Modern Stitching at Art & Soul

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I enjoyed myself at the Modern Stitching class I took last month; it was the only one I got to attend at the Colorado Springs Art & Soul Retreat.  Taught by Ruth Chandler, it followed her book on the same subject.
There were only four of us in the class, which went on for two nights, 3 hours each evening.  We were working on a book of stitches, which I've always wanted to do, and we went stitch by stitch through a whole bunch of them.  I already knew many, but it had been a while since I'd done them.

We weren't able to complete the entire book in class, and I am looking forward to finishing it on my own.  It was so relaxing to learn from Ruth...
and I got a lot of inspiration for using some of the stitches in the future on my fabric collages!  I never know how to go about with "free style"-ing stitches, but Ruth had tons of examples for us to admire:

She had some beautiful, high quality threads and fibers for us to try; I fell in love with some of the silk ones!

My favorite stitch of all we did was "ricing" -- I could just do that all day!
As much as I loved my class, I have to say it was very expensive.  In addition to the 6 hour class costing $150, I had to pay a $25 materials fee, as well as a $50 registration fee to the Retreat.  Personally, I think the registration fee should be waived for people who take just one (or two) courses out of all that are available.  The event wasn't well-publicized locally and it would 've made a huge impact if it had been.  I understand it was held here last year as well, and, as plugged-in as I am to this art community, I didn't hear about it!  It will be held next year here, too, so there's time to plan and make improvements.

Comments

The Junque Seeker said…
This looks like a wonderful class. I saw something about the Colorado Springs Art and Soul in a Somerset publication a few months ago, but when I looked online I could only find info on A&S events in other cities. I'm fairly persistent with my online searches, so thought it was a bit strange that I couldn't locate the info. Perhaps there's a web site or search engine glitch somewhere.
June 11, 2019 at 7:01 PM
Tammy@T's Daily Treasures said…
Would seem for that price that all materials should be included. I do love the look of slow stitching such as kantha and sashiko but have yet to give it a go.
June 11, 2019 at 11:18 PM
Marrianna said…
Beautiful stitching. I’ve been to retreats in Scottsdale, AZ, in the “high” summer, and, yes, it is super expensive. I bet you enjoyed everything at the event. I was able to attend a retreat 10 years ago that was 3 days, only 1 teacher, D.J. Pettitt, in Los Gatos, CA. It was fantastic and the location was marvelous. Sadly, the retreat host had to stop holding the retreats because fewer students would attend. And at the time I had saved enough money to attend a 5-day event. I’m glad you went. I love the silk flowers that you stitched. You did some beautiful work.
June 12, 2019 at 7:50 AM
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