"How to Stitch"

My kinders spent the better part of a month learning how to thread a needle and stitch on burlap.  I can barely thread a needle myself anymore.  Can you imagine trying to teach 18 five year olds how to do it en masse???????  But we got through it and by the end of the experience, all 70 of my kids went home with a stitched design.  I think they were pretty proud of the achievement.

One of the kindergarten teachers told me that she had her class write a "how to" book.  The one thing they agreed on that they all knew how to do was to stitch.  (Score!)  So that's what they wrote the "how to" book about. 

It made me proud.

Sweet Little Gift

I've ordered a lot of gifts from the internet this year, and have been fearful that I would accidentally have the items mailed to me instead of the intended recipient. When I got a small package the other evening, that was my first thought.

Then I saw that it was from "Zen Crafter", Patricia, about whom I posted the other day. Though I had no reason to be receiving a gift from her, this was my first thought:

It was a greedy little wish, but I was hoping it might be one of her crewel stones.

This little package was the right size to be one.

I was so ecstatic to open the package and find this:

My very favorite one. Thank you, Patricia. This sweet matryoshka will not be put away with the Christmas decorations. I'm putting her on my dresser with my most precious and sweet objects where I can admire her all year.

Blue on White ATC

I could be so productive if I didn't have to work for a living.

Here's another Artist Trading Card for my ArtEd2.0 Ning swap.

embroidery 2.5" x 3.5"

Stitchery ATC

This is another Artist Trading Card for the Ning Art Ed2.0 ATC swap.

I dipped the fabric in pysanky egg dye before I started stitching. Supposedly, people use the same dye when they are dying silk.

3 More ATCs

I've done four out of five Artist Trading Cards for my Art Ed swap now. I'm over a month early on this. These are the three newest ones.






I might be ready to start snipping again once I finish the last ATC.

"The Pollen Was Bad that Day"

"The Pollen Was Bad that Day" is the title of this little piece.

It's summer and that means it's Artist Trading Card time with art teachers. My Ning group (see badge on sidebar if you're interested) is doing their annual swap. I have to make five cards.

I've been watching every grade stitch and weave this quarter. Weeks upon weeks of watching kids having fun with needle and thread. Finally, it's my turn. I'll do my ATCs with embroidery.

This particular card was first colored with a freezer paper print and then embroidered. I like the idea of printing first. It gives me good guidelines to follow while filling in empty spaces between stitches. The insect motif is a favorite of mine and was an easy choice to start off the process, but I think I will base the next one on a design from a masterpiece.

Looking at photos of my work, I always see errors that I don't see in person. The eyes need to be darkened or outlined and I forgot to stitch an antennae. After that, I'll be happy with it.

The weekend's here. Finally. And it is the last one of the school year.

Tiny Sculptors and Weavers

Though my school system provides wonderful lesson plans for grades K - 12, we have none for preschool. Our preschools are federally funded programs that happen to be in our buildings. The extras that those programs get, such as music, art and p.e., are at the discretion of the school principals. So I teach whatever I think is appropriate for our tiniest students. The freedom to try my own ideas is appealing. Sometimes I feel as though I am just flying by the seat of my pants though.

I love doing sculpture with them. Kids, in general, don't get a lot of opportunity to use their hands and build in any way, so they really focus in when they get to work three dimensionally. I find that same thing in all grades. Sculpture, clay, and fiber lessons are big hits with the kids.


In this lesson, the kiddies were making sculptures with egg crates, cardboard tubes, and boxes. This group is very young, and as far as I could tell, the sculptures were all non-objective. They seemed to enjoy putting the objects together in any way that pleased them.

Sometimes, when trying to brainstorm what media to present to preschool, I use the ideas that the "big kids" are working on. The uppergrades are doing fiber arts right now. Fifth graders are weaving.


So I made tiny looms for the preschoolers and let them experiment with them.


I didn't give a lot of direction, rather, I let them try things on their own.


This wasn't the greatest lesson, but the kids were engaged. I'll have to figure out a way to build upon that next week.

Drawing with Thread

I'm still having a wonderful time at the art ed conference.


Only one session that I attended today was hands-on.



Blick art supply company led this one. It was based on the paintings of Wassily Kandinski.

We used Blick's liquid watercolor paint on several types of paper.



After collaging the papers on a stiffer background paper, we stitched on top of them. Here is a link to the lesson plan: http://cdn.dickblick.com/lessonplans/pdfs/drawing_thread.pdf

Here are the student samples that were presented: