I am happy to announce that my new website is ready for viewing. Yippee!

Now that I’m no longer dyeing thread for the masses I’ve set new goals: making more artwork, exhibiting my art, and exploring new art forms.

To fulfill this glamorous goal, I have a new website just for my art. The best part about this new website is that I didn’t have to design it. Holly Knott is my web guru and she did an amazing job creating it!

See Holly’s (and my) handy work here: laurawasilowski.com

Thanks to the many thread-a-holics out there my stock of hand-dyed threads for sale is totally depleted. (Except for the ones I’m hoarding for myself!) I’ve received many kind notes from stitchers who have used the threads in their artwork. And I want to thank you all for all your well wishes and support over the years.

So what’s next now that I’m no longer dyeing thread for the masses? I’ll tell you what!
My intention is to make even more artwork, exhibit my art, and explore new art forms.

And I’d like to encourage you to make more art too! That’s why my online Tutorials are still available for you to try. And why I will continue to create classes for Creative Spark Online Learning.

Again, thank you so much for supporting this working artist over the years!

I have not dyed this summer. And I’ll not be dyeing this autumn either. Why all this lack of dyeing? What’s going on?

My dyeing education began in 1973 when I worked in a costume shop at my college. By 1985 I had set up a dye shop in my home dyeing fabric for clothing. Soon I was dyeing fabric for quilt makers and my students when I became a peripatetic teacher in the early 90’s. (Gad! I’m old!)

But now my travel and teaching schedule is reduced to once, maybe twice a year. I don’t need to dye fabric or threads for my students. My personal stash of hand-dyed fabric is stacked high. And my threads use to create art runneth over. So, no. I’m dyeing for you anymore.

So this is your fair warning. I’m not replenishing the threads available for sale on the Artfabrik website. Once the thread size or colorway sells out there shall be no more.

Now is your chance to add beautiful hand-dyed threads to your stash before they are gone. And to get you motivated to stitch, I’ll include a free skein of thread (my choice of color and size) with any purchase over $100.

My new online class, Creative Stitch Combinations, is all about combining basic hand embroidery stitches to create dynamic textures, patterns, and shapes with thread for your free-form embroidery projects. I hope you can join me!

I’ll show you my favorite ways to combine stitches using 15 embroidery stitches to create exciting and enjoyable art. Colorful examples and helpful tips are given in each of the three lessons. And there is a bonus project too!

A bonus PDF for this project, Lovely as a Tree, includes step-by-step directions and colorful illustrations on how to make this small landscape full of texture, pattern, and shapes. It’s the perfect project to put all you’ve learned into practice.

Read more about the class here on the C&T Blog. Or visit my introduction to the class on Creative Spark to learn more.

Soon it will be autumn in Illinois. (That is if we can survive the summer!) And soon my duet of art quilts, Fine Line Trees Summer and Autumn will be on view at the SAQA and Timeless Textiles Exhibition, Joining Threads.

The exhibition opens on August 13^th, 2024, at Timeless Textiles in Newcastle, NSW, Australia. Timeless Textiles, the only commercial fiber art gallery in Australia, and SAQA are partnering together to present this unique opportunity for SAQA artists. This exhibition is composed of 2 artworks (each 30cm by 30 cm) by each artist which are a diptych or speak to one another. My pieces are both made with hand dyed silk fabrics and hand embroidered. I’m so pleased my artwork is traveling down under!

Did you know I live a secret life? Yes, I am one of those crazy people exploring the mysterious world of ceramics.

Not ceramics made on a potter’s wheel. No, no no, I’m a hand builder. Once I tried throwing a pot on the wheel and the clay flew off and splattered all over the studio. Hand-building is safer for my fellow students.

Like other art forms you’ve probably explored, working with clay is like working with textiles. Both mediums let you create texture, and shape, and explore favorite themes like houses, birds, and trees. But most importantly for me, hand-building lets me improvise and create whimsical pieces like this tiny home with a hole in the roof for dried flowers.

Once in a while I make sewing related items like this handy pincushion with a loop for holding your small scissors. Now that you know about my secret life as a ceramicist maybe it’s time for you to explore other avenues of creativity too. Do you have an secret artistic life?

Please check out my recent ceramic creations here.