Explore the rich beauty of crewel embroidery as you create a stylized floral arrangement accented with a tiny ladybug and a handsome butterfly. Fantasia includes a variety of line and filling stitches including block shading, long and short shading, ...see morelaid stitch, trellis, fishbone, fly stitch, three variations of chain stitch, padded satin and pistil stitch. Since different embroiderers enjoy working different stitches, a portion of the class will focus on when and how one stitch may substitute for another. As well as mastering specific stitches, students will become more comfortable with making choices and substitutions to personalize their crewel embroidery. Instruction in class will cover successfully working with crewel wool, accurately spacing surface stitches and various ways to start and end threads. Lecture will touch on why certain colors and stitches were used in historic crewel embroideries and which natural dyes were used to create the beautiful soft colors of the 17th and 18th century pieces. see less