She came this morning to finish her wave landscape patchwork with the florals that she chose last week. Her floral selection This is one that she wanted to make And then she asked if I still had strips from the remnants box. She said that she had been thinking about it and wanted to make a second one, adding solid strips in between the florals She chose berry, plum and brown strips and laid them down between the florals. She stood back and looked at it. I don't like the brown

I am taking part in #SeptTextileLove which is organised by @seam_collective They provide a prompt for each day of September, you can read about it on their blog (go to their page in facebook and click on the link in bio) Day 25: The prompt for today is - Waste We run sewing workshops where we teach sewing from scratch from children up to adults. All of the materials used are upcycled and remnants from other projects. Nothing gets thrown away, even the smallest of pieces are

He came by yesterday morning and asked to be allowed to finish his landscape as he wanted to gift it over the holidays. These are the pieces that he had chosen.He used all the plaids that he could find. This was the thread for top stitching, there was brown and burgundy thread but he wanted orange as he said it makes the piece look warmer. And this was the final result that he went home with.

Last week I ran a landscape patchwork class with children. I provide the fabrics and they have to be creative with what they are given. This was the random selection. I pulled a packet out of one of the autumn shaded boxes. An interesting selection, some florals, a few solids and some plaids as well. I am curious to see what they do with them I told them to choose at least 4 different colors. I didn't tell them to choose solids and patterns I wanted to see what they did. Th

Last week the children were given an autumn pack of fabrics to create wave landscapes. I picked out "my" colors from there. Plum, fuschia, pink, rust and orange. Added some coordinating buttons And beads laid the fabrics out in the order I wanted to stitch them Stitched the first layer Chose coordinating threads for the next step "And when they tell you to be quiet and submit raise your voice and speak of how it should be then shine a light when the dark comes because that is

The holidays are here and its time for gift giving. What I normally do, is sew a zippered pouch for each guest and place a handmade surprise inside. One year, I did button jewelry and another, folded tote bags for shopping. This year I decided to give each guest a small fabric painted landscape art piece. This is a fun one, really quick and I used up lots of remnants that I had. Each guest was given a landscape in their favorite colors. Beige, gold, cream and pearl for one. T

I had a hard time starting this project. I jus don't connect with yellow. The challenge was to create a sunflower from upcycled and recycled materials. I didn't have a problem with that, but every time I thought of a sunflower I saw yellow. It was a challenge, so I decided to attack the project differently. Not from a color point of view, rather, I decided to envision the atmosphere and asked myself what I thought of when seeing a field of sunflowers. Well first of all Van Go

She came to class and told me that this time she is going to sew a landscape piece all by herself, I am only allowed to explain how to do it and maybe show her, sewing on my piece and not on hers. She thinks she remembers how to do it, she has been thinking about it since last lesson. She said that she liked that we chose fabrics from the scrap pile. she had told her grandmother about the lesson and was praised for her upcycling. She asked me to explain how I choose colors be

Carol Kinney asked us in the Werecreate group what would we all think about doing a fun "re" challenge for our our upcoming ISSUU LookBook. The subject would be a sunflower, as long as it's mostly upcycled/repurposed materials. Paints/threads/glue doesn't count. To be ready by Sept 14th. It has taken me a while to think about what I should create. The artist in me cringes at preset subjects or frameworks. On the other hand I like a challenge so I decided to go about it in

I challenge myself to see what I can come up with from the scrap box. I pulled out a mix of pastel strips. The technique that I focus on here is actually a way to create new fabric “yardage” which can be used as is or can be used as fabric to create other products and got to work. I purposely didn't look when I pulled them out of the pile, I was curious to see what a truly random piece would look like. A very interesting result. A densely quilted piece of fabric. A quilted p

Many students can envision a landscape in their mind's eye, others need inspiration either from nature or from a picture. Some can paint the landscape as they go and others need to refer to a planned sketch. One doesn't need any specialized fabrics to paint a landscape. There are treasures waiting in your scrap box. Those odd pieces of lace for the froth on waves Those torn grey shaded strips The remnants of strips and threads The remainders of yesterday's project Are all "pa

She had another idea 2 weeks ago. Its my own fault, I introduced her to charity stores and now she can't purchase new clothing anymore. Its as though all those ideas that have been bubbling inside of her for years are coming out now, and she has where, and how, to channel them. She purchased a lined button down classic men's jacket. Removed the sleeves and decided to make 4 pockets using fabric from them. She found a cotton ribbon strip with a red thread running through, so s