My First Video

Drawing and Free-motion Stitching from Karen Maggio on Vimeo.

Always looking for new ways to connect with my High School Art students, I created my first video demonstrating drawing and free-motion stitching with music by "The Naked and Famous."

I can't stop...

This little square was set aside because I didn't think it had enough contrast. Well I kept looking at it this morning and couldn't help myself. I used a marker to bring out the detail in the house, and decided to practice a freemotion pattern Laura Kemshall demonstrated on a recent episode of DMTV.
The stars are not perfect, but I am happy with my effort. I wasn't sure what to do with the lower half and decided to leave it alone. I'm really liking this little piece that I thought was a lost cause.

Smiling from the Heavens

Ta Da... What do you think? Should I leave the little Batik bird houses as is or do you think I should mark them with pen like the larger bird house?
I loved this thread when I saw it at the store, but was a bit disappointed when the thread was black rather than blue. The black really points out the mistakes with my stitching.


Now I want to start the process all over again and try different colors. My husband can't get over how I have thrown myself into all this sewing. I quickly reminded him it is in my DNA. My grandmother was a master seamstress. During the Great Depression, she made a living using her sewing skills. She also made all my clothing when I was a little girl. Many of them were hand embroidered. She must be smiling from the heavens.
If anyone is curious where I am learning these wonderful techniques you must stop over to Linda and Laura Kemshall's website and join their Design Matters TV program. I've been following the mother and daughter team for years and can't say enough positive things about them.

Practice, Practice,Practice

I've been having so much fun practicing my freemotion stitching this week. First I made up several fabric sandwiches. The next step was to practice the patterns I wanted to use on my quilts. After feeling comfortable with the stitching, I marked up 2 sandwiches resembling the final quilts. This allowed me to work out the pattern. With freemotion stitching it should be one continuous line. The first day my foot ached trying to keep the peddle on the machine at a constant pace. I had to take several breaks throughout the day, or should I say several days.

Fabric Dye with Resist

Two weeks ago I wrote about my new adventure working with fabrics showing you several of my ideas. Using some very old bee wax found in my classroom, I experimented with a batik style appling the wax to my fabric before dying the fabric. As you can see the wax was so old it stained the white fabric yellow. Yikes!!

This one I got a little to crazy with the wax, but did like the look of the larger bird house.

I poured out the old wax and donated it to the jewelery teacher and ordered soy wax. This is the second try using soy wax
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A quick sketch using yellow paper with a new design for the larger house composition.


Using marker I will be adding detail to the fabric print and the design will be done using thread and freemotion stitching. I'm so excited! I have this week off from school and can't wait to draw and stitch on my dyed fabric.

Love you forever

Happy Valentines Day

Enjoying the Process

It starts with a photograph and an idea... I love little houses and birdhouses. You may remember last year, my sketchbook was full of drawings from my collection of little houses. This year I went outside for my inspiration. Wouldn't you agree this is the year of winter and snow?
If your wondering where I'm getting my inspiration from join Linda and Laura Kemshall over at their website and join their DMTV show. It's a wonderful and creative learning channel created by them to inspire us all! I highly recommend it!
From this sketch I plan on doing a series of small quilts. Not your traditional quilts, I plan on dying my own fabric, printing with stamps, drawing, painting and using free motion stitching to quilt this series. I'm looking forward to some fun and most likely a few mistakes. I can't wait to share my experiments with you.

It always starts with my sketchbook which I lovingly refer to has my recipe book. From the drawing in the first photo I made this little stamp, and the ideas started to flow.

This was stamped and the design was created with quilting in mind. I've used pencil on the stamp to add value for depth. Sorry about the glare on this photo. I got so excited about the quilting designs I jumped to fabric.

I'm a little rusty with the free motion quilting and my sewing machine. Maybe I should think about color and quilting designs.

Tracing paper, pencil and oil pastel.

Another version

I plan on dying white cotton and will only use two colors for the process. I can always use oil pastel to add more color at a later time.

Today I cut the fabric and prepared the fabric for dying with soda ash. See you later in the week with photos of my experiments. I forgot to mention that I'm also sharing this process with my advance painting students.