Threadpainting Class

Driving to Innisfree last Wednesday was so wonderful.  It was raining and dark in Saskatoon, but as I hit the border, the sun was shining.  The drive was 4 1/2 hours, and I ended up tuning in to CBC radio to unexpectedly listen to the entire ceremony and swearing-in of the new Prime Minister of Canada and all the cabinet members.  I got to listen live to the aboriginal boy drumming, as well as the two little Inuit girls who performed the traditional throat singing.  My, my.  What an amazing time I had - I felt like I was right there as I flew down the highway.  I sang along, I cheered when the crowds cheered.  I'm sure glad I didn't miss that!  It was incredibly refreshing and uplifting.  I'll admit I'm surprised to having a case of 'Trudeau mania round 2'.  It's quite invigorating.

The ceremony came to a close just before I arrived in Innisfree.  I was a little early arriving, and so I stopped to snap some photos of this gem.  It looks SO solid.  The moss was such a crazy colour!  And yes, we are snowless in November.  That is very out-of-the-ordinary!

I really wanted to go peek in.  The door is open after all, isn't it!?  It is so stately for an abandoned building.  I suppose houses are built a little better than barns and sheds though.  Take this one, for instance.

The drive across the prairie is always fun when you see these squishy looking structures.

The class was a good size.  I think there were eleven women, including the Mayor!  : )  I didn't know that until we all had supper together.  So now I can say I dined with the Mayor too.  I was surprised when I asked the class, 'tell me about your experience with free motion sewing.'  Only one had tried it before.  None of the other quilters had!  So I started at the very beginning with them, and away they went.

We do about an hour of intro & warm up exercises, and then we get straight on to the project.  In my classes, I supply everything so that all you need is a machine and thread.

It's a fairly long class at 4 hours.  Not everyone gets finished, so it's totally appropriate for a full day workshop.  Still, most were pretty close to having it all done.  They did so good at making their machines work for them.  This lady finished, and even added some embellishing yarns for the branches.  : )

How very sweet!  I teach them to work in the way that I do - with the photo nearby.  I think it's important to get past colouring in photos on cloth and trust yourself to look and understand what you are seeing.  Very nice work everyone!  Thank you all so much for the great meal, company, and laughs we shared.  : )

Maybe I'll come back in the spring with my Postcards workshop!  That would be fun indeed.

ps - I can take one more participant for my Saskatoon class on November 17th.  It's not quite full, but almost.  : )  Send me an email if you are interested:  Monika@MySweetPrairie.ca

Spring Retreat THANK YOU

I'm back!  I was just outside of Wolseley, SK for a few days with the most wonderful group of quilters and crafters.  The Tiger Lily Quilts shop organizes retreats several times per year.  I was called to teach for the weekend.

I met Liz (the owner) while driving back and forth to Winnipeg 2 years ago.  She has been pestering me to teach ever since.  I have been procrastinating ever since.  Believe it or not, I am such an introvert.  A three day retreat scares me.  I get so nervous thinking about entertaining people for days on end.  I get my batteries recharged through solitude.  In the back of my mind, I told myself, 'this is the last time.  Then I stay home and create.'  Silly, right?  It was the BEST teaching weekend to date.  I had such a good time.  I came home with a happy heart but pouting because i didn't want the weekend to end.  ; )

The first afternoon was Postcards with the Challenge Theme being SPRING!  Birds & nests, flowers, and landscapes were a common theme.  Liz just came back from vacation to she couldn't help herself.  She did the underwater ocean scene at the bottom.  She tried to convince us it was the prairie, but we know better. : )

lovely quilted landscapes with layering and embellishing

The second afternoon was the Threadpainting class.  I've been teaching both of these classes for six years now.  As usual, the women had a range of experience - from those who had never done free motion, to those who have threadpainted lots before.  I once had a student who didn't even know how to thread a machine!  I tailor my classes so that everyone starts on the same foot with the same information, and everyone including the experienced threadpainters learn new things.  This particular group were really great at the longer stitches I teach.  I personally love to see that.  Here is someone working on her project who has lots of background with free motion.

Beautiful.  Beautiful, beautiful.  She used all threads with sheen.

You have to see this next one.  It's been getting overwhelming attention on facebook.  : )  One of the participants sent me this image of her finished project.  It was her first attempt at threadpainting AND she had an injured arm - She wore a sling all weekend!  Isn't that incredible!?

way to go TANYA ! 

Truth be told, everyone's work was fabulously done.  It's not often I get to see the fully completed piece.  I love how she finished the branches.  It is so lovely.  Check out all of the blending!  Super.  I think it's had over 2000 views and nearly one hundred comments on my FB page.  : )

On the last night of the retreat, I gave a brand new lecture for the first time.  Usually I do a trunk show of what I do, or a retrospective slideshow of how I developed my art and what inspires it.  This time however, the talk was on Landscapes.  Specifically, I explained about getting the most out of your own photos to use for fibre art, whether you have a high end camera or an outdated cell phone.  It irks me when people use other artist's images and compositions.  Everyone has their own photos.  This talk was all about getting the most out of your images, even the ones that you feel did not work out at all.  I spoke about composition, cropping, lighting, points of interest, perspective, basic computer editing and how taking risks to capture images is well worth it.  It was a very fun talk, and there were several women who stayed after to discuss this more.  We went through their phone ipad images together and made some incredible discoveries.  I showed them how to make new pictures from old ones.  It was powerful!  There was a lot of emotion when they were able to see the original scene with all the light and colour they remembered.  It sure ignited some creative passion to confidently move forward and create art.  I think this is an invaluable class.  I will definitely be fine tuning it and offering again and again.  I know I've been told so many times that great art begins with great photos.  I'm glad I could show them how to do it themselves.

another beauty from Sutherland Beach in Saskatoon

So, now I'm home again.  I had never been to a full 3 day quilting retreat before.  I'm still digesting it all.  *Pun intended*  We ate like queens.  If you ever get to attend this particular group's retreat location at Circle H Ranch, you will not be disappointed.  It was an incredible dining experience.  I expected to drop a couple pounds, but I gained 4.  (Haha - I suppose that's not great advertising but we could all stand to take a few extra walks, right?)  Liz brings her quilt store goodies with her, so we were all able to shop on site.  It's advertised as a craft retreat so there was not only quilting, but ladies doing polymer clay dolls, fondant, scrapbooking, felting, and me - I brought my hand embroidery.  : )

No regrets!  I am going again as a participant.  That ranch setting and the wonderful food and socializing was just too fabulous.  We even enjoyed the return of some Canada Geese.  Happy Spring, and thank you so much Liz.  It was great to get to know you better.

Have a beautiful week,

Spring Retreat Dates Set

UPDATE - I'll be teaching two workshops and doing a brief but inspirational lecture at the Tiger Lily Quilts Spring Retreat in southern Saskatchewan.  SPRING.  Yes, it's coming.  Mark your calendars. The quilting retreat is set for March 13, 14 & 15 which is next month already!  You can come for the retreat which is a terrific package that includes meals and accomodation.  You can come for the classes only.  You can also come for a bit of both. That's totally up to you.

I love Spring road trips in Saskatchewan! 

I thought I'd repost this now that we have confirmed dates and times.  Here's the schedule:

Creative Quilted Postcards Theme/Challenge class at 2pm on Friday, March 13.  This class has 8 registered but I have opened it up to accommodate as many people as the room can comfortably hold. There will demonstrations on some unconventional machine sewing techniques.  You won't know the theme or see the materials until you get there.  This is a spur-of-the-moment, highly creative workshop where you get to play outside of the box.

SO creative - 'What's in My Jar?' theme form a past workshop

On Saturday, March 14th from 1 to 5, I will run my Threadpainting class.  I've had lots of questions about this, and yes - it is appropriate for beginners, however I will also be demonstrating a variety of threadpainting techniques for those who want to expand their threadpainting skills.  It is a technical class where you learn and utilize long and short stitches, cross hatching, and blending. Enrollment is limited to ensure one-to-one availability and there is still room for more participants.

learning to see, learning to paint with the sewing machine

What to bring?

Easy.  For the Postcards Class, you will need a machine in working order, a variety of thread colours, scissors, and accessories/feet/manual just in case you want to really get creative.  That's all.  I bring everything else - the fabric, the stamps, the backings, the stabilizer, the embellishments.

The same goes for the Threadpainting class.  Bring a working machine with manual and accessories (free motion foot and screwdriver), and a variety of thread colours, and a pair of scissors.  In your thread colour choices, you should try to have shades of beige, grey, white and black for the project itself.  I bring images, hoops, fabric, stabilizer, my favourite needles, lightbox... the whole shebang.

we'll still have snow, but I can dream about what comes next.  : )

After supper on Saturday March 14th, there will be a retreat show & tell for those working on their own projects. This will be followed by a 1 hr Lecture & Slideshow about how to get the most out of your photos for use specifically in fibre art applications (approximately 8 pm).  This is planned to be very inspirational to open up creative ideas for your art where I will be sharing a lot of my own tips and tricks.

How to sign up?
You can phone Liz at Tiger Lily Quilts 306.698.4000 or email her at TigerLilyQuilts at sasktel dot net.  She can tell you more about accommodation, meals, directions, and fees.

Openings and Opportunities

Saturday was awesome.  There weren't more than a half dozen people at any given time, but a steady flow came all day without a break.  It was so great to see familiar and new faces.  Pretty much everyone who came bought art - it was an incredibly successful day that way!  I don't feel guilt anymore about giving up the December show.  So, thank you for that!  : )  And thank you also to all those who sent a sweet message with regrets.  You all made me smile and I appreciate you so much.

Monika & Verna - she's only drinking pink ginger ale : )

I personally love the smurks on our faces.  : )

The interesting parts of Saturday were when two guests were really interested in purchasing some of my stash!  lol  I had some of my Etsy shop stock and so they had fun picking their favourites.  I had someone fall in love with a handstitched piece I had on the display table.  I hadn't planned for it to be for sale because I didn't have it finished / mounted.  So, we talked about how she would like it displayed in a wrapped canvas style with no framed.  I'll show you a photo once I have it all put together.  That was a nice surprise!  I'm glad she asked for the piece she really loved the best.  Another woman spied a prairie rug hooking on a lower shelf in the room and ended up going home with that one.  : )

On Monday, I ran a 4 hr Beginner Threadpainting Class.  There were 5 in the classroom.  I had capped it at 4, but I got an email from a woman in Manitoba who happened to be coming this way.  Of course I added her too!  What great timing.  I have a friend name Lauren from my mom's group who came to try it out.  She had never free motioned before - 110% beginner.  SHE DID SO AWESOME!  So I have to show her off just to prove that I don't need my students to have any experience whatsoever, and you really will amaze yourself.

There she is on my machine.  We had some issues with jamming on hers and so I wanted to get her going.  (p.s. Lauren, your manual was left behind here.)

And then I spent some time refilling stock for the Etsy shop as well.  The postcard supplies were dwindling.  I have yet to upload those pics but I'll do that next.

OKAY - on with the BIG commissions.  I have one more going to Australia, the USA, a couple for Canada, and even one headed to Africa.  WOWEE.  But for the moment, I think I am quite exhausted and will take today off.  I don't remember the last time I had a good rest and me-day.  Talk soon folks!  Thanks for everything,

It's a Painting-with-Thread Kind of Week.

Today I taught my Threadpainting class to the most unique group ever!  One woman drove in from Calgary, two from Manitoba, 3 from around Saskatoon, and a skype student from Newfoundland joined in as well.  That's nearly clear across the whole country!  Wow.  We had a great time.  : )

Lucky Gudrun for Calgary got to use my Bea.  She gets more stickers on her every time you see her.  ; )  Gudrun asked about coming to the city for a class last year.  Finally we made it work.

This is the Manitoba table.  : )  We make a pretty good mess when we threadpaint.  The one in the foreground is my demo piece.  When the ladies threadpaint, I teach them to do it by sight - paying attention to directional lines, colors, blending and shading.

I really enjoyed this group.  It's a four hour class and I held it at Creative House.  The ladies sure enjoyed shopping all the threads there.  : )  The building is for sale but the store is still open.  It sure was nice to be back there.

Dana was from out of town as well.  She was still sewing when I left an hour after the class ended!  I'm glad you enjoyed it Dana.  : )  I think her machine pooped out before she did.  And yay for me - people are finally letting me put them on my blog!  haha  Thank you ladies!  And thank you to Jenna in Newfoundland for suggesting Skype.  We are going to skype some more one to one later on.  What a great idea she had.

Back on the homefront I finished up some wee threadpaintings of my own for the show at Handmade house.

There's the work in progress... and here's the finished version.

5x5"  yet un-named.

And then there's WEEEEE little.  We're talking weeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Tomorrow I'll frame up and photograph the last of my pieces.  My feature display officially starts next week on Broadway in Saskatoon.  I'll tell you more when I know.  Everything there will be for sale.

Everywhere I go, people are asking about my new studio space, wondering how it's coming along.  It was left off where you last saw it for the most part.  Once this June exhibit is in, I'll head down and get to work on my room.  I expect everything to be up and running by September and certainly not sooner.  There's still lots to do.

In the mean time - it's party weekend at our house.  My daughter is having a late 8th birthday party complete with a sleep over.  I think she invited EVERYONE she knows.  lol  I'll be a little busy but I'm sure we'll all have a blast.  Bring on the pizza, pool, and Just Dance!  : )

see you soon,
and thank you all for your support.
xo

Threadpainting Class in Saskatoon

I'm happy to announce that due to enough requests, I am offering one more local class before the summer hits.  (SUMMER... remember that one!???)

 - I threw you for a loop there, didn't I?  'Summer'  I know I threw me for a loop.  lol

my sweet machines

Threadpainting 101 (4 hrs) 

will be offered once more at Creative House Sewing Centre!  Yes - they are still open with the full line of Wonderfil Threads and some gorgeous fabric (which I think is on sale). 

Threadpainting 101 is a great beginner class.  I've taught it a dozen times now so it's 'wrinkle free'.  Everything you will need is supplied for a small kit fee of $10.  My available classroom machines are spoken for, so you will require your own.  You will learn how to set up your machine & tensions, and try your hand at thread sketching and a variety of threadpainting techniques.  The morning consists of practicing.  The afternoon will introduce a project that can be completed by the end of the workshop.   
Threadpainting 101 is set for 10 am to 2 pm on Thursday, May 29th.  * * * There are two spots available and the class size will be fairly small to allow for personal instruction. 

I love this photo... : )  Threadpainting 101, 2013

If you haven't tried it before, don't let that stop you.  Threadpainting is really easy to learn.  I'll take care of the registrations so if you are interested in signing up, email me at Monika @ My Sweet Prairie dot ca.  If you can't make it, I will be offering more come September.  Stay tuned! : )

Easier than you think... even a children can do it.  : ) 

How to Stay Warm on a Cold Day

I spent my Sunday out at Bernie's sunny attic studio teaching a Beginner Threadpainting class that was postponed from November.  At minus 50 degrees celcius with the windchill, my van was frozen solid.  After a boost and letting it warm up, it literally cooled right down again once I was out on the highway.  DAMN COLD.  Nonetheless, it was a full class - crazy tough Saskatchewan folk we are!  : )

the view from the sewing room

As much as people complain about the cold, my goodness - it has been a sunny, sunny winter.  For that I am grateful.  Bernie's attic is a beautiful place to be.  Look at the sunshine spill into the room!

Thank you Bernie for once again hosting a class.  This one was Beginner Threadpainting.  It was a very diverse group - some stitched very, very slow with deliberate long stitches.  Here is a picture of Bernie - 'Fastest Threadpainter in the West' I dubbed her.  : )

Bernie C. stitching in her beautiful attic sewing room.

There were great results from each of these women, even the ones who didn't finish.  The stitching and the blending was beautiful.  Great job ladies!

The next three photos were taken just before everyone was packing to leave.  They are so cute!  : )  First, sharing the results of their stitching with each other...

Candid shots are always best.  Then the group pose!  haha

Sweet.  Thanks for your hospitality Bernie and thank you to all the women who participated on such a cold, cold day.

I pack up my supplies and headed back to the city just as it was getting dark.  It was a very good day.

Saskatoon glowing on the horizon, Sunday night in January

Weekend Review

I'm back!  I was gone for five days.  2 days were travel, 2 were teaching, and one was for recovery.  lol  It was FUN.  It was a lot of work but I met so many terrific people.  Everyone was so creative and so kind.  The weekend workshop was put on by the fantastic Shirley of Shirley's Sewing Room in Moosomin, SK.  Here she is threadpainting her chickadee.

She is always smiling!  There were 23 people in this room.  Can you believe that!?  I have never taught a group this big.  Many of the women were from Manitoba.

The first day was Threadpainting - from 10 to 4.  This was perfect.  There was lots of practice time, and nearly everyone completed the project.  We had lunch catered which was wonderful - gluten free and all!  The first night, many of us went out to a restaurant for supper.  Shirley opened her store just for us afterwards for some shopping sales!  ; )  The second day was Creative Quilted Postcards. The theme for the morning was, "What I'm Thankful For".  It was really great to see the results.  We all shared what it was we were thankful for during the show and tell, which was really nice!  :)

Unfortunately, my group card photos really didn't turn out.  Poo.  We had over three dozen postcards by the end of the day.  It was an incredible collection!  Here are a couple that came out well.  They are from the afternoon challenge.

'What's In My Jar?'

Isn't that beautiful!?  I love how it feels like I'm looking through etched glass.  This next one was a great way to use the project from the day before:

Thank you everyone! You were all so amazing!  And thank you to Shirley and her wonderful staff.

22 people + me.

I was lucky enough to be put up in a hotel room overlooking fields.  This was what I enjoyed the morning that I left Moosomin.  Aaaaah....  PERFECT!

Good morning!  Sun up in Moosomin, SK.  Click photo to view larger...

Have a great week!