I don’t know why I thought this would be any different from teaching in England. It wasn’t much different at all. And why would it be? Get a bunch of stitchers together in one room and it just comes together. Everyone keen to learn and to share, beautiful hand stitched needle-cases and well organised thread boxes popping up from over crammed quilted bags. What’s not to like?
The Makers Table Window
Liz from The Makers Table invited me to take a class several months ago and we’d been planning from a distance to make it happen. Liz opened The Makers Table just a couple of months ago having taught all aspects of embroidery and quilting from a local haberdashery shop for many years. The studio is situated on a busy crossroad in Pakuranga in Auckland so is in an ideal spot, although you don’t notice the traffic at all once you step inside. A little crafty haven displaying her wares, selling threads and a beautiful bespoke working table that her husband made.
In her words….”The Makers Table is a sunny studio to make, create, and learn where you can meet like-minded people, all the while sharing a passion for fibres and textiles around our table”.
interesting shelves
Rows of Inspiration Magazines to inspire
Chatting as we stitch
The workshop I was delivering was hand embroidered garden borders. Freestyle. No plan as such, just a quick chat about colour and we were straight in, just the way I like it. I demo, the ladies watch and off we go. Easy peasy. And it really is. People think its hard to create from scratch but with a few simple guidelines and regular share and tells, we can create the most beautiful little works of art. We need interaction with others, we need opinions, sometimes reassurance and definitely all need encouragement when we get a bit lost. It’s fun to play with balancing colours and creating contrasts as we design. Sometimes if I get stuck with a piece of work and am not sure why it’s not working, I hold it up to a mirror from across a room. That usually works for me. I can see what I need to do to make it “right”.
Talking about colour
It’s all about balancing the design
The front cover of Jacqui’s beautiful hand stitched needlebook- The Delightful Daisy
The opened needlecase- so pretty!
Cute bumble bee!
Beautiful stitching
Mounting finishes it off
The finished pieces
Ta Dah!!! The lovely host Liz is on the far right.
So a lovely day for everyone with some stunning hand stitched pieces at the end of the day- all mounted and ready to appreciate. Thank you Liz for making it happen, thank you ladies for your fun company and thank you to Amber for taking such lovely photos. Hopefully I’ll be back again next time I’m over. Let’s make it a regular thing. Why not??
