Colour - we wear it, we decorate with it and we stitch with it.

Most of us have our go-to colours. Colours we gravitate toward because they make us feel comfortable and more like our ourselves. For some they will be bright and bold while for others they will be subdued and muted.

Did you know that yellow is associated with happiness and blue with peace? Green can bring about a sense of stillness whilst white speaks of cleanliness. Black is often used to represent the unknown while confidence is displayed through red.

If we took a moment to look back through our stitching, we wonder if it’s possible to mark our moods through the colour of our pieces. Is it possible we found a connection with a particular colourway when we chose each piece we’ve stitched? Or maybe we choose something because the colours used were the exact opposite of how we were feeling and somehow we knew, albeit subconsciously, that they would help propel us toward another disposition?

Whatever the case and whatever your mood, this week’s All Stitched Up! celebrates colour – from the bright whimsy of children’s pillowcases in ‘Stitch It Forward’ to the monochromatic elegance of our featured project ‘Purple Iris’ right through to the bursts of colour we found in our ‘What Are You Stitching?’ files - this issue has colour well and truly stitched up!

Recently an Inspirations subscriber contacted us to purchase a copy of issue #22, as it featured a project she wanted to work on during her upcoming stay in hospital undergoing major surgery. While issue #22 is no longer available in print, we were able to create a digital pattern for her, so this week the project Botanica by Susan O’Connor has been added to our website.

Botanica by Susan O’Connor from Inspirations #22 is a wonderful set of hat and gloves, decorated with a variety of beautiful flowers and snippets of verse.

Just a reminder for those in our home town of Adelaide to join us for a warehouse clearance sale at the Adelaide Sewing Stitching and Hand Craft Show from today July 6th, through to Sunday.

Come and visit us at the Adelaide Showground where you’re sure to find a bargain, or just stop by to say g’day. For details click HERE.

In All Stitched Up! #141 (HERE) we gave you the ‘Scoop on the Hoop’ as we guided you through the fine art of paying attention to your stitching tension through the use of embroidery hoops. Joan and Roberta joined in on the conversation to share some of their hoop history and how-tos.

Earlier this year we mentioned that the colour purple was chosen as the 2018 Pantone® colour of the year. Ultra Violet 18-3838 to be precise.

In keeping with that theme, this week we’re helping you tap into your inner purple by featuring ‘Purple Iris’ by Margaret Lee.

The projects in Margaret’s book ‘The Art of Bead Embroidery Japanese-Style’ are ordered in level of difficulty, starting with the easiest moving through to the most complex. Purple Iris appears in position 6 out of 9 which is a pretty good indicator as to how challenging the project is. A step up from the beginner level, this design is perfect for someone who is looking to take on a slightly more challenging project.

The first thing you notice about Purple Iris is how the light interacts with the finished surface. This gorgeous beaded evening bag starts off dark and moody, then when tilted ever so slightly towards light, the beads burst into dance and the metallic surfaces glint and shimmer through an array of purple hues to tones of blue, grey, silver, green and even pink.

It is such a mesmerising design, we asked Margaret where the idea for the pattern came from.

‘When I design projects from scratch (as opposed to embellishing pre-printed fabric) it is usually for a specific person/application, or as a teaching purpose. Purple Iris belongs to the latter category, so I was looking for a design that I could incorporate some particular beading disciplines.

I usually start with a principal focal motif and develop my ideas from there. My inspiration can come from a multitude of sources - motifs, subjects of interest that may have caught my eye in the past.

In the instance of Purple Iris, the design draws from two completely different patterns and combines them into one integrated motif.

The first is the focal element which is derived from the pattern of a feather, with its angled lines radiating outwards to form arches.

The second is the background motif that was inspired from the pattern of an old tree trunk I came across while walking with my husband David in the Clare Valley, north of Adelaide.’

It’s interesting to think about how we perceived the design before Margaret told us about her feather and tree bark inspiration, now that she has mentioned it, one can’t help but see the beads assembled in formation to re-create the feathers and bark, yet before it somehow seemed less obvious.

Margaret also explained the specific techniques she teaches when using Purple Iris as her reference:

I created this design to help the following learning objectives:

• Understanding couching techniques and how to deal with odd shapes and spaces.
• Understanding the visual implications of each technique used and how to select, combine and apply these to achieve flow and balance in the overall design.
• How to plan the embroidery sequence to achieve best visual aesthetics.
• Selecting bead types to enhance the design.
• A study in how a single colour, used in conjunction with technique and bead type selection, can create effective design outcomes.

Finally, we asked Margaret the obvious question – where did the name, Purple Iris come from? - we know it’s a flower but can’t see floral emblems anywhere in this design…

In fact, at Beating Around the Bush this year, I will be offering participants different colour choices of ‘Green Iris’ and ‘Blue Iris’.

Well there you go, a little bit of insight for you as to how the stunning evening bag Purple Iris came to be. We always enjoy learning something new from Margaret, she is such a wealth of expertise in her field. In fact, she has been asked to submit an article for the Routledge Encyclopaedia of traditional Chinese Culture as an authority on Chinese Embroidery, which is a huge honour.

As her renown increases, so too do Margaret’s teaching commitments. She is off to the ANZEG Biennial Conference in New Zealand, and for the first time, Margaret is running a class on her remarkable double-sided Chinese Embroidery project in Nantes, France in November.

Double-sided Chinese Embroidery!? Wow… we look forward to hearing more about that from Margaret in the near future. In the meantime, to see more of Margaret’s amazing work and keep up-to-date with her teaching schedule, visit her website HERE.

After pondering colour throughout this week’s newsletter, it was the bursts of colour we found represented through needle and thread that caught our eye. Enjoy the bold, the bright and the vivid that is featured in this week’s ‘What Are You Stitching?’.

Melanie, just like your bowls from ASU #142, your clutch bags are spectacular! Again, they are creative, distinctive and unique and the addition of the heat applied glitter film gives them an added dimension and sparkle.

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NOW TO 26 AUG

A major exhibition on the work of Jan Taminiau

Centraal Museum
Agnietenstraat 1, 3512 XA Utrecht, The Netherlands

NOW TO 31 AUG

San Francisco School of Needlework & Design
Suite 604/360 Post Street, San Francisco

6 TO 8 JUL

Adelaide Showground, Goyder Pavilion
Goodwood Road, Wayville

17 TO 22 JUL

Bridging Stitches / Un pont entre les points | EAC Seminar 2018

University of Prince Edward Island
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada

20 TO 25 JUL

Days of Vines & Stitches | Greater Pacific Region of the EGA Biennial Seminar

Sonoma State University
Rohnert Park California, USA

26 JUL TO 1 AUG

Days of Vines & Stitches | Greater Pacific Region of the EGA Biennial Seminar

Snape Maltings | The Quay Gallery
Next to the River Alde, Snape, Suffolk

28 JUL TO 11 AUG

Buda Historic Home and Garden
42 Hunter Street Castlemaine, Victoria