Sew Wild: Creating With Stitch and Mixed Media [Paperback]

Alisa Burke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 2011

Sew Wild liberates you! Enjoy unlimited freedom to color, pattern, and customize your own fabric with fun, spectacular results. Get wild with printing, painting, drawing, stenciling, and other surface design methods and unique materials such as plastic bags, photographs, and cardboard. Dive into 12 simple sewing projects to make colorful, wearable, and hip designs, including a stunning wall quilt, adorable hats for kids or adults, a pretty wreath, cuff bracelets, and a modern ruffled apron.

Artist Alisa Burke demonstrates many of the techniques and essentials of surface design and sewing on an included DVD. In addition to the in-depth video instruction, you’ll get a bonus project exclusively on the DVD.

Whether you’re already a rule-breaker or you’re looking to improvise, Sew Wild shows you how to create fabric and designs that explode with color, pattern, and soul.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sewing enthusiasts who are looking to bring new energy to their sewing and crafting will find Sew Wild a great resource for fabric techniques and designs that explode with color, pattern, and excitement." – Linda Lanese, CraftGossip.com Felting Editor

"Just when I think I've come across every way you can stitch or every surface you can stitch on, Alisa comes up with more...There are so many learning opportunities in Sew Wild, it's like going on a mixed-media stitch retreat without the time and expense of travel!" – Pokey Bolton, editorial director, Quilting Arts

"She truly uses her sewing machine with artistic abandon. She customizes plain fabric with paint, simple printmaking, and machine embroidery, then sews them together in a style that evokes collage and graffiti for a uniquely layered look." – Tricia Waddell, editor, Stitch Magazine

"I love the way she encourages novice and more experienced sewers to let loose and explore, rather than be intimidated by rules and patterns." – Cate Prato, editor, ClothPaperScissors.com

"The perfect book to help you find ways to use those bits of fabric scraps that tend to pile up more and more with every sewing project." – The Detroit News

"I have been inspired to sew again! I owe it all to Alisa Burke and her fabulous new book, Sew Wild." – Linda Woods, author of Journal Revolution

"Sew Wild is a visual and creative treat. Her style is artistic, but with an urban edge. Her projects are vibrant, raw, and utterly fabulous." – Anne Weaver, CraftGossip.com Sewing Editor

"I’m enthralled with her process. Being a quilter, I typically hide my top-stitching by using a matching thread, but Alisa’s bold designs are truly embellished by her wide range of free-motion stitches. Alisa’s artistic process means these projects are like nothing you’ve seen elsewhere." – CraftBuds.com

"I absolutely love this book! When a book can get me to drop everything and try a technique or make something – that’s a keeper." – Bloom, Bake, Create blog

“Sew Wild: Creating with Stitch and Mixed Media by Alisa Burke is a visual and creative treat. Her style is artistic, but with an urban edge. Her projects are vibrant, raw, and utterly fabulous.” – CraftGossip.Com Sewing Site

“I've gone wild! Well, maybe unrestrained might be a better word to describe my stitching style for the past couple of days.” – SewLoquacious.blogspot.com

“She is really going out-of-the-box and coming up with the most delightful designs to inspire us. Everything she shows us, on her DVD, is made with simple supplies that are inexpensive and everything is extremely achievable.” – CraftGossip.com Felting site

About the Author

Alisa Burke is a painter and mixed-media artist who studied fine art at Portland State University. She draws inspiration from street art, graffiti, art history, fashion, and found objects. Alisa’s artwork has been featured in Quilting Arts and other magazines as well as in galleries. In addition to making art, Alisa teaches a variety of workshops nationwide and has appeared as a guest artist on the DIY Network show Craft Lab and the PBS series Quilting Arts TV. She works as a Bernina artisan, and her book Canvas Remix was published in 2008.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Interweave Press; Pap/DVD edition (September 27, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596683503
• ISBN-13: 978-1596683501
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.4 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #354,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars LOVE IT! September 19, 2011

By A. J. Van Hal

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've admired Alisa's art and worth ethic for several years and have had the pleasure of taking most of her online workshops...I know she worked really hard on this book, and all I can say is it was well worth the wait! This is a great book for beginners and for those with more experience. She keeps the supply list short and, as she does with her workshops, she tries to keep the list of supplies as inexpensive as possible. She is a great instructor, and makes every technique and project very doable with outstanding results. As a bonus, she has included a DVD where she demonstrates some of her techniques up close and personal such as free-motion stitching on her sewing machine.

The book is beautiful and filled with lots of colorful pictures and examples...she also includes some patterns for some of the projects.

The best part of the book for me is learning how to combine several of the art mediums and techniques that I love using to create my own surface design for fabric. Now I can really create 100% of my own designs!

The book is divided into five sections:
1. Materials and Tools (lots of pictures and detailed descriptions)
2. Color, Pattern, and Inspiration (she takes you by the hand and shows you how she gets inspired and where she gets her ideas)
3. Stitching Techniques (she demonstrates not just how to sew on the sewing machine, but how the stitching can add to the overall design and/or project)
4. Projects (one dozen projects including bracelets, belts, laptop and phone cases, pillows, aprons, scarf, and hat)

Alisa also includes a list of recommended reading and sources for some of the supplies.

I had this book on my wishlist since it was listed here at Amazon. It was well worth the wait!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I was hoping for! October 11, 2011

By Geiko

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have been enjoying this book and disk ever since receiving it a couple of weeks ago. I find it both exciting and inspiring! Freeform work is exactly what I want to do to get out of the 'box' I have been in for far too long, and Sew Wild does the trick! It's already gotten me to take a blank piece of muslin and start drawing on it, even though I don't normally draw at all. It was daunting, but I kept going and after awhile, I felt looser, and not so judgemental. And the work itself, when viewed as a whole, looked just fine! I'm finding the painting as much fun and releasing. Free motion stitching is what's next for me and I'm anxious to get started and keep practicing until things smooth out.
Very happy to be inspired to sometimes walk away from patterns and directions and just let the lines and colors tell me where to go next.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Rip, stitch, play November 13, 2011

By S. Fishburn VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Pillows, aprons, belts, bags, hats! Rockin' designer Alisa Burke's projects are awash in bold and brilliant color, and incorporate economy, graffiti, improvisation, paint, printing, crazy quilt stitching, recycling, sketching. Explicit instructions and detailed patterns guide artists of all skill levels. Includes a fun techniques bonus dvd - definitely an entire week's worth of workshop in these action-packed 140 pages. Sew Wild is my personal best, hot technique bookshelf addition of 2011.