Hurry Hurry!!! T-Shirt Workshop mini-session starts this Friday

Hi all!

I know that many of you might be afraid to tackle your holiday shopping list this year.  A great idea for the gift giving season is to make your very own gifts for friends and family.  Times are tough for us all, so be thrifty this year and take our T-shirt Workshop during this mini-session at Lillstreet.  It is a class for all level of printers, and we will cover printing on apparel as well as other blanks.  We even have a supply locker with blank items available for purchase.  No need to go to the store, just come into class and be ready to make, make, make!  And let's be honest, you might be making gifts for everyone, but you are giving yourself a gift by taking the class!  

Class starts this Friday from 630-930.  It's a Friday night print party!  Hurry and sign up, as enrollment closes soon.

Kate O'Leary at Fill In The Blank Gallery!

This just in from Kate O'Leary, our fabulous Saturday night monitor......

I'm having a solo show at Fill In The Blank
Gallery in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood.

A Crash of Critters is my exhibition of illustrations and plushies
inspired by Terms of Venery (which are collective nouns for specific
animal groups). I'm really excited about the show and would love it if
you could come out to the opening.

The opening is Friday, December 4th at 7pm-11pm at Fill in the Blank
Gallery, 5038 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL 60625
http://www.fillintheblankgallery.com/contact.html

You can see a sneak peak on my blog at http://www.kateoleary.com/blog

Thanks, and hope to see you there!
Kate

The Perfect Pants

Don't forget to sign up for the perfect pants class this semester, it starts December 3. In this class you will create a straight leg trousers pattern using your own measurements. Then you will make the pattern out of muslin, learning how to adjust the pattern for a perfect fit, as well as learning how to install a waistband and a fly zipper. Then those who finish the muslin pants in time will begin to sew the perfect trousers in final fabric.

First Time Sewing

We had so much fun in First Time Sewing this semester, I just wanted to post their finished aprons. Nice Work!

Printluck! Potluck!

Oh boy! Printluck/Potluck was so much fun. This past Sunday we traded our failed prints with each other and printed back into them. And oh yeah, we brought yummy treats to share too! So not only was it fun, it was delicious too. (Thanks Shannon, for the cinnamon pita chips with pumpkin butter and ricotta---it was like a pumpkin cheesecake on a cracker. mmmm. mmmm.) Please check out how much we improved each others work. and thanks for the awesome door prizes, RR! can't wait to do this workshop again:

Rebecca printed back into my print and made it exponentially better!

a

Textile Exhibit

Last night we had a show of work designed and printed by the Advanced Screenprinting class. It was so much fun. I wanted to share some photos from the event. If you are interested in learning some of the techniques covered in this class, please take Easy Repeats this December, or take the 10 week class during the upcoming winter term. See you soon!

delicious treats!

good friends

awesome prints! elizabeth kumor with her designs

shannon thompson and allison rose in front of their work.

Textile Exhibit Tonight!

Just a reminder! Tonight there will be an exhibit/reception for the advanced screenprinting class. Come by and see their gorgeous textile designs. There will be wine and cheese! other delicious goodies! and even $10 coupons that can be put towards a class at Lillstreet. We hope to see you there!

Tomorrow- Streeterville Artist's Market

Tomorrow, a big overflowing handful of artists from Lillstreet Textiles will be at the Streeterville Artisan Market, Sat 11-6 and Su 10-5, located at Northwestern U Lurie Center, 303 E. Superior. Come visit Allison Rose, Camille Canales, Barbara Goldberg, Lindsay Obermeyer, Mary Baim, and Frances Kreuger Jackson and get some of your holiday shopping out of the way early!

Image above: Tablecloth by Camille Canales.

Printluck/ Potluck Reminder!

Hope you can make it this Sunday to the Printluck/ Potluck party! Bring cloth that you've printed/ embroidered/ embellished that you want to swap- stay and print or work back into it with embroidery, sewing machines, etc. Bring a dish to share at the end of the day. I for one can not wait for this day of printing fun! See you Sunday 1-6.

---------p.s------------did I mention there will be prizes?

Highlights from the White House Ribbon Workshop

Thank you so very much to the huge group of you who came out last night to embroider ribbons for the White House Christmas Tree. It was such a fun event! As a group, we embroidered almost 100 ribbons in three hours. It sure was an exciting evening!

White House Ribbon Workshop- You're Invited!

As some of you may know, Lillstreet Textile Department was approached by the White House this fall to make ribbons for the Holiday Tree. There will be a workshop tonight to hand embroider ribbons. Please come from 6-10 in the print room. No embroidery experience needed. All materials provided.

TEXTILE EXHIBITION! at Lillstreet

Please Join Us! Next Monday, November 16th, from 7 to 9:30 pm for an exhibition of the work of the Advanced Screenprinting: Pattern Design Class. My students have done stunning work this fall and we are so excited to share it with you. There will be wine and cheese, coupons for discounted classes and other goodies too. Tell your friends and see you there!

You're Invited! Print Luck/ Pot Luck

If you're currently enrolled in a class in the Textile department here at Lillstreet, you're invited to Printluck/Potluck on Sunday, November 15th, from 1-6. Part swap-o-rama, part print party, part food party; printers, sewers, embroiderers of all levels are welcome to attend this first event of its kind. Teachers, monitors, students, everyone's invited. It's a great chance to meet new people and to see what other classes are working on. Have you been wondering how the advanced students get those patterns to line up? Here's your chance to see them in action.

Bring your mistakes- prints or projects that have a blemish that you just don't like, and trade them up for someone else's. Your dud (or mine, see above) might be someone else's inspiration. Lillstreet will provide screens, thread, ink, and table space. We'll print (or sew, or embroider) in the afternoon and end the night with awards (most improved!), door prizes, a potluck, and a good time! Bring 1-3 pieces of fabric to swap and a dish to pass. BYOB.

Please RSVP here with a comment.

Here come some T-shirts!

This week our T-shirt workshop class is ready to pump out some t-shirts!  We have spent the first couple of weeks in class learning how to design our images and prep our screens.  We all know how important it is to get a nice, clean, even coat on our screens now!  I thought it would be nice to revisit shirts from previous classes to get inspired to make new ones. 

Some people have even been utilizing our generous open studio time to get a head start on the printing.  You can make one, two, three, or thirty shirts in this class.  It all depends on how much you want to get out of it.  This class has become so popular, that we have decided to run it continuously throughout the sessions.  For several students, this is their 3rd or 4th time taking the class.  We like to call it our "Friday night print party."  

Next session starts Friday, December 4th, and is a 3 week mini session.  The best thing is that there is no printing experience necessary.  The perfect class to get all of your last minute holiday gifts out of the way.  We also have blanks for printing available for purchase in the classroom like dishtowels, bandanas, hankies, and tote bags.  Check back next week to see our newest shirts!!!

Scrap Bag

What do you do with your scraps? The prints that are part smeared, part perfect.....last summer I made a quilt with a huge pile of fabric that I'd been hoarding for a while. I used all my favorite pieces of hand printed and vintage scraps. It's machine pieced and hand quilted. It took most of last summer (and my mom quilting on it for awhile) to finish, and it's such a nice treat to sleep under every night. These photographs show it in progress, last summer.
If you've got a scrap bag project that you're cozying up with this fall, send me a link or a jpeg, I'd love to post it here. E-mail me at: rebeccaringquist@gmail.com, and we'll post it next week.....
Hope to hear from you! If you're not working on anything in particular, this is your invitation to dig into your pile of fabric and start something.