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
Dresden Plate and Grandmother’s Fan
These traditional patterns work so very well for scrap quilts but here are some that Valerie put together from petals sewn by one of her students: The challenge was to see what different settings worked and also how to use up the various petals which had been made at random!
Handing over more qults to Momentum
Major fundraising event for Momentum this weekend at the Kew Sparkle nr Richmond Surrey; lots of quilts will be available to purchase and here are just two that were donated: Momentum is a registered charity established in 2004 which aims to help children (up to the age of 17) and the families of children, undergoing treatment for cancer in Surrey and South West London.
Finding Ruby – A Patchwork of People
We are now looking for new people to join us and we would love to connect with other people, groups and communities and share our experience and some time learning and crafting.
The idea is to complete this work and the rose quilt plus another community quilt project by the end of 2013 and to design and produce a beautiful book and exhibition all about it.