June '09

There were only five of us attending on Saturday but we still had fun. Our design exercise this month was on wordplay, taken from "Design Synetics" by Nicolas Roukes. Sheila had prepared two groups of words & we each picked one word from each group which were then used as inspiration.

Robyn's designs from the words "Illuminated - keys" & "Twisted target"

Jenny's "Mechanized -map".

For show & tell, Libby had been working on "A Garden for Clarice" featuring lots of tiny appliques.

Jenny had been practicing bobbin lace,

as well as working some crazy patchwork.

Robyn had been having fun with a computerized sewing machine & had made this bag featuring a digitized design in a metalic gold thread.

Sheila had finished this small quilt from her class at Fiber Forum,

stitched a small piece for a special project she is working on,

and made baskets from fabric strips following the directions in Cloth Paper Scissors Studio Issue.

Check us out again in a month's time to see what else we will get up to.

May '09

Our May meeting brought with it full attendace and a line drawing design exercise from Robyn. Beginning with three straight lines or circles, we then drew horizontal lines so that when we came to cross the line or shape, we drew around them instead, never touching . The lines then were repeated, sometimes vertical, sometimes horizontal, sometimes with "blips". Our efforts can be seen below.

By Robyn:-

By Jenny:-
By Sheila:-By Georga:-

By Cathy:-
By Wendy:-

Show & tell brought much eye candy.

This bag, called "Fireworks" by Cathy, was made in an Isobell Hall workshop at Textile Fiber Forum in Orange NSW. The bag is painted brown paper which was scrunched, quilted, heat treated, waxed, painted & hand stitched.


Also by Cathy, this bag used coccon stripping paper, with acrylic wax, stamping, painting & other techniques.


This bag by Sheila was also made by bleaching velvet & over dying.

Sheila made this book following the instructions from the latest "Stitch" magazine.

Cathy had made this textured surface with hot glue & stamping.

Robyn had been learning to digitize.

Sheila had also been to Fiber Forum at Orange, where she attended a Jan Irvine Neale workshop " Running Stitch With Style"

Libby had won 1st prize in the Contempory Hand Embroidery section at Cotton Fibre Expo at Narrabri with this stunning piece.

Jenny had been making more lace and practicing her tallies.

Donna had been making postcards.

Georga visited to see what we got up to & has decided to stay . So we all welcome her to our group.

April '08

Our April meeting brought a little show & tell and as well as a drawing & design exercise from Susan.

Donna had been working on a canvas work piece "Daintree Dreaming", based on memories of the leaf litter she had seen in the rain forrest.

Libby had been preparing for an exhibition, "A Conversation With Rain", to be held at:-

Fairfield City Museum & Gallery
Cnr The Horsley Drive & Oxford Street
Smithfield.
23rd May - 5th July 2009
Above is a sneak peak of her piece.

Jenny had been producing more lace, as well as working on a counted thread sampler in which colour, eyelets & blackwork were explored. The full story of the sampler can be read here, and the lace story here.

Susan's design exercise came from various sources, including J. Stoops and J. Samuelson: Design Dialogue(Mass.USA.1990), and Kathleen Whyte's Design in Embroidery (London.1969/1983). We used a natural object with interesting lines, which we then drew, sketched, & played with patterns to achieve a design.

Sheila used the vein lines in the leaf above to achieve these patterns.

Both Wendy & Libby used the same piece of bark from a xanthorea grass tree. Wendy sketched, while Libby "thread doodled" straight onto fabric.

Donna used this piece of coral for her inspiration for her sketches.

Jenny used a different piece of coral to produce these sketches.

Susan used a very weathered piece of bone.

Concentration was very strong while we sketched & explored the lines of our objects, so strong that we could have heard a pin drop. It will be interesting to see the desings that develop from our morning of sketching. So drop by next month to see what we have done.

March '09

Time for our March meeting with everyone present & accounted for. Show & tell included:-

Bobbin lace from Jenny. The full leaf can bee seen here.

There was also this experiment with eyelets and colour with drawn thread work on a counted thread band sampler.

Libby was working on "April Showers" ready for an exhibition. Just a snippet can be seen above.

Sheila had been playing with wet liquid amber leaves on calico.

There was also experiments with shot fabric into a mini fabric quilt:-

and experiments with Markel Paintsticks:-

Robyn had begun on her new beaded rock,

as well as played with needle lace samples,

ready to work her own original design above.

Donna had been making more postcards because they are such an easy format for experimenting.

Our exercise for the day was in design. Called "Imaginative Projection", it came from a book "Design Synetics - Stimulating Creative Design" by Nicholas Roukes. We were given copies of road maps and then had to look for some kind of design in the lines of the roads, and trace them with texta. We found flowers, animals, faces, bodies etc. Here is Wendy's "Hefilant".

A good day was had by all.

February 09

Our February meeting was held last Saturday. Sheila had a fun exercise for us to do using stamps & inkpads.

Below is Robyn's foot,

Sheila's figure,

Jenny's fig,

and Susan's pattern.

Then there was the challenge that Sheila gave us for the year using these fun glasses, from a "Creative Hands Mega Camp Kit". http://www.creativehands.com/. Made of foam, they are flexible, can be stitched into, painted and glued on. It will be interesting to see what we will all do with these.

Sheila had also been making more brooches from felt, with FME. The design came from her tornpaper exercises at Summer school.

Sheila had also been busy reducing her stash of scraps and turning them into this QAYG quilt.

We welcomed Wendy to our group, who showed us her "doodle cloth" of cretan stitch. I might add that this is only a very small section of this cloth.

Donna had been making a postcard,

as well as a cabachon in a workshop with Pearl Red Moon.

Jenny had been making lace.

and Susan had made this "Pay Mistress" paper collage from time sheets, paper clips, photocopied bull dog clips, and other bits found in her office.