October

 Beautiful autumn days are here again.  Leaves changing colour, cool mornings with dew, and of course pumpkins showing up in yards.

We welcomed Lina to the group today and are thrilled to have her join us.

Joyce gave us an update on the sale of Lorraine's remaining items, it is mostly fabric, notions, machines and a few clothes left.  She is looking for helpers and will keep us posted next month.

Linda mentioned a Junk Journal class with the Monashee Art Council.  Feb 21 and 28th.  5:30 to 8:00pm. You would have to call them to register.

Brigitte told us about the textile show currently on at Gallery Vertigo, it will run until October 28.  It is work done by the artists at the Sorrento Centre lead by Catherine Nichols.  In May 2024 Catherine will be teaching a workshop on making a bird themed wall hanging.

Show and Tell

Joyce started us off with a fun metal piece. 

Linda also brought along a metal piece with some Zentangle done in the squares. She showed us her fidget pillow and of course the junk journal for September.  

Cath brought in her magpie, made from a crow pattern by Ann Wood Handmade.  Seems the group is split on the popularity of magpies.  

Bev is making placemats to take to Sweden on her visit with family.  Great Halloween designs.

Elisabeth showed us some more thread catchers and a wonderful vase cover made from a funky fabric.  Nicely done with the quilting only showing on the inside.

Shirley had a variety of thread catchers that she had led the newcomer's group in making.  Love the fun jester styled one!

Joan  brought this cheerful fellow in to just hang out with us for the day......

3D

We then moved on to our presentations on altering the surface.

Judith showed us her tucks, she recommends using starch when you iron your tucks down before sewing.         

She also had a variety of pieces showing the difference in size when using double needles in your machine.  She sewed on fabric with batting behind and then with double batting for a more trapunto effect.  The double needles come in a few different sizes.  The small number is the distance between needles and the large number the needle size.  She recomends keeping your threads separated away from the machine, helps to stop them tangling together.  Thread the left side of the needle first, you will have to thread it by hand.  Then run the second thread through and thread the right hand side of the needle.  Don't forget to have your zigzag plate in the machine!  

Tucks

Double needle gentle curves

Double needle cross over

Double needle, double batting

Judith brought a long a piece she had made a few years ago with the double needle technique.

She also talked about using chicken wire as a frame work for a 3D piece.  She recommends making a cover from fabric to put your chicken wire(the smallest size square you can find)in before sewing your artwork to it.  A fabric that blends with the art work is best.  It is much easier to hand stitch your piece to the fabric cover rather than trying to hold it on directly to the chicken wire.

Chicken wire cover

Joan showed us how to use Fabric Magic or Texture Magic to give your fabric a rumpled texture.  She sewed fabric, batting the then the Fabric Magic together with a long meandering stitch.  The closer your stitching is together the tighter your finished piece will be.  The fabric will shrink apx. 30%.  When it is sewn you then steam it, you can use your iron but don't press the fabric just let the steam shrink the fabric magic.  You can steam from either side and the more you steam the tighter it will get.  Great for texture in trees, rocks and water and more.

Fabric magic sewn to fabric and batting

The same piece after steaming

We then went on to Whispers Techniques.

Linda explained how she strip pieced her background, fused leaves and couched yarns to give it depth.  She then hand stitched the flowers with eyelash yarn!  It wasn't easy and she wouldn't do it again but it was certainly effective in conveying the fluffiness of her 'Dazzling Dahlia's".

Christine explained her beginning with a pencil drawing of the background and chosing a variety of green values to give her piece the idea of wind blown movement.  She used Gloria Lohman's appliqué technique for her background.  A variety of pink threads were used to give depth to the flowers and she finished it off with some seed stitches.

'Blowing in the Wind'

Which moved us nicely into Embroidery!  The plan is to learn a new stitch each month that we can use on our scroll's.  They will be done on fabric you have altered in some way, eg. dyed, distressed, burnt, rusted, painted etc.

Christine showed us Seed Stitch.  A very simple stitch that can be done densely or spread out for different effect.  

Judith had also used a variety of Seed Stitch in her piece.