3.4.18

French Knots!!!

French Knots are one of my favorite embroidery stitches. I love the texture and the many ways they can be used and it is a rare piece that I don't find a way to add them in.

I usually use embroidery floss and French Knots can be made with anywhere from one to all six strands of floss. The number of strands used will help determine how large the knots are. Another factor is how many times the thread is wrapped around the needle. One of the most helpful things I have done is make a grid of French Knots using from 1 to 6 strands of floss and one to four wraps. This little grid is helpful when deciding what size knot I want to fill in an area or create a round counter point. You might consider making one for yourself to keep as a handy reference. I can't tell you how often I use it - but a lot! Here is what it looks like.


Here are some of my favorite ways to use French Knots.

To fill in areas like the sheep and treetops.


To fill in for texture in a background or border.


To enhance other stitches and create the center of flowers.


Another example of adding them to a set of stitches.

If you have not tried French Knots, they can be a little tricky but here is an excellent video as well as some stitching tips from the fabulous Mary Corbet of needlenthread.com.  


I thought I'd end with bright pink French Knots exploding out the ends of this flower. Happy knotting! 


26.3.18

Wearable Stitches

So many things have been happening lately that I feel like I've been in a whirlwind of stitching to finish up art work, create samples and design handouts for classes and attempt to cook dinner once in awhile. I've been better at the first two, that's for sure!

If you've been following along you know I was involved in Artists in the Kitchen, a collaboration between women artists and women chefs/restauranteurs/influencers. You can read my blog post about it here. The Minneapolis Star Tribune had a great article about the exhibit that you can read here.

Since embroidery is all over the runway and in the stores it seemed like a perfect time for developing a class on embroidered clothing, so Wearable Stitches was born. It was fun to test out different methods of transferring images onto clothes, figuring out the best way to design around buttons, seams and body curves and stitches that are most appropriate. This experimentation resulted in some very fun samples and a class that everyone seemed to enjoy.

My personal favorites are the peek-a-boo animal that looks out the front of a child's shirt and some shoes with simple stitches. My husband likes to draw cute little animals so I set him the task of designing this for me. It turned out so well I'd like him to do a series that I can put in my etsy shop.  Fingers crossed!

The shoes sometimes had to be stitched using a thimble and pliers to pull the needle through tough spots but I think it was well worth a few needle sticks to make them. My favorite part is the little sprig of flowers on the side. These shoes are ready for some summer fun!

If you are interested in any of my classes for your organization or group send me a message using the contact into on the side bar!

18.3.18

Artists In The Kitchen

Maryland Crab Feast
There has been a lot of fun stitching happening around here! I was invited to participate in a collaboration between women chefs/restauranteurs/influencers and women artists and it has been great fun. I was paired up with Golnaz Yamoutpour, the woman behind EatDrinkDishMpls , an Instagram account that focuses on great taste treats in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. One of the things she told me when we met was her focus on food came about not only because her family had been in the restaurant business but because she thought of food as travel, which she couldn't afford to do at the time. This sparked my imagination because I love to try new cuisines. Flavors can take you both to places you have never been and back to memories of times and places you've experienced. I made 9 images some from the foods and experiences Golnaz told me about, some were my food memories and some were iconic food images.
Sub Sandwich

I decided to work in a grid, which is the way images on Instagram are laid out. I knew if I worked large I'd never get done so each image is approximately 1 3/4" square. You can see all nine of my embroideries on my Instagram account here. If you are in Minneapolis between March 21 and May 19, 2018 stop by Textile Center of Minnesota and see the work of all 50 artists.
Waffles with Berries and Whipped Cream

21.2.18

Hello Again!

Like many artists I have found myself in the past year or so posting more on my Threads of Inspiration Facebook page than on this blog. I am not very happy with that platform for many reasons I won't go into and so, I'm getting back to blogging. I will continue to put links to my blog posts on Facebook so if that is your place to find me, I'll still be there. 

Now for the updates. Wow! I've had so much going on and so many exciting things coming up! Here are just a few. I continue to teach at Textile Center of MN and expand the classes including Wearable Stitches on March 24. We'll add some stitched embellishment to clothing, accessories and even shoes!! I've got a pair of light weight canvas slip-ons just waiting for some design and color. A great new addition to the Textile Center's line up is a series of classes that will be taught over the course of 8 weeks geared to learners over 55.  I will be teaching Interlace: Embroidery which I'm really looking forward to. Click on the title to see the full description. It begins on April 25.

I'll also be teaching at two great locations, Crossings at Carnegie, an art center in Zumbrota, MN and Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point, WI. While the Crossings at Carnegie classes aren't listed on the website yet, I'll be teaching Rumi Wisdom on Saturday, April 7 and Quilting Outside the Lines on Saturday May 16. I'll put the links up as soon as they're  available. Here is the link for the class at Shake Rag Alley called Beginning Embroidery: Summer Spiral with Rumi Wisdom on July 28. This will be an all day class where I'll be covering some extras - more stitches (YAY) and special focus on various ways to stitch text. 

I plan on making some updates to my blog including a list all of the classes I'll be teaching on the sidebar so you can always find out where to take a class. If you'd like to have me teach at your guild you'll find a contact section on the sidebar.

I hope to meet some of you in person this coming year!