KNITTING FOR WEE FOLKS

I went to the Knitting Camp that Haus of Stitches holds each fall ( and spring if you want to go).  My friend Stephanie and I did a wee 8 hour drive across the country in the fall just to do some knitting.  Well there were quite a few of my friends there as well and everyone was making something interesting from the finest mohair shawls to chunky scarfs and mitts.  What a great weekend to just knit, not make the bed, not make meals and just enjoy!
If you want to go in the spring register early!
I learned how to knit with two colours thanks to Peggi and Wendy coaching me and giving minute by minute advice of how to wrap threads around each other so they don't show in the front of the knitting.
Now I have been on a binge of knitting for the wee folks in my life - not the bunnies by the way.
Late Christmas gifts but they will be sent away very shortly.

Here they are!

I bought 4 balls of yarn and still have enough for about two more hats.  I'll have to find some more wee folks to knit for.

FEATHERLITE FELTING FOR SASKATCHEWAN

Nuno felting samples for Saskatchewan Stitches Conference in June 2016 - yes I have samples done.  Haus of Stitches in Humboldt Saskatchewan has these on display so you can take and look and caress.  They are light as a feather and fabulous to wear!

Merino wool - the princess of wool garments and silk!  Join me for two days of felting making!

AUTUMN GARDEN

Here is the last of the garden in our wee yard.  I looks a bit like a fairy home.  We call it the 'broccoli' plant' since that's what it looks like all summer then in fall the 'broccoli' tops turn all dark pink.  What a lovely yard decore for fall in Edmonton.

 

December thirty

Activities from this year ---Ecoprinting class with Tracy Kuffner.

More photos available on request.  But have a look at Eco-dying Creating Learning on Facebook groups.

 

 

Silk damask

 

Cotton tee shirt

 

Greys Paper

Felted wool scarf

 

 

I just spent 30 minutes writing down all that I did in the last two days - cleaning up office, studio, recovering from Christmas, trying to give away un eaten cookies before I go at them again, reading Ava Lee novels by Ian Hamilton - great detective series, visiting my Red Deer friends, sending Christmas/birthday gifts to Berlin, writing to friends, getting together with a friend who I haven't seen for 6 months - she's been galavanting all over the world - and leaving me behind.  Still more work to do tomorrow to find some kind of clear cover for my teak workdesk in the studio.  Sill knitting Christmas gifts - they will get delivered by next week as they are all wee projects for wee folks.  Generally catching up on my creative self.  And will work on posting to this blog on a regular basis.

Happy New Year!

I'm baaack!

Can't believe I am finally getting access to this blog again.  Don't know what happened.

Wool quilt sample for SASKATCHEWAN STITCHES CONFERENCE IN THE SPRING OF 2016.  Start collecting wool from your stash your unwanted clothing and even value village to make a quilt from wool (and this one is flannel as well).  It is lovely to sew - and warm on the toes.
More to come.

ART WALK

The Art Walk is on this weekend July 11,12 and 13.  Several of my friends have displays. LynnAnn Babiuk has a fabulous calligraphic display and Sara Norquay is printing in Chapters.  Maybe I'll even know a few more artists.  This is my other life after all.

We spent last week in Kelowna BC at the wedding of long time friends.  Tasted a bit of wine, celebrated airplanes - Larry and Arlene you know what I mean - sat on the beach and walked around the Kelowna lakefront on Canada Day.  I was the only Canadian in the world not wearing red.  But I found a flag to put into my backpack.  Photos?  No!  My photographer is on strike it seams.

This is our summer of weddings.  The neighbour's son is getting married tomorrow and our son is his best man.  Photos?  Yes after tomorrow.

Happy Summer!

GELLI PRINTING STUDENT WORK...MORE AND MORE

DAY ONE

PRINTING

 

PUTTING IT ALTOGETHER -  INTERESTING CREATIONS.

 

SASKATCHEWAN STITCHES CONFERENCE

Gelli printing - having more and more fun!

Can't wait to see what these turn into...she had to leave early.  So lots of encouragement to finish a work of art combining these Gelli prints.

Saskatchewan Stitches Conference Daily Update

GELLI PRINTS
STUDENT WORK

See more tomorrow!

Saskatchewan Stitches Conference in Two Weeks

It is only a few weeks away and I am really excited about the conference again this year.
I have been so busy with my bookkeeping business that I have had little opportunity to 'play' with the thread and cloth and paint that is in my tiny studio space.

A friend is coming with me this year so the eight hour drive will seem much shorter and we can catch up on gabbing while en route.

I am looking forward to renewing time with friends, teachers and students and looking forward to new students in my classes this year.

I have been knitting teensy items for friends and family who have been madly producing babies this year.  These knitted things are tiny so keep my interest and use up bits of yarn that have been around for a while.

 

I knitted the wee hat and socks for Kaeley, daughter of a young man who has been like another member of our family and grew up next door to us.  Can't believe he is a dad.

The bear was knitted from handspun yarn by a friend of mine from the Edmonton Weavers Guild.

The teensy sweater does fit on a card and is for the above noted wee princess.

I am busy now working on another embroidery project that will likely be another 10 year project.

 

 

 

Schwalm embroidery is a Germanic whitework of pulled and drawn threads.  I found it in Anna magazine years ago the took a class at the Old Retreat that is sponsored each year by the Edmonton Needlecraft guild and Calgary Guild of NeedleArts.  Won't that instructor laugh when she sees this on the go...I think the year I took this class was 1995 or so!

I am giggling about the UFO's that I am working away at now.  It is fun to do new projects but delightful to go back to look at what I was interested in years ago.

 

I have added Marci Baker's blog to my blog list.  Marci is an amazing quilt maker and business owner from Colorado.  Marci's company is Alicia's Attic.  Have a look at her website and blog.  She has written and published a number of quilting books that you will want to have.

 

I am fortunate to see Marci in two weeks at the Saskatchewan Stitches conference.  Have a look at that on the web as well.  You might want to come to it next week.  There are now about 250 participants over ten days.  Tiny Humboldt Saskatchwan and St. Peters Monastery are over run with sewing enthusiasts for that time. 

 

I think they love us.

 



INSPIRED DIGITAL MAGAZINE

                                                                                       

IT'S FREE!  

From Artistsnetwork.com

                                 http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/6b879b28#/6b879b28/1

EXPLORE NEW ART IDEAS: THE WINTER ISSUE OF INSPIRED INTRODUCES NEW TECHNIQUES AND APPROACHES FOR YOUR ART-MAKING!

Winter is the perfect season for creative exploration. Try out new painting techniques and explore new styles to energize your art. In the latest issue of Inspired, you’ll find creative ideas for using poured paint to create unique effects. You’ll also find an introduction to and demonstration of Chinese watercolor painting. Plus, you’ll enjoy a collection of captivating portraits and figural paintings by a variety of artists in a variety of media! It’s all here in the latest issue of this digital magazine from ArtistsNetwork.com—and it’s FREE.

IN THE CURRENT ISSUE

Exotic Florals: Expand and complement your watercolor painting style with artist Lian Quan Zhen.
Play With Your Art: Discover how to create unique veiled effects in your acrylic paintings using poured paint.
Inspired by People: Enjoy an astounding range of expression for portraying this favorite subject
More Inspiration View these stories, watch video, follow links to more great content and products in the Winter 2013 issue of Inspired!

The Art of Whimisical Lettering - Joanne Sharpe

FROM CLOTH PAPER SCISSORS WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
published by Interweave.com
Go to Interweave.com to sign up for all sorts of interesting newsletters CPS as well as Quilting Arts, Beading Today and others.

This is a great resource for my class at Saskatchewan Stitches Conference this spring

                                                  TXT LETTERING ON FABRIC

7 Tips for Art Journaling Handwriting
by Joanne Sharpe

1. Play around with your own handwriting, creating words and entire alphabets with all the pens or markers on your desk.
2. Write several pages of words and alphabets in many styles of letters, upper- and lowercase, large, small, tall, wide, skinny, and fat. Don't judge, just write pages and pages, sampling your letter flow and creativity.
3. Doodle letters with colored markers. Add colorful patterns, swirls, stripes, lines, and dots to embellish the letters.
4. Look through old magazines and other printed materials to find words and phrases in assorted typefaces and sizes that you find interesting. Cut them out and paste them in your journal. Become a pasting pack rat with anything that you hand letter and make sure it ends up in your journal.
5. Using assorted markers, color in layers and add words on top of each layer.
6. Collect brochures or magaz ine clippings with interesting letter placement and unusual compositions and layouts of text to inspire new ideas and direction for your lettering projects.
7. Do an Internet search for topics relative to lettering, such as lettering, fonts, typeface, handwriting, letters, alphabets, calligraphy, etc. Use your colorful pens and markers to jot down notes and inspirations in your journal as you come across ideas that "speak" to you. ~JS

 

Which one of these tips speaks to you the most? Do you have a lettering tip to share? Personally, I like to experiment with different sizes of pen tips. Fine tips are great for details, but wider tips seem to let me write more loosely. If you love lettering, click here to share this with your followers on Twitter.

Saskatchewan Stitches Conference Samples

"TXT LETTERING ON FABRIC"

Paint and Brush

                                                                        Pen on Canvas

                                                             A to Z Illuminated Letters

                                                              Parallel Pen and Irridescence

These are some of the techniques, pens and brushes that will be presented in the TXT LETTERING class at the Saskatchewan Stitches Conference in May/June.

Register at Hausofstitches.ca

More to come about Gelli Prints!

PAINT STIKS ARE ON SALE

Add to your PaintStik collection with 30% off from Cedar Canyon!

How to Save 30% on Sampler & Starter Packs

 

Saving 30% is super easy. Simply add the Sampler of your choice to your Shopping Cart, enter the code SAMPLER30 in the Special Code box -- it's in the top right corner of the screen -- Click on the Apply button and you should be all set! And yes, you get the same great deal on more than one Sampler.

 

Our 30% Off Sampler Sale ends Tuesday, January 7, 2014. 

This is short notice on this product sale but here it is.

 Go to 

Cedarcanyontextiles.com

THE TEN YEAR PROJECT

Some years ago the Edmonton Needlecraft Guild along with the Greek Kyklos dancers invited Joan Petrakis to Edmonton to teach an emboidery class.  A number of members of the ENG took this class...but not me.  Why was that?  Well I was likely up to my eyeballs in little kids and with husband working out of town most of the time there was little time for fitting in a weekend class and no one to babysit small people.

I have been enjoying the company of a group of friends from the ENG for many years.  The Greek gal had this lovely finished piece on her table at one visit and I complained that I didn't know why I hadn't taken that class.  I loved this piece.  One of the other gals in this group came the following week and flung a package at me saying ' here you are...enjoy'.  It was the kit from the Joan Petrakis class.  Grace had added it to her UFO box and never intended to finish the piece.

Well with that in hand I really had to hop to it.  Well I must have hopped around the world a few dozen times by now.  Grace gave me this kit at least 6 years ago and I have faithfully taken it to the Wednesday stitching group to work on it over all of those years.  And I am finally finished.

Joan Petrakis taught this class in about 1983 - at least that is what the copywrite on her notes say..  By the way these are notes typed on probably an IBM Selectric typewriter with hand drawn illustrations.  Anyone remember that.  This was done long before the iPad and iPod and Adobe Illustrator and Embroidery design software and likely long before any of you even owned a computer.  I have to tell you that my family did own a computer in 1983.  It was a 'portable' weighing in at about 20 pounds (remember those) with a screen about 5 X 5 inches (remember those).

We've come a long way baby!  Here are photos of the embroidery and of Joan's notes for this class.
Enjoy a wee bit of nostalgia...and No Grace I am not giving you this embroidery back.  You can come to my home any time to enjoy it here.  Thanks a mil for your generosity!

Design From Western Macedonia, Greece

Joan Petrakis

1983

Stitched by Jackie Van Fossen

Completed in 2013

Monoprinting With GOLDEN OPEN Acrylics featuring Patti Brady

This video shows a great method of 'print making' with Golden Open acrylics.  I have been doing some print making this summer with my own carved lino cuts as well as gelli plates.  You will be seeing those over the next few posts...in the meantime you can purchase Golden Open acrylics and try this.  (From the Cloth Paper Scissors magazine daily blog post 2.9.2013).  Have a look at these acrylics at

www.goldenpaints.com/highflow

MORE SASKATCHEWAN - MAP JOURNEYS

I have postponed posting more photos of the Saskatchewan Conference for no particular reason except that life at times gets in the way.  But here they are now.

BACKGROUNDS FOR THE MAPPING JOURNEYS PROJECTS

My students were disappointed to miss out on the Sunprinting with Setacolor class last year so since we were a small group I incorporated a few of the techniques from that class into this one for backgrounds.  Using Setacolor fabric paints and laying interesting shapes onto the fabric, they were 'printed' in the sun.  This is a unique aspect of Setacolor transparent fabric paints.  Try it out.  You only need a sunny day and of course the Setacolor Transparent paints.  Leave the fabric quite wet.  Lay out the paint on fabric.  Lay some interesting shapes of stencils or leaves or other items of this sort and let the fabric dry in the sunlight.
Try 'scrunching' up the fabric, or adding salt, or laying your fabric over an interesting texture such as wire or manhole cover or possibly uneven gravel surface.  Students in past years tried these techniques and came up with fabulous backgrounds.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

 

SWISS MOUNTAIN VALLEY

 

Donna was barely home from a fabulous vacation to Switzerland and this was her inspiration.

I am waiting for photos of the finished piece.

 

A WALK THROUGH THE FAIRY GARDEN

 

Valinda really had the juices flowing in her imagination.  Fairy imagery is high on her priority in her work and this is what she chose as her 'mapping journey'.

 

In the class we discussed many different imageries for maps and mapping projects.  Jill Berry's book 'Personal Geographies' was the inspiration for this class.  There are many ideas and ways to interpret 'mapping' in your work and these two were amazing to me..

As usual my students came up with ideas that I would not have thought about...they are always an inspiration to me and I learn something new from every class I teach.

INSPIRATION

 

For new work for me.  This is an aerial photo of Citeus Britannieus in northern Portugal.  I visited this ancient Celtic site on a vacation some years ago.  The mystery still lies close with me.  The shapes and lines - the map of this ancient town where lives were lived on a daily basis more than one thousand years ago - are inspiring for me.  Production of this work will be a series of cloth and paper works.  More on that as the story unfolds.
So for inspiration look to your own experiences and travels for ideas and inspiration.

Summer is in full force here in Edmonton.  My garden is quite lovely right now.  Festivals abound in our fabulous city and I with husband have been on the move a bit enjoying the Alberta summer.

DID YOU KNOW...India Flint has written a really interesting book about natural dyes...ECO COLOUR, Botanical Dyes for Beautiful Textiles.  The photos in this book on their own are fabulous.  Borrow it from your local library and enjoy.  It's summer.  Try out a few of these projects.

Well on to the long weekend and the Heritage Festival.  Another Edmonton summer festival providing inspiration for textile and paper work!

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Everyone knows by now that many people lost their homes and many homes and businesses were severely damaged during the Southern Alberta floods over the past week.
High River received the most damage along with the First Nations just south of Calgary, Bragg Creek area, Canmore and Calgary itself.

Calgarians amazingly have pulled up their socks and are producing the Calgary Stampede as usual.  I spoke to a chuckwagon driver at the Ponoka Stampede this past weekend and he advised that the races and rodeo will be going forward as planned.

If you can help these people in flood ravaged communities, please contact
http://www.redcross.ca/donate/donate-online/donate-to-the-alberta-floods.
Check their website for donations and contributions.

MORE AND MORE GOLD GLITTER AND GLAM

Look at the results of painting and playing and stencilling and stamping and beading and stitching with glittery thread!

Cyanotype or Blueprinting - Stamping - Glitter Glue

Stencils - Paintstiks - Rubbings - Setacolor

Paintstiks - Rubbings - Glitter Glue

Paintstiks - stencils - glitter - Setacolor

Indian wood stamps - Setacolor - glitter glue

Setacolor - stencils

 

Amazing and creative students.   Each student brought their own commercial fabrics and turned them into something fabulous.  They experimented and played with all of those interesting techniques.  And the results are here.  Everyone went home with at least a small art quilt top...several finished the projects in class.

I had a great time coaching and watching the creative process with this great group!

Send me photos everyone.