In my previous post on the Ferry tapestry, I mentioned that I'd try and give an update after my weekend of stitching. I spent Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th of September stitching, talking, listening and eating. We worked from 9:00am to 4:30pm - they are serious stitchers these Tapestry Guild ladies. There is morning tea, afternoon tea and lunch provided and then we were all invited out to Bella Vista for dinner as well. Some of the ladies come down from Sydney to join us for the weekend and so are keen to catch up for dinner. In the five years that I've been attending these events, I've never made it to the dinners. Being the introvert that I am, a full day of socialising is usually more than enough, and the concentration of sitting still and stitching for hours and hours also kind of wears me out. I do love these weekends though. I get so much done and I also catch up with people I haven't seen all year, and I feel connected to this group of women who share an interest in this fastidious and detailed craft.
There were about 20 women who attended the weekend stitching, most for two days, some for one day. At 48 years old I am the second youngest in the group. There is one lady who self-identified as 43 years old (she's the youngest and her children are older than mine) and then there's me and then the next closest is a couple of woman in their early 50s, who, like us 'younger ones' are still working in paid employment but, unlike us, are not raising children any more. From there, you pretty much jump into the group of ladies who are retired and chatting about grandchildren. And then, at the upper end of the group are the 80-year-olds. Wow. I have thirty-plus more years of membership of this group. Though the take-up from the younger end is really not great. It might just be the two of us 40ish women stitching together in 30 years time.
Over the course of the weekend, it is interesting to see what everyone is working on and we get an opportunity to have a show and tell table where we bring in things we've finished, or other crafts we work on. I've brought in knitted items in the past. Some ladies paint, others knit, others bring in different types of embroidery. It is generally a time of awe and appreciation.
Last year I felt I made the ladies quite nervous about my adoption of the DSL technique - all the dangling threads. I was almost a bit trepidatious bringing it along again this year but our conversations this year seemed a tad more accepting of my difference. This style of creative tapestry, where you mix embroidery stitches with tapestry has been fostered in Australia by two women in Sydney who ran the Tapestry Studio for many years. I was fortunate enough to get on their last Canberra class in 2004 and then have maintained my lessons with a Guild accredited teacher here in Canberra. In the USA, this style of tapestry, or needlepoint as they call it, is huge. But then what isn't huge in America? There are more quilters in America than there are Australians.
So far though, I haven't come across anyone in the needlepoint blogs I read who has mixed up the two techniques in quite the same way I do. Dominique-Siegeler Lathrop is French, runs a studio, teaches in Paris (maybe someday...wist-full dreaming look) and has an online shop. The American ladies I read all pretty much do as the Australian group, take one stitch, one thread and put in all those stitches at once (ie do all the petit point and then do all the canvas cross etc). Anyway, I find this mixed method works for me and am happy to press on with it for now. Time will tell if there are traps for unwary players.
Previous posts
The Ferry tapestry - the 2011 September Tapestry weekend (Sept 2011)
The Ferry - E.Phillips Fox - Baxtergraphix Tapestry (April 2011)
