April Meeting 2012

Old Business The Drawing Blind project has several additions to the finished work, see a previous post.

New Business We are planning some events:
Saturday May 19th A field trip to the Salem area to visit the Schriener's Iris Gardens, and the Adelman Peony Gardens, they are both in their peak of bloom between Mothers Day and Memorial Day. This will be a camera excursion, learn more about your digital camera, also we will be stopping at Greebaum's Quilted Forest in Salem and any other shops we have time for on the way back.
June 19th A play day at Pat's to make and embellish Journal Covers that fit the black and white composition books. She will provide a materials list and this will be a sewing machine day.
In July TBA A potluck picnic at Sylvia's to enjoy a beautiful day at her place. I'm sure we can find a little project to do too.
August 3 & 4 A Dyeing Workshop Weekend at Vera's, play with any dye projects you want, we will also prepare fabric and chemicals on Saturday to do marbling on Sunday.

NEW CHALLENGE We decided to have another small challenge, the theme "Beatles Songs" was proposed and accepted, a format no larger than 12" x 12" in any medium or technique. It does not have to be finished, it can just be fused, like the Drawing Blind project or even just a design drawing. You may finish the project if you like, no pressure, you don't have to participate if you don't want to. Just a fun challenge to keep us creative, to have some continuity to the group. It was also suggested, that if we have several of these through the year, we can display them at next years Umpqua Valley Quilters Show. They missed having us there. Deadline - the June meeting, also Pat challenged us to have a "SHAPE" in the design, you interpret that as you wish.








Show and Tell Our new member Landreth brought her almost finished baby quilt top. The centers of the stars have very intricate embroidery and embellishments. Her art quilt "Exuberance" was part of the SAQA Expressions Challenge, the main figure is made of pieces of Tyvek. The fancy feather quilting is shown on the back of the quilt. She is busy working with rust now, in her art quilts and is very happy to have found us to share her creativity. Vera played with more of the "Finish" discharge on her hand dyed fabrics, the piece she brought has a rich green and rose colors. Her darker green piece was done on the gelatin plate, and she thought the acrylic fabrics were too stiff. Jana needed help with suggestions on what needle to use with the new micro fiber fabrics, and how to remove some machine embroidery from it, with out leaving needle marks on it. She also compared her knitted scarf with the one Peggy has in progress, Jana's is made of hand spun wool, and Peggy's is made from a commercial yarn called "Handspun" they bought the pattern on the Portland trip. Peggy has put her four blocks "Moons and Dragonflies" together from the play day at Vera's, she bought two lavender batiks at Fabric Depot, and used them for the perfect sashing. She has lined them up vertically for a long narrow wall hanging. Kay's little Easter Rabbit card was darling, she stamped the rabbit over a hand dyed tone on tone white fabric, and embellished it. She was concerned the white paint wasn't opaque enough, but we assured her the texture was wonderful. Amy showed some of the finished journal pages she has made from the gelatin prints from Vera's. The small 8" x 10" size is easy to finish and embellish. When Nancy said she hadn't been getting any work done, but she thinks about it a lot, Vera gave us a wonderful quote ---"She is a Conceptual Artist, it is all in her head!"







Photographs: 1. Landreth's "Exubreance" 2. Kay's rabbit card 3. Landreth's quilting 4. Landreth's embroidery close up 5. Landreth's star baby quilt 6. Vera discharged fabric 7. Vera's gelatin print 8. Peggy's moons & dragonflies 9. Jana & Peggy's knitting 10. Pat's book cover 11 & 12. Amy's journal pages

Portland "NW Quilt Show" 2012

Four of the Fyber Cafe ladies went up to the Portland Guilds show on Friday, it rained all the way up, we got an early start and got there about 10:30. The show was in a smaller exhibit hall, and was not the big Expo show I had been expecting, that is in September. The vendors where wonderful, and they had some very creative quilts. We are more drawn to the art quilts now, rather than the more traditional work. The guild challenge "Portals" had some beautiful entries, and they are entering several quilts in the Guild Group Challenge in Houston. I am not going to post any photos due to copyright considerations. I mostly bought some new stencils at the booths, some hot fix crystals, and ceramic buttons and Janna got some interesting applique patterns. After enjoying our lunch we headed across town to "Fabric Depot." It wasn't as busy as usual on a quilt show day, so we got to spend a little time there. I got Jacquard De-colourant, and spray adhesive and some more stencils. I am addicted to spray adhesive for basting my quilt layers. Vera got a cookbook on local Oregon Cuisine and wines. We beat the rush hour traffic out of town, and stopped at "Greenbaum's Quilted Forest" in Salem. It is such a bright cheerful shop, lots of color and projects on display, it is one of our favorite shops!! We always make a point of stopping here. Janna found a Laurel Burch bag she couldn't resist, and Peggy and I got a Japanese print with colorful butterflies. We dragged ourselves home about 6:30pm for a long eventful day, we had a great time with friends, enjoying our passion for textiles. We are already planning another trip up to Keizer/Salem for the IRIS gardens blooming, between Mothers Day and Memorial Day. Hope others can join us for that field trip.

3-D Flowers with GAC400

At Lunch time a t Vera's, Landreth showed us how she makes 3-D flowers with a sealant. We cut 5 circles of fabric about 2-2 1/2" diameter, and sealed them with a few drops of "Golden Medium GAC 400" This medium is a polymer that binds into the fibers, sealing them and making a permanent bond. She uses it also, to seal fabric treated with rust, to stop the rusting process and seal it from further oxidation. On the fabric circles, we pinched a tip from the center and wrapped thread around them, making dimensional flowers. We also sealed printed dragonflies, and lady bugs, she uses the flowers in a cluster on coffee sleeves with the bugs sticking up on a wire. They are very cute, but I did not get a picture of the finished project. Photographs: 1. Peggy & Vera 2. Peggy 3. Gracie

Vera's Play Day - Amy, Gracie & Vera

Lots of fun was had by all at Vera's Play Day. It is wonderful when we can get together at a time when Gracie can join us. To mentor this brilliant young woman to find her creative self is a privilege! She is fearless in her use of color, and paint, showing us all, how to let go, and not follow any rules. After some basic instructions, she did her own thing, working with the 8" x 8" pan of gelatin. She made several bird prints, then made painted backgrounds where she masked out space for some words, that she will write in later. She helped Landreth use the discharge paste on a large piece of cotton sateen, unfortunately it had a finish on it and did not discharge. She took home two trays of gelatin so she can continue playing with the techniques over spring break, and share it with her mother and grandmother, three generations of Fyber Cafe members. Vera had some pre-dyed fabrics that she over stamped with foam stamps and the Indonesian woodblocks. She built up multiple layers and created some very complex pieces of fabric. She played a bit with the gelatin trays, but mostly did her own thing also. She kept everyone on track and supplied with space and tools. She is a wonderful hostess and made a pineapple/rhubarb pie for lunch. Amy had the most experience with the gelatin plates, and guided people on getting started, she brought paper masks, foam stamps and stencils. Working on her own fabrics prints with a 8" x 10" commercial "Gelli Plate" she created a series of "Moon" prints, bird stencils and various other pieces. Giving advice and guiding the others on when to use masks, add layers, and contrast.

Vera's Play Day - Peggy & Pat

We brought several trays of home made gelatin plates for people to play with, see previous posts for the recipe. We made monoprints with acrylic paints and masks, trying several different techniques. Peggy worked with a 8" x 8" pan, and had wonderful texture to her surface. She created pieces in a series, working in purple, lavender, and yellow. The "moon and dragonfly" patterns in various combinations created a beautiful painting. She used a freezer paper mask to create the moon, and the dragon flies were stamped with a foam stamp. Pat tried various combinations and worked on several pieces, one had a raven, with a branch and stamped leaves, which came out rather dark, but has great texture. The other was a green patterned print with circles and a moon, but the moon did not have good contrast, so she stamped in a bright red lily flower. A little extra red brought a lot of pizazz to the piece! Pat also played with a wood block print from Indonesia and stamped it on her fabric. No one could quiet figure out what the stamped image was, a heart shaped rabbit face with ears, a lion with mane, and several other speculations?

Vera's Play Day - Landreth

Our new friend Landreth came to Vera's Play Day, and brought along supplies to do fabric discharge. She used "Finish" dishwasher liquid as her discharge medium, and drew her lines with a squeeze bottle. She also used a multi-point hairdresser's squeeze bottle to draw parallel lines. She used black fabric from Joann's, Kona cotton, and Country Classics, she did not label which was which, and regrets that, as one of them discharged to a beautiful underlying red. Most of the fabrics she discharges come out rust/orange. After the goo dried, she rinsed the fabric to remove the goo. She will heat set it with a steamy iron. She hopes to join us for our next meeting, and she lives somewhere in the Myrtle Creek area, and has been in touch with Peggy and Vera for a while now.

Drawing Blind

Vera finished her "drawing blind" fused piece. She made two of them, in monochromatic colors, yellow and rust. As people finish their's I'll post them here. Amy finished her's in lime greens. Peggy's is in orange and black, with the Oriental butterfly fabric she got at Greenbaum's in Salem. The turquoise one is Pat's with a Jinny Beyer medallion print in the center. Jana also did a bright green.