Tamar Embroideries Blog

I went to Everybody’s Embroidery Event in Cheriton Bishop, Devon on Saturday.
The weather was lovely with bright sunshine. The lunches were a treat as always, though this year I must put in particular praise for the puddings – I had chocolate trifle and tiramasou (ok, so two puddings is probably a bit excessive but I was working and they were delicious….)
Tracy Curtis had a display of her work based on Sutton Hoo, if you get a chance to see this it really is worth a good look.

While at the Lace Convention I met Brenda Paternoster. Brenda is an expert lacemaker who keeps a list of all threads she comes across. She lists ply of the thread and S or Z spin and also how many wraps round a 1 cm length. This is brilliant as it allows lacemakers to use different threads than those specified for a specific pricking. I think it also has uses for embroiderers and braidmakers. Thank you, Brenda, I am delighted to have my threads listed.

This last weekend saw us at two shows in Exeter. South West Quilters AGM and the Lace Guild Convention. It is the first time we have done two shows at the same time – it was fun if a little hectic. Fran manned our stand for the Quilters – she is a first rate needlewoman and knows the stock really well. While I did the Lacemakers – on the grounds that in the dim and distant past when the children were little I used to make lace.
One of the things I enjoy about shows is catching up with old friends, this time I met Anna, who I shared a room with on a Lacemakers trip to Bruges some 20 years ago, she is still in touch with many of the people I used to know – it was so good to catch up on all the news….and perhaps a little bit of gossip….

The school holidays are here and I was teaching a holiday art session for kids yesterday.
I love teaching kids – these were aged 5 to 11 – and no one has yet told them that they ‘can’t draw’ or ‘are no good at art’. So they can draw and are good at art with tons of enthusiasm!
We made memory cords, working a braid (one I learnt from Shirley Berlin - thank you Shirley – even the 5 year old got the hang of it with no trouble) and then making badges to pin to it.
From my point of view one of the really super things about this session was that I had three helpers – it makes all the difference….

I am booked to teach creative dyeing at St Issey tommorrow – so I shall be packing today – every bowl, bucket, jug and old icecream tub I possess. Mike has seen the increasing heap of stuff and is looking anxious – this always happens – I collect a mountain of gear and he is responsible for getting it into the car, and it and me safely to where ever I am going. The best one we ever managed was getting me and a fully iced birthday cake to Brugges – the trip was punctuated with wails of ‘mind the cake’. Tomorrow is likely to be much less stressful – I’m just hoping he hasn’t remembered that he will have to get me and the same amount of gear home again – the difference being that the stuff will all be damp and dye smeared….

I have been doing a lot of train travel in the last few months and have needed some sewing that is small and light to take with me – going anywhere without any sewing really doesn’t bear thinking about. Mola has been the perfect solution, if you haven’t come across it, it is a form of reverse applique. It is worked in bright cheerful colours and after planning the main design motif you fill in with pattern as you go along. Completed molas look really complex but the technique is really enormously straight forward. Have a look at How to make a mola in the methods section of the web site (this replaces the earlier info. page).   I have been using our cotton lawn, it is a really good for mola as it is quite closely woven but easy to stitch through 3 or more layers at a time.

Our Stand at Craft4Crafters

We had a super show at Westpoint, Exeter. The nice thing about a show like this is meeting people, both customers and other traders. Fran very kindly helped me run the stand, she is a super embroiderer and I enjoyed her company enormously. Thanks Fran, I really couldn’t have managed without you.

Just a quick post after the first day at Craft 4 Crafters Show – westpoint – Exeter

It was so nice meeting new customers who have only known us so far from this website.

Katy has been busy getting ready for the
Craft4Crafters Show at Westpoint Exeter 2nd -4th February 2012, 10am – 5pm

Posted by Mike (The Boss!)

For some time it has bothered me that the books I have made as an embroiderer, although beautiful, are fragile – so when the opportunity came up to attend a workshop run by Tom O’Reilly at the Old School Bindery in St Germans I jumped at it. His skill and knowledge are incredible, we saw wonderful books he had written, illustrated and bound. Books bound in plain cloth, books with beautiful illustrated labels,  books bound in leather, edged and decorated with gold. Perhaps my favourite of all, displayed alone was bound in green leather with a 3 dimensional green man staring out. After a day of hard work and wonderful clear and patient instruction, all 10 of us attending the class went home with a book we could be really proud of – and it won’t fall apart either!