Coming Soon!

The Embroiderers' Guild National Seminar is coming to the East Coast November 2-6, 2016!

Check out this enchanting ort box designed and taught by friend and mentor Canby Robertson...



This is just one of three of Canby's classes being taught at Seminar next Fall.

Inspired by a set of 17th Century Blackwork sleeves in the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection, her class will explore the last phase of English Blackwork, a period when blackwork evolved into a surface embroidery technique that tried to replicate the linear quality and shading of early printed illustrations.

Measuring a petite 3.5" tall, this compact folding six-sided box is packed with technique and exquisite detail...

Designed and stitched by Canby Robertson.  All rights reserved.

And the stitches!

Designed and stitched by Canby Robertson.  All rights reserved.

Based on 17th century stitches, Canby's stitch and thread choices are masterful.

Stitches such as blanket, herringbone, trellis, coral knot, reverse chain, double reverse chain, and double reverse chain bring the flora and fauna of this diminutive design to life.  So much to learn!

Like this use of seed stitch with super fine Sufine thread...

Designed and stitched by Canby Robertson.  All rights reserved.

An expert reproduction of shading in early print illustrations.

Plus, it's not only beautiful, it's useful.

Designed and stitched by Canby Robertson.  All rights reserved.

The hexagon collapsible box is made from six plastic hotel key cards so it folds flat to pack away in your work box.

I just love everything about this box!

Designed and stitched by Canby Robertson.  All rights reserved.

Lucky for me, I will be a pilot stitcher for this box in March but you can have a chance at taking this workshop from Canby at National Seminar 2016.

Canby is one of the most signifcant and influential embroidery teachers I've ever had.  Her classes are rich in content, history, design theory, and materials knowledge.  Where many teachers provide only core instruction on how to replicate their designs, Canby's classes explore the thought process behind the design; reveal the what, why and how of stitch, thread and color choices; and provide a framework for critique and improvement.  The skills I've learned from her have been foundational and highly transferable to my own design process, expanding my skill set and staying with me long after the workshop is over.

If you can take a class from her at National next year, you should.

In addition to the ort box, Canby will also be teaching a one-day lettering class which I highly recommend and have enthused over before in this blog post here when I took the class in 2009.  Folks tease me when I say Canby's lettering course changed my life, but it did.  I've used the techniques learned in that class over and over again...




I've signed up to take Canby's third class, Diminutive Rose: A Study in Soft Shading, where I hope to learn more about shading, texture and color theory.

If you're not familiar with EGA, it is a national organization comprised of many local chapters.  You can go here to search for a chapter that might be in your area.

Much of my instruction and embroidery learning has occurred through the programs and workshops of my local group, the Constellation Chapter, which is in the Mid-Atlantic region.  Though I've been very involved locally, I have never attended a national seminar so I'm looking forward to my first conference next Fall.  Alexandria is not very far from where I live in Maryland.

The other teacher I'm hoping to learn from is Katherine Diuguid, professor at NC State University.  Trained at the Royal School of Needlework, I've been following Katherine's blog since I met her at the Winterthur Needlework conference in 2014.  My absolute favorite piece of Kat's is her goldwork Beehive and I've been lusting after it since she posted her progress on her blog last Fall.  When I saw it being offered as a class at National, I was over the moon!  Fingers crossed that I get in.

Early registration is now open from Nov 1-Nov 30, 2015 for members.  Hope to see some of you there!

Drawn Thread Forests with Catherine Jordan

For the past two days I've had the pleasure of learning from this warm and talented woman, Catherine Jordan.

I've been admiring Catherine's work for years as she tends to exhibit her work at the Woodlawn Needlework show each March.  

Her work is wonderfully three-dimensional and she uses a combination of drawn thread, fabric painting, needleweaving and embroidery to make contemporary forests, boxes, journals and more.

I just love how her trees not only recede back into the composition but come forward as well, reaching over the picture frame.

Our project yesterday was this 4"x6" contemporary drawn thread forest...

Though it appears as if this forest is deeper than one piece of fabric, it's not.  Isn't that cool?

The first part of class was learning to withdraw threads and re-weave them to create an opening in the linen...

That took me most of the first day...a bit time-consuming but well worth it.

Next, we each painted the fabric, giving added dimension to our forest setting.

I love a process class like this where individual choices makes each piece unique. 

Folks were choosing shades of autumn, spring and summer and pieces started coming to life...

We learned many tips for shading and creating skylines during different seasons and times of day.

Once the stage was set, the fun continued as we learned methods for weaving our trunks and embroidering the foliage...

Lots of decisions needed to be made about tree placement, foreground and background...

As well as clipping out threads to make space for the trees to breathe...

After two days of work, some of our forests were well underway...

And some of us only had the beginnings of an idea...

I decided on a dark and creepy forest and spent yesterday painting my linen and working on a creepy tree.  Just one.

I have visions of something like this..

Though I'd really like to keep working on it, I've got to push it aside to work on a few other things for Mrs. Rose and my Japanese embroidery.

Most of the time when I attend a workshop at my Guild, I feel badly because many of the courses are not available to you in your areas.

Here's the good news.  Catherine is teaching this class, Contemporary Forest Necklaces, at the Shining Needle Society online and registration is open now!

If you are not yet a member of the Shining Needle Society Yahoo group, you can go here to find all the details.  There are MANY opportunities for you to take classes there, just request to sign up and you will receive updates on class offerings.  Catherine's forest class begins November 1, 2014 but registration closes today so get a move on!

Catherine Jordan will also be teaching at EGA National Seminar in Phoenix in a few weeks.  If you can't find her there, spend some time perusing her website to see her work and her class schedule.  She sells kits for many of her designs (including instructions) as well as supplies.

Oh, and check out her maps (kits here, workshops here)!  They are amazing! And there's an online class for that too if you're interested in making one for your area (details here).  

I would love to do the Chesapeake Bay so a group of us from our EGA Chapter hopes to research one and stitch it together with Catherine's assistance.  She told us about a group in Cape Cod that is creating one for a class she'll be teaching there next Summer which gave us the idea.  Thank you Catherine!!

Here's hoping you get to learn from her one day.  She is wonderfully open with her expertise and her workshops are chock full of information that will open up whole new areas of possibilities in your needlework...

Literally.

From Down Under, Above and In-Between

Gary Clarke, needlework designer and instructor, has been with our Guild since Saturday.  

I was looking forward to learning from Gary since:  A)  It's not very often we get teachers from Australia,  B) He's a guy-- it's not very often we get those either, and C)  His work and compositions intrigue me.

Gary's designs play with layers, textures and depth.

The study piece in our workshop is entitled Desert Fan...

Desert Fan is stitched using variations of shadow work with stitches on both the top surface and the underneath surface of organza, a stiff yet transparent fabric.  Gary has added paper for the fan ribs as well as a pleated paper fan underneath the organza to give the composition depth and interest.  

Our stitches were intended to give the appearance of the Budgerigar  (Budgie for short), otherwise known as the parakeet...

Budgies are found wild in the drier parts of Australia and have survived there for over five million years.

Christy started working on the full fan...

While Carolyn and others, including myself, decided to work a smaller pair of birds.

In this pic you can see how some of the herringbone stitches are on top of the organza while others are stitched below...aka shadow work...

Adding paper behind the organza to finish the design adds another element of play which opened up a whole new world for me.

At the EGA National Seminar, Gary taught this hot air balloon...

And this Fan Tail (thanks Leeann)...

Both are good examples of how he used the transparency of the organza to great effect in creating a composition that draws you in and keeps your interest.

For those that are interested, Gary has a website here.  And has this book Embroidery Illusions available on Amazon.

Today we're continuing to work with textures and layers on a whitework elephant.  The technique is new to me and very different from the Desert Fan.  I'll share that next time.

Happy day everyone!

Textile Day at the Baltimore Museum of Art

This past Saturday, the Baltimore Museum of Art held its Annual Textile Day. It's a day chock full of programs, lectures and exhibitors -- all surrounding textiles.

This year I went as an exhibitor on behalf of the Constellation Chapter of the EGA. And we had a wonderful day!

First of all...exhibiting amidst the museum's works of art was one of the day's highlights for me. It's a very inspirational setting and seeing textile artist after textile artist demonstrating amidst sculpture, paintings and mosaics was pretty cool.

I ran into an old friend that I had met at the Tambour beading masterclass I had taken in Kentucky...Jennifer Brown.

Jennifer was displaying her wonderful beadwork creations...

And demonstrating how to make "textiles" using beads.

I just love her sampler strips of peyote stitch, combining different beads and patterns into something like this belt.

I also met new friends like Judy Shapiro who has stitched many of the ecclesiastical banners at the National Cathedral in Washington...

She also is a Master Maker of Baltimore Album Quilts AND a beautiful beader.

Judy lectures and teaches and does not live too far from me so maybe our paths will cross again.

And the Chesapeake Region Lace Guild was also there demonstrating Bobbin lace....

Oh, how I dream of making bobbin lace one day once Jack is grown and gone...

Sitting right next to us, was this art student from Maryand Institute College of Art working on her Power Suit project.

She asked passersby to select an article of clothing that they thought represented power -- she asked them to write down the reason for their selection --

And then she will be sewing them all together to make one large "Power Suit".

Someone picked underwear and said "Sex is Power" -- I picked a Red Suit Jacket thinking of a photo of Madeleine Albright surrounded by Heads of state -- all men, all dressed in navy blue or black...and there she was standing out with a bright red jacket on...I've never forgotten it.

And I often see Hillary Clinton doing the same thing...wearing bright colors amidst the sea of dark...

There were lots of other exhibitors like the Baltimore Bead Society, the Baltimore Applique Society...but they were in areas where the light wasn't as good for pictures...

Next year I'll post about going ahead of time so that some of you might decide to come visit for Textile Day. It's a great day to visit the museum and admission was FREE!

Happy Monday everyone!

Puttin' on the Wrist

Don't they all look gorgeous???

At our EGA meeting on Monday, all the women who took the Jewel of India bracelet class in February wore their finished bracelets! It was so much fun to see how each one of their color choices turned out...


And Ann Flowers attempted a double-wide with smashing success! Ann is always living on the edge...


She also used a delica bead which I had never seen before called "thistle" -- it's my new favorite! It's the rainbow-colored one on the edge of this bracelet...and I found it at Whimbeads here.


And speaking of wrists...mine have been kind of sore lately. And not just my wrists, but the thumb joint or the carpo-metacarpal joint (I just learned that at Hand University!)

I was sharing my woes with fellow crazy quilter Betty Pillsbury and she told me about a wrist rub that she sells as part of her business, Green Spiral Herbs. So not only is Betty a magnificent embroiderer and teacher...she's also an accomplished herbalist!


Well, I've been using her wrist rub religiously over the past few days to great effect. I keep it in my purse and rub it on when I'm waiting in line...

I also bought some meditation oil -- I am trying to be a better meditator and I'm hoping that the oil will help me stay focused *snicker...Kind of like just by buying the weight loss book, I should lose the 20 pounds *guffaw

I have never met Betty before but I'm looking forward to being her student next Spring at the Adventures in Crazy Quilting Seminar being held in Glastonbury, CT. She will be joining Allie and SharonB for an unforgettable three days of study and fun! I cannot wait. I wish it wasn't a whole year away. And I've heard that it's already half full! I have never been to anything like this so I cannot believe I'm finally going to meet some of you in person. What a joy it will be!

Have a great weekend everyone. Wrist assured, I will!

P.S. If anyone has any other tried and true therapeutic techniques for their hands, I'd love to hear them!

P.P.S. If you were one of the folks that had asked me about the Jewel of India bracelet pattern, I have two spare copies of the magazine so drop me a line -- I have forgotten who you were...sorry

P.P.P.S. Your trivia for the day...What power does Wonder Woman have when she crosses her bracelets??