World-famous stitcher Jane Greenhoff will be giving special stitch workshops in Bermuda.

Mrs. Greenhoff from the Cotswolds in England is the founder of the Cross Stitch Guild which has members worldwide. She runs a stitch kit business called Ingelstone Collection, designed her own cross stitch pattern computer programme and used to have her own widely distributed magazine.

She will give a talk 'Inspiration for Stitching from Antique Samplers' for the Bermuda Guild of Stitchery on May 28 at the Christ Church in Devonshire Church Hall from 7 to 8.30 p.m. Admission is $10.

She will also give several sampler workshops for master and novice level stitchers.

"The workshop aimed at the novice is cross stitch on linen and it is drawn thread work," Mrs. Greenhoff told The Royal Gazette in a telephone interview.

"This involves pulling fabric threads out, and some hem stitching and some other composite stitches that are not complicated to do.

"The master class is more complicated stitches and the making up of the items. It will involve folding the hem and making it into something you can use."

She said pulled thread is not a complicated stitching technique, although people sometimes think it is complicated.

"Pulled thread is where you are making holes in the fabric by pulling the thread really tight," she said.

"You are not taking thread out at all. All you are doing is pulling them apart.

"Most cross stitchers find that difficult because they have been told never to pull. With the drawn thread technique you remove some threads. We will be taking it in easy steps."

Her first business started off so humbly that she named it after her house so the postman could find her.

We launched the Ingelstone collection 25 years ago. We called it that because it was easy for the postman to find us. We ran the business so people would find us. That was the wholesale kit company. That is how it started. Today, Jane Greenhoff is a household name in the stitching community.

She said that a friend once told her that you can't be an artist and a good businesswoman at the same time.

"It is probably a good thing for me that I am a good businesswoman then. "

Mrs. Greenhoff said this would be her first trip to Bermuda and she is looking forward to it.

"Originally, my husband Bill and I travelled quite a bit in America and Europe," said Mrs. Greenhoff. "We do try to have one trip a year that is a bit out of the ordinary."

She said that while on vacation she is always looking for inspiration for new cross-stitch designs.

"I think in squares," she said with a laugh. "It is very sad really. My daughter tells me I should get out more. Whenever I go anywhere I would expect that something would set me off (designing a cross stitch pattern)."

She said she hopes that Bermuda will also inspire her.

"I shall just wait and see," she said. "I know very little about the Island. My husband Bill has been reading up on it."

Mrs. Greenhoff said the workshops in Bermuda came about when a couple of Bermudians joined her Cross-Stitch Guild. The guild has members world-wide and was started in 1996.

"They asked me if I would do workshops in Bermuda," she said. "My immediate answer was, of course, 'yes'.

"Cross-stitch used to be very popular in the United States," she said. "Like all things it goes in cycles. There is always a niche market, here and in the United States.

"Now, there is a market for the more complicated sampler reproductions. That is very popular everywhere. Although there are fewer stitch shops out there, there still seems to be a hard core of people stitching."

Mrs. Greenhoff said when designing she uses both paper and the computer.

"I draw everything first very roughly on square paper," she said. "Then I transfer that to the screen in squares.

"I draw first and then square off."

She said she can scan things, but copyright laws make that perilous.

"Anything I scanned would have to be my own copyright otherwise I would be breaking the law," she said. "There is no point in scanning a greeting card, for example, because it would be illegal."

But she said some people do buy her cross stitch computer programme 'Cross Stitch Designer Gold' to reproduce their photos into cross stitch.

Computer generated cross-stitch designs are not perfect, however.

"A scanner will see every colour in the picture," she said. "If you are going to scan things you need to be seriously prepared to edit.

"My programme has an editing facility, but the end result is only as good as the picture. I have said if it was possible to scan anything and get a pattern I would be out of a job."

Mrs. Greenhoff advised people thinking of creating their own cross-stitch designs to start off simply.

"Most people start designing something because they want to make a sampler.

"A lot of women might start with a birth sampler for their first child. They might want to personalise it when it comes to hair colour, eye colour, name and subject matter.

"You need to consider how big you want the finished product to be. Keep the drawing simple. You can add embellishments as you stitch. If you keep it simple, your chart will be easier to follow."

She recommended amateur designers get colour wheels or charts from thread manufacturers. They help to show which colours compliment each other.

Mrs. Greenhoff started cross-stitching not long after she had her first son, James.

"He was 11 months old when we were moved to the Cotswolds by my husband's work," Mrs. Greenhoff said. "I had been a head nurse, and then a nursing teacher.

"A neighbour introduced me to stitching, and it started from that point. I had my daughter as a late baby. She was a surprise.

"My son James is now 27 and she will soon turn 21. She had to fit in to a different life than James did. The business was up and running by that point. It was bigger then that it is now, if anything."

Mrs. Greenhoff said she had a magazine 'Jane Greenhoff's Cross-Stitch' but stopped producing it recently.

"I did have a magazine with Future Publishing which was five issues a year," she said. "That closed three years ago. We have 'Stitch That with Jane Greenhoff'. That is the magazine we send members free and non-members can buy."

She stopped producing 'Jane Greenhoff's Cross-Stitch' because she got tired of the magazine business.

"I got to a point where I couldn't stand it any longer," she said. "It was absolutely all-consuming. First, it was all my designs and then we invited a few other designers. A late dinner became 5 a.m. rather than 9 p.m."

The Master Class pocket sampler workshop is on May 29 and 30 from 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. The introduction to linen fabric band sampler is on May 31 and June 1 from 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.

The workshops are $165 for Bermuda Guild of Stitchery members and $180 for non-members. For more information about the Bermuda Guild of Stitchery or its workshops telephone Janet at 236-7124, Patricia at 293-3237 or Gail at 236-4535.