A month ago I taught a 2-hour stitching workshop exploring shapes and stitches at my quilt guild. It was a huge success, and lots of fun! I prepared squares of wool and precut circles in different sizes. More than 20 people attended and each person got to pick a wool square and some circles, which they then whipstitched on to their wool base. As most of the participants already knew how to do some of the more basic stitches such as the Running Stitch and Backstitch, I taught how to do the Bullion Knot and a Cast On Bullion stitch. (We only had two hours) It was a lot of fun! I really, really love teaching.
Through one of the participants (who also happens to be a friend) of that workshop I was introduced to one of the owners of the last remaining quilt shop in New York City, Gotham Quilts – New York City’s Quilt Shop. It was a terrific meeting and as a result of that meeting, I will be teaching a 6-hour Creative Stitching workshop playing with shapes using many of Sue Spargo‘s techniques in April. If you’d like to sign up for it, you can, by clicking ‘here‘. The workshop is on April 25th from 11:30 – 6. Everyone will get a “kit” which will include precut circles, a wool square base, wool thread to whipstitch the shapes onto the background, needles, lots of different kinds of threads to play with, tons of Perle Cotton threads, a piece of silk velvet, some stabilizer for the silk velvet, a sampling of beads, buttons and silk ribbon. I am SO excited and hope some of you will join me!
For those of you unfamiliar with Gotham Quilts, it opened in 2014 and is located at 40 West 37th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues in the heart of Manhattan and just a block from the Garment District. Two friends, Andrea and Ivete, own and run it. Over the years they have expanded what began as a tiny shop on the second floor, to a multi level space, carrying a wonderfully curated selection of fabrics and notions as well as Bernina Sewing Machines. They are now open six days a week, everyday but Sunday, from 11 – 6, and on Thursdays until 7pm.
Gotham Quilts
I hope to see some of you there!
Have you checked out my latest YouTube video? My channel is: Ariane Zurcher – On the Other Hand where I give tutorials on all things involving stitching, sewing, design and creating. I will be doing videos that are for Left Handers, but others that are not hand specific. So join me, and stitch along!
Tutorial: How stitch the Pekinese Stitch
How to stitch The Coral Stitch with 2 (okay 3) variations!
I love a good zippered pouch. Preferably one that I can take on an airplane, large enough for a tablet or small sketch book, a needle roll, small pair of scissors, and project, but not so large that it becomes cumbersome. I began looking around at what is already out there and found many lovely bags, but finally decided to design my own. It measures 12″ x 12″, has a slightly curved top with a tassel for the zipper pull.
Years ago my husband and I came upon this beautiful African Rhino and decided we had to have him. This became my inspiration for the design on the front of my bag.
As many of you know, I re-found hand stitching through Sue Spargo. I fell in love with the way she used traditional embroidery stitches, but used all kinds of different threads, to add another dimension to wool appliqué. I responded to the “folk art” style of her designs, but also to the layering she employs in her work. Using wool as her base, she then might layer another piece of wool, which is then layered with a smaller piece of silk velvet, cotton print, linen, cork, ribbon, beading, whatever best accents her design – the options are endless! That was five years ago…
Today, I’m honored to call Sue my friend. She gives me endless encouragement, suggestions, helpful tips, and is one of the kindest, most generous souls I’ve ever met. She also happens to be one of the hardest working women I know, is a smart business woman and runs a thriving brick and mortar store as well as online business at suespargo.com, all while teaching year round all over the country and world. If you haven’t taken a class with Sue, you are in for a treat. Sue is patient, helpful, encourages everyone to put their own personal touches onto their pieces, is incredibly talented, oozes creativity and did I mention how kind she is? Kind. Just incredibly kind.
So when I decided to design my own zippered pouch I immediately sent it off to Sue to get her okay. After all I’m using her techniques, her wools, her threads and never want to take credit for any of that. She, of course, being Sue, told me she loved it and so here it is, ready for others to make if they choose.
The Embellished Top
If you want to make this pouch yourself, you can purchase the pattern, templates and detailed instructions, including tons of step by step photographs to help you, as well as a list of materials you will need from my Etsy Site. I even added instructions for us lefties out there, so that our zipper will be on the opposite side! All the wool, fabric, and threads you need to make this pouch are on Sue Spargo’s website except maybe the zipper. It’s a one-stop shopping experience. And who doesn’t want a zippered, fully lined pouch!? Also – if you don’t want to make the wool Rhino top, you can use the pattern templates to make the whole thing out of cotton fabric or bark cloth or canvas or linen or whatever you like!
The Back of the Zippered Pouch
When I was designing my pouch, I first made it using all cotton fabrics and added Soft and Stable to the whole thing to give it more oomph. I swear that’s the technical word…
Zippered Pouch using all cotton fabric
I also re-designed the curve so it was gentler, with the added plus being it is easier to sew in the zipper, and I added fabric tabs to the ends of the zipper, which gives it a nice, clean finish.
Zipper Tab Close Up
Tell me what you think. Post your finished bag on Instagram and tag me and/or on Facebook. Don’t forget to tag me so I can applaud your efforts.
Above is one of the images my teenage daughter sent me saying that she wants to dye her hair pink. I don’t have a problem with that, except for the fact that her hair is already pretty fried from having gone platinum (like Gwen Stefani) for years, and only in the last year plus has she agreed to get highlights, (less damaging) instead of full on platinum. Even so, her hair is not in good shape, we just had to trim it again, and I worry that it will get even worse if she goes pink. So we discussed. And then we discussed more, and there was alot of disagreement, interrupted by watching You Tube videos of a number of young girls dying their hair various shades of pink and how they did it. Some were incredibly compelling and I wavered between thinking maybe I should dye my hair pink, to sternly telling myself this was an idea I would quickly regret and reminding myself to get back on track as this wasn’t about ME, this was about my daughter and how could I best support her without her doing something that might just destroy what was left of her hair. Not my body, not me, get out of the way…
Last night I barely slept. Because this is just the sort of thing that keeps me up at night. And yes, I was aware, at 2AM that I was incredibly fortunate to be thinking about my daughter’s hair color and not something actually serious. I even said a silent – thank you – to the great unknown. And then I remembered that when my son was my daughter’s age he went in for some serious ink and came home with a massive tattoo that he now wants to have removed. I didn’t love that tattoo, though I rather like a couple of the others that he got, but again, not my body, not me, get out of the way…
My job is to support my children, now almost adults. This is easier said than done, however. I figure it’s my job to give them good information so they can make, hopefully, great decisions. Unlike my own young adult self who made a series of questionable and even very, very bad decisions! (I will spend the remaining years of my life apologizing to my mother for what I put her through.) But mostly I need to not engage in anything that starts feeling like a power struggle, because, in the long run, I’m not going to win, and anyway it’s ultimately counter productive. Again, not my body, not about me, get out of the way…
All of this got me thinking about designing (see, I told you my thoughts ricochet like a pin ball during the wee hours of the night/morning) and how similar these kinds of challenges are when designing and stitching. Often when designing I begin with a sketch. Sometimes that sketch evolves, but other times it’s simply the starting point. I have to be willing to let go of the initial idea. Some ideas are definitely more bossy than others. I have to go with where the design leads me, sometimes down unexpected paths. But most of all, I have to get out of the way…
Below is a sketch of a bracelet idea I had using 18 Kt Gold and a variety of green colored gemstones.
Preliminary Sketch for Bracelet
That idea eventually turned into this 18 Kt Brushed Gold Bracelet with multi-colored Tourmaline.
18 Kt Brushed Gold & Tourmaline Bracelet
Below is my sketch for what would finally become my Cookies Delight Quilt. The Pattern for this has been written and I’m just waiting on a couple of things before releasing it as a PDF with detailed instructions on how to make and stitch it.
Cookies Delight Sketch
My Cookies Delight Quilt, using Sue Spargo’s wonderful techniques for layering and stitching, free motion quilted and bound!
Finished Quilt
This is the preliminary very rough sketch I did for the piece I’m currently working on, which was begun in a workshop I took a few weeks ago with Sue Spargo.
Landscape Sketch
This is where it’s going or maybe I should say leading me… I am definitely having to follow this one as it’s careening off the original path I’d set out on. We will see! But that’s also part of the fun – seeing where it goes and doing my best to follow.
Landscape Piece in Progress
I’ve convinced my daughter, for now, to get highlights (compromise) and we’ve bought a “pink conditioner” and will apply that this weekend! Who knows where this may lead?!
People often say to me things like – “You’re so patient” or “I could never do that, it’s so tedious.” What I want to tell them is that I am so NOT patient. I am incredibly impatient, so much so that as a child my impatience was something often commented on by others, not just my parents! I would like to report that I’ve made massive inroads with this since then, but the truth is, I tend towards impatience rather than the other way around. However life has a way of throwing things at you, and over the years I’ve had to dig deep to find ways to temper my impatience. One of those ways, ironically, is through stitching.
Stitching is like meditation. It calms my mind, gets me out of myself and my often whirlwind thoughts that can ricochet from one crises to the next if left untended. Tending to my ragged nervous system requires vigilance and a whole series of things that I must do each day so that I have a chance at making sane, calm choices. Stitching is something I must do. It doesn’t feel like an option. It feels like a necessity. I must have material, needle and thread in hand or I feel off, the day is destined to be more difficult, life’s problems feel more acute, small problems take on a razor sharp edge, things begin to feel increasingly chaotic and impossible. Stitching gives me some semblance of order, a feeling of being a part of something much larger; a feeling that I am part of something inexplicable and unknown.
As I design and look at each shape, consider which thread to use, what stitch will best compliment that shape, those colors, that idea – it feels like I am inserting a little beauty into the day. And so this is how I cope. This is how, when everything feels impossible, when I am overwhelmed by life, through stitching I feel some semblance of calm in the midst of, what otherwise feels like, a tsunami.
Bullion Knots, Picot, Running Stitch, Backstitch & Beaded Backstitch on Wool & VelvetBullion Knot, French Knot, Backstitch, Running Stitch on Wool, Cotton & Dupioni Silk
In January I had the opportunity to go to one of Sue Spargo‘s fabulous workshops in Tucson, Arizona, a place I’d never been. While there I met some lovely people, one of whom was Anna Bates, who has a blog, Woolie Mammoth, a YouTube channel – Quilt Roadies, and blogs for The Quilt Show once a week under the heading – Anna and G on the Road. During the course of our five days together, Anna interviewed me and wrote a lovely post about me and my work. Though I realized afterward that while I sent her photographs of my early designs in fashion and knitting, even a photo of one of my hand thrown and hand painted pots, I didn’t send photos of my jewelry! (insert wide eyed emoji). So here are a few additions to her post…
Because of my conversation with Anna, I reflected on the past (almost) forty years now, when I began my studies at Parsons School of Design and now, when I am learning everything I can about quilting, quilts, dyeing, and manipulating fabric in different ways to create an image, a feeling, an idea…
Another of my knit designs for Elle MagazineAn early design ensemble from my days at Parsons School of Design
All of which led me to a recurring topic – finding one’s artistic voice. How does one find it? How can it be nurtured, cultivated, encouraged?
While listening to a podcast a few weeks ago, two musicians were discussing this very idea and one of them repeated something they’d been told by another artist friend, who basically said – the only way to find your voice is by doing, and in the doing, you will not only find your voice, but it will make itself heard.
I love that! And it aligns with what I have learned through my experiences designing, whether that was fashion, knits, jewelry or quilts and fabric art.
A few months ago I decided I needed to learn how to piece. In quilting terms this is the ability to make something that looks like this: (This hen block was designed by Janet Nesbitt of One Sister.)
I have had a number of design ideas, such as combining pieced blocks with appliqué blocks and overlapping design elements that I cannot realize because there are some pretty basic things I do not know how to do. Piecing was one of them. I’m working on two quilts at the moment that cover all of these things, but in order to do them, and do them well, I need to learn how and then to practice, practice, practice.
So I signed up for Sarah Fielke’s 2019 BOM and began making Janet Nesbitt’s Half Crazy Quilt (which the pieced hen shown above is part of). In addition I joined a craftsy, now Bluprint class – Learn To Quilt with Amy Gibson. And while most of that class I was able to fast forward through, there were a couple of key take-aways that have helped me, such as getting seams to meet up perfectly and squaring up.
With each of these projects I’m learning and in learning how others do it, I am practicing and expanding what I can design, and hopefully my own voice will become clearer and more refined.
Last month I went to Hudson River Valley Arts where Jane Davies was teaching a week long workshop. I found Jane on Pinterest, which led me to her website where she has tons of videos showing her process and work. As with most things I find interesting, I soon became obsessed and began systematically going through almost all the videos she has created. When I saw that she was teaching at Hudson River Valley, a place friends have urged me to look into, and an easy train ride from New York City, I decided to sign up.
It was above and beyond my expectations. First of all Jane is a fantastic artist and teacher, which is not always usual that one leads to the other. But in her case it does. She gives great demos, has a sense of humor, is smart, talented, and she plays the ukulele and might even sing, if encouraged to! The class was full, with 18 people, all strong, interesting women from various parts of the world, including Chile, Quebec, Germany, and Norway! I didn’t get permission to post photos of any of the other women or their work on this blog, so I’m just posting photos of the work I did while there.
We began by exploring lines with different mediums and then moved on to making collage papers that we would then use in our work for the remaining days. Making collage paper is a rabbit hole one can easily become lost in! There are so many ways in which to combine the paint, get it on the paper, scribble, smudge, streak, spray, dribble and the end results can be wonderful. Here are a few of mine.
Reluctantly and with Jane’s encouragement we began using those papers in our work, while also incorporating a variety of techniques that Jane demonstrated. These first two photos are two of six pieces I worked on simultaneously. The other four are still works in progress. They are collage, acrylic paint, and ink and measure 11.5″ X 11″.
Boundaries Unobserved
Murmuration
This next series were all worked at the same time and are collage, acrylic on paper, measuring 11″ X 11″.
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