Castles In The Sky

This week I would like to share with you an event to be held by three of our renowned, international embroidery teachers, Phillipa Turnbull of the UK, Jane Nicholas of Australia and Meredith Willett from USA.

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?

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