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.

December Meeting 2015

Old Business For December we had an art/textile garage sale, members brought art supplies to share, sell, trade or give away. We had a nice selection to look through. Our annual holiday potluck followed, with a table full of great munchies. We took a group photo, it is always hard to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time. Sorry if you are hidden by other people. This is the best of all the pics. January - we will do Kumihimo with Corriene. February - paper/fabric beads with Sara, March - rubber stamps/tissue for image transfer. New Business We scheduled the Sweatshirt Workshop for January 14th, at Pat W. house, we will have a materials list and directions to Pat's at the next meeting. If we have too many people we will schedule a second workshop.

Show & Tell We had very little show and tell, because of our potluck, mostly items that were going away as presents. Pat W. is almost finished with a Christmas stocking for her great-granddaughter "Lucy Rose", The counted cross stitch is by her granddaughter and the baby is only 6 months old.

Lorraine made a darling travel trailer as a cover for her sewing machine or toaster, I did not write down which one. The other side has round windows with different views in them.

Lorraine practice pieces from last month's demo, layers of tissue, glue and black netting on a base of muslin or red hand dyed.

She then went on to create this textile art piece, using the black netting to create a tree and a horse in a landscape. She put the new techniques to good use.

Sara passed around a bowl of scissor dangles that she made with a stuffed ball, beads and a braided cord. They are to attach to your scissors so you know which pair is yours at a class. Thank you for sharing Sara, they are lovely.

The crocheted snowflakes ornaments Sara made are multi-colored and sparkly. She had a whole pile of them as family gifts.

And as a fitting end to our meeting, Sara made a set of "cat butt coaster" for a special friend of hers. I'm sure she will be surprised to get them! Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New year!!

November Meeting 2015

Old Business For our December meeting will be having our holiday potluck, bring a plate & Utensils, and a dish to share. Wear a festive outfit and we'll take a group picture. Also for December, we will do an art/textiles garage sale, bring things you want to sell/share or give away. Clean out your studio for a New Year. January we will do Kumihimo - Japanese braiding with Corienne. February will be making fabric/paper beads with Sara, she will also show us how to coat them with embossing powder and a heat gun. We are planning a workshop at Pat W.'s to make the patchwork sweat shirts that Sara showed us, TBA for January. Wal-Mart has a great selection of sweat shirts in beautiful colors, right now. Buy one size larger, as we will be cutting the seams off and re-sewing them smaller. We also encourage any of our new artists to make something for our challenge "She Flies with Her Own Wings" these will be displayed at the Umpqua Valley Quilters' Guild show in April. Any Technique, any size up to 20" per side. New Business Several of our members have items at the Umpqua Valley Arts Center Holiday Gift shop, stop by and check out the goodies. The Oregon Handweavers Guild is having their annual show at the Multnoma Canter in Portland this weekend,Corienne is taking some of her wonderful hand woven clothes.
Show & Tell

Sue C. has made a fabric bowl using a Bali batik and adding a brass leaf charm inside. In the bobbin she used Wooly Nylon thread, which puffed up randomly in her stitches on the outside of the bowl, creating a surprising texture.

The Mother Dragon is Sue C's entry for the "She Flies with Her Own Wings" challenge. The photo does not do it justice, the sky fabric shimmers and sparkles, the wings are 3-demensional with several layers of tulle and copper wire. Angelina fibers are used to great effect for the flames. The hand work and detail in this requires a lot of attention to see it all. She found the perfect glass cat's eyes to use at Michael's Crafts.

Peggy was wearing one of her ice dyed silk scarves, with a wrinkled texture, we all agreed that the colors would match any of our outfits.

Sara has made many, many, many knit poppies for Veteran's Day, she brought a few leftovers for each of us.

Crystal had finished her modern quilt, that she was working on at the Bandon Art Retreat, the center squares are fussy cut, many with adorable animals.

Vi's beaded doll is made on a recycled serger thread spool, she says you can use it for voodoo if you use the head as a pin cushion.

Amy has brought a work in progress, made from her hand dyed fabrics and a "curvalisious" acrylic template. She is debating quilting options, and other ways to use the template for working in a series.

Shell has shared two of her mixed media collages that she has made recently, the one on canvas is a work in progress, each has different finishes in different areas for visual texture. She also brought the big coffee table book, "The Dinner Party" by Judy Chicago, where each artist explains their inspiration and techniques for each place setting. Our new visitor Barb is a textile artist, currently working on a moonlit garden for a friend in California, and wanted ideas to use for a shimmery effect.

Corienne has made a beautifully woven black wool Ruana, similar to an open pancho, with a a black/white woven strip on each edge. It will be for sale at the Hand Weavers' Guild sale in Portland.

Dorie has a wonderful purse made from a furry felted sweater, she sewed the purse then felted it in the washing machine. The brass clasp is embellished with beads.

Cheryl's entry for the "She Flies with Her Own Wings" challenge is the soft knit shawl, a delicate Wing pattern in commercial yarns is knit loosely.

I'm sorry I did not get a picture of Cheryl's "2 peg loom" woven rug that she is making for her daughter's kitchen. It is stitched in a circle like a braided rug.

Clare is using photos of the view from her new house as inspiration for her next weaving. She is going to weave it in individual strips to make a composite picture.

She has also been published in Traditional Homes magazine, a collection of her handmade tassels, some with beading, are featured in a beautiful full page photo spread. Yea! Way to go Clare!

Pat G. and Lorraine have just gotten back from the Houston Show, they said be prepared to walk 2-3 miles a day, up and down the aisles, and additional walking to and from the hotel. They said it was over whelming. Pat G. has finished the top for her paper pieced lion, Wow! look at those eyes, she used a small piece of the glow in the dark fabric from Amy to highlight the eyes. But the fabric needs to be exposed to a bright light to glow, not folded up in a bag. Another Guest Sandy from Portland had to stop by and see what we are doing here, she reminded us there is a "Quilt, Crafts and Sew" show in Portland at the Expo Center Nov. 19-21, you can get 1/2 off entry coupons at Fabric Depot in Portland.
Show & Tell

We played with our new work surface boards, Amy led us on a hands on project with muslin, tissue paper and cheese cloth, painted with diluted white glue. The main point of this project was creating texture with the fabric, folded, scrunched, pinched up, twisted and layered. The "what ifs" of this project was working with colored fabric, painting the muslin after glueing, using bleeding tissue paper, and some one brought black Halloween netting and tea dyed cheese cloth also.

Everyone had fun playing in the glue and figuring what to use it for, it can be stitched to other fabrics, painted, embellished with more cheese cloth and other creative uses. Pinned to the boards it was taken home to dry. If not stiff enough, you can add more tissue paper or more glue.

Thank you for stopping by our blog and seeing what all our talented textile artists have been up to.