Windflower Embroidery

Thought you might like to see more of the work from the exhibition at ‘Bustle and Bows’. The display was set up in a beautiful little cottage opposite the shop. It was an ideal backdrop for the beautiful work. It was quite overwhelming to see so many exquisite pieces at one time.

Rachel and Shirley had everything displayed beautifully, with lovely afternoon tea and demonstrations by some of the teachers.

Here is another unfavorite piece worked by Christine - 15 life size Dogwood flowers! Christine worked this piece in single strands of very fine YLI silk and framed it in a magnificent antique oval frame with domed glass.

I am making up for lost blog time. I have lots of pictures to show you of the embroidery exhibition we had at Bustle and Bows on August 10th. This is an exhibition of student work and I was so proud of everyone who exhibited. Many of the projects have been worked from ‘Inspirations’ publications or from kits . Many however, are original designs!

Bev worked the beautiful Windflower blanket from ‘The World’s Most Beautiful Embroidered Blankets’. Designed by Annie Humphris, I think this is my favourite project in the book! Bev has worked this on a cream wool cashmere blanket in ‘Gumnut Yarns’.

Kerryn has also worked a blanket called ‘Hedgerow Flowers’ by Carolyn Pierce from the blanket book. She enlarged it and work the embroidery on mauve wool-alpaca blanketing. This was a special 50th birthday gift for her girlfriend.

Virginia completed another of Carolyn Pearce’s designs called ‘Fruits of the Hedgerow’ from ‘Inspirations’ Magazine.

Tara used ‘The 100 Acre Wood’ as her inspiration and with help from Katheryn Howell designed this delightful blanket.

Pam designed this beautiful spray of hydrangeas by using the backing fabric as inspiration. She also used threads she found in her ’stash’! That doesn’t happen very often !

I will give you some more pics on my next post.

I know that I have been a little delayed with the blog posts but life seems to be very busy at the moment with preparations for my trip to America. I will tell you more about that later but I have just picked up a new laptop so I will have no excuses for neglecting my blog while I am away!

Koala conventions was wonderful fun as usual! The weather let us down a little. It wasn’t quite as warm as last year. You can always tell where students come from. The Victorians are all wearing shorts and T-shirts and the students from Cairns and Townsville are in heavy coats and scarves!

The convention is a great chance to meet lots of the Australian Needlework teachers in one place. It is a fun-filled, relaxed event with amazing shopping. Here are a few pics of the only part of the retail area!

The classes run for 8 days with a break in the middle of the week. I went to beautiful Montville with Katherine Howell (Katherine Howell Designs), Jennifer Bennett (Jennifer B) and Robyn Alexander (Colour Streams) and we sat in the sunshine and enjoyed the magnificent views. For more information on 2009 programme go to www.KoalaConventions.com.au

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It seems I am always writing a post as I dash for a plane. Tomorrow I am off to Koala Conventions for some wonderful sun and wonderful stitching fun! I promise to take the camera with me and report on the week!

This time last year, my friend Viona was visiting from the USA and we had a wonderful time together at Koala Conventions. We also visited Tasmania where she found the most wonderful antique sewing box. It is made of rosewood with mother of pearl inlay and a beautiful, pristine paper lined interior. It is dated around 1830. Look at all the wonderful tools included in the box!

I have always love old sewing equipment and the ‘bits and pieces’ that make sewing such a joy. Beautiful mother-of-pearl buttons, old transfers, battered thimbles, lace and ribbon. I can remember my grandmother having a sewing room stuffed with all these wonderful things. They were literally spilling out the door! So I have created a glimpse of this sewing nostalgia in a beautiful jarrah box to display a collection of antique needle packets, button cards, spools, buttons and an embroidered initial (over-dyed to create an ‘aged’ look!). This project is also an excellent way to display any sewing memorabilia, tools or family heirlooms.

I have just finished the same concept in a framed picture for your sewing room. This is a sneak preview of my project for ‘Sewing at the Beack’ in South Carolina in January 2009.

Fiona will be very proud of me. Two entries in one day! Fiona is part of my ‘Stumpwork as a Competitive Sport’ group that meets monthly on a Saturday at Bustle and Bows. Despite my name for this group, it is not competitive, but is filled with laughing, chatting, supportive high achievers who love to stitch! My Doug says that if I didn’t turn up, they probably wouldn’t notice until lunchtime! In fact they still meet, even if I am away teaching.

One of my greatest delights was the beautiful Christmas gift they gave me in 2006. I always say that people don’t give me stitched gifts. This gift proved me wrong. The girls presented me with a beautifully framed posey of stumpworked flowers.

Each student has worked me a flower, leaf, butterfly or berry for my posey and on the back of the frame was a wonderful story of how the piece came together:

January - An idea is born – Christine

February - Butterflies Abound – Ruth

March - Summer Flowering Pansies Arrive – Lyn

April - A Late Picking Strawberry - Kerryn

May - Berries Galore - Blueberries - Maureen and Red currants – Rhonda

June – “Jan’s away the Girls will play” - Stitching the Foundations – Christine

July - Leaves before Leaving – Fiona

August - African Violets for Breakfast – Denise

We Still Need You, a Poppy Needs a Face – Lorraine

September - Dogwoods in Flower – Christine

October - A flowering Jonquil with a Blossoming Baby - Lisa

A Strawberry Flower Left before a Dash to the Altar - Heather

A Little Bud Stitched by the Bell makes it on Time - Julie

A Busy Month, but a Flower Posey Finished to Everyone’s delight – Christine

November - Off to the framers – Lyn

December 2006 “A Flower Posey”

I could not resist the beautiful Sajou pin tins. They are tiny - only 4cm or 1 1/2 inches in diameter so the embroidery is very small ! Bustle and Bows stock these delightful little tins of pins that have a lid especially designed for mounting small embroidery projects. Here is my first design with a violet, raspberry and little strawberry flowers. You must see all the other lovely sewing goodies made by ‘Sajou’.

I am just off to Country Bumpkin for 3 days of classes but have just finished ‘Hide & Seek’ so thought you might like a peek! I know that Fiona will not be impressed by the length of the blog but hopefully I will have some class pics when I get back!

Karen was asking me about the ‘Blackberry Blanket’ so I thought is was a good time to tell you about the infamous blackberry blanket. I originally planed the blanket with a border 40″ long and 5″ deep around the four sides of a wool cashmere blanket. Once it was drawn out I showed my friend Glenda who told me that I needed to ‘get a life’ and that no one would want to do such a large project!

So back to the drawing board and I redesigned the blanket with a central circle of berries and about 1/4 the work! Here is the result. The leaves are worked in shaded buttonhole stitch, there are appliquéd ripe and unripe blackberries and detached stumpwork flowers. I had worked a Monarch butterfly to put on it, but I didn’t get around to attaching it.

The first class for the blanket booked and everyone in the class said they liked the circle but would prefer to work the full border! It was then that I introduced them to the ‘no winge’ clause. (For my American readers ‘ to winge’ is the same as ‘to wine’). They were required to sign a declaration that they understood the amount of work in the project and would never complain or winge at any time.

It has been interesting to see everyone’s approach to the blanket. Ruth made the mistake of leaving all the flowers for last and then found out she needed 225! She did finish it and gave it to her daughter as her wedding gift. Miss Margaret in her usual style finished the circle design and then went on to do the border with a variation. She added raspberries and currants as well! I’m afraid the colour in the photo doesn’t do it justice but it does give you a good idea of the overall effect.

Last Saturday Julia was just saying she has two sides finished but……….!

It is a wonderful project but I would recommend the circular design!!!

Fiona tells me that it was a very short last blog! Did I run out of time? I just didn’t want to overload you with too many pics. Doug did such a good job with the photographs and there are so many good subjects! I am very inspired with the gum blossom and I think I might put some on one of my new pincushions. Also keep your eye on the web site for Bev’s beautiful Australian wildflower designs in wonderful ‘Gumnut’ buds silk.

Mandeni needlework is a wonderful shop situated in a magnificent bush setting. It is one of the best stocked needlework shops I have ever seen. If you are in the area it is worth calling in for a visit. Juleen, Margaret and Brenda would be very pleased to see you. If you have a hard to find thread it is worth ringing or e-mailing them to see if they have it in stock. They have a classroom with lots or room and great lighting and wonderful views. You will notice one of the students has an onion on the table. I always say ‘ Cry and I do it for you’. This student came prepared with as many tears as she needed!

I taught the large mushroom project and my new ‘Crab Apple Blossom’ projects. I have developed a new way to work blossom petals by combining a pinwheel stitch and a lazy daisy stitch. The project is worked in ‘Cascade’ wools. I found the clear colours just perfect and I have included the design into a large 4 panel blanket (not quite finished yet!) a 2 panel blanket and a bag. Keep your eyes open as they will be available on the web site soon.

This week is my not so busy week so I might even manage another post!

I am now back from my teaching at Merimbula. For those of you who don’t know where it is - Merimbula is on the ‘Sapphire Coast’ approximately half way between Melbourne and Sydney. From the photo you can see why it is called the ‘Sapphire Coast’.

The weather was wonderful and it was lovely to see all my friends again. We stayed at the resort and had a constant stream of animal visitors - cockatoos and lorikeets and kangaroos. One joined Margaret and I for a little stitching!

I will tell you more about the shop and classes and the new Crab Apple Blossom project in my next post.