June Show and Share

Sandy went to a silk tie factory near Chippewas Falls (You have to know someone who can take you there) where you can buy scraps by the pound for just a few dollars. She got a shopping bag full and turned the diamond scraps into crazy quilt squares.






Yummy!


Betty's handmade Christmas Ornaments, commemorating the birth of a new grand child.


Betty's Artist Trading Cards


Karen's beaded charm bracelet.


Michele's thread sketch of Gramma Pickles. Read more about it here.


Michele brought this sample from another batch of rust dyeing. This one was soaked in vinegar and water, then crumpled into a rusty cookie tin, and sprinkled with dry black tea (as from a tea bag). It was left to sit in the sun for 2 days.


This one was shibori-wrapped around a rusty pole.


Sample of the Fimo/Sculpy Clay faces we made at the June Meeting. These were made by Jo. Thanks to Karen for leading the session. Bake your clay and bring the faces back next month when Betty will show us how to bead hair for them, similar to this pin she brought months ago :

May 2010 newsletter

SNIPPETS from Conversation in Cloth

Meetings are held on the last Thursday of the Month at the Menasha Public Library ay 6:30 PM

MAY 27, 2010
Members Present: Lois, Lynda, Michele, Theresa,
Jo Anne, Pat, Sandy, Brenda, Julie, Betty & Karen

Guests: Betty introduced her friend Georgina Holden.

Announcements:  Be sure to wear your nametag each month. New members and guests will have an easier time getting to know us.
 Newsletters will be posted on the blog starting next month.
 Bring your ATCs if you have them to share in June
 Michelle passed out a final membership list. As it is now on the CiC blogspot, we will no longer be printing these.
 The group voted to suspend Julie’s dues as she does all of the work getting the facility and equipment lined up.

Results of the Road Kill Challenge
7 members brought their Road Kill challenge pieces to show. They were all very versatile and innovative. The artists and titles are:
Michelle – Rich
Brenda – Whimsy
Lois – Which Road Will you Take?
Lynda – Found Yarn died with pomegranate, onion skins and oak leaves
Betty – Plastic Bag Sandwich Purse
Pat – Self Portrait
Karen Self Portrait
Photos and more detailed explanations can be found on the CiC blogspot. If you do not have access to this site, please check with Michelle.

Show & Share (with pictures) is posted on the CinC blog at http://conversations-in-cloth.blogspot.com/. Items included Pat’s Cochina Man; Theresa’s Star in Stars Quilt; Michelle’s Mayfly; Sandy’s clutch purse made from a man’s tie; Karen’s clothesline basket; Lynda’s conventionally dies wool balls, Georgina’s afghan and Betty’s beaded art piece. Brenda shared a copy of a new magazine called Quilt Life published by Ricky Timms and Alex Anderson.


Upcoming Programs:
Theresa reported on the work that she has been doing to coordinate bringing Karla Spinks to the group for a thread painting workshop. The event is scheduled for Saturday, October 16 at a place to be determined. We are also working on finalizing the cost for the workshop which we think it will be very reasonable.

Karen also announced that Phyllis Cullen will be coming to a Women Who Run With Scissors workshop on November 13 & 14 at Goodwill in Green Bay. There are several openings and the cost will be $135. The topic is expected to revolve around the styles of the old masters, quilts from photos and what makes a good photo for a quilt. You can visit Phyllis’s website at www.phylliscullenartstudio.blogspot.com to see her work.

Next Month – June 24: Polymer Clay Faces demonstrated by Karen. Bring the following:
 1 block of FILO or two blocks of Sculpy clay. This will make 6 to 10 faces depending on the size you make.
 Cutting board or cardboard to cut on.
 Craft knife (e.g. Xacto) or pocket knife
 shoe box lid or other box to carry your beads home in.
We will be using the face beads for a pin demonstration in July by Betty.

2010 Future programs:
July 29 - Betty shows us how to make hair out of beads (as for brooches) with the polymer clay faces we made in June. You can also bring a face bead if you already have one.
August 27 – Lynda will demonstrate felting techniques
September 30 – Lois will demonstrate clothesline baskets
October 28 – Sandy will show up how to make clutch bags from a man’s tie.
December 9 – Annual Christmas Party


Remember: a new CinC program chair is needed. It’s easy. Just work with CinC members to set up demonstration, schedule a field trip or invite a guest speaker. Without one, we won’t have the neat demonstrations that we have had in the past!

May Show & Share

Karen made a clothesline basket at a class run by Lois.
We'll probably be making these baskets at a fall CinC meeting. Lois says buy your all-cotton clothesline NOW. It's a seasonal item that won't be available in fall or winter.


Inside Karen's Rainbow clothesline basket.


Karen's felted clutch bag, made at a May workshop run by Lynda (our resident Felter and Fiber Artist).


Betty beaded an amazing Ocean "to use up some old beads." She used 1500 yards of Fireline in this piece. See if you can find the squid - brain coral - and seaweed.


Detail of Betty's Ocean.


Betty's Paisley bag.


Michele's thread sketched Lakefly postcard. It is May, after all!


Sandy's Neck Tie Bags made from Fox Valley sewing instructor (coach) Donna Teagan's pattern.


Georgina (guest) is knitting an afghan.


Lynda's varigated dyed wool yarn (which she does with a canning jar set-up).


Theresa's Family made a Star-within-a-Star Quilt.


Pat made a set of Artist Trading Cards.


Pat's Indian Dancer Quilt.


Brenda discovered a new magazine that is worth a look. Click on the picture to learn more ...

Reveal of Walk-a-Mile Challenge

May was the big reveal of Karen's Walk-a-Mile Challenge.

The basics for this challenge : Walk one mile down the road of your choice and pick up anything that you can find that has possibilities. Work it into a wall hanging use anything you find, muslin, one focus fabric (it must be something you already own, there is no shopping involved in this challenge) and all of the paint, ink and anything else you want.


Karen presented her self-portrait that used a rust-dyed fabric for a background, potato chip bag for body and flowers. Curly hair is cut from a foam tube. Stars are cut from a mylar bag food bag.


Michele made a riverbed postcard from a zapped Ghiradhelli chocolate chip bag, net, a scrap from a billboard, lace and beads. Read more about the making of it.


Brenda's "Whimsy" includes an old pizza box transformed into a moth, beer bottles, Skoal tins and more ...


Detail of Brenda's Whimsy.



"Which Path Would You Take" by Lois incorporates product wrappers turned into billboards along a road; cars made from a lighter and Caramex tube; a music CD for Sweetest Day turned round-about. She mounted it all on an old canvas.


Lynda dyed wool yarn with compost - pomegranite and onion skins with Madder Root (and some synthetic red) with oak leaves. (In the corner, you can see part of the vest she is knitting from her Newfie's dog's wool.)


Betty used a technique seen on Quilting Arts using recycled plastic shopping bags, green net bags, sequins, a broken bike reflector (among other things) fused with a heat tool to make the composed fabric for this clutch.

Detail shot of another sample of Betty's composed plastic bag fabric.


Pat made a self-portrait from items she found along a road in Arizona. Her self-portrait incorporates seed pods, a shoelace, broken glass, broken concrete, and a bent bottle cap for lips.

Karen provided a book prize for participants (won by Brenda in a drawing):

Making Fabric Beads : Demo by Lois W.

Detail of an embellished fabric bead in Lois' Persephone wall hanging (mixed media).

The full Persephone by Lois W.


From a bag of fabric scraps like this, you can make fabric beads. Some of these scraps are already backed with fusible. If not, Lois recommends the THICK version of Heat 'n Bond.


In this picture, it's a little hard to tell that Lois is rolling a triangle of fabric onto a wooden dowel or knitting needle over a hot iron. The iron is hot-side up (so be careful not to burn yourself) so it can engage the fusible.


That's how you end up with tubes like these, which can be cut down to the desired size and embellished.


This is some wire that Lois scavenged from a dead electrical appliance (a bread maker?). She is using the copper wire to embellish her fabric beads in the following pictures :


You can string other beads onto the wire and wrap them onto the fabric bead. You could also wrap with yarns.

You can also work with Kunin Felt and a heat gun to make fabric beads.

Wrap the painted, embellished felt around a wooden dowel (metal knitting needles can get too hot). YOu may need to pin it so it stays in place while you are zapping it :



A zapped Kunin Felt Bead.



This is an example of how the Kunin felt distresses and gets "moth-eaten" with the application of heat.

Some examples of composed fabric made with felt, organza, beads, metallic and acrylic paints and other bits of leftovers and scraps. Lois said these were entirely held together by just zapping it with the heat gun :


Although these look like beautiful pieces in-and-of-themselves, they could all be cut up and used to make fabric beads as described above.




This one may be on a base of painted Tyvek.

For more information, check out the following books (Don't forget to try your local public library.) :

Fabric Art Workshop by Susan Stein


Raising the Surface with Machine Embroidery by Maggie Gray

If you make any fabric beads using these (or other) techniques, please bring them to a future mtg of CinC. Thanks for the demo, Lois.