Hello! I'm Laurel Bahe and I so excited to use stitching as part of my painting.  This is new to me and even though I didn't do much stitching I  love the results and will keep playing with the sewing machine on my watercolor paintings.  This little owl is 5"x7" painted with watercolor, acrylic and felt tip markers on 200 lb watercolor paper, mounted on 1.5" thick canvas with collaged and painted edges.  I live in Colorado Springs and visited Wild Heather Gallery for the first time yesterday.  Love that place!

Ulla Westermann - Week 1 - Stones of Ireland

I recently read an article about Stones of Ireland and really liked the patterns on the stones. I pieced the background with several fabrics, then used the scribble stitch to create the stones. The background is quilted with thread matching the fabric. The gray binding matches the color of the stones. The piece is 14" x 10". This was a lot of fun!

Jean Spring

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I really enjoyed the scribbling technique and felt it was a good " loosening up" for quilting. During the winter, I often find myself thinking of my beach days, and thus the shell theme.

Winter trees

This is my 8" square piece.  As soon as I saw the assignment, there was no doubt I was going to make trees.  Lately I've been into carving stamps, so I had to use a piece of snow dyed fabric stamped with my latest stamp of stars for the sky. Keats Scott

Heather Thomas ~ Week #1 ~ Baby Black Bird

 

Hello Everyone,

Here is my completed first piece "Baby Black Bird".  He is 8" x 8" and is done entirely with scribble stitch on raw Osnaberg fabric.  After the stitching I did a gallery finish by wrapping him around stretcher bars, covering the back with black tag board and then painting the edges with black acrylic paint. 

Heather Thomas

Weekly creation group

Jean Spring and I are meeting on Tuesdays from 11:00 to 2:00 ( bring your own lunch) in Boulder to work on this challenge. Would love to have anyone in the area join us. Give me a call.
Jo Noble
303-807-6630

HI everyone!

Robin Sruoginis here. I'm excited and ready to start this challenge. This piece is an 8.5 X 8.5 journal page on canvas.

I did the flowers in the scribble technique over a label from some piece of clothing that says "Hip, happening in the present". The aqua color in the background is a painted stencil. The white is a left over piece of texture paste on dryer sheet fused over the top.This obscured the top flower so did some more scribbles. Then added the purple with Lumiere paint and a quick spray of yellow mist. Then never being one to stop when I probably should I added the Deep purple rain drops. Couched on the netting fence and Ta Da! 

 Hope you all have as much fun as I did, and I tell ya, working on this got me out of my Monday morning funk. It may not be my favorite piece, but hey....I've got 50 weeks Yeah! Oh. 49 to go.

An Introduction to Our 50 Weeks of Art Challenge

50 Weeks of Art, Week #1:
Technique Option #1~ Scribble Stitch

Hello All,
The first technique that I want to introduce is what I call, "Scribble Stitch" which is exactly what it sounds like.  It is simply scribbling with your sewing machine while in free motion mode. It's a much more relaxed way of stitching than regular free motion work. It can be done as an edge finish for raw edged applique. It can be done as thread painting through the top surface and a stabilizer or it can be done, as shown here, as quilting through all three layers.
I began by outlining the basic shape of the baby black bird.  I re-traced the lines three or four times.  Then I began adding the detail of the breast feathers and the feathers along his head and back.  Lastly, I added the shapes of the individual feathers in his wing.  Then I added the detail in the feathers. 
All of the stitching in the bird really distorted the background so I stitched the hell out of it with lots of zig zaggy stitches in matching thread.
As you can see in the close up photos, the stitches are all somewhat large, about 1/8" long and they are quite rough.
This technique is all about texture, all about line and all about freedom.  If you decide to give it a try, stitch as fast as you feel you can and don't strive for realism or photographic accuracy.  Rather, look for  results that represent a sketch, as though you have done a rough drawing of a simple thing with just enough detail.  I hope you'll give it a try.

Heather Thomas