Hand Stitching ONLINE: Theme #2--Pattern and Rhythm

Jill B.: Mosaic/cellular patterning

Update: Please join me for the Fall 2020 Hand Stitching class! Five 2.5 sessions starting on Wednesday, September 30. For more information and to register: https://www.theartleague.org/shop/class/online/hand-stitching/

This is the second post about my Hand Stitching class (taught through The Art League School) that moved online this spring. The focus of this lesson was Pattern and Rhythm. We had some discussion about the definitions of Pattern and Rhythm. One definition -- Patterns in Nature-- focused on patterns as "organizing structures", including: symmetry, branching, meanders, waves, mosaics/cellular, spirals, fractals, spheres, polyhedra, and lattices. This became one of the possible jumping off points for the Journal Prompt and Stitch Challenge for this lesson. The stitches we covered were all looped stitches.

Jill B. : Journal Prompt 

Roberta A.: Journal Prompt

During class time, the focus was working on stitch samplers. Continuing to explore and manipulate the stitches in different ways to get different effects.

Jill B.: Looped Stitch Sampler

Irene C.: Looped Stitch Sampler

Jude J: Looped Stitch Sampler

Roberta A.: Looped Stitch Sampler

Martha P.: Looped Stitch Sampler

Susan T.: Chain Stitch Variations

Pauline S.: Looped Stitch Sampler

Students had some choices for their stitch challenges. They could be directly related to the Journal Prompt on natural patterns.

Barbara B.: Cellular

Barbara B. Geode- Lattices

Carolyn L.: Branching

Kristin A.: Meanders

Kristin A.: Spirals

Martha P.: Cellular

Mary K.: Fractals

Roberta A.: Mosaics

Some students used photographs as a jumping off point.

Heidi O.

Judy P.

Myania M.

Susan T.: Cabbage

One student even designed jewelry!

Irene C.

It was so inspiring to see all these different approaches to Pattern. The next blog post will be about Lesson #3--Texture! Stay tuned!

I will be teaching this Hand Stitching ONLINE class in the Fall 2020. Check back here for more information about dates and times.

Fall Hand Stitching: Pattern and Rhythm

Maria S.: Chain stitch sampler

The theme for session #2 of Hand Stitching was Pattern and Rhythm. Students got to experiment with looped stitches...Fly, Detached Chain, Chain and Buttonhole/Blanket in a sampler. For the challenges they could also incorporate stitches from the previous class session on Line (and some even experimented with some other stitches!). Challenges included: using commercial or hand painted/printed fabric as a jumping off point; basing a composition on one of the patterns found in nature and playing with the concept of rhythm. I'm not happy with all the photos and hope to take better ones of these pieces before the end of the class.

Samplers:

Alissa W.

Grace M.

Gretchen K.

Maria S.: Buttonhole/Blanket

Maria S.: Fly and Chain

Jumping off from commercial fabrics:

Gretchen K.

Judy M.

Jumping off from hand printed fabrics:

Alice A: Bleached fabric.

Alice A.

Gretchen K.

Kerstin W.

Kerstin W.

Maria S.

Patterns in nature:

Alice A.: Symmetry

Alissa W: Mosaics

Grace M.: Spiral

Maria S.: Spiral

I have a couple of returning students both are working on landscapes:

Ann Z: Ireland

Jan B.

Stay tuned for Texture!!

A Year of Stitch-ins

Ann Z.'s Healing Cloth detail.

This past Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of the Stitch-In! It's been such a warm and sharing community and I look forward to getting together each month.

One year of stitching together!

We met on Easter Sunday (because I'd been teaching all the previous weekends)...so we had a small group. But what fun to sit and stitch and share ideas and books.

And what a small world we live in! It turns out that new Stitch-In member, Amy P. created the ketubah (Jewish marriage contract...often a work of art) for Cheryl C.'s wedding! The chat between the two of them revealed lots of connections...including the fact that Cheryl is designing the new playground for Amy's son's school!

Amy brought in an old hand-stitched pillowcase created by her grandmother. The case had a bad stain so Amy is re-purposing it to become an Afikomen (Matzoh) cover. What a great idea for creating a new family heirloom out of an old one!

Amy P. is turning this into a new heirloom.

Amy also brought in a fish mola to share with the group. Aren't those colorful layers wonderful!

Cheryl spent the afternoon practicing her Fly Stitch, she wants to use the stitch to add roots to the tree in her Healing Cloth.

Cheryl practiced Fly Stitch this month.

Cheryl also brought in a special surprise for Ann Z....a sweet little knit (Easter) bunny. The bunny was knit by Cheryl's aunt many years ago...and Cheryl decided to add the special details to give this bunny lots of character!

Happy Easter!

A special congrats to Cheryl for landing a book contract!

Ann Z. continued to work on the Healing Cloth that she started in the workshop I gave the weekend before. I love where this piece is going.

Ann's Healing Cloth in process.

Ann had a number of interesting books to share with us. One of the best parts of getting together is that we all share a love for beautiful art and craft books.

I forgot to take photos of what I was working on..the covers for my stitch sampler book.
Here are some recent shots I took while sitting outside on a gorgeous (but windy) Thursday.

Detail of inside back cover.

Outside back cover.

Looking forward to many more Stitch-Ins!