February Meeting 2014

Old Business The Bandon Art Retreat is set for June 23-25, Mon-Wed, I need a verbal commitment at the March meeting, and payment at the April meeting. We will spend relaxing days, sewing, painting, embellishing, working on our projects, field trips, beach walks and lunch out on the town. A fun time to share our friendship and creativity. Also maybe a studio tour of Landreth's in Coos Bay? Sylvia has invited us back to the Elkton Festival in June, to paint Festival Flags with the kids, we had a great time last year, please volunteer to help, contact Sylvia. The Umpqua Valley Quilt Show is in April, please bring your finished "Weather Report" with sleeve and label, no dowel, to the April meeting, we need volunteers to hang and organize the show. Also we will display one other art piece per member, your choice, with a member profile, please participate, so we have a good display. New Business For the March meeting, please, bring Six 5" squares of BRIGHT fabric, prints, stripes, solids, etc... with iron on fusible on the back, Wonder Under or Steam a Seam type. Also bring your scissors! Amy has a fun design exercise/game for us. Jana announced there is going to be a BIG Quilt, Stitch and Knit Show at the Portland Expo Center on August 14-16, with lots of workshops. Check the web for more info or call Jana.

Show & Tell Corienne stitched and washed her fiber fabric from last months meeting, each side is different, she used a bit of shimmery organza fabrics, and silk ribbons in hers. She definitely likes the "underside" better.

Corienne, Sylvia and Cynde took a dye class at the Eugene Textile Center, to use "Color Hue" dyes. She did not bring her swatch book, but they worked mostly on silks, made color charts, mixed shades, and learned a lot. The dyes need no mordant, are very concentrated, a few drops in water, and add the silk. Nancy has been busy with taking photos of events she has been involved in, a Project Literacy Book Challenge, and a Valentines for Vets at the Roseburg VA hospital.

Dorie made a name tag from her fiber fabric, after stitching and washing, she couched her name in gold metallic cord, used iron on vinyl as a backing, and a silk organza ribbon as a binding, bow and neck cord. After hearing Pat's idea of a box, she might make one with her leftovers.

Pat W. got adventurous and added moss and lichen to her fiber fabric, she went out side and collected it, then stitched it onto the fibers. It adds a very interesting organic textural quality to the fibers. She plans on making a basket or box from her fibers, we discussed a cardboard form, glue stiffener or heavy interfacing. It will be fun to see what she comes up with. Tricia's fibers have a lacy quality, she used a lot fewer fibers than the rest of us, and plans on backing it with a fabric that will show through the lace holes. She also used bits of organza and fabric snips to make hers unique.

Jana has been spinning up a storm, participating in an international challenge with a group called "Ravelry" to spin through watching the Olympics. "Unseasonably Warm" is Jana's "Weather Report" challenge. She has thread painted a crow and fall leaves with lots of texture. She really enjoys this technique and is getting much better at her free motion stitching. The echo quilting around the sun, give it a radiant look, and the hot yellow background fabric gives it HEAT!

"Tempest in a Teapot" is Peggy's wonderful creation, two ladies at a tea table with a stormy sky, and a tornado in their teapot. She has painted a dramatic sky with watercolors, and the tornado has tiny hand painted details. Lace, ribbon, beads and other embellishments decorate the ladies clothing, the edge of the lace doily tablecloth has a loose flowing ruffle. Peggy loves to decorate the ladies, and this is part of a series she has done, with vintage women. She would like to do one with the Eiffel Tower and Paris in the background. We discussed the Value contrast on the tablecloth, and how to tone it down a little bit, with shadows for the tea service, or tea dyeing the fabric, or a vase of flowers on the table, she feels it is too bright in relation to the subdued colors of the rest of the piece.

"Thunder and Lightening" is Kay's bold, dramatic, 3-D art work. She has used 4 separate pieces of Pellon heavy duty interfacing, to create two Mobias strips and a double strip sphere. It is covered in black and gray fabric, with gold and silver lightening, in threads and paint. It is embellished with pieces of a black sweater, and black pipe cleaners to help hold the shape. Mounted on a block covered with a white/black print, it is intriguing from many angles. We discussed how it would look, mounted to a wall, rather than flat on a table.

Fibers from a mystery artist, were embellished with bits of batik fabric, giving it focal points of interest, sorry my notes did not say who made this.

Sherry brought a skirt to share with us, where she used an assortment of fibers, laid down under a layer of Solvy, then stitched to secure. It was a creative way to use a similar fun fibers technique. More lacy than our mats of fiber, it highlighted some beautiful ribbons and trims. Discussion Instead of a demo this month we had decided to critique our "Weather Report" pieces. We only had four here at the meeting, but we counted 12 finished pieces. We started with asking each artist about their theme, how they interpreted it, and if they thought they had succeeded. We discussed what they liked about the piece, what they learned doing it, and if there was anything they wished they had done better. Then we gave suggestions on how that particular area could be improved. We mostly discussed design balance and composition, and techniques used. I thought it was a very useful, more detailed discussion of each piece. Secondly, Sherry wanted to discuss working in a series, she had a new book by Elizabeth Barton on the topic. She wanted to know if anyone was interested in working through some of the exercises with her. We discussed how we each had a theme or two in our work, that tied some of it together.

January Meeting 2014

December's meeting was canceled due to snow. We have quiet a few people that come long distances to our meetings, and lots that live in the country, with hilly driveways. The snow hung around over a week, making driving difficult or impossible. Several of us did get together after Christmas at Kowloon's Chinese Restaurant for good food, visiting and relaxing after the busy holidays.

January Old Business We will be putting our "River Runs Through It" art work in the ICU Waiting Room at Mercy Hospital, this week. Dorie has organized this and chosen a large open wall with lots of traffic. All artists statements were due! Please try to keep the deadlines, many of our challenges have flexible deadlines, but when it is important, please try harder. Name tags are now required at all meetings, or there is a 25 cent fine, we have many newer members to encourage. A $5 fee was collected to help with expenses with hanging the show at the hospital, dowels, hooks, singage, etc... Also for anything we need to display at the Umpqua Valley Quilters Show in April. We are going to go on a field trip Saturday, January 25, to the Oregon Gardens Quilt Show, East of Salem. We will carpool to the show, plans are TBA. In February our "Weather Report" challenges are due. (flexible deadline) Several of you have already finished your pieces, well done! Our workshop will be a critique of the pieces, let's apply the design principles we've been learning.

New Business The Art retreat in Bandon this summer is reserved, a $100 deposit needs to be made to save the dates/reservation. A show of hands was good to confirm interest, and the deposit was sent. The dates are Mon-Wed, June 23, 24, 25. and the cost is around $80-100 depending on how many people go. Sylvia said the Elkton Festival would like us to come back and have a booth again, in June, we had lots of fun with the kids last year, helping them paint Festival Flags. If you are interested in helping contact Sylvia.

Show & Tell Sylvia finished her "Weather Report"

Titled "New Sun in the Sky" Sylvia's bright art is made with Seta Color paints and bleeding tissue paper. She has done some beautiful thread painting on it to add detail and highlight her circles. Gracie made a wonderful Christmas gift for her Mom, on canvas, with melted crayons and a saying about family. Unfortunately I did not get a photo. Landreth has finally recovered her health and has hit an artistic block. She is struggling to overcome it with journaling and sketching, and is having fun with it, keeping it secret and personal, has given it more meaning for her.

A stunning jacket was modeled by Dorie. She made it from a commercial fabric with couched yarns on it. Directional details added contrast of textures. It is very soft to the touch and nicely tailored.

Nancy received a belated postcard for our challenge, from Crystal. It has appropriately been embellished with Crystals.
Meredith has been working on two sketches for her "Weather Report" project, a still life with pumpkins, titled "Frost on the Pumpkin" and a 2nd "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows." She also reported the new quilt shop "Rustic Rooster" in Myrtle Creek, is moving to 1st St. in downtown M.C. She has also been playing with Zentangles in a sketchbook, and has two new books "Mixed Media Masterclass" by Sherryl Khan, and Stitch Alchemy.

Vera received a Christmas gift, a handmade necklace from China, made with threads and fabrics. She also received a tiny hand held sewing machine the size of a stapler.

Our new guest Chris, brought an embroidered pillow that she just finished, for Show & Tell. It represents Autumn and has flowers, grasses, and grape vines, and a ruffle around it. Thank you for joining us, we hope you come back again.

For her "Weather Report" challenge, simply titled "Snow" Sue's elegant image of snow on a winter forest, is beautiful. She made the piece with a hand cut stencil and bleach discharge paste, then added lots of French Knots with crochet cotton. Kay is returning our "Weaving" challenge pieces, the Sutherlin Library loves having us display there, and is looking forward to having the "Weather Report" challenge next. Kay also worked on some Christmas presents that were given away, two folded booklets with photographs in them.
Corienne wore a wonderful handwoven jacket that she made, from her own woven fabric. She took a class at a weaving conference on "How to fit jackets" and it was very helpful. The colors are very rich and it is full of texture. Pat G. brought us all sorts of recycled materials, plastic trays, gloves, large sealable plastic bags, plastic for tarps, and misc. storage items. They are from the hospital, donated to and veterinarians, and any left overs she brought to us. She is asking a donation to the vets to help with the free spay & neutering they do for the shelter.

Loraine has finished her "Weather Report" it is a very playful "Raining Cats & Dogs" done in a Laurel Burch style. She hand painted the cats and dogs with lots of detail and metallic paints and fused them to the backing.

Amy has continued her work with her hand cut botanical stencils. This time she has used black fabric with Jacquard's Decolourant discharge paste. Then it is free motion quilted with a variety of rayon threads. Spiderwebs were added with Sulky Sliver holographic thread.

"Raining Candy" is Amy's "Weather Report." The top is done and ready to quilt. It is mostly fused, the pattern was made from an original photo of two girls waiting for the thrown candy at a Veteran's Day parade. Our Demo for January is Solvy layered fibers, to make a lacy fabric, Vera is showing us how and provided a bunch of disolvable material and a huge pile of yarn, cording and threads. Stay tuned for our next post on this fun technique.