Transitions - Through Thick & Thin

I took another class at Callaway Gardens with Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn. They have been teaching classes at Callaway School of Needlearts in alternate years since 2001. It is one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences. There are two four-day sessions with one day off in between. We were fortunate to have good weather this year. The first session it was in the 70's and rainy. It was cooler for the second session, but no rain.

We began with scrim for pulled thread. This butterfly happened by chance when I was moving the fabric in loopy motions through the sewing machine.

We bonded cotton velvet to the scrim and added hand stitching to pull the threads.

We transferred a drawing onto transfer paper and ironed it on to solusheet. Then tacked the solusheet to fine netting and stitched & beaded. Then the solusheet was dissolved and the stitching dried.

This piece was constructed on a sticky soluble. It ended up twice as long and half as wide as it started.

This is a fragile piece constructed on a sticky soluble with hand and machine stitching. I used some fibers I purchased at lace conventions. The unusual fibers are sold by Bart & Francis from Belgium.

We withdrew threads from fabric.

Then we chose one stitch to use, in this case the stitch was raised chain band.

The challenge was to build up the stitching off the surface of the fabric.

Beads were added.

"Whose fault is it anyway?" began with a transfer print to fabric. The next layer was painted fusible web. Bits of yarn and scrim were placed on the surface and sheer "chiffon scarf" on top. This sandwich was bonded together and then stitched using flower thread. The design began with a network of fault lines in southern California.

Ogee Ornaments

For the holidays I made countless Ogee ornaments. Here's one batch.