Ballarat Embroidery Guild 2 Day Workshop

I was invited to teach at the Ballarat Embroidery Guild Workshop weekend for their Autumn Seminar.

DAY 1

So i arrived on the Saturday morning bright and early to find that the ladies were already arriving and very very excited.  It was lovely to see and the vibe was great. 

After i set up my stock and some quilts to display the girls stood there oooohhing and arhhing and very excited about their next 2 days. 

As usual it felt weird to have people so excited and so enthusiastic about making one of my patterns and learning some new techniques. I always find that people get a little overwhelmed with the thought of painting. So after trying to convince them all that they don't need to be artists to paint fabric and make this project.  They laughed at me.  We got underway. 

Firstly we had to paint our background.  This process was messy and lots of fun for the ladies and gave them the chance to relax with the paints. Thankfully we were blessed with a sunny day and put our fabric out to dry.  While it was drying we ate lunch and chatted for a bit and cleaned up our mess. 

Very messy lol

The results were lovely. Everyone picked their own colour way and made their piece their own. 

ARTISTIC LICENCE 

This is the point that i told everyone that they now officially have an Artistic Licence and they were allowed to use it at any given point throughout the weekend.  

So we draw on the pattern with the largest lightbox we could find..... the Windows. Gotta love natural resources.  😁

And then the fun really begins....

These ladies really picked up the techniques very quickly.  They enjoyed themselves and used the licences that i gave them. The results were lovely and we still hadn't finished. We had to stitch on them too to add more detail. 

Process photos of the ladies work

DAY 2

The fun begins 😁

After a good night sleep and feeling all refreshed for the day we all arrived early and got straight back into it.... after a coffee of course😉

They finished off their painting as a few details needed to be finalized and then the machines were set up ready to go. 

I explained to them again that there are no 'Quilt Police' here and their licences are still valid 😁

There are NO mistakes.  

So i showed them the process of basic thread painting and how to get their desired results and what colours to start with and were to start and off they went with licences in hand and all nervous.  After about hour of sewing they realised that they can do it, that its not a secret that its very possible. 

The results were fantastic..... photos show that. 

The girl's loved their 2 days.  We laughed. We chatted.  We had a great time doing what we loved.

I really think that they went away with new ideas and inspiration to create more wonderful works of art.  Just loved seeing them so excited an proud of their achievements.

Would like to thank the Ballarat Embroidery Guild for having me there to teach and guide these lovely ladies. 

 More  Pics of the results.