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
Take 3 from Joanne
Hi All, just a quick note to say thanks to you all for all the information and videos on your site. This is the first quilt I have ever made and although not perfect, I am very pleased. I machine pieced the 3 strips together before cutting and added the border by machine. Everything else has been done by hand and I even managed to embroider our family names in the corners.
September 2013
Beginning of September already – how quickly the summer seems [...]
Love the site
Query (and praise) from Sue: since I started to subscribe to just hands I use it more and more as my reference 'book'. I have loads of patchwork and quilting books, but if I want to know something in a hurry i.e. as today different applique methods I could use on a project I'm doing, its as quick to turn on my computer without even getting out of my seat to go to the bookshelf and search through dozens of different books!!.
Then, when I stop for a break I can put down my sewing and enjoy lots of other interesting ideas I might need in the future.