July 2012 Meeting

We had a small group for our July meeting, everyone is working in their gardens, traveling and having family visit, and otherwise having a great summer. Old Business Show and Tell- More book covers were made, after our Play Day at Pat's, Kay's multi-technique cover, in peach hand dyed fabric, with stamping, couching and buttons, and Maureen made two with inserted strips and couching, one with New York fabric and the second with a "Day of the Dead" Mexican print.

New Business We are ordering from Dharma, silk scarves for our dyeing workshop, call Amy immediately, if you want scarves or anything else from Dharma. Workshop is August 3 & 4, a Friday and Saturday, we will Ice dye, Marble and other dye fun. RSVP with Vera. Show and Tell Corienne brought her book cover from the workshop to share, and told us she cleaned up her large work table and was astounded how fast it got piled up again with a new project. We all agreed, there is NO keeping free table space open. She is at the Lookingglass Farmers Market every Friday 3pm to 6pm, with woven items for sale. Info was exchanged about a farmers market at the Canyonville Grange every Wednesday evening, and Oakland all day Saturday. Nancy displayed a pillow at the Umpqua Arts Association members show, and just returned from her family visit to England and France, so she hasn't had time to work on much this month. Maureen showed her book covers from the workshop and several more she made as gifts. She found 1" colored elastic at Joann's for the project. Vera told us there is a new quilt shop in Dillard, just passed the Mill, encouraging everyone to check it out and pass the word. She and Meredith played more with the ice dyeing.

They used several different fabrics, silks, woven Jacquards, cotton and a blend. The large pieces are gorgeous!! We are all drooling over the intense colors, the variety of the blending patterns, and the touch of the silk. They used a soda ash soak and Procion MX powdered dyes, we can't wait to try it ourselves at the dye workshop. Vera also had pieces of her ceramics and silk scarves at the "Art in the Garden" in Grants Pass. She finished reworking her "Textures of Oregon" piece that she entered in the Oregon SAQA show, she took it apart, mounted each section and put them on a fabric map of Oregon, with ribbon to show what area each piece is from. She is very happy with the outcome, as she never liked the way the piece was working. She promises us pictures, so we can see how it came out, as we have seen it in various stages of progress. Peggy had a new book she is reading about the creative process, "Imagine" by Jonah Lehrer, she highly recommends it for artists. She showed us her book cover, which she has added free motion quilting with variegated metallic threads. Amy had two gelatin print Journal pages, that she quilted. She picked her favorite fern print from the "Art in the Garden" day, and added 3-D embellishments of mushrooms, branches and moss, the moss is made with hand dyed cheesecloth, and embroidered with french knots, a thread painted dragonfly at the top accented the piece. The 2nd piece was a double hand print on the gelatin, made to look as if in a mirror. Angelina fibers were added for mirror reflection, and free motion quilting on the hands added details.

Demonstrations Peggy showed us a small sample she started of "Pin Weaving", and had a handout. Corienne gave advice on the weaving, and called it a basic tapestry technique. Amy demonstrated a small "Faux Weaving" technique to make embellishments with yarn/threads on the sewing machine. We will probably use "Weaving" as a theme for our next small challenge, to incorporate into a 12 x 12 piece. We won't start on that until September, when more people will be coming to the meetings.

Photographs: 1. Maureen's NY book cover 2. Kay's book cover 3. Maureen 4. Maureen's book cover 5. Textured ice dyeing 6 & 7. Ice dyed 8 & 9. Amy's journal pages 10. Peggy pin weaving 11. Maureen, Vera, Peggy & Corienne 12 & 13. Faux weaving