January 2026

 Happy New Year to all of you!  

We start the year with another inspiring quote:  

"Women need other women in their lives who think they are amazing.  No competition, no jealousy, no hate, only 'I love you'.  I'm here for you, believe in you, you got this 'kind of energy."   Sarcasm Maven  

We have been accepted into Gallery Vertigo for their Cloth-O display in September of this year.  I have  paperwork to read over and fill in.  If you would like to sell your work they do take a 30% commission.  Let me know by the next meeting if you would like to adjust anything about your piece.

Show and Tell

Brigitte enjoyed the Christmas craft we did and went home and made a couple more trees.  Love the little packages under them!

Linda W.  has knit a Sophie scarf for her mom.  She also showed her flower pounding combined with cheesecloth and a cheesecloth tree.  

Ellie had done some thread sketching in the past and brought in a lovely prairie scene for us to see.

Jan has made a start on her accordion book and showed two pages.  She did her cheesecloth tree and a lemon scorched fish.  She also brought in a Tumbling Blocks quilt she had started awhile ago for some advice on finishing.  

Lena had taken a class in encaustic art.  Using melted wax with pigments in it to paint your scene.  Very nice results and a bit of cheesecloth added for some texture along the bottom.

Bev did a beautiful butterfly for her thread painting page and played with feathers, the denim one we made a few real ones too.

Cathy has her paper fabric page done for her accordion book.

Cath followed a video she was gifted to make batik fabric with soy wax and Dynaflow fabric paints.  She also showed the progress on her accordion book and an interesting way of transferring writing to fabric.  There will be a Toolbox Tuesday on how to do this later in the year.

Linda K. had a great piece of fabric paper, maybe to cover a journal?  She also showed three other junk journals made with a napkin, dictionary pages and book pages to form the covers.

Christine did her thread painting on a lovely pink flower.  

Joan might not have been feeling great the last while but she certainly has been productive!  Her accordion book is coming along well.  She also has rediscovered embroidery and loves it!  She brought in a picture she embroidered 40 years ago and then some adorable mushrooms on wool that she is working on now. 

Embroidery from 40 years ago

Joan also showed two collage pieces she made as she is doing an online collage workshop right now.  There was a lot of interest in these and the workshop so you can find names and links below.

Debasree Dey Art - Mixed Media Journaling Online Art Classes  

https://debasreedeyart.com/?srsltid=AfmBOop04YOUomvRPz9trDVFOxvWOzhT345keRGNyZqciRfNlyEcyJ16

Catherine Rains - Intuitive Artist/ Create Inspire Awaken

https://catherinerains.com/

Robyn McClendon -https://robynmcclendon.com/

All of these artists have a large presence on YouTube, with many free videos to help you along.    Remember that paper is a fibre art as the base materials are usually plant fibres.  

Beads

We moved on to our Bead next.  Cathy brought in pre made felt balls with either a spiral or dots on them.  She showed us how to add beads to decorate them.  Very generous of her to supply the balls.

Toolbox Tuesday

We brought in our fun foam creations to bake and watch them shrink and puff up.  

The oven was set to 250 degrees F, the items placed on a cookie sheet and put in the oven.  It took at least 5 minutes for changes to be seen and you could take it out and manipulate it more if you wished.  Some items took longer if they had dense stitching on them.  If you let it cool and then later decide you would like more you can always redo.  

There will be show and tell next month.   Here are pictures of one of mine, before and after.  It is a bit hard to see how much the leaf curled and drew in.

Copyright

Brigitte led us in a very interesting talk about Copyright.  There was too much to cover here but she did give us information in two handouts.   She also referenced an article in Canadian Quilter Magazine by Kathleen Bissett,  How Copyright Affects the Quilter.   The last sentence says the article may be reproduced and shared, preferably in its entirety and with acknowledgment.

 http://www.kathleenbissett.com/How%20Copyright%20Affects%20the%20Quilter%20Updated.pdf

December

                   "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."  Pablo Picasso

 We started our meeting with a quote.  So true and appropriate.  

A little housekeeping was next.  

A reminder that Cathy has pieces of quartz for you to sew onto your name tag.  We are also waiting on Gallery Vertigo to let us know if our Trailblazing Women have been accepted for display in the coming year.  UPDATE:  Yes, we will be displaying our Women in September 2026!

Our Challenge, Home, is due in June of 2026.  It must be mounted on a 18 x 24 canvas in landscape orientation.  You can wrap the canvas or mount your one piece or multiple pieces in any way you like.

There is a rent increase at the Clubhouse set for January, it will be $40 a month instead of $25.  With our larger membership we can afford to stay till summer and look at it again then.  The room at the church costs $75.  

Reminder you must be a paid up member in the VSSQ guild to be in QuArtz.  

January meeting

 Brigitte will be talking about copyright, an important issue for art quilters.   Cathy will be doing an embroidery bead. 

 The Toolbox Tuesday will be fun foam.  Shirley handed out pieces to everyone at the meeting.  If you weren't there or didn't get one please contact Shirley.  

Fun Foam prep:   Cut out a shape, flower petal, leaf etc.  Sandwich it between two pieces of fabric.  Zigzag around edges and do some decorative stitching on it.  We will heat it up at the meeting and see how it shrinks and forms.  There will be instructions in the email before the meeting as well.

Shirley handed out a little card of stretches for quilters, very needed after time spent free motion quilting.

Show and Tell

Christine turned her cheesecloth into a couple of lovely little flowers.

Shirley P. showed us a picture of a patchwork she has been knitting for her twin grandsons.  Wow!

Brigitte has a small tin of tyvek beads, and yes she has counted them so no sneaking one home.

Shirley W.  has been busy with her inset circles, cheesecloth tree, lemon scorching and making a cover for her accordion book.  She also found time for more tyvek beads too.

Sandie made a ghostly cheesecloth tree.  Nice work on the hillsides and moon shining down too.

Linda W.  has a great start to her accordion book and showed us four of the pages she has done so far.

Veggie and fruit printing

Sun printed background

Lemon scorching

Leaves preserved in glycerin and water then used to stamp. 
There is one of the leaves attached on the corner.
https://www.smilemercantile.com/blogs/tutorials/how-to-preserve-fall-leaves-with-glycerin?srsltid=AfmBOoq8ea2VsN4cSEyX0evHoiWohtyxc4Gy0cWsJJ4pg13WhxljYYU4

Deborah brought everyone some of her homemade soap.  Very kind of you, thanks.   She also showed us a landscape quilt she is working on in lovely soft shades.

Cathy showed us another tassel she made from a salt shaker and bright ribbons.  Very festive.

Cath saw a picture online and tried her hand at Trilobal Weaving.  Tricky but neat result.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8kFtsvF8AQ  Have a look at Mx Domestic's video.

Linda had some books to give away and brought in a very cute Christmas tree that had been made for her.

Elisabeth has made some fabric Christmas cards.

Bev had a few things to share.  She has done some dendritic printing for a background, made fabric paper, cheesecloth flower and geli printing.  Busy woman!

Jeanette made another cute moose for a local friend and has the pattern to share if anyone is interested.

We had a fun Make & Take led by Elisabeth.  Little pine cone trees to decorate with paint and sparkles.  They made a cute little forest.

Then it was time for lunch!  A lovely pot luck lunch with lots of devilled eggs and a great variety of deserts.  Yummy.

Toolbox Tuesday

Shirley and Sandie talked to us about thread sketching and thread painting today.  

Thread sketching outlines and adds detail while leaving the underlying fabric visible.  

Thread painting fills area's densely with thread to create solid blended colours and textures.

Thread Sketching

Thread sketching

Thread sketching

Thread sketching

Thread sketching

Thread Painting

Thread painting 

You can also use this technique with a water soluble fabric and make thread work that is later attached to your artwork.  A great website with information on this technique is https://meredithwoolnough.com.au/

A example of Shirley's work.

Shirley has been working on thread painting a flower at home and has sent out pictures of her progress so far.  She even included the oops when the stitching got too dense and made the background fabric bunch up.  Not to worry she will fix it!  

Ooops!