Friday Feature: Carolynn @ Artystuff

When I was very young, my parents thought I should have art lessons and they signed me up for a Saturday morning class at the old Art Gallery at McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario. I was NOT amused, even though I think I was born holding a pencil or a paintbrush. It is just that I am NOT a “now we’ll all...” sort of a girl! Sitting on a cold floor making a small part of an ugly mural with a group of unhappy and/or pushy children was NOT my idea of a good time. I did not do well.

Hello everybody. My name is Carolynn McMillan and I live in Burlington Ontario. I am a self-taught, artistic Lone Wolf, not a groupie and I do my own thing, my own way. My good husband and I just celebrated 46 years of marriage - a long time with one man, as a dear friend of ours once said!! Very true, but we are still good friends after all that time and Bruce is my best help and my best critic. Everyone should be so lucky. We have one daughter who is married and lives in Tennessee where she is a graduate student, almost finished her PhD in Archaeology. I repeat - everyone should be so lucky!

Westport Sunset (big version, scroll down)

Bruce and I live on the edge of a lovely woodland where a LOT of my inspiration comes from. Natural forms are my chief muse. I love colour and texture and am a self-confessed Colour Junkie! I am also addicted to travel and use my own photographs to make my fibre art creations. Bruce and I are our families’ genealogists. A current project is to create a series of impressions based on photos I have taken of our travels in Kintyre, Scotland where the the McMillans came from long ago. Kintyre is definitely a land of inspiration for painters, photographers, poets and even quilters!

Elf (more 3d art)

 I say I am a Lone Wolf artistically but I am inspired by several artists – Caryl Bryer-Fallert, Betty Busby and Elaine Quehl to name a few. Whenever I feel my inspiration flagging, I make a pot of tea, google one of those ladies’ blogs – and dream! Copying other peoples’ work is not for me although I DO often try out techniques I have learned from other artists. I prefer to use those techniques to do my own designs in my own way. Experimentation is my bag. Last summer for some reason, I went mad and tried every sort of fibre art I could think of, including cloth dollmaking. To date, this summer has been a bit less hectic. Our jets are still kind of laggy after a lovely three weeks in May in Kintyre.

Fatsia Project (the beginning)

Quilting has been a sort of passion for a long time although I gave up traditional quilting a few years ago. We live in a small house with only two beds so, after making several quilts for them, for friends and relations, I turned to making Art Quilts. MUCH more satisfying! I have also recently reconnected with my sketchbook after a long hiatus. Drawing, designing quilts, Zentangling and more recently, printmaking have all been keeping me out of trouble lately. Once, in another incarnation, I did a LOT of Batik dyeing: wall hangings and silk scarves. I had several solo exhibitions of my work in that medium. That was before our daughter was born and I have decided just in the past few months, to do my own dyeing once again. Enough with the commercial fabrics, already - except maybe for those yummy Kaffe Fassett prints! ( I AM a Colour Junkie, don’t forget!) Hand dyeing has provided me with a whole new springboard for my work. I am having a ball and my poor patient husband drives me way up to Guelph to buy the lovely fine pure cotton I am using to make my delicious hand dyes. I have just finished my first completely hand dyed quilt, The Fatsia Project.

I have really enjoyed participating in the WIP Wednesday project on The Needle and Thread Network. It is lovely to see the work of and to “meet” so many other creative people from all across Canada. Pass the word and let’s get others involved too. We all learn from each other. It has been an honour to be asked to do a Friday Feature post. Thanks! As well as WIP Wednesday, I participate in Every Inchie Monday and SketchbookChallenge. Have a look at the Inchie and Sketchbook posts on my blog and check out those two “fun” sets of posts.  The Golden Inchies I did so long ago are still one of my favourites.

There is always something going on my blog and plenty of archived posts as well at…rtquilter.blogspot.com

WIP Wednesday #48 @ TN&TN

WIP Wednesday #47

Friday Feature: Jeanette @ Stamp*Stitch*Create

Hi, I’m Jeanette Smith and I blog at Stamp * Stitch * Create.   I live in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia with my awesome husband of 14 years and 2 daughters aged 10 and 7 years.  I was born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, and will always be “from” PEI no matter where I live!  My parents and 2 of my 4  siblings are still there, so we get to visit there a lot, such a beautiful place in the summer!

I’ve always loved trying new crafts.  I do a lot of paper crafts (hand stamped cards, scrapbooking) and I love to sew.  Sometimes quilts, baby blankets, purses, infinity scarves-the list goes on.  I knit a little, mainly just scarves and thrum mitts- but I would say that is mainly a winter past time for me. After graduating from Dalhousie as a Dental Hygienist, I found the nights a little long - I was so used to studying that I found I needed to occupy my time.  I started tole painting with a friend.  Then, after getting married when I was 22, we moved to Lethbridge, Alberta for 4 years and I discovered a lovely quilt shop named Thistledown Quilts.  I was terribly homesick, and when I walked by the shop I always noticed a group of ladies about my Mom’s age laughing and having fun.  I think I was drawn to that sense of community as much as the beautiful projects hanging all over the walls.  So, a friend and I signed up for a beginners class, I went and bought a sewing machine and all the rest of the supplies and never looked back!  Hooked from the first table runner.

Last September I was asked to be featured in an article called Passport to Creativity in the Canadian Scrapbooker’s magazine fall issue.  I displayed some of my scrapbooking pages and also did an interview.  I have to say, that was pretty cool and the kids were very excited to have their photos in a magazine!

I’ve finally gotten brave enough to try my hand at craft fairs and sell some of the things I make.  I discovered a local group called the East Coast Momma’s Collective and did a show June 24th.  It was busy creating inventory for that.   Right before a show I start to  worry  that my items will not be “good enough” but I’m committed and will follow through so will try to not let my self-doubt get the best of me!!

Another recent big change for me: This year, I decided to retire from my hygiene career and stay home with my kids, and focus on this new sewing venture.  I think I work more hours now than I ever did at the dental office, but this is much more fun! I’m not one to think to far into the future, just change direction as necessary when the time comes.  Now that the June 24th show is over, I’m going to take a break from the smaller items and work on a few bigger projects, I’d like to try my hand at a few more baby quilts that I display at a local shop in Halifax called Rusty Hinges.

My biggest d ream for myself is more a dream for my family as a whole.  I want my girls to grow into confident, self-assured young women who are independent and strong in this big world.  I want them to enjoy their lives and be interested in the world around them.  

Hubby and I like to travel, we will be heading to Europe in 3 months and travelling through Hungary, Germany and the Czech Republic.  I also love photography and am excited to go and take photos of all the lovely architecture there.  We will be visiting some castles, and Prague is full of old churches that will be lovely to photograph.   I’m wondering if I’ll find any fabric stores there..........although I have been told clothes and shoes are cheap in Budapest!

The tulip quilt is machine appliqued and hand quilted.  I made this about 11 years ago at Thistledown quilts and it is still a favorite of mine.  I have to admit, I am proud to have made it (and finished it!)  About the two other quilts shown above:  The gray and aqua is from a tutorial I found online at Fresh Lemon quilts.  The aqua and bright green is a pattern from Moda Bake Shop.  This was a commissioned quilt that I made for a friend who is a teacher at my children’s school.

I also want to thank The Needle and Thread Network for providing a Canadian only website- I love to see what local people are up too.  Thanks  for featuring me for your Feature Friday!!

WIP Wednesday #46 @ TN&TN

WIP Wednesday #45

Friday Feature: Felicity @ FelicityQuilts

I’m Felicity Ronaghan, and I’m a quilter currently living in Vancouver, BC. I blog at FelicityQuilts.

I learned to quilt in 2001 or so, after many years of loving the art of quilting as an observer. It was my husband who suggested I find a local place to take lessons so I could learn to make my own. It didn’t even occur to me that I could actually make one myself because I was thoroughly intimidated by the quilts I’d been seeing in museums and in books. But in the first minute of that first class, I knew I had found “my” thing.

I made a some quilts in the years that followed, and when I found myself doing more reading about quilting than actual sewing, I reflected on why that might be. Realizing that I was so overwhelmed by the many projects swirling in my head, I reminded myself that even 20 minutes a day of stitching can add up to many seams, and eventually those seams can become a quilt. So that was my 2010 New Year’s resolution – to stitch at least 20 minutes a day. I started my blog as a journal of sorts.

What I didn’t expect was to have an entirely new world open up to me – the online quilting community is a vast source of inspiration, support and fun that I truly feel has revitalized my passion for quilting and helped me find my creative voice. I’ve also made many friends all over the world who share this obsession with me. My blog is going stronger than ever, these 2½ years later.

Over the past year, I’ve successfully experimented with new techniques and patterns, written my own pattern (to be released soon!) and I’m about to run my very first workshop for the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. I’ve sewed for others, and participated in swaps and bees. Most of all, I’ve had a lot of fun.

My goal for the rest of this year is to finish up some of my ongoing projects (some of which have been “curing’ for quite a while!), and to do some more garment sewing for my daughter and maybe even myself.

Thanks for featuring me, Monika and The Needle and Thread Network!