White Threads

Had a great time at Oatley Cottage on Saturday. It was nice to be re-united with my passionflower cushion again. It has now been sent off to A Stitch in Time in Tasmania, for my class there in October.

While I was at Oatley Cottage I noticed a very enticing book called “The Art of Manipulating Fabric” by Colette Wolff. Probably the thing that first appealed to me was the cover, all in white fabric. It seemed rather like whitework embroidery, only in fabric.

It is the most amazing book! It goes through all manner of types of manipulating fabric, including smocking, quilting, using darts, and gathering. I read it on the bus on the way home, and got totally engrossed in the section on gathering. It was just fascinating. I learnt a lot about pattern-making, and the section on using darts was great too. It wasn’t cheap, but I figured that I recently had a birthday, and had some birthday money that I could happily put towards it.

I brought it home and showed my husband, and he said “Oh yes, we have two copies of that at school.” (He’s a school librarian.) Well… you could have told me about them! Oh well, now I have my own copy. 🙂

I have added two fabrics to the online shop at the Vetty Creations website. They are:

Red shot black chiffon – used for my popular Hardanger bag.

Zweigart Satin Royal – this is the gorgeous fabric I recommend for Mountmellick embroidery. I had it on the website before, then was told it had been discontinued so I took it off. But then they sent me the rest of the remaining Australian stock, so I’ve put it back on. This means I have Zweigart Satin Royal for sale only until its all gone. So… get in quick!

Today my daughter and I went on a jaunt to Cabramatta to get some more fabric. We went on the train, and had an enjoyable time reading books on the way.

The photo is of John Street, Cabramatta, where there are about five fabric shops. I found that my sister and I missed two last time we went to Cabramatta. Oops! The prices aren’t necessarily better in Cabramatta, its just the sheer size of the range offered in the stores that is wonderful. While many of the fabrics they have are in all the shops, between the five shops, there’s so much more to choose from than at my local fabric shop, which is what makes it such an attractive day-trip!

Couldn’t get any doctor’s flannel, which was disappointing, but got some other fabric I was after.

We bought takeaway for lunch and had it on the train on the way home. I couldn’t pass up such yummy food again. Then we read some more stories. We both had a lovely time, and it was a great way to devote more than a hour to reading stories to her!

Last weekend I went to Brisbane to teach a merezhka class at All Threads Embroidery. I went up early on the Friday to spend the day seeing the sights of Brisy. It was a miserable day, with grey skies and rain on and off (obviously no-one in Brisbane has seen the old advertising campaign of “Beautiful one day, perfect the next”).

I had an appointment at Meigunyah (see photo right) which is the home of the QLD Women’s Historical Society. It had been suggested to me that they had some Mountmellick embroidery pieces in their collection. It was a little disappointing, as there was really only one piece that had any resemblance to Mountmellick, and it was done a lot later, and was rather derivative in style. But I did see some other lovely embroidery, and they do seem to have a wonderful collection of lacework.

Meigunyah, the house itself, is a gorgeous old building and well worth a visit on the days it is open.

I did a bit of sightseeing, walking through the centre of the city, and across the river over to the art gallery. Found some really nice books in the art gallery bookshop, but had to leave them there as I was travelling very light, and couldn’t fit them in my luggage. Also passed on buying a lovely skirt at one of the shops in the Queen Street Mall. It was probably good practice for our Europe holiday later in the year, when we are travelling cabin luggage only. I have since regretted not buying the skirt and at least one of the books as I have a birthday coming up very soon, and various family members have been asking for gift suggestions. I guess I learned that it would have been better to purchase them and post them home if I really couldn’t find the room in my luggage…

That evening I also went to the opening of the QLD Embroiderers Guild 40th Anniversary exhibition. I had the honour of presenting two of the awards. It was a wonderful display with many pieces of gorgeous embroidery which were beautifully executed. It is rather special to me that my red chiffon hardanger bag is on display at the exhibition, fitting with their 40th/ruby anniversary.

Saturday and Sunday were at All Threads Embroidery. I was teaching an intermediate level merezhka class. We had a lovely two days. I will be back at All Threads Embroidery next year (2009) teaching my new style of Hardanger embroidery with sheer overlays.

Had a great weekend, and am looking forward to doing it again!

In three weekends time I will be teaching Mountmellick embroidery at Oatley Cottage in Sydney. There is still room in the class, so book now!

I came back from Brisbane on Sunday night to find that my website was down, and I also cannot access my Vetty Creations email. Apparently there was some sort of explosion at my hosting company, and about 10 servers were taken out.

They have been working non-stop to get them back online, but lucky me, the server I’m on is the last. So I’m still waiting…

My sincere apologies if you have wanted to place an order over the last few days or check classes, or read about Mountmellick, Hardanger or merezhka. All I can say is that hopefully it will be back up soon!