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Monday 3 March 2014

Monday at the Mothers Centre

Today I got to do something a little bit different.  My friend Michelle is leading the Art Program at the Mothers' Centre.  She has guest artists lined up for the month and I was invited there this Monday to introduce the women to art with stitch.

The Mothers' Centre on 20 St W, Saskatoon

I brought some examples of current fibre art practices including a piece of art by Beth Wolchock Brown (one of my faves from Winnipeg).  Everyone was so wowed at the idea of thread art.  A few of them really enjoyed the books & eye-candy I brought along, having never seen anything like it.  Some had backgrounds in painting so this really opened up some possibilities for them.


I talked to them about my background and how I got into stitching art while being a stay at home mom of little ones.  I talked about life after midnight - stitching while little ones are asleep, and how my career developed from this lifestyle thanks to the internet.

Then I taught them threading, knotting, and how to weave tail ends in... demo'd a few basic stitches and started experimenting.  We hooped up the fabric and visited while they stitched whatever they wanted with any colors they chose.  I found it easiest to bring all the 12 wt Wonderfil Threads on spools.  There's less tangling than the skeins of floss.


Above - teeny outline stitches on abstract commercial fabrics.  Below - SOMEONE fell in love with French Knots! : )

embellishing commercial fabrics

One of the mothers traced her child's hand and chain stitched the outline with black on some tie dyed fabric!  What a nice keepsake.  I love this.  : )


I brought along some stick pins and foam core to mount their work.  We didn't get that far though.  The hours went by quickly so I did a mounting/stretching demo and let everyone take home the supplies to do it themselves.

There was childcare provided, but a couple kids couldn't just watch so they joined in too.  Awesome.

Little A. joins in

 Thank you so much for the opportunity to share stitching in the art program Michelle!

a little bit of fabric collage for good measure...

What a great day!  I hope they all keep adding stitch to their lives (both the women and the children).

p.s.  This week is International Women's Day so I'm passing this on to anyone interested in contributing to some good conversation.



4 comments:

Judy Cooper Textile Artist said...

Monika, what is the name of the book you showed the group? I can see part of the name. It looks interesting. Thanks for posting.
Judy

monika@mysweetprairie.ca said...

By Julia Caprara (hope I got that right). Exploring Color.

Michelle said...

Loved Loved Loved having you there. I was so inspired I just want to go away and sew and bring all of the ideas that are flowing to life. And my little people are hooked... you have made us all converts!!

Jo Ferguson said...

What a great idea for working with youth. Thanks for sharing.

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