I am part of the Fibre Art Connection – and a blog hop!

Hello again.  Two days in a row.  I will blog more, I will blog more, I will blog more.  I promise.

Yesterday’s post was all about the past.  Today’s is about the immediate future.

Today is my turn to be part of the Fiber Art Connection Blog Hop.  Hooray.  I am so honoured to be part of this group.  It is proof that opportunity opens up more opportunity.  I would not be part of this group if I did not meet Desiree when filming QATV.  I would not have filmed QATV if I did not meet and get to know Susan Brubaker Knapp (and take her to the zoo to see Platypus).  I would not have meet Susan if I did not bring Judy Coates Perez to Australia and so it goes.  Life is full of opportunities and you must seize them.

So I really hope that you will want to be part of the Fiber Art Connection.  Who knows where it will take you….

http://www.fiberartconnection.com

Desiree’s vision is that this forum is a completely new type of online class, it’s taught by a group of amazing (if I do say so myself!) fibre artists and we want to build a community.  There are 10 weeks in the session, each week a different teacher runs a different class, with material presented across the week. Format for each class is determined by the teacher and will vary.  There’s a great FAQ here: that explains how it works. Your access to all the content never expires, but our intention is to provide 3 months of artist synergy and inspiration to the members of the class, so jump in and get started.

Registration CLOSES on March 15, you must be registered by then in order to be a student in Session 1!  Don’t miss out.

So, I am about half way through the blog hop.  If you have not looked at what the others are doing, it is not too late.  Just follow the links below and learn more about some amazing women artists.  How cool is it that I can share amazing women on International Women’s day!  I tell you.  My life is charmed.

Blog Hop Schedule:

• 3/1: Desiree Habicht
• 3/2: Candy Glendening
• 3/3: Liz Kettle
• 3/4: Roxane Lessa
• 3/7: Ruth Chandler
• 3/8: Cecile Whatman (here you are!)
• 3/9: Deborah Babin
• 3/10: Rayna Gillman

The Blog Hop is about more than just meeting new artists.  We want you to find out about our course and if you can, join. We also would like your help in sharing the information and excitement.  So, we have put together an phenomenal bundle of goodies.  Each of us have put in a big pile of textile art materials which will support all the classes or any project.  This bundle is amazing and you will want to win it.  You can enter to win in a number of ways:

1. Join the online community, registering for the classes – MUST be before 15th March or you will miss out;
2. Leave a comment at the end of this blog post;
3. Share this post or course details on your own social media and tell us (here works) that you have done it

You can comment or share up until midnight US time 14th March 2016.  To make it easier for you, I have added a comment question at the bottom of this post.  Here is a picture of the bundle. Don’t you want it?  I know I do.

 

If you want more information on what we are doing, go to the website: http://www.fiberartconnection.com

So, now a bit about me.

1) What draws you to the fibre arts? Why do you work the way you do?

I LOVE the freedom and creativity of fibre art.  I love to use paint and dye to create a unique surface or background.  I love to draw inspiration from nature and reflect the world as I see it.  I love that I can use fabric and fibre to tell a story, make a statement, express myself.  I also love traditional and modern quilting.  I like the maths and precision in that, but I love the FREEDOM of textile art.  I started hand dyeing wool and silk fibre and fabrics such as silks and velvets (and felt and wool and anything else that does not move fast enough) because I wanted my colours, my way.  I wanted texture and I wanted it all at my finger tips NOW.  Creating layers and texture, that gets my blood flowing!

2) Tell us about your studio! Where in the world is it? Is it clean or messy? Is it hidden away or out in the open?

Firstly, I live in Canberra, Australia.  Most of you in the US will not have heard of it and I do intend to make you feel shame (in the nicest possible way) by pointing out that Canberra is our nation’s capital. Look it up.  It is a fabulous place to live.  By car, we are about 3 hours south west of Sydney and 8 hours north east of Melbourne. (Remember that Australia is an equivalent size to continental USA.)  See the A on the map below.  We are at the gateway to the Australian snow fields (truly, we do get some snow) and about two hours to glorious beaches.  Canberra is a great place to live and has been voted the most liveable city in the world by the OECD.  We actually don’t want people to know that as we like things here just the way they are.

My studio is my great disgrace.  We moved house 15 or so months ago and my studio space looked like this.

It still does!  So I pretty much work everywhere in the house.  There are two rooms dedicated to my younger son which are out of bounds to me and our bedroom is seldomly used.  I have been known to rinse metreage of hessian/burlap in the bathroom, but mainly I keep that clear, but all other space and surfaces are fair game.

As I am running numerous online classes using dyes and paints, I have set up an outside work area to film these and keep the place clean.  I like it out there as I am surrounded by my roses and sunflowers.

3) What’s your favourite colour and why?

Oh my.  That is an impossible question to answer.  I love all the colours.  I dye my fabrics and fibres in over 40 colourways because I keep coming up with one I can’t live without.  I do like red for myself.  I wear a lot of reds; from pale pink to burgundy.  Some days I am very drawn to cool blue/green/violet colourways and am increasingly finding myself drawn to autumn tones and neutrals, but seriously there is no colour I can’t find a role for.

4) Tell us about the class you’re teaching in The Fiber Art Connection. What do you hope your students will learn from this?

I am teaching Riverbed.  I mentioned earlier that I draw a lot of inspiration from nature.  I love to capture life in art and I mean life in all of its non animal glory.  I grew up in far north Queensland, near the Northern Territory border.  (Mount Isa, Qld for those of you who want to Google it.)  This is very much our ‘bush’ or ‘outback’.  Not ‘country’ or farming, there is not enough water to grow much other than beef.  This is mining country – copper, lead, zinc and silver to be exact.  So, from the my earliest memories, a sense of country has shaped my identity.

So, Riverbed is a class on capturing your environment.  You can change the colours to suit your environment.  The sample, below, shows the colours I photographed in the Snowy Mountains whilst on holiday one time.

You can’t always get fabric the way you want it, so I show you how to make your own from silk and wool fibre.  I also show you how to make depth and three dimension with a range of embellishments.  I want you to experiment with things you may never have used and start to imagine the potential.  Step outside the comfort zone and you will be amazed at what you can do.

5) Where else can we find you on the internet?

I am all over the internet, lol.  Here are some:

1. Website:  http://www.uniquestitching.com.au
2. Blog:  you are here.
3. Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uniquestitching
4. or : http://www.facebook.com/mixedmediamayhem

I am also running these online classes – details can be found on my website:

• Almost Alchemy – Dyeing with Procion Dyes
• Stunning Surfaces – A surface design masterclass and
• Tremendous Textile Arts Techniques – an art quilt journey.

I am on Twitter and Instagram too, but not very good on either so join me on Facebook or this Blog.

Please leave a comment.  If you would like to, I would love to know what sort of environment you would like to capture in textile art.

Textile Art Retrospective – where did this all begin?

I am in the process of finalising all the content for my first online comprehensive textile art class.  As I build the structure for the material, I find myself thinking back on the journey that bought me here.  Like many of you, I started sewing in my teens, did a lot of traditional hand embroidery and in the early 1990’s, morphed into patchwork when my babies came along.  In 2001, Unique Stitching was launched as a traditional patchwork business.  A number of issues brought me to the art quilt world.  First amongst them was a restlessness that made me want to try different things coupled with a strong sense of independence, demanding that I find my own style.  When I then could not find materials I wanted or if I found them the pricing was outrageous due to monopolies or restrained trade arrangements, I became determined to source and create my own products.

In 2005, I brought in Procion dyes and started dyeing ‘speciality’ fabrics: velvets, wools, silks and a world of different fibres.  At the end of 2005, I created my first sets of creative embroidery packs containing hand dyed velvet, silk jacquard, silk top, cocoons and thread.  I could have kissed the first person to buy one of my packs, such was my relief, at the Brisbane Craft and Quilt show where I launched that range.

In 2007, I launched the Art Quilt Collection (AQC).  This was the first time in Australia, and possibly the world, where there was a monthly mail out of textile art materials.  Each pack had a product, an explanation of that product and how to use it plus a simple project to create. Since that time, many have adapted my idea in different ways.  I had no idea what I had started, but it was clear that my future was definitely more on the art side of the page.  When I launched AQC, I hoped to get about 25 people to sign up.  In 2009, when we peaked at over 2500 participants and I was spending three weeks out of every four preparing the packs, I decided it was time to move on.

Since that time, we have expanded our ranges; I have taught around the world; been published in Quilting Arts Magazine; and been on QATV in the US.  It is a charmed life.  Now I want to spend a bit more time at home and the future for sharing what I know is increasingly teaching: face to face and online.

I hope that you can join me as this year will see lots of exciting online offerings, from me as well as a collective I am part of.  To find out more about my first Textile Art online class, go here:  http://tinyurl.com/z5ewlbg

Tomorrow I will talk about the Fiber Art Connection as it will be my day on our Blog Hop.

In the meantime, I want to share a few pieces of my first Art Quilt series.  This was part of my AQC work and mainly focused on manipulating and distressing fabric, with stress and heat.  This is now only one of many tools I use and each piece is a small, simple example, but it is nice to look back on.  This is not the full series, but gives you a sense.  It has an environmental theme.

Under the Watch of our Ancestors

Acid Rain

Home in a Concrete Jungle

Through Rose Coloured Glasses

Interconnectedness

Erosion (the lighting on this is not very good, sorry)

Cellular Breakdown

 

 

 

 

 

 

8 fabulous tutors, one online community

I am very excited to tell you about my next venture.  I am part of the Fiber Art Connection.  This is an online class, but better – an online community for you to join and share.  I am so honoured to be amongst this amazing group of artists.

http://www.fiberartconnection.com/

This series of workshops will have each of us taking charge for a week and sharing ideas, techniques and some projects.  You will have access to lots of varied, but complementary skills for you to take on as they are released or when ever it suits you.  As an online series of classes, you can do these at your leisure when and where it suits you.  You can even do it in your pyjamas if you prefer.  Most importantly, once you are registered, you have access to the material forever.

Here are the line up of tutors in the order of their material being released and where you can see their work.

1. Desiree Habicht – http://www.desireehabicht.com/
2. Candy Glendening – http://www.candiedfabrics.com/
3. Liz Kettle – http://www.textileevolution.com/
4. Roxane Leesa – http://roxanelessa.com/
5. Ruth Chandler – https://ruthchandlerdesignsblog.wordpress.com/
6. me!
7. Deborah Babin – http://www.deborahbabin.com/ and
8. Rayna Gillman – http://www.studio78.net/

There will be a blog hop, give aways and great workshops.  We plan on having some fun!  Why not join us.

Registration opens on February 15th and the first class kicks of March 15th.  Follow this link to read more:  http://www.fiberartconnection.com/what-is-fac.html

triangles, my favourite of all the shapes

I do love triangles.  I particularly love them when they come together to form different shapes and patterns.  I could seriously put triangles into everything.  Here is one of my favourite old quilts built on triangles and appliqué.

 

These next three are also amongst my favourites of my more traditional quilts.

It is all in the placement and the use of colour.  There are dozens of different rulers that allow you to cut and sew triangles, but I am a bit old school and like to use actual maths.  I have a handout that you can download to help with the calculations and sewing instructions which you are welcome to use if it will help.

Using Triangles

Patterns for these quilts plus more are available at http://www.uniquestitching.com.au

Out and About – Eumundi Markets

If you are a regular follower of mine, you probably know that I am having some time off for the Christmas break.  We are on the Sunshine Coast, Qld and have been having a lovely time.

Today, we headed out to Eumundi for the Markets there. Now, many would have suggested that this is a complete act of insanity due to the crowds expected on probably one of the busiest market days of the year. And it probably was, but I thought it worth the time and effort.

The traffic, both foot and road was horrendous.

 

The Eumundi markets began in 1979 and it would have only been a year or two after that I visited as a child. A lot has changed in that time, but a lot was as I remembered it. There is no doubt the size is different. When I was there last, probably in around 1985, the whole market was on the pavements of the Main Street. However the feel of the market and the general mix of stall holders felt the same today despite being enormously bigger than I last saw.

If you want to see the website for the “original” market, go here:  http://www.eumundimarkets.com.au

There now is both the Original Market and about four other market areas, all maintaining the theme of hand made or grown.  In some areas you can find mass produced goods, but these remain in the minority.  There is also a lot of wholistic health products, loads of massage and reflexology, more palm or tarot readings than I have ever seen in one place and a simply huge array of food; fresh home produce and cooked food from around the globe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I want that Paella pan!

The Tibetan Momos were delicious.

My favourite traders were in one of the newer areas, the Eumundi Square.  Here are some photos of them.

All in all, a nice trip despite the crowds.

 

 

 

12 Days of Christmas – Day 12 – Textile Art Kits

If you are reading this, it is probably no surprise to you that I like to work with lots and lots of different fabrics to get a good mix of texuture and light reflection and refraction.  You can’t go past adding different types of fabrics to change the visual impact of a finished piece.  I have routinely been asked to create kits for some of my more textural quilts.   So, I have started doing that.  For today’s special, I offer 25% off any kits currently listed on the website while stock lasts.  I don’t have huge numbers of any of these kits.  To get the discount, you need to use the discount code Christmas15

Here is the link to Kits on the website:  http://www.uniquestitching.com.au/c/256569/1/kits.html

And here are pictures of the kits I have loaded up

12 Days of Christmas – Day 11 – Foundation Piecing and 2016 BOMs

I love paper piecing or what is often called foundation piecing.  The foundation does not have to be paper.  Foundation piecing is an old, old technique that is still as applicable in modern quilts and contemporary quilting as ever before.  It is the single best technique for very precise and accurate seams, allowing you to complete some very complex blocks with ease.

Foundation piecing is a bit counter intuitive when you first start, but once you get the first couple of pieces stitched down, it is quick and very easy.  I will embed a link to a tutorial below.

There are a number of fabulous quilt designers using foundation piecing predominantly in their quilts.  The work of Jaqueline de Jong and Judy Niemeyer,  both of whose patterns I will have in stock in the new year, are great examples.  However one of my favourite design pairs using paper piecing are the mother/daughter team that are Sassafras Lane Designs.  In 2015 I ran their Arcadia Avenue Block of the Month.  In 2016 I am running their Empire Place BOM.

Here are the two colourways I am running:

My Christmas special on these is that if you enrol in the BOM in the next 48 hours, I will send you two additional foundation piecing quilt patterns as a bonus.  Value will exceed $30.

Here is the link if you would like to get more information and/or register

http://www.uniquestitching.com.au/p/9083817/empire-place-block-of-the-month-by-sassafras-lane—pre-order-for-february-2016-start.html

Here is a link to the Sassafras Lane tutorial on foundation piecing.  I think it is a bit more complicated than entirely necessary, but take the ideas and work out what works for you.

http://sassafras-lane.com/blogs/news/7240948-sewology-sunday-paper-piecing

12 Days of Christmas – Day 10 – Modern Clearance

Today is less of a Christmas special and more of a Christmas clearance, but the end result is the same.  I have fabric and patterns that I just want to get rid of so I have priced these at around and below half price.  My standard pricing was below recommended retail to start with and now I have dramatically reduced these.  So please take them to your house.  Here are the three details:

Modern Plaids – reduced by 50%.

These plaids are not the low quality that you expect.  They are the same fibre and thread count as all the normal patchwork fabric and are great for childrens clothes and toys, household items, rugs and of course gorgeous quilts.   Here is the link:  http://www.uniquestitching.com.au/p/9056684/12-days-of-christmas—day—10-modern-quilt-studio—modern-plaid-collection.html

Modern Plaid Quilt Kit

I have kitted up the free pattern that the manufacturer provided for these fabrics (plus a couple of others).  It is a very effective quilt and I use my version as a picnic rug.  Instead of putting on a traditional backing, I backed it with Multipurpose Cloth to give me a water proof background.

Here is the link to the free pattern:  http://www.andoverfabrics.com/Quilts/The%20Modern%20Plaid%20Collection.pdf

and here is the link to buy the kit:  http://www.uniquestitching.com.au/p/9059566/12-days-of-christmas—day-10—modern-plaid-quilt-kit.html

The final part of this clearance is a deep discount on the Modern Quilt Studio patterns.  Again over 50% of RRP.  Go here to see the options:  http://www.uniquestitching.com.au/c/4552122/1/modern-quilt-studio-.html

12 Days of Christmas – Day 9 – Working with Hessian or Burlap

Hessian is one of my favourite ‘specialty’ fabric as it has such great texture.  When you mix up your fabrics using some rough, some shiny, some flat, some luscious, you get a lot of visual contrast, dimension and complexity.

Generally working with the specialty fabric is not that much harder than working with cottons, but some may need some extra love to get them to behave.  Hessian does need a little bit of preparation to get it to be nice.  It is, fundamentally an industrial fabric, not designed for fine sewing and textile art projects but that does not mean we can not use it.  I want to discuss some of the issues.

1.  It is grubby, flakes and smells.  Yes, it does all of those things.  However it also washes easily, can easily be ironed and softens once washed.  Washing it can be a challenge.  If you have a large amount, you need a big container to soak it in.  Don’t put it in your washing machine.  If you have small pieces, the movement of washing it might result in a lot of fraying and unravelling.  See below about fraying.  I have largely fixed this problem for you with the hand dyed hessian.  The process of scouring, dyeing and rinsing the dyed hessian has removed almost all of the excess fibre, has cleaned out all the rubbish and significantly softened the hand of the fabric.  I have also cut off the frayed bits and put them in my stash.
2. It frays.  Yes, it can do that too.  You can hem the hessian, including a blind or rolled hem or you can stitch the edges to stabilise them.  If you have an overlocker (serger) use this or just do solid zigzag around the edges a couple of times.
3. It is itchy and prickly.  Once it is washed, this is largely resolved, but don’t use hessian in a bed quilt or baby toys for obvious reasons.
4. It is hard to cut straight.  Although this does not bother me that much personally, I understand that you might not be comfortable with unevenness.  This is easily resolve by finding the first straight strand or thread that reaches from each ends of the hessian.  Slowly pull that out and you will have a clear, straight channel to trim the hessian back to.

Despite some of these negatives, hessian is well worth including in your textile and mixed media work.  In small amounts it can really change the visual impact of a piece.  It is also a fabulous textural background that leaves scope for pretty much any project direction.  It irons well and can be used with any double sided web such as Vliesofix etc.

I have 20 different colours in hand dyed hessian and todays special is for you to buy six but only pay for five.  I also have a small number of scap bags available on the website.

http://www.uniquestitching.com.au/p/8828590/hand-dyed-hessian-pieces—20-colours-to-choose-from.html

This photo shows 18 of the 20 colours.

Like most things, there are heaps of ideas and photos on the web.  Google working with Hessian or Burlap and you will find heaps.  There is also a number of boards on Pinterest.  Here is one example.    https://www.pinterest.com/glhaygirl/working-with-burlap/

12 Days of Christmas 2015 – Day 8 – Velvets, metals and more

I have some Christmas decorations I am going to show you, but I don’t have the photos ready, so I will post a second post later today.  In the meantime, here is today’s Christmas special bundle.  It is actually one of my favourite.

Alysn Midgelow Marsden’s book is terrific.  You also get some metal shim, metallic foils, metal wax and a fat quarter of velvet.  Colours of the velvet and wax will vary.  This special is less than half price.  All four items included with the book are great fun to play with.  This link will take you to a post I did some time ago on using metallic foils:

Three fabulous ways to use Foils on Fabric

You can just get the book by itself if you prefer.  Both specials are great value.

Here is where you will find the Book Bundle special:  http://www.uniquestitching.com.au/p/9121860/12-days-of-christmas—stitch-fibre-metal-and-mixed-media-book-by-alysn-midgelow-marsden.html