New Business We are planning some events:
Saturday May 19th A field trip to the Salem area to visit the Schriener's Iris Gardens, and the Adelman Peony Gardens, they are both in their peak of bloom between Mothers Day and Memorial Day. This will be a camera excursion, learn more about your digital camera, also we will be stopping at Greebaum's Quilted Forest in Salem and any other shops we have time for on the way back.
June 19th A play day at Pat's to make and embellish Journal Covers that fit the black and white composition books. She will provide a materials list and this will be a sewing machine day.
In July TBA A potluck picnic at Sylvia's to enjoy a beautiful day at her place. I'm sure we can find a little project to do too.
August 3 & 4 A Dyeing Workshop Weekend at Vera's, play with any dye projects you want, we will also prepare fabric and chemicals on Saturday to do marbling on Sunday.
NEW CHALLENGE We decided to have another small challenge, the theme "Beatles Songs" was proposed and accepted, a format no larger than 12" x 12" in any medium or technique. It does not have to be finished, it can just be fused, like the Drawing Blind project or even just a design drawing. You may finish the project if you like, no pressure, you don't have to participate if you don't want to. Just a fun challenge to keep us creative, to have some continuity to the group. It was also suggested, that if we have several of these through the year, we can display them at next years Umpqua Valley Quilters Show. They missed having us there. Deadline - the June meeting, also Pat challenged us to have a "SHAPE" in the design, you interpret that as you wish.
Show and Tell Our new member Landreth brought her almost finished baby quilt top. The centers of the stars have very intricate embroidery and embellishments. Her art quilt "Exuberance" was part of the SAQA Expressions Challenge, the main figure is made of pieces of Tyvek. The fancy feather quilting is shown on the back of the quilt. She is busy working with rust now, in her art quilts and is very happy to have found us to share her creativity. Vera played with more of the "Finish" discharge on her hand dyed fabrics, the piece she brought has a rich green and rose colors. Her darker green piece was done on the gelatin plate, and she thought the acrylic fabrics were too stiff. Jana needed help with suggestions on what needle to use with the new micro fiber fabrics, and how to remove some machine embroidery from it, with out leaving needle marks on it. She also compared her knitted scarf with the one Peggy has in progress, Jana's is made of hand spun wool, and Peggy's is made from a commercial yarn called "Handspun" they bought the pattern on the Portland trip. Peggy has put her four blocks "Moons and Dragonflies" together from the play day at Vera's, she bought two lavender batiks at Fabric Depot, and used them for the perfect sashing. She has lined them up vertically for a long narrow wall hanging. Kay's little Easter Rabbit card was darling, she stamped the rabbit over a hand dyed tone on tone white fabric, and embellished it. She was concerned the white paint wasn't opaque enough, but we assured her the texture was wonderful. Amy showed some of the finished journal pages she has made from the gelatin prints from Vera's. The small 8" x 10" size is easy to finish and embellish. When Nancy said she hadn't been getting any work done, but she thinks about it a lot, Vera gave us a wonderful quote ---"She is a Conceptual Artist, it is all in her head!"
Photographs:
1. Landreth's "Exubreance" 2. Kay's rabbit card 3. Landreth's quilting 4. Landreth's embroidery close up 5. Landreth's star baby quilt 6. Vera discharged fabric 7. Vera's gelatin print 8. Peggy's moons & dragonflies 9. Jana & Peggy's knitting 10. Pat's book cover 11 & 12. Amy's journal pages
