Making Faces

At our February meeting, Mary led us in trying a technique from the book, "Making Faces in Fabric", by Melissa Averinos.  (I want to do the cat faces in her workshops section!!)

First we drew a picture of a face, using her instruction, to get the proportions correct. 

Susan and Lori worked from images they had prepared in advance.

Then it was time to try and replicate, or interpret, our drawings on fabric. 

Martha

Lori

Susan

Mary Ellen's looks angry, doesn't it? 

 

Chris

Kathi

 Elaine and Mary Lee decided to work without their drawings and create very different faces. 

Elaine

 

Mary

It should be interesting -and fun!!- to see the finished works!

We're still doing the telephone game*, and it's killing all of  us not to be able to show them, or to bounce ideas off each other.

* Like the game we used to play as kids, but with quilts.  Each of us made a small quilt, which was passed on to the next person.  That person makes a small quilt inspired by the piece they receive, seals the inspiration piece up in an envelope- not to be opened until the big reveal- and passes on her new piece to the next person.  There will be 9 quilts in each group, but each of us only sees what the person in front of us made.

Making our own fabric "paper"

 The ArtCGirlz decided to revive the practice of each month a member shares a technique with the rest of the group.  For the January meeting, it was Kathi's turn.  She shared a sort of fabric decoupage technique, which she called fabric paper.

Kathi shows all how to use plain muslin, white glue and the assorted bits of paper, threads, glitter and other fabrics members were instructed to bring.

 A layer of glue painted on the fabric holds the "bits" in place.

Some of the fun "bits" people brought to play with.

 Early in the process, it's hard to know what you're doing.

 Kathi loves this process and kept playing with different supplies and bits.   

 

 Lori wasn't sure what she was doing, but ended up with a piece she liked. 





















 

 Chris' piece was inspired by the wrinkled bit of tissue paper she started with!

We also exchanged our envelopes for the swap project we're doing this year.  None of us will see them until the swap is complete, so we can't she you.  We're all dying of curiosity!

In February, Mary will be leading a different kind of collage technique.

Finding renewed enthusiasm!

At the November meeting, there was a nice discussion of why we meet and what  the focus of the group will be moving forward.  After show and tell, of course. 

 Kathi's love of all things vintage played a big part in the creation of this lovely little piece.

 At the quilt show in October, Kathi had to have the layer cake of Tula Pink fabrics, and has been making hexies with it!

Martha cut up a quilt she made several years ago and created the bag above, and the "Catzilla" below with the parts she saved. 

Chris made a fleece throw as a gift using a technique she found online.

This picture will serve as a visual record of the order for our next group project (Martha should be between Kathi and Lori. We'll be passing things around in the same order for a while, and need to remember.  :-)

The group has committed to inspiring one another, teaching one another and respecting each other's suggestions and ideas.  We may not have a lot to show for a while, but we will be working together and having fun!

The slice quilt is finished!

The slice quilt was finished in time to hang at the Museum Quilt Guild show in October.  The quilt, made by (left to right) Susan Rathbun, Kathi Everett, Mary Ellen Casey, Mary Kozub and Chris Kuehl, won the award for the best group quilt. 
The president of the New York State Quilters Consortium also selected it as her Award of Excellence winner.  All of the quilts selected at member shows across the state will be part of a special display at the next Consortium quilt show ( I think).

Congratulations, Ladies!!!

Making Progress

 Apologies that it has been so long since the ArtCGirlz  have been updated.    I missed a couple of meetings, and I think one was cancelled due to low attendance.  In my absence, no one took pictures, or maybe there was no show and tell??

But in July- those doing the slice quilt laid out their pieces, minus the two slices other members are working on  It is going to be an amazing piece when it's hung all in one place. 

Mary Kozub has once again agreed to show her micro quilting at the Museum Quilt Guild show in October.  This is the piece she will use as her demo sample. The center was pieced long ago, but Mary was still able to find all the fabrics to finish this.  :-)

Mary is working on a pattern by Laura Heine, so was cutting out some of the flowers she needs.  

 Martha took this little guy with her on vacation to Portland, OR.  It is entirely hand stitched (and Martha held her breath when she stuffed it!).  She calls him Portland.

 Chris made this for her daughter, who is a (you guessed it!) teacher.

At our August meeting, we'll be painting at the Neighborhood Art House.  There's plenty of space, if you'd like to try and paint Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss".  Cost is $35 per person.  No painting experience required, as part of the cost includes the instructor.  It's fun!

Why we gather

The ArtCGirlz meetings have no planned agenda, except for rare occasions.  We meet because we enjoy sharing time together, talking about our families, our quilts and making art.  It works for us.

Cynda is still loving the dyeing process.  She's the only one among us who hasn't minded the extended winter season we've had since she uses the snow for her process.

Her most recent pieces feature the use of some acrylic templates to add shapes to her shibori dyeing.
(Martha is coveting this piece)

Cynda has also been enjoying playing with clay at the Neighborhood Art House, making  pretty Christmas ornaments.

Lori is trying to finish her annual "Squatch" quilt to donate when she and Bill go to the convention (or festival?) in May.  She has been using some new techniques for the shading as well as the 3-d leaves.  Whoever wins this one will be very lucky!

Lori thought it would be fun to add a moon to her next landscape quilt, so she had some printed at Red Dog Enterprises.  The other pictures are just to fill in the piece of fabric, but she has some fun ideas for how she might use them.

Susan is finishing up her "brown phase"- all the projects she brought to the retreat in February were brown.  Her husband couldn't think of anything nice to say about this one, so he has said nothing.  We all think it's very cool!  The buttons on the right hand side don't show very well, but they are a perfect match  for the piecing!

Elaine is using flowers she "found" in her home and garden for cyanotypes.  This piece will be entered into the RAFA Lost and Found challenge.  Isn't that border fabric wonderful?

Elaine also tried silk fusion (I think)- where silk fibers are laid out between screens and textile medium is added to make a sort of fabric paper.  Elaine didn't like hers so she added a thread sketched tree. 

As long as she was thread sketching, she tried it on a different piece of silk.   She's not sure what either piece will be when she's done, but she seems to be enjoying the process (and we are enjoying see what she did!)

Elaine did an online tutorial from Hilde Morin to make this bowl.  She added the circles after the bowl was shaped just to make it more interesting.

Mary Kozub noticed the sad state of her mother's bedspread and decided a new quilt was in order.  Her mom doesn't know it's coming. 

Our friend Kathi and a couple other members of the guild are showing some of their work at the Rotary Gallery at GoArt in Batavia through June 9. It's a nice gallery and a very nice exhibit if you get the chance to visit. 

March Sharing

 At the moment, members are all working on their own projects, but we all enjoy getting together and sharing what we're doing. 


Chris made the background for this at the guild retreat.  The wool shapes are now ready for appliqué.

Chris had one of three blocks ready for this seasonal table runner.

Chris has been making string blocks with her grandson again, but making them into star blocks this time.  

Lori finally got her fish made- a bass for her husband.

Susan is in her brown period.  She added beads to this, but isn't sure she won't change them

Mary Ellen made some chenille for her next RAFA challenge quilt entry.  

Mary Ellen got a lot of work done on this during her vacation

Mary Lee is trying to get her piece from the Paula Nadelstern classes finished.  She got started making kaleidoscopes and couldn't stop!