White Threads

Seeing Mountmellick embroidery in Ireland

I received an email this morning from someone who regularly holidays in Ireland but has not managed to find any Mountmellick embroidery to see. I offer this reassurance: its not just you – it IS hard to find!

The following are the places that I know of that have Mountmellick embroidery in their collections in Ireland (both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland). You will need to pre-arrange with the curator to see all these collections (except for at the museum in Mountmellick) as their Mountmellick examples are not generally on display.

– The National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin
– The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Holywood (outside Belfast)
– The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) library, Dublin
– Mountmellick Development Association Museum, Mountmellick
– An Grianan Adult Education College, Termonfechin

If you do an internet search on each of these places, you should be able to find the details you need to be able to contact them and visit them. We also offer a listing with contact details in our book Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature.

If you can tell me of other places which have collections or displays of Mountmellick embroidery in Ireland (or anywhere else), I’d love to hear!

photos please!

I recently received a letter from one of my long-standing customers. She delightedly announced that she had finished the blackberry table-runner from our book “Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature”. She has been working on it solidly for quite some time. What a fabulous achievement!

When I was writing the book, the blackberry table-runner was the first project I made. It was such a big job and took so long that I thought I’d never get the book finished! So after that I moved onto some of the smaller, quicker projects so that I could feel like I was actually achieving something!

Now, there’s only one problem with the letter I received. There were NO photos! I want to see photos, people! I want to share in the delights of your achievements! 🙂

Hand embroidery classes with Yvette Stanton

I have updated my classes page on the Vetty Creations website. I have put in additional class descriptions and new photos of projects. This should give you a more up-to-date view of what I will be teaching where this year.

Below left is the passionflower cushion that we will be working on at Oatley Cottage (Sydney) in June and A Stitch in Time (Hobart) in October. Below right is the wildflower cushion we will be working on at Southern Cross Needlework (Maitland) in November.

I have also started putting in my bookings for next year – 2009 – and my calendar is booking up quickly. Though its only May, my calendar for next year is almost already full with firm bookings and expressions of interest. Firm bookings take some precedence over expressions of interest. If your shop or guild group would like to book a class with me in 2009, you’d better get in quick, or you may have to wait until 2010!

Just to re-cap, I teach the following forms of whitework embroidery: Mountmellick embroidery, Hardanger embroidery, and merezhka embroidery. I travel fairly extensively up and down the east coast of Australia to teach, but I’m happy to go further afield to New Zealand, America, Europe, wherever you are… 🙂 If you are interested in booking a class with me for your guild group or shop, please contact me for details of my fees, to check availability and to enquire about possible class projects.

happy customers

I am forever in awe of companies like Country Bumpkin (who admittedly are much bigger than me!!) who seem to have a constant stream of lovely responses from happy customers telling them how fabulous they are.

This sort of thing is music to a business’s ears!

I always love hearing from any of my customers, students, readers, and even just casual followers of my designs in magazines. Yesterday I received a lovely email from a happy customer.

“Wow! I received the package yesterday morning – only about 24hrs after ordering! What super service! I have already started doing the passion flower embroidery in the Inspirations magazine and it’s looking great. I think I’m hooked!” –CB, Valentine, Australia

I also found a blog called The Beauty of Life where one of my past students blogged about working on and finishing her Mountmellick Pomegranate Doily that she did a class with me on in Brisbane at All Threads Embroidery last year. It was interesting to read of her thoughts while making it. And great to see a photo of the finished product – a job well done!

So, just a reminder, I am always thrilled to hear from anyone. (Does that sound too desperate…?!) 🙂

Hardanger chiffon bag kits now available!

“I saw your bag on the cover of Embroidery and Cross Stitch Magazine and I thought I would let you know I think it is divine. I would love to do it. Are you selling kits?” — SS, Adelaide, Australia.

YES! Supplies kits for the Hardanger chiffon bag are now available. Let us do the running around for you! We have collected together the fabrics, threads and beads etc. needed to make your very own bag.

These kits are designed to be used in conjunction with the instructions provided in the magazine Embroidery and Cross Stitch Vol 15 No 3. (The issue with the bag on the cover.)

Included in the kits are: red shot black chiffon, evenweave linen, lining, embroidery thread, Mill Hill beads, Swarovski crystals, cord, button, needles.

Not included are: instructions (these are in the magazine), machine sewing thread, general sewing supplies and equipment.

Purchase your Hardanger Chiffon Bag Kit today from the Vetty Creations online shop, and to make your very own gorgeous red bag to take on your next evening out!

All Threads Embroidery merezhka class project

This is the Merezhka Poltavska project that we will be making at All Threads Embroidery in Brisbane at the end of this month. It features a ring of daisies and the small scale method of Merezhka Poltavska. The corners are worked in the bullion wrap style.

Merezhka Poltavska is a drawn thread embroidery originating in Poltava in Ukraine. It is most often geometric in design, but more contemporary designs often feature flowers.

This is an intermediate level class, so it is expected that you will already have tried basic merezhka embroidery. Absolute beginners (to merezhka) will not be able to be catered for in this particular class.

If you haven’t yet booked in, call Kerryn at All Threads today! There are still spaces left in the class.

Brisbane visit

In two weekends time I will be in Brisbane to teach Intermediate Merezhka at All Threads Embroidery. I was up there last year, and had a wonderful time. If you’d like to go, but haven’t already booked, there is still space in the class, so call Kerryn and book in quickly!

This year, the 40th anniversary exhibition of the Embroiderers Guild of QLD is on while I am in Brisbane. The opening is on the Friday night and I have been invited to attend – lucky me! My red hardanger bag will be on display (not that I’m a member, but they expressed an interest in it seeing it fits with their 40th anniversary/ ruby theme) as part of the exhibition.

It will be great to meet the lovely ladies at the QLD guild.

I also plan to do a little sight-seeing on the Friday during the day as I am not very familiar with Brisbane. I have been there when I was younger, but my parents have never really been into cities, so if we travelled through one, we usually spent very little time there. My parents are much more interested in natural wonders so that is where our focus lay.

If anyone can recommend any good needlework shops to visit in Brisbane, I’d love to hear from you. I can recommend All Threads Embroidery, as they have a fabulous range of threads (and other stuff too!)

red fabric for hardanger bag Part 2

It seems amazing that it was only yesterday that I was lamenting the fact that I have no more red chiffon…

Since then, a lot has changed! After I wrote yesterday’s blog post, I had a wonderful brainwave. Here in Sydney we have a suburb called Cabramatta. The shops there are predominantly Vietnamese, which means fabulous food. But it also means that there are about 5 wonderful JAM-PACKED fabric shops. I figured that if anyone would have the red-black chiffon, then I would find it in Cabramatta.

I convinced my sister to come with me (it didn’t take much arm-twisting at all!) and we set out for a fabric shop crawl in Cabramatta. The first shop we went into was closing down – very sad. It also didn’t have much stock left, so I didn’t find what I was after there.

The next shop was one of the really jam-packed shops that are not suitable for the more traditionally built (with thanks to Alexander McCall Smith for that evocative phrase!). When you have only about a 30cm/1 foot gap to walk through, you can’t get a stroller (pusher/push chair) down there. My sister had her young child with her, so we arranged that one of us would stand outside with child and stroller. I went in first, and hit the jackpot straight away. I showed the sample of fabric that I still had left to the shop assistant and she took me straight to the same fabric. I took a whole roll. I also ended up with a good quantity of three other lovely fabrics for other projects.

I came out after *quite* some time, very triumphant. My sister had figured things were going well, due to my prolonged absence! Then she disappeared into the shop and returned quite some time later also very happy with her purchases of fabric for some clothing for her kids.

We browsed the other fabric shops then had some delicious food for lunch. My niece fell asleep in the car on the way home, without any screaming, and we arrived back home in time for me to pick up my children from school/preschool. A wonderfully successful day!

This weekend I will be working out costings for the kit for the red bag. Stay tuned…

fabric for red hardanger bag

I have been fielding many requests for the actual fabric that I used for my hardanger bag that was on the cover of Embroidery and Cross Stitch magazine.

When I bought the fabric from my local shop, I only bought enough for me to make the project. Had I known how well it would turn out, and how well the project itself would be received by the general stitching public, I would have bought the whole roll! But I didn’t…

Until recently, the shop still had a small amount left on the roll. And then it disappeared. So I went back in there yesterday with the small amount of the fabric that I have left and asked if they can get any more. Its not amongst their samples, but they’re going to try to find some more for me. Not very hopeful, but at least they’re doing what they can.

If I can get some, I’ll certainly let you all know.

For those that want to try to find some themselves, it was red shot black chiffon. Lovely light, filmy fabric, with gorgeous feel and drape. I still love it!

Swarovski crystals

On the weekend I ordered some gorgeous Swarovksi crystals for one of the Hardanger projects that I am designing for a class. They arrived yesterday, so almost as soon as they arrived, I sewed them on.

I can’t show you much more yet, but here’s a sneak peak…