2024 Classes

I'm a textile artist based in Wellington New Zealand and I teach a range of dyeing, printing, quilting and bookmaking classes. The first classes for the year are usually the indigo dyeing classes as they are much more fun if we can hold them outside!

This is a list of my current bookings

Indigo Dyeing and shibori - Tawa College, Tawa, Wellington. There are still spaces in this class.

Saturday 9th March 10-4pm.

Karori Art and Craft Rooms, Karori, Wellington.

Printing on Fabric - 24th February 10-4pm

 This class can be booked online here.

Inspired by Boro (quilts/patches) - 25th May

Crazy Piecing - 30th June

Sashiko - 27th July

Quilt As You Go bags/placemats/table runners. - 10th November

Hutt Art Society Rooms, Lower Hutt

Indigo Dyeing and Shibori - 3rd March 10-4 (Class Full - waiting list available)

Komebukuro Bag - 2 classes - 7th April 1-4pm, 12th May 1-4pm.

Inspired by Boro (jacket). 4 sessions - 16th June 10-4pm,  (Class Full, waiting list available)

21 July, 4 august, 25 August, 1-4pm.

New Zealand Quilt Symposium

I have been invited to teach at the New Zealand Quilt Symposium 2024. This is to be held in Cambridge in the North Island of New Zealand. 

The classes are not confirmed yet but I hope to be able to tell people soon.

Indigo Dyeing classes in Wellington, New Zealand

Here are some photos of students work from some of my indigo dyeing workshops. These are great classes and mostly held outside so there is great ventilation! In the next two months I have three workshops booked. I only run these classes in the warmer months so book in now if you are interested as it will be a whole year before they are offered again.

If you are interested in enrolling please click on the links.

Saturday 25th February 9-3pm. Tawa College, Tawa, Wellington.

This class will focus on shibori using multicoloured fibre reactive dyes as well as indigo.

https://www.tawacomed.co.nz/Course,Indigo-dyeing-Shibori...

Saturday 18th March 10-4pm

Shibori using indigo at Hutt Art Society Rooms, Lower Hutt.

https://www.huttart.co.nz/copy-of-classes-3

Saturday 25 March

This is a class run by Kapiti Quilters. If you are interested in joining them and you are not a member the price is $60 ( it’s subsidised for members). If you are interested in this class let me know and I can give you the coordinator’s contact details.

Textile Classes in Lower Hutt , New Zealand.

 

Hi everyone

I'm teaching multiple classes at the Hutt Art Society rooms in Lower Hutt. There are very few places which offer evening and weekend classes in the Wellington area since a previous government removed subsidies for adult education. So Sue Swann (Embroidery) and I (surface design, quilting, bookmaking)  started offering classes at the Hutt Art Society Rooms. Each year we have expanded and this year have brought in a number of new tutors. Here is a copy of our newsletter.

Welcome to 2023

We have a variety of classes and new tutors for you this year.  Whether you're a beginner or whether you want to take the next step in your stitching journey there are classes we hope will interest you.

Classes for the first half of the year are on the Hutt Art website already.  More classes will be added over the next few months for classes to be held later in the year.  I'll send out an email as new classes are added.

 As well as ourselves we have classes planned with the following tutors;

• Mary Self - Mary is teaching a beginners stitch class as well as a couple of classes that will develop your creativity and teach you new techniques, 
• Cherie Gurney - Cherie is teaching a piece that gives you the opportunity to use those precious scraps in your collection and create something memorable,
• Katherine Pepperall - Katherine has created a wonderful doorstop incorporating native New Zealand clematis flowers in reticella,

Coming Up later in the year

• Anna Hicks - Anna is preparing some classes from her "Mending and Design" series and
• Marilyn Moran - For those of you who requested a class in needle felting, Marilyn is designing a small creature to tempt you to 'have a go'. 

Heads up - there are a couple of groups starting at the end of February and a shibori dyeing class in early March, so don't delay in getting enrolled for these classes: 

• A monthly stitching group on the 4th Sunday of each month  - this group is for those who need a bit of help getting an old project restarted, want help with a new project or just want to stitch with a group of like minded people - it's a great way to keep a project moving.
  
• Design your own "Kutch" Dowry bag.  This group will also meet monthly and by the end of the year you will have learnt a bit about the design process, some new stitching techniques and have a handy little bag.
  
• Clare is holding an indigo / shibori dyeing  day in early March, so be quick to enrol for this popular class and create some interesting fabrics for other projects.

Class Samples

If you'd like an opportunity to see the class samples for the classes already scheduled, the class samples will be on display in the Huia Gallery (Hutt Art) from Tuesday 31st January - Sunday 12th February.

Exhibition - Indonesian Textiles

There is an exhibition of Indonesian textiles at Hutt Art from Tuesday 31st January - Sunday 12th February.  The textiles are ikats and batiks and they all use natural dyes for most of the colours.  On Saturday 4th Feb at 2pm there will be a talk about the dyeing processes as well as looking at the rituals associated with their production and the meanings of some of the patterns. If you're interested in textiles this is not to be missed.

Attached is a poster for the upcoming classes, and a poster for the upcoming Indonesian textile exhibition.  Please feel free to forward this email to anyone who you think may be interested in the classes or the exhibition.

Enrolments are via the Hutt Art website

https://www.huttart.co.nz/copy-of-classes-3

Regards

Sue and Clare

www.huttart.co.nz

textile.hutt.art@gmail.com

Classes

Wellington Quilters Guild has asked me to teach a Sashiko class and a machine quilting class at their winter solstice quilting weekend in June. I am ashamed to say that my website is now so out of date that those classes aren't even on it. My husband constructed my website so long ago that we have long forgotten how to change anything and it wasn't ever at all easy. I was one of the first quilters in New Zealand to get a website but now I'm one of the people with the most out of date website in New Zealand.

Here is the information for the Wellington Quilt Guild classes.

One day classes

Quilt-doodling and colouring-in for machine quilters

Spend a day honing your machine quilting skills by doodling using the sewing machine then  colour in your patterns using fabric markers. Colouring-in is optional! 

Black thread on white fabric

Sashiko

Sashiko is a traditional Japanese way of patching and strengthening old fabrics using running stitch in decorative patterns.  In this class students will look at photographic examples of Japanese boro (patched) textiles as well as examples of more modern styles of sashiko stitching. Students will then learn how to mark out a grid on fabric and then stitch Japanese Sashiko patterns either by hand or by machine. 

Sashiko is traditionally done using cream or white thread on a navy (indigo) background but students are encouraged to try different colour combinations or create their own stitching patterns for a different look. 

Machine stitched sashiko patterns on a bag

2 placemats.  Left -  sashiko by machine. Right - sashiko by hand

Sashiko stitching over recycled indigo fabrics to make a placemat

Surgery :-(

Hi everyone
I wasn't sure whether to post this or not. It feels like I am just making excuses for not updating my blog but in the end I decided that I would write it down in case it helps anyone else.
After many years of having a lump on my thyroid checked it was biopsied and suspicious cells were found. At the beginning of February I had a thyroidectomy and on Monday I will also be told of the pathology results and plans for follow up treatment. If it is cancer, it is very treatable and most people do well after the initial hiccup of surgery then getting medication right. So if you have a lump in your neck, go and see the doctor.

I'm not getting very much done at the moment, I'm sleeping a lot and going to a lot of appointments either for myself or with my mother who is also going through hospital treatment. I have however been invited to join a group of textile artists who have a website called Through Our hands. They represent a wonderful lineup of textile artists and I'm very excited to be asked to be a member of the group.

here is the only thing that I've worked on recently, it is a class sample for the New Zealand Quilt Symposium in January 2015. I'm hoping to quilt it and take better photos next week when my scar has healed up a bit. At the moment it is a bit hard to stretch my arms out, looking up is even harder!

Drawing the cat and 2013 classes

Drawing for 6th Jan 2013.
Here is Jack the cat. I'm going to have another go at drawing him today using different media. I used a brush and watered down ink for these. I am trying to get away from drawing an outline and coloring it in. jack is  a brown Burmese so I've had to make him look lighter than he is. He looks like a brown blob in photos.

Here he is in real life, pretending to be a bookshelf ornament.

If you live in Wellington, New Zealand, I have just arranged to teach some classes at Nancy's Embroidery on Thorndon Quay. Mary is still doing some changes to the timetable but these are the classes. Most are only 3 hours long on a Sunday.

Machine Quilting
Machine Sashiko
Hand Sashiko
Fabric painting and printing
Handmade books (Japanese bookbinding)