Course Description

Join textile artist Suzette Smart for a creative journey into the world of fabric collage and hand stitching. Inspired by the quiet magic of a starry night, this two-day workshop invites you to combine old and new textiles to create a richly layered piece featuring a charming, hand-stitched bird.

We begin with inspiration and your story — Suzette will share her creative process and show how to build a beautiful collage background from a mix of fabrics. Bring along old treasures like vintage linens, embroidered tablecloths, or remnants from past quilt projects, and combine them with newer materials to form your base.

Using a simple running stitch, you’ll join your chosen fabrics and secure them with a layer of wadding. Then, you’ll create your bird — selecting from Suzette’s templates or sketching your own — and piece together a small fabric collage ready for stitching.

On the second day, with your background and bird prepared, you will focuse on adding life and texture through hand stitching. Explore the expressive possibilities of thread — from fine, delicate lines to bold marks — and experiment with adding trims, ribbons, and embellishments.

Finally, you’ll add a fabric backing and a safety pin or brooch clasp to your bird, allowing them to “fly” across your starry collage or perch wherever you choose. By the end of the workshop, you’ll have a textile artwork filled with texture, and storytelling.

Suitable For

This course is suitable for beginners or improvers alike.

Requirements List

• Fabrics for background collage. Include a blue fabric for starry sky and you might have some vintage pieces you would like to include
• Fabrics, lace and trims for collage
• Hand sewing kit, variety of threads, Frixion pen and scissors
• Wadding for backing collage and bird
• A workshop iron and ironing mat if you have and baking parchment to protect iron

Suzette will have bondaweb and wadding for sale as well as charms, some vintage linen tea towels and sewing bits and pieces.