautiful ivory silk dupion. The flowers are of satin ribbon and organza ribbon. The centres have massed French knots and a ring of French knots.

Thank you very much, my friend. 🙂