October Meeting 2014

Old Business The small challenge "Free Floating Flabergast" Is due at our December meeting. No bigger than 20" x 20", any technique or style. Our Holiday Potluck is at our December meeting. Bring a dish to share and your plate and utensils. In December we will also watch the CD of the Portland Expo photographs. New Business The Mercy Foundation Art Challenge is "Denim Day" in April, Sylvia has info to make wearable art.
Show & TellClare and Corrinne went to the Umpqua Valley Arts Center's Celebration of Fiber. Corriene's favorite tool, is a tapestry fork, that she got years ago, it is hand carved hardwood, marked "Gillian." A Google search brought up many "Gillian Style" forks still being made today.

Clare's beautiful beaded necklace got lots of attention, it is rather intricate. Clare is very happy she got her looms set up, and is ready to go. Nancy learned a new term from a Facebook scrap booker, "Phd" stands for project half done, and she has found several cross stitch packets in her cleaning efforts in just that condition.

Sue made a small Halloween hanging, with the Cat & the hat, she is making seasonal quilts for her daughters, to fit hanging rods her husband made for them. Sue also brought a pair of tweezers, and a bamboo skewer that she uses to guide fabric into the sewing machine. Lorraine's favorite tool is also tweezers, and a small repurposed tin. But my sloppy note taking, I don't know what she uses the tin for.

Sylvia is using a journal to help her "boldly go where no woman has gone before" in her use of color. Pen, pencil and a journal is her favorite creative tool, She collects sayings and makes designs and drawings. She reports our "World Artists" challenge pieces are going to be in three venues in France. Several of the Fyber Cafe group participated in the challenge. Landreth's favorite tool is also a tweezers, and she brought a Towa bobbin case tension gauge. She finds it very useful when using different types of thread, and when filling bobbins for her Gammill long arm machine. She warns of metal bobbins getting deformed when dropped, and throwing the tension completely off.

Meredith received delivery of a beautiful Singer/mrytlewood table made by her son Ryan. She shared a favorite quote, "Vision without execution is just hallucination."

When Meredith was in Thailand she admired the colorful robes everyone wore, and was presented a gift when leaving, of two silk packets of fabric, when folded and worn correctly, creates the robes. The orange was bright, and each piece was made of many panels of fabric stitched together. Pat W. returned from her trip to New Mexico very inspired. They toured Georgia O'Keef's ranch, and talked to many artisans who were finishing up a week of classes. They saw a balloon festival in Santa Fe, called "the Glow" as the sun comes up and the balloons are released into the air. She took lots of photos, and Pat's favorite tool is a "Purple Thang" for turning and poking fabric and batting.

Peggy brought two sets of bias bars to demo, one set of metal and the other mylar, a stitched tube is then ironed around the bars to create a bias strip for sewing. She is still working on her heart block with bias vines.

Jana has moved her spinning wheel into the living room, to get more use out of it. She was wearing one of her hand spun and knit shawls. Everyone admired the shawl pin she wore with her shawl.

Vi brought several of her whimsical dolls and teddy bears that she has made, they are all jointed with various techniques, of beads or buttons.

Examples of Vi's beading expertise is shown in her "Cleopatra" necklace, stitched on pig skin with a cabochon agate in the center and four scarabs surounding it. Her rose beaded amulet bag, has a scalloped top edge, following the rose design.

Crystal has made two sets of microwave bowl potholders, one with roosters and the other with her hand dyed fabrics from the resists class. Crystal's favorite tool is the "Frixion" marking pens that erase with heat or fiction. They can be purchased at quilt shops, but are also available at Staples.

Vera has continued to work with the new "Remazol" dyes, she made color charts on wet and on dry fabric.

She then went on to play with several folding/dyeing techniques with the new dye.

Amy is almost finished with her "Ram" made from a photo taken at the Black Sheep Festival last year. The background is hand dyed fabric and the ram is made mostly from Bali batiks. Thank you for visiting our group's blog, we try to share our adventures and projects in textile arts, to inspire others. Please leave a comment, and let us know what you think.