The felting forum had a fiber exchange and so I sent off a “baggie” of various fibers. This is what I got from Jessica in return. Not exactly a baggie is it? But all wonderful fibers and lots that I haven’t tried, so I’ll have to experiment. Thanks Jessica!
She also sent me this little felted piece with one of her bird’s feathers. Beautiful colors!
These are all my samples from the class I took. It was wonderful, we went over all the basics (most of which I needed) and I learned a lot about different threads, needles etc. which will be a big help since I just was guessing before. The first day we painted all of our fabrics with Dye-na-Flow paints and then we started stitching. The sample above is drizzling stitch.
This sample is automatic zig zag and satin stitches.
This is working on getting a perfect satin stitch.
This is taking an automatic stitch and changing the stitch length and width to make patterns.
Quilting
Quilting with applique
Couching
Free running stitch
Free zig zag stitch
Free running stitch using a hoop
Continuous stitch on a grid
Automatic cable stitch – I had a bit of a problem with this as my bobbin case for my machine had been sabotaged at the factory. Brother decided that it didn’t think people should be able to change their bobbin tension so they put plastic stuff over the screw on the bobbin case. I couldn’t get it off while at the class. But since I got home, I scraped it all off with a scalpel and now I can change my bobbin tension.
Free cable stitch (without changing bobbin tension)
Free machine lace
This piece I did today. It was part of the course but we didn’t have time to complete it while we were there. It is a combination of cut back and on lay applique with free running stitch and cable stitch.
Here’s a close up of the cable stitch. I am so happy I got it to work. Now just need to practice a bit.
Cut back applique sample – I didn’t have contrasting enough fabrics so I colored the darker ones in with a Sharpie.
I really enjoyed this class and so want to continue on to the Level II. That class lasts for a total of 18 months and you go back every 3 months or so and have 5 days of instruction with work at home in between. The next level II starts this March and there is no way with my work load that I can do it. But I am going to work towards doing it in another year to year and a half. These used to be City and Guilds classes but she has stopped getting the certification for these. But they are bases on the same concepts. The plan right now is to practice these techniques over the next three months and take them further into using my hand made felt for base as well as silk paper and other techniques. So you’ll be seeing more machine embroidery on future work. Stay tuned!
Ruth Lane Art 
That looks like an excellent class. I wish I had the time to do something like that……someday!
Wow, that looks like fun. I really like the way the satin stich played out. I took a freee class one time after buying a machine and they wentover just a sample of what you did her. It is amazing just how versitile a sewing machine can be. These samples are wonderful, I look forward to seeing what you do with all this new knowledge.
this looks like so much more fun than the samples we did for c&g
I’m envious of your class! It looks like loads of fun! I wish there were classes like that around me but I live far away from EVERYTHING. I was thinking about taking a felting workshop in a location 4 hours away, but decided not to. Your blog is so inspirational for me! Thanks for sharing!
wow, these are amazing – i love to see the different effects with each stitch type and technique :)i’m thinking about doing a city and guilds course next year (to give me time to save up!) so i’m really envious (in a nice way!) of your course – it looks like it was great fun 🙂
The class was great fun and I'd jump on doing C&G courses. So go for it!