Events, Holidays, Freezing temps, it’s been a whirlwind since I last wrote so I figured I needed to take a moment to catch up.

My holiday events were such a great experience; I got to talk with some people who already know about Natalie and Alabama Chanin and to introduce some new people to hand stitching.  I have a lot of lessons learned and I look forward to continuing to share my enthusiasm. It’s so nice to see how creative people are and can be.

Last Fall I committed to renting a small studio in an artsy area of my city, Richmond VA.  The building, The Highpoint in Scott’s Addition, has been under renovation and it was originally scheduled to be done at the end of 2017 but now it’s looking like February.  I did get a quick tour over the holiday break and the beams are up but no drywall yet, so fingers crossed.  I’m really looking forward to having a retail space to sell The School of Making material and notions and a place to put on DIY workshops.  I’ll share more about it soon.  In the meantime, you can #findmeinberniesknee

I’ve been thinking of ways to make my studio as inspiring as The Factory.  During a recent sale at Alabama Chanin I purchased the 2015 swatch sample set in Red.  I’ve been working on stitching up the samples to create a binder like those you can find at the Factory.  It will be a great representation of some of the more popular techniques; appliqué, reverse appliqué, negative reverse appliqué, etc.  I even tried a new technique, appliquéd swirls which when I saw it in Alabama Studio Style I wasn’t sure I would like it, but once I did it for myself, I’m already thinking of a making a shirt using the technique … it’s very easy to create the shapes and it stitches up really quick since it’s just a running stitch.  You’ll have to come by and check it out.

Some other projects I’ve been working on lately (blog posts coming soon):

Here’s the Burgundy A-line New Leaves dress I finished in December (after Fall)

I’m just finishing up my chain stitching on my Flora scarf. This is an old picture but the best I have right now.

I’ve just started a bolero using a small squares technique from the 2010 “Revolution” collection on the sleeves.

And I’ve loved practicing my stitching using Natalie’s latest book, “The Geometry of Hand Sewing”. Her latest DIY kit for a striped scarf using stitching techniques has me swooning!

So many projects on my list!  Let me know what projects you are working on.