Category Archives: stitching

Stitching for Spain: Improvisational Embroidery on Wool

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In March I’m teaching two classes for the Asociación Española de Patchwork in Spain. This festival of fiber art is held in the lovely city of Sitges on the Mediterranean Sea or as I like to call it the Med.

In the class Improvisational Hand Embroidery on Wool or Bordado a Mano Sobre Lana students create a densely hand-embroidered vignette on wool fabric with colorful embroidery threads. This class is all about making line, texture, pattern, and stitch combinations with thread to create a personal story. I can hardly wait to see what they make!

Stitching for Spain: Mi Casa

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I’m back in the saddle again! One of the classes I’m teaching for Asociación Española de Patchwork in March is called Mi Casa es Su Casa. We are creating tiny homes using colorful felt fabrics with lots of hand embroidery.

Which means I have to make up lots of thread kits for my students. The kit of thread contains my hand-dyed size 8 pearl cotton threads like these as well as an array of felt fabric colors.

I’m placing a sampler of each thread colorway onto thread rings for my students’ kits. This counting of threads and attaching them on the rings is best done in front of a television screen while watching an engrossing movie.

True, I’ve been watching a lot of TV lately but I am looking forward to what the students create with the threads. It will be worth it!

Year of the Stitch: Herringbone Bark

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In this next Year of the Stitch quilt, the tree gets the royal texture treatment. It takes me a moment but soon I get the rhythm of the herringbone stitch that makes this delicious texture on the tree shape

Crisscrossing the tree shape with the herringbone stitch adds that tree bark texture that covers many of the trees in my back yard. (I’m pretty sure Mother Nature was an embroiderer.)

The size 12 Blueberries thread I’m using changes color along the length from navy to royal blue to purple. The progression of color adds even more interest to the shape and entertains me as I stitch. I bet Mother Nature likes this colorway too.