It's been a busy few days! My husband and I traveled to Pittsford, New York to take a few classes being offered at Hobby House Needleworks. I must say, I love that store! Not only are David and Kathy wonderful to work with, but their store is just loaded with all kinds of goodies! It was so much fun tripping through the store and gathering up some goodies. Some I had ordered in advance, but the rest were lucky finds...some fibers I've been looking for, some fabrics I've been searching for, and some patterns that just jumped off the shelves at me. I even found a book by the Royal School of Needlework that I have been pining for. Yippee!
My main goal for my visit was to take two classes by Jean Farish. She is a wonderful teacher!! I wish I could have picked her brain for more information, but alas, time ran out way too fast. The first class I took was the Melbourne Sampler...which I learned had nothing to do with Australia, and everything to do with a town in Florida that I had visited a few times. I learned a few new stitches, but the most exciting thing I learned was how to do some drawn thread work...that included removing some linen threads from the fabric and weaving them back in. Now I've done this before, a looooong time ago, and learned from a pamphlet I had bought. The way Jean taught it was revolutionary in my opinion!! By removing a bit to the side of the opening and reweaving in the thread you removed, you could hardly tell that a thread was removed. Amazing!!! Because I'm learning all these new stitches, my stitching is moving very slowly, but it sure is hard to put down...I can't wait to get to the good stuff...LOL!! Here is my drawn thread portion, I still have some work to do with this section.
The other class I took was designing our own schoolgirl sampler. I will be doing that but for the purposes of this class, I designed a little project first to learn the basics of the program I am using. I believe it's called WinStitch. At first I was overwhelmed, but I'm catching on and am having fun playing around with different elements of the program. Here is the beginning of my "sampler".
I've since finished the design. I'm going to stitch it, and if everything works like I hope it does, maybe I'll have a little surprise later on...watch this space! We received a few freebies for taking the second course...these are great reference books to have on hand when designing. I'm also hoping to find some books that tell the meanings different motifs found in some samplers. My final goal is to design a sampler that tells the story of my family's history through the years. Wish me luck!! (The small Prancer pattern was not free, I had a momentary brain fart when I included that in the pic...LOL).
Hopefully I'll have more done the next time I blog on the 15th...you know what day that is, don't you? Gifted Gorgeousness! See you then...until we meet again...Happy Stitching!
3 comments:
Your trip away sounds amazing, it's always good to learn new skills. I love your drawn thread, it's something I'd like to learn. Have fun with your sampler and designing some more.
That sounds like an amazing weekend away. It's always good to learn from a master like Jean. I must honest, that is how I've done drawn threadwork before. I have some little Shepherds Bush samplers and that's how they tell you to do it, but they are masters too so it makes sense!
The Brenda Keyes books are a fabulous resource too. I have one full of motifs, I showed in one of my Stitching Library posts.
DJ: It sounds like you had a wonderful time, love all your new stash and the freebies wow so lucky.
Catherine
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