Have Your Say

This week’s Have Your Say rounds up some of the conversations and questions that have been lying in wait in our inboxes for some time now. We’re sorry it’s taken us so long to get to some of them – we always love to hear from anyone and everyone in the Inspirations Community, but often find ourselves short on time and newsletter space to include everyone’s emails!

Pascale Michaux

In issue #153 of the newsletter HERE we unpacked Gretchen Ruben’s ‘formula’ for happiness which prompted Pascale to email us about what brings her stitching joy…

‘I feel happy when I stitch something as a gift – I made a drawn thread embroidery for my daughter and felt happy when stitching it, proud when I saw it finished and even more happy when I saw her face while opening the present!

I love to make Bullion roses as they’re fun to stitch and always look so pretty. I love all kinds of whitework as it seems very chic to me. I very much love to stitch designs by Anne Downs from Hatched and Patched, and I also love reading this newsletter each time I receive it!’

Pascale, we love that you love stitching and All Stitched Up! and hope they both continue to bring you many hours of stitching joy.

Louise Minich

After appearing in Have Your Say in issue #154 of the newsletter HERE, we heard from Louise with an update on her life and stitching…

‘I must apologize for my delay in responding. My husband has been in hospital since mid-August and passed away on 1 October. Because of this, I have been too exhausted to do my own needlework of late but was amazed to find some beautiful stitching adorning the hospital chapel at Presence Holy Family Medical Center in Des Plaines Illinois in the USA. There were 14 Stations of the Cross banners, which were collages of woven material, embellished with goldwork and surface embroidery.

There were also individual pictures of the Three Wise Men done in counted thread embroidery.

I cannot express the solace and peace I experienced each time I visited the chapel and contemplated these expressions of faith rendered in fiber and needle art!  I hope your readers will be uplifted by their beauty as much as I was.’

Louise, we’re so sorry to hear of the passing of your husband, but love that you found solace within the hospital’s chapel and from the needlework that was so thoughtfully included in its design. We hope the passing of time helps ease the pain of a difficult season and that you’ve found your way back to needle and thread.

Kathy Thompson

After our needlework convention, Beating Around the Bush, last year we heard from Kathy…

‘Something amazing happened because of Beating Around the Bush! I was attending our large city church in Flinders Street in Adelaide when during the service I noticed the lady near me not following our somewhat complicated liturgy, so I offered to help but she just shook her head and said, ‘Thank you, but I am French’.

So, when the service was finished, and because we had recently travelled to France, I welcomed her and then invited her and her husband to coffee after the service. We chatted and she showed me some embroidery and mentioned Beating Around the Bush. As I love embroidery too, I decided to invite them to lunch a few days later.

She handed me a card with her contact details, and only when I got home and looked at her blog did I realise that it was Catherine Laurençon I had met. She was in Adelaide teaching at the convention and not a student as I had thought! We had an amazing time together at lunch, shared so much in common and a wonderful new friendship has been made all thanks to Beating Around the Bush.

Catherine asked me to thank the Pastor, who had invited her to church when they were sightseeing the day before to come and listen to the pipe organ when she mentioned her son is an organist at their church in France. Without his invitation and Beating Around the Bush we would never have met. They now have accommodation with us in 2020 if they return to Adelaide again!’

Kathy, your meeting Catherine can only be described as serendipitous! We love the hospitality you extended and that your shared love of needle and thread has forged a lasting friendship between the two of you.

Catherine Laurençon teaching at Beating Around the Bush

Ronda Bergin

‘Thank you for your newsletter, I look forward to it each Friday. I am sending you a couple of photos of a sewing kit that belongs to my sister. She has always thought it was from amongst the belongings of our Uncle, Noel Granger, who was killed at Milne Bay during WWII. Is there someone in the Inspirations Community who might know if this is likely and if there are there other kits around like it?’

If you’re able to point Rhonda in the right direction with the information she’s seeking about her Uncle’s sewing kit, email news@inspirationsstudios.com, we know she’d love to hear from you!