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!

Prepping for the Summer Art Project

Drying teabags on fabric.

I spent some time in the kitchen today preparing for this summer's family art project.

Teabags waiting for the boiling water.

Black and green teabags soaking.

Why waste tea? The teabags are drying on cloth and more cloth is soaking in the tea.

Every summer, I put on my artistic thinking cap and come up with a project to share with my nieces and nephew and other family members.

In the past we've:

• made Jazzy dolls
• created woven bags on an innovative loom (my design) for collecting summer treasures
• painted and sun printed silk scarves and created story bags
• printed fabric squares for a 60th anniversary hanging

This summer, I was inspired by one of my Story Cloth students, Susan P. For one of her story cloths she printed designs on dried teabags. I even decided to write my upcoming Newsletter about Deconstructing Tea...using dried teabags, the little envelopes they come, the tags and string and even the boxes to create little pieces of tea art (Hope you'll sign up for Julie B Booth Surface Design News (if you haven't already) to find out more about it!)

Some of the teabag prints from the next issue of Julie B Booth Surface Design News.

My plan is for all of us to make little books using teabags for pages. We'll collect small leaves and other nature textures and print on the teabags. The covers will be made from softened and painted brown paper. As usual, I'm already getting excited to see what my nieces and nephew do. They always surprise and amaze me!

Arresting Resists: Student Work Part 2

Susan Prytherch: Sampler of resists with overprinting (before removing resists)

Here are some more samples of student work from my Arresting Resists class which finished up last Wednesday.

Susan Prytherch

Susan Prytherch

Susan Prytherch

Susan Prytherch

Floris Flam: Confectioner's Sugar

Floris Flam: Colored White School Glue

Floris Flam

Floris Flam

As with every class I teach, I notice that each student truly has her (or his) own style that seems to come out over the course of the class. Whether it be recurring motifs, sense of color or bold design elements, by the end of a class, I can pick out each student's work.

Arresting Resists: A Few Fabric Samples

Uncooked Wheat Flour Paste: Block Printing Controlled Breach Technique

Today is the last session of Arresting Resists. The five weeks flew by and were packed with a selection of different resists that you can find in your kitchen. We've been so busy during class that I haven't always been able to pick up my camera and snap photos.

Susan Prytherch let me borrow a few samples to photograph at home this week. She has a nice selection of some of the resists we worked on during the first couple of sessions.

Cooked Wheat Flour Paste: Printed and Rubbing over Painted Fabric Design

Cooked Cornmeal Paste: Sampler on Cotton Fabric

Cooked Cornmeal Paste: Sampler on Silk

Matzoh Paste: Rubbing on Silk

Matzoh Paste: Sampler on Cotton

Cooked Rice Paste: Spread and Draw Designs on Cotton

Cooked Rice Paste: Sampler on Silk

Today I'm determined to take lots of photos. I really want a good record of what we've done...especially if I'm going to get my future book published!

Don't forget: Tomorrow is the first installment of the Searching for Roy G Biv Challenge. We are starting with the color red. You still have time to play with  Jennifer and me. Let us know and we will link to your blog, website or Flickr page. This is going to be fun! Can't wait to see what you all come up with.