Fibre Art Divas Meeting at Ricki's

A large group of us met at Ricki's to share out latest work and make some decisions on our future exhibit and our upcoming challenge.

The challenge is to create a piece using the theme of Structures within a dimension of 18"wide X 22"-54" long X 18" deep. We will share our pieces at the December meeting. 

Exciting news is that Susan was published in the current Quilting Arts magazine. It is a piece that displays complementary colours on a colour wheel. Congratulations Susan!!

Many people shared their summer dyeing and I shared my flower pounding. 

Judith shared her polar bear piece for FANs upcoming exhibit called Canadiana that is traveling to Australia and New Zealand. It is gorgeous!!

A great evening!

Checking out all the dyed fabrics!

Various members at the Fibre Art Diva's meeting.

Congratulations to Susan for making it into the Quilting Arts magazine!

Amazing effect - embroidery stitches on a quilted table runner.

Oops.  Upside-down.  Sorry.  This is a New York evening cityscape made of 1/4 inch strips!!

Again upside-down.  Darn.  A ocean scene felted piece.

Uniques storage set up below a cutting table.  Ricki loves Ikea!!

Val's basement studio is well set up and lit.  Check out her new vintage photograph work - a classy lady.

Lumi Sun Dyeing

I purchased some sun dyes for Alison to use with her Home Ec class at TCI. Val and I thought we should spend some our time together experimenting with the dyes. We had a lot of fun!

Val spent a few hours researching the product (Lumi brand sun dyes are called Inkodye) and you tube sites so we would know the best ways to use it. We collected a bunch of supplies and began.

Here we are set up with a piece of fabric taped to a plastic lined board with wax paper underneath.

Here the fabric has been painted (note the dye has not changed yet, it goes on almost clear) with purple dye.
The lace has been put over to create a cast shadow image.

As we set the piece out in the sun the change in colour happens quickly!!

Val watching the pieces as they develop colour right before our eyes.  Like magic!!

We rinse off the dye in a special harsh detergent and rinse.
This is done twice to ensure the dye is completely removed.

Quilt Stops on the Way Home

Of course we HAD to stop at a couple of quilt shops on our way home from Edmonton. I had seen a quilt store, Quilt Works, advertised in the Country Register, located in Foam Lake, SK, so we decided to stop in. What a great small quilting store. We each bought some goodies.

I told the owner about FAN. She had never heard of the group before. Once I explained it to her, she thought she and a friend of hers may join. You just never know when or where you might bump into fellow fibre artists!!

Great little find in Foam Lake, Saskatchewan.

Cute felted items.  Both of these are pin cushions.
Note - The flowers are felted balls surrounded by petals on tees that can
rest on your sewing machine as a thread holder stick.

Neat quilted rug.  Great way to use up vibrant fabrics!

Making our purchases.

Felted balls bracelet.  

Group Photo

The end if the retreat demanded a group photo. Here we are all out on the grounds of Providence Renewal Centre enjoying the beautiful fall colours and sunshine. Great friendships begun.

Getting together under the trees

Group photo of FAN Retreat 2014 in Edmonton.

Details of Helene and Karen's works

Helene is an amazing folk fibre artist. Each of her pieces tells many stories that you must spend time with the piece to 'read' the many stories.

Their new home in Calgary.

The naked man in the window of the apartment.

Other apartment neighbours.

Moving to Calgary.

Beautiful house with garden - her Calgary employment - gardening.

Karen had some unique treasures buried in one of her works. It was very interesting. 

View of the entire piece - handkerchief sized.
Details below.

More Artist Presentations

Truly the highlight of the FAN retreat was listening to each persons artist presentation. I learned SO much. Good thing I took notes as it all seems a blur.

Jaynie does her work by couching threads onto heavy canvas.
Yes, that means all the blue sky is strips of crotchet cotton sewn on a backing!!

Diane used Anna Hergert's technique "Twisted Landscapes" to make this quilt.

Karen made this Dark Moon based on her favorite sci-fi novels.

Pippa is making a travel blanket.

Detail of the embroidered leaves Pippa is putting on from each area she has traveled to.

Carol with a sampling of her work.

Joyce with a very unique piece.  Made with cheese cloth, fabric and coloured burlap.

Vivian's dip dyed piece that was at CQA this summer.

Lois Hole Hospital

The Lois Hole Hospital is a unique new space, specifically designed by the architect to include works of art throughout. An art director hired in 2007 headed the committee to purchase art for the building that opened in 2010. In that time art has been commissioned and purchased and now resides within the building, including waiting rooms, nursing stations, hallways, examination rooms and patient rooms.

We toured the facility and viewed many of the works, including fibre artist Martha Cole. 

This birds nest sculpture is viewable from the maternity ward!

These hand-pottery urns are in the window well of the basement level and allows light in.
Notice the negative space between the urns.  Surprise! 

Bruce Peel Library

One tour we took while in Edmonton for the FAN retreat was to the special collections section of the library at the University of Edmonton. The curator showed us some amazing artifacts housed there.

The first 'book' he showed us was a dictionary unearthed after being dropped in a river bed in the 1700s. It stayed preserved by the sediments deposited on it. Now it is a natural sculpture!

Book made into a sculpture by being dropped in a river and silt being deposited on it for years.

An accordion-style book with a special feature of text flowing from back of folded page as well as the following page.

Pages of this book are on plexiglass held in a box.  You can read the pages in any order.

A "Widows book".

Pages are ripped out and rolled into small scrolls.
Unnecessary words black out and a new story written.

A satirical reflection on books in the digital age!
Notice how the small books are inserted into this book much like a kindle book list page.

Martha Cole's book called "Air".

A shoeaholics favorite book?

Opens up accordion-style.

Interesting information on women and style in the book.
Notice the article on the right talks about deformed feet.

Leopard-skin cover.

First recovered book on recognizing a witch.
Written in the 1400's in Belgium.

Art Exchange

The time came to dismantle the challenge pieces display. Many of us had our picture taken with the artist who created the piece we exchanged with. What a great piece of memorabilia to take home with us. So much fun meeting everyone😘.

Here I am receiving Dianne's felted art piece of a sheep lost at night.

Beth receiving Mary's art work.

Joyce receiving my flower-pounding piece.