Sheena

Forwarded.

Elizabeth

Me too

Thank you Cheryl, a gracious apology - I was commenting on cross posting and had removed the other group from my response so Cathy never saw it, I don't know Cathy so had no ill intentions towards her.

Perhaps there is a lesson here for Karen, do not cross post, it leads to trouble and is considered bad netiquette.

Sheena

Ah, Sheena - I was so hoping that you were going to chime in with some advice when I was posing my crewel questions. As you know, I think your crewel work pillows are stunning.

But, you'd be proud of me...I did manage to get through teaching a 2 hour class, with some private follow up, and no one stabbed themselves too badly! Although, the "chain stitch" did proof to be a challenge. But, they got the fly stitch down pretty well, along with stem and split. Buttonhole - wee-eeell - that was a bit of a challenge. And of all things - it was hard for them to grasp long and short - with the first row going one direction, and then coming up through that for the next row.

So, believe it or not - your silence was missed. Besides - a good debate is always fun - or almost always.

Ellice

ellice wrote: And of all things - it was hard

Long/short is not really a beginner stitch. Satin stitching usually comes first, which is hard enough for those first learning. If you've got a group that is having trouble with chain stitch, long/short is really much too advanced.

Dianne

I totally agree, Dianne. However, I was told that these were experienced, or at least beyond beginning stitchers. Fortunately, I had planned to have them work on doodle cloths, with shapes, contours marked so that they could learn and practice the stitches without the fear of messing up the actual piece. With them each getting a separate private mini-lesson later, they were doing better. And they liked the class, and most bought the "Beginner's guide to Crewel Embroidery" by Jane Rainbow, which is a lovely book with nice illustrations. I showed them some other books, and gave 5 pages of stitch diagrams which they thought were quite clear.

The interesting thing, one of the women is a knitter (this was a knitting and stitching GetAway), who wanted to finish a piece she'd put down 20 years ago. This woman did a really nice job with the stitches, especially the long and short. The design was done so it wouldn't be too difficult, and I tried to have the shapes such that a lot of shading isn't needed - two have

2 colors, and a third has 3.

What my boss was pleased with is that we could teach this in the shop as either a full day class, or 2 3-hour sessions. The single 2.5 hour session was a bit hurried.

Thanks for the advice.

Ellice

Glad to see you back, Sheena!

Of course, you may already know about this site, but here's one Elizabeth posted whilst you were absent:

I'm not much into crewel, but some of these are stunning and I would actually

*do* the butterfly!

Joan

I'm glad you're back

e:

Sheena, silent? D.

True enough.

Yes sometimes lol This week has been excruciating between migraine time and too little time to do everything, I feel defeated.

My sympathies. Migraines can really take it out of you. I don't get migraines, but I get sinus headaches sometimes when there's a change in the weather that can go on for a week. And they aren't helpful when you have a lot of things to do. Dora

*snip*

Sorry about that. When the migraines are happening a lot, I tend to take a shot and go to sleep. But, it leaves you feeling definitely defeated with that inability to do all the things you want to or should do.

ellice