What You Can Stitch in 3 Hours

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woolclass13

Student work from Sisters, OR

Will you be at Quilt Expo in Madison WI this September? I hope so! I’m teaching 2 half-day classes of Improvisational Hand Embroidery on Wool. Here you see what my students created in that same class in a few hours in Sister, OR.

daytonawoolclass1

More student work from Daytona.

Join me and you’ll learn how to transfer your own design to wool, about needles and threads for your project, and how to combine stitches to built texture and pattern. It’s a fun, relaxing class.

woolclassYou’ll get a kit packed with wool swatches, threads, needles, and a book with stitch directions. All you need is a pair of scissors and a thimble. Hope to see you there!

Transformation of Old to New

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littlelandscapestitch1

Little Landscape (pre-stitched)

It’s not often you get a chance to transform something old into something new. But like a magician, I shall soon turn this old quilt (2005) into a snappy updated version. And all through the magic of hand embroidery.

littlelandscapestitch2Can you see it changing right before your eyes? Good, cause it’s taken me several hours and several TV shows to get it to this point. This is a small piece (9″ x 9″) so I’m using fine, size 12 threads on the rather small elements that make up the design.

Guest Artist: Prolific!

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kathy4When I teach a half-day class, my students receive a pre-fused fabric kit so they can get to work right away. One of my students, Kathy, has sent this image of all the small designs she made from that one kit. Aren’t they wonderful? Here’s what this prolific artist says about her work: Once I got home I couldn’t stop making little fabric drawings.  It was very freeing to cut and steam. I had to use up every crumb of your delicious fabric…. soon to be embroidered quilts. Thank you for sharing your work with us Kathy!

Guest Artists: Creating Graphic Imagery

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irisstudent

House by Iris

Another favorite class I’ll be teaching this week in Sisters OR is called Creating Graphic Imagery. No matter what you make in this class, it turns out terrific. Students design their own artwork and build on black fabric using the black to outline shapes as illustrated by Iris’s quilt above. Isn’t it wonderful?

suzannestudent

Canyon by Suzanne

Here’s another example from a previous class by Suzanne. She says: “It was so much fun to bring to completion this vision of a special canyon in Canada.  Love this technique too, just what I was looking for to illustrate and simplify what I saw.  Fun, also to use such vibrant colors.” Well done Suzanne!

Thank you Iris and Suzanne for sharing your beautiful artwork with us.

Improv Stitching on Wool #7

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sheep11Soon I’ll be packing my bags to teach in Sisters, OR. Sisters is the home of the largest outdoor quilt festival in the nation called Quilters Affair. It is also the location of the most fun you’ll ever have in Oregon. And it all began with Jean Wells.

sheep12One of the classes I’m teaching is Improvisational Hand Embroidery on Wool. I’m bring the sheep along to illustrate this important point: you can always remove embroidery stitches if you don’t like them. And that’s what I’ve done. The French Knots for the face were removed and replaced with the Long and Short Stitch giving the sheep a smoother face. Note the new ears too. Hope to see you in Sisters!

Thread as Fireworks?

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susanhstudent

Dresden Fireworks by Susan

As we pause in the stitching of the sheep, I thought you might enjoy this fine example of how to use my hand-dyed threads. Susan’s donation to the SAQA Benefit auction features hand embroidery through just the quilt top and batting with the backing and machine quilting done later. Here is the link to the Susan’s Blog where she tells you more about her joyful project. Thanks for sharing Susan and Happy Canada Day and Fourth of July!