March 2018

Allison Harding lad us in a mini-workshop on felting with silk hankies and merino wool.

Here are some examples of the scarves she makes using this technique. The silk hankies form the outer layer of a sandwich of fibers.  Wool is in the middle.

Bits of glittery Angelina fiber can also be included.

Allison brought a variety of colors of wool and silk hankies to choose from.

The wool center layers are laid down in thin pieces, over the bottom layer of silk hankie.  Bubble wrap forms the base of the felting bundle.

Once the layers are done, the fibers are wetted and then rolled to felt them together.  Lots of rolling!

Additional hand rubbing is needed to get the final finishing done.

Here are our finished samples.

Plus we had lots of cool Show and Tell! Weaving, quilting, locker hooking, knitting, crocheting, and other cool stuff.

 

 

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February 2018

Judy Irish did an amazing presentation of her quilts and also did a demonstration of her technique for weaving commercially woven fabric to create a unique background for further quilt applique.

Judy combines a variety of materials to get the effects she wants.

Judy loves to add dimensional elements to her quilts.

The background of this piece (a detail of larger quilt) shows her woven background technique.

To make a woven background, first put a fusible backing on your fabrics.  Then cut one of the fabric along the length of your finished piece, using a rotary blade to create a smooth cut.  Cut random lines for an interesting background.

Then cut the other fabric along the width-wise orientation.

Weave the strips of fabric together, keeping them in their original alignment.

Once the strips of  fabric are firmly woven together, fuse them to make a stable background fabric.

Show and Tell — a lovely nuno felted scarf!

Show & Tell — A small quilted and embroidered piece in progress, by Gail Parris.

Show & Tell: Woven chenille  scarf by Astrid Bear, woven baby blanket, and woven pillow cover, and a knitted sweater by Christine Stewart.

 

January 2018

Our talented member Lonetta Avelar taught us basic scratchboard technique.

This technique uses a sharp tool (we used needles held in repurposed mechanical pencils) to make scratch marks on a special black medium — white  board painted with black ink.  The scratch marks reveal the white underneath.

The lower board shows some practice doodles.  The upper board shows the outlines of the image, transferred to the scratchboard with chalk. We were working from this dramatic bird photo that Lonetta took.

And working very hard!  It’s a slow and exacting technique.

Here are all of our pieces.

 

 

December 2017

We enjoyed our traditional holiday potluck and plaid llama sale.

November 2017

Guild members Toni Burton and Jeff Botten shared many items from their extensive ethnic textile collection. Other members also brought items to share — the morning was a combination of a visual and tactile treat and a trip around the world in handwork!

Toni and Jeff with some of their Indonesian ikat weavings.

Assorted South East Asian and Chinese items.

Embroidered table linens, silver, jewelry, and a knitted sweater from Fotini’s trousseau.  All these items were made in the town in Greece that she comes from.

Counted thread cross-stitch made by Graham, from a Danish pattern.  He did this piece while he was studying weaving in Copenhagen in the 1950s.

October 2017

Member Astrid Bear led the group in a beginning embroidery class. We explored basic stitches…

combined stitches…

and played with applique.

Michele Murnane shared some work she had in a workshop with Gail Harker, a combination of hand dyed fabric, embroidery, and applique.

September 2017

Cory Ellen Boberg of Indie.Knits gave a presentation on her creative process and color theory.  This reporter was unable to attend, but here are some images of her and her work.

May 2017 — Rug Hooking

Judy Taylor did a wonderful presentation and demonstration of rug hooking with yarn.  She prefers yarn over the more usual fabric strips.

She designed and made this frame to hold the work, and here she’s showing the hook she uses to pull the yarn up from behind the backing.

The pattern is drawn on the backing fabric with Sharpie pen, and then the yarn is hooked up through it to fill in all the spaces.

Here’s a view of the back, showing how a loop of yarn is formed over the hook.  This also gives you a view of she lays in the rows of loops.

Designs can be bold and graphic…

Or amazingly detailed.

Judy’s written two books about her techniques and also has kits and materials for sale at her website, Little House Rugs.  Check it out!

 

We also had our end-of-the-meeting year potluck and swore in our new slate of officers for the September 2017-May 2018 meeting year.

From left, Graham Humphrey, President; Gail Parris, Treasurer; Susan Lindsey, Secretary; and Toni Burton, Program Co-Chair. The other Program Co-Chair,  Jeff Botton, wasn’t present.

April 2017 — Ice Dyeing

Cathy Kind showed us gorgeous examples of her work using  various  dyeing techniques on fabric and scarves.  Here (left)  she’s holding a cut velvet scarf dyed in two different colors in a single dyepot, using Alter Ego and Dupont Classique dyes.  The scarf she’s wearing and the yellow and purple fabric she’s holding (left) are dyed using the ice dyeing technique.

Here are small strips of a variety of ice dyed fabrics.  We all left with a great desire to give it a try!  More info here: Learn to Ice Dye.

 

 

March 2017 — Beaded Earrings

Our talented member, Shirley Pauls, led a mini-workshop on making beaded earrings using the new super-duo beads.

Here are some of Shirley’s samples.  As you can see, you can get quite different effects depending on color choice and whether or not you use smaller accent beads.

We worked very intently on following the pattern!

The beading thread and needles are so fine.

Some of our finished earrings and works-in-progress.  Thanks, Shirley, for a fun workshop!