Hot & Cold Theme

Hello!  Here is the final installment of the Foam Lake workshop I taught.  The afternoon theme was 'Hot and Cold'.  The women were encouraged to use both warm and cool colours from the colour wheel, and also work around the theme of staying warm in the cold.  I was fully expecting to have a winter theme, but winter just has not arrive here!  So the idea of warm/cool seemed like a very fun challenge.  As the women worked on finishing up their poppy cards, I worked on separating my fabric stash into warm and cool colours.

If you look, you can see that there is a large mirror suspended from the ceiling in the classroom.  It's a Home Ec room, so this is used for food prep demonstrations, allowing the students to be able to see the counter top from their desks.

You know me... Photo op!!  : )

this is a photo of the mirror above the work table!

That's so neat!  There you can see the cool fabric colours on the left and the warm fabric colours on the right.  the middle boxes are full of embellishment odds and ends (yarn, ric rac, tulle, dryer sheets, buttons, sequins).

With the Hot & Cold theme, I also had some templates available.  They are all still 4x6" postcards, but with pieces chopped out.

elbow deep in fabric, trying to make a decision 

Everyone finished, but this next photo was a bit premature.  The participants were asked to add more in the way of embellishments with the afternoon theme.  Here are some of the results...

Here is a great example of the use of yarns, both in the composition and for the border as well!

Hot Cocoa on a Cold Day

Notice that she used hot & cold for the subject as well as for the choice of fabrics.  : )
Oh, and check these out!

His & Her Mittens

Aren't they adorable!?  These were made by Audrey, the woman I billeted with.  Good gosh, she is creative.  Coincidentally, she happens to sell dried flower pendants & jewelry at Handmade House!  She is also a seamstress and a great photographer.  You rock Audrey.

And here is the last one I'll show you.  Pretty cute!

The funny thing is that I was assuming it would be winter by now, but it just hasn't happened.

Thank you so much to the whole class in Foam Lake!  I had such a fun day with you all.  One participant won the draw for a postcard to be mailed to her from me!  : )  I mailed it off this week.

Poppies and Postcards

After driving many hours west to teach, I drove a few hours east last week as well!  I headed to Foam Lake to run a full day Creative Quilted Postcards Workshop.  As I prepare for teaching this class, I always get a little nervous trying to come up with a theme.  Each time I run this workshop (at least 20 times now) I come up with a new theme.  Noticing everyone with poppies on their jackets, I figured that was a great idea!  Poppies!  : )  How fitting.  The only problem was I really didn't have much red in my huge stash of scraps.  So, off to the LQS!

The shop was closed on that day, but the owner was kind enough to meet me there to sell me some poppy-red fabrics.  Then she headed to the classroom with us to take the workshop!  (Thank you Catherine!)  Notice the pretty posies on her card!?  So pretty!

With a full day class, we did a couple themes.  The morning theme was 'Poppies'.  After my 'spiel' we got to work.  This class was in the Home Ec room of a local highshool.  What a great space!

Everyone had their own tables to work at.  This is Audrey, working on her poppy postcard.  Just look at her!  She's so good at what she does, she can sew projects with one hand.  : )

Audrey is the woman who contacted me about the workshop, and was kind enough to have me stay the night before at her home.  She fed me fish and wine for supper.  She showed me all her favourite things on the walls.  She has a beautiful sewing room which reminded me a lot of my space: French doors that open to a long, bright room with dark brown laminate floors.  And her guest bed gave me the best sleep I've had in a long, long time.  Thank you again Audrey for having me!

Here are the results of the Poppy challenge - 13 beautiful and unique mini art quilts.

I regret that I don't have close ups of all of them.  The details are beautiful.  I will show you a couple I did get images of.  This next one has so many layers which gives is a nice feel.

This next one was very unique.  She made the poppy seed pods!  How creative.

When she started the top pod, he bobbin thread came loose.  We decided to leave it, and say it was on purpose to add dimension, (just don't tell anyone!)

I love the photo above!  They are all checking out each other's work.  I have more to show with the afternoon theme, but I'll save it for another post.

If you are interested in a class with me in Saskatoon, I have room in my Postcards class scheduled for Monday, November 16th in the afternoon.  Message me at Monika@MySweetPrairie.ca.  There are 2 spots left.

Teaching Time!

Now that the shows are over and the galleries are stocked, I'm shifting over into teaching mode once again.  First, I am heading west to Innisfail AB to do a Threadpainting class for a quilting group there.  After I come back home, I head east to run a day long Postcards Workshop in Foam Lake, SK.  While I have all my supplies out and ready, I figured it's a great time to slot in some classes in my home studio.  If you are interested, Postcards will be the afternoon of Monday, November 16 (3 hrs, $30+kit) and Threadpainting will be the afternoon of Tuesday, November 17 (4 hrs, $40=kit).  Email me if you want a spot.  Monika@MySweetPrairie.ca  Monday is more creative and adventurous.  Tuesday is more technical and skill based.  Extra classroom machines are available for a $5 rental to cover maintenance.  : )

Janomes in my Studio

Right now, I'm getting the details prepared for a two day workshop I'm doing in Olds for the Fibre Pot Pourri weekend in the Spring of 2016.  It's a handwork / embroidery event and so I'm creating a new workshop for it based on what I's very excited about at the moment.  ; )  It will be all about going from Sketch to Stitch.  I took out some supplies and sat and waited for inspiration to come.  I thought, ' hmmm....  LOVE this bison photo I took several autumns ago.'

I love the sunlight on them.  And so I sketched it out with some horribly messy oil pastels.

I chose a group of five of them.  I dislike the sky, but I adore the grasses and the beasts in the sun.  And so with that positive experience under my belt, I did a couple more all based on personal photos I have kickin' around...

You likely know that one.  It's the 3 sweet shrubs at Cranberry Flats that I've stitched out many, many times.  I totally want to stitch this one with fat yarns on black.  I think it would be a blast.

My idea is to sketch out natural scenes like they were to be patterns for embroidery.  The lines are fairly thick and lend itself well to stitching.  Then I have all these Noro yarns which totally rock.

With just one ball, you get so many colour variations!  This is how I worked the Birch trees that sold at my open studio.  I'm so excited to do more and share it at the Workshop next spring.

Well.  Writing this post out is enough to inspire me to make more Noro embroideries!  I'm a tad addicted.  Linking to The Needle and Thread Network.  Now off to stitch : )

Have a lovely day,