Our December meeting was so much fun! Lots of show and tell, beautiful quilts and a yummy pot luck lunch. It was so nice to have lots of time for chat and a craft or two.
We had a friend of Brigitte's for a guest at the beginning of the meeting. Nice to meet Marilyn.
Jeanette has handed out 5 x 7 frames for our Raising the Surface project. If you missed the meeting she will have one for you next time.
Tassels
We had some tassels brought in, Elisabeth had made two of the Tzitzit tassels from last month.
Triangles
The triangle backgrounds were shown with beautiful and varied results from all.
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| Christine |
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| Joyce |
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| Sandie |
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| Bev |
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| Judith |
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| Cath |
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| Elisabeth |
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| Shirley |
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| Linda |
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| Brigitte |
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| Myrna |
Jeanette brought along a wall hanging she made with driftwood collected in the summer. A couple of Christmas tree decorations and some dotted Christmas ornaments.
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| Christmas tree decoration |
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| Dotted Christmas ornaments |
Joyce had a lovely piece that had been on display in Vernon. Simple but so very effective!
Cathy had some amazing pieces her husband brought home from Chile. A beautiful butterfly made of dyed horse hair. She has also finished her piece based on the little ballerina's.
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| Dyed horse hair |
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| Necklace, pin and a hat of horse hair. |
Linda brought a couple of large quilts( I missed getting pictures) and some Christmas placemats.
Myrna had some handwork and is planning on turning this background into a glasses case. If you look closely you can see her Christmas themed pants!
Brigitte showed us her abstract landscape, that is all hand stitched by the way! She was challenged to make a quilt using the Storm at Sea block but make it look different. Voila, the lovely purple butterfly.
Her quilt Embracing My Dilettante will be featured in Jane Dunnewold 's new book Inspired by Archetypes.
Christine finished her Toni Whitney Stork, wonderful fabric choices. And her Christmas tree skirt, with tassels, shows great use of non Christmas fabrics in a Christmas themed item.
Christine did a short demo on Textured Backgrounds. She brought along examples of scrunched fabric, scrunched and painted paper, torn strips of chiffons layered and stitched down. These techniques need to be fused to a backing or an interfacing. Linda has a lot of interfacing and is willing to bring some to share at the next meeting.
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| Scrunched fabric |
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| Scrunched and painted paper bag |
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| Painted fusible web |
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| Torn steps, layered and stitched |
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| Example of bag made with textured background |
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| Textured bag |
3 Textured Backgrounds
- Wet the background fabric and squeeze out any excess water, Using both hands, grab each end of the fabric and accordion pleat it by gathering it up into your palms. Hold onto each pleated end, twist the fabric with one hand until the fabric wraps onto itself forming a knot. Place a rubber band around the knot to hold it together. Place the bundle in a warm dry place to dry for at least 24 hrs. When thoroughly dry, remove the rubber bands and unroll the knot. It will have formed organic wrinkles. Pin the wrinkled fabric to your ironing surface right side down using a pin in each corner to hold it in place while retaining the wrinkled texture. Place the fusible over the fabric and press it to the wrinkled surface using an up-and-down motion.
(from Quilting Arts April/May 2017 by Heidi Lund)
- Cut Steam-a-seam or similar and paint with silk paints (I used Jacquard fabric paints). Paint brown paper with any medium (I used acrylic paint). Allow both to dry. Crumple gently the brown paper until it becomes soft and rag like. Bond brown paper onto backing fabric. Peel off the backing of the Steam-a-Seam and gently press down on the painted and crumpled brown paper. Don’t press too hard otherwise the crinkles will be ironed out.(from Raising the Surface by Maggie Grey)
- Cut a piece of Pellon with adhesive on one side. Place fabric scraps on top in strips or any shape you like. Iron to adhere fabric to Pellon. Free motion in place for further security and design. Add more stitching, threads, fabric, etc as desired.
Dragon Boat Ornaments and Gift Tags
After a lovely pot luck lunch and lots of chat we tackled Dragon Boat Ornaments and some Gift Tags.
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| Examples The variegated thread self stripes. |
Cathy had some old time people cutouts to share and a few were used on gift tags.
