About Susan
Susan has been teaching embroidery for many years and loves to share her enthusiasm for a wide range of techniques.
She completed her City and Guilds Part II in Embroidery with the inspirational Anthea Godfrey at the London College of Fashion (as it then was). Over the past twenty years, she has taught a wide range of classes including City and Guilds and leisure classes, with the WI, and most recently independently in the Wivenhoe and the Colchester area of Essex.
Susan took early retirement in 2013, giving her more time for embroidery and textile related activities. She enjoys being an active participant in the local branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild, visiting more exhibitions, attending workshops and reading more about her favourite textile art topics both in print and on-line.
She has also become a student again, signing up for the City and Guilds in Patchwork and Quilting with Creative Stitch Suffolk. According to Susan, “It’s been great to take on new challenges and learn new skills.”
Susan blogs regularly on her website, Threadlines, where she gathers together various elements of her long-standing fascination with embroidery and textile arts more generally. Her hope is that Threadlines will widen her circle of embroidery and textile art friends, and encourage non-embroiderers to try it – just once (that’s all it takes!
Signature Technique
Embroidery
Susan’s Top Tips
- The simpler the stitch, often, the more you can do with it.
- One of the (many) aspects of textiles that I love is that you don’t need to be doing just one project. Try new things…several at a time!
- Doing something completely new with a group of friends makes it extra special.
- If you want to know the ‘right’ way to embroider then turn to a technique manual.
Books and Patterns
Posts
Is there a Heat Resistant wadding?
Is there a wadding suitable to make oven gloves? Answer: There is a thermo wadding that is sold by Creative Quilting that would be perfect; its called Insulbrite and here is their direct website link:
www.creativequilting.co.uk
Folded Potholder
I love the folded potholder you demonstrated. I will eventually get around to making one for myself but for now i really would like to make one as a 16" pillow topper. Can it be done that large and in a square shape as opposed to the round? Answer: The answer is yes you can make this bigger - you will need more squares to fold into the pointy shape on each round - from 8 you will then need 16 and you might even have to go up to 32 per round!);
and then to turn it into a square I suggest you use bigger squares (gives you more fudge factor!) select a point for the first one and add to the opposite side and the opposing quadrants (say north, south east and west) (but you could have marked this out on your foundation piece first)
There is quite a bit of fabric and will feel quite heavy - just so you know If you would like to enjoy the workshop: click here:
Fun at Cae Hir Gardens, West Wales
Despite the wet, Matt managed to have fun