January 2013 Show and Tell

This is the back of 'Golden Treasures', Alison's diptych scheduled to be at the Central Goldfields Art Gallery's first Biennial Contemporary Art Quilt exhibition which opens on 23 February 2013 and runs until 7 April 2013.  So I can't show you the front until after the exhibition opens.

This is 'Ancient Water', another one of Alison's, with painted vlysofix under organza.

 

This one, 'Blue Green Algae', is Alison's contribution to the SAQA art quilt auction.

And the last one from Alison, this month's Over Achiever, is from the New Ways with Kantha workshop that the Mosman Night Owls did in October with Carolyn Sullivan and has now been cut up and put on DL cards.

 

Another work started in our workshop with Carolyn Sullivan comes from Rhonda Stein.  There was quite a bit of discussion about the framing fabrics ... how much should show, how big should the piece be ... with the consensus that it should have wide fabric borders.  Of course, final artistic control remains with the maker, so we'll just have to wait to see what Rhonda decides!

 

There were also some knitting and joining going on while I unpicked some of the squares in my hand-pieced quilt top that was supposed to be square.  

But I was enjoying my hand piecing so sporadically that it somehow ended up more rectangular than square.  Quite embarrassing for an engineer, let me tell you!  But it's almost back on track.  Who knew that unpicking could take so much time?

January 2012 -- Design Exercises

This year, we have decided to undertake some group work in design, based on the book Fearless Design for Every Quilter by Lorraine Torrence and Jean B Mills. 

 

This month for homework, we did the exercises for Chapter 1 which involved symmetry.  Here were Enid's

And Alison's

 And Margaret's

 And Cecelia's

 And Ann-Marie's

 And Jennie's

January 2012 -- Show and Tell

This month, we had a vibrant blue quilt from Lynn.

October Show and Tell

This month, we focused on quality, not quantity.  Here is a photo of some beautiful raised embroidery work that Ann Marie was doing.

After she's finished with the stitching, she'll wash away the stabiliser (the clear plastic looking stuff) and be left with the most amazing lacework.  The two smaller wings and the body will then be assembled into a butterfly.

Textile Treasures Workshop with Lisa Walton

I took these images from Lisa's blog post.  They show what we made at our workshop with Lisa Walton on the October long weekend.

Some of the group hard at work.

 

This fabric was painted, scrunched up and put out on the footpath to dry.  Epsom salt was sprinkled on for added texture.  The paints are Sun Dye paints which are photosensitive ... the more light, the darker and more saturated the colour.

 Rhonda painted some fusible web and then left it to dry.

 Stamped and overpainted fabric

 Some of Maggie's hand painted and stamped fabrics

Rubbing over a hand carved stamp with paint sticks create a lovely base and then can be overpainted with a painted wash.

Lisa also gave us a beading session in this workshop.   Anne-Marie has already started this gorgeous panel for a bag front. Of course, she had stamped and painted this fabric in the workshop too.

I'll add more photos as they are sent to me.

What We Are Doing Next Year

We have decided to work through the exercises in this book next year.

It contains 10 lessons in designing with fabrics, from basic design principles to finding new sources of inspiration.  It is hoped that this will help to bring new creativity to the diverse range of quilting or fiber arts, whether traditional or contemporary, practiced by our members.

Starting with our January 2012 meeting, we will bring our work for each exercise as we work through the 10 lessons.  For our first meeting in January 2013, we will bring a quilt made using what we've learnt in 2012, by using the exercise samples we've made or starting a new quilt and incorporating the ideas from the 10 lessons.

Books are available to members from Maggie.

January 2011 -- Show and Tell

Here are some quilts by Enid ...

... and from Jenny ...

... and some tiny hexagons from Jo

Mosman Night Owls 2009 Challenge -- Scrap Bag Grab

Our plans for a workshop fell through this year, so we've decided to do a group challenge instead.

One of our members, Enid, grabbed bunches of scraps from her stash ... some are proper patchwork fabrics and some are other cotton fabrics, including clothing ... grouped them loosely by colour and popped them into plastic bags.

At our September meeting, everyone got to pick the bag that stuck their fancy to use in this challenge. The rules are simple:

1. You have to use some of each fabric in your plastic bag
2. You can add one other fabric or introduce one other colour
3. You have to make a quilt, complete with binding and label
4. The Grand Revelation is at the January 2010 meeting
5. Minimum size is 1m by 1m but you can make it bigger if you want

Members can keep their quilts or choose to donate them to a local charity group. Decision about which group is still under discussion.

If you missed the September meeting, Enid will have the remaining plastic bags of challenge bits at the October and November meetings as well.

Good luck!

September 2009 -- Show and Tell

For show and tell this month, we have a baby quilt made by Ceceila ...

... three quilts from Enid, our chronic over achiever, shown here front and back ...

... and from Alison, an embroidered jacket she's had for years ...

... the bits from another quilt ironed onto the sleeve of a shirt and a closeup ...

... a wonderful 1950's wallpaper and a close up ...

... and a piece of dyed silk with a closeup ...

... my The Old Bronx Cheer quilt which is now as far as being a quilt top ...

... and a challenge quilt I did with another group which was finished about an hour and a half before the unveiling.

To see the rest of the challenges from the other group, go here.