25 May, 2010

Stars Upon Thars

2010-05-25T21:03:03-05:00Classes & Teaching, Sewing & Design|4 Comments

These turned out so gorgeous I had to share!  My friend Karen and I just finished up a school residency with 2 kindergarten classes; I designed the class, she taught it.  The teachers wanted to do a Native American project so I suggested making these little star quilts and reading the book “Shota and the Star Quilt”.  The diamonds are cut and stiffened fabric that the kids glue-sticked to a card stock backing.  Each kid made a little quilt and then they made a bigger one all together and had a “quilting bee”.

20 March, 2010

Duet (or dueling oboes?)

2010-03-20T16:58:29-05:00Classes & Teaching, Sewing & Design|2 Comments

Had a ball teaching my beadwork class today.  We had fun stitching.  I had men in my class (this always tickles me to pieces.  I love a guy who sews or knits!)  We chatted, we brainstormed and best of all, I think everyone “got it”.  Some of them didn’t love it as much as I do, but they figured it out.

I have lots of samples stitched by other people, but I didn’t really have anything I had stitched in the technique I was teaching, so I made my “Duet” bracelet.  That is a single row of lane stitch with a picot beaded edge (the two skills I taught in class).   Size 11/0 beads, stitched on wool felt with 8/2 perle cotton.  (Click the picture to see the whole thing)

17 March, 2010

Works in Progress Wednesday

2010-03-17T21:07:02-05:00Classes & Teaching, Sewing & Design|2 Comments

Green for St Patty’s Day!

More rows finished on my shawl.

I am also making class samples for a workshop I am teaching on Saturday about Native American beadwork.  It’s a teacher training session and I am showing the “lane stitch”.  The blue lines on this sample are the lanes.  You stitch rows of beads in lines like this to fill large areas.  The colors in this sample are not the greatest, but this was what I had for beads the right size.  I am teaching using size 6/0 beads (big ones) rather than 12/0 that you think of as “seed beads”.  Easier to see what you are doing in a larger size and I can use embroidery needles and heavy thread.  I have several techniques all thought up for adapting to different ages too so I will be stitching more samples up tomorrow so I can pass those around.  (You can find me on Saturday 1:00 – 3:00 at the Arts for All Conference for St Paul Public Schools.)

20 October, 2009

Weaving 101: My first scarf

2009-10-20T22:16:36-05:00Classes & Teaching, Weaving, Felting & FIbers|6 Comments

I had the enormous pleasure of attending a networking meeting with the regional arts council that was also a hands-on art activity, namely weaving on a floor loom.  First a huge thanks to MRAC and the Weavers Guild of MN for putting it together and sponsoring it.  You guys rock!

Our workshop was based on the Weavers Guild’s “Try It” classes.  You show up, a very kind volunteer has “dressed the loom” (aka warped it) for you and you get to just sit down and weave.  What a deal.  These were warped with Harrisville Shetland wool.  There is a whole wall of it in the Guild in gorgeous colors.  We had a few minutes of instruction, a demo and then chose a loom. Mine was set up with stripes of blue-violet, raspberry pink and two shades of green.  The weft yarn was a heathery purple.

The warp threads were set up at 10 per inch and our goal was to weave 10 weft threads per inch, to make a balanced weave.  That meant that your woven piece should look like a windowscreen.

Believe it or not, that was actually easier than it looks.  So we wove and wove.  I think I worked on my scarf for about 3 hours.  I chatted a lot while I was doing it.  When I took it off the loom it felt like burlap.  Yeah, I know.  Yuck.  But never fear, I saw finished samples and they were totally amazing.  Why the burlap feel?  The yarn is full of lanolin and it makes it feel kind of yucky and scratchy.  I suspect it makes it easier to weave with because there’s not a lot of fuzz to get caught on the other threads as you go.  So then I took my scarf home and gave it a bath.

Warm soapy water.  Squishing and scrunching.  Within half a minute the yarn is already softer.  The goal now is to “full” it.  Letting the fibers shrink a little and fluff up to fill in those holes you left when you wove it.  Why make holes and then fill them up?  Why not just weave it tightly?  The answer is drape.  If you pack it tightly together, your scarf is like a board when you get done.  The looser weave lets it be soft and drapey.  Mine started out about 8 inches by 75 inches.  It’s now 6 1/2 by about 66 inches.

Out of the bath, roll it in a towel and squeeze out the extra water.  Then I spread it out on the guest room bed and brushed it.  I used a nylon nail brush.  Brushing the surface fluffs the fibers up even more.

The bottom part of this has been brushed, the folded over part not yet.  See the ugly orange yarn?  That’s the fringe.  We wove about a dozen rows of that from an acrylic yarn that doesn’t shrink.  After brushing everything, then we unravel those fringe ends.

The last few rows of the wool yarn (before the ugly orange stuff) is a little extra tight, to make a stable edge before the fringe.

Finally, I stretch it all out to dry.

8 September, 2009

Ribbons

2009-09-08T20:00:02-05:00Classes & Teaching|Comments Off on Ribbons

There it is!  My felted garden with its ribbons.  Pratt School is about 1/2 a block from the Textile Center, so every class walked over to do their part of the garden with me and Lynn, another Textile Center teacher.    All the pieces in the garden are wet felted and then my fantastic intern Lauren and I stitched them on to the background piece.  It was hung in a sort of odd spot at the fair, but I hope lots of people got to see it in person.

9 July, 2009

Knee Deep in Summer Camp

2009-07-09T18:00:33-05:00Classes & Teaching|3 Comments

Summer Camp started this week at work.  My favorite time of the year and the most crazy time of the year for me.  Today was 2 camps, I was in the building from 7:45 – 5:30.  Had to come home and change my clothes becasue of some sneaky red paint (hope it washes out!)  Today a sock narwhal was created.  A group of teens made thermofax silk screens of their own artwork and printed posters, t-shirts, notebooks and more and more.  Tomorrow is the final day of sock animals class plus “Creature Quilts”, which is patchwork quilts for your stuffed animals.  Must find time over the weekend to get more wool for the “Trek through India” class next week.  Felted vessels are Monday’s project.

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