Silk Ribbon Floral Embroidery Class

Friday, March 20th will be the first day of Spring!  From 1 to 2:30 that afternoon, I will be holding a silk ribbon embroidery class at my home studio in Saskatoon.  The cost is $20 if you are able to bring your own silk.  I have needles and hoops for you to use, as well as fabric to stitch on.  If you do not have silk ribbon, please bring $10 as a 'kit fee' and it will be provided for you.  Email me at Monika @ MySweetPrairie .ca to sign up.

1pm-2:30 (or 3 if we just cannot stop stitching) on Friday March 20, 2015

This class picks up from the tail end of my Introduction to Hand Embroidery class.  I always bring out the silk ribbon at the end, and there's so much Ooooooh & Aaaaaaah over the gorgeous sculptural quality of working with silk ribbon.  You don't need to have attended that class, but this will not be an overlap if you are interested in signing up.

silk ribbon leaves, petals, stems

If you want to be waitlisted for an evening or weekend class, please let me know.  For the rest of Spring, I am teaching and exhibiting around the province, however, I will be contacting everyone on my waitlist with May 2015 dates and times for weekend & evening Threadpainting classes in my studio, as well as Silk Ribbon Embroidery and Creative Quilted Postcards Workshops.  Thank you for all your interest - and your patience.  : )

Saturday Stitches - A 2014 Comeback!

Good morning!  I'm posting to let you all know that I will be continuing with the Saturday Stitches tutorials!  Saturday Stitches was a series of posts I started when I decided to learn formal embroidery.  I wanted to expand my stitch bank to have more options in my art.  That was around the time I joined the Bridge City NeedleArts Guild (Saskatoon), and the Embroidery Association of Canada (EAC).  It was also the time when I began stitching with Margot Lindsay.  As I learned each stitch, I posted them as tutorials where you got to watch me teach myself (and make mistakes along the way!)  Those tutorials evolved into the first Winnipeg class Come for Tea and Stitch With Me.  Now it's tweaked pretty well.  I've incorporated silk ribbon stitches into the class.  My hopes are to run workshops exclusively on silk ribbon embroidery.  I LOVE ribbon and use it a lot. So enjoy - I'll redo some stitches now that I have a better camera, and introduce a lot more stitches too.  (And * * * YES you can Pin any of the tutorials* * * .  No problem!)

You can find the original Saturday Stitches posts HERE.  Anytime, you can also click on the TUTORIALS tab at the top of the blog and find it there as well.  With each stitch, I try to show variations and applications.

The other thing you can do is type in search words at the top left of this page.  For instance, you can type in Sorbello Stitch, and posts tagged with that stitch will pop up.  *On that note, almost all of my posts are tagged with key words.  I have well over a thousands posts on this blog, so please help yourself and look around!  There's lots to read and look at.  ; )  Go ahead and try it out!  Any comments on old posts still come to my email, so I will see them FYI.

Talk soon,

So Summer, So Busy!

I'm really surprised that I'd have anything to blog about.  I fully expected to be in summer mode but things just keep happening.  Fiber Art Now magazine is on the stands in Saskatoon now which is great.  I'm going to pick up a few more copies (they had the call for entry that I made it into).  The very next day, Embroidery Canada magazine came out with the article I wrote last year for it.  What a surprise!  It's the magazine for the National guild... the same way CQA has their own publication.  (Sorry - not available in stores...)

Exploring the Prairies in Thread, Embroidery Canada magazine, Summer 2013 (3 pages)

Thanks so much to the members who have sent in emails to say hello!  That is so exciting - no one has ever done that before.  It was very kind of you to take the time to send a message.  : )

My lovely assistant Kari has now spent four days helping me out this summer.  It's been SO great to have her.  She put together embroidery kits for future classes, helped out my son with his projects, and did a few hours of slicing wool for me.  I bought all these rug hooking supplies from the Manitoba Craft Museum Stash Sale when I was in WInnipeg.  I look at the wool and think, 'oh if only it was sliced and ready to go so I can just make something!'.  Enter Kari...

Kari in the Kitchen

She worked on the counter because it was a good height.  It sure looked like she was making noodles!  ; )  So that's what I told the kids... When she was done, I had bags and bags of noodles sorted by color.  Oh wow - that was SO worth it.

courtesy of My Sweet Prairie's Kari ; )

I even got to run out to the dollar store for bags and pick up some take out lunch for the kids too.  I tell you, hiring someone to help me in the studio instead of hiring a babysitter or housekeeper makes so much sense.  Things are getting done and I feel like I have more free time for my children.  The children come first...

My oldest has his fist summer job.  My girl is enthralled with catching bugs and coloring.  My middle boy has dove full force into leatherworking.  He is so great at it!  He stamps and stains them, buffs and sews the leather, and then attaches the hardware like buckles and snaps all on his own.  Super!

Today, Kari agreed to help me do some taping for video tutorials.  (I'm caving to your pressure!)   Oh MAN was that hard!  We will keep working on it... but in the mean time, please enjoy these out takes.  It's the best we have to offer at this point.  lol  It's only 2 minutes and all unusable.  There's about 17 more minutes of unusable, but this is all you get for now.  : )

Have a fabulous weekend
...and stay away from those mosquitoes!

Let's Stitch Every Day (that's what she said)

I am so thrilled with how this hand embroidery class has just taken off!  My first trip to Winnipeg was my trial run with "Come for Tea & Stitch with Me".  That was only 6 weeks ago!  Since then,  I am about to offer class # 4 and 5 at Creative House in Saskatoon.  Each class has been tweaked a bit afterwards, and I feel really good about about the content now.  You never know with the first class how things will work or what can be covered in the time allotted.

12 weight Wonderfil cottons on aida cloth

In my class, we discuss needles, thread, threading, knotting, and hooping.  First we practice some basic embroidery stitches with floss/12wt threads, and silk ribbon.  Then we experiment with different fibres and see what certain stitches look like together.  I have been working out some samples for myself over the weekend... and now I'm actually craving to make a crazy quilt!  (That is crazy.)  Never say never I suppose?

designing my own hand embroidered borders

Aren't they PRETTY!?  I love my 12 wts.  I can't weight to get back to Creative House and buy up some more.  When I visited Heather Lair in Gimli, I let her pick some spools to keep as a gift, and she picked all my favorite colors!!  lol  That's awesome Heather.  : )  I look forward to replenishing my stash for sure.  I miss my chartreuse.

I got the BEST feedback today!  Linda - the woman who hosted this class at her home in Winnipeg - told me that their group had such a good time that they get together regularly now to practice more stitches.  They call it 'come for tea and stitch with me'.  Awe - too cool!!  I hope you ladies like my samples here in today's post and will try out some of your own designs.  

all one stitch done with different colors of 12 wt Wonderfil

My next Hand Embroidery 101 class is Wednesday June 12th.  It filled up immediately (!) so I'm running it again on Monday June 24th during the day.  These are at Creative House (Janome & Wonderfil dealer) in Saskatoon.  To register, you will need to phone Wendy at 306.652.0455 / Saskatoon.

On the way home from an embroidery class, I was told that one little girl told her mom, 'that was so inspiring.  Let's stitch every day."

YES.  Let's.

xo

Come for Tea and Stitch with Me (once more!)

My friend (former USCAD classmate) Elizabeth Babyn hired me to teach a module on Hand Embroidery during a 6 day fibre art course she's running out of her downtown studio.  It was such a nice day there - thank you Elizabeth!  She has this gorgeous loft all to herself and her art.  I've had invites to come 'play' there, but have never made it over until now.  What a lovely, bright space.  I sort of didn't want to leave!

Chain, Sorbello Knots, Couching, Japanese Ribbon Stitches, French Knot variations.

There was much stitching and many samplers to be had.  We had floss, silk ribbon, and Wonderfil 12 weights, yarn, torn hand dyed sari silk...  it was really nice group of women.  They really experimented a lot with the stitches & fibres.

Experimental Fibre Art group, day 3 of 6

student samplings - lace, merino roving, silks, 12 wt thread.

There were some very interesting effects depending on what people used.

I put this fabric & thread out together and then dared someone to use them.  WOWEE!

Here is Elizabeth in her lovely space.

Elizabeth stitching in her studio

I snooped around for photo oppotunities.  Look what I found!  ; )  I LOVE this. (Evidence that Elizabeth is also a long time painter.)

Her baby.  Well loved.

This is one of my favorite photos.  Look!  One of the students... stitching.  It looks like she's conducting music.  I love this silhouette! 

so graceful and artistic - I love this atmosphere!

I'm really enjoying running this workshop.  I get to do it once more in Winnipeg next weekend and then later in June at Creative House in Saskatoon.  Thank you so much ladies for having me!  It was a very good experience and am feeling artistically re-charged just from being in that studio with you all.  : )

That's what I did with my weekend!  Now I'm back to putting more kits together for the next couple embroidery classes.

Wishing you much creativity today!

I Got to be the Student!

On Saturday I got to take a workshop in Needlelace with the Bridge City Needlearts Guild!  I was so happy to finally attend a class.  That's why I joined the Embroiderer's guild - to learn more forms of embroidery.  I was especially excited about the Needlelace workshop for two reasons.  1 - there's no counting.  Yay!  (I find cross stitch extremely difficult to pay attention to and follow like a map.)  2 - Needlelace is absolutely gorgeous and I try hard not to drool when I see the samples that Ulla brings
to guild meetings for show & tell.  Here are some of the class samples show by the instructors.

Samples - I think Ulla made these.

These are samples of what the instructor has made with Needlelace.

here is an example of the finished project - each petal, stamen, and leaf a separate piece.

To begin, we baste our foundation to work on and then we couch our threads.  We were told to bring crochet cotton.  I brought along my cherished 12 weight variegated cottons on the spool from Wonderfil to see if it would work.  It was AWESOME and just the right weight too!

couching an outline for a petal using 12wt cotton

So far so good.  I can do this.  I like basting and couching.  Next was to begin the 'weaving' or lacemaking.  That's done with a variety of buttonhole stitches and whipstitches (singles, doubles, twisted).  All good.  I can do that.  Bonus - I AM ENJOYING THIS!! : )

I made another, and another.  I finished this leaf outline we were given using my own stitches and my favorite Wonderfil color - it's like a pea soup color.  Looks like an antique green.

it's not perfect, but for a first try I am REALLY happy with what I made!! : )

It was fun experimenting with different stitches and seeing the patterns they created as you build them up row by row.

Class ended and I went home and just kept on working on it here and there on Sunday (in between much gardening, and several bike rides with the kids).  Last night, I sat out on the balcony and stitched until the sun went down. It faces north.  It's a great place to sit in the days when it's too hot outside, and a perfect spot to enjoy summer sunrises and sunsets.  (From here, summer sunrises are in the northeast and the summer sunsets are in the northwest.)

tada!  Me, a needle & thread, some moscato wine and a calm quite evening.

Isn't that pretty!?  The last step in stitching is to buttonhole around the outside to create a pretty finished edge.  Before I started the purple one I thought about flower petals: pansies in particular.  I figured if I put 2 petal templates together, I would get a big double sized petal done in one shot.  The cool thing was that it made the prettiest heart shape.  I just kept working it and then made some deliberate large spaced stitches, and did some every-second-loop stitches too.  Oh wow - that is when I lace look began to appear!!

The finished Needlelace petal pieces, off the foundation papers. 

I am beaming with pride here.  I've been given several little projects to try at this guild over the last year and a half, and never have I been able to finish even one.  I was feeling like a failure, but maybe I'm just not a 'counter'.  So now I can stay?  YAY!! 

I MADE THESE!!!  : )   My first Needlelace project.  : )

I'm excited.  I have a huge pile of solids and variegates to work with.  Oh I am going to enjoy this!

Happy Victoria Day!



ps - if you are looking for more colours, Creative House in Saskatoon sells the entire line of Wonderfil 12 wts long staple cottons - huge 400 m spools for around $8.)  Pictured below are some of my small variegated spools that I use for teaching.



Okay - back to enjoying a day with the family.  ; )

(Linking to The Needle & Thread Network's WIP Wednesday)

Learn as I Teach. Teach as I Learn.

Hand work is really taking off in my life right now.  I am so grateful.  More and more people & groups are asking me to teach.  I love a needle and thread like a painter loves a brush and paint.  I spoke to a dear friend this morning about how we start off as artists and then somehow we shift into the realm of teaching whether we plan it that way or not.  It was a good conversation.

packing supplies & samples for a class

When it comes to teaching, I don't have a lot to go on.  I have been teaching creative sewing classes for three years now, but haven't attended a lot of classes myself.  I was terrified of teaching large groups (8+) but after leading a couple workshops for groups of 15+ in Manitoba, I found that it is indeed possible!  Still, I often wonder if I doing this right.  I got some wonderful positive feedback in my last Postcards class which really helped.  I asked for clarification and it sparked some great conversation - things I'd never considered.

 

Like art, once you start, more and more people want you.  Word gets around.  I find it a struggle to juggle teaching and art creation time.  Fortunately, once you put a class together it's always there.  You don't have to start from scratch every time.  That's a big perk.  I know the same will be true for video classes, but I am concerned about the initial amount of work in putting something like that together.  That's the exact reason I dropped out of going to Denver at the last minute for Craftsy last year.  I need to get over that.

"Come for Tea & Stitch with Me" in Winnipeg was my pilot attempt at teaching a class on basic surface embroidery stitches.  Already I'm getting booked for it three more times in the next month!  That's crazy great!  One is in Winnipeg again, one will be at Creative House in Saskatoon (details coming soon), and one will be a 3 hr module for a 6 day long workshop lead by Elizabeth Babyn.  I met Elizabeth over a year ago at USCAD's Experimental Fibre Art II class.  She went on to do some part time teaching with the University's art & design program.  Now she's offering this through her own art studio.  See Elizabeth Babyn's blog post about the Experimental Textile Workshop HERE.  It's six days long!  WOW.  She's doing it because she feels there's a need for it.  Awesome.  I'll be doing my workshop for her class on the morning of Sunday May 26th.  THIS time I will make sure to bring my camera!  : )

So - I took some time to reflect and ask myself this:  as a teacher, what am I learning?

I answered: Lots.  (Monika - please elaborate)

I am learning:

- Students love to see samples of finished work.

- Students really love to see samples of techniques of work in progress

- Showing things that didn't work & explaining why are equally great ways to learn (learning by MY
mistakes)

- Students appreciate prepared kits so they don't have to go mega shopping for an unspecified project.  I was told this one over and over...  I want coming to my classes to be easy.

- Always make a point of spending a bit of time with the quietest ones who don't ask for anything.  ; )  They often have a lot on their minds and many questions they are shy to ask about.

- I will likely always need to keep a point form schedule of planned things to cover in class or I will forget important things / stray...

- Their creativity is spurred when I supply fabrics and fibres for them so they aren't always staring at their old stash.

- Tips - I am full of them!  I see how the simplest of tips make enjoying the process of creating so much less stressful (like threading or tying off... really basic pointers are really helpful).

- Show & tell is golden.  Because the results in-class projects are not based on patterns, everyone ends up with something different.   I like the students to take a break and look at each other's work - whether completed or in progress.  They learn so much from each other.  This point in the class is often a real creativity booster.  You get a lot of, "OH!  I never thought of that!" and everyone is generally quite impressed. : )  I am right in there with them squealing, "WOW look at that!".  : )

- Students are sometimes nervous to be there too.  I did not know that before.  One woman giggled at my disclosure of being nervous, and said, "You are nervous!?  How do you think we felt coming in to this class?"  I really had not contemplated that.  But yes - I do recall going to a class and being completely terrified of messing up or being put on the spot.  Even going around to introduce yourself is highly intimidating for some.  (I hated that part - but as a teacher, I always do it!  Should I be??  Do you hate this part at the beginning of classes?)

- As a teacher, I'm always learning and thankfully that will never end : )  I am blown away by people's creativity!

- I still consider myself an artist first and foremost, and want to remain that way.  That will keep priority as there is so much more I want to create.  I have ideas pouring out of my ears and some days it drives me mad!

Do you teach?  Are you a sewing-class-aholic?  What's your feedback on your experiences?

...linking up to WIP Wednesday @ TN&TN - since teaching is what I'm workin' on. : )

Come for Tea & Stitch with Me (Winnipeg!)

Winnipeg is coming soon.  There's good news, and there's bad news.  The bad news first?  I'm not there for long, and I am completely booked with public speaking events and running workshops for various groups.  There are still several people I would love to get together with!  So here's my plan.  I'm going to have a little party.  You are invited.

On Sunday May 5th, it's my birthday.  I'll be away from home and family at that time, and that sucks.  So I have decided to make the best of it.  From 11:30 to 1 pm, 4 pm to 6 pm feel free to join me for lunch at the Grant Park Prairie Ink Restaurant in Winnipeg.  (Please note this change of time.) They have a good SUPER looking menu with a host of gluten free options (yes - including sandwiches, pastas, and cake too!)  So - Ellen, Kate, Tara & daughters, Prairie Peasant, and friends, please come by if you are in town and we an visit over a meal.  Doesn't that sound fun?  Unfortunately, my artwork won't be on display until the next day, May 6 to June 2.  You'll have to come back Monday night for the reception if you can.

That's the 'bad news'... not really bad is it!?  The good news is that I am going offer a beginner hand stitching class in the Community Classrooms that same day.  Here's the ad... COME FOR TEA AND STITCH WITH ME

You can also learn more about how to register for any of their classes here at their website.

I look forward to this so much!  It will be like "Saturday Stitches", but in person.  See you then!

p.s. Don't forget your teacup! ; )