New Online Classes (Sewing!)

I LOVE to sew! But I hate pins, and over the years (bit by bit) I’ve said “goodbye” to pins and even patterns, preferring to “eyeball” things, both when sewing by hand and using the machine. 

Rules for Rags-to-Stitches

1. Use recycled or reused fabrics whenever possible
(yard-sale clothes, thrift-store sheets, sale socks…)

2. Use whatever color thread is in the machine.

3. Embrace imperfections in sewing and execution.

4. Don’t plan things out. Let your intuition tell you which
fabric/colors/ribbon to put down next.

5. It’s square enough.

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In the two one-week e-classes that follow, you can make animal softies, a journal, and a purse while following the above rules (and with a little technical guidance from your teacher)! Note: You don’t need a sewing machine for the animal class.

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RAGAMUFFIN SCRAP ANIMALS

April 29 – May 3, 2013 • $45
• One-week intensive
• Five instructional videos
• Indefinite Class Access
• Instructor feedback

In this class you’ll make an owl, a pony, and an elephant. Note: You do not need a sewing machine to take this class, but there are a few times I do use the machine in the videos (but can be substituted with hand sewing).

I love making these animals, which take between 45 minutes and 2 hours to make, depending on the complexity. I anticipate the class will keep you busy for about an hour each day.

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Scrap Animal Cost: $45 • Click to Sign Up!

 

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A JOURNAL AND A PURSE

May 13 – 17, 2013 • $35
• One-week intensive
• PDF-based class (no video)
• Indefinite Class Access
• Instructor feedback

Note: This is a repeat class; those previously signed up are welcome to join in this time at no additional cost; just email me!

In this class you will make a beautiful scrap journal and a purse using only a sewing machine (no hand sewing).

You’ll also receive four downloadable images of recent Carla art to print out on fabric or transfer paper to use in your projects.

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Journal & Purse Cost: $35 • Click to Sign Up!

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Thank you for your interest, and I hope you (or a sewing friend) can join me!

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If you are interested in other Online Class Offerings in DRAWING, MIXED-MEDIA, and PAINTING, click here! All classes are available to work as a self-study class. Instructor feedback, indefinite access, and reasonable prices.

It’s amazing…

😀

Actually, I’ve had a fairly productive day!

I wrote the above sentence in my journal a few years ago; unfortunately it’s something I think about and bring to bear all too often.

I’m working on a one-week online sewing class to begin April 29. Details coming April 1st!

I hope you are well today.

Happy Friday

An eventful week!

Our new little sweetie pie grandson, Ethan, was a most wonderful gift on Tuesday!

This little guy looks cranky, but he really wishes you and everyone well.

Happy Friday!

A New Grandson! (Artwork NOT related)

Yesterday my second grandson, Ethan Alistair, was born at 9 pounds, 13 ounces. He is exactly 18 months younger than his older brother Liam!

We are blessed with a wonderful, growing family. 😀

 

Uh-Oh

Tags

Artwork, bird painting, drawing animals, painting birds, yellow bird

Minnesota Art Retreat • August 15-18

Tags

animal drawings, art of silliness, Artwork, figure drawing, Midwest Art & Lettering Retreat, Minnesota Art Retreat, rabbit drawing

I was happy to receive an email last week from the organizer of the Midwest Art & Lettering Retreat that the four-day workshop in August is nearly filled (there’s three spots left).

Here’s the class description:

The class is four days long. In the mornings we’ll draw, doing a series of serious and silly drawings (mostly silly) from life, from photos, and from imagination:

We’ll even draw from the live figure on the fourth morning!

In the afternoons we’ll add color and collage and turn those drawings into a multi-layered, mixed-media book (or series of books): 

I think it will be so fun! I’ve never taught a four-day workshop before, and look forward to the more leisurely pace.

Have a great week!

How One Thing Leads to Another

Tags

acquard Inkjet Fabric Sheets, fabric sheets, giraffe, homemade stuffed toy, stuffed animal, stuffed giraffe, year of the giraffe

Yesterday, by about 4pm, I was floundering. I didn’t seem to be getting anything done! And the little bit I had tried to sew…

… had ended up in the trash (after cutting out the good linen from the back).

I was TRYING to make a simple stuffed giraffe kind of like this one…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sashadewittstudios/8528485354/in/pool-2119101@N24

… by printing this image on fabric:

Since I don’t have my sewing machine here, I tried to hand-sew it, and it was terrible. Blech.

So I printed out another copy, and decided to paint the fabric to give the giraffe more of an outline so that when I sewed it, it made sense. I wanted the paint to be transparent, but I was too lazy or whatever to figure out the right way to do it. So I used the watercolors on my table:

The back side looked cool, too:

Just for fun I ran the whole piece of fabric underwater and the paint DID NOT wash out! Just a little color ran, but for the most part, the watercolor seemed to be semi-permanent on the  Jacquard Inkjet Fabric Sheets.

Note to self: Play more with this.

But then, when I was scanning the image in, the scanner did a weird thing for a moment and the giraffe suddenly looked like this:

So I saved that copy and went on to play with other versions digitally in Photoshop:

  

I then printed out the last version on watercolor paper, and tried to “improve” it with more paint. Unfortunately, things got ugly, and I ended up using sandpaper and gesso to try and save it:

Not so much. Oh well!

Then I went home, after what turned out to be a really fun day!

Stuffed Giraffe and Self Doubt

Tags

giraffe, homemade stuffed animal, sewing a giraffe, stuffed animal giraffe, stuffed giraffe, year of the giraffe

This month we are sewing the giraffe!

I spent a day in the studio last week embroidering the spots with silver thread.

It was a truly good use of my time, even though especially because I had so much computer work to do. It cleared my head and I was more productive afterwards!

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I weighed in on an article over at psychcentral.com yesterday on Creativity and Self Doubt. Here’s the link if you’d like to read it:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/03/03/10-ways-to-overcome-creativitys-no-1-crusher/

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Have a great week!