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
Tucks & Textures with Jennie Rayment
Val: Under the new idea of new films each week, ready for the weekend you can see Jennie Rayment demonstrating how to work tucks and texture; simple, honeycomb, add colour to the edges and much more. Also a great interview with Mandy Shaw - did you know that she and Jennie had history?!?
Revamping your jumper
Val: A member of my quilt group loves to take a booring jumper and revamp it with a bit of patchwork - and she's not afraid of just cutting bits off - as in the sleeves - or slicing it up the middle
Films every Friday
From now on you will have new films every week! They will go up onto the site on a Friday, so all ready for you to view over the weekend. Join Karin Hellaby, who we filmed at the Festival of Quilts, showing us how to make a variety of easy attic window blocks from her latest book, Sew Easy Attic Windows;.