Our Travel easy Embroidery carriers.

My Embroidery Pocket Travel Kits

Our workshops have started and the studio felt so uplifting last Sunday. This week I had to create many Travel Embroidery Kits for our students this year.

They are created from thick basket weave cotton.

A simple design that allows one to always travel with their tools and materials easily.

I am happy to have made now early in the year. This year of the Dragon is feeling strong and powerful for me even.

Here they are piled on top of one another. Soon they will be filled with all their goodies to inspire much creative energy. See our Spring Schedule and reserve soon so that you may explore and create in and outside our atelier!

Join and create

Embroidery floss of many colors waiting to be stitched into ones thoughts

for lasting beauty to be celebrated through time.

For more information about our class series read past blog posts to get a feel for the course. I am accepting student enrollment for the 1st 2012 series running Jan through to the end of April. To register a non refundable deposit of $50 is required to reserve your place.

 Register today by CONTACTING US

Needle work's dance of time

This has been a wonderful year for us in the studio.  Our classes began later in the Spring due to our long winter.


A perfect way to celebrate Spring and bring on the summer with some creativity of life.


We were fortunate to have some of needlework treasures brought to class. One of Margaret's first beauties was this embroidered tea cozy. Even though it had seen the wear of time, the brilliance of the silk thread work still shines on today. Having retired from it's earlier function it is now appreciated only for it's beauty. The creator's color palette is cool and fresh even 100 years later. I love the idea that it is still giving pleasure to the eye. If only it could talk, I am sure it heard many a good story.

Nancy brought this Bakers Lake embroidered duffel wool bag to share in class. The repeating embroidery details combined with larger applique motifs are typical in the Baker Lake designs. Each creation I have ever seen shares the joyful interaction with nature and animal life.

Change is constant yet the pace of life is probably the same.  People fill up their lives with activities that they feel have importance. In the past community was one of those things. Sharing your life with your neighbours and friends creating a blanket with your husbands silk ties.  Crazy ~ I do not think so.  Yet this Crazy Quilt still speaks the energy that brought people together to share.

Like this Crazy Quilt, Atelier Gwendolyne is a creative space bringing lives together with the soul purpose of bringing the needle and thread into the creative realm of art. I am happy to be part of it.

Thankyou Margaret and Nancy for sharing your treasures.

The Elements

testimonial by: Dawn Davis


Gwendolyne Preboy’s
 textile art class:


The Elements

The premise of this class is very simple. Gwendolyne gives us a beautiful hand made pouch containing different packets of embroidery thread to represent each of the elements, a variety of needles, an embroidery hoop, wax, a transfer pencil and a beautiful book she produced which includes a wealth of how-to-do different embroidery stitches and many blank pages for notes and sketches.

We are to draw a design of each of the four elements, choose fabric, transfer the design to fabric, practice embroidery stitches, decide on the colours we wish to use, embroider our design, finish off the back and frame it. That is the premise.
But the reality is vastly different.

When I began this class my sewing skills were weak, drawing was a challenge and my sense of colour was indifferent. Art is not my field and I thought if I could learn a few different embroidery stitches and make a few simple pieces that would be enough.

When I think about it now, there was nothing simple about my designs, yet Gwendolyne was right there showing me what I thought was impossible, could be done. I now have three completed pieces before me. I have been taught embroidery, beading, the manipulation of fabric to form three dimensional objects and in my fire canvas, there is even a twig from my garden, helping me to personalize my experience even more.

This is a course that called forth every bit of my creative energy and every time I was stumped, confused or discouraged Gwendolyne was right there with suggestions, help and encouragement. I have taken many courses and yet this one was strikingly different from any that have come before.

Why did I feel that?

Here are my answers.

This class flows freely and each participant works at their own speed. There is a lot of time for conversation and laughter.
It was also perfectly fine to feel frustrated and confused in the course. I felt comfortable to ask for as much help as needed. Gwendolyne let us all know there is never just one way to achieve our vision.

There are bins of fabric to look through, books to study, music to inspire, and the studio space itself to absorb - almost like a fairy tale with its wonderful hats and bags and pillows, buttons, toys, sewing machines, prayer flags, tall windows, warm light and comfortable chairs.

In essence there is a feeling of comfort and security here – it is okay to be different, it is okay not to know, it is okay to move forward.


Taking this class has been a tremendous adventure for me. It has also been transformative in ways I never anticipated. I look forward to continuing in January.

Hand and the Heart

In Toronto, we are privy to have our creative world in this city’s Medina. Looking out of our southern facing windows, we can see the CN tower (for 30 years it was the tallest free standing building in the world). In the evening, the tower is light up like a flashing disco stick in many spectrums of the color wheel. A visitor to our city, could think there was a party going on if they did not know better. This landmark is a gentle reminder for me that our multicultural city is so special.

Our Atelier is located in the heart of Toronto's downtown. The first phase of it was built in 1880 by an industrious Scot. The history of the 401 Richmond building is very interesting. That it remains in the heart of our city is truly a blessing of good fortune. We are grateful for this treasure.




During the last weeks, I have been busy with more hat creations. I am pleased with the fabric I have chosen for this years’ fall collection. The weaves speak volumes for their color and composition.

Every hat I produce is the only one in the world. I truly believe in the power of the individual. Here is Rita who has owned her Gwendolyne Hat the Rusalka for over a decade. She inspires many people every day and I am glad to have created this hat especially for her.









On one of our Sunday Salons ~ Fiber Art workshops, I captured her putting the finishing stitches on her artwork inspired by the element EARTH. She embraced her life journey in her artwork. As an open and generous spirit, she is one of the most special people I know.



That sunlight that streams in while we stitch during the afternoon workshops, has been most comforting during these last cold winter months.
One day William and I were talking to another tenant in our building about our courses. The person remarked "a stitch and bitch”. I giggled, as I had never heard such a rhythm before.

Our gatherings are just the contrary. We share stories that have shaped our week and our lives. We find our common threads while focusing on our creations. A newly discovered expression emerges without us really realizing it. The hand, needle and thread are the motions in-between. The sharing of the space with our intentions is what makes our workshops most gratifying.

For years, my desire of presenting this course series kept recurring. Then last year with the collaboration of another woman who gave art classes to children, I created a needlecraft class. It was very insightful, and it clarified what I didn’t want my classes to be.






The hand is one of our bodies’ most amazing tools. I am not sure if many of us think about it this way. Our mind tells us what to do and we have mastered its’ ability so well, that we rarely give it much thought. In our workshops, I am watching how the hand is silently celebrated. Through patience, a meditative calm state is created.










This experience we call life is an opportunity to co create the world we desire. In our workshops, the heart is the center of our workshops. Together our dynamics and intentions create the space that open and express ourselves. We put our egos aside and create with mental hugs of love. We now understand more about the essence that lies under the quilting bees.

Last year at the Toronto Outdoor Art Show, I met a fiber artist Amanda McCavour. She constructs her art using needle machine embroidery. I was in awe when I first laid my eyes on her these images. Here is "Cat's Cradle". The work is very sculptural as the threads are held above the background surface by pins. The subject matter opens my playtime memories. Wonderful how a string with a knot can amuse oneself.

I will be sharing more about her art in my next post. Presently she is an artist in residence at the Harboufront Center's Textile Studio. On the 13th of this month the show Still will open at Torontos’ Harbourfront Centre Vatrines. Works made by Amanda will be on exhibit. I know I will be visiting as it is up until May 3.

When I began my AIR element Amandas' artwork inspired me to research and experience the technique of needle embroidery. I selected two linen canvases. I did a blue wash on one, the other kept plain. On the latter I worked the each color thread and followed that needle motion carefully. Sadly I felt disconnected from the others in our class. The machine was physically between us and I was not getting that emotional connection I normally experience when I work with hand stitches. My focus was on the needle; my hand disconnected to my fourth heart charkra. This experience made me appreciate even more what it takes to work in needle machine embroidery.

Like a game of “Go” easy to pick up, but to master takes great focus. The analytical and isolating nature of the technical process is not for me. I thrive on the emotional connection. Hand stitching does that and more for my senses.

My Fire element artwork was such a pleasure to create. Doing the outer running stitches was a total free flowing experience. Now my element Air is beginning to take off, you can only guess what my imagery might be.

Wishing you a most creative day where ever you are! Be sure to drop a comment if you are so inclined.