Workshop and Play Day

Yesterday I was in a workshop under the tutelage of Mariya Waters - we were playing with decorative threads.
I chose to do the fish design and here is what I finished the day with:

 

The wider thread was couched on after stitching the placement from behind. The fish is stitched with 2 threads wound together, one of them being a metallic.  Everything has been stitched from the backing fabric where the pattern was drawn on:

I have a little bit more of the decorative thread to stitch on (from the bobbin) and then the quilting.

I had a great day and was pleased with the amount of work achieved. It was great to not have to worry about fabric, the pattern was already drawn up and I could get a reasonable amount of stitching done.

The front fabric was a commercial tie-dyed piece that I over-painted - the balance between the light/dark colours was too extreme, so I mixed up some blue paint and had a very pleasing finished product.

Karen Eckmeier's Workshop

How exciting! Dianne Southey rang me on Wednesday evening to ask if I wanted to go to Karen's 'Happy Villages' workshop - well I had put my name down and was a little disappointed that I hadn't been successful in the ballot. Here was a fantastic opportunity to attend an overseas tutor's workshop for just $20.00! I wasn't completely ready (didn't have colours chosen and cut out, but did have a bag of fabric to choose from), but had help from great mates at the workshop. I really wanted to do an Italian village - colours of the houses in Manarola. So here are some pictures of what I worked with:

a bit more of the shapes added,





and after Karen had sorted out my windows, doors, steps and bridges, and I had added trees, shrubs and flowers - all ready now for sewing: