Journal Covers @ Pat's

Six creative people met at Pat's house for a play day on Tuesday. We made journal covers for the black and white composition books, and smaller ones for spiral notebooks. We tried a technique called "skinny strips" which we found on the blog andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com unfortunately "Skinny" is not in our vocabulary, and our strips were wider, from 1/2" to 2" but the effect was very nice. We started with pieces of hand dyed or printed fabric and inserted several colors of strips into the piece. After we had the effect that we wanted, we trimmed them down into 11" x 17" rectangles, cut a lining and pockets flaps, and batting, and puzzled out how to sew them together. Pat was very helpful in figuring it all out, once we got the concept they went together quickly. The journal covers can have an elastic strip for holding them closed, or a loop of hair scrunchy and a button. Quilting the top to the batting before assemble helped to stabilize them, but also shrunk them, so trimming after quilting is recommended. We had a great time dancing around each other in close quarters, and sneaking down the hall to use the iron in the sewing room. Tip of the day - when traveling to workshops always remember to take extension cords! Six sewing machines in one room, was cord nightmare, don't trip!

Photos: 1. Amy's spiral notebooks 2. Corienne sewing 3. Corienne's fabric 4. All journal covers, some in progress 5. Amy's journal cover 6. Peggy sewing & Maureen 7. Kay's journal cover 8. Maureen's journal cover 9. Pat's journal cover 10. Peggy's journal cover

Black Sheep Festival

Seven ladies set out on a 5 hour tour, of the Black Sheep Festival in Eugene, this weekend. Fyber Cafe was joined by some wonderful, talented spinning and weaving ladies, that are friends of Jana's. Several of us had never been to the festival before, and were greatly impressed by over 100 vendors, with clouds of soft wool, silk, and angora roving, felt, weavings, and yarn. The colors achieved by the dyers art was astounding, rainbows would have had competition. The artwork in competition was varied, from scarves, to felted figures, yarn and sweaters, needle felted pictures and art. The lily pad art, was the "Best of Show" and the others were my favorites, as I am not a judge of what makes good yarn, so did not take photos of those winners. The Husky and the lady with cat, were delicate needle felting and the eyes were very expressive. The sheep with hat was a booth mascot, and the boy with sheep was richly detailed, and had a lot of depth, and very realistic. Many other pieces of artwork were impressive, but I can only post so many pictures. One pic of the balls of wool roving, will give you any idea of the multitude of colors to choose from while shopping. After lunch under huge awnings, with BBQ chicken and pulled pork from the vendors, and some with our humble sandwiches, we visited and shared the treasures we had purchased, and decided we needed more time to see everything. I strolled through the sheep and goat barns, and wanted to pet them all. They were all very friendly, and wanted attention, and had big blue or gold eyes. Many varieties of sheep were represented, and ribbons and signs were on the stalls. The Angora goats were very impressive with their large twisting horns, and soft curls. And of coarse someone had to dye lambs peach and pink. The pink one was vibrant, cute and friendly, and all the kids wanted one. Outside, they were shearing one large sheep or goat, after another, it was quiet a wrestling match for some of them. Two alpacas kept an eye on everyone, as they chewed their hay, the llama and alpaca show was not at the event this year. We had a great time, and all went home with a little bit of wool or yarn, or fibers for felting. Join us next year!

Garden Tour, part III

In addition to Jana's spinning, we also set up a table for demonstrations. Peggy brought her watercolor crayons, and played with them. Pat was so interested that she had to try them, and I am going to insist on some play time later too. A pattern was drawn on muslin or plain cotton fabric, and colored in with the crayons. Then a spray bottle of water was used to wet the drawing, or a wet paint brush was used and the watercolor crayons blended together in a vibrant color wash on the fabric. The photos show the step by step process, from drawing to crayon to painting with the water. Peggy made several floral paintings, lilies, poppies and pansies. Pat made the lilies drawing and also free hand imaginary flowers. The colors were very intense, and Peggy says they are better on fabric than watercolor pencils. They should be heat set with an iron for permanence, and thread painting will give them wonderful detail and accents to finish them off. Amy brought her "Gelli" plate for printing with acrylic paints, and used mostly natural materials to use as masks, ferns, maple leaves, candy tuft, geranium leaves, etc... To layer the paint on the fabric she used foam stamps, of ferns, leaves, dragonflies, and butterflies. Working mostly in greens and purples, she was hoping that some of the finished pieces will work well together in an art piece. Pieces of fabric was brought so that visitors could make a sample to take home, printing with the ferns and foam stamping dragonflies. People were very excited to try the process out for themselves and to see how easy it was, or just to watch and see what Amy created. The last photo is of the end of the day, Jana spinning and talking to guests, and Peggy and Pat just relaxing after taking everything down and packing up. Photographs: 1. Pat's sketch 2. Peggy's watercolor crayon sketch 3 & 4. A water wash added 5. Peggy 6, 7 & 8. Amy's gelatin prints 9. Visitors, Jana, Peggy, Pat

Garden Tour, part II

I'm just going to post a variety of the textile artwork that we displayed in the garden. Corienne did the woven hangings and several stuffed animals made from hand woven fabric, Maureen made a large wild colored hanging that we hung on the monkey bars, and a long floral that was hung from the rafters of the BBQ structure. Pat's children's quilt, based on the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" was thrown artistically over the hammock, and another hanging was hung from a bird feeder. The trees around the pool had low hanging branches, perfect for hangings, and the gardeners finally decided they were Alaskan Yellow Cedar. Various other art quilts were by Amy, Peggy, Jana, Maureen and Pat, and hung on rock patio walls, and wooden deck railings and assorted other spots. Kay's couple in the hot tub masterpiece "Aged to Perfection" was a big hit for it's humor. Peggy also had several watercolor paintings in nice frames that she had brought along, and a collage of old sewing ephemera, also framed. By four o'clock the heat was starting to get to us, and we took everything down in record time, packed up and called it a successful day. Thank you to our hosts Mr & Mrs Lieder for their hospitality and wonderful garden.