I know I said I wasn’t going to do another workshop this year, but I felt there is part of basic fabric arts techniques that I left uncovered. I decided to add this in the fall since I am trying to provide an overview of the main basic techniques I use to create my own fabric art. That is surface design and embellishment. My reason for not originally including it in the set is that I not only think the supplies required are a little larger investment than I think students might want to spend, but it also requires covering a number of techniques. So after some thought I have figured out a way to cut some of the costs and I think it is acceptable.
So I am creating a small 15 inch by 15 inch square project. Today I finished a background design for a little fabric panel that takes the place of painting or digitized painting of a design to embellish. I sent it to be printed by Fabrics on Demand. I figured that with their 56″ wide fabric I can get six panels on one yard of fabric that ends up costing about five dollars per panel. I will give a little lecture about how digital art fabrics accomplished, and provide links to several good places to use.
I am working out what I need to assemble a variety of decorative cords, threads, and yarns to use with different feet, which a lot of people already have or would find good use for if they need to buy them. So the students will bring along their feet with their machines. When the first batch of panels comes I will use them to work into a sample or two and figure out the handouts. This will be really fun, I think, and the end project will make a very nice pillow top or tote bag side. Additionally, I will demo both needle punching of roving with the bernina machine and how I place hot fix crystals using transfer tape.
This sounds like a lot, and I have to fit it into a four hour class, so I will see how much of this I find I can actually fit into the class and then make adjustments, but I have to have the panels to work with before I can do that.
Sew I am working on this while my Bernina 830 LE is at the spa getting all fixed. He had a temper tantrum last week and I took him to Lew to fix. He’s a good machine…having served me now for a number of years, and it’s been several years since he had his regular service. I think there is some thread caught way down in the bobbin assembly that Lew will find. I am very hopeful it will be fixed without a huge bill.
Anyway, once he is back I can finish my Bob Ross quilt for the Cherrywood Fabrics challenge. It is well along the way, but I need a couple of in-the-hoop embroidery pieces to applique on before I can quilt it. I was thinking today that maybe I could go ahead and quilt it and add the applique later. The deadline is July 1st and it’s already June 6th. Yikes!
Sew happy everyone!