Let's Catch Up!

We have had a fun few months before we took our break in July. Now that we are back from our break it is time to get into the swing of things!

But first, here are few photos and brief description of what happened April - June!

APRIL 2018

In April we had a group pow-wow. We discussed many class ideas for the future and held nominations for the Chairperson, Co-Chairperson, Secretary and Blogger.

APRIL SHOW AND TELL!

Melanie Wilson – Quilt called “Starry, Starry Night” – She also recommends a book entitled “Dream

Landscapes” by Rose Hughes, as it gave her the inspiration for the quilt.

Ila Craig – Beaded necklace.



Doris Claude – Quilt with Dogs on Boogie Boards wearing Hawaiian Shirts.

Images below: Judi Weiss shared books on Zentangle, Japanese Art Books and a book on Machine Quilting. She also brought two more of her fabulous boots.

 

MAY 2018

Barbara Nilsson gave a lecture and also shared projects she made using Solvy. She shared information regarding different types of Solvy, i.e. Regular (soft), Super (a little stiffer) and Ultra Solvy (twice as thick as regular). Item is a Sulky product and can be found at Joann’s as well as online.

Barbara shared tips such as not rinsing the product in the sink, as it may clog drain. Save remaining solution when you finish rinsing, as you may want to use it later. She said you can make your own fabric by placing yarn, thread, bits of fabric, Angelina, etc., between sheets of Solvy, and then sewing a grid or meandering on top of the product prior to washing the Solvy away. Fabric can be shaped by placing over a bowl, if desired. Allow to air dry. You can also use cheesecloth or gauze for a completely different look.

Other who shared tips and products they made by using Solvy were Shannon Shaw, Cindy Oxley, and Ann Nancarrow.

MAY SHOW AND TELL!

JUNE 2018

Caroll Lee Stoltz gave an interesting lesson on discharging and different forms of bleach to use on the fabric to do the discharging. Each type of bleach produced different results. It was quite fascinating to see what each form of bleach or type of fabric would make. It is great fun to experiment with—make sure you are in a well ventilated room!—and see what you can create.

JUNE SHOW AND TELL! 

Jan – Solvy Sample

Charlotte: fabric picture

Nickie -sheep picture

Barbara – greeting cards

Barbara – greeting cards

Linda Wells – Solvy – tornado picture

Shannon – thread painting

MARCH SHOW AND TELL

February's Show and Tell

No small talk.  Let's get to the goods for this month.  A nice variety!  Carroll Lee provides pictures and commentary.  Thanks lady!

Ladies, thank you for sharing!

February. A lesson in Thread Painting

Hello Ladies!

First off,  there were some nice comments related to me about the blog so I want to thank you for your kind thoughts.

This meeting we covered thread painting.  Sue Gilgen headed up this meeting's adventure and everyone I talked to said it was fun, they learned a lot and feel they can now start thread painting with more confidence.  We call that in the learning community "The Magnificent Trifecta".

Sue Gilgen, Carroll Lee Stolz and Margaret Abramshe set up three thread painting demo tables. Each member spent 20-25 minutes at each table. Sue Gilgen showed some of her tips and tricks.  Carrol Lee made a tumbleweed on solvy sandwiched between two pieces of twill.  Margaret  demonstrated casual thread painting on a drawing made on muslin. She demo'ed on a Brother machine to illustrate that you don't need an expensive sewing machine to achieve nice results.  Margaret also talked about thread painting on her Sweet Sixteen so if you have a midarm and missed the meeting - she is a resource.

No pics.  Sorry.  But here is the Info Margaret provided us prior to the meeting that you will find useful as you give thread painting a go:

A thread sketch uses your sewing machines capacity to turn a  line of stitching into a sketch by tracing an image you draw on  cloth.  

Supplies: Sewing machine, set to a basic straight stitch Thread -  my suggestion is a neutral or earth tone like black, dull green, gray,  or brown.  Bobbin thread does not have to match but should be something that does not “show” A scrap of muslin or any white or cream fabric about the size of typing paper or less Pilot  FRIXION erasable pen ( you could also use a quilters marking pencil or pen) Poly batting with fusible on one side.  (temtex works well too) 
 Instructions:

1. Draw a simple sketch of a house or landscape using the erasable pen or print a image that uses simple lines and trace that image. (Hint: look for images that are pencil drawings or sketches). The drawing should be less than 8 x 10 and not very complex.

2. Fuse a good fabric (I use kona cotton) to batting. Place the sketch on the non fusible top of batting.

3. Put this quilt sandwich under you standard foot along a line of the drawing and trace that line a few times. Leave the needle down and continue to trace the lines by moving the quilt sandwich. 

4. Try reversing the stitch direction to darken lines. 

5. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT GOING OUTSIDE OF THE LINE!

6. Without cutting the thread, put your feed dogs down. Push and pull the quilt sandwich along lines that are not straight or areas of your sketch that are shaded. Think of this like scribbling with your sewing machine instead of a crayon. 

7. Play, play and more play with feed dogs up or down.  

When you are done, get out some watercolors or water soluble pencils and color in your picture possibly adding a background. As you color the erasable pen will disappear. 

Now get thread painting because that is your assignment over this month.  Bring your results to the next meeting which will be on March 6th where we will be learning all things beading.  Charm Crumrine and Jan Passek will be teaching.  Charm and Jan, do we need to bring anything for your purposes?

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!