Appliqué Academy: Woodland Reverie—Owls and Wood Roses

It is that time of year again! The catalog of classes has now been published, and we can finally reveal what we will be teaching at the Academy of Appliqué in Williamsburg, Virginia in 2023. Check out that catalog of wonderful offerings, and you will have a difficult time deciding what classes to enjoy: there are so many amazing instructors with a wide variety of techniques and skills presented. We do hope you will keep scrolling all the way to the end (p. 58) to see our classes, but we will show you a bit of detail here, too. 

In our first session (February 27–March 1), we are continuing our woodland journey with two new blocks from our growing Woodland Reverie quilt. Both of these dimensional blocks are filled with many different fibers and stitching techniques. 

The Great Horned Owls sit amongst winter greenery, with wool pinecones and stuffed holly berries.

Wired ribbon roses surround our Wood Rose Garden filled with lovely little posies.

All skills for both blocks will be covered in this class—and some will overlap—so you will be able to increase your appliqué and embellishment skills. Multiple methods of appliqué will be taught, along with ribbon work and embroidery. We will play with exciting new fibers and techniques to help you bring life to these dimensional woodland blocks. 

We are creating our Woodland Reverie blocks on both a dark and light background. Which will you choose?

Which woodland block will you select for this session? Or perhaps you will venture into our woodland reverie and choose both! We have presented four of the blocks thus far, and those patterns are available in our web store. If you want to learn more about our Woodland Reverie quilt, CLICK HERE.

Details of Great Horned Owls

This sleepy owl is embellished with wool threads and turkey work.

Wool roving and Ultrasuede add the final touches on the owls’ faces.

Dimensional wool pinecones with stuffed holly berries and simmering ribbon mistletoe and fun texture to this block.

Details of Wood Rose Garden

Dimensional cast-on stitched posies are centered with a bias silk ribbon flower.

Hand-dyed bias silk ribbon bloom

Posies made with cast-on stitch and silk ribbon leaves

Wired ribbon adds eye appeal to these layered wood roses, centered with padded silk. Broderie perse leaves add realism and fun to our featured corner blooms.

Every year at the Academy when people see our work, they comment that they wished they could have seen them in person, as a photograph never quite captures the dimension and texture of the blocks. We have striven to capture images that illustrate those qualities and hope that these larger pictures help you to see that. It is always a challenge!

As always, if you have any questions, please reach out and email us. We are happy to answer any queries for you as you choose your classes. There are so many awesome classes being offered this year that we do not envy your selection process. But we sure would love to see you in our room! 

If you love appliqué, this is the place for you. It is perfection: a gathering of sisters (and perhaps some brothers) who share your passion for stitching, who will become fast friends. Its location on the James River in Williamsburg adds to the charm of this event. Many thanks to Barbara Blanton and her staff, who work so hard to create this opportunity for us. The link below will take you to the site, where you can learn all about the Academy, as well as access the catalog. We hope to see you there!

WWW.ACADEMYOFAPPLIQUE.COM

Woodland Reverie at the Academy 2022

As always, we came home from the Academy of Appliqué exhausted and excited, ready to start new projects and jazzed by the inspiration of the many people we met and stitched with during the week. Our first session was these two blocks from our Woodland Reverie series: Butterfly and Trillium and Cascading Creek. The class was roughly divided in half, so we got to watch both blocks coming to life.

Kara is working the quilt on a black background, and Teri is using the neutral background. It is amazing to see the difference that even that change can make in the way a design looks. 

Ribbons, galore—a favorite shop spot

Bins of patterns and kits, and drawers of threads.

Our room, ready and waiting for students!

We finished setting up just in time to see the sunset from our room.

Busy, busy stitchers!

It was fun to watch wired ribbon transform to trillium leaves and petals with a simple pull of a wire. And look at those beautiful trillium blooms!!

The creek is cascading down the hill, ready to be framed.

What a fun butterfly!

We have now listed patterns and kits for each of these blocks. You can purchase the patterns alone, either in printed or digital format, or you can get a kit with the special materials used to embellish the block. You can take a look below, and then head to our web store for more detail. We also have the Spring Robin's Nest back in stock, as well as the Autumn Mushroom Wreath. 

Spring and Autumn on the left, and hints of what's to come on the right.

To order, click here: https://www.needleseyestories.com/shop

We bought these plants to showcase our potstickers, and they bloomed in just a couple of days! We figured that was a sign to come home and stitch up some Spring Potstickers. It won't be long!

Our week brought us new friends and reunited us with many we'd not seen in a while. It was widely agreed by everyone we spoke with that the experience of spending a week with stitchers who share our passion is an indescribable pleasure. If you share a passion for appliqué and hand work, you might be able to imagine—but the feeling is a unique one. There are few places where so many kindred spirits can gather and share such joy. We have been blessed to be a part of this each year.

 

Happy Holidays!

From our homes to yours, 

we wish you the happiest of holiday seasons!

Fun Fact: Did you know that the very center of the poinsettia is the actual flower,

 which is surrounded by red and green leaves? 

 

We will be taking a short blog break for our family celebrations, but we look forward to stitching with you in the new year! 

Velvet, Anyone?

Ahh, velvet . . . even the name has a warm, fuzzy feeling. As textures go, it is hard to beat, with its softness and shiny nap catching the light, making the color sing. Since we love to mix fibers and textures in our work, we were thrilled to discover this new product—a hand-dyed stretch velvet, by The Velvet Hook. We first tried this velvet a couple of years ago, when we began our Woodland Reverie series. We thought it would be perfect for our pussy willows and mushroom caps. And we were right! This unique fiber does not fray, so it is easy to gather and even needle-turn! It is superb for flower centers, adding dimension and texture, and creating interest in your appliqué designs. And because of the stretch, a little bit goes a long way!

As we have sung its praises as a great fiber for embellishing appliqué, Dianne—owner of The Velvet Hook—has offered to put together sample packages arranged by color so that we could offer them to you. Take a look at some of the ways we have used velvet in our designs.

 

In our Woodland Reverie Spring Robin, the pussy willows are made of velvet, gathered, stuffed, and sewn down to the branch.

The velvet mushroom caps in our Woodland Reverie Autumn Mushrooms really reflect the light! 

Alsatian Urn includes several velvet embellishments, seen below.

Gathered around a circle, it is the perfect center of this ribbon flower. Note how it catches the light!

The center of this flower is appliquéd with the velvet, and then stuffed for dimension.

Patterns and kits for Alsatian Urn are available on our website.

Next September, we will be teaching four of our Woodland Reverie blocks in wool at Baltimore on the Prairie. More pussy willows are seen above in the wool version of the Spring Robin.

And one of the new blocks is the Summer Fox, which also includes the velvet.

The gold velvet was perfect for replicating the conical center of a coneflower, and because of the nap, it didn't need added knots to give that effect.

The velvet was also ideal for these stumpwork blackberries. The beads blended into the stuffed velvet, and the stretch made them quite easy to create!

Our new Poinsettia Stocking kit features padded velvet petals and a stuffed velvet flower center. The velvet adds a richness to the poinsettia. Patterns and kits are available on our website.

Introducing Velvet Varietals

Hand-Dyed Stretch Velvet

by The Velvet Hook

Each package of hand-dyed stretch velvet includes five 6-inch square pieces of velvet, and we have four colorways available: Reds, Greens, Purples, and Yellows.

Reds and Pinks 

Various Greens

Purples and Magentas

Yellows and Light Oranges

We are thankful to Dianne Tobias from the Velvet Hook, who has been willing to work with us and has dyed several pieces especially for our designs. It may be a new fiber for you, but we think you might enjoy it as much as we do. Aren't the colors just spectacular?!!

To order velvet, go to our website, needleseyestories.com/shop. Supplies are limited, so don't wait too long to check it out!