Saturday Stitches: Intro to Improv Embroidery with Alison Stein

3-Hour Workshop

Date: Saturday, September 13

Time: 10am-1pm

Description: This workshop will provide gentle encouragement and instruction on how to create beautiful embroidery pieces using an unplanned, improvisational approach. Whether you have never picked up a needle or are an experienced embroiderer, this method is available to you. Enjoy the beauty of color, textile and fiber without any stress of “messing up,” which is simply impossible in this approach!

Techniques and Skills covered in this class will include:

• Learning (or unlearning) the mindset of embroidery without a pattern.
• Sourcing, selecting and preparing fabric and fiber for improv embroidery.
• Taking a “doodle approach” to embroidery stitches. We will take a different approach to learning or re-learning the basic embroidery stitches, encouraging beginners to feel confident, and more advanced students will have a new way of thinking about and building on stitches they already know. (Basic stitches usually include: running stitch, backstitch and its common variants which are split stitch, stem stitch and satin stitch; blanket stitch and French knots.)
• Thinking about color choices and composition
• Methods for addressing results you don’t love.

Tuition: $65 + $15 materials fee

Note: We really want you to join us in the studio! Full and partial tuition scholarships are available to offset some of the financial burden of attending a class.

Please fill out the application here! You can expect to hear from someone on the CC staff within 2 weeks.

If you have any questions, email Jamie Boyle, Fibers Program Manager, at jboyle@contemporarycraft.org, or leave a voice message for them at 412-465-1639.

Materials: All materials will be provided, however, participants are encouraged to bring any tools that they need to aid in seeing up-close: reading glasses, magnifyers, etc...

Location: Contemporary Craft, Timmons Studios (5688 Butler St., Pittsburgh, PA 15201). Note, this workshop will take place in the Fibers Loft, which is on the second floor of the building.

There are 2 entrances to the Timmons Studios.

• One entrance is facing Butler Street. To access the Fibers Loft from the Butler Street facing entrance, there are a total of 32 stairs to ascend.

• One entrance is facing 57th Street. This entrance is accessible by ramp, with no stairs to ascend. There is a lift inside the building to access the second floor.

If there are accessibility accommodations we can provide, or if there is anything you would like us to know before you arrive, please feel free to call Jamie Boyle at 412-465-1639 or email jboyle@contemporarycraft.org.

Cancellations and Refunds: Workshop cancellations are decided three business days before the start date. If workshops must be cancelled due to insufficient enrollment, the entire class fee will be refunded through Eventbrite, or you may leave your workshop fee in your Contemporary Craft account for future workshops.

Refund Policy: Student refund requests must be made at least three business days before a class begins. There will be a $25 cancellation fee. No refunds will be given without three-business days notice. Processing of refunds takes approximately three weeks.

About the Artist

Alison J. Stein is an artist, teacher and writer based in Carnegie, PA, in the Pittsburgh metro area. She makes vibrant textile art, paintings, prints and book art, and enjoys blurring the boundaries between traditional techniques and contemporary art.