June Meeting 2014

Old Business Elkton Festival is canceled, it has been changed to a music festival with no vendors. Black Sheep Festival in Eugene is June 20-22, Umpqua Valley Arts Festival in Fir Grove Park is June 27-29. Bandon Art Retreat is June 23-25. July's meeting will be Fimo/Sculpy buttons with Peggy and Amy. If you have supplies bring them or we will have enough to share. The "Weather Report" pieces are hanging at the Sutherlin Library. New Business The Sewing & Quilt Expo is at the Portland Convention Center Sept. 25-27, This would be a great field trip!! Our August meeting is going to be at Vera's for a dyeing workshop. We will NOT be meeting at the conference rooms for August. We will be doing wool dyeing as well as cotton fabrics, order silk scarves from Dharma if you want to do ice dyeing. We can also ice dye the cottons. In September bring your ideas for a theme for a new challenge. Ideas put forth so far, 3-D, recycled materials, Nonsense words. I'll dig up the other ideas, that we passed on before. Show & Tell

Amy brought her work in progress of birch tree bark, printed from her photo, that she is stitching with texture, and moss, several swallowtail butterflies will be placed on it with leaves.

More ice dyeing by Meredith on large yardage of silk, the first piece is textured habotai silk from Dharma and has bold colors. The second larger piece she wants to use for an outfit for an event she is going to SOON. Good Luck on that!

The sunflower is Meredith's trial piece from last years Art Retreat, she practiced stitching onto paper. She liked the practice piece so much, that she cut it out and applied it to the correct piece of paper, with some extra leaves. Framing with the picket fencing on 3 sides finished the piece for hanging. Pat W. has finished cardio rehab after her surgery and is doing well, and she is ready to start on art work again. Dori did a class in Central Point with an applique rooster, it was a hands on with Donna Greenwald. She enjoyed it a lot and learned some expertise in applique. Peggy has been drawing Zentagles in her sketchbook.

A rich navy blue sweater has been needle felted by Kay, it has other embellishments as well, ribbons, beads, & embroidery.

Jana's love for thread painting is showing up in her work, from an original photograph taken in Ireland. It is still in progress, as the musician is playing a small accordion, beneath a Guinness sign. She is also participating in the "Tour de Fleece" an online challenge to spin everyday while the "Tour de France" is running. She is carding and spinning white cashmere for this challenge.

Pat G. has made an amazing bag with trimmed selvedge edges, she always trims her selvedges to 1" or 1 1/2" wide strips.

Pat G. is looking forward to a quilting cruise to Alaska in August, they sent her a challenge fabric, to make a block for a drawing. She has made this delightful Sunbonnet Sue block.

Tricia has been printing leaves onto a hand dyed fabric. She paints the leaf or fern with acrylic paint and uses a brayer to print it onto the fabric.

Hand made stones with batik fabric are Tricia's latest adventure. Instructions are from the newest issue of Quilting Arts magazine. The organza dragonfly is made the same way her leaves are made from today's demo. Cheryl set Lorraine up with a friend of hers and she got 3 Jacobs sheep for her orchard pasture.

Corriene has been making "Split ply braiding" it is traditionally done for camel girths. It uses an 8 ply cord that is split 4 & 4 when it is woven.

During a recent trip to Washington DC, she also went to Pennsylvania visiting old grave yards, and woolen mills and Amish farmers markets. At a roadside stand she purchased a small Amish quilt with hand quilting.

She also could not resist a traditional handmade Amish straw hat.

Nancy used her design exercise to make a bib to cover her "Crumb catchers," she zigzag stitched it in colorful threads for contrast.

Sue has been on the road to Las Vegas, and she managed to knit two baby hats for her new grand baby. She also discovered a wonderful quilt/yarn shop in Winters, Calif. right off of I-5. The Redding quilt shop is also right off of I-5. Demo

Tricia showed us how she makes her fragile fabric leaves, that she used in her "Weather Report" wall hanging. She layers several layers of organza, tulle, or silk between two layers of Sulvy, washaway stabilizer. She draws her pattern on the Solvy and does a narrow satin stitch around the edges, the leaf veins and detail are finished with free motion stitching. Then the Solvy is dissolved leaving a delicate see through leaf. She also traps bit of fabric between sheer layers, the free motion stitches the layers together.

Tricia's leaves are on the left, Amy's on the right. Amy makes her leaves on painted and melted Tyvek and Lutrador, the heat gun leaves bubbles and holes in the synthetic fabrics, then stitched with free motion stitching to outline and vein the leaves. The texture is rough and very good for autumn leaves. No Solvy is used, the pattern is stitched directly on the Tyvek or Lutrador.

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.

November Meeting 2013

Old Business An artists statement is due at our December meeting for your "River Runs Through It." It is not a biography, or a list of techniques, please state why you made the piece, what your thoughts were or your goal in making it, you can keep it short. We will discuss these at our meeting. Our December meeting is a holiday potluck, bring any kind of dish to share, also bring your own plate and utensils.New Business Dorie is working with Mercy Hospital to display the "River" pieces, starting January, for a whole year, in one of the main halls! We discussed this, and about not having them available for the UVQG Show, but decided they would get a much more broad audience at the hospital. The Bandon Retreat has been tentatively scheduled for June 23 & 24, Monday and Tuesday nights, 3 days. More details to follow. The January meeting will be a hands on workshop with Vera showing us how to make "Fiber fabric" with Solvy and yarns, fibers, ribbons, we will do layout and pinning at the meeting, but sewing at home to finish the piece. February, the "Weather Report" challenge is due, we will Show & Tell and critique the pieces. We are planning, for spring, a wool dyeing workshop with Cheryl and Vera, then a wet felting workshop to use the wool we have dyed. More info later. We voted on a $5 donation from each member, to have a kitty to buy supplies for display/hanging, photocopies of instructions, and other miscellaneous approved purchases. This will be due at the December meeting. Also you will be penalized 25 cents, if you forget to wear your name tag. This will also go into the kitty. Show & Tell

Jana has begun work on her "Weather Report" project, it is named "Unseasonably Warm." The crow and leaves are heavily thread painted, with glass bead eyes on the crow. This pic is cropped, but it has lots of room for a "HOT" sun, that she will be adding to the upper corner. Peggy's "Weather Report" is started on her design wall, with ladies around a tea table, with the title "Tempest in a Teapot." I can't wait to see how she interprets this theme. Peggy also brought the Summer 2006 issue of Cloth, Paper & Scissors, to show and an article about Solvy and making Fiber fabric, that we are going to do in January. Nancy has started her "Weather Report" by taking photos of the TV weatherman, on her Ipad. She plans on an abstract in blues and greens, with all the geometric weather front symbols. Sylvia had photos of her finished "Painters Challenge-Cezanne" to show the quilting, and discuss what she had learned from the project. She learned how to use "Color Hue Dyes," to dye silk, being careful to iron silk, a new method of collage, and to plan the background as part of the whole.

Vera displayed a finished art quilt from a piece of her hand dyed fabric. She cut and inserted small strips of fabric to fracture the fabric, then couched a variety of yarns in waves to follow her painting, and added hand stitching for more texture. It is wonderful to see her work from her fabric she has made & showed us the last couple of meetings.

The second art piece is on the theme "who is hiding, those who hide or those who do not see?" relating to domestic abuse. She has layered strips of sheer transparent fabric, over her hand dyed fabric, added details in hiding, and masks across the front. It is a very bold image, but subtle because of the hidden details. She also brought her "Dyeing Process" display from the SAQA show in Corvalis. It has samples of her step by step resist dyeing, and the finished fabrics. This might be something we can show at the UVQG Show too.

Cheryl has been working on a month long effort to learn free motion quilting, working out the bugs, on this somewhat frustrating process. We recommended a 90/14 universal needle or a mettalica needle. A beautiful scarf with handmade scarf pins, was Cheryl's Show & Tell, she made the pins with Sculpy wrapped around a piece of metal coat hanger. The toppers are from a mold, and painted with opalescent paints.

Our new member Sue, brought three Autumnal hangings, the patterns are made from her photos in Photoshop. The pear and pumpkin are individual works and a set of 3 gourds, they are nicely thread painted/quilted as well.

Sue had developed the idea for her "Weather Report," she has a piece of discharged fabric she made. She cut out a piece of freezer paper, ironed it down and used a discharge product to bleach out a moody tree scene. She is taking it on an airline trip and plans to embroider a million french knots on it for "Snow."

"Beware my darling of the snakes in the grass" is stitched on Loraine's crazy birds and snakes quilt. She took a class in Idaho, from Mary Lou Weidman, on her "Out of the Box" technique of pattern free piecing. They brought lots of bright colored fabric to class, and started free form piecing, eventually developing their own designs. "Raining Cats and Dogs" is Loraine's theme for the "Weather Report" challenge, based on Laurel Burch designs.

"Slightly Breezy with a Chance of Dragonflies" is Amy's entry for the "Weather Report" challenge. She has been using masks and stencils of botanical flora, to make "Gelli Plate" prints with acrylic paints. The green one is two 8 x 10 prints sewn side by side, with rayon quilting and three 3-D thread painted dragonflies. "Misty Morning, Mauve" is the 2nd, and has additional raw edge applique over the print, to add an extra layer.

"Raining Candy, Waiting for the Parade" is a pattern Amy has drawn up, from her original photo of two girls at last years Veterans Day parade. They were leaning out into the street, waiting for people from the floats to throw candy. It was pointed out, this will also fit with the weather report theme. So Amy has been challenged to also finish this by February. Pat G's trip to New Zealand and Australia will be a separate post, also the demo on Texture Magic, and ordering fabric printed with your photos from online.

October Meeting 2013

Old BusinessOur new challenge theme is "Weather Report," any technique, under 20" on a side. Due February meeting. Must be labeled and sleeved. New Business We need to write artists' statements for our river pieces, in this format, Name, Title of piece, statement about the Art piece, techniques or unusual materials. We wish to make a professional presentation to the Umpqua Valley Arts Center, for display. Reminder, please wear a name tag at the meetings, our group is growing. We had 17 members at the meeting, and 4 new members in the last few months. Nov. meeting, Crystal will still do her computer fabric info, and Amy & Pat will do "Texture Magic." Dec. meeting - Holiday Potluck. Jan. Vera with Solvy lace/thread fabric, (Corienne please bring your bag of thrums) Feb. on TBA. Show & Tell

Amy finished her "Leonardo Da Vinci's Sketchbook" for the international painters challenge. She used tissue paper image transfer, acrylic paints, and thread painting, then appliqued a sketchbook, pens & ink, and feather pen to the bottom area. Also a quick sunflower abstract was made from a photo printed on fabric, cut up and hand dyed fabrics added to the composition. Thread painted with lots of rayon threads brought the flower petals into the dyed fabric for a complete picture.

Sylvia's painters challenge is Cezanne, his style is short choppy brush strokes. She has replicated this with small rectangles of hand dyed silk and Wonder Under fusible. One of his many paintings is a local French mountain, she had to dye several blue sky fabrics to get the right shade. The photo doesn't due the sky justice. The quilting is not yet done.

Vera and Meredith made it up to the Quilt Country venues to see the SAQA exhibit, they thought the SAQA was the best, but enjoyed several other fiber and art exhibits in the Corvallis area, including the Philomath Historical Society and a wearables exhibit. Vera had made 18 silk scarves for her daughter to give as parting gifts from her job in Malaysia, she had a photo of the ladies wearing them. Meredith has reached into her archives to bring a poofy black vest and beaded bow tie. The vest fabric was made by poking fabric through a screen and ironing in the poofs, then adding a layer of fusible interfacing to the back of the fabric to set the bubbles into it.

Cheryl has finished getting a leather bottom onto her wool boots. She dyed the leather with acid dyes and "boiled" them to set. Wrong, they shrunk and became hard as rocks. Next she tried it with steam, and got a nice finish to the leather. She and her daughter have started a project to make a queen size "Snail's Trail" pattern bed quilt, for their joint birthday project.

Nancy drew a Halloween pumpkin for Pat G. on her postcard, but Pat is in Australia/New Zealand on a quilt cruise, so she will get it when she is back. Lorraine received a landscape postcard from Tricia, with delicate reeds and a dragonfly.

Jana has gotten a start on Christmas, with a set of batik quail silhouette place mats. Her Halloween hanging with fused cats, got finished with quilting lines that extended the spider webs from the border print.

Lorraine was also in the Halloween mood with her pumpkin table topper, the pieces were fused with "Steam a Seam" on a black background to create the striking contrast.

Dorrie has also been working on Christmas, with a soft red scarf on the knitting tool, and sunflower place mats and napkins. They are making me feel like I need to get a move on for the holidays, blink and it will be Christmas, blink again and it will be 4th of July. Peggy made a cell phone pouch (no photo) with a pattern from Quiltsmart.com they print the pattern onto fusible, and you just fuse to fabric of your choice, cut out and assemble.

Kay brought a whole stack of postcards, she received from an art postcard exchange. There was a huge variety of styles and techniques, with many beautiful images.