Monday February 18, 2007

I haven't been able to get into my Blog for the past two weeks to edit it because when I tried to sign the rules had changed. I had too many other things going on to mess with it at the time. As you can see I am new to the "art of blogging".
I spent the weekend of Feb. 10-11 at SMU in Dallas taking workshops sponsored by ETADallas.com (Education of the Textile Arts of Arts at Dallas).
Among the classes I took were two with Carol Lane-Saber of Spring TX (down by Houston). She gave a marvelous presentation on "Japanese Textiles in Western Garments and Quilts" on Saturday. And I took a Sunday class on "Origami and Other Three Dimensional Effects For Clothing and Quilt's". She had the most incredible wearable art pieces that she had done in the first class. The second one was on fabric manipulation and dyeing techniques. She is a marvelous teacher.
I also took a class from Linda McGehee of Louisiana on "The Perfect Bag". I have several of her books on bags and pillows.
I learned how to make Roman shades from Karen Erickson from WA.
Now just for the time to put all this new knowledge into practice.

This purse was my own design made from a purple suede cloth bottom and a red upholstery suede for the band. I have a tool (toy) that I make the fringe with. That way I can use all the wonderful novelty yarns and color coordinate them with the purse fabric.

This purse is made with black and white toile with a black suede band and strap. It is lined with lime green.

Herringbone Stitch, Detached Chain, Sheaf Stitch, French Knot

Detached Chain, Stem Stitch, misc. stitches

Blanket Stitch and Herringbone

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This was scanned from a very old Delco-Light needle holder. I outlined the piece with an old piece of lace with flower-like motifs. I went around the picture with a blanket stitch, sewed French knots in the center of each "flower", made straight stitches between the "flowers" and at the edge of each one. I finished with silver bugle beads between the blanket stitches