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.

Garden Tour, part I

The Garden Tour was wonderful fun, I took so many pictures, that I'll have to post them in two batches. I tried to choose the pics that show the garden setting the best. We spent two frantic hours trying to find places to hang the textile art, we had a preview, but it didn't help much, as we didn't know what articles we would have. There were several basic areas, the entry way, among the giant fir trees and Rhododendrons, around the pool, and around the decks and walkways. The entry way had a black chain link fence, that we hung a sign on and something bright to attract attention. Amy's stained glass "Pink Passion Iris", and the Fyber Cafe sign that Kay made for us, were on the entrance gate, flanked by Peggy's watercolor crayon floral banner, and "Flamingo Tropicana" by Amy. An ancient Rhododendron, was strung with various smaller pieces, Peggy's dragonfly and moon gelatin print, several of Amy's "Gelli" printed journal pages, a small piece by Maureen and an Iris table topper by Pat. From 2pm until 4 pm, we were serenaded by a musician who sat in the shade by the pool, and played wonderful guitar music. Lots of people toured through the garden, wandered among the trees, and came over and visited with us. They said with pre-sales and tickets sold that morning, they had over 150 people, touring 6 private gardens, and the Master Gardener's "Discovery Gardens." They even got front page coverage, on the TV section of the paper, with a nice story about the League of Women Voter's and their fund raising efforts. For a first year, they did very well, next year they are talking about including some of the local wineries in the event. We displayed our "What's My Line?" challenge on easels along a rock wall, they made a very cohesive unit, all mounted on stretched frames with gray fabric behind them. All though the two tall easels blew over later in the day in the wind. Jana brought her spinning wheel, and spun ALL day, she said she hasn't gotten as much yarn spun in a long time. She visited with lots of people and showed them her dyed Merino wool, a blend with dog fur, and a blend of silk and mohair, and silk hankies. Lots of touchy feely stuff. Photographs: 1. Garden view 2. Pool & rear of house 3, 4 & 5. Entry gate & fence 6, 7, & 8. String of smaller pieces 9 & 10. "What's My Line?" challenge

June 2012 Meeting

OLD BUSINESS Pat's Play Day has been moved to Tuesday June 26, at 9am, we will be doing a variety of things, it will be a sewing machine day, we'll start with Journal Covers, to sew and embellish, a materials list was emailed to everyone. Amy will demo and do a hands on workshop on "skinny strip inserts" to embellish and save "unimpressive" hand dyes or printed fabric. Kay was asked to do some natural materials weaving, like she taught the kids in Alaska, if you have any materials on hand bring them, other wise we'll prowl the acreage for grasses and twigs, etc.. bring a Brown bag lunch. Sylvia's picnic is on hold, TBA for July. We discussed ordering from Dharma silk scarves for the ice dyeing, I'll email everyone details. Call Jana or Peggy to RSVP for the Black Sheep festival, they are going Friday, June 22, we may have 2 carloads going. Please get hold of Pat or Amy if you have textiles for display or sale at the Garden Tour this Saturday, more items are needed! NEW BUSINESSThere is a textile exhibit from the art group at Debbie's quilt shop in Drain, at the Elkton Butterfly Garden's library. www.elktonbutterflies.com/ Also an "Artists Day in the Garden" event July 21, artists are welcome to spend the day in the garden painting, photography, etc.. for an Art Show later in August. I am thinking of going to this and doing Gelatin prints with the botanicals there, also photography with quilt making in mind, and Peggy wants to paint. Let me know if you'd like to join us. SHOW AND TELL I apologize for the lack of photos, I was so busy admiring the items and forgot to take pics. I'll try to get a few more pics at the garden tour. Corrienne was at the "Gathering of the Guilds" in Portland the first weekend in May, she showed her handwoven items, among the many wonderful things at the show. The show is a mixture of the Portland area Potter's Guild, Weavers Guild, Glassblowers, Woodworkers, and Fine Jewelry artists, and is a huge annual event at the Convention Center. Nancy showed her second pillow for her couch, with beautiful tranpunto on black corduroy. It is very soft and textural. Jana finished her Beatles Challenge "Here Comes the Sun" with an applique sun on the side of a richly colored batik, shading to darkness on the right, she added lyrics in gold paint on various areas of the piece. Pat's challenge was "Yellow Submarine" (unfortunately no picture) her husband Bob designed the submarine for her, she appliqued and embroidered it on an underwater fabric, with waves, she mounted it on a wood frame, which she has taken a liking to doing. Pat also brought a guest, a family friend Betty, visiting from Homer, Alaska, she likes to do art quilts, and has a vision for her next project, a group of darting snowshoe hares, that she keeps encountering in her driveway. She wants to use shear fabrics to layer the hares ala "Pignatelli." Maureen has been sewing onesies for her great granddaughter, and working with the Master Gardeners. She has trays and combs we can borrow for our marbling project. Peggy created "Eleanor Rigby" for her challenge, with inspiration from Deidra Doan, she was featured at "Art & Soul" workshops at Portland last year, and Peggy missed the opportunity to attend the class. She layered many different embellishments to create a rich mixture of color and texture, a photo of "Eleanor's face in a jar by the door" was a key element. Kay brought a sample she made of a rubbing from a relief ceramic tile she got from Home Depot for 39 cents. She made the original rubbing with a red crayon, and colored in areas with "Neocolor II, water soluble crayons" She says the oil based crayons are brighter than the standard watercolor pencils. Her Beatles Challenge is "Blackbird" (sorry no photo) a silky black bird with a real feather, on a background of hand dyed fabric, covered in folded layers of black tulle, distressed with a heat gun, and embellished with gold cording and more feathers. Amy brought her grove of birch trees with the quilting done, no binding yet, lots of texture with rayon threads. Her Beatles challenge is "Strawberry Fields Forever" the fabric top from last meeting, was quilted in rayon with a batik strawberry print backing. Also a sample of the "Skinny Strips" techniques she will demo at Pat's play day. A demo was done by Amy, at Peggy's request, to show how she made 3-D thread painted draonflies amysetcetera.blogspot.com You can find a complete "How To" on Amy's blog. Made with rayon threads on layers of tulle, Solvy, and chiffon or organza, they are thread painted and cut out, to add as decorative elements to art quilts. All the Beatles challenges included lyrics from the songs either on the back of the art or incorporated into the front, the lyrics seamed to have lasting impression on the artists and not just the song title. The Sutherlin Library has said they would love to hang the Beatles Challenge on display, so if you did not finish your piece or did not attend the meeting, you still have an opportunity to do something. Also several people indicated they are inspired to make a second piece, as it was difficult to choose just one song. Photographs: 1. Nancy's trapunto pillow 2. Jana's "Here Comes the Sun" 3. Peggy's "Eleanor Rigby" 4. close up 5. Amy's skinny strips 6. Amy's "Strawberry Fields Forever" 7. Amy's Birch Grove 8, 9 & 10. Thread painted dragonfly demo