Needle Felting

On Monday evening, a bunch of my stitch friends and I, took a mini workshop on needle felting from Anne Lucas, Foggy Rock Fibres. Anne creates painted and hand spun yarns, felt and knitwear. Please check out her website!

We had a wonderful time creating our own little needle felted cats.  Have a look!!

Thanks to Fiber Lily, 10 Highland Drive, for hosting the workshop. This new store specializes in organic and speciality fabrics. Check back as I will be writing more about St. John's newest fabric shop very soon.



Happy Halloween!
My friend made these. 

This one is mine.

The Bunch

2013 International Quilt Association, Houston, Texas

I just read that Elaine Quehl, Ottawa Art Quilter, just won first place for "Curtain Call 2" in the "Art-Naturescapes" category. Congratulations, Elaine!

I took a class with Elaine last year here in St. John's. Her art quilts are just marvelous! Check my past posts HERE and HERE for more on Elaine.

If you want some spectacular 'eye candy', all the 2013 winners at the Houston Quilt Show are posted HERE.

Enjoy!

Autumn Pallette

Summer is definitely my favorite season, however, the vivid colours in my garden at the moment, are spectacular (photos taken this afternoon). I am already planning some new reversible Fibre Lace Scarves using some of them. The only autumn coloured one I made this year, was purchased at Some Good Market last Saturday (see below).

Using colours from nature is one way to plan a colour scheme for a project. I've made a small list of sites to visit with this in mind. 

• Check some out HERE and HERE.
• Earth tone from Creative Color Schemes
• Butterflies
• Creative Curio

Enjoy!

 

 

 



Matryoshka Dolls

I'm still finding photos of my summer vacation that I meant to share. While walking around the Glebe, a neighborhood in Ottawa, I came across an alley with some beautifully painted Matryoshka Dolls. Doesn't the brick wall look interesting and so colourful! Can't you just see these paintings translated into a quilted or an embroidered piece?

This type of doll, also known as Russian nesting dolls, refers to a set of wooden dolls that decrease in size and placed inside the other. When I was a child, I had a set of  these.

The yarn, pictured at the bottom, was purchased at Yarn Forward, another shop I visit whenever I'm in the Ottawa area.

Check out these sites for some interesting patterns for these little dolls:

• Here's a free crochet pattern for making your own set of these dolls.
• Sew Daily has a set for you to sew. 
• Tutorials for making the dolls.  
• Doll ornament 
• Finger puppet 
• 'Tis the Season

Enjoy!

Reversible Fibre Lace Scarves

I have been busy these days, creating more reversible Fibre Lace Scarves. Each scarf is a one-of-a-kind piece of wearable art. Not only do I visit quilt shops on my travels but yarn shops too. I find lots of beautiful decorative yarns to use in my art. You should see my stash!

I have nine finished as you can see below. Some are a bit longer than others but I can do them in any length. My scarves were juried a few years ago by the NL Craft Council and sell in the Craft Council Shop here in St. John's. Tomorrow, I will be taking them to Some Good Market! 
Take a look and enjoy!

This one and the red scarf below are the same one. They are reversible.

The reverse of this side is below.

Quilted Pottery

For the last few days, I have been posting about some beautiful pottery that was on exhibit (and for sale) during the Thanksgiving Weekend, at the Quidi Vidi Village Plantation, St. John's.

So, I thought, why not blog about quilted pottery. I've come across that topic before when researching other textile based art work!

Well, I found a bunch of 'stuff', among them a Quilted Mad Tea Party Set and it's free to download. Maybe someone out there will be inspired enough to give it a try. If not, check out these other tea pot related projects:

• Mary Beth Bellah has been making quilted tea pots for several years. Check them out.
• More quilted teapots HERE
• Teapot Ornament
• Tipnut Tea Cosies
• Paper Pieced Teapot Pattern
• Tea Cosy for a Proper English Tea
• Tea & Quilts - Part 1
• Tea & Quilts - Part 2
• Teapot Quilt Applique
• Teapot

Enjoy!

Quilted Mad Tea Party Set

Feast of Pottery - Part Three

As promised, here's the rest of the photos from Feast of Pottery.
Enjoy!

Feast of Pottery - Part Two

Here's a few more photos from the Feast of Pottery. To be honest, it was a spectacular display of table pottery. Check out the tea pots below. Gloria Hickey, craft writer, had a great write-up on her blog about this event.
Enjoy!

Feast of Pottery

This afternoon, I visited a Feast of Pottery (see a list of participants below), at the Quidi Vidi Village Plantation. Alexis Templeton, a well known St. John's potter, has been curating this event the last several years. In fact, it looks like it will become a yearly event held on the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. I was given permission to take lots of photos to show to you. I will probably have to do several posts to cover the exhibition.

Here's a list of the award winning international ceramic artists featured in this show:

• Robin Beckett
• Katrina Chaytor
• Chanda Droske
• Mike Kern
• KyoungHwa Oh
• Adam Paulek
• Liz Proffetty
• Isabella St. John
• Deb Schwartzkopf
• Wendy Shirran
• Alexis Templeton
• Inge Vincents
• Malley Weber
• David Hayashida & Linda Yates

One piece, by David Hayashida and Linda Yates, was of particular interest, as it had a quilt hanging on a clothesline. As many of my followers are quilters, I thought this would be a fitting first piece to display. Enjoy the rest of the show and check back later for more photos. Oh, the little red dots on some pieces, means it's sold! In fact, most of the pieces have been purchased.



Sweet Little Present!

Don't you just love to receive gifts! Well, I received a sweet little present from one of my stitching friends the other evening. Yes, it's Dress It Up Buttons! And, ones I need for a special Christmas project I'm working on. I couldn't get these here in the city but my friend found them in a little florist shop in Springdale, Newfoundland. My project won't be ready for this Christmas so I can't show much in the way of photos. It will be ready for next year and will be hand delivered next summer. The tiny buttons will be doorknobs. The background is stitched with Sulky Sliver 8040. I love that particular Sliver Metallic Thread as it picks up the colours of the fabric its stitched on. The tree isn't finished yet either. So many things to do!!
I hope you are working on some special projects and getting somewhere with them.
Enjoy!

Temari Balls

The second Tuesday of each month, five of my friends and I get together at one of the houses for some stitching. Last year one of the ladies had a mini workshop and taught us how to make Temari Balls. I did a couple and have some ready to start with the stitching but other things seem to get in the way. However, one of the 'gals' took quite a shine to this type of stitching and has made many beautiful Temari balls.
Have a look!
The photo for this first one doesn't do it justice! The background is silver threads which makes the piece glisten. It is really beautiful. The second photo shows another one almost completed. You can see the pins for placement of threads. By the end of the evening, the piece was finished except for some crystals. Unfortunately, the lighting for last photo wasn't very good. It is really very vibrant with the turquoise threads.

If you are interested in the art of Japanese Thread Balls, check HERE, and HERE. For some free patterns, check out Japanese Temari, by Barbara B. Seuss.
Enjoy!