Blog browsing

Debra Cooper of A little imagination and a Pile of Junk has written a good illustrated tutorial on how to Hand Dye Fabric Trims. Those new to crazy quilting will really like this as it adds lots of variety to an otherwise mundane lot of lace, ribbon, braid and trims.

Tips on how to submit articles to craft magazines by Craft Boom is another useful article found via Whip up

Over on Honey Bee’s Bliss there is another video tutorial on how to work a Colonial Knot in silk ribbon embroidery and another on how to do a French Knot , and yet another on Padded ribbon stitch

How to make Dorset Buttons is an illustrated tutorial from The sampler

Mary Corbet has written a comprehensive tutorial on Transferring your embroidery on to a dressed slate frame and Needle’nThread has been regularly featuring  patterns for monograms

Also discovered via the Vintage Iron-on Embroidery transfer group on Stitchin fingers is hoop love a  flickr group devoted to Embroidery transfers

Also from Meggiecat came this link to almost 400 Japanese woodblock prints in the digitised collection of the University of California which can be searched or viewed by theme.

 

Cruising the Blogs

Once again I would like to highlight some great stuff read and seen while cruising around the blogs.

Melissa over on Honey Bee’s Bliss has started a series of video tutorials on silk ribbon embroidery. Do Check them out as they are very valuable instructional material.

This tutorial and pattern for a Japanese knot bag had me very excited as I could see it being made up in retro material for the younger crafter set and for those of us who just like to stitch and embellish like crazy I could see these as crazy quilted items too.

TipNut has put together a list of 21 craft projects. Many of them look to be good stash busters or make good gifts.

Pam Kellog has once again been sharing vintage embroidery designs

This tip on the ‘no-join’ method of cutting fabric strips is very clever if you use fabric yarn. Thanks for Whip up for the link

Also found via Whip up is these vintage cut out paper dolls

This tutorial from Zephyrama on making button necklaces had me looking at my buttons. (I think I will try it only with fine cord not wire)

For those on stitchin fingers you might like to check out the Ning Blog as it highlights interesting social networks that are hosted by ning.

A blog I have recently discovered is Useful Books (for putting things in). Book binders and anyone interested in journals and hand bound books will enjoy this

 

WeaveZine

WeaveZine is a new ezine online that focuses on contemporary weaving. The first issue has some excellent articles in it. Since I am an avid recycler I pounced on Recycled Plastic Bag Weaving by Jana Trent. This piece is clearly illustrated and the project is explained in a straightforward manner.

An excellent article on Photographing Your Work is also published in this issue. Since taking good photographs of your work is crucial to everyone I am sure all readers here will find this article of interest. Daryl Lancaster touches on the basics of cameras, image resolution, file formats, speed and aperture, image editing, light levels, lighting and polishes off the article with resources.

These are just two of a good dozen articles worth reading so pop over and explore WeaveZine over a cuppa. Thanks for the link goes to Art Cloth Text

 

Gems to be found at Needlwork Tips and Techniques

An article on the history of crazy quilting lead me to be reminded of Carol Leather’s site Needlework tips and techniques. While there I was poking about and discovered that the ever tricky bullion stitch has been featured in a tutorial on Bullion Roses. Clear tips and advice on how to do this stitch is presented. I have directions on how to do this stitch here but I think this article clearly explains how the needle is angled if you do not use a hoop. Personally I always recommend a hoop but many people do not like them.

This lead me to poke about a bit and I discovered these detached chain stitch strawberries that I think crazy quilters will love. Do pay a visit to Needlework tips and techniques and Carols blog I think you will enjoy them both.

 

Tutorials and resources online

A PDF containing sample colour palettes, and bead suggestions, is on the  Margie Deeb site in order to promote her book The Beader’s Color Palette. Also if you like looking at colour palettes or are a beader check out her blog  Color for Bead artists

On Sew and Sox Jen has listed a good number of sewing tutorials online. Check them out as there are many projects that are either great gift ideas or good stash busters.

 

My new online course is available!

I am bouncing around this morning as my new online class has been announced. Yes the news is I have a new course to offer via workshops at Joggles.co

Drum roll please …. It is called …. Studio Journals: A Designer’s Workhorse

The aim to help people keep and use a studio journal and hopefully students will not only put stuff into it but develop designs from that ’stuff’ and take what they design into a fiber form of some sort. Here is a a description taken from the blurb …

Keeping a Studio journal is a process for catching ideas, developing those ideas into designs with the aim of realising those designs in fiber. Unlike an Art journal which aims to be an aesthetic object in its own right a Studio journal is a designers workhorse.

This course covers the process of using a Studio journal to create designs suitable for textiles such as contemporary embroidery, or quilting. To use a Studio journal as part of your creative practice you do not have to know how to draw but there are some tricks to establishing a process that leads to a design that can be applied to textiles. This workshop covers the process of how to keep a studio journal, how to develop and idea further, and how to turn it into a design suitable for a project in fiber

Painters keep a sketchbook to take visual notes of what they see but their finished paintings and their sketches are very different. Writers keep notebooks but their published book is not the same as what is first put down. Notebooks are starting points for more developed ideas. Both writers and painters go through a process using their sketches and notes as a starting point. Fiber artists do the same thing when they develop a design. Studio journals can be used as the starting point for textile practitioners. This is what this course is about.

Each week a series of design exercises are introduced. Students work though these in order to develop designs that can be applied to fiber. They aim to develop design skills and the habit of using a studio journal.

Please note that this course is about keeping a studio journal as a work horse not about creating an art journal that is a finished object in its own right. The emphasis is very much on using a studio journal as part of a design process to produce something in fiber. The course contains design exercises and techniques and discusses how these might be applied to textiles. It is a course where students spend their time designing for textiles and working in their Studio Journal rather than working a step by step project. That said I am definitely not going to discourage anyone from jumping in and making something!

This class will begin on June 27 and click here to order it from Joggles.com

Also my Online class Encrusted Crazy Quilting will run again

Also taken from the class blurb …

One of the delights of crazy quilting is that there are no rules. This is liberating on one hand but for those who are beginners they often get stumped as to where to start and how to control what they do to start! Encrusted Crazy Quilting offers students the opportunity to learn how to piece, develop and heavily hand embellish a crazy quilt block with hand embroidery, beading and exploring different embellishing techniques while solving design, composition and colour issues. This class is suitable for beginners to intermediate crazy quilters.

Encrusted Crazy Quilting will start on June 19th Click here to order or find out more

How the classes work
There are two major components of online classes, the lessons themselves, and the forum. The lessons are the guts of the class. The lessons are an Adobe PDF document are disseminated to the students by joggles.com. Each student is given a User ID and password as well as the URL to the class webpage where they are expected to go and download each lesson. There is a one lesson per week. I have designed the lessons so that people can work at them as much or as little as they choose. Some people have more time to put into them others do not. I understand this, for this reason I have designed the lessons to be self paced.

The expectation is that the students download each lesson weekly and progress through the class. They can choose to just do a few hours stitching or more. It’s up to the student.

Each student is invited to register at the forums, which is where all class communication takes place. While not real time chat, you can post messages. I check the forum daily to answer questions and join in on the chat. Students can post images of their work online so I can give them feedback. Participation in the forums is totally voluntary but I think this is the fun part of the process as it is where students get feed back from me, bounce ideas off each other and share pleasure in learning a new skill.

 

A pot holder from a dish towel

Artsy Crafty Babe has written a tutorial on how to make a potholder from a dishtowel. Why would want to do that? No fuss with padding or binding making it supper quick and easy. I think its so easy it would also be suitable for young sewers such as children learning to use a sewing machine. They could make them as gifts. So check out the Dish Towel Potholder Tutorial

 

After Easter …

We had a wonderful Easter break at the National Folk Festival. Jerry has blogged much of it here If you like Irish/celtic music and would like to hear a bunch of people  playing at the session bar Jerry has a video  online. I spent a lot of time catching up with some very old friends. Folkies get together each at festivals and we have been going to the national for  30 years so when I say I caught up with old friends - I meant old friends

Anyway we both enjoyed ourselves but came home with a flu so now feeling a bit worse for wear. So if you don’t hear from me tomorrow you know I am in bed.

In the meantime just so this post is not totally off topic I received an email over the weekend from Marie Alton of SRE Deluxe as she has published a tutorial on  Creating tiny tassels

 

Interesting Textiles up for auction

Virginia Spiegel dropped me an email to remind me that her Reverse Auction opens on March 10 with 100% of the proceeds to go directly to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For A Cause.

There is some fantastic artwork that is included. For instance take a look at this Woad Kimono-Style Jacket. There are art quilts, jackets, and beaded pieces. You can find out all about it here

On another note a couple of quick links this morning as life is busy but I wanted to direct your eye to a number of craft and mixed media tutorials housed at the ART chix Studio

Also Crabby Old Lady has a great list of Blog and Internet Annoyances which I bet most readers will agree with but you would be surprised how many bloggers/web site designers don’t take these points into consideration.

 

Art Demonstrations and Tutorials online

I know many readers here are interested in developing their visual journal skills. For anyone who wants to develop their drawing skills visit ArtDemonstrations.com

The blog collates together links to tutorials, instructional material and art demonstrations on the web. It is well worth spending an hour or so browsing and then hauling out that visual journal and exploring some of the techniques.