White Threads

no exchange this year

After collecting votes over the past few days, I was hoping to get to 10 participants or more, and we didn’t. Because of this (and actually also because I’m trying to get my book finished!) I’ve decided not to run the Christmas ornament exchange this year.

I’m sorry for those of you who were excitedly anticipating it. I’m actually quite thankful as I really feel that I have enough on my plate as it is at the moment!

Maybe those of you who were hoping to participate might be able to find a swap elsewhere? Perhaps there’s one happening over at Stitchin Fingers?

taxidermy and needlework

Let me tell you a little story.

Some weeks ago Rainbow Girl started at a new gymnastics program. Its a bit further from home than our previous gym, and means we have more car time.

We were driving to pick her up one evening a few weeks ago, and chatting as we drove along. Going through a little valley, one of the houses on our right had its front curtains closed. The side ones were open though, and through the side window I spied…

…a deer.

A full sized, taxidermied deer.

We were a bit shocked (no, quite shocked and very surprised), and on our way back, my husband stopped at the kerb so that he could get a better look, and confirm that I was not seeing things.

Earlier this week, on the same trip, I realised that above the front curtains (there’s a gap above – sounds strange, but makes sense when you see it) I could see another antler. Another very slow journey past revealed that there is not one, but two taxidermied deer in their living room. And we have seen the family sitting quietly there in the evening, amongst the wildlife. Obviously it is completely normal for them.

Imagine my pleasure, therefore, on finding a wonderful blog a few days ago Anatomically Incorrect Creatures, featuring cute handsewn “taxidermied” creatures. Bree, aka The Creature Specialist mounts hers onto wooden backboards, as taxidermied heads often are. I wonder if she’ll ever do a range of full-sized stand alone living room animals?

For even more fun, you can also find Anatomically Incorrect Creatures on Facebook and on Etsy.

some synonyms

This morning I have series of words for you, sourced from Thesaurus.com:

all, entire, exhaustive, full, replete, thorough, unabbreviated, unabridged, whole.

These are some of the words used to explain the word “complete”.

And some more:

accomplish, achieve, bring to a close, cease, close, complete, conclude, culminate, end, finalize, fulfill, put finishing touches on, stop, terminate, wind up, wrap up.

These are some of the words used to explain the word “finished”.

Perhaps what I am trying to communicate is beginning to become clear.

I have finished the embroidery on the tablecloth.

When I was a little girl, there was a very talented lady called Nita Johnston at our church. Every few years she wrote a musical for all us kids to perform. There is one song that still sticks with me more than 30 years later, from the musical about the prodigal son. The song was very catchy, and is about when the son returns home – a song of joy and celebration. My recollection of the chorus of this song is as follows:

Kill the fatted calf,
Kill the old red rooster!
I’m as happy and as joyful
As ever I could be.
Kill the fatted calf,
Kill the old red rooster,
For my son has returned to me!

The last bit about the son returning to me doesn’t really apply, but the joy and celebration of the rest of it is a great expression of how I feel about this tablecloth! No doubt it will be stuck in my head for the rest of the day now, and I won’t mind a bit!

ornament exchange

Just wanting to bring to your attention our possible Christmas ornament exchange again. So far we only have about 4 people wanting to take part, which means I would not be likely to run it with so few participants.

At this stage I’m only wanting expressions of interest, so if you say you’re interested, you’re not yet making a firm commitment.

Have we got any more possible takers?

Still plugging away on the tablecloth. The end is nigh…

personal goal

I have a new personal goal that hopefully will only stand for a few days. I want to finish the embroidery on the tablecloth by the end of the week! Finishing the tablecloth completely (hemming, damp stretching etc) will not be possible to fit into the week, so I’m making my goal achievable.

That’s all I have to say today, because I have some serious stitching to do!

Oh, I will mention something I said on the Vetty Creations Facebook page the other day though. Each of the three books that I will be reprinting in the next month or so has been reprinted every year for the last few years. This means that even Elegant Hardanger Embroidery, which is now 10 years old, continues to sell well, despite its age. Quality lasts. 🙂

larger print runs

I spent part of the day yesterday trying to nut through the idea of getting larger print runs (at a lower cost per book) and then having to store more. It suddenly occurred to me that with the significant savings from larger print runs, I might still be better off even if I had to then pay for storage to put them all in.

So off to all the websites of “local” storage places to get quotes, to figure out if it might work. As it turns out, it will be much better. I’ll have a larger cost upfront, but in the long run it is advantageous. Sometimes you just have to take a fresh look at what you’ve been doing, and evaluate whether it is still a good idea.

In the meantime, I’m chugging along with the tablecloth. Its getting close, but there’s still a lot to do!

If you haven’t responded with your thoughts about the Christmas ornament exchange, please do. I’d like as many comments as possible, so that I can make a decision based on what my readers think, rather than just what I think!

Ornament exchange again?

Last year here at White Threads I organised a Christmas ornament exchange. I have been wondering about whether to run it again, as I’m not sure it was entirely successful last year. I just wasn’t sure that everyone received their ornaments. However, no-one let me know that they *didn’t* receive the one that was promised to them, so perhaps I should not be concerned.

My questions for people who participated last year are (and you can email me privately if you prefer):

did you receive your ornament?
Was it a fun and positive experience for you?
Is there any feedback that you can pass on to me that we can learn from, if we are going to run it again?

For everyone (those who participated and those who did not): would you like to take part in a Christmas ornament exchange this year?

To give you an idea of how things might run, in case you’ve never done something like this before you need to know the following things:

you will need to make an ornament as a gift for someone else. Someone else will make one for you. Your recipient and giver may not necessarily be the same person.
You will not know who you will be receiving yours from, but you will know who you are sending yours to! The idea is to keep it a little bit secret, but that you will let the recipient know in the parcel with the ornament who and where theirs is from.
you will need to post it – possibly to the other side of the world – so that it arrives at least 2 weeks before Christmas.
Post at Christmas can take much longer than you think! You may need to allow up to a month for transit.
International post can be expensive. Flat or flattish things will likely be cheaper to send.You should check your postal regulations for guidelines.
Some countries have strict quarantine laws about what can be sent into that country. You will need to make sure your ornament does not breach the quarantine requirements of the recipient’s country. As an example, you would have a hard time getting wood into Australia.
You will need to make sure that if you commit to taking part, that you actually make and send the ornament. Nothing would be worse than being the person who does not receive their ornament because you ran out of time or inspiration. It is a firm commitment, and you should take your commitment seriously.
There is no need to send anything else other than the ornament.

Any questions, please ask. If I decide to go ahead with running the ornament exchange, we’ll probably need to have signups completed in about 2 weeks to allow enough time for people to make and send their ornaments.

multiple wrap French knots

When I am teaching French knots, it in variably comes up – either by me or a student – that some people maintain that French knots should only ever have one wrap. The idea is that if you need a bigger knot, you use a thicker thread. I don’t subscribe to this point of view, because the traditional Mountmellick embroidery that has been passed down to me includes French knots with up to eight wraps. (Yes, you read that right!)

If teachers want to insist that French knots should only have one wrap, that is fine with me. That may be the traditionally correct way of doing it – who am I to say it is not?

However, when some of them start saying things like, “a French knot should only ever have one wrap; any more and it is a bullion knot”, that’s where I MUST take exception. This is so patently untrue!

Let’s think about the construction of these stitches.

Top-bottom: French knot (3 wraps), bullion knot (about 10 wraps), bullion loop (about 10 wraps)

French knots: If you work one, and then look at the back, you will see that the thread leads up to the knot, goes through to the front, creates the knot and then comes back through to the back at the completion of the knot. NONE of the workings for the knot are visible from the back of the fabric.

Bullion knots: If you work one, and then look at the back, you will see the thread leading up to the knot. It goes through to the front, does some magic and then comes BACK to the back of the fabric. But we’re not done yet. That thread appears as a straight stitch on the back of the fabric, then returns to the front at the beginning end of the stitch. On the front, it works its magic with the other part of the thread which is already on the front of the fabric, and then returns to the back AGAIN.

The difference? There is a small stitch on the back of a bullion knot, and there is not on a French knot.

Showing the back of the picture above. Top-bottom: French knot, bullion knot, bullion loop.

If you don’t believe me, get yourself a good stitch dictionary (I’d suggest either The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion or The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion!) to make sure you are doing both knots correctly, and do some of each.

If you want to make your point even more blatantly, work bullion loops instead of bullion knots. (Bullion loops are worked as an overwrapped bullion which has a short stitch length and many more wraps than are necessary for that distance, causing the knot to “explode” out as a long loop.) Bullion loops cover less distance across the fabric, making them notionally closer in style to a French knot.

However, if you turn them over to the back, you will still see that French knots have no stitch on the back, and bullion knots do.

THEY ARE DIFFERENT.

Can we put to bed the idea that a French knot with multiple wraps is a bullion knot now please? And of course, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

gorgeous babushka doll

Last week when I was in Tasmania I wrote that I met Natasha of The Snow Queen’s Garden, and purchased one of her gorgeous handmade, hand-embroidered Russian babushka dolls. I promised pictures, so here they are!

The Snow Queen's Garden "Eau de Parfum" - all Natasha's designs are one offs. And of course, they are all copyright to her!

Even the back is embroidered!

It was lovely to meet Natasha, aka The Snow Queen! She told me that a lot of the stitches she uses on these lovely little dolls, she has learnt from the step-by-step instructions in my book “Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature”. They are obviously not worked in Mountmellick embroidery (!) but the stitches in the book can be applied to all sorts of other embroidery. I recommended my stitch dictionaries to her for an even further increased stitch repertoire!

I am so pleased to own one of The Snow Queen’s Garden’s beautiful handmade babushka dolls. I will treasure her!

book reprints

I mentioned yesterday that I was going to need a new print run of “The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion”. To sort out the distributor orders that I currently have, yesterday I went to where I store the stacks of books that I can’t fit in my office.

I was in for some surprises… We found some extra cartons of “The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion” – good surprise! We found that I had very few cartons of both “Elegant Hardanger Embroidery” and “Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature” – bad surprise!

So this means I will probably have to reprint the Hardanger and Mountmellick books as soon as possible, and maybe can hold off a little on the right-handed stitch dictionary.

The idea when you get a print run done is to get enough done to fulfil about 12 months’ worth of sales. I’m usually reasonably good at estimating how many copies to do (they have to be multiples of 1000), though sometimes I can be surprised and run out sooner than that.

Now I just have to work out if I get all three done at once, or hold off on doing the right-handed book now and leave it until I get the Portuguese book printed. If I do get them all done now, I’ll have to work out where I’m going to put them all when they are done! 1000s of books take up a lot of space!

What an excellent problem to have, because it means my books are selling well!