2025! January

 Welcome back for another exciting year of QuArtz!  January always has a few people away looking for sunnier days but we still had a dozen for the first meeting of the year.

Christine has been given information on the application process for the Peachland Gallery.  While we are not considering applying this year, as it is a Quilt Show year, it is good to know what they would be looking for and when they accept applications.  Brigitte tells us most calls for submissions are in the September/ October time frame.

We had 3 short presentations with information on their choices for the challenge, Pioneering Women of BC and Yukon.  There will be a seperate blog post with a short write up on the choices as they are presented.

We moved on to Show and Tell

Cath had made her scissor holder and fob from a favorite piece of fabric.  She had also been doing some gravity snow dyeing.  A little different than the usual technique of putting the dye powder on top of the snow.  In gravity dyeing you put the dye on the fabric, the snow on top and let it melt and drip down through a hanging portion.  The results show mottled at the top and then long streaks on the bottom half of the fabric.  

The dyeing set up

Linda W.  has been very busy with making quilts for Quilts Beyond Borders.  She had also made her scissor holder, fob and VSSQ name tag but unfortunately I missed getting a picture of those. https://quiltsbeyondborders.wordpress.com/

Cathy is back from her European travels and brought in some memento's of her trip.  A wonderful 3D pop-up book of Alice in Wonderland she found in Madrid.  Also a Picasso print. 

pages from the 3D book

pages from the 3D book

top view

A Picasso

Shirley W.  showed us an exploding book she is going to decorate and some lovely little people from Guatemala.  

Jeanette has done 3 more fobs.

Brigitte showed her scissor holder and two fobs.

There is embossed felt on this one. 

Christine had some lovely boho beads, her fob and scissor holder.  She was also snow dyeing this month and had some lovely results to share.

Sandi brought back the felt leftovers to share, if you want some she will be glad to bring them for you. She also had her scissor holder and fob.  

Shirley P.  has made her scissor holder and fob in red and finished it up with a heart fob.  

Judith used a horse theme on her scissor holder as she used to ride a lot. She also brought in a couple of small pieces made with a scribble of ink and then outlined in pen.  The idea is to find something in the scribble.  Love the pig on a pogo!

Linda K. showed some lovely warm and cozy Christmas socks she made.  She also had some marble fabric to give us inspiration for our activity today.

Marbling Fabric

Shirley W. led us in an exploration of marbleing on fabric.  Our base was shaving foam, inks or paints dotted on top and then manouvered to make lines etc.  A wide variety of tools were used for this, skewers and combs and then the fabric is gently pressed into the pattern.  The fabric is removed and the excess shaving foam scraped off to reveal the print.  They were taken home to dry, heat set the colour and then wash.  Now what will be make with the results?  Tune in next month to see.

Dotts of paint on shaving foam

After pulling the first print

The fabric and the foam

Ready to print

Foam on left, fabric on right

Complex design ready to print

Fabric 

Half scraped 

December - Happy Holidays!

 Welcome back all.  

We started the meeting with some housekeeping.  

The Whispers pieces were returned and Joan has sold her piece.   The display was very well done and well received as well.  A couple of the small Raising the Surface pieces sold as well.  If you weren't there to collect your piece Sandie has them and will bring them to the next meeting.

We discussed the challenge for this year,  Trailblazing Women of BC and Yukon.  Everyone is planning on participating and Christine has a sign up sheet for next year to give a short (5 minute) talk about your choice of woman.  You will not need your piece to be presented then.  We think the due date will be June but that is to be decided later.

Our executive committee is looking into some ideas for a spring or summer work shop.  Maybe one day or two days?  More information to come.

Show and Tell 

 ( my apologies if I get a picture of the paper collage labeled wrong, just let me know and I will fix it)

Jeanette brought in her Symmetry piece that she made during Covid.  We hadn't seen it in person before and it is beautiful!

Lena had more feathers and a table runner made in a curved ruler class.  I think this is her collage but it did get confusing keeping them all in order.

Shirley W. showed a bright and cheery Christmas hanging done with her embroidery machine and an amazing 3D piece.  Not really sure what it is but look at the lovely stitching on the inside of each section!

Joan had a lovely fabric collage and an amazing selection of jelly plate printing on fabric and on Tea Bag paper.  (Available on Amazon).  She used open acrylics for her printing as they are slower to dry that regular acrylics.

Shirley P. finished her collage as well and brought in a small quilt she made with a book title as the prompt.  Can you guess?  She also talked about doing free motion writing on your quilts.  Feel up to trying it?

Bev had her bright and colourful collage of tulips to share.

Cath had a couple of collage pages from her sketchbook.

Judith also brought in a collage.  Her's had her favourite bird of course, the quail.

Jan finished her collage page as well.

Elisabeth has been very busy!  She had her collage and then a variety of things from a Make and Take day with the guild.  There is a table runner, a trapunto picture, Christmas trees and some lovely cards.

Linda W.  showed us her collage, love the oranges included in the bouquet!  And a Christmas card she painted from a photo.  So cute!

Christine has some lovely pink circles and a cool feather in her collage.  She also made pop up Christmas cards for her nearly grown grandsons.

Brigitte also did her collage and showed us a Christmas table topper with lovely fabric and pieced curves.

An impressive array of work from the group!

We moved on to our activity for the day, did some painting before lunch and finished it after a delicious pot luck.  Thanks to everyone for the great food and of course the good company!

Scissor Holder

Jeanette got us started by painting our squares of felt on one side.  Then some stitching and there were 4 sewing machines to help that part go quickly.  Most left the decorating for another day and we are hoping for an excellent show of the completed holders in January.  

Elisabeth showed us how to make a fob to identify your scissors, water bottle etc.