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
Royal School of Needlework
Jennie: An amazing day on Wednesday - Valerie and I went to the Royal School of Needlework. This is hidden away in a dark part of Hampton Court Palace behind a secret door - all very special. We were allowed to enter these hallowed walls and film the studio and classrooms - a real treat. And and and ............ then we went to the Sunbury Millenium Embroidery - an enormous embroidered wall-hanging made by approx 120 local ladies - a truly superb piece of work plus we got to see Hapticart - more about that later.
How to Layer your Quilt
A quilt is made up of three layers, backing, wadding and patchwork top (or a piece of fabric) and this video takes you through the various stages of the process to make a quilt sandwich: https://www.justhands-on.tv/videos The video also includes a brief discussion about the variety of waddings available plus the various products you can use for holding the three layers together prior to quilting.
Annette Emms workshop
Val: We so enjoyed filming in Annette's house; she shared with us her love of all things magic - fairy shoes, whimsycal pictures, felt balls and her amazing trick for transferring images onto fabric just on her kitchen table - a must-see for all you mixed media fans and its now up-and-running in the workshop section of the site.