Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Friday, December 11, 2015
Feature Friday: Judy Stupak
Hi, my name is Judy Stupak and my blog is Judy’s Quilting Studio located at https://judystupak.wordpress.com/ I live in Winnipeg Manitoba.
I started to quilt 4 years ago when I retired. It was something I had always wanted to do but thought it would take too much time and space. I didn’t realize how much things had changed since my mom quilted decades ago and how big the quilting world was. So many time saving devices. So much variety! So much to learn! So many classes to take, quilt shops to visit, fabric to buy, places to go and people to meet. A quilting ‘family’ that stretches from coast to coast, and around the world.
For the most part, I quilt pieces in order to learn a new technique or because they are part of a class, not necessarily because I just love the design. It is not very often I am able to quilt my own designs. However, in February we went on a quilting cruise. There was a challenge associated with the trip where we had to make a 12” finished block on the theme of HOME. I love cats, and summer or winter our cat sits on the back of the sofa looking out the window for hours on end. There are trees right in front of the window and the birds entertain (or torture) him from the other side of the glass. Jake became the subject of my block. ‘Jake’ ended up winning the Viewer’s Choice Award, for which I won a trip to the Houston Quilt Show and another quilting cruise. ‘Jake’ was featured in the April issue of the on-line craft magazine called Craftposium.
In May, the Barnswallow Quilt Guild (Morden, MB) held a challenge for which I also won the Viewer’s Choice Award. The challenge this time was to make a 3D notion, using the fabrics that were provided. The notion I decided to make was a Hexi Holder needle book. I like to hand stitch when we travel but always had a hard time keeping things organized. The Hexi Holder has zippered and unzippered pockets, a needle page, a thread page and two pages that snap together in order to keep the fabric from getting wrinkled. It lays flat on the lap and has gone through a number of airports securities with no problem. It has become a notion I can’t travel without.
Although I have not yet found my quilting style, I have hundreds of ideas. Small projects such as quilted Postcards are a great way to try some of them. In the New Year I would like to set up a post card swap and track the miles my postcards travel around the world throughout 2016. I would also like to do more art quilts. At some point I hope everything gels – the piecing AND quilting. But that is part of the challenge. As long as there are new things to learn and techniques to conquer, quilting will never get boring.
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Friday, November 27, 2015
Feature Friday: Andrea Pelletier
I love to make clothes, as well as other textile products/accessories, that address and solve a specific problem in a thoughtful way. I make custom designed and custom fit garments that you cannot find in mass produced fashion. I repurpose and upcycle garments and materials to give new life to textile waste otherwise destined for the landfill. I honour a traditional way of thinking about clothing, by refurbishing and reproducing vintage styles by hand and with care.
I love experimenting with different decorative techniques such as hand embroidery and needle felting. I offer an alternative to fast fashion, and try to educate people on the harm this system causes the producing countries specifically, and the earth in general. I have started offering sewing classes to teach people to make their own clothes and do their own alterations. I want to share knowledge that is becoming obsolete, to promote self-sustainablilty, self-expression, and lessen the demand for the offshore production of disposable clothing.
I have been sewing now for about 17 years, with no end in sight! I started my sewing practice as a teenager, when I found mass produced fashion too expensive and visually boring. I thrived in the thrift stores, finding vintage styles and wild fabrics at amazingly cheap prices. I then taught myself to sew by experimenting (and making lots of mistakes!) to alter these clothes to fit my body, learning along the way about what works and what doesn't. I also found vintage commercial patterns at the thrift stores, and gained more confidence with my sewing to start making clothes from scratch. I was pretty impatient with the process and would often slap something together without a pattern, just to have something to wear right away. I didn't mind my clothes looking imperfectly constructed, as long as they were visually interesting and fit my body.
Some recent work of mine includes some dresses made with vintage patterns in contemporary fabrics. One is a dress pattern from the 1940's that I tweaked slightly (lowered neckline and higher hemline) to modernize it. This is the first time I sewed from a pattern with no printed markings on the paper pieces, which I thought would be scarier than it actually was. I made it in a jersey knit fabric from my stash instead of a woven fabric (for maximum comfort in movement), and used repurposed fabric covered buttons from a wedding dress I remade a while back! I don't throw any materials out, and I often find the perfect use for them (eventually). I am in love with the scalloped button detail in the back, which took a great deal of care to get smooth and even edges. All in all, I am happy with the outcome.
Secondly, my best friend has a real personal relationship with denim (it's a comfort fabric for her) and also has a special connection with deer, for reasons I won't get into here. She had a favourite denim jacket that got so worn out with holes, and I had a hand knit sweater with deer on the front that no longer fit (lovingly made by my mother-in-law for her husband). I drafted a pattern for this perfectly fitting jacket, and made her a brand new one, using the knit deer as the panel on the back.
My next sewing classes offered will be to help people modify clothes they already own, to make them function/ fit better, or to make them more decorative and expressive, to encourage sustainable sartorial choices. My skills and patience for a properly executed process have come a long way, as well as my knowledge of the modern global clothing industry. I wish to incorporate vintage styles and production techniques from home based sewing and modernize them with current materials and technology.
I do what I do, not only to offer well-fitting and expressive clothes to the public, but also to promote considered “slow” fashion. We try to make consumer choices that are in line with our belief systems, and environmental and ethical options are gaining in popularity. I want to be part of this movement.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Monday, October 5, 2015
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Friday, August 28, 2015
Feature Friday: Angela Grasse
Hi my name is Angela Grasse and I am the creator of the blog Princess Bubbles Creates found at http://princessbubblescreates.blogspot.ca/ I live in Kitchener, Ontario with my husband, son and two golden retrievers.
I started stitching 25 years ago when a friend showed me a pre-printed quilt panel. I stitched a number of these panels thus developing a pretty good hand quilting stitch. This led to patchwork quilt classes but not being one to follow patterns I soon discovered crazy quilting and surface design. Surface design is probably what I most love doing but you can only create so much fabric. Eventually you have to use the fabric! I love crazy quilting because of the handwork. Embroidery and beading has become a passion. The slow process is calming and meditative for me.
I have had a few accomplishments this past year. I had a fibre art piece accepted into a show at the Homer Watson Gallery. Mainly paintings comprised the show so it was exciting to have some fibre art represented. I was thrilled to be nominated in the Fibre Art category of the Arts Awards Waterloo Region this year. The whole process was a bit daunting but I am glad that persevered through all the paperwork. My work has been accepted into the 2015 spring and winter issues of Crazy Quilt Quarterly as well as numerous local shows. That always feels good and gives me courage to keep at it.
One last accomplishment. last year I was the architect of Her Cup Runneth Over. It was a show and auction of art bras to raise money for HopeSpring Cancer Support Centre. It was very well received and raised almost a thousand dollars for a very worthy cause. We will be repeating the event again this year!
My main goal as an artist is to keep learning, growing and pushing boundaries. I find I learn a lot and really enjoy the give and take with students so I am looking for more opportunities to teach. I am working on a new print making technique for fibre artists and would like to develop it into an article to be published. I would also like to collaborate with other artists, including my musician son. I would love to be an artist in residence and have my work in more shows. There are always new things to explore in this beautiful art world!
Thanks for visiting,
Angela
I started stitching 25 years ago when a friend showed me a pre-printed quilt panel. I stitched a number of these panels thus developing a pretty good hand quilting stitch. This led to patchwork quilt classes but not being one to follow patterns I soon discovered crazy quilting and surface design. Surface design is probably what I most love doing but you can only create so much fabric. Eventually you have to use the fabric! I love crazy quilting because of the handwork. Embroidery and beading has become a passion. The slow process is calming and meditative for me.
I have had a few accomplishments this past year. I had a fibre art piece accepted into a show at the Homer Watson Gallery. Mainly paintings comprised the show so it was exciting to have some fibre art represented. I was thrilled to be nominated in the Fibre Art category of the Arts Awards Waterloo Region this year. The whole process was a bit daunting but I am glad that persevered through all the paperwork. My work has been accepted into the 2015 spring and winter issues of Crazy Quilt Quarterly as well as numerous local shows. That always feels good and gives me courage to keep at it.
One last accomplishment. last year I was the architect of Her Cup Runneth Over. It was a show and auction of art bras to raise money for HopeSpring Cancer Support Centre. It was very well received and raised almost a thousand dollars for a very worthy cause. We will be repeating the event again this year!
My main goal as an artist is to keep learning, growing and pushing boundaries. I find I learn a lot and really enjoy the give and take with students so I am looking for more opportunities to teach. I am working on a new print making technique for fibre artists and would like to develop it into an article to be published. I would also like to collaborate with other artists, including my musician son. I would love to be an artist in residence and have my work in more shows. There are always new things to explore in this beautiful art world!
Thanks for visiting,
Angela
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
WIP Wednesday # 203 @TN&TN
Summer is flying by! I hope you enjoy your long weekend.
Thanks for posting last week! Everyone is working on such interesting projects.
Sign-up begins at noon on Tuesday, closes at noon on Thursday (SK time) for Canadian fibre art bloggers. Please post your name and location when you load your thumbnail image and link to this site in your post.
Thanks for posting last week! Everyone is working on such interesting projects.
Sign-up begins at noon on Tuesday, closes at noon on Thursday (SK time) for Canadian fibre art bloggers. Please post your name and location when you load your thumbnail image and link to this site in your post.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
WIP Wednesday #199 @ TN&TN HAPPY CANADA DAY!
Happy Canada Day!
It's that time of the week for Canadian textile artist bloggers to link-up and hop! Thanks for posting, reading, and commenting last week. As usual, sign-up begins on Tuesday at noon and closes on Thursday at noon (Saskatchewan time). Please use your name and location as your thumbnail title and link back to TN&TN in your blog. Have a most enjoyable Canada Day and week!
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Friday, June 12, 2015
Feature Friday - Laurel (Your New Hostess!)
I'm Laurel, from Winnipeg, Manitoba. My blog is named "Stitches" and it can be found at http://laurelsstitches.blogspot.ca/
I have been sewing for as long as I can remember. My first project was sewing a purse from what Mom cut from the bottoms of each pant leg as she was hemming Dad's new pants. It was the 1970s and men were wearing some pretty funky patterned pants. I remember being thrilled. I also loved the worn button that held my new purse closed. Mom taught me almost everything I know about sewing and crocheting. By watching her, I also learned a lot about embroidery and other fibre arts. And gardening, preserving, and cooking too. I couldn't have wished for a better Mom.
I moved to Manitoba to learn more about my craft and attained a Bachelor of Human Ecology degree in Clothing and Textiles. I learned a tremendous amount and met a group of very dedicated professors. I have worked for a clothing manufacturer and a couple of clothing retailers.
Over the past few years, I have not been as active in my craft as I would have liked to be. I would still buy fabric and yarn. I would still develop lots of ideas about what to make. I simply didn't make doing something about my creative ideas near to the top of my priorities.
That has recently changed. My collection of fabric is calling to me. The collection of dog-themed fabric I bought (about 10 years ago) to make one of my nephews a quilt has made it's way to the cutting board and the sewing machine, and is now awaiting the final stitches on the binding. I think my nephew may have outgrown the dog theme, so I also found some travel/postcard-themed fabric at Periwinkle (in Saskatoon) to make a second quilt. (I think I'll let him choose which suits him best.)
Over the past few months, I am happy to have sorted through all most all of my "stash" and made plans for most of it. I machine quilted my first three quilts last week and am thrilled with how they have turned out. I consider myself as a bit of a beginner again. I am surprised about what I have forgotten from when sewing was a daily process. I am glad to once again find myself in a store (usually at Jocelyn's in Gimli) or online (with you kind people), with a group of other creative people, ready to receive and give advice and suggestions. When I find myself with some time in a new town, I automatically head for the quilting, yarn, or art store to surround myself with the energy that creative people share.
Today, I am sharing photos of three of my early quilts. I have almost finished hand quilting the very colourful batik quilt. The other two quilts were machine quilted for me by a very skilled quilter who is currently focusing only on her own quilts.
One of the things I have learned (about the planning process) is that when I'm collecting fat quarters or jelly rolls for a quilt is to plan the border and the binding. Once you look at my beginner quilts, you will quickly notice my struggle to bind the quilts in a manner in which I am comfortable.
If you visit my blog, please know that I have a lot to add, my photography will improve, and that I am always happy to hear your comments. I am learning a lot from you, so please keep posting.
Your new Hostess,
Laurel
I'm simply travelling along my seam line of life, one stitch at a time.
 |
| I am the smallest one in this photo. |
I have been sewing for as long as I can remember. My first project was sewing a purse from what Mom cut from the bottoms of each pant leg as she was hemming Dad's new pants. It was the 1970s and men were wearing some pretty funky patterned pants. I remember being thrilled. I also loved the worn button that held my new purse closed. Mom taught me almost everything I know about sewing and crocheting. By watching her, I also learned a lot about embroidery and other fibre arts. And gardening, preserving, and cooking too. I couldn't have wished for a better Mom.
I moved to Manitoba to learn more about my craft and attained a Bachelor of Human Ecology degree in Clothing and Textiles. I learned a tremendous amount and met a group of very dedicated professors. I have worked for a clothing manufacturer and a couple of clothing retailers.
Over the past few years, I have not been as active in my craft as I would have liked to be. I would still buy fabric and yarn. I would still develop lots of ideas about what to make. I simply didn't make doing something about my creative ideas near to the top of my priorities.
That has recently changed. My collection of fabric is calling to me. The collection of dog-themed fabric I bought (about 10 years ago) to make one of my nephews a quilt has made it's way to the cutting board and the sewing machine, and is now awaiting the final stitches on the binding. I think my nephew may have outgrown the dog theme, so I also found some travel/postcard-themed fabric at Periwinkle (in Saskatoon) to make a second quilt. (I think I'll let him choose which suits him best.)
Over the past few months, I am happy to have sorted through all most all of my "stash" and made plans for most of it. I machine quilted my first three quilts last week and am thrilled with how they have turned out. I consider myself as a bit of a beginner again. I am surprised about what I have forgotten from when sewing was a daily process. I am glad to once again find myself in a store (usually at Jocelyn's in Gimli) or online (with you kind people), with a group of other creative people, ready to receive and give advice and suggestions. When I find myself with some time in a new town, I automatically head for the quilting, yarn, or art store to surround myself with the energy that creative people share.
Today, I am sharing photos of three of my early quilts. I have almost finished hand quilting the very colourful batik quilt. The other two quilts were machine quilted for me by a very skilled quilter who is currently focusing only on her own quilts.
One of the things I have learned (about the planning process) is that when I'm collecting fat quarters or jelly rolls for a quilt is to plan the border and the binding. Once you look at my beginner quilts, you will quickly notice my struggle to bind the quilts in a manner in which I am comfortable.
If you visit my blog, please know that I have a lot to add, my photography will improve, and that I am always happy to hear your comments. I am learning a lot from you, so please keep posting.
Your new Hostess,
Laurel
I'm simply travelling along my seam line of life, one stitch at a time.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Monday, March 9, 2015
Call For Entries - Welcome New Hostess!
Hi everyone,
My name is Terry Whyte and I will be your Canada Call for Entry Hostess here on TN&TN, to keep you up to date with Fibre opportunities.
I live in the little lake community of Kenogami in Northern Ontario. I have been quilting for over 25 years and love to enter competitions. Getting a fat envelope is always exciting and an endorsement of your skills and talents. The skinny envelopes (rejection letters) are not so much fun to receive but do not mean your work isn't up to par, there can be many reasons for not getting accepted. Read the rules of competition carefully and keep trying.
You can check my blog Today in Kenogami
Please feel free to email me at todayinkenogami@gmail.com with any Call for Entry information not listed.
Good Luck!
My name is Terry Whyte and I will be your Canada Call for Entry Hostess here on TN&TN, to keep you up to date with Fibre opportunities.
I live in the little lake community of Kenogami in Northern Ontario. I have been quilting for over 25 years and love to enter competitions. Getting a fat envelope is always exciting and an endorsement of your skills and talents. The skinny envelopes (rejection letters) are not so much fun to receive but do not mean your work isn't up to par, there can be many reasons for not getting accepted. Read the rules of competition carefully and keep trying.
You can check my blog Today in Kenogami
Please feel free to email me at todayinkenogami@gmail.com with any Call for Entry information not listed.
Good Luck!
Terry