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A TECHNIQUE DRIVEN Blog dedicated to mastery of surface design techniques. First we dye, overdye, paint, stitch, resist, tie, fold, silk screen, stamp, thermofax, batik, bejewel, stretch, shrink, sprinkle, Smooch, fuse, slice, dice, AND then we set it on fire using a variety of heat tools.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Hand Stitched




I love hand stitched quilts. They bear the unmistakable marks of the quilter, unique and special. 

My aim this month is first briefly to share with you my hand stitch experiences: several years of practice and the resulting work – the meaning behind the quilted surface – and than I would like to try to explore and compare new attitudes in hand quilting and introduce other approaches besides my own. 

So, if somebody is working on hand stitched quilts and would be ready to share her ideas and her practical experiences, please contact me. I’m especially interested in the following questions: Why did you choose specifically hand stitch contrary to machine quilting? Did you use special stitches – your personal experiences: workload, difficulty, effects, results and conclusions.

Of course any other new approaches are welcome. It would be great to show a big variety of hand stitch techniques. It doesn't have to be limited to quilts - it's just my medium - other forms of stitched objects, especially 3D ones, would only enrich the posts.
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11 comments:

  1. BethJanuary 7, 2014 at 7:21 AM

    I am very interested in hand stitch and spent the first half of the year working through Sandra Meech books and other mark making books. Then I attended the Dorothy Caldwell workshop in Columbus concentrating strictly on mark. So I am on but I would prefer as a follower than one of your team . I don't want to hog the blog. Very excited about the stitch!!

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  2. elleJanuary 7, 2014 at 8:24 AM

    This will be great as I want to start putting more hand stitching into my creative life! ;)

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  3. magsramsayJanuary 7, 2014 at 8:59 AM

    Great idea!!!I use a lot of hand stitching in my quilts both on its own and in combination with machine quilting.
    http://www.magsramsay.co.uk

    My indigo journal quilts last year demonstrate the variety of stitching I do ( I use lines of vertical stitches quite a lot )http://magsramsay.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/indigo-journal-quilts.html

    I'm experimenting with expanding my repertoire after reading Helen Parrott's book on mark-making
    http://magsramsay.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/red-knots-and-loops.html

    I'm also fired up after Dorothy Caldwell masterclass in Puglia. Blind stitching was an eye-opener!

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  4. Linda MJanuary 7, 2014 at 9:03 AM

    I do daily and weekly hand stitching projects , they start out small but end up as fairly large quilts. You can see them on my blog http://thrulindaseyes.blogspot.com/

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  5. Judy Sall Fiber ArtJanuary 7, 2014 at 9:11 AM

    I'm not doing a lot of quilting these days, but always love learning more about how to do hand-stitching. I look forward to following your posts!

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  6. Erica SpinksJanuary 7, 2014 at 4:51 PM

    I love to hand stitch! You can see some of my pieces on my blog. Some recent pieces are here: http://www.creativedabbling.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/fragments-2.html , here: http://www.creativedabbling.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/fragments-1.html , here: http://www.creativedabbling.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/bird.html and here: http://www.creativedabbling.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/reaching.html plus the header of my blog has a detail of another piece. I'd love to hear from you if any of this of use for your post.

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  7. beataJanuary 8, 2014 at 6:10 AM

    Thank you all, I think it will be an interesting month!
    Even if not participating actively, your comments are always welcome!

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  8. The Inside StoriJanuary 8, 2014 at 8:43 AM

    I've always been a hand stitcher....and still love to hand quilt. Currently I used hand stitching to add design, texture and interest to my hand felted, dyed wool pieces. You can view many here: www.marystorishop.blogspot.com I'd be happy to comment on my various approaches.

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  9. Penny Schine GoldJanuary 8, 2014 at 12:03 PM

    I really look forward to a month focusing on hand-stitching. I, too, have been very influenced in my recent work by a workshop with Dorothy Caldwell, and in particular, the blind-stitching exercise. Here's a blog post that explains how it influenced me to change plans for a large quilt I had in prrogress from machine stitching to hand:
    http://penny-studionotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/quilting-regret.html

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  10. KathyJanuary 12, 2014 at 8:24 AM

    I would love to work along with you on this. It's nice to see Mary Stori here! I remember her from the old days in Ann Arbor, MI!

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  11. beataJanuary 27, 2014 at 7:15 AM

    Kathy, I'm sorry. Your comment landed in my Spam and I just saw it for the first time. If you're still interested in working with us, could you contact me? beatakeller >>at<<ymail.com

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