FIBER JUNKIES JAN. MEETING

We welcomed 2017 with our first meeting at Gen's home. Each of us looking forward to another great year of creating & experimenting. After the usual coffee and goodies....we began with Show and Tell. 

Kate brought this awesome top. It was jump started at a recent meeting when Denny brought her many die cut machines....Kate got to work immediately cutting the patchwork.  Love her wonderful choice of fabrics, the various bands and how the white sets off the circle motifs.

We have a community i-spy box which is continually replenished by not only FJ members but others who are purging from their stash and are willing to gift us conversation type fabrics.  Judy made this darling, colorful baby quilt for a friend.  The polka-dot binding is perfect, one that almost didn't happen as apparently black/white polka-dot fabric is extremely difficult to find in our area.  

Gen, our master at everything, had our jaws dropping when she pulled out this piece made with decorator fabric samples.  The patchwork is simple yet her choices of placement and pattern is what makes this piece so special.

Gen also made this lap quilt.....Her skill in combining various fabric prints/colors/and unusual setting makes this one a winner too.

During a meeting about a year ago, we concentrated on collage and image transfer.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this piece that Kate made.  The inspiration was from a photo she took during an international trip.

Unfortunate family matters prevent Denny from her usual thought provoking pieces, preferring instead to use her limited time with what she calls 'mindless' work.  She signed up for this block of the month project, very unlike Denny's normal style. 

But the professor approach in Denny hasn't retired, though her day job is.  She cleverly decided to use a floral print for the background....photo copied the fabric, then photocopied the pattern over it.

This provided a helpful unit for her to play with colors before committing to fabric.  In my humble opinion, the floral background enriches this design so very much more than a solid could have.

The one thing Denny does reserve time for is participation in Hollis Chatelain's Ten-Year Masters Art Series.  It's a study of the basics of art. Above and below are small works that are exercises from her studies.  A design is repeated several times using various colorways.

The real purpose this month was to 'brainstorm'.  It's a repeat of last year's similar session.  The idea was for each of us to bring fabrics, UFOs, or ideas that we either didn't know what to do with or had started and needed inspiration/feedback to move further.

Judy brought this small marked floral design.  She'd begun thread painting with black wool thread and was now looking for input on how to turn it into a worthy finished piece.

She works with sheers quite a bit....after suggesting painting the motif, we all wondered if an overlay of a lightly dyed sheer would be useful.

This sheer, belonging to Judy was created during a fabric dyeing session at Kate's place on Folly Beach. We tried eco dyeing....after poor results we placed our unsuccessful tied fabric rolls in a iron bath (rusty water) and simmered them for about 90 mins.  

We agreed a good marriage would be to place Judy's (below) shibori painted fabric beneath the sheer.  And perhaps to outline stitch the pattern through the sheer to provide texture and more definition.

Here's another piece Judy brought.  It was a color study using sheers.  She wanted to throw it out.  We all howled....noooooo.  All it needed was some thread work which Judy is more than capable of doing to turn this into a finished piece.

For some reason the only photos of our brainstorming session were of Judy's materials.  We got so engrossed into the 'what if's' that I forgot to continue documenting.  I must say, this was a very valuable exercise.  One some of you may want to plan for your small group to kick around ideas.