Future Tripping
In July of 2025, the Advanced Studies in Experimental Stitch (L3) course that I’ve been participating in since Sept of 2022 will come to an end. We’ll have an exhibition of the work that 5 students in the course have done on July 19th and 20th at Gail Harker’s studio in LaConner, WA USA. https://gailcreativestudies.com/. Stop on by if you’re in the area.
I’m looking forward to finishing the course and having some free time to get back to some other projects that have been gathering dust. I have a clothesline strung across the length of my studio where I pin projects that I don’t want to forget about (or things that I don’t want to lose track of) and I enjoy looking at them when I walk by.
Here is a closer look at unfinished projects on the floor that I trip over on my way to the laundry room.
Two projects on my clothesline that I really want to finish just need to be quilted.
One of them is a small scene of city buildings (16″ x 16″) that I made using a purchased stencil from Stencil Girl Products . https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/
I colored the buildings using Inktense with Aloe Vera gel to keep the color from migrating into the next building.
The other small quilt (16″ x 16″) was also made using a purchased stencil from Stencil Girl. This one started my interest into stitch drawing. I made this one because I thought the city needed to have people with it.
I must have made these two pieces in the dead of winter. I’m not sure how I got so focused on grey! Not much color going on with my people. Perhaps before I quilt this one, I will add some color to the people’s clothing. This one was fun to make though. All the people are hand stitched using one strand of DMC floss. They look like they are really enjoying their winter.
A direction I want to go into next is doing machine stitched figures. I bought a book by Rosie James called Stitch Draw. I like the simplicity of her work and all her loose threads. My plan is to use old family photos and stitch draw them.
Hopefully later this year I can show you some progress on cleaning up my UFO pile. I look forward to revisiting it, but that will all have to wait until AFTER July.
Happy creating!
Tesi Vaara
15 thoughts on “Future Tripping”
You have some wonderful UFOs Tessi! Plenty of blog posts there to show us how you finish them 🙂 The vase of flowers on the floor already looks good! Love the washing line – what a great idea.
It’s a bit of stretch for us to pop by the exhibition in July so we hope that you are able to take photos to share with us all.
No trips planned to the US this year?? LOL.
I love the clothesline idea. It makes it harder to forget what still needs to be finished. Your stitched people are great. Maybe you could add some white in the grey border? Not sure you need any other color. I look forward to seeing what you have created for class as well as your finished UFO’s
Thanks Anonymous Ruth for your comments! The clothesline has really come in handy to keep things front and center. My studio has become such a mess and I continuously lose things, lol.
The anonymous comment above is me, I had just signed in to WP. Not sure why it didn’t recognize me 😕
I think WP is having problems – again! Whenever I click on “Like” it has a hissy fit before it finally shows.
Ann
So many sumptuous bits of work that I’m looking forward to seeing as they are progressed. And, as Anonymous Ruth (!) said, it would be really great to see your class work and final exhibition too.
The stitch draw technique is intriguing and looks perfect for old photo inspiration: it feels like you’ll have lots of lovely things to show us during the rest of the year.
Thanks Lindsay for your comments! I look forward to finishing some projects up!
my long comment would not upload Tessi so fingers crossed this shortened version will
Love your UFO’s. curious about using Aloe Vera with inktense. Would love to be closer so I could see the exhibition, make sure to take photos and do a post about it.
Helene x
The Inktense pencils are mainly applied dry to fabric or paper, then you usually activate them with water. A small bit of water applied by a brush to the pencil marks activates and moves the color which can create a nice blended effect if that is what you are trying to get. Kind of like watercolors.
Clear 100% aloe vera gel applied with a brush will activate the color but it will not run ( unless you put too much on). It’s kind of magical and it let me keep the colors of the buildings within their lines.
Hopefully that answers your questions???
Just found out that Gail Harker is still going to be teaching, but will be letting her studio go. So some change in plans for our July exhibition that has now been cancelled…our L3 group will be joining Ruth’s L4 group(s) when they have their exhibition in La Conner at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum next March-May 2026. THAT will be an awesome show to see.
Hopefully my long comment will load up, lol.
Tesi
Wow! that sounds really exciting Tessi.
Thanks for further explaining the inktense pencils. Mine are in a ‘paint box’ so I could possibly substitute the aloe vera for water when applying.
Helene x
Helene has just reminded me that I was going to ask about the Aloe Vera and Inktense. How and why do you do it?
Ann
The Inktense pencils are mainly applied dry to fabric or paper, then you usually activate them with water. A small bit of water applied by a brush to the pencil marks activates and moves the color which can create a nice blended effect if that is what you are trying to get. Kind of like watercolors.
Clear 100% aloe vera gel applied with a brush will activate the color but it will not run ( unless you put too much on). It’s kind of magical and let me keep the colors of the buildings within their lines.
Hopefully that answers your questions???
Tesi
I like your UFOs Tesi, and I hope that you will find the time to finish them. I think that the grey one with the people has something lyric to it, maybe due to the lack of bright colours.
The houses have an air of storytale, you kind of expect a good story to start there any minute.
Let us see them both when you will finish them, please!
Thanks for your comments! I will be sure to post them when I finally get to them!