Stitching Botanical Prints in Ohio with Sue and Mary
I feel so privileged to be able to learn from some of the amazing textile artists I admire and last week was one of those wonderful occasions.
Left to right: Sue Spargo, Mary DeLano and I
When I learned that my dear friend Mary DeLano was teaching a class with well-known stitchery artist Sue Spargo in Ohio, I knew I had to go. The class was held at Sue's studio in Uniontown, OH. It was so exciting to be there in the midst of Sue's awesome embroidered artwork and the supplies she sells! Click here to visit Sue's website and view her incredible work.
The five day class was called Create an Eco Printed Masterpiece and seeing Mary DeLano's work (above) was very inspiring. Mary is a fiber artist and master of natural dyes and eco printing. She has been exploring combining Sue Spargo's stitching techniques with her own dyed wools. The results are magical and I loved seeing the samples of her work! You can click here to visit Mary DeLano's web site and see more.
The class was taught by both Mary and Sue. I loved working with them and the 15 lovely ladies in the class. We had lots of fiber fun, inspired each other and enjoyed wonderful lunches together each day. The picture above shows my first botanical print layout on wool.
In May of 2023, I had a wonderful adventure exploring botanical printing at a retreat in North Carolina. Click here to read my blog post about that retreat. I enjoyed it so much and was really looking forward to learning more. We spent our first day working with Mary DeLano learning lots of techniques for eco printing and putting together a palette of dyed and un-dyed wools to work with. My first prints from the time with Mary are above.
This eco-printed piece I created was such a thrill for me. It is eucalyptus leaves printed on Indigo dyed wool! Just my style!!
The picture above is my work space for the stitchery we worked on with Sue Spargo after our day of eco print dyeing. I've done lots of needle work and embroidery from when I was a child and handwork is one of my passions. You can see that in the stitched resists I do for my Shibori Indigo Dyeing!
But, there's always more to be learned and I loved the new stitches Sue taught us in the remaining four days of class! Based on the Seedpods Quilt she is teaching local students, we learned about design, embellishing and combining the art of eco printing and folk art. It was a complete joy!
You can see some of the work of Sue's Seedpods students (as above) on her Instagram. Be sure to follow her while you're there! And, if you ever get a chance to take a class with Mary DeLano and Sue Spargo, I highly recommend it. Tell them Debbie sent you!
DEBBIE
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