Hand Stitching Continued: Surface and Structure...Beginnings Recap

Annie G.: Detail from Muse-inspired piece. Annie's Muse was a flowering cactus.

The Hand Stitching Continued: Surface and Structure evening class (The Art League School in Alexandria, VA) is now in it's fifth week...time for a recap!

This class picked up where the Jumpstart in Hand Stitching left off. Hand Stitching Continued shifted into working in color, playing with more dimensional stitches, fabric manipulation and finally the creation of a free-standing sculpture.

This post covers work from the first three sessions: Combining and layering stitches from Jumpstart; Color Backgrounds and Choose Your Muse; and Dimensional Stitches.

The first night we played a little game...sticking the names of stitches covered in Jumpstart into a cup and pulling out pairs of stitches. Each student had there own stitch combinations to work with.

Mary M.: Combining stitches from Jumpstart.

Melanie H.: Combining stitches from Jumpstart.

Susan S.: Combining stitches from Jumpstart.

Susan S.: Combining stitches from Jumpstart

The second class focused on Color. For homework students were asked to Choose a Muse from Nature and answer a number of questions. Color choices were based on those found in each student's Muse.

Mary M.: Journal page about Muse. Mary's Muse was a photo of tree bark.

Mary M. Journal page about Muse.

Susan S.: Journal page about Muse. Susan's Muse was colorful stone.

After painting and printing a selection of fabrics, students then had the chance to create work inspired by their Muse.

Annie G. : Piece inspired by her flowering cactus Muse. With the exception of the burlap, all of these fabrics were painted and printed by Annie.

Annie G.: Edging detail.

Annie G.: Additional pieces inspired by the hand painted fabrics and stitch combinations.

Annie G.: Stitch details.

Susan S.: Susan's Muse and Muse-inspired piece.

In the third class, students learned a selection of dimensional stitches and had the opportunity to play and combine them.

Kate M.: Dimensional stitches sampler.

Mary M.: Dimensional stitches sampler

Susan S.: Dimensional stitches sampler.

The next post will focus on fabric manipulation techniques using stitch.

Jumpstart in Hand Stitching Review

Mary M.: Couching fabric strips with a variety of stitches.

For those of you who don't know, I've been juggling a number of classes over the past month or so. I've been teaching the To Tell a Story with Cloth: Impressions, Connections and Memories class during the daytime on Wednesdays and classes in hand stitching on Wednesday evenings (at The Art League School in Alexandria, VA). Now that the daytime class is over, I'm getting caught up with blog posts starting with Jumpstart in Hand Stitching. This was a three 3-hour session workshop that was basically an accelerated (you might call it a "crash" course) version of my 25 hour class. We covered some fabric painting and printing techniques, followed by assignments in Line, Pattern, Texture, and Layers. This class was considered preparation for the Hand Stitching Continued: Surface and Structure class (seven 3-hr evening classes) that is still ongoing. Here is a selection of work by students in the workshop...

Some of the hand painted and printed fabrics created in class.

Painted and printed fabrics.

Freezer paper masks.

Kate M.: Line sampler.

Mary M.: Line sampler

Cheryl C.: Line Challenge

Kate M.: Line Challenge in progress. Kate based this on bacteria in a petri dish.

Cheryl C.: Line, Pattern and Texture sampler.

Mary M.: Pattern and Texture sampler.

Cheryl C.: Texture Challenge.

Cheryl C.: Pattern and Texture Challenge.

Mary M.: Texture and Layers Challenge.

Kate M.: Layers Sampler

Kate M.: Layers Challenge.

Cheryl C.: Layers Challenge.

Annie G.: Layers Challenge.

Great Beginnings: Fall Hand Stitching Class

This past Wednesday was the start of a new session of my Hand Stitching class. I have eleven students who are already on a roll. We began the class with painting and printing backgrounds. I provided a selection of black or white fabrics for students to paint and print. I'm, once again, delighted with the outcome (only wish that my camera had cooperated fully). Here is a selection of student fabrics...

After working on backgrounds we spent the afternoon getting down to some stitching. The first class theme was Line and so we explored a few line stitches. I'll have more on the results of that on Wednesday....Stay tuned!

Cape Cod Memories 2016

A rock from the Kindness Rock Project on the hike to Great Island.

Just back from two weeks at Cape Cod which I spent with my Mom and brothers and significant others, family and friends. Great times and even some art!

My Mom and I were greeted the first night by a gorgeous sunset.

We walked beaches...

Picked up stones (I have some plans swirling in my head about those!)...

Judy, Ivy and Kai made stone cairns.

Went on nature walks...

Walk to Great Island.

Walk to Great Island.

Rode boogie boards (even my 84-year-old Mom!), ate great food...

Played games (Bananagrams was a favorite!) and worked on the annual art project...

Poppy painting over resist.

Some painted backgrounds.

Kai and Poppy working on their book pages.

Printing with blocks.

Printed "pages".

 Here are a couple of photos from one of the books that my Mom finished...

I'll post some additional photos of finished books in another post.

We had a great time...I felt so close to nature...especially when the local coyotes were howling!