Traveling back through time and samples of fiber arts from over the years.
Papercloth, slow stitch, machine stitch
A detail from one of my most heartfelt pieces sold recently. It's in a very good home.
Samplers
Fabric collage and paint.
Weaving and piecing
Sifting through a treasure trove and wondering: What's Next? Still wondering Where Am I Now. What does Going Forward look like, with all of the disciplines I've explored. Good Grief. I'm beginning to see a boundary that I can cross.
In Sept/October issue of Cloth Paper Scissors is my article on creating flowers from paper cloth. I thought it would be fun to share a few more images with you folks.
So much fun to make. I think with winter coming, white and silver would be beautiful!
This pod shape is my fav, I think. I mounted these with dimensional glue dots on wood pieces that were grunged up with some brown and sepia toned paint.
Cheerful trio!
It would be fun to make a bunch of these into a wreath or spilling out of a pot. Flowers for all! I added some of these to some cards recently too. Really fun.
There's a bunch of ideas brewing, pictures waiting and rants whirling about in my head. In the meantime ...
I'm thinking of making embroidery patterns from some of these flowers. I really like this one:
We had a lovely class in New York on Saturday. Starting with stark white fabric.
Using stamps and stencils to create imagery
Adding bits and pieces of other fabrics and stitching away the day.
A shot of my new assistant/boss putting together my stitch book. This week he learns to operate a sewing machine.
I'm very happy to have a new date for Stamp Stencil Stitch with Little Bird in NYC.
April 5, 10:30-5 PM
Manhatten (exact location TBA)
Shift into slow. It’s been said that when you hand stitch, the goodness flows from heart to hand. There is magic there.
Stamps and stencils will aid in developing imagery on linen. I’ll cover embroidery stitches and collaging with fabric with the simplicity of needle and thread.
Hand stitching is a slow process. As you get lost in the stitching, ideas begin to expand and the your piece will organically take shape. Today we will listen to those whispers and allow ourselves to play with this ancient art.
I hope you’ll join me. Hand stitch has been a long and magical journey for me. I look forward to sharing it.
Supplies to bring to class:
Embroidery Needles, asst'd sizes
Fabric for your base, such as linen: old napkins or table cloth is the weight you want, thrift shops are a perfect source. Stains/tears/wear will be covered up
Pincushion, pins
Pencils, marking tools
Pitt pen, dark gray (if you have them or other permanent markers bring them along)
Scissors
embroidery threads: DMC or similar, 8 skeins
Embroidery Hoop, 6-8”
Fabric scraps, trims, ribbons (avoid batiks)
Stamps, not too highly detailed
Stencils
ink pads: VersaColor, VersaMagic, ColorBox
small spray bottles for use with stencils
I will supply backing fabrics, textile medium and acrylic paints for stenciling
Fabric scraps to share
extra needles (Chenille needles) and threads
To sign up go here (you will need to be a Meetup member, free!)
Or email me. $120 plus $7 kit fee
a bit of stitching this afternoon
and thinking. what a luxury to have scraps of Kaffe Fasset fabrics
tomorrow the stitches is my hand come out. another step forward.
Next Tuesday I go in for hand surgery. I'll be splinted for one week and then the nerve damage should begin to repair itself.
The feeling should be completely back in about a year. The last three weeks have been very upside down.
In the midst of all of the sickness and injury, my daughter and her husband (I still smile when I say that) moved to Chicago. Lots of chaos but they are settling in.
I'm thinking Yellow right now and Gray. Monochromatic (what?!). Yes. I am going to try some monochrome and see where it leads me. I need a little challenge and excitement to get me through. I had to cancel my Little Bird stitch class (heartbreak) but it will be rescheduled. I'll get up again.
It feels like that. In a good way
Rev up the engine and leaf some tracks (ha)
In editing this photo, I found myself cropping here and there and here again.
X-acto is tempting me.
Tacket Stitch Online will be on sale next week-ish. Class Opens 10/28.
What have you been up to?
Tammy Garcia is an artist, teacher and blogger. You will find proof of her awesome-ness over at her blog. Between her ICAD challenge (index card a day) and 61 Paper Prompts, there's plenty to get you moving. For free. Her workshops are fabulous; she's a very generous teacher as you'll see from this tutorial. I'm thrilled to have her here today. Tammy's cheerful and accessible work will have you itching to make.
Here's Tammy:
Looking through my recent painting experiments, I found this happy page of flowers that had the look and feel of paper fabric. That’s why I am such a fan of experiments and playing “what if?” with my art materials. Sometimes the juxtaposition of this and that is just magical. So I developed this little tutorial to show you how easy it is to get this fresh color pop.
In the video you'll find the materials for painting, cutting and stitching the painted page to a background paper. If you haven't yet tried sewing paper, it can be the very best of addictions! (Editor's note: oh yeah!)
Tutorial: Flower & Fade from Tammy on Vimeo.
Painting Materials
8x11" watercolor paper {i.e. Strathmore 300 or 400 Series}
Watercolor or gouache paints, in tubes or pans
Rinsing water
#6 or #8 filbert or round watercolor brush
Sewing Materials
8x11" background paper {i.e. painted watercolor paper, cardstock, bristol paper}
Scissors or rotary cutter {use a different pair of scissors/cutter on paper for paper,as it will dull your lovely fabric blades}
Sewing machine, standard needle, default stitch settings, straight stitch
Silk or cotton thread
When sewing graceful curves or straight lines, keep feed dogs UP and let the machine pull the paper through. (I never drop the feed dogs for stitching on paper. You get much better results just by guiding the paper around so play with this.)
You can stitch this flowery grid onto a loose art journal background and hand-letter lyrics or thoughts around the grid. I hope you have fun painting and stitching and I look forward to seeing your creations.
Back to Diana ...
I tried my hand at Tammy's tute yesterday and it took me a little practice to get those flowers just right. I wound up simply pressing my filbert brush to the paper in each direction and after a bit it worked. So practice :) it does you good.
Let's share our results on Facebook. Just upload your image, share to Tammy's FB group and tag me. Have a grand weekend everyone.
Because it is 97,000,000 degress F here which is 450,000,000 C. I will take February anytime. So I can't think very well. It was 95 F in the studio this morning with the AC. I was only up there for an hour when the sweat began to run into my eyeballs and sting.
Iced coffee, ice cubes, fans, misters, double doses of deoderant and I still stink. But here is something: a before and not-exactly-after-but-more-in-the-middle
and the almost finished bit. This class is up on Little Bird, NYC, scheduled for Nov 23. you can see more here and I'll get to a full post on this class and Beyond the Background at The Ink Pad, here, next week.
Some of the stitching was done while waiting with Aunt Betty at Will's Eye Hospital's ER on Monday. She went in for what we thought was a broken blood vessel with a ton of bleeding and wound up having surgery and spending the night. She is fine now. Everything you've heard about Will's Eye (if you're in Philly) is true. The docs and nurses are way beyond the best, and extremely kind and patient.
I'm off to stick my head in the freezer.
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