May: Sketching and Painting with Thread

I was at a quilt show a couple of years ago and in the little sign accompanying a certain quilt, one of the techniques given was "thread-painting."  My friend and I looked all over that quilt and didn't see anything we thought would qualify as thread-painting.  It was a modern art quilt, composed of beautiful hand-dyed fabrics and artfully quilted, but we just didn't see any actual thread-painting.

I am not enough full of myself to think that I can provide the definitive definition of thread-painting, but I think that a lot of what I do qualifies as such.  So this month, my month, I want to explore the art of painting on fabric with thread.  Because it's really just another form of my favorite thing: putting color on fabric.

Here are a couple of examples to get the creative juices flowing:

Ellen Anne Eddy does some fabulous work with thread.  Here is a link to her website: http://www.ellenanneeddy.com/   and her blog: http://www.ellenanneeddy.com/weblog/

Terry Aske has a nice portrait of a thread-painted dog here:
http://www.terryaskeartquilts.com/Studio/2013/04/13/on-my-design-wall-dog-portrait-finished-2013-04-13/

Shannon Conley has a nice thread-painted dog here:
 http://imworkingonaproject.blogspot.com/2013/04/woof-woof-dogs-are-out.html

and for those who are not necessarily fans of dogs, Quilting Arts is offering a free ebook on thread painting and sketching here:
http://www.quiltingdaily.com/blogs/quilting-daily/archive/2013/04/25/thread-sketching-and-thread-painting-new-free-ebook.aspx


Next up: the basics.  Threads, needles, fabrics and stabilizers, oh my...