December Meeting 2015

Old Business For December we had an art/textile garage sale, members brought art supplies to share, sell, trade or give away. We had a nice selection to look through. Our annual holiday potluck followed, with a table full of great munchies. We took a group photo, it is always hard to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time. Sorry if you are hidden by other people. This is the best of all the pics. January - we will do Kumihimo with Corriene. February - paper/fabric beads with Sara, March - rubber stamps/tissue for image transfer. New Business We scheduled the Sweatshirt Workshop for January 14th, at Pat W. house, we will have a materials list and directions to Pat's at the next meeting. If we have too many people we will schedule a second workshop.

Show & Tell We had very little show and tell, because of our potluck, mostly items that were going away as presents. Pat W. is almost finished with a Christmas stocking for her great-granddaughter "Lucy Rose", The counted cross stitch is by her granddaughter and the baby is only 6 months old.

Lorraine made a darling travel trailer as a cover for her sewing machine or toaster, I did not write down which one. The other side has round windows with different views in them.

Lorraine practice pieces from last month's demo, layers of tissue, glue and black netting on a base of muslin or red hand dyed.

She then went on to create this textile art piece, using the black netting to create a tree and a horse in a landscape. She put the new techniques to good use.

Sara passed around a bowl of scissor dangles that she made with a stuffed ball, beads and a braided cord. They are to attach to your scissors so you know which pair is yours at a class. Thank you for sharing Sara, they are lovely.

The crocheted snowflakes ornaments Sara made are multi-colored and sparkly. She had a whole pile of them as family gifts.

And as a fitting end to our meeting, Sara made a set of "cat butt coaster" for a special friend of hers. I'm sure she will be surprised to get them! Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New year!!

November Meeting 2015

Old Business For our December meeting will be having our holiday potluck, bring a plate & Utensils, and a dish to share. Wear a festive outfit and we'll take a group picture. Also for December, we will do an art/textiles garage sale, bring things you want to sell/share or give away. Clean out your studio for a New Year. January we will do Kumihimo - Japanese braiding with Corienne. February will be making fabric/paper beads with Sara, she will also show us how to coat them with embossing powder and a heat gun. We are planning a workshop at Pat W.'s to make the patchwork sweat shirts that Sara showed us, TBA for January. Wal-Mart has a great selection of sweat shirts in beautiful colors, right now. Buy one size larger, as we will be cutting the seams off and re-sewing them smaller. We also encourage any of our new artists to make something for our challenge "She Flies with Her Own Wings" these will be displayed at the Umpqua Valley Quilters' Guild show in April. Any Technique, any size up to 20" per side. New Business Several of our members have items at the Umpqua Valley Arts Center Holiday Gift shop, stop by and check out the goodies. The Oregon Handweavers Guild is having their annual show at the Multnoma Canter in Portland this weekend,Corienne is taking some of her wonderful hand woven clothes.
Show & Tell

Sue C. has made a fabric bowl using a Bali batik and adding a brass leaf charm inside. In the bobbin she used Wooly Nylon thread, which puffed up randomly in her stitches on the outside of the bowl, creating a surprising texture.

The Mother Dragon is Sue C's entry for the "She Flies with Her Own Wings" challenge. The photo does not do it justice, the sky fabric shimmers and sparkles, the wings are 3-demensional with several layers of tulle and copper wire. Angelina fibers are used to great effect for the flames. The hand work and detail in this requires a lot of attention to see it all. She found the perfect glass cat's eyes to use at Michael's Crafts.

Peggy was wearing one of her ice dyed silk scarves, with a wrinkled texture, we all agreed that the colors would match any of our outfits.

Sara has made many, many, many knit poppies for Veteran's Day, she brought a few leftovers for each of us.

Crystal had finished her modern quilt, that she was working on at the Bandon Art Retreat, the center squares are fussy cut, many with adorable animals.

Vi's beaded doll is made on a recycled serger thread spool, she says you can use it for voodoo if you use the head as a pin cushion.

Amy has brought a work in progress, made from her hand dyed fabrics and a "curvalisious" acrylic template. She is debating quilting options, and other ways to use the template for working in a series.

Shell has shared two of her mixed media collages that she has made recently, the one on canvas is a work in progress, each has different finishes in different areas for visual texture. She also brought the big coffee table book, "The Dinner Party" by Judy Chicago, where each artist explains their inspiration and techniques for each place setting. Our new visitor Barb is a textile artist, currently working on a moonlit garden for a friend in California, and wanted ideas to use for a shimmery effect.

Corienne has made a beautifully woven black wool Ruana, similar to an open pancho, with a a black/white woven strip on each edge. It will be for sale at the Hand Weavers' Guild sale in Portland.

Dorie has a wonderful purse made from a furry felted sweater, she sewed the purse then felted it in the washing machine. The brass clasp is embellished with beads.

Cheryl's entry for the "She Flies with Her Own Wings" challenge is the soft knit shawl, a delicate Wing pattern in commercial yarns is knit loosely.

I'm sorry I did not get a picture of Cheryl's "2 peg loom" woven rug that she is making for her daughter's kitchen. It is stitched in a circle like a braided rug.

Clare is using photos of the view from her new house as inspiration for her next weaving. She is going to weave it in individual strips to make a composite picture.

She has also been published in Traditional Homes magazine, a collection of her handmade tassels, some with beading, are featured in a beautiful full page photo spread. Yea! Way to go Clare!

Pat G. and Lorraine have just gotten back from the Houston Show, they said be prepared to walk 2-3 miles a day, up and down the aisles, and additional walking to and from the hotel. They said it was over whelming. Pat G. has finished the top for her paper pieced lion, Wow! look at those eyes, she used a small piece of the glow in the dark fabric from Amy to highlight the eyes. But the fabric needs to be exposed to a bright light to glow, not folded up in a bag. Another Guest Sandy from Portland had to stop by and see what we are doing here, she reminded us there is a "Quilt, Crafts and Sew" show in Portland at the Expo Center Nov. 19-21, you can get 1/2 off entry coupons at Fabric Depot in Portland.
Show & Tell

We played with our new work surface boards, Amy led us on a hands on project with muslin, tissue paper and cheese cloth, painted with diluted white glue. The main point of this project was creating texture with the fabric, folded, scrunched, pinched up, twisted and layered. The "what ifs" of this project was working with colored fabric, painting the muslin after glueing, using bleeding tissue paper, and some one brought black Halloween netting and tea dyed cheese cloth also.

Everyone had fun playing in the glue and figuring what to use it for, it can be stitched to other fabrics, painted, embellished with more cheese cloth and other creative uses. Pinned to the boards it was taken home to dry. If not stiff enough, you can add more tissue paper or more glue.

Thank you for stopping by our blog and seeing what all our talented textile artists have been up to.

October Meeting 2015

Old Business Pattern pieces for the next challenge were handed out, each section is unique, don't lose them, I don't have copies of the shapes. "The Path Less Traveled" is our theme. All the pieces were taken, sorry if you missed out. November's Demo will be by Amy, Muslin & Cheesecloth textures. December's meeting will be our holiday potluck, bring a dish to share and your plate & utensils. January's meeting we will demo Kumihimo Japanese Braiding with Corienne. February's demo with Sara, will be paper & fabric beads with an embossing powder finish. March meeting Lorraine & Pat will demo what they learned at Asilomar with line composition. New Business We would like to do a workshop on Sara's technique for patchwork sweatshirts, time and place TBA. Show & Tell

Amy has ice dyed the silk noil fabric that she got from Meredith. Color combos of turquoise, navy, and royal blue on each piece, one piece got extra bright green, the other got burgundy and purple added to it. She plans on making a jacket with it.

Sara has finished her "She Flies with Her Own Wings" challenge piece. It is titled "Bird in Space" and was inspired by a painting by Constatine Brancusi. She has done free motion quilting with crystal bead embellishments.

Corienne taught a children's weaving class at the Umpqua Valley Arts Center's "Fiber Fest." They made small pouches or flapped pouches with a simple cardboard weaving technique. The wool fibers made a stiffer pouch and the acrylic yarns made a softer one. We had a new member join us, Joanne from Mrytle creek. She likes to do wet felting, including silk.

Cheryl also taught at Fiber Fest, she used a variety of techniques, all based on Peg or Straw looms. The first used soft fleece on a peg loom, wouldn't this make a wonderful pillow or rug.

Cheryl's second peg loom was used with wool to make a weaving for a bag or purse.

A belt or strap can be made with the easy straw loom, Cheryl brought many varieties of looms to show us.

Cheryl with her finished purse.

Only three straws were used to make this narrow strip, which was then stitched together as a coil, and used for rugs or seat cushions.

Vi brought her vest made with Japanese Shibori fabrics. She went to Japan with the Roseburg Sister Cities group, and took classes with the Tie Dye Master. This fabric is made with ladies sitting around a board with lots of nails & fabric, and tying thread in a pattern around each point. It is very labor intensive and expensive, and done in all traditional ways.

A second vest is made with Vi's sun printed fabric. The fabric is chemically treated and put out in the sun with plant materials, the technique is similar to blue prints. She has hand quilted around the details of the leaves. Another new lady is Linda, she likes to do all sorts of sewing stuff and wants to broaden her horizons. Landreth took an online class with Jane Dunwold, she teaches "Strength training for artists" it covers all disciplines and focuses on pushing your boundaries. Landreth is getting a lot out of the class and it's getting her out of her slump.

Meredith worked on her Oriental purse at the Bandon Art Retreat, and has now finished the details. The little pouch has mirrors embroidered on to it.

Tracy's first quilt that she made in High School, is purple and black velveteen patchwork. Sorry the photo is out of focus. Her daughter Annaka is getting inspired by Mom and Grandma, and made a tie dyed bandanna, that got The Champions Ribbon at Coos Co. Fair and a blue ribbon at State Fair. Yea Annaka!!

Ryan has been getting extra equipment together, a welder and items to paint and patina his metal work. He made a sign for their home with their name cut out. He has also made a wooden framed hanging gong for the FFA Auction in Elkton. He is working on the technical aspects of his wooden frame for the "She Flies" project.

The frame extends out at least 6 feet, he wants to create a pull tab, so the viewer can pull it, to open the wings.

These are some of the supplies Ryan has collected from Meredith. A woven rug where the dye ran, some matching hand dyed fabric and some handmade glass beads. He will use this stuff to make the fabric wings on his frame. He was also thinking of a design with a duck/beaver cross, with a winged platypus for the "She Flies" challenge. I can tell this theme inspired him. Chris is a friend of Lorraine's that came today to meet us, she is a traditional quilter who wants to move into art quilts. She took a class at Sisters with Gwen Marsten on Minimalist Quilting.

Sue M. also took a class and it was out of her comfort zone. She created this modern purple wall hanging, embellished with French knots and cross stitched embroidery.

Lorraine has done a lot of research on why "She Flies with Her Own Wings" is the Oregon state motto. She created this collage for herself, on canvas, with history on Abigail ________, who was the leader in woman's suffrage, and got Oregon's women the right to vote.

Lorraine constructed this mixed media nest for her "She Flies with Her Own Wings" challenge. Pat W. just got back from her trip to Homer, Alaska. She got to see the "Washed Ashore" click here traveling exhibit while it was in Homer. They went on a drive one morning and saw Beluga whales off the coast, later in the day there were about 30 Humpback whales off of the spit, and during a walk on the beach they saw a pod of Orcas. She was so amazed to see all 3 types of whales in one day. Pat G. has been packing up to move to a new home, and has found just how large her stash is.

Amy brought her friend Shell, who is working on this coiled basket, stitched with various yarns and ribbons, it represents the trees, water, flowers, and now she is working on the sky and tree tops.

Shell was taught beading on leather from a Native American friend, she drew this pattern based on a photo she took. The colorful butterfly and sunflower will be even more beautiful when she finishes it. Demo For our hands on project this month we made plastic covered foam core boards. So that everyone has a work surface, we can work on projects with paint or glues, with out having to worry about the tables and carpet. Bring your board in November, I'll cover a few extra in case you were not at the meeting you can have one. We had 22 artists in attendance today, what a wonderful turnout, word is getting around, about what fun we have. I hope to see everyone in November.