Fibers and Fabric

Rosemary talking fiber and fabric

 Tuesday Jan 9^th Rosemary Hargrove gave a talk about fibers and fabric.  Rosemary ran a fashion fabric store for 22 years, and is very familiar with all types of natural and man-made fibers.  We discussed natural vs manufactured fibers and a variety of weaves.  We were able to touch and feel similar weaves made of different fibers and compare.  She put a name to many fabrics she passed around.  I think all left with a better understanding of the media that we all use and why.  All were challenged to experiment and use something different in a small work.  Cathie Purdy was also there to show her collection of silk fat quarters available to add to your collection.

Cathie Purdy was also there to show her collection of silk fat quarters available to add to your collection.

A closer look for the web browsers...

Thank you to Rosemary and Cathie for providing us with such an informative talk and Cathie for binging in her silk collection.  Also thank you to Carroll Lee for holding down the meeting and blog fort while Cheryl and I were gone.

Show and Tell

Hi Ladies,

You'd think being confined to reclining (yes, that's a thing, not just something I made up - but I totally wish I had and could call it medicinal) that I would have jammed out a post on all the lovely show and tell items our artists brought in.  But no.

I was actually building the anticipation. 

OK up to bat #1:  Patti Van Oordt's appliques were a part of 12 fusible applique quilt blocks in the book Seasonal Silhouettes by Edyta Sitar.  Each block represents a different month and can be assembled into a large quilt or used as smaller wall hangings.


So the first is memorializing summer.  Haha, just kiddin ya.  Very festive.

 I am picture level challenged.  Sorry Patti.

 Patti brought in the Christmas tree you see in the background.  She is all about creating mood for her art.  Clever.

 And here we have Sue Swinyard's zentangle.  Her zentangles are so interesting and different.  Love.

January brought in some new and interesting treasures.  Wish I was there to see them live.  Thank you ladies of January's art installments (and Patti for December's) for such good descriptions.  Big thank you to Carroll Lee who took all the picture and for making me laugh with her emails.  Needed that lady.

First January entry:  Charlotte Gary's  "Still Beautiful". She says:  "When people do flowers, they tend to only draw the buds or flowers in various stages of bloom. I have been focused on the flower that is in it's later stages of life, much like most of us are. We are 'still beautiful'. I just wanted to show that. (she did)  I textured the canvas with a texture medium and painted it with acrylic paint. I wrote and scratched out words. Things like life and death, the circle of life, beginning and ending. My grandma's names, my mom's name, my aunt's names my mother-in-laws names and my girls names.... I placed the roses, leaves and stamps over the word. I made the petals, leaves and other parts of the roses from silk, burning the edges, holding them over a candle. I glued the petals to the canvas with permanent white glue, added yarn for the stems... didn't like the way the yarn looked to I mixed the texture medium with paint and put that over the yarn.  I stitched some down and am stitching beads in place for the center of my focus flower. I still have more beading to do...."

I told her I liked "later in life" poppies. Anyone else like them?  Still pretty even when their showy flowers drop.  And functional.

And here is Cindy Oxley with her small quilt.It is one of three pieces she will be doing as a result of a really fun Laura Wasilowski class she took via the Dixie Quilt Guild.  It is a combination of quilting, fusing, fabric weaving and embroidery.

 Finally, Wanda Bublick brought a sampler made in a weaving class done over an 8 week period. Each week they were taught 2-3 new stitches. They added each one for about 1-2 inches then started a new stitch ending up with a Sampler about 3 1/2 feet long. The top a stick is one her dog brought back from a camping trip (the dog has good taste). Wanda said it was fun to learn a new skill and it has given her ideas for new art projects.

 OK now.  Check out the next post.  Short but sweet.   Hint: Rosemary sorta sweet.   See you in a few weeks!