May 2022- Dayschool- Whitework Hearts with Nicola Jarvis

​A bright sunny morning as we prepared for our workshop with a widely known tutor Nicola Jarvis.
The light in the hall was especially important today as the two projects we had chosen from needed good light as the stitching was quite precise and stitched white cotton perlé on oatmeal fabric.
Nicola arrived and set up her beautiful display of cushions, booklets, cards and tea towels with her own designs, material and kits to admire or purchase.

Nicola gave a short talk on the history of her journey in embroidery.
She trained at the Royal School of Needlework and worked in the British fashion industry as a sample embroiderer and was one of the team who worked on the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding dress.
Nicola staged an exhibition at the William Morris Gallery championing the work of May Morris his daughter whos’ work is often overshadowed by that of her famous father.

The two projects we were working on in this workshop were either a Mount Mellick work design, or a Carrick-Ma-Cross design, both these designs originated in Ireland.

​The Mountmellick design was made up by an assortment of stitches on a small heart design. The stitches used certainly pushed some of us out of our comfort zone.
The Carrick-Ma-Cross design involved couching a piece of fine linen over a piece of net in a heart shape and cutting the surrounding linen away when complete. This was a scary process but looked very dainty and left a stitched heart shape in the centre surrounded by fine net. 

​Both designs were decorated with crystals and could be mounted in a frame or made into a small cushion filled with potpourri.
Nicola set us off on our work by instructing us in small groups of four at each table, she then proceeded to come round the tables at each new stage showing us what to do next or help if we were struggling.
Although the embroidery was a bit ‘slow going’ for some of us Nicola had provided an excellent kit and booklet covering all the process for us to carry on at home.

Members who were not taking part in the workshop were doing their own thing, which included, knitting a cardigan, crocheting blankets, experimenting with a snippet roll and making an underarm cushion for women who have undergone breast surgery.

It was a very productive and enjoyable day I am sure everyone learned new skills and it was worth the struggle for some of us to get our heads round the stitches under Nicola’s expert tuition.
Thanks to Kath H for writing the blog and to Steph for taking the photographs.