April Stitch-In

We had another Stitch-In yesterday. A couple of students from my fall Story Cloth (Fabric Painting, Printing and Stitching to Tell a Story with Cloth) class joined me. I have to say that they are really colleagues at this point. They have made some incredible pieces over the last year and continue to do so.

Here is what we shared yesterday...

Table runner or meditative wall piece by Barbara M.-C.

Detail of Barbara's piece

A new piece in the Ancients series by Susan P.

Detail of Susan's piece

I worked on my Peace Bird Alphabet (the letter "J")

We also shared some stitching books. Barbara talked about how she uses Pinterest as a springboard and finds images to sketch from...keeping all the sketches in one book for reference. Susan talked about the contrasts between working on her painting and on her stitched pieces. That she doesn't tend to name her paintings but that naming her stitched pieces gives her a closer connection to them. I talked about how to approach the pieces that I want to do about my Dad on the handkerchiefs. Their advice was very helpful.

I'm so glad we are having these get togethers...the discussions are so fulfilling...

Stitch-In!

Shibori with indigo by Alice H.

Today, members of the Fall 2014 Fabric Painting, Printing and Stitching to Tell a Story with Cloth class got together for our first "Stitch-In"! It was a great opportunity to share what we are working on and to stitch and drink tea. Here are some of the pieces that we got to ooo and ahhh at...

Alice H.

Indigo seemed to be the theme of the day! Alice brought in her beautiful shibori piece. Barbara brought along a series of indigo pillows with lovely stitched textures. She has some tutorials about how to make two of these pillows on her blog.

Barbara M.-C.: Indigo pillow

Indigo pillow by Barbara M.-C.

Love this textural detail!

Another pillow by Barbara.

The textures in this fish are just wonderful!

Barbara played with hand and machine stitching and stitched over paper as well.

Even Susan P. brought in indigo pieces to share. She just completed a workshop and had beautiful samples.

One of Susan's indigo samples.

Susan also brought in three completed pieces from her Ancients series.

Susan has named this piece, "CHI".

The tiny stitched details really enhanced the printing on Susan's pieces.

Lots of layers on this piece by Susan. She printed on both cotton and sheer silk fabrics and collaged them together with stitching. (Sorry the color in this photo is not quite right)

I love the hand stitched details in this piece by Susan.

I brought along my Equinox Cloth and Early Spring pieces to stitch on. We are planning to have Stitch-Ins on a regular basis...can't wait for next month!

The next session of Fabric Painting, Printing and Stitching to Tell a Story with Cloth starts on April 22! You too can make amazing stories like the ones above!

Itchin' to Stitch and Roy Reminder

After seeing what students were working on my Story Cloth class, I found myself itchin' to stitch!

I first decided to finish the second of two reversible placemats with a hand stitched border. I have one of these featured in my upcoming book, Fabric Printing at Home. I incised recycled foam to create the designs.

Detail

Next, I decided to get a start on my own story cloth! I printed the butterfly (or moth?) design (see above) also as a book sample (another recyclable!). I think some hand stitching on the butterflies will add a bit of punch to the piece. Because the butterflies were flying off the edges of the fabric, I decided to add some border strips. Usually, I add these at the end but I'm planning to stitch a bit on the borders as well. I want to use this piece for a sample for a class I'll be teaching at Artistic Artifacts on January 31 and February 1 called, Fabric Printing at Home: A Kitchen Sampler.

Needles from Papillon Creative's Etsy shop.

One of the reasons I got so itchy, was these new needles! One of my students, Barbara Mathews-Cieleszky, has a wonderful online shop called, Papillon Creative. She brought these lovely needles and some beautiful threads to class...and we all went on a little shopping spree! The needles are made by a French company and they are so superior to what you can get at the local craft store. I especially love the applique needles...so strong and sharp...you just want to sew with them!!!

Barbara also has some other lovely hand goods and craft supplies in her Etsy shop.

And now for the reminder....Roy is coming on Thursday!!! For those of you unfamiliar with Roy, he's a very colorful fellow! Of course, I'm talking about Roy G Biv, (the colors of the rainbow), and our monthly blog hop. We're a bit beyond the rainbow now and this month's color is BROWN. This Thursday, November 20, post up to five BROWN photos on your blog and leave a comment here or on Jennifer Coyne Qudeen's blog and we will link to your blog post. It's lots of fun so hope you join in this month!!