Stitching for Spain: Teaching Again

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In the last few years I’ve switched from teaching in person to teaching online with Creative Spark. (Being a peripatetic teacher was exhausting!) But when the invitation arrived from Spain to teach at the Asociación Española de Patchwork I couldn’t resist.

The Spanish patchwork festival takes place in Sitges, Spain on the Mediterranean coast March 14 through 17 of this year. The Spanish quilters are wonderful welcoming people. And I can’t wait to teach there and exhibit my artwork too.

I’ll Fly Away #1 (detail) by Laura Wasilowski

For the past few months I’ve been creating new artwork for my solo exhibit in Sitges. These are all made with silk fabrics and intensely hand embroidered. Quilts like the one above are part of the I’ll Fly Away series that will be on view.

The silk embroidered quilts will be on exhibit as well as larger art quilts in a quaint gallery near the festivities.

This is the same gallery where I exhibited my work in 2009 when I was young and perky. It will be great to be back there again!

Year of the Stitch: A Fast Finish?

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When we last saw our Whimsy Lane quilt the tree bark was barely on the tree. The next step? Dress up the tree top with lots of leaves. I thought this would be a quick task and decided to time myself. And can you guess how long it took me to stitch the tree top leaves? It took 3.5 hours of stitching time.

In timing the next steps, the sidewalk and land stitching, it took another 3 to 4 hours. Lucky I enjoy stitching! Whimsy Lane #11 is finished and it’s time to move on to the next Year of the Stitch project.

And I think you’ll like my next Year of the Stitch project. This time I’m stitching for Spain!

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.