And Then There Were Nine.

Well, I hope you aren't getting bored of my classroom photos.  I love posting them.  This is my last class for the year I think.  After the postcards workshop in my studio, I tidied up the supplies, put them away and began to set up for Threadpainting Class.  Two women from Postcards class were coming back and so they left their machines for Threadpainting.  Two more requested the use of my classroom machines.  Once I had it all set up, I looked around the room and had a sense of, 'Ooooooooh.  Aaaaaaaaah!'

one

two

three

four

five, six, seven

And then my old machine 'Fiona' the Kenmore, along with my mom's old built in Kenmore are also in the house.  That makes nine.  Do I count the felting machine on the shelf?  Can I just say I feel pretty giddy about all this!?  : )

Let the games begin!

Not all of the women had threadpainted before.  There was some free motion experience in the room.  One of the students was not a quilter, but a painter.  I explained that the process is similar to colouring, but in reverse.  I passed around a clip board with paper.  Standing with my arm extended while holding a bic marker in my fist, I said, "Pretend I am the sewing machine.  Now hold the clip board and write your name."  I held still and waited.  Here are the results!  : )

It's so fun to see that!  It's like eating with your left hand while blindfolded.  lol  We fired up the machines and after a bit of practice, they were stitching away.

I personally love to see work in progress.

We stopped for coffee, tea, cookies and a stretch.  Then it was back to work.  It's interesting.  Most people start this project with the black cap on the chickadee.  Paige, the painter, started with the undercolour she saw on the belly of her bird.  Like a painter would, right?  And then she proceeded to layer the colours on top.  She did the black cap last.  Interesting.  Here is her finished project.

Everyone did so wonderful!  It's pretty fun to go back and look at the names they wrote.  It really doesn't take long to get better at free motion stitching.  It's just a matter of practice and guidelines.

So, about Paige...  she and I spoke about collaborating a while back.  We met at her studio and I got to look through her work.  She asked me about stitching on her batik paintings.  I had taken one small sample home and did a little bit of embellishing on it.  It was really great to stitch on, though I was nervous about wrecking it.  She assured me this was experimental.  Here's a little peek at it.

Paige currently has an exhibit of her work at the Centre Galleries.  They are her batik paintings (but not our collaboration).  It's worth checking out!  Here's her announcement:

Have a great day!