2016: An Exciting Year to Look Forward To

As my brain catches up to the fact that it is now well into 2016, I thought it would be great to share with you some exciting events that I will be participating throughout this year.

I'll Be Teaching and Lecturing At:

April 28- May 1:  EGA Sun Region "Red Sails in the Sunset" Seminar  
 in St. Petersburg, Florida

Interpreting Moss with Creative Goldwork Embroidery Bowtie (1 day workshop on April 29)
Dandelion of a Thousand Wishes (2 day workshop on April 30- May 1)

May 17- 22:  EAC Inspiring Threads at Humber College, Toronto, Ontario

Beehave Goldwork Sampler (2 day workshop on May 18-19)

Dandelion of a Thousand Wishes (2 dayworkshop on May 21-22)

Historic Foundations for Contemporary Embroidery lecture


August 28- September 3:  Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina

 Embroidering Impressions of Nature (week long workshop)

 September 20:  SAGA National "Anchored in SAGA" Convention in Hampton, Virginia

Haystacks of Giverny (1 day workshop)
Evolution of Consuelo lecture about my Consuelo: Glitter of a Dollar Duchess gown 

November 2- 6: EGA National "Star Spangled" Seminar in Alexandria, Virginia

Beehive Goldwork Sampler (2 day workshop on Thursday and Friday)

Gregg Floral (2 day workshop on Saturday and Sunday)

Exploring Color Interactions Illuminated in Goldwork Embroidery lecture

Other Exciting Events:

October 19-23, 2016:  Textile Society of America "Crosscurrents: Land, Labor and the Port" Biennial Symposium in Savannah, Georgia
I will be presenting a research poster about my Exploring Color Interactions Illuminated in Goldwork Embroidery project. 

Gregg Floral

The Gregg Museum at North Carolina State University has so many wonderful examples of textiles in their collection.  I recently had the opportunity to study a group of men’s waistcoats from the mid-late 18^th century.  This design (for a workshop proposal) blends elements from a linen waistcoat embroidered with chain stitch floral designs and an embroidered waistcoat pocket flap.   My goal was to interpret the designs seen in the historic examples with a blend of traditional and experimental goldwork techniques. 

 I loved how the buds were stitched on this pocket flap with spangles and smooth purl. 

 I loved all the chain stitching on this waistcoat.  All of the embroidery is just chainstitch plus a couple french knots.  The mix and placement of the different colors was really nice and created a lot of detail to the miniature floral designs. 

 

Below is my final design.  I interpreted the chainstitch from the waistcoat using colored metal purl.  It was a lot of fun doing such a large chain stitch and created a lot of height without padding!  I have done satin stitch behind the chainstitched metal using a Valdani thread.  The flower center is french knots of stretched purl and Valdani thread.  For the buds, I took the idea of the spangles and purls and I layered colored and stretched purls to create more height.  The leaves are a combination of chainstitch and chipping and the stems are s-ing.  

Just before Christmas, I ordered my first Valdani threads and I have to say... I quite like these threads!!! My colleague, Susan Brandeis, loves them!  The colors are absolutely beautiful.  They are so much richer than the DMC's I am used to using and the variegated colors are really nice.  Here I'm stitching with the Quilting and Sewing Cotton thread.  Susan kept telling me that she loves the way it sits on the fabric and she is totally right!  It is mercerized so it has a very soft sheen to it and it does sit on top of the fabric in a way that embroidery floss does not.  That being said, I'm still forming my opinion of it with certain stitches like long and short where the threads need to blend together a bit more.  More experimenting is on the way with the Valdani threads!