Friday, May 10, 2013

Ridge Meadows Quilt Show

Quilt Stories 2013 welcomed over 700 visitors to our quilt show!
We had a raffle quilt and a beautiful donated quilt from Josie as door prizes. Also, beautiful sponsor and merchant mall door prizes.
Katie and her crew did a great job of setting up!
Our venue was the Burnett Fellowship Church ... bright and spacious.
One special exhibit was the 'Whisper Quilts'. See Quilter's Connection  magazine for details.
We had a great merchant mall, including: Dream Fabrics (photo) Needle and I, Passionate  Dyes, Quilted Treasures, Carola's  Quilt Shop and Denise Taylor.
Our Boutique had many creative handmade items for sale.
Many had fun going through boxes of magazines and books ... lots of great buys.
Judy Greenwood, winner of international awards, showed her creative works.
Jana Seale gave our show her wonderful music as a background to our show.
Ribbons were awarded!
Leslie won for her quilt depicting the interior of the Westminster Abby in Mission on the hill, overlooking the Fraser River.
Annemarie won for her Leaves All Around.
The thrill of her first award!
Inga made a quilt for her son.
The biggest surprise is that I won First in Small Quilts and Best of Show based on viewer's votes!
We were able to exhibit 'From Away' from the Fibre Art Network.
These shows are available for galleries and guilds.
http://www.fibreartnetwork.com/exhibitions/FromAway/6
We also invited the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild to be in our show.
The show exceeded our expectations and was a great success ... worth all those hours of work!
The 'little guild in the valley' had a wonderful variety of beautiful quilts ... candy for the eye!
I'll add more of the prize winning quilts as I get the photos.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Mariposa Lily, Fibrescapes

In May, FAN is debuting a Fibrescapes -  concurrent with the CQA/ACC National Juried Show - in Pentiction, BC. This show will be available to travel for two years.
The flowers are my photos: printed on silk, fused to a second layer of silk, free motion stitched, cut out and hand sewn to the prepared background.
I added beads for detail and depth. There was also a blue-green insect visiting several of the flowers ... I had never seen it before.

Mariposa Lily:
Calochortus is a Greek word meaning 'beautiful grass', however the flowers grow from a bulb. Mariposa is a Spanish word meaning 'butterfly' and refers to the evanescent quality of the petals and unique markings on the flowers. My photos were taken on a semi desert grassland hill near Oliver, BC. The actual flower size is about 2" on a 8-10" stalk.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Do I really need it?

 Hmm ... do I really need it? That is the question ...
We attended the Sewing and Craft Show at the Abbotsford Tradex Center ... lots of great little purchases: Japanese Silks, dye in dropper bottles, stencils, buttons and of course ... threads.
Then we went to the Fibrefest ... mostly wool including mohair, some silks and mixes ... lucious colours!
The best part was a day with my friends!

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Below is a link to a colour tool that is fun to experiment with. It would also be useful if you were planning a quilt and wondering how you can add accents to make the colour 'pop'.
http://www.colorschemedesigner.com/

Thursday, March 21, 2013

La Conner StashFest

For those of you who live in southern BC or north-west Washington  ...
Here is a link with photos of last year:
http://stashfest.com/?page_id=1132
There are unique vendors with lots of interesting products for sale from hand dyes to Japanese fabrics and antique beads & buttons. This is a fundraiser for the museum.


StashFest 2013

Sat, Apr 6, 2013 11-5      Sun, Apr 7, 2013 11-4
Last year Lorraine Torrance was selling her samples and I purchased the jacket from her.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Cherry Blossom Festival

For those in the Vancouver area: well worth a visit!
(click on the poster to enlarge)
I have 'Secrets and Cherry Blossoms' in the retrospective show in Vancouver.

 'Whispers of Spring' is in the show at the Silk Purse in West Vancouver.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Design Explorations 02 & 03 2013 - Needle Felting

My 'play group' had a workshop in dry felting. Most had an 'embellisher' - a machines that looks like a sewing machine, but it does not use thread ... just needles with barbs that push the fibres into the backing.   I used a hand held needle felter.

Our Design Explorations theme for February was 'SKYFALL'
A few years ago, at nightfall, I looked up in the sky and from the west ... a shower of meteors crossed the sky. In Vancouver, we have meteor showers in the late summer. But, this was no ordinary event! Many meteors in different sizes streaked across the sky, over a couple of minutes. We all stood and watched with our mouths open. It was unreal! One man said, "If this is the end of the world, it sure is purdy". The meteors streaked to the east and evidence was found in the south-east of the province, hundreds of miles away. 


This piece is done on sheer with tiny silver dots that represent the stars. The sky had a light streaked overcast - the result of an earlier rain.
For March, the Design Exploration theme was 3D ... but, it is hard to fit an actual 3D project into my portfolio. So ... while felting, I worked to make the pear appear to be rounded  ... 3D.
I used an old wool sweater as a base to build the final  piece.
Below is my third piece ... just made for fun!
My sunset used a thin stabilizer as a backing.
The hand needle does not create a very stable felt in comparison to a wet felt or a felt made on an emellisher. It has a wispy look and texture. To make it a little more stable, I sprayed 'skyfall' and the sunset with liquid starch.

You can see the DESIGN EXPLORATIONS blog here:
http://quiltvive3.blogspot.ca/
There is just Carla and I. We completed our first year - 2012!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Leslie's birthday ! Thermofax stencils & rubbings.

 Leslie celebrates her birthday this month!

We decided to try those thermofax screens we had purchased and never tried!

Easy to use: thick paint (we found Jacquard paints to be good), and a  squeegee. Important: soak your screen right away and wash gently to get the paint out of the little holes.
This is the group, with our work spread out on the table


Below .... some of my work.
The metallic paints looked good!

You can double print and 'ghost' print.
The bugs could be added to an art quilt!
This one gave an interesting pattern. Notice top left: screen was too wet and  caused paint to run
Below are plastic stencils using screen printing paint and a stencil sponge brush.


We also did some rubbings with shiva sticks ... this was gold on navy fabric.
Smuged  :(
Interesting to use as a background.

It is fun and useful to make your own fabric designs.

design and copyright

Here is a link to Anna Hergert's blog, outlining the difference between work that is original - or not and work that is inspired by or derivative of another person's work. We all need to give credit where it is due!
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/13d788bdd7a8b7f6

Saturday, March 16, 2013

I enjoyed working with a group of ladies from the Pacific Spirit Guild. They chose SPRING as their challenge theme and each represented it in their own unique way. Journal quilts are small, can be done in a few hours and are a wonderful way to learn new techniques!

Saturday, March 2, 2013

World War II quilts for Britian

During wartime, thousands of quilts were made in Canada and sent to Britain  A collection has been put together for a show:
http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/story/2013-02-21/canadian-quilts-for-blitz-families/
(it is a long link, you may have to copy and paste into your browser)
Many quilts sent with a lot of love!

Saturday, February 23, 2013

La Conner

For my birthday, we headed to La Conner and a visit to the Quilt and Textile Museum.

A Misty morning on the Fraser River
http://www.laconnerquilts.com/exhibits/
http://www.kaffefassett.com/Home.html

Well worth a visit! Kaffe Fassett was ahead of his time with with his bright colours and use of stripes.


Although I've seen many of his quilts and knitting in books, it is very much more impressive to see them full size with the texture of stitch.
A treat on the way home, Snow Geese!
La Conner is also known for their tulips blooming in April/May ... acres & acres of colour!

Looking for a challenge? Here is a fundraiser for the museum:
http://www.laconnerquilts.com/upcoming-events/la-conner-in-bloom-a-tulip-festival-challenge