Stitch Retreat - Hand Stitched Book

Course Details

Summer Time Stitch Retreat - Print and Stitch a beautiful "Memories of Summer" Sample Book Join me for a Summer "mini break", with two whole days of relaxing making and stitching! Treat yourself to an immersion in creativity and experimentation in a friendly and unique extended workshop, exploring mixed media techniques and hand stitching, with nature as our inspiration. Day 1: Printing and marking Fabric The first day will be spent trying out a variety of techniques to mark, stain and print our fabric. Using real leaves and flowers, we will begin with some gelli printing, to create some beautiful samples with incredible detail. We'll also try out some natural dye techniques using some simple, naturally derived stains and colours to mark our backgrounds. Learn how to make your own inks and stains using every day kitchen staples and plants from your local environment. In addition, we'll do some sun printing (or cyanotype) to create some interesting silhouettes, which make stunning backgrounds to stitch into, or as little pictures in their own right. Day 2: Making a hand stitched sample book Once we've created our "stash", we'll begin to select and refine our favourite pieces to use. We'll collate our most successful samples and I'll show you a simple book binding technique, to make your very own "Memories of Summer" stitched sample book. We'll spend Day Two experimenting with some relaxing hand stitching techniques to bring it all together into a lovely project, looking at different types of stitches and methods of constructing a little composition for each page. We'll spend time arranging, collaging and stitching the pages to make each one a gorgeous interpretation of the plants, flowers and atmosphere of the Summer garden. The workshop will be held in the peaceful venue of Sandham Memorial Hall, near Pulborough, with access to a kitchen and plenty of space for parking outside, with tea, coffee and biscuits on tap! A small equipment list will be send to you beforehand, some materials will be provided, although you will need to bring some additional small pieces of fabric with you to make your samples.