Tracy A. Franklin at Burnbrae

I've been at a two day workshop taught by Tracy A. Franklin with eleven delightful women from Northern England and Scotland for the past two days. By far the best part of going to these kinds of courses is meeting and getting to know other embroiderers!The workshop was entitled "Embroidered and Embellished". We embroidered, withvarious stitches and threads, a lovely image of leaves, seed pods and small berries. The design had been printed on fabric and we embroidered over the design, adding texture and depth to piece.Tracy taught burden stitch (a stitch I hadn't done since my Crewelwork Certificate RSN Course, so I needed a refresher!), how to couch purl purl, long and short shading using DMC Diamant metallic thread and bullion knots using the same thread.I most enjoyed learning how to use the diamond thread when doing long and short shading and making bullion knots. Very clever!At Burnbrae all of us were given a beautiful soup lunch with rolls, cheese, crackers and cakes, all home-made by Yvette Swaffield who owns and runs Burnbrae Holiday Cottages.During the course we had time to learn all the different stitches we would do and, when the course was finished, we all left with our projects well under way.It was a wonderful two days, learning from a master teacher, with friendly embroiderers surrounded by beautiful countryside!This morning (Thursday) I'm off to Jedburgh for another two day class with Tracy at the studio of Ali Halley. Watch this space!