Showing posts with label Fibre 15. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fibre 15. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 09, 2024

Visit the “Impermanence / Éphémère” Outdoor Exhibit

Hi and welcome! We had our vernissage of the  “Impermanence / Éphémère” Outdoor Exhibition at the Arbor Gallery in Vankleek Hill last Friday afternoon. The weather cooperated, the mosquitos had a good snack, the company was lovely and the art was very cool 😎! If you live in the area, it's worth going out for a ride to visit. 

“Impermanence / Éphémère” Outdoor Exhibit


Seeing textile art among the trees is pretty amazing. It was like going on a treasure hunt. Instead of "X" marking the spot, there were little signs around each art piece. I'm just going to give you a little taste of what's out there. I wouldn't want to spoil your fun if you get to visit!

Anne Warburton's "Birches" is made with pool noodles, sari silk, ribbon, acrylic paint, birch bard, player piano paper, Tyvek, organza and glue.

Birches by Anne Warburton

Olive Jones' "Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Us" is a mix media piece that includes felting, beads and found objects, on a metal garden stand and blue stoneware pot filled with soil.

Olive Jones' Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Us

Here are close-ups of her work.
Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Us
by Olive Jones

Details of 
Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Us



















Lise Perras' "Dream Catcher Mobile" is made of welded metal, recycled t-shirt, beads, feathers, porcupine quills
"Dream Catcher Mobile" by Lise Perras

Lise Perras and "Dream Catcher Mobile"





















Janet Tullock's "The Cosmic Chase: Orion Aims for the Seven Sisters" is made on a nylon sailcloth with spray paint, grommets and strip lighting.

"The Cosmic Chase: Orion Aims for the Seven Sisters" by Janet Tullock

Krystyna Sadej's "Wind Chines, a sculptured installation" made of a hula hoop, metal and aluminum cans, beads and can keys

"Wind Chines, a sculptured installation"
by Krystyna Sadej

Krystyna Sadej






















Caroline Forcier Holloway's Hopeful for the Planet includes mixed media weaving made of jute, tea-dyed cheesecloth, and found branches, set inside an antique window frame.

Caroline Forcier Holloway


by Caroline Forcier Holloway






















Andrée G. Faubert's (me) three seasonal fence art pieces: "Raining Pink Petals", "Squirrel!" and "Essence of Leaves". These all have a water-resistant background fabric with hand-dyed cotton, commercial cotton and upholstery scraps, tule, and half-shells of nuts.
"Essence of Leaves" features Connie ten Bruggenkate's hand-dyed and printed cotton.


Viewing the art at the vernissage with Lise Perras, Olive Jones, and Andrea Belcham, Artistic Director of the Arbor Gallery.

Lise, Olive and Andrea at the Impermanence vernissage

Impermanence - Éphémère Outdoor Exhibit

Related links
Linking parties
I've linked up to the following linking parties: Free Motion Mavericks, Off The Wall Friday, Put your foot down, Patchwork & Quilts, 


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Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Conversations Guest Book on Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 384 of Free Motion Mavericks. I'm sorry that I'm a couple of days early, but I will run it until next Tuesday night. The last couple of weeks have mostly been about the Conversations exhibition and today is not an exception. I'm not getting ahead on my son's Version 2.0 quilt - but he's been very understanding 😊 

Another Journal Cover

A few weeks ago I volunteered to create a journal cover for our Conversations exhibit's guest book. I started early, but just finished it about an hour ago! No worries, the deadline is only tomorrow but it was my May One Monthly Goal (OMG) and I'm not missing out on bragging rights!

Conversations Guest Book

The Beginning

A few years ago, I experimented with sun printing. I don't think that I ever wrote a post about it. It wasn't a total flop, I did get one good print out of 3. I learned that you really need to use translucent paint - the opaque stuff just won't take. I did keep my pieces because you never know!

Original fabric with paint

After making my last journal cover, I realised how much the FMQ adds to the fabric, so I thought that I would give this rather messy fabric a shot. I added mostly yellow paint (Colour Vie pigment system) to the mix using forks, circles, etc. I was only going for additional splashes of colour that wasn't purple! I really like how the yellow turned into a lovely gold. It also brought out the little splashes of teal from the original piece.

Painting over the original fabric

I then started FMQ. I drew a straight line and wrote Conversations more or less in the middle of what would be the front cover. See I did learn from my last project and planned the layout a little more.

I listed a bunch of words that had to do with conversations - dialogue, listening, connection, genuine, point-of-view, exchange, generosity, understanding, humility, and talking. I FMQ these in variegated thread, all with some pink and/or yellow in them. 

Some of the FMQ words


Adding fun filler by following the design
or making it up as I go along!

Putting it together

I cut the fabric a few days ago but I've been so tired that I was really stressed about cutting it properly. I had visions of having to start all over....not fun! Anyway, it all went well. Last night I chose my lining fabric, something light to contrast with the dark cover. After work, I started sewing while watching each step of Christina Cameli's Free Motion Quilted Gifts on Craftsy. 

Here's the lovely lining fabric

Here are some pictures of the whole thing 😊


The back and front of the cover


The back of the journal cover

I remembered to add my name tag.

The inside back with my tag.


Conversations Guest Book Mosaic


What I learned
  • I'm really glad that I made a journal cover not long ago for my quilting agenda. I remembered my lessons learned and applied them to this project. Awesome 😎
  • Having played with paint not that long ago also helped me with adding the paint to this one. I felt a little more confident, especially knowing that the free motion quilting would add so much.
  • Planning where the FMQ should go on my journal cover made it easier to quilt and the results are worth it.
  • It's been along time since I've been this busy with creating and blogging. I really appreciate all of your wonderful comments in the last few weeks. I've read them all and will answer them all soon. Thanks for your patience. 
Related links

Linking parties


Project details


Conversations Guest Book Cover
8" x 6" 
Materials: Original fabric painted with Pebeo Setacolor (opaque) and then marked with Colour Vie, variegated thread
Techniques: painting, mark making, FMQ and sewing







Free Motion Mavericks

Thanks to all for linking up. If you haven't seen Gail's Triangle Tricks Challenge quilt with her lovely FMQ stars, you really should visit her site.

Quilting Gail's Triangle Tricks Challenge

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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Saturday, May 28, 2022

Let Them Flourish is finished!

If you've been following me on Instagram, you've seen lots of images of the progress of this piece. Lately I've been adding a gazillion French Knots, finishing up the beading and then finally mounting it on a fabric-covered canvas.

Let Them Flourish - Ready for Exhibition

Let Them Flourish (aka Biodiversity)

In the Beginning

This piece started off as a fabric collage of images related to Biodiversity, the theme that was given to us as part of the February 2021 TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club workshop. Kate Tume, our instructor, had us exploring narrative potential with embellishment.

The beginning of Biodiversity (working title)

I attached the fabric pieces to batting using Heat n Bond Lite. From there I started stitching and beading. To say that it was slow going is a huge understatement. Again, not called slow stitching for nothing 😊.

Starting the embroidery and beading

At some point I got tired of its slow progress and wondered off to other projects. I came back to it during my #100dayschallenge on Instagram. I would say that the majority of it got done between March and May 2022. It also helped that I had a deadline approaching - the Conversations exhibition with Fibre 15 (see related links below).

Towards the Finish Line!

I love using my own hand-dyed perle cotton 💙

At one point I got bored and had an aha moment. I realised that I didn't have to embroider the images using the same colours that was on the fabric. Notice the house in the image below, which was printed in blue but covered in orange thread. I love that the blue peeks through. That was quite liberating! 😊

Adding different colours than those on the fabric

The green embroidered background around the moose took forever -
I was seeing swirls in my sleep!

I added a gazillion French knots around the tree. I knew by then that it would drive me crazy, so to keep it interesting, I used different shades of green and went roughly from light to dark.

So many French knots!!!

I was worried about the owl - I wanted to add beads but wasn't sure how much. I found out fairly quickly how much was "too much"! I was going to bead every other line but got mixed up and ended up beading all of the lines. It wasn't really bad but it made the owl the focal point, which is not what I wanted.

Too many beads....

Just the right amount of beads 😊

I used sewing thread to lightly embroider various parts of the owl. 

Finishing up!

Finishing up involved covering a 14" x 11" canvas with fabric and then attaching the piece to the canvas. I used Sulky's Invisible thread since it was clearer than the other kinds I have. I wasn't able to make a knot at the end of the thread, so I left a long tail and then after taking the next stitch, tied a knot at the back.

I just put in a few pins through the canvas to keep the piece from shifting as I was sewing it down. I stitched around the edges but also within the piece to keep it securely in place. It was easiest to stitch behind beads.
Attaching the piece to the canvas


Let Them Flourish

What I learned

  • I learned that this technique is called textile collage. This is probably my favourite technique of all times. I've used it a few times to make some of my favourite pieces. I'll include links to my favourite ones in Related links below.
  • I love being able to add bits and pieces of fabric to tell a story or show a moment in time. 
  • The hardest part is probably leaving reality behind since there is no way to keep the actual perspective real since the elements come in the size that they are on the fabric! I love that whimsical part of it.
  • I'm glad that I figured out that I don't have to use the same colour as the background image to embroider. It adds a different look when using a different colour and having the original fabric colour peek through.
  • I realised that I need to change things up to keep me interested. What's not to love about many shades of green instead of just using one?!
  • I really got to know my threads - there's nothing wrong with embroidering with regular sewing thread if you just want a small accent of colour and texture. 
  • A bonus is that the technique almost always needs the little bling of beads 😊
  • It's always a slow project, even if using FMQ but it's usually well worth making. I'm making myself finish this one before I start another one - it would be too easy to get sidetracked at this point!

Related links

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Remember to visit Muv to link up to Free Motion Mavericks this week! Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Peacock Party, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2022, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, May's Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup

Project details


    Let Them Flourish
    Workshop with Kate Tume through TextileArtist.org
    Attached to a 14" x 11" fabric-covered canvas
    Materials: commercial quilting cotton, beads, shells, 
    metallic, embroidery, sewing thread and perle cotton 
    Techniques: collage, embroidery, beading


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Friday, May 13, 2022

Conversations - Fibre 15 Exhibition

It's time to announce the upcoming exhibition of the Fibre 15 group. As some of you know, especially if you follow me on Instagram, I've been finishing up pieces for the show.  

Conversations

"What is a conversation? Employing a diversity of fibre media, Fibre15 members explore this theme, challenging assumptions about how and what we exchange."

Conversations poster

It's going to be an amazing show. I know that most of you reading this post won't be able to make it, but if you are in the Ottawa area, I think that it'll be worth the ride to the Stone School Gallery (see details in Related links). The show runs from June 3 - 26 (from Thursday to Sunday) with the vernissage on June 3rd. 

Stone School Gallery in Portage-du-Fort, Québec

My pieces in the show

Here are the four pieces that will be in the show.

Please let me play / Laissez-moi jouer SVP

Please let me play

Description: Expressing my desire to play using a dye clean-up rag. 
Conversation: Do we have to wait until retirement to make time to play? 😊


Journey of many paths / Voyage de plusieurs parcours

Journey of many paths

Description: A journey of learning using slow and meditation stitching.  
Conversation: What makes up your journey and what are the roles of learning and reflection within it?

Let them flourish / Laissez-les s’épanouir

Let them flourish is almost finished!

Description: As human beings we must play well with the other creatures on the planet. 
Conversation: What can we do to ensure that all the creatures on Earth are able to flourish?

Best and Worst of Times / Le meilleur et le pire des temps


Best and Worst of Times concertina book


Description: A textile concertina book illustrating my journey through the pandemic. 
Conversation: How did you and your loved ones survive the pandemic?

Teaching a workshop

I'm thrilled to announce that I will be teaching a "Meditation Stitching" course at the Stone School Gallery on June 20, 2022.

Course poster


Signature and Comments Journal for the show

I volunteered to make the journal cover and provide the journal for the exhibition. 

I'm having lots of fun free motion quilting (FMQ) it. I should be able to write up a post soon.

FMQ the journal cover with conversation related words


Action shot 😀

If you want to see the progress of these pieces, you can check out Instagram, or if you  don't have access to it, my Instagram images are on my blog's right side-bar. Just click on the images to see them.

What I learned

  • It takes an incredible amount of work applying for and getting ready for a group show. I'm very grateful for everyone's help in getting this done 😊
  • I'm almost ready for the show.
  • I've finished fixing my concertina book so that it can stand on its own.
  • I only have a little bit of beading left on the Let them flourish piece. I may have overdone it on the owl and may have to re-do part of it.
  • I prepared my Artist Bio / Statement and after I decide on a photo, it will be sent off.
  • I may, or may not, have all four pieces in the show - it will depend on the amount of space we have. Our group's curating team will be figuring that out.
  • There is also a video being created by one of our members. I'll include the link below when it's available 😊
  • What you do think about art as conversation? I'd love to hear from you.

Related links
Linking parties

The almost finished version of Let Them Flourish was featured Muv at Free Motion Mavericks. Thanks!

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