Old Business A field trip is planned for Sept. 27, Saturday starting at 7am, to go to the Portland Sewing & Quilting Expo. We'll make stops at Fabric Depot in Portland, and Greenbaums' Quilted Forest in Salem. RSVP with AMY for carpooling. The Oregon Flock & Fiber event is at the fairgrounds in Canby, Sept. 26, 27, 28. The same weekend as the Expo. The Umpqua Valley Arts Center is having weaving/spinning events the week of Oct 10th, for National Fiber Week. Contact the Arts Center for class and event info. They will have classes on ridged heddle weaving, Kumihimo Japanese Braiding, Needle felting, Knit from silk caps, etc...
New Business Vi is collecting knit hats & scarves for preemies, cancer patients, and Toys for Tots, and other charities. She will also take donations of yarn, full or partial skeins. Last year she gave away over 980 hats. We are voting on a new theme for our next challenge. Many wonderful ideas were presented. For a quickie we will work with Maureen's suggestion of "Free Floating Flabbergast" the definition: A discombobulated Amazement without evident cause or Definite focus. I take it to mean any wild and crazy idea you have, make up a nonsensical word or phrase, 3-D objects were suggested to go along with this. It is a do it IF YOU want to challenge, with a soft deadline of our December meeting. For a more formal challenge we voted on "Fin, Feathers, Scales and Tails," make an appropriate piece of art work, no larger than 20" on a side. We encourage everyone to participate in this challenge, anything goes, any technique. The firm deadline is our March meeting, for the pieces to go into the Umpqua Valley Quilter's Guild Show in April. We will also show our "River Runs Through it" project at the show. When the River pieces come down from the Mercy Hospital Show, we will hang them in the Sutherlin library first.
Show and Tell Our new member Clare, is new to the area and heard about us from the Umpqua Weaving Guild. She brought a woven piece with a wool and nylon blend, called "Curly Surf" made on her floor loom.
The beautifully beaded tassels made by Clare, got lots of oohs and ahhs, made with rayon threads and intricate beading, they are very elegant.
Nancy's 3-D sculpture "Earth Birth" was displayed at the Umpqua Valley Arts Association members show. The mountains are made from rusty train brakes that she has been hoarding for many years. The water is part of a Pendelton blue crochet rug. She also spent a lot of time with her daughter visiting from England for Nancy's 50th anniversary.
Pat W's resist dyed fabric, was exciting to see finished. One had masking tape, with commercial water soluble resist, the other water soluble resist and soy wax. She had many other fabrics as well.
Meredith tried to paint a picture for one effort, a sun and flowers and used school glue and soy wax on the other.
Soy wax and a plastic sandwich crust trimmer, created the triangles and multi color dyes made a colorful pattern. The next piece is a blend of dyes with very fine resist.
The modern art cubes were drawn with the school glue, which washed out easily the next day. Others had trouble removing the school glue, when it was left on for several days. All the different colors made it glow intricately.
Jana's first piece has dye stamping over water soluble resist, and the 2nd is dark green over masking tape. Her take on the workshop is "Don't plan anything" and "It's not over 'til it's over," she said everything looked different after rinsing, drying and ironing. Jana now has a different view on batiks, and will never complain about the prices of commercial batiks again.
The pink grid was done in soy wax resist with a piece of metal grid. The green was done with a potato masher, I'm not sure which resist she used.
A flower stencil was used to add the last layer, with red dye.
Lorraine and Pat G. just got back from an Alaskan quilt cruise, Lorraine took a class with Marjan Kluepfel on making a 3-D flower. She choose the sunflower, and it looks like it is made with hand dyed fabric. Many of the petals and leaves are loose, and attached at the base or on the veins.
Lorraine's resist dyed fabrics, began with a potato masher, then a rectangular sponge, brushed on circles, and a different potato masher with a section of a pool noodle for stamping the resist. She used various resists for each effect, potato dextrin, corn dextrin, sugar syrup and soy wax.
Sponge printing, a "sgraffito" technique, scarping away the potato paste, soy wax grid with different colors of dye.
Lorraine and Pat G. are now graduates of the "Chicago School of Fusing," together they took a class with Laura Wasilowski's and worked with her beautiful hand dyed fabrics and dyed pearl cotton for embroidery. Pat G. made the leaf and the house wall hangings. The leaf is finished with lots of embroidery and it is quilted onto a stiff interfacing "Timtex" and bound with a fusible also. She had fun using the wavy and pinking blades in the rotary cutter. The house still needs a lot of embroidery to add detail.
Can you match Cheryl's finished pieces, with the ones on the clothes line in the previous post? She added layers of resist and dark rich colors of dye for the final layers. They totally transformed her pieces.
The leaves were done with a foam stamp in soy wax, and the 2nd with the potato masher, that everyone loved. I am now sworn to search garage sales and thrift shops to find and buy as many different potato mashers as I can.
Soy wax was the resist of choice for many on the 3rd day, It dried quickly so you could add the dye, but then the dye needed to batch for several hours. The metal grid with several layers of dye, and the squiggly straw from the dollar store both were done with soy wax.
Cheryl spent a lot of time stamping several of Vera's hand cut stamps into the resist, the intricate patterns and repeats of the stamps, made this a stunning example of batik. The hearts were also done in soy wax with a cookie cutter and the metal grid. Several layers of dye were added, yellow, orange and rust.
Peggy worked slow and sure, to get multiple techniques and layers of resist and dye on each piece. The wavy straw from the dollar store, was fun with any of the resists. The green piece has masking tape, and stamped items, to create a bi-polar fabric. The floral has foam stamps and stencils.
Foam stamps and stencils made the floral pattern, and I think the syringe with the commercial water soluble product made the 2nd piece.
Peggy put the most time and effort into this one, masking tape and various other techniques built up layer after layer. The results were not as planned, but it was fun to do, and it is her favorite piece. The layering gives it a lot of depth.
Crystal has been making blocks from the book, "100 Modern Quilt Blocks" she picked it up at the Sisters Quilt Show, and has been making the quilt with the help of her grand daughter Sophie. Each block has small objects hidden in it, birds, flowers, vases, and little critters.
Crystal made wonderful fabric with the sandwich cutter, and the ladybug bubble wand in soy wax.
Brush strokes and masking tape, each make a different graphic effect.
Commercial water soluble resist in a syringe make a simple circular pattern, and another masking tape fabric with a bright graphic pattern.
Maureen brought an old crazy quilt, given to her by a friend, she was trying to find it a good home. Amy passed it on to Vi, who loves crazy quilts and hand stitching and beading. She also restores vintage quilts. Dorie came late to the meeting, and told us about taking a class with Dorina Greenwald, on applique with a 3-D rooster pattern, it also was about free motion quilting. We look forward to seeing the finished rooster at a future meeting.
Vera took a class at Sisters Quilt Show, with Rosemary Dace, of South Africa, on abstracts. Vera based her pieces on Kandinsky paintings, in a place mat size.
The pieces are layered with fabric and sheers and machine stitched to add line to the shapes of the design. Whew!! Lots of stuff happening in our group this summer, classes at Sisters, quilt cruise to Alaska, and the 3 day dye workshop. I know this is a long post, I did not even take pictures of many of the pieces of fabric. Amy's(the blog master's) resist dyed fabric can be seen on her blog
Amy's Etcetera Thank you for looking at the wonderful work all our talented artists create.
Can you match Cheryl's finished pieces, with the ones on the clothes line in the previous post? She added layers of resist and dark rich colors of dye for the final layers. They totally transformed her pieces.
The leaves were done with a foam stamp in soy wax, and the 2nd with the potato masher, that everyone loved. I am now sworn to search garage sales and thrift shops to find and buy as many different potato mashers as I can. 
Soy wax was the resist of choice for many on the 3rd day, It dried quickly so you could add the dye, but then the dye needed to batch for several hours. The metal grid with several layers of dye, and the squiggly straw from the dollar store both were done with soy wax.
Cheryl spent a lot of time stamping several of Vera's hand cut stamps into the resist, the intricate patterns and repeats of the stamps, made this a stunning example of batik. The hearts were also done in soy wax with a cookie cutter and the metal grid. Several layers of dye were added, yellow, orange and rust.
