Peggy's Book Cover

Peggy added some extra embellishments to her book cover, that she made at Pat's play day. She did some free motion quilting in a variegated metallic thread, and couched on a loopy yarn to some of her sewn strips. She also added shiny bling, some glue on rhinestones in a flower pattern in the center of the quilting motifs.

Member Profile - JANA

I'm a fiber enthusiast who has been quilting, knitting and hand spinning for over 10 years. I enjoy quilting, especially machine applique. The idea of making something that is both useful and attractive from apparently unrelated scraps of cloth continues to intrigue me. I am also the daughter of an excellent knitter who turned out stacks of cabled sweaters, lacy scarves and warm afghans. Sadly I didn't appreciate her skill until after she was no longer able to knit. Today I treasure her knitted gifts to me and teach others to knit. I think she would be pleased.

My real love is hand spinning. From the moment I saw a woman spin a section of fluffy fiber into an impossibly fine yarn I knew I had to learn to spin. Shortly there after I was a proud owner of a wheel. along with a huge stash of fiber -- wool, alpaca, llama, silk, and even bison and dog (which spinners affectionately all "chiengora.") Each time I sit at my wheel I feel connected to the long line of women through the ages who have spun fiber that kept their family clothed and warm. I'm indebted to all the teachers and sister spinners who have shared their knowledge and love of the ancient craft with me.

Member Profile - AMY

Amy has bee quilting for 40 years and has an extensive knowledge of many diverse styles and textile techniques used in quilting. To express her artistic vision in textiles, she makes originally designed art quilts, and uses fabric collage, 3-dimensional pieces, hand painted, stamped and printed fabrics, beading and other embellishments to achieve special effects in her art quilts. All of this is pulled together by her love of extensive machine quilting.

Amy is a past President of the Umpqua Valley Quilters' Guild and twice been featured quilter at their show. She is very active in the quilting community and as a member of "Fyber Cafe" she strives to improve her artistic expression on textiles. She has won numerous awards at the Douglas Co. Fair, and the Umpqua Valley Quilters' Guild Shows. She has had two art quilts traveling in international shows, in "Currency Exchange" and "International Festivals" during 2007-10, in France, Japan and New Zealand.

After learning to embroider, macrame, knit and crochet, Amy started quilting in high school, making many "Trip Around the World" king size quilts, by cutting squares out one at a time. Rotary cutters changed all that, as she became interested in designing her own quilts and learning new techniques, she turned to art quilting as her passion. She loves to teach and help others get this same passion for textiles that she has. Her favorite advice is "Run out of fabric, your solution may offer just the creative spark your quilt needs, and help you think out of the box"

Page Views

Thank you, all of you who have been checking out our blog. In the 6 months we have been posting, we just went over 1000 page views. This seems like a landmark to me. I hope we have been informative, creative and inspiring. Our group of creative artists has been together six years now, and have become friends and inspirations to each other. New people, prod us to try even harder, and open windows to new ideas. Gentle creative criticism, tips, suggestions, and learning new techniques has allowed all of us to grow as artists. Workshops and play days have given us a hands on chance to try things we would not have done alone. The support we give each other is invaluable. Thank you all for being there, your Blog Master, Amy.

July 2012 Meeting

We had a small group for our July meeting, everyone is working in their gardens, traveling and having family visit, and otherwise having a great summer. Old Business Show and Tell- More book covers were made, after our Play Day at Pat's, Kay's multi-technique cover, in peach hand dyed fabric, with stamping, couching and buttons, and Maureen made two with inserted strips and couching, one with New York fabric and the second with a "Day of the Dead" Mexican print.

New Business We are ordering from Dharma, silk scarves for our dyeing workshop, call Amy immediately, if you want scarves or anything else from Dharma. Workshop is August 3 & 4, a Friday and Saturday, we will Ice dye, Marble and other dye fun. RSVP with Vera. Show and Tell Corienne brought her book cover from the workshop to share, and told us she cleaned up her large work table and was astounded how fast it got piled up again with a new project. We all agreed, there is NO keeping free table space open. She is at the Lookingglass Farmers Market every Friday 3pm to 6pm, with woven items for sale. Info was exchanged about a farmers market at the Canyonville Grange every Wednesday evening, and Oakland all day Saturday. Nancy displayed a pillow at the Umpqua Arts Association members show, and just returned from her family visit to England and France, so she hasn't had time to work on much this month. Maureen showed her book covers from the workshop and several more she made as gifts. She found 1" colored elastic at Joann's for the project. Vera told us there is a new quilt shop in Dillard, just passed the Mill, encouraging everyone to check it out and pass the word. She and Meredith played more with the ice dyeing.

They used several different fabrics, silks, woven Jacquards, cotton and a blend. The large pieces are gorgeous!! We are all drooling over the intense colors, the variety of the blending patterns, and the touch of the silk. They used a soda ash soak and Procion MX powdered dyes, we can't wait to try it ourselves at the dye workshop. Vera also had pieces of her ceramics and silk scarves at the "Art in the Garden" in Grants Pass. She finished reworking her "Textures of Oregon" piece that she entered in the Oregon SAQA show, she took it apart, mounted each section and put them on a fabric map of Oregon, with ribbon to show what area each piece is from. She is very happy with the outcome, as she never liked the way the piece was working. She promises us pictures, so we can see how it came out, as we have seen it in various stages of progress. Peggy had a new book she is reading about the creative process, "Imagine" by Jonah Lehrer, she highly recommends it for artists. She showed us her book cover, which she has added free motion quilting with variegated metallic threads. Amy had two gelatin print Journal pages, that she quilted. She picked her favorite fern print from the "Art in the Garden" day, and added 3-D embellishments of mushrooms, branches and moss, the moss is made with hand dyed cheesecloth, and embroidered with french knots, a thread painted dragonfly at the top accented the piece. The 2nd piece was a double hand print on the gelatin, made to look as if in a mirror. Angelina fibers were added for mirror reflection, and free motion quilting on the hands added details.

Demonstrations Peggy showed us a small sample she started of "Pin Weaving", and had a handout. Corienne gave advice on the weaving, and called it a basic tapestry technique. Amy demonstrated a small "Faux Weaving" technique to make embellishments with yarn/threads on the sewing machine. We will probably use "Weaving" as a theme for our next small challenge, to incorporate into a 12 x 12 piece. We won't start on that until September, when more people will be coming to the meetings.

Photographs: 1. Maureen's NY book cover 2. Kay's book cover 3. Maureen 4. Maureen's book cover 5. Textured ice dyeing 6 & 7. Ice dyed 8 & 9. Amy's journal pages 10. Peggy pin weaving 11. Maureen, Vera, Peggy & Corienne 12 & 13. Faux weaving