Saturday, November 21, 2020

Hand Stitching Continued Summer 2020: Stuffed and Dimensional Forms

 

Barbara B.: Stuffed forms and cording

This is the final post about the three-session Summer 2020 Hand Stitching Continued class. The focus of this class session was stuffing techniques, including cording and Trapunto. I'm also including here some additional work that was completed and posted after the class was over. I just love watching the ongoing explorations of my very talented students! I will be teaching a five-session version of Hand Stitching Continued through The Art League School starting on January 27. We will cover additional dimensional stitches and a playful ("game") approach to additional fabric manipulation techniques. Click on the highlighted class title for a link to the class.

Here is a small sampler I did of some of stuffing techniques...different approaches to stuffing shapes and adding details.


Barbara B. really took off with stuffed shapes, still working within her circle theme. These plus other samplers were eventually trimmed and attached to a larger fabric piece to create a quilt (see below).

Barbara B.: Trapunto and cording.

Barbara B.: Covered felt shapes

Barbara B.: Distorted and stuffed shapes

Barbara B.: Stuffed paper shape

Barbara B.: Stitch samplers featuring techniques from the class.

Barbara B.: Quilt in process

Jill B. designed this aerial landscape ingeniously using cording and Trapunto!

Jill B.: Aerial landscape photo (muse)

Jill B.: Sketch

Jill B.: Aerial landscape using cording and Trapunto with stitching.

Myania M. continued to develop dimensional forms in fabric and paper inspired by her wasp's nest muse.
Myania M.: Wasp's nest (muse)

Myania M.: Journal exercises

Myania M.: Journal exercises


Myania M.: Experiments in felt and cloth

Myania M.: More experiments

Myania M.: Wasp's nest in paper and stitch.

Carolyn L. continued with dimensional experiments.

Carolyn L.: Fabric manipulation and Couching using Fly stitch

Carolyn L.: Trapunto with couching

Thank you to all my very talented students!

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Hand Stitching Continued Summer 2020: Manipulating Fabric with Stitch

 

Judy P.: Beachcombing. A lush challenge piece featuring ruching and Stem stitch net.

This second post about the online Summer 2020 Hand Stitching Continued class, focuses on techniques using Running and Ladder stitches to distort fabric to create dimensional shapes and surfaces. It's surprising what can be created with these two stitches! I demonstrated a number of approaches and students followed along making samples during class time. 

Barbara B.: Sampler

Carolyn L.: Sampler

Carolyn L.: Sampler

Myania M.: Sampler

Myania M.: Sampler

Myania M.: Ruching Sampler

Roberta A.: Sampler

After experimenting, students then had the opportunity to design challenge pieces with these techniques. Nature again was their muse.

Carolyn L. interpreted tree bark using some of these techniques.


Carolyn L.: Journal Prompt

Carolyn L.: Choosing materials

Carolyn L.: Tree bark

Barbara B. continued to explore circular forms.



Jill B. created a beautiful sampler of techniques and then figured out how to design a Hosta leaf!

Jill B.: Sampler of techniques.

Jill B.: Hosta leaf muse
Jill B.: Journal prompt

Jill B.: Journal prompt

Jill B.: Using class techniques to create her leaf.

Jill B.: Completed Host leaf

Jill B.: Hidden "surprise" under Hosta leaf!

Roberta A. effectively combined techniques from the first two classes to create her Beachcombing piece.

Myania M. continued experiments and considered how these might reference and represent her wasp's nest muse.


For more information about the Winter session of the Hand Stitching Continued class that I'm teaching through The Art League School (starts on January 27). Please go here. If you have questions, please leave a comment.

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Hand Stitching Continued Summer 2020: Dimensional Stitches


Jill B.: "Unfurling" Rhododendron using a variety of dimensional stitches. 

This summer, a number of students from my beginning Hand Stitching Class (taught through The Art League School), asked that I offer a condensed version of my Hand Stitching Continued class. In this class, we continue to explore hand stitches...this time focusing on dimensional (often composite) stitches including needle weaving and buttonhole laces as well as using stitches to manipulate fabric to create dimensional effects. We also covered a variety of techniques to create stuffed forms. We used Nature as our muse throughout the class. I'm excited to show you the work produced during this three session version of the class. This is the first of three posts of student work. I also want to let you know that I will be teaching a five session version through the school starting on January 27. For more information about that class please go here. If you have questions about the January class, please feel free to leave a comment here.

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Before the class started, I asked students to find a muse or muses from Nature that they wanted to explore using stitch and fabric manipulation. A muse could be an actual physical object from nature, or photographs of natural objects or landscapes. Even related topics such as circular forms or concepts such as "unfurling" were explored.

Barbara B.: Exploring circular forms.

Our first class covered dimensional stitches including varieties of needle weaving and buttonhole laces.  During class time, students learned these and created a stitch sampler.

Jill B.: Stitch Sampler

Irene C.: Stitch Sampler

Myania M.: Stitch Sampler

Roberta A.: Stitch Sampler

Sherry W.: Stitch Sampler

Each week, students got a Journal Exercise and planned a Stitch Challenge piece inspired by their chosen muse, using techniques from that week's class. Some students really jumped in and explored even further!

Jill B. explored the concept of "unfurling". Below is her muse photo and Journal page. See the first photo in this post for the final stitched piece.



Roberta A. was inspired by the textures, colors and shapes found on this tree trunk.



Judy P. got inspired by the beauty found during beach walks and the land/seascapes of Cape May. She did some plein air stitching along with creating this awesome horseshoe crab.






Sherry was inspired by cowrie shells and fell in love with needle lace!


Heidi O. was inspired by the view of a  sunset over water while looking through a gate.


Myania M. dove right in to explore a variety of possible approaches to her wasp's nest muse. She experimented with both cloth and paper and jumped straight into working three-dimensionally (more to come!)