A New Venture - new textile classes in Wellington.

 I've been teaching textile classes at Nancy's Stitch Studio in Wellington for quite a few years but the shop has recently changed hands and at this stage the owners are not ready to run a big list of classes. So three of us are starting to run classes at the Hutt Arts Society Rooms in Lower Hutt (New Zealand).

You can have a look at the classes in more detail by going to the Hutt Arts website.

My classes are 

Boro - making a layered, stitched fabric panel.

31st July 10-4pm.

Monoprinting.

Monoprinting on fabric or paper to make fabric for quilting or papers for bookmaking.

Saturday May 29th

10-4

Machine Quilting

Learn how to prepare a quilt for machine quilting then draw with a sewing machine. After machine quilting a sample, you can then colour the design in , using fabric pens if you wish.

Sunday July 18 10-4

Bookmaking

Learn how to make at least 5 different styles of sewn books.

Updating an old quilt

6pm. A long long time ago, in a small town in a faraway country…well it was Goulburn in Australia…I screen printed some fabric while at the art school at Goulburn TAFE and turned it into a quilt. The fabric design was from a drawing which I made whilst listening to a piece of music, in this case it was Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. As art students it was deemed that we should do music classes and the music students should do art. Both groups hated it at the time but I can see it had merit now.

I didn't know how to make a quilt and didn't know how to machine quilt, but I had done a one day class in machine embroidery.

- The batting is the fat stuff, the stuff you get sold at Spotlight if you don't know to ask for 'lo-loft'.
- I broke about 13 needles, largely because my machine didn't have a darning foot or drop its feed dogs and I used a spring loaded needle.
- I didn't know the quilting was supposed to show on the back so I covered it up because there were lots of tucks.
-I must have decided to make the quilt bigger after quilting it, so I had added black borders then tacked extra batting around to make it puffy.
-there was no hanging sleeve, I covered the stick with black fabric and attached the stick to the top of the quilt with tacking stitches.

Then when I came back to New Zealand, my brother liked it so I gave it to him and recently (well at least 2 years ago) he gave it back because it needed the stick to be re-attached.

Today I decided it needed to be updated, the border fabric has faded but the screen printed fabric looks as bright as when it was first printed.

I've unpicked the border which goes right round to the back (told you I didn't know how to quilt).  Here are some photos of my machine quilting circa 1999.

Note the thick batting , the stuff around the outside was tacked on later, to fill the border.

Tucks

coggles

folds

I now teach machine quilting which shows that anyone can improve with practice. I definitely learnt a lot from that quilt and a few years later, through the internet and talking to other quilters , I learned about lo loft batting, dropped feed dogs, darning feet, and how to avoid coggles and folds.

Everyone has to start somewhere…

I'll update this post as I update the quilt, a nice green border to diminish the black I think…

7.30pm

Borders taken off, it definitely looks better

Now , what to bind it with?

No, wrong green

Nope!

No

This is more promising...

But it's too small!

This is followed by turning the entire room upside down to find a bigger bit of fabric. Now I have decided to do 3 sides in this over dyed fabric (it was black and white once) and the top binding will be black. Hopefully that will work, or if all else fails I will 'face' it which will be hard because the batting is so fat that the fabric won't want to be turned to the back.

To be continued...

NB. If anyone is interested in learning more about my Thyroid journey I've made a separate blog.
www.nzthyca.blogspot.co.nz

Classes I teach

 One day classes 

Crossing the line - machine quilting

This machine quilting class will offer an alternative to stipple quilting!

Give yourself permission to cross your quilting line and try free machine

quilting spirals, suns, amoebae, animals, lettering, the 'Hokey-Cokey' and

splatter quilting. This class is designed for those who are ready to drop their feed

dogs.....

Materials fee approx NZ$5

Sashiko by hand or machine

Learn how to mark out fabric and hand or machine stitch, Japanese Sashiko patterns. Instructions will be given to complete a bag, place mats or coasters. Students can choose to stitch by hand or machine.

Materials fee $2 (for photocopied notes)

Cabbage Trees and Lancewoods

This is a shortened version of the class ‘Spiky Trees and Plants’. It is a one day class in which students can make a Cabbage tree quilt or lancewood Quilt using fusible  webbing.

Materials fee approx NZ$5

A Modern Wagga  

Making a quilt was historically about recycling. In this class , make  a ‘wagga’ or ‘utility’ quilt. Clothes your kids have grown out of? Things that used to belong to your granny , old doilies, aprons, teatowels?

Use recycled clothing or linens to make a quilt for the home, the bach or as a wall hanging.

No Materials fee

Fabric Painting and Printing

Paint and monoprint on fabric using water based inks and resists (similar to batik).

This technique class will also cover printing with found objects such as fruit and leaves as well as making print-blocks from carved erasers and lino blocks.

Materials fee approx $20 (covers inks, resist, lino blocks)

 

Fabric Dyeing

Learn how to dye fabric using Procion dyes. Methods include scrunch dyeing , basic shibori and tie dye, multicoloured dyeing and  dyeing in plastic bags. Students should end up with approx 6 metres of dyed fabric.

Materials fee approx $25 (covers dyes )

Make a photo album or project book (Half day class )

Learn how to make a photo album or project book suitable for documenting your quilts, embroidery projects, or craft projects. 

Materials fee approximately $20 (covers card, paper , glue and brass hinges)

Handsewn Books

Learn how to make basic hand sewn books. These can be used as note or sketch books, photo albums, quilt record books or diaries.

 

Materials fee NZ$20

Fabulous Fusibles

Use a design provided by the tutor to make a fused quilt top. Suitable for beginners.

Choose from guitar, cat, or letterbox design.

Materials fee $10 (photocopy of design)

   
 Two day classes

Putting it into PERSPECTIVE

Learn how to draw in perspective, how to show the sides of buildings and how to make things come forward or recede into the picture. Everything from landscapes with buildings, beach huts, country cottages, letterboxes  or sky scrapers.

Materials fee $5 (photocopying notes)

Spiky Trees and Plants quilt.

Learn how to fuse and sew a quilt depicting one of New Zealand’s (or your own country’s) unique, spiky trees ie. The Nikau Palm, Cabbage tree, flax or toetoe, palm trees, grasses, or cactii or thorn trees. Some fast workers even manage to quilt their picture on the second day.

Materials charge approx NZ$10 (covers inks if students choose to paint a sky fabric for their background)

The Next Step

Are you ready to take the step from traditional quilting into something unique but don’t know where to start?  Are you scared of the word ‘Design’ or feel you can’t draw? Learn how to make an art quilt using an art-school design trick. No two quilts the same!  Use fusible webbing to put it together and quilt it on the second day. 

NB The class samples are not what you will make in class, they just reflect the technique of putting the quilt together. Your quilt will be your original design.

Materials fee - $5 (OHP sheets )