Equinox and Healing Cloth

Ann Z.

This weekend I held the spring session of Patching, Stitching, Weaving: Creating Healing Cloth. This session's workshop was full of color and meaning.

Ann Z. is working on a piece that is both sad and hopeful. As the workshop progressed...it became more and more hopeful. Full of love even in the face of sadness represented by a torn heart...one that may be healed with stitches. I'm looking forward to watching it progress.

Ann Z. detail.

Judy B. had fun with bright colors, ribbons, the number three and hearts. This piece reminded me of child's play. I imagined making dolls out of fabric and braiding hair. She is planning to send it to her three-year-old granddaughter.

Judy B.

Judy B. detail

Laurie T's piece is full of lovely little textures and subtle movement. She is planning many more stitched details such as the ribbon flower below. I really can't wait to see where this piece goes!

Laurie T.

Laurie T. detail.

Laurie T. beaded detail.

Alice H. brought along her beautiful shibori pieces. She is adding finishing details including textural stitches to set off the main motifs.

Alice H.

Alice H. detail.

Alice H. detail.

Alice A. is working on a self portrait and is including symbols important to her including a labyrinth and birds (to come). She used bits of fabric inherited from her mother and grandmother including the blue and white embroidered piece (from a larger Mexican embroidery).

Alice A.

Alice A. detail.

What an enjoyable weekend full of stitching and sharing...thanks to you all!

October Stitch-In

Zita hand stitched to emphasize the rectangular shapes in this piece by her friend.

We had a nice turnout for today's Stitch-In...six of us and lots of interesting projects and discussions.

Zita S. made it for her first time and it was so great to see her. She brought along a very special piece to work on. It was an eco-dyed and hand felted piece that her dear friend Sharon J. had made. Sharon passed away unexpectedly at the very end of last year and our guild recently had a trunk show sale of her work to raise money. Zita purchased the box labeled "India Flint" (Sharon took a class with India) and found this piece at the very bottom of the box. Zita says that Sharon was never really "into" hand stitching...so Zita is going to continue to work on the piece...hand stitching it a bit at a time. What an amazing way to feel connected to her friend (reminds me of how connected I feel when I stitch on my Dad's letter).

Zita plans to take her time hand stitching areas of this eco-dyed piece.

Ann Z. brought along Buffalo Boy's head (a sock) to stitch. I had to laugh...she was using a maraca as a darning egg to help stitch through the sock (ingenious!).

Buffalo Boy's head.

Ann also brought this in-process piece. She is trying to decide how to finish the bottom half of the piece.

Cheryl is following up on her Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year's) resolution to complete pieces. She brought in this luscious knitted scarf that she started a while back. It may go to a friend.

Cheryl also brought in a gorgeous silk scarf created by Ellen Hoverkamp using a high resolution scan of vegetables. It reminded all of us of Dutch still life paintings.

Detail of a scarf by Ellen Hoverkamp.

Alice H. brought in one of her shibori pieces to stitch on. She is painstakingly stitching her fabric to resist the dye she'll later paint on it. I just love the texture!

Barbara M-C brought in a number of things to share. She's been working on a series of cloth dolls symbolizing her childhood (she's posted some on Facebook and I believe is now selling some on Etsy). This one was influenced by the traditional Hungarian clothing her grandmother would sometimes wear.

Detail of hand stitched motifs on the dress.

She also brought a cloth and paper book she created using some of her fabrics from the Story Cloth class and handmade papers from her friend's collection.

And here is a piece she's started using some of her indigo dyed fabric. The theme is "day and night".

I was hoping to stitch on my Dad's letter but I'm waiting for a skein of hand-dyed thread to arrive (probably tomorrow). In the meantime, I started setting up a new piece about my Dad...a great story that my brother told me. I spent some time on Friday going through a folder of family photos and reading through stories my siblings shared with me about Dad. I think that there is really a wealth of inspiration and I'm looking forward to working on a number of pieces about family.

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!

Appalachian Piecework Textile Studio

I mentioned in my last post that I discovered a wonderful fiber artist in Staunton, VA and had the chance to wander about her studio/shop called Appalachian Piecework. The fiber artist is Laurie Gundersen. You might say that she is a Renaissance woman or a Jacqueline-of-All-Trades when it comes to the fiber arts.

A selection of just some of the traditional fiber techniques that Laurie excels in.

At the cooperative gallery I belonged to for 20 years we had a running joke...without fail tourists would wander in and ask, "Did you make all these?"...referring to a multitude of art and wearable pieces in techniques ranging from felted vessels to hand-dyed shibori scarves. Of course, we had to politely reply, "No, we have 65 artists producing these works." When I walked into Laurie's shop, I figured she was one of many artists displaying work in the space. There were woven baskets, pieced quilts and handbags, woven as well as shibori scarves, nuno felted accessories, hooked rugs, wool felt Penny quilts, and stitched wall pieces. So imagine my surprise when I found out that she actually did make all these items!

I'm now wishing I'd purchased some of these gorgeous shibori silks.

Rolls of vintage fabrics and a beautiful hand-stitched piece in the works.

I was first drawn to some of the stitched and framed pieces having just recently taught both my Story Cloth class and Healing Cloth workshop. Laurie combines natural hand-dyed fabrics (including Indigo and Osage) with bits and pieces of old quilts. There are lots of beautiful hand-stitched details. When I asked her about them, she informed me that she is presently working hard to produce works for a solo exhibition in October in New Haven, CT. I asked her if I could take photos of her shop/studio being careful not to include shots of the pieces for that show. She very graciously said, "yes". In addition to creating her own works, Laurie also repairs/restores vintage quilts and handwoven coverlets.

This cozy corner has rolls of hand-dyed (many using natural dyes) wool felt. I loved the colors and bought a number of them thinking how great they'd look with some hand stitching.

Laurie uses many natural dyes.

Her shop is located at the train station in Staunton, Virginia. I highly recommend a visit!