Textiles Talk

Pre-work?

Question:

In the thread about what we’re working on Wendy posted that she had pre-work to do on a Thea Dueck piece for a cyberclass and had three weeks to do it before the class begins. I’ve seen this term before in class descriptions for realtime classes and workshops but don’t know anything about it. What sorts of things are involved in pre-work? Nan Evelyn

Response:

Nan Evelyn writes: In the thread about what we’re working on Wendy posted that she had pre-work to do on a Thea Dueck piece for a cyberclass and had three weeks to do it before the class begins. I’ve seen this term before in class descriptions for realtime classes and workshops but don’t know anything about it. What sorts of things are involved in pre-work?

Well, I’ll give you one example.  I took a class in Filet Lace at an EGA seminar.  In order to do the actual new stitching that we were there to learn, we had to stitch a square of satin stitches over 3 threads, that measured exactly 62 stitches by 62 stitches — I may have my numbers wrong, but you get the idea.  We were working on rather fine linen, too, so it wasn’t a quick and easy job — I think it took me 2 1/2 hours to get the square counted and stitched.  That time didn’t need to be spent as class time. In general, if there’s prep work that needs to be done that is way below the level of the class, I think it should be done as pre-work rather than take precious classtime for it. BTW, I’ve already used the on-line yellow pages you gave the link to — TWICE! Thanks so much for the good info. Judy

Response:

In the thread about what we’re working on Wendy posted that she had pre-work to do on a Thea Dueck piece for a cyberclass and had three weeks to do it before the class begins. I’ve seen this term before in class descriptions for realtime classes and workshops but don’t know anything about it. What sorts of things are involved in pre-work?

Pre-work can involve many different things.  Its main purpose is to do more elementary parts prior to class, so that class time can be spent on the more difficult aspects of the technique. Pre-work often involves counting and basting different areas of the canvas or linen so that the design can be placed properly once in class.  Sometimes, actual design elements are stitched. Examples: – Smyrnas & double crosses on a Jean Hilton piece so that the "fancy" stitches can be learned in class.                   – Satin stitches and 4-sided stitches on a piece with a lot of drawn thread, saving the cutting & embellishment for class.                   – Stitching a small motif on congress cloth so that in class it can be attached to 18 ct canvas. In classes I took last year, the pre-work for the class in Schwalm embroidery involved transferring a design to a practice piece of fabric, and outlining areas with chain stitch, a relatively simple stitch.  Coral knots should be done next to the chain stitches prior to cutting and withdrawing threads; but, since they are more difficult and less well known, the coral knots were saved for class.  The pre-work for the class in Italian Needlelace and Casalguidi embroidery involved choosing threads in the colors of our choice, mounting the canvas, and then counting to outline the design elements with back stitch. HTH.  Pre-work can involve many things, and usually takes longer than the teacher thinks.  :-) Nancy Sue, Professional Project Starter & Class Participant

Response:

Nan Evelyn writes: In the thread about what we’re working on Wendy posted that she had pre-work to do on a Thea Dueck piece for a cyberclass and had three weeks to do it before the class begins. I’ve seen this term before in class descriptions for realtime classes and workshops but don’t know anything about it. What sorts of things are involved in pre-work?

Nan, In the case of Thea’s class, it involves edging the fabric and basting gridlines — two things which I normally *never* bother to do. My mom kindly edged the fabric for me (oh for a sewing machine, but edging fabric is all I’d ever use it for). Now I have to baste in gridlines (basically down the left-hand side and down the middle, IIRC) — I’m tempted pretend I didn’t see that instruction, but since this is my first cyberclass and I’m not sure what to expect, I figure I’d better follow the instructions to the letter   Oh, and I have to sort the fibres too I would guess it’s less important with a cyberclass to do this pre-work, since you’re working on your own (who’s gonna know you didn’t grid [other than everyone on rctn now ] ?) — but if it was a class at a conference or LNS, doing these things ahead saves a lot of time in the classroom so you can get right to the fun part!   I can remember impatiently waiting at one class in an LNS while the teacher edged everyone’s fabric on a sewing machine, and in another while we all gridded our fabric.  (Granted, we weren’t given the materials pack until we got to the class — if we’d had the materials ahead of time, we could have all come prepared).  There were only 5 or 6 of us in the class in both cases, but I was chomping at the bit to get started! — Publications Editor Discovery Channel (Canada) "Better safe than assimilated." — "Star Trek: Voyager"

Response:

In the thread about what we’re working on Wendy posted that she had pre-work to do on a Thea Dueck piece for a cyberclass and had three

weeks to do it before the class begins. I’ve seen this term before in class

descriptions for realtime classes and workshops but don’t know anything about it.

What sorts of things are involved in pre-work? Nan Evelyn

To me it would be getting all the bits and pieces I needed, cut to size/sorted ready to go, perhaps griding – not to mention the pre project prayer to the needlework God ……. Tee Hee Lesley Downunder and just a tad sunburnt after a weekend at the Hanmer hot pool – soaking and stitching – BLISS

Response:

Another example of pre-work: A friend is taking a class from C.A.Wells next weekend on how to finish a needlework gadget holder (perhaps an etui?). Since the class is on the finishing technique, all the stitching on the pieces must be done before class. It’s all cross-stitch, so it’s easy to do. That way, class participants can all try out the finishing technique on their own pieces. June in Houston – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – In the thread about what we’re working on Wendy posted that she had pre-work to do on a Thea Dueck piece for a cyberclass and had three weeks to do it before the class begins. I’ve seen this term before in class descriptions for realtime classes and workshops but don’t know anything about it. What sorts of things are involved in pre-work? Nan Evelyn

Response:

Filed under: Linen Fabric

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