This energetic trio will be hosting Lady Anne’s Needlework  a stitching and study event in England & Scotland 15^th – 30^th June, based on historical English needlework from the time of Lady Anne Clifford.  You can read more about it here

When Phillipa talked about the event I though wistfully of Castles, Stately homes, beautiful English countryside and viewings of private textile collections and felt myself slipping into Jane Austin’s Emma and Pride & Prejudice, two of my favourite movies.  Do you remember that dramatic climax with Mr Darcy striding across the moors to take her into his arms?  No wonder they call it a retreat, I would willingly retreat there in an instant, but then who would do the dishes, make the beds, feed the cat and take the kids to school while I was languishing in my Castle?

Muncaster Castle

Castles and Stately homes aside we come to the substance of the event and this of course is the embroidery.  Attendees will be treated to workshops and lectures, all done on a very leisurely basis allowing plenty of time for shopping and site seeing!  I have long admired the work of these ladies and I think we are all familiar with their various areas of expertise, briefly:

Phillipa Turnbull specialises in British crewel work embroidery and has lectured and taught on the subject for many years.  I believe she was commissioned to recreate the bed cover for the Queen Mother!  Phillipa produces gorgeous kits and her embroidery was instrumental in inspiring my love of surface embroidery. You can read all about her and see the products she has to offer on her website here

Jane Nicholas specialises in stumpwork and goldwork embroidery and has been researching and working in the field of embroidery for more than twenty years.  She has written several books on the subject and I have most of them.  I have stitched some of her designs in the past but mostly I just like looking at them!  She has been honoured with two awards for her work, you can read all about her and see the products she has to offer on her website here: 

Meredith Willet specialises in needlepoint embroidery and has been teaching classes throughout America for many years.  She owns and operates her own wholesale and distributing company The Elizabeth Turner Collection and has held various posts with Needlework organisations including president of the National Embroidery Teacher’s Association.  You can read more about her and the products she has on offer here

Phillipa has promised to report from the field about the event so until then,  pleasant dreams of castle’s in the sky and a wonderful week wherever you are.  Trish

“Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”

Looking back at some of my earlier works I realise that needle painting embroidery did not come naturally.   It took many months (or years) of practice and dedication before I got to the point where I thought I may have got it right, but even today I still have doubts.  Every time I sit down to stitch a new piece I challenge myself to better my work and achieve excellence and many times I toss the finished piece into a drawer because I am not happy with it.  Below you can see one of my earlier attempts next to a more recent piece (before and after).

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” 

I am constantly trying to better my technique by making changes – shorten the stitches, lengthen the stitches, padding, no padding etc, etc.  Students often ask – “Trish you said in your last book that we should do it this way but now you are telling us to do it another way”?  My answer to this is:  “Well I changed my mind!”

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Every time I make a mistake I see it as an opportunity to learn and improve.  Learning embroidery should be full of quiet contentment not frustration.  Living in a world where we have instant gratification in everything from cell phones, to computers to online shopping this is one area where we can cultivate a sense of patience.

 “They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they’d make up their minds.”

Patience really does make perfect.  Don’t compare your work with your neighbour’s, there are as many ways to embroider as there are embroiderers so each one of us will express it differently.  Some embroidery may represent fine watercolours and others look more like oil painting – but none the less beautiful.  If you have difficulty in seeing the good in your own work look at it from a distance or ask someone who you know will give you the answer you want to hear!

“It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.”

Sometimes we need the opinion of someone who will be honest with us.  When I show my work to my family they automatically say “That’s nice Mum” but then I have my Friday group who I can rely on to give me an honest opinion.  It is difficult not to take offense sometimes but it is my experience that if I can get past my own ego the changes are always beneficial.

“If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly”

This week I am going to share with you some of the blunders I have made in my stitching career, in the hopes that it gives you a good laugh and shows that we all have our moments.  If there is a blunder that you have made and would like to share we would love to hear it.

There are two incidences that stand out to me, the first was when I first moved to South Africa and I was invited to attend the bi-annual convention Ighali.  Being new in the embroidery world I went as an attendee not a teacher so I decided to participate in one of the workshops. As an author of two books at the time, I was very aware that all eyes were upon me so set about the task in earnest.  We were told to tack a piece of interfacing to our fabric before beginning to stitch which I duly did.  Then we were told to mount the fabric + interfacing into our hoops – but when I lifted up my fabric the tablecloth came up with it – I had tacked my fabric to the tablecloth!!  Needless to say this did not make me look good, but I was consoled somewhat by the fact that I received the booby prize at the convention.

One of my best pieces (I am not going to tell you which one) has a well darned patch underneath the stitching.  Whilst unpicking a section of my embroidery I inadvertently cut the fabric underneath – so not wanting to start again I cut another little piece, darned it on and proceeded to stitch on top! ( I am very lazy about unpicking).

“We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.”

I am so glad I persevered, having the opportunity to share my work makes it all worthwhile. Thank you for your lovely encouraging emails and comments.  Have a perfect week wherever you are and remember  “If you can dream it you can do it”   Trish

There are 4 new kits for sale on the website here:  http://trishburr.co.za/content/product?page=1.

The thumbnails on the shop page seem to be very large for some reason but we are working on it!  Have a wonderful weekend wherever you are.  Trish

As you know I will be teaching workshops in both Brisbane and Adelaide in April 2012.  The venue for the workshops in Brisbane is All Threads Embroidery and there are 3 classes available.  What you probably don’t know is that I run my classes using slideshows and video demonstrations projected onto a large screen.  This always seems to come as a bit of a surprise to the students who attend my workshops!  The large screen allows the whole class to see each step clearly whilst they stitch and I can replay demonstrations of the technique as often as needed.  Each student has a printed colour booklet in front of them with step by step instructions, which duplicates what is on the screen,  and of course can be taken home after the class should they need to complete the project in their own time.  This method of teaching together with the fact that all the projects are designed to be completed within the class time, means that most students take home at least a 75% completed project, so you have something to show for all your efforts.

I devised this teaching method after holding a large class at a convention a few years ago where I had to demonstrate a technique several times by hand, to small groups of people.  The students were peering over my shoulder trying to see what I was doing and I found it slowed down the pace of the class.  As a result I put my thinking cap on and set about researching a more efficient teaching method.  I have used these technological aids since and found that as a result I am able to give each student more individual attention and it allows for a more relaxed workshop environment.  Below is a photo of a class run in South Africa to give you some idea – the screen is shown at the top of the table.

PE class

Lets take a look at what each class has to offer:

MONDAY 9TH APRIL – Frangipani Flower.  One day class.

This little frangipani flower is the ideal project for beginners to learn the basics of needle painting embroidery.  No previous experience in the technique is needed, the student will learn the fundamentals of  long and short stitch plus how to direct their stitches to fit a curve.  You will be taught how to shade using contrasting colours to enhance your embroidery and to achieve a realistic effect.  Having completed this project you should feel confident to move onto more intermediate designs.

TUESDAY 10TH APRIL – Flutterby.  One day class

This little green butterfly resting on a flower is the ideal project to learn the fundamentals of long and short stitch.  Again this class is suitable for beginners and will cover all the aspects of the Frangipani class.  A butterfly is a particularly useful design to stitch as the stitching learnt on one side of the butterfly is repeated on the other side.  The flower is designed to fade into the background so does not detract from the focal point of the picture which is the Flutterby.

THURSDAY & FRIDAY 12TH & 13TH APRIL – Blue Kingfisher.  Two day class.

This is a re-design of our favourite little kingfisher bird, gazing down into the water below in search of a fish.  This class is more suited to the embroiderer who has some previous experience of the technique and would like to perfect their long and short stitch plus learn how to stitch feathers.  Again we will cover the use of colour and how it enhances our embroidery plus learn to include shades that provide contrast and a realistic effect.  The flower and leaves add a complementary touch of colour to the blues of the kingfisher.  At the end of the two day period I will give a presentation on colour for embroidery.

If you are interested in attending any of these workshops please contact Kerryn Lightfoot at All Threads Embroidery, I believe there may still be a few places available.  email:  kerryn@allthreads.com.au or telephone: 07 33985540.

Those of you who have pre-booked a place  will be receiving class preparatory notes shortly.  You may be interested to know that several new kits have been produced exclusively for the Australian classes and will be available for sale at the shop venue during the workshops.

Only 7 weeks to go I look forward to seeing you there!  Have a wonderful week wherever you are and happy stitching.  Trish

To those who emailed me enquiring about copies of Colour Confidence In Embroideery book – just to let you know that it is back in stock.  The price is R475 – please email me at :

erenvale@mweb.co.za.  for payment & postage details.

If you are wanting a copy overseas I suggest you purchase from Amazon or any of the online bookshops, it seems they all have stock now.

While I have the opportunity I would like to say a big THANK YOU to those of you who have posted such lovely reviews on Amazon – I am unable to contact you directly but please know that I have read them and greatly appreciate your comments.  It really is heartwarming to know that the book has been so well received.

All the best.  Trish

This week I thought I would share with you the achievement of Lee Courtney of Canton USA.  Lee was a student of the online embroidery course in June 2011 and her piece won first prize in the Callaway School Of Needlearts competition last week. Who says great things don’t come from humble beginnings?   I feel very proud of Lee for her achievement, her stitching is superb and check out that shiny blue ribbonJ I personally have never seen one of those in the flesh!  Congratulations Lee.  You can click on the image for a larger view.

Lee states:  “I think what I really learned working this piece was to use a magnifier and work to make each stitch exactly placed.  I can’t thank you enough for training me to do that.”

It has been my experience that a magnifying light can make all the difference to one’s needle painting – it is virtually impossible to see this type of work without some aid.  Although I did have a 90 year old on one of my workshops who did not wear spectacles (I was mortified!), the majority of us can do with a little help way before we hit 90!  I worked for many years without one but when I finally conceded I was horrified to see my stitches all over the place and I cannot tell you what a difference it made to my embroidery thereafter.

Fortunately for us, magnifying lamps have come a long way from those huge cumbersome things that took up most of the lounge area – there is a nifty little magnifying lamp available from the daylight company: http://uk.daylightcompany.com/product/table-magnifying-lamp/   it is portable and does the job adequately so for those of you who can’t afford the large, slimline version this is a good alternative and can be carried with you to your embroidery workshops and meetings.

Next week I am going to give you a peek behind the scenes of preparing for a stitching convention.  Wherever you are in the world have a wonderful week and happy stitching.  Trish

To those of you who expressed dismay that the fabric had been discontinued online it is back in stock.  It is available in size 30 x 30cm in both Irish Linen and cotton satin.

Its a long story but basically I was trying to be super organised before Christmas so put in an order for my fabric from UK  – which would then go to the screen printers in Durban (another town in South Africa).  It all went well the fabric arrived and the screen printing was done a week before the factory closed for Christmas – YAY!   My plan was to pack all the kits for Australia early January and send them over ahead of the classes in February, but the screen printed fabric got lost en-route from Durban – not so YAY!  I pleaded with the Post master to look around the back and check for a big box and also pleaded with the courier company but to no avail it was lost…..

So I spoke nicely to my husband, asked him for a loan and re-ordered the fabric.  It arrived two days ago by Fedex but you can guess what happened next…….THEY FOUND THE PARCEL!

Meanwhile I ordered Irish Linen from a company in UK and they sent the wrong fabric – so it had to go back and be replaced.  But when it arrived the courier company charged me customs duty again – so I had to put in a claim for the additional duty which meant a mountain of paperwork – BOTHER!  What is it with 2012 and fabric?

Needless to say I am very relieved to now have all my ducks in a row – but there is still the small matter of the loan to be paid back, which means I am temporarily being held to ransom, and my husband is enjoying every moment of his position of power:)

Till next time, wherever you are happy stitching.

Trish

My apologies for the late start this year, it has taken some time to get back into the swing of things and to bid farewell to my last visitors.  We had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends from Overseas, it was great to spend time with them and catch up after not having seen some of them for many years.  I hope that you all had a good Christmas and that 2012 brings many wonderful opportunities and of course happy stitching hours.

Australian Classes.  This year is all about teaching.   It kicks off with the Australian Beating Around The Bush Convention and All Threads Embroidery, Brisbane, in April.  There are numerous preparations in hand at present, visas, travel arrangements, accomodation, class notes, kits etc etc etc,  I have little folders on my desktop for everything – as this is my first overseas teaching trip the amount of preparation is a bit overwhelming but hopefully will be easier second time around!

Have you ever wondered why the organisers of a convention start making arrangements two years in advance?  Many of you will have attended a workshop at some stage but how many of you appreciate what actually goes on “behind the scenes”?  When you walk into the classroom and see a calm, collected looking teacher waiting to greet you with a smile – the kits neatly placed at your table, slide show, projector equipment and laptop all in place – could you even begin to imagine what took place prior to this?  It occured to me that you might like to hear the nitty gritty details in future posts?  Let me know.

Ighali Convention.  Following that we have our bi-annual Ighali Convention here in the Western Cape which attracts visitors from all over South Africa, so as you can see it is a busy year.  I am looking forward to meeting many of my students for the first time and hopefully instilling the joys of needle painting embroidery.

Online Classes.  Many of you have requested to be notified when the next online class starts.  Due to teaching commitments it will be difficult to dedicate a 6 month period to running an online class this year, however I am giving thought to how I can include a shorter class in the second half of this year, perhaps a 3 month course?  There will be no online classes before June 2012 but I will post information at least 6 weeks prior to the start of the class to give you plenty of time to register.

Products.  The new book Colour Confidence In Embroidery has been launched in the UK, Africa and Australia and is due for release in the rest of the world next month.  It is my most comprehensive work to date outlining the use of Colour for embroidery but also includes numerous new projects which should keep you busy busy!  Thank you to those of you who took the time to express their appreciation for this book it is always gratefully received.

There are several kits available plus the DVD for sale on my website.  I have had to discontinue some of the products of necessity – we have had a few problems with consignments of fabric getting lost which left me short on my class kits for Australia.  I am in the process of ordering more fabric and getting booklets printed so you should see these back on the website in the next few weeks.

There are several new kits in production – these will be launched in Australia at my workshops and thereafter will be available for sale online.  You will understand that online sales will not be available for the periods that I am away this year – I apologise but am a “one man band” here and don’t have anyone to take over sales while I am away.

Wherever you are have a wonderful week.

Trish

I can’t believe there are only 17 days before Christmas, it seems to have leapt upon us this year, but we probably say the same every year.  Yesterday I took a whole morning off to do my Christmas shopping – I hoped to get it done “one time” so if you can imagine me racing around the Mall with my trolley filling it up as quickly as possible, list in hand ticking off as I went!  I kept bumping into another Mum from school doing the same thing – she was last seen getting all her presents wrapped at Woolworths (this is a store similar to your Walmart or Marks & Spencers in the UK).  When I saw her later she told me they were offering free wrapping in the store so she took all her presents (even those that were not bought in the store) and got them wrapped!  Why didn’t I think of that I still have to wrap all mine!!

We have the whole family coming from Australia, Zimbabwe and South Africa (all except my sister’s family from New Zealand who are busy moving to Australia) – that equates to about 25 people for Christmas dinner – my house will be full and messy and chaotic but thats what Christmas is all about isn’t it?   What are you doing this year – if you are going to a tropical island somewhere can I come too?

COLOUR CONFIDENCE IN EMBROIDERY BOOK

Thank you for the terrific response to the release of the new book and to all of you who emailed me with your lovely comments , THANK YOU, it is really very much appreciated.  Just a reminder that online sales will close from 15th December – 2nd January – next overseas posting will be about 5th January.

SOUTH AFRICA

I still have a few copies of the book in stock and there is a special on with Speed Services Courier for R55 overnight delivery, so it is not too late to order your copy.  If you don’t get a Christmas copy don’t worry I have more stock arriving in January 2012.

PE WORKSHOP

A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of teaching a workshop in Port Elizabeth in South Africa.  I took my friend Merle, who is my trusty but bossy assistant (!) and  Helen who wanted to do the class and we stayed in The City Lodge right on the beach front – it was great to have the company of two ladies who had a great sense of humour and we had fun.   The class was held at Pied Piper shop which is a quilting and embroidery shop in the heart of PE,  what a fantastic venue and such lovely hosts. The ladies in the class were amazing, so receptive and managed to almost complete their project in the alloted time, producing some lovely embroidery pieces.  As you can see from the photo below, lots of laughs were had by all and I look forward to returning to PE at a later date for more classes.

PE class

Wherever you are have a lovely week, hope you get some stitching in and good luck with your Christmas Preparations.  Remember tis the season to be jolly!

Trish