May meeting

 It has been a beautiful month so far with the usual mixed bag of May weather but Spring is here!

Whispers update:  Myrna and Jeanette are working on their pieces and they are the final participants.      The grand reveal will be at the June meeting, Tuesday June 13.  If you can't make the meeting please arrange to deliver your piece to one of the other members so we can have all of them for display.  Bring them in a pillow case, no peaking until the end!

Art Walk

Cathy and Sandie are working on our application which will be due in June.  We haven't set a price for the items yet but agreed that the same price would apply to all that are for sale.

Lorraine's Sale

The sale was well attended and it seems approximately three quarters of the items sold that day.  There were also donations made to the scholarship fund.  Hopefully we will have more details in the next while.

Beaded Tassels

Elisabeth showed us beaded thread tassels and here is the link to the video.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1dvBKU17bY

Show and Tell

Bev and Shirley both brought in fidget quilts they have made with the VSSQ.  They are planned to be used in the counsellor's office when young children are talking to a counsellor for a variety of reasons.  More focused on texture than things to do.  The guild is still looking for more to be made or 6" blocks to be donated. 

Shirley's fidget quilt

Bev's fidget quilt

Bev also had a lovely baby quilt. She really does have a great eye for colour!

Cath showed her first try on doing a fussy pieced sky.  She took an online class with Vicki Conley to learn the technique.  https://www.vicki-conley.com/

Cape Mudge Lighthouse, Quadra Island

Joan is working on another wonderful dog quilt but no pictures yet.  He is coming along very well!

Cathy had a lovely collection of tassels she found in Morocco.  She had also played with some birch bark biting but using paper and carbon paper.  If you scroll back in previous blogs you will find the original post about the Native biting technique or Google it.  She had also been playing around with some blackwork, interesting stitching.  Finally she found a great book called Organic Embroidery by Meredith Woolnough and tried out the technique on a large lemon slice.

Moroccan tassels

Birch biting practice

Blackwork

Organic Embroidery sample

Brigitte brought in a quilt she had made for the prompt Balance.  She used Inktense pencils on the black and white fabric of the face and arms to tone it down some.   She is also still making butterflies and appreciates the ones given to her by other members.

Linda continues to make monthly Journals and showed us a couple of her recent ones.

Christine also had a journal from her trip to Vancouver Island last summer.  She used Inktense pencils for some of her sketches.  What a great memento of a lovely holiday.

Shirley then lead is in exploring Inktense pencils and block.  She had an impressive array of work done and supplies for us to use.  An excellent handout as well and if you missed it you can get a copy from her.  A very well done and comprehensive presentation.  

A few examples of Inktense projects:

The variety of colours!

Linda kept track of how the pencils respond to different mediums and the order of application.

Cath stitched first and used fabric medium to blend her colours.

Outline pencil on fabric

Sunflower on dry

Stitched first and then rubbed with block

Some hand stitching started

Rubbing over bubble wrap

Rubbing then stitched

Drawn postcard turned into a small bag

Rubbing

Stitched and coloured in

And to finish it off Shirley showed us the fun she is having making these cute animals! (They are all amazing but my personal favourite is the longhorn cow!) 

 What will you do with your Intense pencils?  We are looking forward to seeing future creations!

April showers and sunshine

Warm weather is back!  Lovely to get together again and enjoy creating and spring.

Whispers update:  Christine and Joyce are working on their pieces this month and since Joyce is finished she will pass hers on early to help Myrna who has some family obligations in the coming month.  Only Jeanette left to go in May.  Good work all!  We should be finished and ready for the Grand Reveal in June.

The Raising the Surface pieces are also due in June.  Short artist statements are required with each piece.

The group organizing Lorraine's clothing sale are moving along very well.  The advertisements are beginning to appear in local publications.  They are still looking for help for the sale day, April 29 from 1 to 4pm at Trinity Baptist Church in Vernon.  There will be a separate date for the sale of sewing related items.

Art Walk

The call for entries is out and Cathy and Sandie have volunteered to organize the application for our Whispers Challenge and the Raising the Surface items.  We hope you will have some of your pieces for sale.  

In May we will be having a demo on Inktense pencils with Shirley and Elisabeth.  As it takes some time we will be missing a tassel demo this month.  They will continue in June with Judith presenting Graduation Tassels.  Bev will be showing us Macrame and macrame tassels in September.  A nice blast from the past for some of us!

Brigitte is making an installation of 100 butterflies and has asked if any of us would like to help her.  Here is a link to a YouTube video on making them.  She isn't requiring the bead at the end of the video. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6hPQp4RzyMQ

The rest of the meeting was a trunk show by Anette Cameron of Kelowna.  She is also a member of the Fibre Art Network (FAN).  She had two pieces in the recent Threads of Hope display at Gallery Vertigo.  

Anette grew up in Denmark and has studied Prehistoric Archaeology.  She has worked in museums and is influenced by the art of European and Scandinavian painters like Franz Marc, Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso.  She enjoys using recycled articles and fibre in her work.  She says her philosophy is simple; I create what inspires me, and what I like.

There was a very diverse display of her works and interesting stories as she explained what inspired some of the pieces.  

Here are some photo's of Anette's work:

Threads of Hope-FAN

Threads of Hope-FAN

Pin cushion from mismatched cup and saucer

Shelter, was at the Gallery Vertigo Show

Detour Series

Salmon life cycle, ghost fish in the stitching

Two from her Trees series

A variety of Sunflowers

Water lilies

And a Dragonfly!

Started with a pattern but taken so much further!  A stunning piece!

March, Spring is coming!

 It is warming up out there!  We were back together again and had a visitor, Lena.  She is checking us out to see if she would like to join in.    Cathy sent a hello from France, she is Nimes the home of denim.  

It was agreed that Christine, Sandie and Jeanette would take the triangle pieces to the guild meeting on Thursday and give a short introduction including how we started the pieces.  The pieces then would be laid out on tables for the members to view and ask questions about.

Joyce gave us an update on Lorraine's stash.  The School Board will take over the running of the event which will be held at Trinity Church on April 29, 1 - 4pm.  There is a meeting on Monday, March 20 when many things will be finalized.  In the meantime there is on going discussion on how the 17 wearables will be displayed and how they will be sold, whether through silent auction, donation etc. It has yet to be decided by Dave as to whether the ribbons will accompany the clothing. The School Board are looking for a recipient of the award who will follow a textile career.

We were reminded of the the trunk show that will be held at the April meeting and we all signed a card to give to Anette as a thank you.  It will be a potluck lunch and everyone is reminded again of no shellfish, please.

Show and Tell

Tassels

Christine

Joyce

Linda

All together

There were a few things without pictures but obviously everyone is still enjoying being creative! 

Brigitte is doing many, many butterflies, needs to make 1000.

Elisabeth is working on this year's Trendtex project.  She also talked about another way to use scrap fabric, called Kawandi, although she didn't like it as much as the triangle process.

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFd0xEfKeto  

Sandie is working on her Whispers Challenge.  Linda will be doing her's as well.

Whispers Challenge

Sandie will be sending hers along to Joyce for April.  Linda passes it along to Christine.

Shirley showed a piece she had made using her embroidery machine to stitch all over with a pattern she had purchased.  It was make in 6 pieces and then joined together.

Bev showed us a bargello quilt that she will hang for spring.  She also showed a round robin challenge that Debbie McCleaod had been involved in as she thought it could be an idea we could use for a future challenge.

 

Linda is also doing monthly journals.

Joyce is busy with Community Care and Jeanette is painting.  

Raising the Surface

Painting Pellon

Use fabric paints to paint Pellon then use stitch to add, blend, alter colour.  These can then be used to cut into shapes and draped over the straws before stitching down.

Straws

Paint straws with acrylic paints or similar.  The straws must be paper or similar so that the paint will adhere.  Here are some idea's for using them:

Couch them to the background. Stitch some suitable shaped pieces over the top of the straws.

Use space dyed thread and use couching stitches to secure the straw to the background.  Add beads as you go.

Wind strips of fabric round the straws before couching them down.

Wrap the straws with wire and add beads as you go along.

Take a chiffon sandwich and a pieces of backing fabric.  Stitch lines slightly wider than the straws and put a straw in each pocket  These pockets could be zapped with a heat gun to expose the straw(which in turn could be decorated with wire and beads as above.)

Chiffon Sandwich

Press a piece of steam-a-seam to a piece of chiffon/cheesecloth. Tear off paper and adhere foil, then place another layer of chiffon/cheesecloth over the top and press down with an iron.

The day ended with lunch and a trip out to Gallery Vertigo to the FAN exhibit, Threads of Hope.  Very inspiring!  This is it's last stop after touring for a couple of years.