Other things we're doing...

Helen has been making another book. The theme of this one is Lemon, Lime and Orange.

 Gorgeous colours, aren't they?

Helen also brought along a challenge piece she's been making for another group. It involved food dyes, lace, thread couching, beads and found objects.

She thinks it may be another postcard.

She was also working on another canvas work embroidery, which is intended to be a purse, when it grows up.

It's going to be a beautiful purse, isn't it?

Yvonne was knitting a boy's jersey for her little grandson.

It's a very modern looking style isn't it?

Carol has also been knitting, in her case a cowl scarf (sorry, no photo!) She was also making flowers, which are prototypes for a journal cover she plans to make.

Last of all, Maz has been travelling the world and here's what she brought back for each of us!

Yep, there's lace and buttons and unusual fabrics. I wonder what these will become?

Next, our latest postcards..

At sixes and sevens

Things really have been in a muddle here at Fibrecircle! We missed three meetings in the last three months due to clashes with public holidays. Even when we did meet, only a few of us could make it., because of travel and other commitments. Things should be way better from now on.

Of course we've still been making things, even though we haven't been getting together so much.


The first thing we made was a collaborative work for the ATASDA façade exhibition at the Palm House at the Sydney Botanic Garden. As we like to make postcards, we decided to make a work  inspired by those old-fashioned postcard booklets showing the highlights of a particular pace or region. Our fictional town of Fibriccerre is somewhere in the Mediterranean and has everything - a castle, galleries, fancy houses, a café, the beach... everything anyone could want. 

Helen has been making things for her group to show at the Embroiderers' Guild State Exhibition later this year. First, she needed to make a lollipop...

And then a church....

The exhibition will be held Friday 26 to Sunday 28 August 2016 at the Concord West Masonic Hall, Concord Rd, Concord West. It shows works from individual members plus works from their groups, like Helen's group. There will also be a display of botanical-related works by members, to support a display by a botanical artist who interprets some of her works in stitches. It's going to be an interesting exhibition!

We've also been learning new stuff. Helen made a book in a recent class. This is the cover...

 .. and these are some of the pages inside.

Did you know what a quincunx is? Well, now you do!

Yvonne also made two books, in a class with Peter Stanford at the Hand Spinners and Weavers Guild Summer School.

Cindy is continuing her online class with Linda and Laura Kemshall.  This time, she was printing with her printer onto tracing paper and adding stamping and other media.

Beautiful!

Nola has been drawing a lot lately and what she's been drawing is... bags.

I guess we'll hear more about this in due course...

We meet again next week - see you then!

Some work we've been doing

The things we make in our time together and the things we make on our own at home are always interesting to see. You can see how different we all are, in the things we like to make.

You know Helen will be embroidering, probably on rug canvas.

 

She was working on this a few weeks back.  She said, "just don't ask me what it will be when it's finished". So we didn't. I  guess we'll find out in due course.

 



It was Robin's last meeting with us, as she's moving away soon. We'll miss her!

She was knitting, as she loves to do. This time, it was an intarsia jacket from the Jane Slicer-Smith book, Swing Swagger Drape.

Cindy was embroidering on paper. She likes to work in a mixed media kind of way, often involving paper. 

The piece is part of a collaborative work we're making for an exhibition. You'll see the various parts in due course, when they come in to us in March, and then the finished work. in April.

Carol loves all things shiny. This time, she was incising metal shim as an experiment.

She thinks it might be a book cover later on. Or maybe just a sample.

It certainly gives a gorgeous effect!





Nola was putting together her journal for the exhibition work she made late last year. Yes, usually you would do the journal as you go! But she had been keeping an online log throughout the process, and this was assembling the log and her samples into a visual record of her process. It's more useful to use in the future in this format than as a computer log, though the log is easier to keep as she goes.

Cindy brought along some sketchbooks she's using for an online course with Linda and Laura Kemshall. It's strongly focused on drawing but in a mixed media context.

They're gorgeous, aren't they?

Nola showed us some sample prints she'd made, on paper and cloth, exploring the possibilities of the foam board print plate.

This one was a three-colour print on cloth, experimenting with overlays to create shadows. The weave of the cloth is also a visible feature, as the print is only about 15cm x 10xm (6in x 4in).

We had very few postcards to swap, because we were all working hard on our collaborative work.

This one was made by Maz. 
 
It's hand stitched onto a cloth background, with the edges turned over a card base.

Cindy layered fabric strips and machine- stitched them down with fancy stitches. She added an applique butterfly created wit hand stitch.

The edges were machine satin stitched with variegated thread.

Next time, more about Habitation...

Happy New Year

Kinda late, we know, to be wishing anyone HNY but we finally met for the first time in 2016. As always, it was a quiet meeting, since January is holiday season here in Oz. But it was great to catch up with each others' news and share what we'd been making.

Over the break, Helen made this quirky book, just for fun.

 It's full of shapes of all kinds and references to places and people Helen has known.

As always, clever and beautiful!









The rest of us have mostly been drawing.

Nola was working on sketches for her section of our collaborative work for the façade exhibition in the Palm House at the Botanic gardens in May. Each of us is making a postcard-sized work about a fictional holiday resort called Fibriccerre.

 

Her section is "posh houses" in the area. That looks pretty posh, doesn't it?

 

Cindy has also been drawing a lot. Here are some of her drawings:



Those cherries are luscious enough to eat, aren't they?

Helen was working on a small piece of canvas work.

As always her work just glows. She has an amazing way with colour.

Maz was working on items for sale in the sales area of the façade exhibition.

I'm not sure what it's going to be but I'm sure it will be gorgeous!

That's it for this time. Sorry it's brief, I think we were all in holiday mode - too busy chatting to be technical! See you next time.

And a few more things we've been doing...

Cindy has been drawing  a lot recently. She's been doing an online class but, as we all know, the trick to being this good is to draw a lot and keep on drawing!

Aren't these wonderful?

Helen has been stitching things for Lateral Stitchers challenges:

The Laterals challenges have all been in this square format for a while now. I guess it makes them easy to display!

Here's a book that Robin made, in a Linda Green workshop recently:

 

 

It has maps for some pages - very interesting memento of her travels!

She also took a Chinese Brush Painting class with Maggie Cross at West Dean College, in West Sussex, UK.

Very interesting possibilities!

She also brought along a quilt she's been working on. This is the centre of a queen-sized bed quilt.

We love blue and white quilts, but we love this one particularly for its intricacy! It's going to be just amazing when it's done.

Our next meeting is our last for the year so we'll be having a yummy lunch! See you then.