Stitch Camp

I started 3 new art classes this week....two of them free.  I'm hoping to improve my hand lettering....I'm drawing mandalas.....and I'm spending a week at "Stitch Camp!" 

On a tip from Lily....I signed up for "Stitch Camp."  It's free....with a lesson each day this week from textile artist Gwen Hedley who is taking us through a small project from beginning to end.  It involves painting fabric....cutting it up and putting it back together....hand stitching....embellishing...and finally finishing.  All that in a week!  The videos will be a available for a few more weeks....so there's time built in if I get behind.  I'm already behind.

https://training.textileartist.org/stitchcamp-signup-2/

I have admired work from several different textile artists using these techniques....and I hope to translate it to landscapes and fabric collage.

This fabric is the inspiration scheme for my class piece....and several other pieces that are in my head.  It already looks painted!

It's actually from a linen blouse I found at a thrift store....and I've been wanting to do something with it for quite some time. So I'm finally cutting it up.

What I love most about it is that you can get a whole different scheme when you isolate different parts.  Although I absolutely LOVE the dark inky blue...I'm using 

the lighter colors for this piece.  The dark will show up somewhere else.  

I settled in on Monday night and painted way into the evening. Our task was to do all kinds of mark making on light colored fabric....in a limited color palette.  I chose aqua, green and coral from my inspiration fabric.

Aqua and green came right out of the tube....but I had to mix the coral....and I love my mixing paper.

Problem: The other 1/2 of my studio that I haven't tidied up yet is my painting station where I do all my messy work including gelli printing. But I made it work....and I'm motivated now more that ever to get that 1/2 of the studio a little more organized. 

I was a little unsure of of it when I went to bed....it just seemed like a big mess....and this is what I woke up to.    

In the light of day....isolating little pieces and parts I thought there was hope.  

     

Yesterday's lesson was to join several different pieces of our painted fabrics. Here are four little swatches...along with 2 swatches from the blouse....tacked together into one strip.

One of the things we looked for when we joined pieces was natural connections....like this green swatch where the paint splotch connects with the linen fabric.  We'll be able to enhance these areas....and carry over lines into the next piece with stitch.  Or at least that's the hope. 

Today's lesson was how to blur the connections between the swatches with hand stitching trying to make it look like one fluid piece of cloth. I didn't have time today....but may get a start on that tonight.  

I'm thinking of this small project as a way to practice some of these skills in a sampler type way....and I am enjoying the process in "stitch camp" so far!  Thanks Lily!

This was one of my painted fabrics....but I'm not using it yet.  The background is an oatmeal colored linen....and I'm looking forward to cutting it up and using it in something else.