Showing posts with label OOTB. Show all posts

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Joyful Embroidery with Fleur Woods and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome! 😊 I hope that the change in weather is not too rough on you. I was not enjoying the extreme heat but it would be nice to have temperate weather for a little longer. It looks like we'll be enjoying a couple of warmer days at the end of the week and I'm very grateful that it's not below freezing yet! 🧤 I'm in Canada - what can I say, weather is an important topic of conversation here.

Painting fabric to stitch on

Being very keen to take the class, I signed up for Fleur Woods' class, Joyful Embroidery the first day enrollment opened. I don't normally watch courses ahead of diving in but I think that I was a little intimidated and watching the videos helped me to see where we are going. Eventually I started doing.😊

Flower drawn on painted fabric - ready to embroider

One of our first tasks was to paint some fabric. I think that half of the fabric is linen while the larger pieces are cotton. I mixed up some blue and yellow with the Colour Vie pigment system. I know that it works well on fabric. I watered it down a bit to get a soft wash.

Painted fabric drying outside

Since it was quite cool outside, the fabric stayed out overnight and dried in the morning sun. I took pictures as soon as they were dry but they were very wrinkled. I don't mind some wrinkles but this was too much, so I ironed it and it looks so much better!

The two top pieces on the left are a loose weave linen while the rest is cotton. It's mostly a mottled teal green, with more green than blue. I did have a few splatters of blue on the cotton that I decided to keep - it adds interest and shows the painting process.

Linen squares on the top left with cotton

Practice Stitching

After painting the fabric I decided to start doing the practice stitching. These are all stitches that I've done before and I have so many samplers everywhere that I decided to just stitch up a little area on my eco-printed fabric piece to practice almost all of the stitches. Here it is below. I'll have to use some of these stitches elsewhere on the piece so that it doesn't look out of place.

Practicing most of the stitches on my eco-dyed piece

The only two things that I didn't put on this piece was the Turkey stitch and beading. I added these to a challenge piece that I'm making for the Out of the Box (OOTB) Fall Fling show. More about that below.

Sketching flowers

As you saw at the beginning of the post, we had a section on drawing. I'm not very good at it but with practice I am getting better. Since most of my garden is past its prime, I checked out my photos from this summer. I took these two photos at the beginning of September. I just love that the birds are eating the seeds of the flowers instead of just going to the bird feeder!

I used the image of the flower, without the bird

Using the image of the flower at the bottom

Here are my two sketches, transferred onto fabric using a light box

I just want to mention that I'll be using my special journal to take notes and keep my sketches.

Joyful Embroidery Journal

OOTB Challenge

This spring I helped to organise a brown bag challenge for Out of the Box (OOTB) fibre artists group. Everyone who wanted to participate put a few things in a brown bag for someone else to use in their challenge piece. I had a little bit of plaid fabric, plain white fabric, two kinds of ribbon, a snowflake button, a green flower button and pieces of green felt and red leather. I used a little bit of most of it in the piece, as well as some scraps that I picked up at my quilt guild.

My OOTB brown bag challenge piece

I used the Turkish stitch as well as beading (one bead!) from my Joyful Embroidery sampler exercise. You can see the small tuff of Turkey stitch at the top middle of the piece. The bead is on top of the felt and leather circle at the bottom. I pulled apart one of my daughter's large bracelet.

Close up of the challenge piece "2B Merry!"

You'll notice that I used a bit of home-made twine in the piece and to hang it up. I really love making twine 😍. I'll be adding the flower button and the other ribbon on the back, as part of the label, which will be written up on the white fabric.

"2B Merry" reveals its secret!

Out of the Box (OOTB) Fall Fling

My piece will be part of the Challenge exhibit at Fall Fling in a couple of weeks.

What I learned

I am really enjoying the Joyful Embroidery course will Fleur Woods. Watching most of the course ahead of time has helped me figure out what I want to do and has lowered my anxiety.
I stitched up the practice stitches on my eco-printed cloth as well as in a couple of blocks in my Almost Daily Stitching project of 2024. That was a great way to practice without having to start a new sampler.
In the course, instead of doing the Turkey Stitch which is a very time consuming stitch, we will be learning to do Punch Needle. I just received my Oxford needle punch from Robin, my local distributor. I took her rug hooking course a few years ago. I'll put the details in the Related links section below.
I enjoyed watering down my Colour Vie pigments and painting the fabric with it. It's going to make a great base for the embroidery. Since I had lots of paint left, I painted a few sheets of water colour paper so that I can use it to sketch on, before embroidering. You can see the paper in the first image of this post, above the fabric and sketch.
I've also been stitching on eco-printed paper (more in another post) so I could also use those painted papers to embroider on. That would be very cool!😎
I had a lot of fun working on the "2B Merry" OOTB challenge piece. The background fabric is a swatch of upholstery fabric that I got from a fellow artist. What a great way to use it! I also stitched around one of the grommets. It's great to be able to keep it to hang the piece.
I didn't have to stitch around the second grommet since it's hidden by the fabric of the twine.
I haven't really done anything to enter into the Fall Fling show yet. I'm not sure that I'll have time to make anything before then but I will be attending both days since I'll be sitting at the membership table.

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 502 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a very productive week! Thanks so much for linking up😊. Check out these amazing projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Last week Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts had two quilt patterns published! Both of them used the Peppermint Sprinkles collection of Island Batik fabrics. The first quilt, "Good Tidings" is in Annie's Christmas Pattern book while the second, "Austin", is in Make Modern #60. Check out Preeti's post for links to the patterns.

Preeti's "Good Tiding", now in
Annie's Christmas Pattern book

Preeti's "Austin" is in Make Modern #60

Donnalee has started making more table toppers for her guild's sale in 15 months! Check out her first three.

More table toppers by Donnalee

Melva of Melva Loves Scraps quilted up a lovely vintage table cloth, ready to use for tea.

Melva's lovely quilted vintage table cloth, ready for tea!

Kathleen of Kathleen's McMusing created a lovely quilt, "Accidental Stars" for the Flower Pot Blog Hop. I really love the quilt's secondary pattern.

Kathleen's "Accidental Stars" quilt

Margo of MY Quilts and Crafts finished her baby quilt as well as a fabric basket. Both are lovely!

Margo's finished baby quilt

The perfect gift basket by Margo

Thanks so much for linking up and visiting! It's now your turn 😊

Thursday, May 23, 2024

Nature's Narrative Workshop and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome 😊. It's been an incredibly busy week filled with heat, gardening, learning and art. Except for the heat, it was great! I want to share with you some of my learning and art - through a wonderful speaker at Out of the Box (OOTB) Fibre Artists and a workshop the next day.

Alice Vander Vennen

Alice Vander Vennen is a "Canadian artist working in mixed media assemblage, primarily with textile, copper, and found objects, capturing stories of loss and hope; courage and strength." (from her website - see Related Links below).

Her work is both organic and structural, made up of found objects, natural elements and almost always copper! She is also an incredibly lovely and generous person who always had something positive to say about her students' work!

Alice Vander Vennen - guest speaker
(please ignore the glare on her frame!)

In the workshop, our first exercise was to create a piece on card stock that could be affixed to a greeting card. We were encouraged to bring a bit of found objects or things that had meaning to us, and we're encouraged to chose fabric, as well as leaves, copper pieces and wire from Alice's stash.

My first exercise at the debrief

The image above was my piece at our first debrief. I later changed some of my piece by adding a bit of layering and stitching down the green fabric in bunches. I love the lace butterfly at the top. The copper works well with the fabric layered around the leaf. At home, I added the embroidery and the beads strung from a copper wire.

My first exercise, finished that evening

After an hour and a half, we had a debriefing with Alice. All of our pieces, finished or in progress, were placed on a black felt on the floor while we sat around them. Alice went through each piece, highlighting what was good about them. She talked about composition, colour, etc. It was fascinating and educational to hear how she saw each piece.

At our first debriefing, our first exercise, finished or in progress

The second exercise focused on composition and we had to use the shadow box frame (which she provided from Ikea). We could use the piece from our first exercise, or we could create another. We could also keep the piece within the mat of the frame, or make it larger and place it over the mat.

I had picked up a piece of fabric with a lovely blue paisley flower from Alice's stash. I wanted that to be the focus. There was also a great hand-made stitched piece that I added. The background and the beautiful pink fabric comes from three scarves.

The beginning of the second exercise

Playing with the second exercise

The scarves were very slippery so I used the back of a canvas fabric to stitch everything on. I'm still struggling with the composition. During the workshop, Alice shared with us her methods for gluing stones and other things onto her pieces. I couldn't leave the workshop without trying it out 😊

Stones and broken pottery glued onto fabric under a layer of canvas

Trying out white borders around the piece

We had a second debrief at the end of the day. Some participants had finished their pieces while others were finishing up, or struggling like me. It was really great to see such different and lovely work. Here are a few of them. I'm afraid that I don't know the name of the artists who made each piece. I'll add them as I find out

Alice during our
second debriefing

Memorable objects in a
lovely composition

Dazzling jewelry in
and out of the frame

Fabric strips layered
with glittering circles

A knitted copper piece among
folds of fabric

A great landscape composition
by Kathy

Natural objects in a lovely
composition by Katherine

A glowing simple composition
and layered card by Caroline

What I learned

I think that the debriefings were some of the best parts of the workshop. It was fascinating and educational to hear how Alice saw each piece.
She talked about colour and composition in a way that wasn't intimidating and this sparked all kinds of ideas in my mind. It was after the first debriefing and looking at participants' work that I figured out what to do with my small piece.
It was great to see Alice put a piece together for our first exercise and then cut it up for the second!
I couldn't cut up my composition since the stitches wouldn't have stayed in place. Besides, I really wanted to do something with the blue paisley flower.
I'm really not happy with the piece, but I will let it simmer in a safe place and hopefully get back to it before our next OOTB meeting in June, where we will share our work.
Alice offers various workshops in Ontario and elsewhere. If you're in that area, you may want to check these out!
You may also want to check out more of her work, as seen on her website.

Tips for going to workshops

If you're supposed to bring fabric but don't know what you'll be doing with it, it's better to bring less than too much - too much choice can overwhelm the creativity process.
You can always trade scraps of fabric and things with other participants.
Remember to bring extra lighting if you need it!
Bring fabric scissors and another pair of scissors for paper and other things.
A cushion on a hard chair can make a huge difference.
If weather permits, take a few short breaks outside to clear your mind.
You can scrounge for found objects anywhere - including the parking lot!
Too much food and drinks is better than not enough 😋 since you can always take the extra home!

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 483 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a very productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Janine of Rainbow Hare made a harmonious piece for the Endeavourers. Here is the Elephant in the Room with lovely machine and hand quilting 😊!

The Elephant in the Room by Janine of Rainbow Hare

Frédérique of Quilting Patchwork Appliqué made a lovely baby quilt, Reine des prés/Queen of the Meadows, for the local hospital. The background is a disappearing 9-parch with lovely hints of colour. The bee in the centre with the quilting really looks great 😍

Reine des prés/Queen of the Meadows, by Frédérique

Angie of A Quilting Reader's Garden was quilting this lovely quilt when she had a mishap! She's now OK and her quilt if finished👍!

Angie's finished quilt.

Gail of Quilting Gail has been busy making her Christmas tree skirt for the Island Batik Paper Pieced Celebrations Blog Hop. Daphne was impressed when she got to chill in the sun 😎

Gail's Christmas tree skirt with Daphne

It's now your turn!

Thursday, May 09, 2024

Odds and Ends on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome to week 481 of Free Motion Mavericks.

Fibre Fling finds

Last Friday and Saturday was the Out of the Box (OOTB) Fibre Artists' Fibre Fling 2024. I was there for most of the two days, spending my time at the Membership table. I had a chance to meet with fellow members, potential members and see all of the wonderful work of these very talented artists.

If you didn't see it, here are my two pieces at the show.

My tulips and birds at Fibre Fling

Over 30 potentially new members signed up for more information on OOTB. The show is a great way to promote our group.

Every year, I purchase a couple of pieces from fellow artist and blogger, Connie at Connie's Textile Art. Connie has started stamping on her hand-dyed fabrics. I plan on making next year's Agenda with one of these (or maybe both?)

Wonderful stamped fabrics

I saw the dark fabric below and fell in love! Then I looked at the fabric piece behind it and gasped😮 It's really that wonderful (and the photo doesn't do it justice!) I'm not sure what I'll be doing with these - they are going with my other Connie fabrics until I figure out what to make with them.

Gorgeous printed fabric 😍

There was also a raffle next to the membership table, so I spent a lot of time talking with potential ticket buyers. Of course I had to buy some. There were about a dozen different textile art pieces, each with a box to hold tickets. You had to choose where to put your tickets - that was the most difficult part! I put one of my tickets in a box that I knew was very full, but a girl can dream.....except that some dreams do come true! Look at what I won - an original Nancy Garrard! I'm going to have to find a special spot for this one in my home!

Changing Seasons by Nancy Garrard

I also treated myself to a small felted piece by fellow artist Laura C. I just love the pops of turquoise, cherry and lime. It also has lots of interesting hand-stitching and beading.

A lovely felted piece by Laura

While I was at Fibre Fling, I had time to finish embroidering my Noon Sun for my outdoor hanging sculpture.

Noon Sun - part of my outdoor hanging sculpture

What I learned

Fibre Fling was a lot of fun, but as an introvert, it took a lot out of me!
As you can see, I've got one finished piece of my outdoor hanging sculpture.
I haven't done any kind of quilt or stitch work since the show - I need to re-boost my battery. I have done some gardening. The manual labour was difficult but good 😊I now have 3 rhubarb plants in my side garden.
Now that I've played with the big garden tools, I'm ready to tackle the last corner of my garden, where there will be a small fountain and meditation area...wish me luck!

Free Motion Mavericks

We had a busy party here last week! Thanks to everyone who linked up 😍. Here are the projects that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Vicki from Vicki's Crafts and Quilting made this Delectable Teal Mountain runner. Isn't it gorgeous? You may want to check out her post to see her lovely FMQ feathers.

Vicki's Delectable Teal Mountain runner

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts outdid herself by making and quilting three quilts for the Pantone Quilt Challenge. This year's colour is Peach Fuzz. To see the Pantone Quilt challenge announcement and all of Preeti's quilts, go to the links beneath each quilt.

Here is Blush by Preeti

Preeti's Peach on Earth

For something different we have Preeti's Mica in
Island Batik fabrics

Next we have Frédérique's Anaho - a wall hanging that she started in 2009 and finished last week. Those will perspectives are so cool!😎 Check out her post of her process and story behind the quilt.

Frédérique's Anaho

Deb from A Scrappy Quilter quilted this charity quilt on her domestic machine. The quilt was supplied by her guild and she did the rest! Deb quilted it with giant waves to help the geese stay up!