The 'Square Exhibit" piece

The DesBrisay Museum, in Bridgewater, is having a Square Show! The museum will host a collection of work produced by artists from across Nova Scotia. This show will feature 8" x 8" artwork in a variety of mediums, including watercolour, textile art, oil . . . ! This show is from August 3 to September 7.

Here's my piece. It doesn't have a title yet but it will come to me later today (I hope)!!
I used hand painted fabric that was still packed away from our move to NS, waiting to be used.  A combination of free-motion stitching, hand embroidery, digital printing onto silk for the rocks and hand applique, were used on this piece.

Close-ups

Enjoy!

Bolgathon, Canada - Maritimes

Welcome to the second day of Blogathon Canada! Thanks to Sew Sisters Quilt Shop for sponsoring this event and to Linda at Scrapmaster, and Linda at Stitch Lines, for co-hosting the Maritimes and Newfoundland Labrador.

A little about myself:  I live in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. I've been retired from teaching 17 years (I can't believe it) and having a great time creating with all kinds of fabric, threads, and yarns. To find out how I started creating textile art, please go to a previous post from 2010, Voyage of Discovery.

Since 1999, I have created many textile pieces portraying Newfoundland landscapes and seascapes. I have won several awards for my work, have been published, and had a gallery opening in Chicago, IL. Several pieces of my art have been purchased by the Government of Newfoundland Labrador and by the City of St. John's as part of the art procurement program.

I wasn't satisfied with the commercial fabrics printed with rocks (we have a very rocky terrain) so I researched how to print on fabric from my computer. The discovery of Bubble Jet Set 2000, saved the day, and I have been using it until pretreated fabric became available. I was printing on fabric long before it became popular with many textile artists. The rock fabrics I use are printed from my own photos. I usually cut up a printed sheet and applique the rocks to the background.

In All It's Glory is an example using 'rocks' printed from my computer. This piece was on exhibit at the Grand National Quilt Show, Ontario in 2002. The sky and ocean are hand dyed. The rocks and beach are printed on silk, cut out and each piece appliqued to the surface. The foliage and flowers are stitched onto organza using free motion stitching, cut out and stitched in place.

 

The other photos are samples of the textile art I have created. I thoroughly enjoy what I do. 

Check out my other photos and please visit my Website and things I have saved to Pinterest.

 

At the moment, I am getting ready to participate in the annual Christmas Craft Fair sponsored by the Craft Council of NL. This is the first time in four years that I will have a booth at the fair so needless to say, it's been a busy fall. Since my previous display was dismantled, my husband has been working overtime to get another one ready for set up Wednesday afternoon. The fair opens at noon, Thursday, Nov 20th and runs until Sunday, Nov 23. Maybe I'll see some of my local visitors to my blog there. Please drop by and say hello!

 

Thanks for visiting!

Click on the Blogathon Canada logo to the right of my post for the lists of hosts for the week. Lots to see and lots of quilters to meet.

There will also be some great giveaways!

 

Enjoy 

In All It's Glory

Treasures of the Sea, Award for Innovation and Design

Calm (private collection, California, USA) 

View From The Rooms

The Deep

Quilt for granddaughter

Western Brook Gorge (commissioned piece)
The mountain is dyed cheese cloth.

Gower Street, St. John's (commissioned piece)



Fishermen's Museum, English Harbour West
 (Part of the City of St. John's art collection)

Fishing Stage, Quidi Vidi, St. John's (commissioned piece)

Tea Cosy (private collection)

Pisces Fantastica

Garden Sewing Box (published in magazine, A Needle Pulling Thread;

also won award for Technical Mastery, NL; and Original Design, EAC)

Back Garden (commissioned piece)

 

 

June is the Wedding Month!

This is the second of a three part article by Laura Holden. Check HERE for part one.

Photo Quilts as Wedding Gifts or Favors

To recap:
June and July always seem to be the big wedding months—and wedding anniversaries too, of course—so it’s a good time to hunt down some inspiring ideas and patterns for gifts and decorations. You don’t have to work with fabric specifically to make some gorgeous wedding-themed creations.

For example, a quilt is a wonderful gift for a newly-married couple, but for an interesting twist on the idea, a photo quilt is a great way to make an already personal gift even more so. And it’s certainly less back-breaking work than the traditional double wedding ring quilt!

Melissa Mortenson of The Polka Dot Chair creates gorgeous personalized photo quilts for members of her family, and her site includes not one but two tutorials for printing photos directly onto special photo fabric. It’s also possible to use transfer paper and an inkjet printer to transfer photo images onto fabric. Idonette of D’Vine Living offers a tutorial on this method, which offers the advantage of not requiring dedicated photo fabric.

On a much smaller scale, quilted photo fabric, with photos of the bride and groom as children or adults might be used to create wedding favors such as place cards, small bags or pouches, handkerchiefs, or napkins.

I agree with Laura. Creating unique gifts using photo fabric certainly would make a statement!

For other wedding favors / gifts check the following:

• 50 Great Wedding Favors
• Wedding Favors from Pinterest
• Photo Transfer to Canvas
• Bubble Jet Set 2000
• Printing on Fabric (earlier post)
• Experimental Piece: Row Houses (earlier post)
• Quilty Habit Tutorial using Bubble Jet Set 2000
• Making Memory Candles

Printing on Fabric

Years ago (1999), when I first started in the business of creating fabric landscapes, rock fabric was the hardest to find. When I did come across any, it was way off scale. So I decided to search for other methods to get the fabrics I wanted. My search led me to Bubble Jet Set 2000, invented and manufactured by the C. Jenkins Co. This product 'has revolutionized the way we print on fabric!' As they further state, this non-toxic chemical formula is designed to treat fabric so that permanent images could be printed directly on fabric using an Ink Jet Printer. I have been using this product for years. I take lots of photos of rocks and cliffs to be used in fabric printing. However, I will usually manipulate the photo, sometimes stretching it, before printing out a page of 'rocks'. When working on a piece of art, I will cut up the page and make rocks the size needed for it. I prefer to use silk instead of cotton for the 'rocks' as it is so nice to needle turn and applique in place.

I do print my fabric labels onto 200 thread count cotton (see photo below). After I print and heat set the labels, I put 'fast 2 fuse' interfacing on the back before cutting them out. The labels are ironed on to a project as well as stitched in place. I really don't trust the 'glue' for long time use. I have purchased pretreated white cotton from C. Jenkins and this cuts down on production time. The silk, however, still has to be treated with the liquid.

The iceberg, shown on the second photo, was printed onto cotton, cutout and stitched in place. The sandy beach is from recycled silk that was purchased at Value Village (second hand clothing shop). These shops sometimes have clothes that are perfect for a particular project. All the leather and suede used for the backs of my wearable art pins, come from such places. And, it's way cheaper than going to a tannery for scraps.

Bits & Pieces

I am reading some stuff on different blogs and thought these tattoos might interest you! These aren't just any tattoos, however. You have to be dedicated to put these on your body. Maybe you would like to have this one (scroll down a bit). Cross stitch anyone! Embroidery tattoo but not for me. Can you believe this one!
Now for some stitching. There are tutorials on Anita's Stitching blog. Her blog looks familiar (grin). check these and these. 
Creating an art quilt tutorial using Bubble Jet Set 2000.
To jazz up your quilt check out this one.
Enjoy!

Breath of Fresh Air

I was just checking the traffic on the cluster map in my blog and found a link to stuff about Newfoundland and Labrador. Been a bit curious, I clicked my way through most of it. The various links gives the viewer a small bit of information that makes this 10th province of Canada so unique! If you do nothing else, click here. Make sure you listen to the Fresh Air Audio Clip. We do have very fresh air!
Visit the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador's web site for more interesting 'stuff' (my word for the day)! 

Here's one of my earlier textile landscapes. This represents a small portion of a Newfoundland coastline (my rendition). The sky is hand dyed as is the water (separate pieces stitched together). The cliff and some of the rocks were printed on cotton from my computer (I used Bubble jet Set 2000 to treat the fabric). The bushes were free-motion machine stitched onto organza (check previous post) and the daisies were hand embroidered and added to the foreground to give a 3-D look. All of my landscapes are framed under glass. Check out more of my 'stuff ' here or on my website