Nut House #3 by Laura Wasilowski
Today I’m off to teach at the World Quilt New England, in Manchester, NH. In a favorite class, Another Nut House, students begin with a basic acorn pattern and end up improvising their own house designs. You never know where their imaginations will lead. That’s why I enjoy this class so much! Hope to show you what they make soon.
Via Chair Mail (1997) by Laura Wasilowski
This particular version from my blue chair series is made from “random acts of fusing”. After creating a piece of fused artwork, I save all the cut-a-ways or confetti fabrics from making the work and construct collaged fabrics in sheets. As more projects are completed, more fabric is added and the sheets eventually document the art I make. Like a journal, I can “read” the fabric collages and reminisce about the art I’ve made and events in my life during the construction.
Windy City #3 (detail) by Laura Wasilowski
How did this quilt become a gift for several friends? Through the miracle of Spoonflower. Spoonflower prints custom wallpaper, gift wrap, and most importantly fabric. Upload your own photos to their site and you can print yardage of that image on various types of fabric.
Making a collage of my Windy City quilts, I printed the image in a repeat on tea towel fabric. The linen cotton canvas fabric is 54″ wide so I was able to get six tea towels out of two yards of fabric. Once the fabric is cut and hemmed I have gifts for friends. An easy way to share my art and dry a dish at the same time.
(An Update: Pat had asked for a link to the page of where to buy the tea towel fabric. Click here to purchased it directly from Spoonflower.)
Free-Form embroidery on wool by Sarah.
Thank you all for leaving comments for the wool scraps give-away. It’s always fun to hear about you’re creative plans. We all have such active imaginations that must be nourished with art making! And speaking of creativity, isn’t this embroidery by one of my students beautiful? Thank you Sarah for sharing your artwork with us.
I must admit, I owe my love of wool stitchery to my new book, Joyful Stitching. Writing the book taught me so much about the joy of free-form embroidery. (You can read a recent review of the book here.)
And now for the lucky winner of the package of wool scraps. I’ll be sending it out to: Jackie of Colorado.
Thank you all and keep on stitching!
Stitching on wool by Paula.
Your needle and thread glide through wool fabric with a satisfying ease. Hand embroidery on wool makes for rich texture and pattern like Paula’s inventive design above. Her free-form flower, a sampler of colorful stitch combinations, has even attracted a honey bee!
Are you attracted to wool stitchery too?
Soon I’ll be teaching my Improvisational Hand Embroidery on Wool class at the World Quilt New England, in Manchester, NH. Students like Paula, will design their own artwork, transfer it to wool, and stitch with a selection of hand dyed threads.
I hope you can join me!
Unable to visit with me in New Hampshire?
Then please leave a comment on today’s blog and you may be the lucky winner of a bag of small wool scraps plus a skein of hand-dyed floss to start your own wool project.
Sewing studio before
In a spurt of energy I’ve rearranged my sewing studio. With only one sewing machine (my trusty BERNINA 750 QE), I realize I only need one sewing table.
Sewing studio after.
So I’ve placed the odd table against the wall and freed up a bunch of floor space. (Floor space for visiting grandchildren to set up a train set.) It looks very neat but don’t be deceived. Soon it will be a mess and a small locomotive with a small conductor will take over the room.
And while I stay home and rearrange my studio, my quilts have been traveling to other lands. One quilt on the move is Arm Chair Gardener featured on the cover of Quilt & Textilkunst Patchwork Professional, a German quilt magazine. My high school German is very rusty but the article about my work is nicely illustrated. What an honor to be included in this lovely magazine!