August

 We were back at our usual location this month and the wildfire smoke is letting up a little more.  Our thoughts are with everyone who is experiencing hardship due to the current fires.  

"When adversity strikes, that's when you have to be the most calm.  Take a step back, stay strong, stay grounded and press on."  LL Cool J.

QuArtz to VSSQ

Our annual QuArtz visit to the main guild meeting at VSSQ has been moved from September to the October 15 meeting.  We are bringing  our Home Challenge pieces, the accordion books and a display of our beads.  If you are not going to be at the VSSQ meeting please bring your pieces to either the September or October meeting.  A short write up about your Home Challenge is needed and it will be read at the meeting. 

Our Trailblazing Women will be on display at Gallery Vertigo from September 1 to the 26th.   The reception for the exhibit will be held on September 3 from 6 to 8pm.  We will be included in the annual Cloth-O festival.  

Preview Art Magazine, a guide to galleries and museums in the Pacific Northwest has an article on the Trailblazing Women in the upcoming issue.  

New Business

We have had to limit our membership to 25 due to space constraints.  Joan will be taking membership information at the next meeting and the dues will remain at $25.  You must also be a member of the VSSQ guild.   We will have a wait list available if our numbers exceed 25.

There will be a sign up sheet for the study of Art Styles that we are doing this season.  Two people will talk about different art styles and you will make a small quilt or postcard sized piece representing one of the styles.

We are also looking into Edge Finishes and there will be a sign up sheet for that as well.

The main challenge this year is an Abstract/Representational Blind Challenge. You will work in pairs on the same picture, one doing a representational depiction and one doing an abstract depiction.   You will not chose your partner, hence the Blind Challenge part.  We are working on coming up with a name for the challenge.  

One more note, Linda B had asked the main guild for some embroidery floss and they delivered big time!  She had more than she can possibly use so if you need any just ask Linda.

Home Challenge

We had 12 Home Challenge pieces shown at the meeting.  It was quite an amazing array of beautiful work and so many different takes on the meaning.   If you look on the main page of the blog you will see the headline Home Challenge under Pages, on the right hand side of the main blog.  

Show and Tell

Linda K.  went to a weaving workshop and made a couple of bottle covers from bullrushes.  She also brought in her cord made from dandelion stems.

Cathy showed some rusting she did with the tiny iron pellets and a stencil.

Linda B. brought her shibori dyeing from last months workshop and a hand stitched thread painted picture of a beautiful bird.  She found a wealth of information on Deborah Wirsu's website https://threadsketchinginaction.com/

Joan played with some cyanotype on a variety of different surfaces.  She was surprised that the silk didn't take the colour as well as the cotton.

on onion skin paper

on silk, quite grey

on 100% cotton

Bev finished her accordion book and had labeled each page with the technique she used.

Christine  had some goodies to share as she downsizes.  She also brought in some older shibori style dyeing done by wrapping the fabric around a tube.  Also her corrone embroidery.

Linda W.  also had shibori dyed fabric, the pink was done with wax and the blue without.

Jeanette used blue and red for her shibori and has some lovely purple in the finished fabric.

Deborah found a very long cross cut saw to rust and left it sitting for days.  What a wonderful outcome!  Now what will she do with it all?

Cath did some rusting on a hand dyed fabric and used a stencil for the design.  She made it into a bag with a little play on words,  "All we are is rust in the wind."

Tree Rings

We played with fabric scraps and a technique from the Summer 2024 issue of Quilting Arts Magazine. Diana S. Fox explains how she came up with a unique way to make tree ring quilts and join them together.  You can find her work on the website:https://contemporaryquilter.com/.  I particularly like the quilt 'Who Broke the Yolk', look for it in her portfolio on the site.

I don't know who's work is who's but I will keep them together so you can see the progress.  Looking forward to seeing how each of you finishes your tree rings.  

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6

Single pictures