WIP Wednesday #59 @ TN&TN

WIP Wednesday #58 @ TN&TN

Friday Feature: Jennifer @ Sister of the Brush

Hi! I am Jennifer Scantlebury Vienneau and I originally hail from Prince Edward Island though my husband and I presently live in Moncton, NB. I grew up the middle child of wonderful parents who fostered creativity, independent thinking and community responsibility in their children. Some described our family as eccentric and my daughter still tells me “normal” is over-rated, so I suspect there are some who would still categorize me as such. I tend to be out spoken. Or so I am told....

When you grow up within the structure of family businesses, your outlook on life is certainly shaped differently. Our home had a revolving door that welcomed any and all and so it was as well with the business side of our lives. My father gave jobs to people others would not and in doing so, helped guide many into security and stability. He gave financial aid to others, helping them get a foothold in life. My parents have always contributed to their community, both locally and globally. This generous spirit has taught us to see the potential in others and in turn, given us the freedom to be ourselves.

I believe creativity is within us all, but some of us are luckier because it is fostered early and continually encouraged. My earliest memories are of painting, cutting and gluing, watching my mom sew beautiful clothes and my grandfather and father letter signs. My dad taught me to shade at age 5. I sewed my own clothes by age 12. With a family owned craft, hobby and framing shop, I tried my hand at many different medium so that I could more readily assist customers. Still, I continued to be drawn to fabric and paint.

I did leave home and go off to university and eventually gathered a few diplomas. In 1982 I enrolled in a sign writing course at George Brown College in Toronto to further develop the skills I had been gradually honing with my Dad. I successfully ran two small sign businesses in the following years, but still that love of fabric kept me sewing. A marriage, a move to Goose Bay, Labrador and the birth of my two best ever creative collaborations - my son, Gabriel and my daughter, Simone - kept me busy. We chose for me to be a stay at home mom and I embraced raising my children following the path my parents had laid out. And I continued to sew. I sewed clothes, home decor items, costumes, and gradually I started making quilts.

In order to encourage and involve my young children in my art work, I began using their drawings as my source of design. With only a small amount of formal quilting training, I fused long before it was fashionable, used my glue gun to adhere embellishments, braided, painted, dyed, and beaded fabric creating a collection of vivid, colorful wall hangings that showcased Gabe and Simone’s art. These remain my favorite pieces in my repertoire.

Surface design continues to hold my attention. I also love to photograph and often my shots end up printed on fabric combined with fabric and thread in a piece. I grew up near the water and have spent a huge portion of my life in it, whether it be beach, river, pool or more recently, “hotpots” in Iceland. You will find the ocean and all its various accoutrements as part of or adorning my work. I will always be an Island girl with waves and sea breezes forever on my mind.

The most recent development in my quilting and fabric life has been the acquisition of a longarm quilting machine. This partnership is still new but I can see the potential and the creative freedom I can achieve as I meld my love of quilting with my sign writing skills! I am excited to explore this area and see where it takes me as I continue creating. Already I am seeing myself stitching those waves I so love integrated with script lettering as I learn to find my place in the longarm custom quilting world.

I teach, I share, I design, I judge, I donate, I encourage, I contribute. And as I see my children grow into creative, successful, responsible, community minded individuals I feel I am successfully passing on the legacy that was given me. 

 

I am author of a blog called Sister of the Brush where I showcase some of my fabric work and photographs and where I also tend to ramble just because I feel like it! Feel free to check it and my work out and if you have any questions or comments, please use the comment tool. I love to know where readers hail from and if they share any commonalities with me.

Many thanks to The Needle and Thread Network for inviting me to be part of this forum! I love WIP Wednesdays and Feature Fridays - it's habit forming!

WIP Wednesday #57 @ TN&TN

WIP Wednesday #56 @ TN&TN

Friday Feature: Mary Ann Tate, Cloth Doll Maker

What is your name?

Hello my name is Mary Ann Tate. My first name is really Mary Ann Bridget but no one has ever called me that except my father when I was in big trouble. I am simply Mary Ann without a hyphen and without an “e”. I was named after my Irish Grandmothers Mary and Bridget but my mum refused to have a child called Mary Bridget so the Ann was inserted in there to make everyone happy.
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What is your blog name & blog address?

I actually have five blogs going at the moment. Yes.....I'm a blogaholic:) You will find me most often at A Cloth Doll Maker's Diary - http://maryanntate.blogspot.ca/ This is a blog that I originally started as a place to post doll related tutorials and various links that I had found on the internet. It was really created out of frustration when my laptop crashed and I lost all my bookmarks. My idea was to put them all in one place so that wouldn't happen again. Then a blogger friend suggested that I make it a public blog for others to see and share.
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Where are you from in Canada?

I live in Toronto, Ontario. I am married to a man from Liverpool and we have just celebrated our 37^th wedding anniversary. I have two handsome sons, a beautiful daughter-in-law and an adorable granddaughter.
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I was born in London, England and emigrated to Canada in 1954 with my family aboard a ship called the Atlantic. I don't remember much of the trip except the train ride from Halifax to Toronto. We originally lived in Toronto and then Oakville and then at the age of 13 my family moved to the village of Waterdown which is not far from the city of Hamilton, Ontario. This is where my mum finally got to realize her dream of having her own fabric store.

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The store was in an old Victorian house in the center of the village. The front and back parlours of the house were the store and we lived in all the rest. My mum was also a tailoress by trade so you can well imagine that I grew up sewing. By the time I was about seven I could just reach one foot to the treadle on her Singer sewing machine to get it going and feed the material under the needle.
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What is your craft? How long have you been doing this?  How did it all start?

I have dabbled in most crafts over the years. For many years...from 1982 to 1994...I did craft shows on the weekends where I sold mainly toy teddies, rabbits and mice that I made myself and my mum sold quilts and aprons. The pressures of my weekday working life forced me to stop going to shows. I really didn't do much creating or sewing for a number of years but now that I'm retired I have begun to make things again. It's really quite exciting as there have been so many changes and new products and of course we now have the internet. Right now I'm exploring cloth doll making. I started in February 2011 so I'm relatively new to this craft.
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What are your top 3 personal accomplishments in the past year? What are future goals? What is your BIGGEST dream for yourself?

I think my biggest accomplishment this year has been completing two on line doll classes with Canadian doll artist Colleen Babcock. They were both very complicated dolls and I'm very proud of myself for finishing them. As far as future goals? I would say that is not something that I have really thought about. I'm not sure where I'm going with my doll making but I'm enjoying the process and the learning experience.
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Anything else we should know?

Well...I'm a retired banker. I started my banking career in 1973 and left in 2008. I was once robbed at gunpoint when I was a teller and pregnant with my first child. I'm an amateur genealogist and have been researching our various family trees for a number of years. I took Creative Writing certificate courses at night school at the University of Toronto as something to do and was told that apparently I'm the next Alice Munro.....I wish:)

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It's been a pleasure and an honour to participate in the Friday Feature here on The Needle & Thread Network. Please come and visit me at http://maryanntate.blogspot.ca/.

WIP Wednesday #55 @ TN&TN