This week's offerings.
We've got some great workshops coming up this week, including the beginnings of some multi-week courses. There is still room available in all these workshops, so if you've been thinking about signing-up, now's the time! You can click through on any of the links below to be taken to the webpage where you can register online. It's a quick, secure, and painless process.
Tomorrow (that's Tuesday) is the first of the two-part Everyday Tote Bag workshop. This is a great workshop for the beginner sewist who wants to make a useable item with their brand new skills. You can always use another tote bag, they're good for groceries, books, gym clothes, craft projects. This tote bag goes together smoothly and has various ways to customize it! You only need a yard of home decor weight fabric and your sewing machine. I'll be teaching this workshop and I love this pattern. I use my Carry bag (image in the workshop description) to carry sewing projects with me. We'll cover fabric choices and preparation, proper cutting out techniques, basic pinning and seaming and you'll finish with a cool tote to take home! Tote bags are great projects to build your sewing confidence with. No worries about fitting, they go together quickly and you can polish your skills every time you make one. I recommend making a couple and watching your skills improve. Next thing you know you'll be stepping up to skirt making....
Click on the workshop title at right for all the details and to register.
On Wednesday night the A-Line skirt workshop begins. Betsy Scheintaub (of Bobbin Studio fame, bet you've seen her bags around town) will be teaching this great project. The A-Line skirt truly does look good on everyone, and it's a great way to get started in garment making. You'll cover fabric selection and preparation, basic pattern understanding, proper cutting out of a pattern, construction techniques, including zipper installation, dart placement and hemming. And when it's all done.....you'll have a gorgeous skirt to wear around town. When all your friends say, "where did you get the great skirt?", you can tell them you made it! And then you can turn right around, and make another one....and another one....and another one.... I promise you making great clothes is addicting. This is a great workshop for both beginners and experienced sewists alike, all will find something new to learn, and a great skirt to take home....
Click on the workshop title at left for all the details and to register.
Wednesday is also the day for the Hand Paint Your Yarn workshop! If you're a knitter, chances are you've spent some dollars buying lovely hand painted yarns to make into amazing socks, phenomenal shawls, and gorgeous sweaters. Well, in this workshop you can get started learning how to make those remarkable yarns yourself. Jody Meredith, our color guru, will lead you through the ins and outs of dyeing protein yarns to great effect. You learn about safe dye practices, making dye solutions, techniques for different styles of painted yarn and how to set the dyes in the yarn. And at the end of it all, you go home with two skeins of your very own hand painted yarn, and the skills to do it again!
Click on the workshop title at right for more details and to register.
On Saturday you get a chance to try your hand at quilting. Now, I know some think of quilting as fussy, meticulous, rigid sewing. But that's not what Modern Quilting is. Take a look at some of the quilts displayed on the Modern Quilt Guild website HERE and you'll see that there is a whole other world of quilting out there. In this one-shot workshop you can try your hand at quilting by making mug rugs, mini quilts to place under your coffee or tea mug to protect your table from rings. These quick little projects give you an easy way to try out various sewing techniques that just might get you hooked on modern quilting. This is a great workshop for beginners and experienced sewists alike, as you can make your mug rug as simple or complex as you like. We will cover all the basic foundations and techniques of quilting and you can try it out for yourself. Who knows you might love it, and then you can try the Intro to Modern Quilting workshop next month.... Oh, and yes, I'll be teaching this one.
Click though on the workshop title at left for more details and to register.
On Sunday we're offering up a great opportunity for all of you who really want to learn how to knit. Jerusha will begin her five-week workshop called You Start with Two Sticks. Truly that is how it starts, with two sticks and some yarn... It may seem complicated and intimidating from afar, but once you get the hang of moving your fingers and hands in some new ways, you'll find it's really quite straightforward, and oh-so-much fun! The basic skills of casting on, binding off, knitting, purling, decreasing and some finishing will all be clear to you when this workshop is done. And you'll have a a pair of simple mitts and a hat to show for your learning. Jerusha is a delightful woman with a deep-seated love of all things yarn and knitting. I cannot think of a nicer way to learn this new craft. Why not give it a try, you know you want to....
Click on the workshop title at right for more details and to register online.
On Sunday afternoon we'll have another Stitch-In, from 2:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon. So if you want to wind down your weekend with some neighborly stitching, bring a knitting, hand stitching or embroidery project and we'll hang and chat. If you have any questions about anything you've read here, or anything else about A Gathering, please do not hesitate to contact me either by email at InfoATagatheringofstitchesDOTcom, or by calling 747-5015.
Hope to see you soon,
Samantha