February Meeting 2016

Old business In March we will do a hands on project with rubber stamps and tissue paper, in preparation for April's meeting, were we will do image transfer techniques with the tissue. Bring 3 of your favorite stamps, tissue, teabag papers, or sewing pattern paper. In March "The Path Less Traveled" challenge is due, for the April Umpqua Valley Quilt Show. We need volunteers for set up and take down at the show. The Art Retreat in Bandon is June 22, 23, and 24, sign up now, it is $120, due at the May meeting. New Business Tracy asked about displaying the "River Runs Through It" quilts at the Coos County Fair and at the ECEC, Elkton Butterfly Bardens. We encouraged her to check out the options. Show & Tell

Amy finished her ragged patchwork sweatshirt, from the workshop at Pat W.s house. She used variegated threads to sew the patches on in a grid pattern.

The beautiful fabric with birds and butterflies, inspired Amy to make these two tote bags. The green is a gift for her sister.

Vera's "Ode to Carmen" is a tribute to artist Carmen Hereara's paintings. She was discovered at 96 years old and is now a hundred. She said "I never met a straight line I did not like"

Corienne has discovered this soft organic cotton yarn. It is grown and processed in Georgia, it is not mercerized and also comes in a natural green and brown. She is weaving bath towels with it, in a waffle weave. She also got a new drum carder, and has a weaving completed, that just needs hemming and blocking.

Sue C. has finished her entry in "The Path Less Traveled" challenge. The trees were made with stitching over layers of Solvy, she has added brown trim and beaded embellishments.

Vi has beaded three small perfume bottles.

Her daughter says "if is stands still long enough, Mom will bead it."
Clare has gotten the tapestry weaving loom from the weaver's guild, and has gotten it working properly. She is working on a tapestry based on photos she took of the sunset view from her new home. Jana has been working in an art journal and viewing Pintrest. She said she'll never use up all her ideas.

Peggy finished her ragged patchwork vest from the play day. Washing it gave the raw edges lots of fluff and texture.

Dorie has been knitting fabric with huge needles, to make a dog bed.

Cheryl has some beautiful multi color sliver she has been spinning from the Knotty Lady yarn shop. It is a blend of silk and Merino wool. She has been using her new wheel, which she just loves. The shop has been hosting get togethers, to sit and knit, with a chocolate fountain thrown in for incentive.

The Umpqua Valley Arts Center has been holding Saturday kids classes. Cheryl taught her straw weaving technique to make yarn creatures. Her next class is "Jellyfish"







Hands on Demo

Sara has brought her hand made beads, and lots of materials to work with.

Sara's beads are made with various papers and Versa Mark clear embossing ink, and extra thick embossing powder. She also embellishes them with puff paints, rhinestones, rubber stamps, yarn, glitter and foils, and acrylic paints.

The embossing gave a glossy clear finish to her beads, but did not work as well on the fabric beads. Paper could be cut in long narrow strips to make different shapes, 10 to 14 inches long, barrel, cone, hourglass, and round.

Meredith enjoys her self, making beads. Add a touch of glue to the strip, roll it on an extra long toothpick, then roll the bead on the clear embossing pad, dip it in the embossing powder and melt with a heat gun. A second layer may be necessary, let hot bead cool.

Fabric beads did not take as good a coat of embossing powder as the paper ones did, maybe they just need extra coats to get a smooth finish. Thank you Sara for showing us how this was done.

Sweatshirt Play Day

Several Fyber Cafe members got together for a play day at Pat W.'s house, we brought potluck goodies and our sewing machines.

Sara had worn a sweatshirt that we wanted to try to make for ourselves. Basically, you apply patches to a ready made sweatshirt, after you have cut open the seams. We cut squares and rectangles, and laid them out on a sleeve first, stitching down the patches. Lorraine was using primary colors, to go with a fabric with quilt sayings on them.

Pat G. used a selection of "Stonehenge" fabric, she had sets of jelly rolls and precut squares, in all different color ways.

Peggy used country colors, as well as some fussy cut images, of apple, chickens etc...

Pat W. was using black and white prints, with a little bit of lime green for accent. Some of her prints were from New Zealand, and some had zebras and elephants on them.

Amy used a variety of purple patches on a lavender sweatshirt. She also used a variegated purple thread for her stitching. The interlocking grid was too much stitching, and it shrunk too much and did not have any stretch to it.

Amy got hers finished over the weekend, but it was a lot of work, next time bigger patches and less stitching. She cut up the middle, rounded the top edge, and used a bias binding around her edges to finish the sweatshirt. Sara's sample shirt had the patches and edges folded over a half inch and zigzag top stitched. After washing the raw edges will fray and fuzz up, for a raggedy look. That's why you don't want to do so much stitching. Now we have to wait for the next meeting to see how everyone else's shirts turned out.

January Meeting 2016

Old Business The Sweatshirt workshop is scheduled at Pat W's on Jan. 14th, 10am. Contact Amy or Pat. A field trip to the Oregon Gardens Quilt Show is planned for Jan. 23, 2016. Our challenges are both due at the March meeting, "She Flies with her Own Wings" and "The Path Less Traveled" they all need to be ready for the Umpqua Valley Quilters Guild Show in mid-April. New Business The dates for the Bandon Art Retreat are June 20,21, 22, Mon thru Thurs. We had so much fun last year we scheduled an extra day. I am sending in a deposit in Jan, anyone who wants to save their place can give Amy a partial payment. Next meeting, for Feb. Sara will demo paper and fabric beads, bring a heat gun if you have it, fabric, paper and white glue. In March, Amy will do a printing swap with rubber stamps, then in April we will do lesson on image transfers with the stamped images. For May Lorraine and Pat G. will explain the workshop they took at Asilomar for "line and composition." In June we will reschedule Corinne's hands on Kumihimo Japanese Braiding. Show & Tell

Amy made a hexagon zen tangle Christmas ornament from a pattern by Jill Buckley at www.thequiltrat.com click here It was inked and painted with acrylics, then stitched together as an English paper piecing project.

"She Flies with Chickens" is ready to be thread painted and machine quilted. A photo of Amy's cousin's granddaughter was the inspiration for this challenge piece. It is fused and raw edge appliqued, the thread work will really bring out the facial features and the feathers on the chickens.

Meredith has been working on a big project, she would rather show it next month than talk about it now. She brought her Zen Tangle sketchbook to show us. She had two sketches she is considering for her "Path Less Traveled" challenge. Landreth got together with a friend and worked on a large piece 36" to 45" with multiple layers of fusible. She is making big changes to her artistic style and life, but she is sticking to her rusted fabric projects. She has 18 yards of rusted fabric she is starting to fuse to go into 16 Goodwill picture frames. She is creating 16 different compositions and highlighting different sections of her fabric. Pat G. is ready to go on her month long trip to the coast with friends for a quilting get away, they have rented a house together in Bandon. Lorraine is working on her "Path Less Traveled" in a Laura Wasilowski style, with fused hand dyed fabrics. She and Pat G. took a class from her on their last quilting cruise. Nancy has gotten her sewing machine fixed and has big plans in her head.

Clair had a brown bag challenge with her weaving group, she received a skein of "Sugar and Spice" yarn which she over dyed and made into several lovely card weaving strips. They are also embellished with beads.

She also made tassels with the leftovers, the finished items go back to the contributor of the brown bag.

Clair's second challenge was to choose a style of colors from a color wheel, complimentary, analogous, etc... She ended up with the "Rainbow" option. Her very colorful weavings began with the painted wooden paint stirrers, then various yarns with some extra beaded embellishments.

Jana began her "She Flies with Her Own Wings" challenge by rubber stamping the words for her talkative crow. The crow was then thread painted with amazing detail.

Jana liked the process so much, she stamped a phrase she found on Pinterest, into this framed wall hanging, for herself.

Dorie made this "cat fascinator" hat with silk roses, tulle and feathers.

This turquoise scarf was difficult for Dorie to knit because of the thick and thin nature of the yarn. Peggy is re-learning how to knit, and is making a simple shawl. She made a baby quilt that has been sent off to a grandchild. She is actively working on her challenge pieces. Sara ordered some dyes, silk, and some paints from Dharma for her Christmas present, and she can't wait to try all of them.

Vi brought the umbrella she made from Shibori fabric that the Tie-Dye Master gave to her when she was in Japan.

Cheryl made three Angora hats for a friend who wanted something very SOFT.

Cheryl's dragon bag, is needle felted for a class at Knotty Lady yarn shop on Jackson St. in downtown Roseburg.

Cheryl made the cartoon character with wet felting for a children's class at the Umpqua Valley Arts Center. The 2 pin weaving strips are sewn into coasters, also for a kids class at the UVAC.

The rosewood spindle and the merino/tussah silk sliver are a Christmas present for herself.

Demo Amy showed us how to use Tsukineko inks with shaving cream as a medium, to swipe across delicate stencils. She had sample she did on muslin and some hand dyed fabrics.

The stencil worked best by swiping the dauber over the fine stencils, pouncing it, forced the excess ink under the plastic to give a blotchy image. We will try to order some inks from a former member Cynde who is a Tsukineko dealer. Check back with us next month for the reveal, to see what everyone has been doing, the challenges are becoming due soon.

I am linking this to Nina Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click here check to see what other talented textile artists are doing.