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.

Sept. Demo - Foam Words

Amy brought a sample of her printed words on fabric. She used a "Gelli Plate" to do mono-printing on muslin with acrylic paints. GelliArts.com The Gelli Arts website, had a video on printing onto fabric, with foam words stamps, they are a reverse process, so CAN NOT be used for straight printing, but they can be used for rubbings, like a collagograph. We used two foam sheets and white glue to layer a base material (I did not realize the foam I brought was so thin, you might want to add an extra layer) Foam apparently comes in different thicknesses, the 2mm works best. Most of the foam alphabets are self adhesive, so we stuck them on the foam, then cut out the individual words. If you can find Non adhesive words, they can be glued on upside down and reversed and then they CAN be used for stamping. We all had fun playing with the letters, and thinking of fun words. Some one broke RULE #1, the judicious use of vowels. You need to make as many words with as few vowels as possible, other wise you run out of vowels quickly. Combining words and making phrases, is a good way to be inspired to create an art piece.

September Meeting 2013

Old Business Vera is unable to go to the "Quilt County" events in Corvalis, but Peggy wants to go, for info call her, to ride share, and confirm date and time. The SAQA show is at the student Memorial Union building, on campus, and also an exhibit at the LaSalle Center.The "River Runs Through It" was a big hit at the winery, Nancy is checking with the Umpqua Valley Arts Center to display it there. Please check on any other venues that we can pursue. New Business A new theme for our next challenge was voted on, "Weather Report" was chosen with close voting, other suggestions will be saved for future use. The only requirement is a maximum of 20" on a side, it can be smaller, any technique. Hanging sleeves/or other appropriate method for display, and labels MUST be on the piece, or it will not be excepted. This is an informal challenge, quick and easy, you DO NOT HAVE TO participate, it is just to have fun. Dead line is February, after the holidays.

Show & Tell Amy brought a small box, 3" on a side, that she made from the leftover quilted hand dyed fabric, from her 3-D spiral. It is put together with violet rayon satin stitching and has silk ribbon embroidery and beads along the sides. She also had the postcard Kay sent her (no Pic) done with fabric and paper collage.

A lovely large postcard made by Pat G. was passed around, it has fabric collage, and free motion stitching on a large white flower. She had made it for a sample for Cheryl Malkowski's book on fabric postcards. Pat is also planning on going on a quilting cruise, what fun!

Our new member Lorraine bought a cute vintage baby quilt that her mother made her when she was 8 years old, she is surprised it has survived this long. The embroidered woman is very expressive.

Bright sunflowers from a fabric dyeing class, are a stunning example of what Lorraine learned with Phil Bieber in Fortuna, Calif. They painted damp fabric on a frame with MX Procion dyes, then choose from many patterns he had, to make the floral piece.

She is still working on the quilting, it is very detailed and intricate on the flowers.

Cheryl has made a special postcard for Crystal, in our postcard exchange. It has a ribbon rose and embroidery on a floral fabric. She also received from Corienne as beautiful woven postcard in delicate pale blue and white.

Cheryl continues to work on her winter wardrobe, with felted booties. She "accidentally" shrunk/felted an old hand spun wool sweater, so she decided to use the sleeves for boots. She cut them off the sweater, and continued to felt and hand shape them. She will add leather soles to the bottoms for extra strong wear. She also made a stack of wool potholders from miscellaneous knit and woven samples, after learning wool won't melt like acrylic yarns, and it is self extinguishing. I like that last part.

Vera received a postcard from Meredith, that was made with the silk sample squares from Corienne. They were fused in a geometric pattern on to a black backing, and Meredith has been practicing her free motion machine quilting.

Vera has continued her fabric dyeing using corn dextrin resist on a yellow/orange all over pattern, the crackle detail adds a lot to the texture of the print. She used leftover dyes from her silk screen demo, for the cinnamon colored piece, squirting it on and smearing the dye around.

The finished washed fabric from the deconstructed silk screen from last month's demo, showed a lot more color and detail, when it doesn't have all the print paste on it. Vera likes the square that was double printed the best.

Corienne received a postcard from Pat W. of an African theme, titled for our local "Wildlife Safari" park, it's bright colors and embroidered detail were stunning in a small format. Corienne has been busy weaving sets of place mats and towels and other items for the silent auction at her class reunion. (no pics) and she finished a bed quilt for herself from scrappy batiks fabrics. We told her to rip it off her bed and bring it to show & tell next month. Jana reported a new quilt shop in Sutherlin, Oregon, called "Chicks and a Rooster," on S. Comstock St. and that the Oakland, Or. outdoor quilt show in August was a great success, and will be done again next year. A new artist Tricia joined us, she has just moved from Washington DC and wishes to learn art quilting. Welcome Tricia!

Peggy has been working on a fabric collage using one of her paper collages for inspiration. She is practicing her free motion quilting with metallic and rayon threads. We discussed the use of larger #18 needles, Metallica needles and top stitching needles for specialty threads. They all have larger eyes, but the Metallica needle has a groove above the eye for the thread to fit into. She passed out a handout on layouts and formatting in design use. Peggy also had a magazine cover of "Needle News" that has a thread painted portrait, that was so real looking it was unbelievable. It also had articles and book reviews on art quilting.

Meredith received a postcard from Amy, with a mono printed fabric, with the word LAUGH on it, it was embellished with hand dyed cheesecloth and free motion quilting.

Meredith also had all sorts of excuses for not doing any art for show and tell, she passed around her I-pad with a photo of her canning efforts, 60 qts of peaches, 14 pts of pickled beets, 14 qts of pears, ad nauseum.......She also passed around a basket of sycamore bark, if anyone wanted any for weaving or embellishment projects. After show & tell Amy did a demo of using foam words on her "Gelli" prints and for rubbings. I'll detail the demo in the next post.

Deconstructed Screen Printing

Vera did an interesting demo on deconstructed screen printing. She took a class in Portland, but the instruction was, here it is, do it. Vera is very technical about her dyeing, she makes samples and keeps records, to help her really understand the process.

First dye was added to a print paste, made with sodium alginate, these different dye colors were put on a silk screen, in the pattern of your choice and left to dry. Vera brought a screen that was ready to use, and a large piece of PFD. A clear print paste is scraped through the screen, "deconstructing" the design. As the paste reacts with the dry dyed paste, the dye leaches onto the fabric.

The first print was light, and successive prints were darker, you can make as many prints as you can, until there is no dye left on the screen. She used a plastic "Bondo" spreader from Napa Auto parts to spread the dye paste. Vera overprinted the first light print, rotating the screen 90 degrees.

The second process was the reverse of the first. She painted a pattern on the silk screen with clear dye paste, and let it dry. The dry paste acts as a resist for the colored dye paste. Then she used a dye/paste to print the screen onto fabric. She printed her rust fractured design on previously dyed fabric.

Lastly, Vera had a whole set of treated fabric samples, that she is using different types of resist on. Each resist has different qualities and uses for dyeing. Potato dextrin, gives a crackle effect, tape and corn dextrin give crisper images, sugar syrup was a softer image, and school glue gave a fine line for writing, but was difficult to remove. It will be interesting to see these samples after she has dyed them. It will be a good learning experience for all of us, without us having to go to all the work that Vera is doing. Thank you Vera for an excellent demonstration, we look forward to the next dye workshop.

August Meeting 2013

Old Business Planning a field trip to "Quilt Country" events in Benton Co. Corvallis/Philomath on Saturday Sept. 21, Vera will be leading the group, View the SAQA exhibit and other quilt galleries and events. More info next meeting or call Vera. Meeting schedule, Sept. Crystal will demo how to upload to websites that print fabric from your photos. Oct. Crystal has a Kaffe Fasset video on his trip to India and design inspiration. Nov. Amy will do hands on demo on putting words into your art work. Dec. Christmas potluck. Our River quilts will be on display at Pyrenees Winery in August, set up is Sat 17th, anyone that can help at 10am, please call Crystal. They will be on display Aug, 17, 18, 24, 25 & Sept 5. New BusinessWe will vote on a new theme for our next challenge at the Sept. meeting, any suggestions, email Amy, I'll make a ballot. Show & Tell

Amy brought her finished top, ready for quilting of the ocean/beach scene she has been making. It is a combination of people playing on the beach, designed from her original photos. The central portion of a baby quilt with a zebra on it, was also shown, it is machine blanket stitch applique, and an original design, it just needs borders next.

Dorie was unable to finish her river project so Amy picked it up, and has worked to get it finished. Her basic backgrounds were established, sky, trees, and river, with several cut out black rhino silhouettes, and pre-printed fabric of lions and zebras was to go on the bottom. Amy finished assembly, adding Angelina fibers to the sunset, to make it glow, adding a large tree on the left, and several smaller trees, and cutting out the lion fabric to fit it on the bottom. It is embellished with yarns in the river and bottom greenery. Amy machine free motion quilted it in rayon threads, to finish it. It was a successful collaboration.

Maureen and a friend spent time doing more ice dyeing, she over dyed two pieces of fabric, one a tiger stripe black & white, for very dramatic effects. We had a guest, Pat, from the Umpqua Valley Quilter's, just to check us out, she wants to be inspired by our creativity. She is a talented quilt piecer, and fabric dyer.

Nancy has finished her river project with the addition of teal lame to her river, "Copper River" is an abstract city scape, with a rich sunset contrasting to black and grey buildings. She donated one of her ice dyed silk scarves to an Altrusa auction and it was fought over, and received a good price, and she said it was like getting rid of one of her children.

Cheryl has been busy spinning exquisite skeins of yarn with the wool from her dye workshop last month. She is using different techniques to make unique yarns. She also made a bag for her kindle with hand woven cream wool, and a strap made from a piece of her card weaving trim. The rug behind the bag, was another weaving project on a large loom.

Cheryl has been a busy lady, finishing her Ruana, that she worked on at the Bandon Retreat, it is very warm and soft to keep her warm for the early hours of winter mornings. Corienne was part of the Weavers and Spinner's Guild display at the Douglas County Fair, they demonstrated ice dyeing, and wove a scarf from yarn spun at the Lamb Show, and auctioned it off at the Livestock Auction.

Pat finished her river piece, with last minute stitching at the table, she has added a rounded bottom edge, to give it a distinct finish. The texture magic for the mountains and foreground, was stitched and shrunk with a steam iron. We will do a demo on this in the future. Her Golf Course, has lots of fibers, sand traps and a flag at the hole.

Vera has been working on her large fabric dye pieces, she has been using various resists, potato dextrin, adds crackle, school glue was great for a fine line, but did not wash out easily as advertised, she had to scrub and scrape it off. She used masking tape, and corn dextrin, and screen printed Indian designs on a bright red/orange/yellow hand dyed fabric. These experiments with resists lead her to take a class on deconstructed screen printing, which will be our demo today, and be in the next post. She and several friends also went to Grants Pass to see the International SAQA traveling show. They had a picture taken in front of their favorite piece, and had it made into a postcard, with info from the event.

Meredith has been practicing her free motion quilting, doing spirals in the center of her sunflower, that she made at the Bandon Retreat. She removed it from the news print, that it was stitched to, it was for a sample, but she liked it so much, she wants to put it onto a fabric background. She has discovered that free motion quilting is a tense, stop and breathe, nerve wracking experience. It gets easier with practice Meredith! She found nice, brown paper, blank postcards, that she has passed around for us to put our addresses on, we passed the card to the person on the left. Now she wants us to put some kind of art on the card and mail it to the other group members. Just for FUN!

We laid out on the floor, all 13 of the finished "A River Runs Through It" projects. WOW!! All together they are awesome. You can really see the river flow from one piece to the next. What a wonderful accomplishment for our group, I am proud of all of you! It will be on display at Pyrenees Winery in August, let's see if we can find other venues to display it. We want to show everyone what our fiber group is about, I look at all the different techniques we used, and can see how far we have come since we first got together as a group. So much growth and artistic achievement, from some very talented people!!