Sherry's Leaf Workshop

Lots of fun was had by all who attended Kay and Sherry's Leaf making workshop on the 18th. She needs thousands of leaves for her fiber art group in Ketchican, who have a grant to make a 17 foot fiber tree for the children's section of the new public library. It will be decorated with book characters, words, flowers and leaves. Sherry has been doing artist in residence programs with fourth graders to make leaves also.

We made a creative mess with paints, foam stamps and glue. Sherry had samples and directions for us, and a leaf template. We worked on phone book pages and washed acrylic paints over the paper.

After laying the washes out to dry, we began the second layer of stamping, with foam stamps, make up foam triangles, plastic fly swatters, alphabet stamps and other items.

The next part was to layer the painted paper with fabric, and insert a wire stem between the layers. We used gel medium to glue the layers together and the leaves were hung on a chain link fence to dry.

We made over 90 leaves to this point and took a break for lunch. They still need to be trimmed to shape, and coated with more gloss medium to seal. Sherry had an assortment of finished leaves for us to see.

Kay made a wonderful lunch of vegie soup, sandwiches and pumpkin pie cake with Sherry wielding the whip cream can. After lunch the ladies went back to paint more paper and hopefully finished hundreds more. Here is the recipe for the pumpkin dessert, by popular demand. Pumpkin Pie Cake 16oz can of pumpkin - 1 can sweetened condensed milk - 1 1/2 cups sugar - 1 tsp cinnamon and a 1/4 tsp ground cloves - 2 eggs - Mix and pour into a 9" x 13" greased or Pam coated pan. Sprinkle one package white/yellow/or spice cake mix (with pudding type) over the pumpkin mixture, Dry! Drizzle one cube melted butter or margarine on top of dry cake mix, Sprinkle one cup chopped walnuts on top. Bake at 350' then cool, serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Lucy in the Sky

Peggy has finished another Beatles challenge piece, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." She is a true artist, breaking rules to create a beautiful piece. It is about 16" square (rules 12") and has multiple techniques, photo transfer, Angelina fibers, raw edge applique, and free motion quilting. We will have a great display at the Sutherlin Library, as everyone keeps making additional pieces.

October Meeting 2012

Old Business We have quiet a few Beatles Challenge pieces, they are going up at the Sutherlin Library this month. Our new challenge "Weaving" any thing goes, 18" per side max, smaller ok. Due at December meeting. Nov. meeting Amy will demo covered buttons as embellishments. Bring covered buttons, either style, larger is better. Dec. meeting will be a potluck. Jan. meeting Amy will do a hands on of photo transfer techniques from the book Peggy brought in. New Business Kay and Sherry are hosting a "leaf making" day at Kay's, on Oct. 18th, gather between 9 and 10am, Kay will provide lunch. RSVP with Kay. Supplies will be provided, but you can contribute your own, paints, stamps, brushes, an email went out to all. Show and Tell

Nancy made a pair of napkins for a friend with English pub fabric, edged in blue and yellow. She got the fabric on her trip to England. We had a special visit from our missing friend Jan, she brought her newest jacket with an embroidery theme. Machine embroidery dragonflies with embellishments adorned the blue batik jacket. She and Bonnie are working on a new bag/purse pattern project for Simplicity. Meredith brought along a new book "Japanese Quilting" that had beautiful photos of quilted projects. Corienne is dyeing pots and pots of white yarns that she has spun, and brought us scraps of her hand weaving to pick through. She also has pieces on display at the Portland Hand Weavers Guild Holiday Show, Nov. 9-11 in Lake Oswego, Or.

Kay has been working on her Beatles challenge "8 Days a Week" with a pieced and embellished heart. Jana got her piece finished "I am the Walrus" with a wonderful walrus portrait with eyeglasses. Amy made a second Beatles piece, "The White Album" with trapunto whole cloth free motion machine quilting. It is a portrait outline of the four faces, and song titles and lyrics stitched around them, all white on white. Demo by Vera Vera did a hands on demo of screen printing with iron on vinyl and organza. We each had a piece of iron on vinyl that she had colored with a black marker so you can see what you are doing, picked a pattern and cut it out. It was then quickly ironed to the organza, 8 seconds on the vinyl side and 4 seconds on the back, use a pressing cloth.

We then used acrylic paints mixed with mat medium and textile medium to scrape across the silk screen and print the image onto cotton. Place the image shiny vinyl side down on your fabric.

Kumihimo Demo

At the Sept meeting Corienne did a hands on demo of "Kumihimo" Japanese braiding. She had prepared kits for all of us, with an octagonal cut out with slots on each side, and a set of 7 threads. The braiding was already started about a half inch, so we did not have to struggle with getting started. She gave us several handouts, and showed us how to do a braid called "Fill the Gap" I'm sure it has a traditional fancy Japanese name. She said laughingly "kids catch on quiet easy," lets see how much of a challenge it will be for us. Everyone caught on pretty easily, but I went backwards and undid the first inch she had done for me.

Corienne also had several larger forms/stands called "Marudai" which will hold many more threads and enable you to do more complicated braids. There is a book on Kumihimo, that had a lot of different techniques in it. We used multiple strands of different weight yarns, in a variety of colors. We each got several inches done by the end of the meeting, and several people said this is FUN! It can easily be done in front of a TV. She gave me 6 extra kits to take for some girls on my school bus, when we have a 20 minute break, and they all loved it too, and made anklets and bracelets overnight and wanted more yarns. It will be interesting to see what everyone does with their braids.

Members Profile - Peggy

As a child I made doll clothes for my dolls and my mother taught me to sew and to do embroidery, knitting and crochet. In my teens I made historical costumes for my dolls and enjoyed doing the research. When I began collage I was a fine arts major for two years and then got practical and went for the Teaching Education. I took painting classes along the way and enjoyed them. I began to quilt when my children were small and a few friends and I got together for quilting and cake in the 1970's and I have been quilting ever since. I have won ribbons at the Umpqua Valley Quilters' Guild for both traditional and original quilts and wall hangings.

In the past few years I have enjoyed the fun and expressive side of art and non-traditional quilting and quilting arts. It has opened another world to me to combine my two loves and to learn new techniques and products and paint. It has also brought me around to where I began, painting. Associations: San Diego Stitchery Guild, Umpqua Valley Quilters' Guild, Basin of the Umpqua Quilt Guild, Wilbur Quilt Club, Fyber Cafe

Sept. Meeting 2012

Old Business Next month, Vera will demo, iron on vinyl and organza, screen printing, she will bring supplies. Nov. Amy will demo covered buttons for embellishments, Dec. meeting Holiday Potluck. New Business New challenge for fall, "Weaving" incorporate woven materials, fabric, yarns, fibers, natural materials, in some way into an art piece. Maximum size 18" x 18" can be smaller, some of us wanted a slightly larger area to work on than the 12 x 12. No theme, your choice. Due at the December meeting, no stress, not required, just something fun to do if you want to. Show and Tell Kay had a woven/braid/stitch around a disk or button, she has instructions for several different styles. She brought a sample made with cotton cording. She also found large foam stamps at Oriental Trading Co. these have been hard to find locally.

Pat found a new book, "Studio Space, vol II" that showed wonderful storage ideas for all the bits and pieces of embellishments we collect. She also brought her ice dyed silk scarves from the workshop at Amy's. Her Beatles piece "Yellow Submarine" was brought so it can be part of the display at the Sutherlin Library.

Sandy had photos of two delicate baby bonnets she made out of vintage linen and lace handkerchiefs, with ribbon roses. They were adorable, they came with directions for disassemble to use as something old for their weddings. Nancy is still cleaning up, will it ever end? And she brought a melty piece of rubber from a horse veterinarian from her England trip. It has lots of texture and she plans on using it for a rubbing plate.

Corienne brought her assortment of scarves from the ice dye workshop. Two were hand woven tinsel/rayon which took the dye very intensely. She went home and wove two silk scarves, one plain weave, one patterned, which she ice dyed, they were very soft and subtle colors. She had two crepe de chin silk scarves which had a different texture, and some washed out pale PDF that did not take the dye at all. We all puzzled over why the PDF did not hold the dye, it was definitely soaked in soda ash.

Peggy found a book "Image Transfer Workshop" by Darlene McElroy and Sandra Wilson, on different transfer techniques, she passed the book to Amy to read and then give a demo. Her Autumn Leaf quilt top is finished with many of her hand dyed fabrics, she is also passing it to Amy to machine quilt her magic.

Jana was very proud of the silk shawl she dyed, she used only "Better Black" Procion dye on it, and it came out a shimmery plum, with touches of turquoise, with long fringe. Her piece of silk scarf came out similar with touches of bronze dye also. She is working on her Beatles challenge "I am the Walrus" we look forward to seeing it.

Vera surprised us with a Beatles challenge "Penny Lane" what a fun cheerful piece with copper pennies her husband Wayne abused, she glued them on with a hot glue gun. She also had a silk scarf to show off, and she was wearing a woven ribbon/fiber scarf in autumn oranges and rusts.

Meredith is so enamored with ice dyeing she did more, trying to recreate one of the scarves Amy made that she likes so much, not even close. The colors were completely different. She also finished a Beatles piece, a 3-D fabric wood frame, hid several lame hearts, with a lock and key. "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" The stitching on the wood texture was realistic, and the metal embellishments added a lot to the design.

Amy brought her assortment of cotton scraps which she ice dyed, many were the same color way in pinks and peach, her cheese cloth came out very soft peachy, and her silk hankies and silk cap were rich colors, but had a lot of white areas where the soda ash had not soaked through the fibers. It was a very good meeting, with lots of exciting work by our talented artists. Corienne did a demo of "Kumihimo" Japanese braiding, which I will do a separate post on.