White Threads

Variegated thread #2

I’ve enjoyed our discussions on variegated thread. It did take a while for some people to tell us that they don’t like them, but I’m glad you did, because I’m interested to hear of your opinions!

Today I want to ask about the types of variegated threads that you like. Do you like the ones that change from hue to hue of the one colour, or that change from colour to different colour? e.g. do you prefer variegated threads that have all shades of green (or red, or blue) in the one skein, or skeins that change from red to green to blue in the one skein?

I tend to prefer skeins that have variations of the one colour within them. I find that they are more useful. However, I did use some that change from colour to colour when working on my stitch dictionaries, and I did enjoy them too.

What do you prefer?

Left-handed book in Canada

A few weeks ago I received an email from a lady in Canada who wanted a copy of The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion. A friend of hers was coming to Sydney on a visit, and had agreed to purchase her a copy while here and take it home to her. The lady wanted to know where her friend might be able to purchase a copy in Sydney.

I emailed her back to let her know of a few likely places in Sydney, and suggested that she email one beforehand and get them to put a copy aside for her friend to pick up. But I also suggested that she may even find it easier to get a copy at home in Canada, recommending she could try Tanja Berlin of Berlin Embroidery Designs as I know that Tanja stocks it.

My Canadian correspondent wrote back very excited:

I can’t believe it – Tanja lives only about 5 km. from me & I didn’t know about her at all. Thank you so much. I’ll be calling her tomorrow.

On the weekend she followed up to let me know of her success:

I’m in heaven! I finally got around to driving over to Tanja’s to get my book. I can’t believe it. It is absolutely awesome and I know that I’ll be using it for years to come. Now when I encounter a new stitch, I can look it up and save many hours by doing it correctly the first time.

And yes, Tanja is absolutely lovely. Her very big Newfoundlander dog is also wonderful. I do believe that he thinks he’s a lap dog!

Thanks so much for directing me to Tanja. I just know that this book is going to be like my favourite cookbook – it will be dog eared in no time.

What a happy story! Thank you to my Canadian correspondent for allowing me to share it with you.

I met Tanja Berlin a couple of years ago at Beating Around the Bush, Country Bumpkin’s needlework convention, where we were both teaching. I had corresponded with Tanja a little over the years, and finally we got to meet. We hit it off immediately, finding what we had in common, and that we each greatly admired the other’s work. Tanja trained at the Royal School of Needlework and is an excellent teacher. She teaches regularly across Canada and the US, so if you haven’t yet met Tanja either, I suggest you do! 🙂 You can at least visit her very interesting website.

gift suggestions

The countdown to Christmas is on, and if you’re anything like me, you find it extremely difficult to come up with enough gift ideas to satisfy the relatives when they ask you what you’d like for Christmas.

Here’s my top pick suggestions:

Mountmellick wildflower cushion
This would have to be our most popular Mountmellick kit. If you’ve never tried Mountmellick, this is a very pretty project to start learning with, and works up into a lovely textured cushion.

Purchase the Mountmellick Wildflower Cushion Kit.

The Left-Handed Embroiderer's Companion and The Right-Handed Embroiderer's Companion The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion OR
The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion
Everyone I can think of is either left-handed or right-handed (ok, maybe a few are ambidextrous), so chances are, you are either left or right-handed too.

Our stitch dictionaries have been a huge hit with stitchers this year. The left-handers have all been so incredibly grateful that there is now a fabulous comprehensive stitch dictionary just for them. And even right-handers, who have many more stitch dictionaries to choose from have put The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion on the top of their pile of references.

So if you’re left or right-handed and like embroidery (or someone else special does) this is the perfect gift.

Purchase The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion.
Purchase The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion.

Mighty Bright Booklight
My final suggestion (apart from just having a good browse through the Vetty Creations online shop) is our Mighty Bright Booklight, which is just perfect for embroiderers on the move.

This cute little battery operated double LED lamp (you can use just one of the LEDs or both for stronger light) can clip onto your hoop or frame, which means you’ve got your hands free to sew, and have good light, even though you might be waiting at the doctors, on a train, or waiting for the kids to finish their music lessons. If you’re not using a hoop, it can also stand on a table, or clip onto your lapel.

The gooseneck means that you can position it wherever you want. As it is so compact and lightweight and can be popped in your bag with your latest sewing project. Its a great addition to anyone’s sewing kit.

Purchase the Mighty Bright Booklight.

One last suggestion…
And at this point I’d also love to say that I believe the best gift you could give anyone this Christmas would have to be Jesus. As he’s already been given to us, why not head to your local church this Christmas to meet him?

the politics of needlework

I was recently discussing some of the hot political issues in the needlework world (yes, I know, you can’t really imagine it being a hotbed of politics, can you?!) with someone. One of the perennial hot potatoes is the issue of selling single copies of things at a wholesale price to shops.

Why is this an issue? Well, many designers feel that if a shop is going to stock a product (design, chart, book, thread) that if they’re going to do it properly, they should be able to sell more than one, and that if they want the privilege of a wholesale discount, then they should commit to selling (usually) a minimum of three.

Its all to do with economies of scale. Its much easier and quicker (and therefore cheaper) to send off a single order of 20 products, than 20 separate orders of a single product, and therefore the larger quantity warrants the discount.

While I can understand this, my personal point of view is different. I think that its partly because I do not operate wholly within the needlework industry. I also am part of the publishing industry, because I am primarily a publisher (that’s where most of my income is from) though it just so happens that the focus of my publishing is needlework – which places me also within the needlework industry.

I regularly get calls from bookshops around Australia enquiring about various books of mine, wanting to buy a single copy for a customer who has come in asking for it. My opinion on this situation is that if there is a bookshop who is willing to place a special order with a publisher or supplier that they do not usually use (and that takes time and effort, and therefore $$) to keep their customers happy, then I am more than happy to supply them with the one book they require. In this day and age, its difficult to find a bookshop that will do special orders, and I want to encourage that kind of service by happily supplying to them.

Sure, it takes me more time, and effort to invoice, pack and send a “onesie”, but in the interests of good customer service, I’m going to do it. A sale is a sale.

variegated thread

Just a quick one today. Mary Corbet has brought up the fact that some people love variegated thread and some people hate it. I’d never considered that some people might hate it, because I’m one who loves it. (Except for the horrible ones that DMC first brought out – they are awful!)

So I’d like to do a poll. What are your feelings and thoughts on variegated threads? Do you love them or hate them? Do you find them difficult to use?

Please tell me, because I’ve just never considered this before!

Liking Vetty Creations

I’ve been spending some time over the last few days adding “like” buttons to my website (you can see one at the bottom of this post). I haven’t done all the pages yet, because it takes time, but I’m getting there! These buttons mean that you can “like” various pages of the Vetty Creations website (and blog) and share that love with all your Facebook friends.

When you click on the like button, you’ll be given the opportunity to add a message to share. You could use it to pass on some information to other stitching friends. For example, if you like my information on Hardanger embroidery, you could click the like button and add a message like “Fabulous information on Hardanger embroidery. A really great read.”

Or if you like my video of how to knit the Mountmellick fringe, you could click on the like button and add a message like “When I watched this video, my jaw just dropped! Its a great way to learn how to make a knitted fringe.” I’m sure you can think of something much more interesting to say, though!

Liking Video tutorial of how to knit Mountmellick fringe

Adding my message for my Facebook friends

I know many of you just love our left-handed stitch dictionary, and if you go to the page for The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion you can share it with your friends via the new like button. When you add your message, you can tell them why you love it so much.

So if you find something you really like on the Vetty Creations website or on our blog, its now even easier to share it with your friends via Facebook.

And don’t forget, we have a Vetty Creations fan page on Facebook, so that you can keep in touch with the latest. Why not become our fan? Give us the thumbs up!

Latest issue of Embellish

The other day I received my copy of the latest issue of Embellish magazine. Each quarter, Michelle who is one of the editors, sends me another garment for me to embroider. So in this issue I have another garment – a chocolate sleeveless blouse with ruffles on the yoke that were begging to be embroidered in a lacy style. I called it Chocolate Lace. The “lace” combines buttonhole stitch with twisted chains to create a lacelike border along the edge of each ruffle. You can see it in the centre of the cover pic.

There is also another review of one of my books – this time The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion, and you can go in a draw for a chance to win either The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion or The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion.

The issue is once again filled with interesting articles on interesting things that you can do with interesting fabrics and fibres! The article on 3d shibori was fascinating. I also loved the article on textiles in Morocco. We would have loved to have gone there some years back when we were in Spain, but with two very young little girls, we decided to give it a miss on that trip. Something to dream about doing one day…

In the meantime, while we’re all dreaming about seeing the textiles of the world, you should be able to pick up your copy of Embellish in Australian newsagents in the next few days.

New contact form

We have a new contact form on our website, meaning that you now have more options for how to contact Vetty Creations. Earlier this year I became aware that some email enquiries were never making it to me, and this is my attempt to make sure that messages get through.

Thanks to my friend Gaby for writing it for me, and for helping me to install it. Php is still gobbledegook to me, but at least he tried to explain how it all worked!

If you want to give the form a go, you can find it on our contact page.

If your email enquiries to us seem to go unanswered, its probably because its gone astray on its way from you to me. Please use our contact form instead.

Netting

The other day my husband (who is a school librarian) was telling me about a final year student and her textiles project. She wants to do a whole mermaid/under the sea themed outfit. Part of this was that she wanted to create a fishing net.

He asked me to put it on my blog to ask if anyone knew of where instructions for making a fishing net could be found. I told him that I could probably do one better as I was pretty sure I could find the instructions for him on my bookshelf.

When we got home (we were out to see the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs performing Monteverdi’s Vespers – a very wonderful performance!) I went to said bookshelf and found my copies of Weldon’s Encyclopedia of Needlework, and The Complete Encyclopedia of Needlework by Therese de Dillmont. There I found instructions for making filet lace, which is also known as netting.

I asked if the girl was a fairly handy sort of girl, and whether she’d be the type to be able to handle this sort of thing. Given that she’s the top student in her year, he figured she’d be fine with it.

The next afternoon, after school, my books were returned to me by my husband with many thanks from a very happy student. I hope her fishing net works out well!

sending off my Christmas ornament

Today I’ll be sending off my ornament for the 2010 Vetty Creations Christmas ornament swap. If you’re taking part, you’ll probably need to be sending yours off as soon as possible so that it reaches its recipient a good time before Christmas so that they can enjoy it!

If you could email me or comment below to let me know when you’ve sent yours, that will help me make sure that everything is on track.

I’d love you to send me a photo of the ornament that you give, and the one that you receive (that way if someone doesn’t have ready access to a camera, we’ll have all bases covered). I would love to share the pictures here on White Threads.

I hope you’re all having fun making, and it will be fun to hear and see when they reach their new homes.