White Threads

hemming day

I had a great time taking photos yesterday. The photo of the handtowel was an absolute gift, with it all coming together easily and quickly. I’d borrowed some props from my sister, and with some rummaging through my own cupboards, came up with a really nice arrangement very quickly.

I wrote my instructions and did my diagrams for damp stretching yesterday, realising that I do it differently than the other instructions I read elsewhere once. It was nice to realise I have personalised my method! My differences are to do with whether you stretch it wet or dry (and then wet after). Personally, I feel that as we’re working with linen and linen is stronger when it is wet, why not do it when it is wet and take advantage of that strength?

Today will be hemming day. I have a few pieces that are all finished except for their hems. So I’ll be clearing some space on the dining room table today, and setting up the sewing machine. The corners will need to be mitred, and then I’ll probably machine sew some, and hand sew others.

Just a question: when you’re hemstitching a hem by hand, do you prefer to remove one, two or three (or more) threads? One thread removed will give you very small holes, more threads removed will give you larger holes. What do you prefer?

photographing

I spent some of the last few days photographing embroideries for “Portuguese Whitework”. It has been going well, and is lovely to see the new photos going into place in the pages of the book. There is something quite delicious about seeing it all come together.

Anyway, mustn’t hang round here too long. I’m off to photograph in the back yard while the light of the day is still young.

Miss Marple nearly killed my computer

Had a bit of a scare last night. My husband and I had just finished watching a Miss Marple DVD and very soon after that, there was a noise (I can’t remember how it sounded) and the screen went black and the computer wouldn’t work.

I didn’t panic. I didn’t scream. I DID think of all the work I’ve done over the last week or so since it was last backed up.

I remained calm.

I went to bed, trusting that when I restarted the computer in the morning, when it had cooled down, all would be well. I did have a little panic in bed – my breathing got all out of control, so I just prayed and God got me back to rights!

So, this morning sort of all was well.

The laptop battery seems to be stuffed as I can’t start the computer when it is in. But without the battery it starts. (Otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this!)

So that’s all you get from me today, as I am off to back up all my recent files. And you know what the moral of the story is: BACK UP YOUR WORK REGULARLY! 🙂 Oh, and probably you shouldn’t blame Miss Marple.

Edit 10 minutes later: Book now backed up. 🙂

embroidery nightmare

Last night it was very hot here – the minimum was 27 degrees Celcius (about 81 degrees Fahrenheit)! When it is hot, I tend to have weird dreams. Last night was no exception.

I dreamt that I had cut a reasonably large section from the edge of the tablecloth that I recently completed for my upcoming book “Portuguese Whitework”. Obviously I had been needing to start a new project, and instead of cutting the fabric for it from my large piece of 38 count linen, I had accidentally cut it from the edge of the tablecloth.

I think I screamed in my dream, when I realised! I hope I didn’t scream in real life!

I hadn’t actually cut into the embroidery, so I had to devise some way of cutting out the embroidery and applying it to a new piece of fabric. It was not at all going to be a satisfactory solution, but what else could I do?

It was quite a relief to wake this morning and realise that the tablecloth is still in one piece, and with no bits cut from its edge.

Using embroidery

A friend commented the other day that she would find it very difficult to actually *use* embroidered items like my tablecloth or handtowel, because she’d be too worried that they would be damaged. Let’s clear up a possible misconception here: I don’t use most of them either! 🙂

If you walked into my house and looked around, apart from the piles of fabric and partially completed projects in my office, you would have no idea that I design and make embroidery for a living. Most of my embroidery lives in a cupboard! Because I used to work as a picture framer, our walls are full, so there’s no display room there.

Several years ago we purchased a new lounge suite, having spent many years living with (ugly!) hand-me-down lounges. It was the first time I felt that the lounges were worthy of displaying any of my embroidery. We now have a selection of my embroidered cushions on the lounge.

I do use smaller things like scissors cases and needlebooks all the time. I also display ornaments on the tree at Christmas time. I wear embroidered clothing quite happily, though I don’t have much that is embroidered. The rest of my embroidery just lives in the cupboard, waiting to be brought out for classes or craft show displays.

I don’t feel bad about this, because for me a lot of the pleasure is in the making of the item. Some may see it as wasteful – spending all that time and money on something that ends up in a cupboard – but I don’t. You could spend $20 on a movie ticket and enjoy a few hours of entertainment. For me, $20 spent on embroidery supplies would be likely to supply me with many more hours of happy stitching, so I don’t see it as a poor investment.

Do you actually USE many of your embroidered projects? Or do you consider them such a labour of love that they are therefore way too special to be used?

handtowel under way

Yesterday I finally got started on my handtowel project for “Portuguese Whitework”. I suddenly decided that I wanted some suggestions from people on the size that people like their handtowels to be. I’ve previously done handtowels at about 40 x 50cm (16 x 20in), but wanted to know if people liked that size or something a bit different to that.

So I asked on the Vetty Creations Facebook page, and also on Stitchaholics. Yesterday’s concensus seemed to be about 40 x 60cm (16 x 24in), so that’s what I’m making this one.

Although its a bit late for this particular project, do you have suggestions for the size you like your embroidered handtowels to be?

the misses stewart

I recently heard about an exhibition that is on at The Hawkesbury Regional Museum at Windsor in NSW. Its called The Misses Stewart: seamstresses of the Hawkesbury, and is a display of the work of two sisters’ textile work. Myra and Ivy Stewart lived in the Hawkesbury region from the late 1800s until the 1970s.

To earn an income, the two sisters made garments for sale through David Jones and Farmers’ department stores in Sydney. Their work was of a very high quality, and the exhibition includes day wear, night wear, underwear, mourning clothes and accessories.

The website says that “it showcases fabrics that were once common but rarely heard of these day – like guipure, gabardine and organdie, and sewing techniques like pin-tucking, smocking, tatting, beading and mending.”

The exhibtion is on in 2011 and into 2012 (no specific dates are given on the website), at Hawkesbury Regional Museum at 8 Baker Street, Windsor NSW. I believe that entry is free, but don’t quote me on that!

bookmark complete!

It took less than 24 hours from go to whoa! The latest project for my book “Portuguese Whitework” is now complete; even the instructions are written.

I must say that I very much like these quick projects! Compared to nearly two years of *that* tablecloth, less than 24 hours is the way I like it!

I showed it to my friend, Belinda – the inspiration for the bookmark – and she feels that she’ll be able to make it. She’s an embroidery novice, so I’m glad she sees it as achievable. I think she’s actually quite excited by it!

I’m thinking there’s one more project I’ll need to make: a handtowel. The ideas for it have been happily percolating in my head for some time now, so its quite possible it will be commenced some time today or over the weekend. I don’t think it will be completed in 24 hours though!

dreaming of bullions

I feel like a lot of my dreaming time was filled with making bullions last night. Perhaps that reflects how many I have done recently? It reminds me of the nightmare I had when I sent my stitch dictionary off to the printers. I think that my day job is invading my sleep too much!

A few weeks ago a friend asked if there was going to be a bookmark in the book, as she felt that would be an excellent project for a beginner like her. I said that there was not as the bullions would be too thick to fit in a book as a bookmark, but that there would be other small projects suitable for a beginner.

But she got me thinking. One of the things about a bookmark is that it also requires very little finishing expertise. It doesn’t require a sewing machine, and has no fiddly construction bits. It really is an ideal project for a beginner.

So yesterday, after spending some time damp stretching the Portuguese Whitework sampler project, my mind was free to move on to new things. On the walk to school in the afternoon to get the kids, I devised a bookmark design that was simple to stitch and make, and where the thickness of the bullions would not be within the pages of the book.

I started it last night, and will finish it this morning. It is simple, but effective, and will be an excellent beginner project and quick gift. It is nice to get a project done so very quickly! Thanks for the inspiration, Belinda!

Beginner, intermediate, advanced

I’m getting to this a bit later than usual this morning, because I desperately wanted to finish off my latest Portuguese Whitework project for the book first. And I just finished it! I think it took less than two weeks, which is quite remarkable. I didn’t get much else done during that time though!

Anyway, on to the subject for the day, which follows on from yesterday’s discussion of class expertise levels. Class ratings: beginner, intermediate or advanced. A couple of you yesterday said things along the lines of “so what do they mean?” Great question, especially because they probably mean different things to me, to you, and to someone else.

So, this is what they mean to me.

Beginner
This encompasses people who have NEVER before worked any embroidery, right through to people who have worked some embroidery, but are new to the technique of the class. For example, you might be experienced at surface embroidery, but decide to take a Hardanger class, having never done any Hardanger before. This puts you as a beginner. Your experience with other embroidery will mean that you know your way around a needle and thread, but you may not necessarily have any experience with counted thread yet.

Intermediate
You have some experience with the style of embroidery and have mastered the basics.

In the case of my fast-paced class that I mentioned yesterday, the technique was new to all the students, but students needed to have experience with counted thread embroidery, and be comfortable with surface embroidery techniques. This was explained in detail to the organisers so that they could accept appropriate people into the class.

Advanced
You are an experienced stitcher. You have mastered the basics and have worked a number of things using the techniques. The class will include complicated techniques or stitchers that will require a good working knowledge of embroidery and the technique in particular.

These are my ratings only. Other teachers might mean different things.

Yesterday Rachel commented: Sometimes the class is marked as “Intermediate” and I think “What precisely does that mean? I’ve played with the technique on my own – will that be enough?” Rachel, it may mean that you could do the class. I know that you have an excellent grasp of many different types of embroidery, and probably have explored many of them by yourself. So quite possibly *you* would be able to handle an intermediate class in this mythical embroidery! But if you were a less experienced embroiderer, and not nearly so highly accomplished, then possibly it would be too much for you.

This is my main advice to everyone about class levels: if you are unsure, ask. That may sound like a bit of a cop out, but it is the best course of action.

I do like the idea of teachers stating exactly what the pre-requisite skills are (as Martha suggested yesterday), but sometimes a teacher is not given the opportunity to include this. Sometimes space requirements for a written class description do not allow for such detail. However, it IS a good idea, and if more of us teachers were to specifically state pre-requisite skills, then maybe it would become the accepted norm.

Thanks for the feedback on this topic yesterday. I’ve definitely found the discussion to be useful and worthwhile. I hope that you have too. 🙂