funjillh
Greetings, My name is Jill. I have done sewing and needlework on and off since my Mom taught me how to make dolls clothes. When I was 11, I learnt to do needlepoint on a family holiday in England and taught myself cross stitch but after that my focus was mainly making clothes for school and then work. My Mom took me to a shop to show me the new UK needlepoint kits that came out in the 1990s and then we went to a Kaffee Fassett knitting and needlepoint show at the Textile Museum in Toronto. I love and have Erhman and Gloriafilia needlepoint kits but when my sister gave me an Inspirations magazine I saw that beautiful embroidery wasn’t just in museums but something I could do. I joined the EAC Toronto Guild and the classes were great for trying a wide variety of techniques like Hardanger and Schwalm. I never imagined when I saw a wonderful 17th Century stumpwork casket at the Royal Ontario Museum that years later I’d be able to learn stumpwork and that the web would open up a world of being able to see museum pieces and stitchers making their own 17th C style stumpwork casket. I marvel at how spoilt we are and what a wonderful hobby needlework is regardless of one’s budget.
Now I live near Tanja and my goal is to learn and get good enough at needlepainting that it becomes relaxing. I was delighted to stitch and finish the Pendant Swirl and Miniature Landscape in Tanja’s online classes in the past 2 years. I find Tanja’s kits and online classes are the best way for me to learn and am looking forward to seeing everyone’s little bird as we learn together. Embroidery makes it so much easier living in this pandemic. I live in a residential area where it is easy to social distance when I go for a walk. I miss the trees and lakes of Ontario but here even though I am on sidewalks, I like the exercise of going up steep hills and sometimes seeing deer and jackrabbit hares and the Rocky Mountains in the distance.
