Happy Thanksgiving Weekend everyone!!

Can YOU believe that it is THANKSGIVING weekend? I am sitting here after a hard day at work - retail is getting tough now with all of the impact that the economic trends have taken... we are blessed to be here in Canada where the economic health of our Country has not yet been severely crippled by the US troubles, though I can surely see that many of my friends and colleagues are trimming back, not travelling quite so much, and being cautious about expenditures. I will be working both Sunday and Monday of the Holiday weekend and straight through until Wednesday and then have four glorious fall days OFF! So Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who will be home enjoying family - think of me and have a turkey sandwich for me, too!

I am afraid the registrations for my dearest FIBREWORKS KINGSTON Weekend Workshops are just trickling in and we need to support Fibreworks and Hilary Scanlon's mission to bring the best and brightest Instructors for us to study with if this important academic and creativity series is to be there for us in years to come. This coming weekend is the exciting workshop with KIT VINCENT, Brockville Area Designer and Fibre Artist and I for one cannot wait to have 12 concentrated study hours with Kit ... and yes, I know that many of you will be heading off to the Creative Festival in Toronto for a good dose of shopping, but if you are NOT - please consider spending this next weekend with Kit. I have added an example of her beautiful work "RIVER'S EDGE" at the top right header on this blog and it will stay there to inspire you, perhaps to come spend the weekend of October 17-19th with Kit and see this quilter's work in person. River's Edge is a beautiful and moving contemporary composition which Kit created with her own hand-dyed fabrics. I love the colour, the movement and the intentional focus on the portrayal of the water, the shoreline, and the colours of the Thousand Islands in Summer...beautiful. Kit has recently sent this quilt off to be included in a wonderful Exhibition in Columbus, Ohio, only one of a very few stellar examples of the best Art Quilts in North America. Kit will be teaching at QUILT TAHOE in November - and you could have the opportunity to study with her FIRST!!! Contact Donna Hamilton, Fibreworks Associate Coordinator and Registrar at fibreworks@cogeco.ca for more information and to register for the QUILTS BY DESIGN workshop with Kit.

The students in the Design for Textiles course at St. Lawrence College have been gathering in our favourite Room 12050 for four weeks now, with some great experimentation in design work being demonstrated by this small group of outstanding friends and students (10)... Three new students have joined in on the classroom fun, while three others work hard to complete their Textile Design Diploma requirements. This past week we saw some amazing efforts in creating cut-work squares - working from the inside out in positive/negative explorations. Creative paint work with COLOUR VIE paints have given the students some play time, and we have even done some discharge work with Lysol "Bathroom Cleaner with Bleach" as the discharge agent - a product which was a great discovery at the Jane Dunnewold full week workshop Margaret Morris, Sandy Garner and I attended in June 2008. Try using a small amount of the bathroom cleaner in a squeeze bottle with a metal writing tip for adding great text to your discharge work... or use a sponge brush to add a light layer to your favourite stamps...use a rubber banded brayer to roll on a layer of the bleach product across your work, or use Shibori technique to fold your fabrics for special effects and use a sponge brush to dab on the bleach cleaner, or dip edges directly into the product... JUST WATCH YOUR FABRIC carefully... this product "develops" onto the black cotton or rayon very quickly and you can "lose your design" very fast if you are not watching! Sponging, stenciling and dripping the cleaner onto your fabric are just a few more ways to use this unusual product for fabric art. Consider joining us in the January - April term for more design play. Watch for the Winter term Course listings online at Sl.on.ca and come enjoy 12 weeks of good fun with friends.

When you have a chance this weekend, take a few minutes and spend them with our own Kingston area Fibre Artist, PHILLIDA HARGREAVES, at her newly launched website at http://www.phillidahargreaves.ca/ Phillida has designed a wonderful gallery based site that will help you navigate through her beautiful new work including her amazing Fossil Series, Trees Series and Ice Series. Please do make time to visit and have a good look through the site, the opportunities Phillida offers you to add her outstanding and dynamic work to your personal Fibre Art Collection and for news of upcoming events where you can see Phillida's quilts and embroideries. I particularly love her Moss pieces and find the irregular shapes, the hugely focused attention to realistic design and colour collaboration and her unique and beautiful mounded embroidery stitches inspirational and very, very special. Explore the site and be sure to see Phillida's work next in the Kingston Fibre Artist's exhibition during the month of November at the John M. Parrott Gallery, Belleville Public Library. Email me for a copy of the invitation or scroll down and see it below in another entry here on my blog.

Hoping that you will have time this weekend for some time off. Curl up in front of a first fall fire to watch a good movie with family and friends, catch some of your favorite sports teams (I am watching the Boston RED SOX as they pursue a 2008 trip to the World Series - they will win their series against the Rays this next week and then the excitement begins for sure!) Needless to say I am a huge New England Patriots fan and as always, Red Sox baseball keeps me watching fall TV broadcasts and listening to the radio whenever I can. Have a great weekend and make time for stitching.

One last thought - just in case you have room for one ART-Focused free weekend in November - please consider committing that weekend as that of November 14-16th and dedicate your creative design personal time to CATHY BREEDYK LAW , who will be the guest Lecturer/Instructor for FIBREWORKS KINGSTON's second Weekend Workshops Series for 2008-09 and will bring her innate playful quilt design style into the classroom for one exciting weekend. Find a friend or two and come play! This weekend will offer you the opportunity to use up all of those bright and funky fabrics in your stash and take an opportunity to design a new original design for a quilt that can be well on it's way to "exhibition ready" status at the end of two days with this dynamic Instructor. Cathy will also be sharing her exciting framing technique with her students, and you don't want to miss out on that! Hope you will join in on the fun.

FIBREWORKS Weekends coming fast now...are you registered?

Just a reminder to pick up your 2008-2009 FIBREWORKS KINGSTON Weekend Workshops Flyer at a local Quilt Shop or email Donna Hamilton, Registrar, for a copy at fibreworks@cogeco.ca

Kit Vincent from Brockville is presenting her QUILTS BY DESIGN workshop, along with a great Lecture and Trunk Show on Friday evening, October 17th at St. Lawrence College, in the Auditorium (near the Cafeteria, entre main doors) , 7 pm. $5 at the door.

Her two-day workshop will be in Room 12050 in the Link Hallway, Admin. Wing, Upper Level at St. Lawrence College on Saturday and Sunday, October 18/19th, 9:30-4 pm. Registration is $110. The college is located on Portsmouth Av at King St. in beautiful Kingston, Ontario. What a great time to come to Kingston for a fall visit!

ing this fun-filled Landscape Quilt weekend with Cathy. She is a dynamic and exciting Instructor who shares all she knows with her students. The framing options Cathy hs developed for mounting work is a great addition to this weekend workshop... don't miss it!

Cathy's workshop is $110.00 and includes the Friday evening Lecture.

Please plan to attend both of these Lectures. $5 at the door for those not attending the weekend workshops. Please come and bring friends.

Kingston is so blessed to have Hilary Scanlon, FIBREWORKS Coordinator and Donna Hamilton Registrar and Associate Coordinator, continuing to bring these workshop weekend opportunities for us. Take advantage of the outstanding learning opportunities and convince a friend to come along for double the fun!

FALL ARRIVES... and colour is all around us.

Seems that my goal of posting almost daily is NOT going to be a reality, and that is just fine with me. I have lots to tell you about every day, but my timeline for just settling down at the computer has been interrupted by STITCHING! A huge Hooray for time to do just that. This fall there are some pressing time lines that are taking up my "free time" like preparing for classroom Instruction at St. Lawrence College's DESIGN FOR TEXTILES Course, and the upcoming Kingston Fibre Artist's Show at the John M. Parrott Gallery at the Belleville Public Library during the month of November, my entry for the Alliance for the American Quilt Fundraiser, and making some Fibre Art Postcards for Virginia Spiegel's fundraiser for the Cancer Society that have to go to Houston for October.

This past weekend I had the terrific opportunity to share in Hilary Scanlon's seat (Thank you, Hilary for letting us all know the weekend workshops seat was available) at the QUILTFEST weekend at the Frontenac Cultural Centre, Kingston (a great facility for this type of retreat) along with a hundred or so other avid quilters and stitchers. The weekend was great fun and it was wonderful to see many old friends from Belleville, Napanee, Brockville, Ottawa and beyond, and spend time with many close friends from Kingston. I was privileged to spend some time in the COLOUR and quilt making classes that JOEN WOLFROM shared with students on Saturday and Sunday. Joen has been an huge inspiration to me over MANY long years, and it was fun to meet her in persona and see that she is just a normal, quilt loving and time crunching lady like all the rest of us....you know we get these images of our idols in mind that have them way up there on a pedestal and larger than life. Well, Joen is not like that at all. She walks and talks like us, has all of the same frustrations with finding just the right fabric, makes some design mistakes and stitching errors and yes, has to pick out seams from time to time. She doesn't use any big fancy machines, and has a stash that fits in a bedroom closet very compactly... no overflowing baskets of every imaginable colour that spans several decades for Joen. She USES what she buys and says that "fat quarters are my purchase of choice, as they are enough to offer me lots of variety and a background square up to 16" if I need one" and she is very happy with making "colour wheel" choices a large part of her shopping mantra. She bought a fat quarter or two when she was here, and two simply beautiful brown and green "sunflower" fabrics while visiting The Quilters Choice and The Perfect Stitch. All of the weekend retreat participants were invited on a mini-Shop Hop Saturday evening after classes finished.

Joen shared the magic of her " 3-in-1 COLOR TOOL" and I have a whole new respect for this wonderful little colour card system. The system is small and will fit nicely into a tote or handbag and is a must have for all of you who use the selection of a palette of colour as an important part of the design process in your studio or sewing space. I will keep this tool in the glove box of my car when on a shopping trip, and in my tote bag if heading off to a conference or Quilt Show. This tool offers us the options of shopping with EXACT colour matches to the fibre industry colours used the the print process and will help beginning as well as experienced quilters to have the work they produce appeal to their viewer both professionally and emotionally. Did you know that colour plays the MOST important role in what a viewer "sees" in your quilts? I have seen the reaction to colour make a huge impact on quilters and visitors to the recent KFPL Kingston Fibre Artists Show and amazing Quilts Kingston 2008 Show at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour this past May. Walking into the shows, the most colourful quilts instantaneously "draw" the visitors, and yet the subtle and intense colour palettes planned by the artist/quiltmaker to "share a story" are the most impressive and draw the most comments. Take the time to STUDY COLOUR... with an expert or on your own. Joen's outstanding books The Magical Effects of Color, COLORPLAY and Visual Colouring are still available. There will likely be lots of copies in the Kingston area after this past weekend. Ask your favourite Quilt Shop to order a copy for you or write to Joen at JOEN WOLFROM DESIGNS, 104 Bon Bluff, Fox Island, Washington USA 98333 or visit her website at http://www.joenwolfromdesigns.com/ for more information about obtaining her books and products.

I chose a switch into Joen's Sunday "Sashay Around The Block" pieced quilt class as a need to glean every bit of knowledge from her was my motivating idea. We didn't get very far - a quilt block apiece was the most I saw anyone complete, but it was a good start at honing new skills in coordination of colour palettes, the defining of scale and colour balance, and a new confidence in selecting a scheme that would make your quilt"sing" for the viewer. There were several other exciting options for all of the quilters participating, and a huge THANK YOU to Margaret, Adriana, Shelly and Karen for their hard work planning the event. Great friends, great food and lots of fun...

This coming Friday, I plan to attend the first "PARLOUR MEETING" of the local and distance Ontario members of the STUDIO ART QUILT ASSOCIATES group.Cathy Breedyk Law has invited the ON members group to meet together to get in some networking time and to allow us to get to know each other better. SAQA is a world-wide group based in the US that has the mission of preparing contemporary quilters to exhibit their work on the National and International stage around the world - a scary and foreboding challenge for some quilters, and yes, one that will take some nudging and confidence building for others. The opportunity for quilters to meet together, share ideas, planning options for self-promotion, establishment of networking with other quilters in Canada and around the world. I have loved collecting the PORTFOLIO 13 and PORTFOLIO 14 exhibition catalogues of beautiful quilts from SAQA exhibitions, and the DVD/Cd's that the organization offers on their website http://www.saqa.com/ and these books do inspire creativity and colour choices, offer insight into the wide world of of art quilting and give you some pleasure as you visit these outstanding collections of quilts at your leisure. Consider the option of joining this International group that will afford you exposure to quilters from around the world, the opportunity to learn and grow as the outstanding members and SAQA exhibitions share a world of information and insight into the growing phenomenon of Art Quilts. This is an excellent option for those who just want to be a part of the inspiration and information sharing (four great Journals received each year as a part of the $50 USD annual membership/ $110 USD for a professional artists membership which gives you website presence on the SAQA website.

Well, back to the vacuum cleaning, dog brushing and heading off for another four days of work before Friday's fun day, and I look forward to lots of sunshine all week long. Enjoy this first day of fall, and think AUTUMN when pulling fabrics for your next quilt... hoping to see LOTS of little maple leaf blocks at the Limestone Quilters Guild meeting "Block of the Month" display... I will make several as they are just 9 1/2" and good, easy fun to piece. Email Mary Waugh for a copy of the pattern.

Have a fun and productive day and coming week. Enjoy classes, make quilts and EXPLORE COLOUR.

Storms this week will not dampen the spirit of stitchers

Good Monday Morning everyone...
The clouds are screaming in all around us here in Kingston and yes, we will see the remnants of IKE this day - a hugely serious storm that has affected many of my friends from the QUILTART List and the International Quilt Festival crown including Karey Bresnehan who is the Founder of the Festival in Houston each year. Good wishes for a speedy clean-up and return to some semblance of regular day to day life to all...and yes, we are feeling the pinch of the gas price increases here in Kingston. Yesterday, $139.9 and growing. Please don't forget with all of this doom and gloom that we have wonderful friends and skills to lean on in difficult times. Call a friend today, make some great stitches into a small quilt that has been languishing on a shelf or get to the sewing machine and create ART! Take time to make a special dinner for your family today - maybe start the fall season with an old favorite soup recipe and use up some of the things in the freezer!

This morning is the opening Fall 2008 meeting of the Cataraqui Guild of Needle Arts - the local Embroiderers Guild, and I will be going to re-join this group of avid stitchers. A "next step" on my journey to re-claiming my former life when hand stitchery was a part of my every day life, and time was more precious and available to me. I have made some small strides toward "retirement" and hope that soon the reality of being home all day and doing what I want and need to do will actually be a part of my life. I look forward to seeing old and new friends this morning and getting into the swing of spending first and third Monday mornings at Edith Rankin Church on Bath Road in Kingston. Come join in on the fun. Keep in mind that the Guild is working very quickly now to host the National Seminar of the Canadian Embroiderers Association - May 2009 I believe, at St. Lawrence College. Membership is around $80 for the year and includes membership in the National organization and the receipt of four issues of their Newsletter/magazine. The meetings run from 9:30-3:30 with stitchers sharing brown bag lunch break and some "learning time" with a lesson in a particular stitch each meeting, afternoons with a dedicated class chosen by stitchers who wish to participate, or just time to stitch among friends. Come play...

Good News... our DESIGN FOR TEXTILES course at St. Lawrence College is up and running with nine students - THANK YOU to everyone who decided to come out and join us. This will be a very productive and enlightening term for students in Janice Van Dijk's Photography Courses, Tine Barnes/Zahra Husain's Silk Painting Course, Beth Abbott's Fibre course on Tuesday evenings and our Thursday night Design Program. This is really good news for our stitching community! Special thanks to Barb Rushton, Denise Sokolsky and Seymone Armostrong for sticking with the program and heading very quickly now toward their graduation. Huge Hooray.... and we will be experimenting with all sorts of great techniques this fall, including design elements in black and white, some stitching of Journal covers for small written records kept during this 12 week adventure with design, the creation of "deconstructed screen printed" cloth and more complex layering techniques and some collage work which is always a fast and exciting process.

Don't forget that FIBREFEST Kingston will be running this coming weekend at the FRONTENAC CULTURAL CENTRE at 711 Dalton Ave., Kingston. This weekend of quilting is sponsored by our local shops, The Quilters Choice, The Perfect Stitch, Wilton Creek Fabrics and Garden Thyme. Registration is still available and you can contact the registrar, Karen McGee at kmagee5@sympatico.ca for more information. The Lecture with Joen Wolfrom is Friday evening at 7 pm, $25 at the door or register at the shops mentioned above. Hope to see you there.

Now off to Guild and work and then a week watching the skies... the storms are headed right over us, and the blue skies this morning may be deceiving us into a lull of complicity. Here is hoping the forecasters are wrong and we will be in "fall season" which is a cherished right of passage for many of us!

Happy Monday..

THREADWORKS SHOW IS IN GANANOQUE

Rainy Sunday in Kingston - is this the tail end of Gustav or a touch of Hannah??? Well - one way or the other, it was a great day for a little SETACOLOR Transparent painting, and I love creating fabric, no matter what the weather. Not a good day for sunprinting, but the backgrounds I painted were wonderful and I can always use some beautiful pastels. I painted two book covers as well. One of the great things I have discovered since purchasing my JANOME 6600 is the many pieces I have been working up to practice using the new machine for free motion quilting are just wonderful painted AFTER the stitching! So much fun to add the layers of colour and see the raised surfaces accept the paints. Wetting the fabrics first makes the paint a bit more pastel, and painting the surfaces DRY mean deeper and more saturated colour. Try this technique with some of your free motion quilting samples. Most of us have a closet full from great workshops with teachers like Elaine Quehl.

Speaking of Elaine, she will be just one of the great teachers at QUILTFEST which is sponsored by The Perfect Stitch, The Quilters Choice, Wilton Creek Fabrics and Garden Thymes the weekend of Sept 19-21st. The festivities and classes will be held at the French High School on Dalton Ave beginning with a Friday evening, September 19th Lecture at 7 pm with JOEN WOLFROM, renowned American Colour Expert and Designer of Quilts. Classes are still registering, so check with your favorite Quilt Shop and see if there is still room for you in one or more of the classes.

Dale took me for a ride to Gananoque yesterday, one of the little treats associated with having four days off after working the Labour Day Holiday. The traveling show of the Ontario Network of Needleworkers, THREADWORKS, which was originally shown at the Wellington County Museum in May of 2007 has finally come for it's two month long stay at the Arthur Child Heritage Museum of the Thousand Islands. The Show opened on August 28th and will be at the Museum until the end of October. It was wonderful to walk through the sharing of some of the best Art Quilts, Framed Embroideries, soft sculpture, wearables and more created by members of the Ontario Network of Needleworkers... and 15 of the pieces are from members of the Kingston Fibre Artists Group, so very special to see those again. TINA BARNES wonderful Labyrinth piece has been sold since it arrived in Gananoque...a beautiful piece in Tina's series of Labyrinth works.

There is also a great exhibit of local Gananoque heritage textiles including a terrific collection of ladies undergarments, very interesting multiples of generations of dresses, quilts, tapestry, men's garments, baby clothes and more. The entry to the Museum is $5 and you are free to visit the THREADWORKS exhibit and all of the three floors of the Museum as well - a good investment. And be sure to think about making time for a cruise on the Gananoque Boat Lines - this is a perfect time of year to tour the St. Lawrence River and see the beautiful gardens still in bloom and the Bolt Castle which is now nearing completion of it's latest renovation phases.

For those of you who haven't registered for the classes I mentioned in my August 5th post...you might consider one last look online at SL.ON.CA - the website of the St. Lawrence College. Check for Part Time Studies, Kingston Campus, Creative/Fine Arts, Textile Design Program. I am offering a one time, $100 scholarship to the one student who's name is drawn on the first night of the Textile Design Course if we can get the course numbers needed to run the class... there were only four students as of Friday, August 5th. The magic number is 10 students for the course to be a "go", so for those who might read this and register tonight, August 7th online or tomorrow, August 8th and help us get this class off the ground (contact the college, 613-544-5400, ext. 60) for the three students who need the course to graduate, I will draw one name from the registrants today or tomorrow and that person will receive $100 of her $198.16 tuition back in cash from me... a good incentive to join us - but above all, the opportunity to come along and take the class which is design focused with a group of friends is the best incentive. be sure to email me at garner@kingtson.net if you register tomorrow so I include your name in the draw.

Thanks for checking in and do come back often.

Fall winds blow as free time allows for NEW WORK

Good Friday morning everyone... great sunshine and high winds are creating a good day for drying some knitted and fulled work I have been experimenting with. A couple of days off this week's end will allow me to refresh and refocus for new work - Hooray for time off!

Looks like my TEXTILE DESIGN course at St. Lawrence College will NOT BE A GO this fall, and while I am disappointed that more women in our area are not keen to come learn the basics of design and create new fibre work, this is an opportunity to me to have an extra evening each week to prepare new work for the upcoming KINGSTON FIBRE ARTISTS SHOW at the John M. Parrott Gallery at the new Belleville Public Library during the month of November 2008. This will be an exciting display of the work of this outstanding group of Fibre Arts professionals and we welcome two new members this fall, SANDRA GARNER and DENISE SOKOLSKY who will be sharing some of their most dynamic textile work as a part of our exhibition.

Today I promised Hilary Scanlon, FIBREWORKS KINGSTON Co-Ordinator to include some announcements about Fibreworks Weekend Workshops that are scheduled for the 2008-2009 Season. Fibreworks is a passion for me, as I had been involved as Associate Coordinator for eleven years before asking this fall to pass the torch to Donna Hamilton, new Fibreworks Registrar and Associate Coordinator. Donna will do a hugely effective job in her new role, and I ask you to join me in welcoming her to this fun-filled job!

This Fall two outstanding LOCAL ARTISTS, Catharina Breedyk Law from Perth, Ontario and Kit Vincent, a Studio Artist from Brockville will share the roster for Workshop Instructors of renown! I hope that you will read the information about their courses below, and consider QUICKLY a registration for each of their workshops! In the spring, Fibreworks welcome Dorothy Caldwell from Hastings, ON and Greta Kristiansen-Jacobs from Picton - two outstanding and highly respected Fibre Artists who will share their unique teaching style in two day workshops you will NOT want to miss. REGISTER EARLY for all of these wonderful workshop study opportunities!

BETTER QUILTS BY DESIGN, Kit Vincent, Instructor

October 17-19, 2008

St. Lawrence College, Room 12050, Upper Level in the Link Hallways, Admin. Wing

Lecture, Friday evening, October 17th, 7 pm, $5 at the door (for students, lecture fee is included)

Workshop Fee: $110 for two full working days in the classroom with Kit and her Friday evening Lecture

Description: This two-day workshop is packed full of information about colour and design. On the first day students will work with a unique colour finder tool that I use daily in my work. They will experiment and practice using colour, making several small fabric postcards. On the second day, they will assemble an original art quilt using fabric collage techniques borrowed from the fine arts world. Students will leave with a larger quilt top underway and several mock up compositions for future use.

The Artist: Kit Vincent constructs textile paintings using fabrics that she has patterned with a variety of surface design processes. These surfaces are then heavily thread painted with machine stitching and/or hand embroidery. Her work has appeared in numerous shows in Canada, the US and overseas.

Recently, her work was on view at the Sarah Sterkin Gallery in Gananoque, the Chameleon Nation Gallery in downtown Kingston, the Museum of Contemporary Textiles in Montreal and through the Ontario Crafts Council website. Kit is also a sought after teacher who enjoys exploring as many fibre-related techniques and materials as she can and sharing these with her students. Visit Kit`s website at http://www.kitvincent.com/

THE LANDSCAPE QUILT, Catharina Breedyk Law, Instructor
November 14-16, 2008
St. Lawrence College, Room 12050, Upper Level, Link Hallway, Admin. Wing
Course Fee: $110, includes two workshop days with Cathy and her Friday evening Lecture

Description: Let us enjoy the creation of a Landscape Quilt, manipulating colour to give our designs some ZING. Whenever I am in a playful mood or it is a dreary day, it is really fun to pull out bright fabrics, bring out all of my threads, beads I own and play with graphic shapes to design a landscape quilt. In this course, we will experiment with colour, shapes, machine applique, free motion quilting, beading, bobbin work including silk ribbon and curved piecing. Also, you will learn how to frame your work on a wooden stretcher. Come play, and learn to stretch your boundaries.

The Artist: Catharina Breedyk Law is a teacher who happily retired to be able to wallow in her passion, fibre art. Sewing since she was a child, and taking a variety of classes, Cathy discovered that it was an ÀHA moment when she found this art form. Sewing, fibre, painting, drawing, beading, digital photography. tailoring techniques, free motion quilting and embroidery all combine in her process of creating art. Cathy moved to Perth area recently, where her husband built her the studio she always wanted. Here she teaches what she has discovered, and it gives her great joy to pass along to others what she has learned. Cathy`s work has won many awards and is presently exhibited in several galleries. Visit Cathy`s website at: http://www.catharinabreedkklaw.com/

HUMAN MARKS, Dorothy Caldwell, Instructor

March 6-8, 2009

St. Lawrence College, Room 12050, Upper level, Link Hallway, Admin. Wing

Course Fee: $120, includes two workshop days with Dorothy and her Friday evening Lecture

Description: The marks we make record time and human energy. Working with paper and cloth, students in this workshop will examine different kinds of marks including stitching, resist and batik, discharge, drawn and painted marks and more unconventional marks such as burning, piercing and mending. Each of these will address a different aspect of physical movement and gesture that through time and repetition evolve into richly activated surfaces.

The Artist: Dorothy Caldwell is a graduate of Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and lives and maintains a studio in Hastings, Ontario. She has carried out research in Japan and India on textile traditions and is the recipient of grants and awards including the Bronfman Award. her work is included in many permanent collections including the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the American Museum of Art and Design, The Carlton and Reta Lewis collection, Washington, D.C and the Canadian Embassy, Bangkok, Thailand.

TAPESTRY - A NEW YORK BEAUTY WORKSHOP, Greta Kristiansen-Jacobs, Instructor

April 3-5, 2009

St. Lawrence College, Room 12050, Upper level, Link Hallway, Admin. Wing

Course Fee: $110.00, includes two workshop days with Greta and her Friday evening Lecture

Description: Through Greta`s open and easy going teaching style, executing this beautiful old pattern which many have thought to be difficult and intimidating, becomes an enjoyable experience. Greta will not only take you through the steps of making sharp and accurate points using paper piecing and forever remove your fear of sewing curves., but also introduce you to the concept of designing your own quilt. She will bring several different New York Beauty quilts to the workshops showing you different types of New York blocks and the many different setting options the block offers. The workshops also discuss colour and fabric choices and the advantage of using a design wall in your design process.

The Artist: Greta Kristainsen-Jacobs is a quilt maker and fibre artist who upon retirement discovered that she had a hidden talent for colour and design. Born and raised in Denmark, her formal training is finance and her quilting career began when she moved to Picton in 1990. After taking several classes from various renowned quilt artists, she started designing her own quilts and very soon people began to remark on how they can always recognize her work. Greta opened a Studio, GRETONY QUILTS, in Picton where she displays and sells her quilts and where she conducts workshops and retreats. She has developed her own patterns which are available in Quilt Shops and the Internet at her website http://www.gretonyquilts.com/ and in her Studio. She has participated in numerous Shows and has own several awards. Greta introduced her TAPESTRY- NEW YORK BEAUTY QUILTS at Quilt Canada in June 2008.

FINAL NOTE:

Please consider all of these workshops key to your development as a FIBRE ARTIST and QUILTER...your participation is welcomed by Hilary, Donna and encouraged by ME...and I hope you will feel that YOU are an important member of the Ontario Fibre Arts Community and that you need to develop your skills and take advantage of workshops like these whenever possible! Hope to hear that I will be sitting near you in all four workshops. COME PLAY!

Have a great and productive weekend.

A little hiatus is good for the soul..getting back in the saddle!

It's Thursday, September 4th and I am off for four days in a row, so you will be hearing from me a lot in the next few days! We just returned from a nice vacation in Michigan and Indiana where we had the wonderful opportunity to visit family and friends and meet our beautiful new granddaughter Maria, adopted by my son David and his wife Sue. Maria is a Mayan child from Guatemala and so very beautiful... you just can't imagine that a child could be living in an orphanage for many years (she is 5) before someone chooses to love and protect her. Maria will have a wonderful and very blessed home with David and Sue, and her little sister Zara, just three years old and the oh so beautiful child of Dave and Sue born to them in 2004 after waiting for her for 13 years.... and Maria also now has a beautiful new quilt to wrap up in, thanks to a very generous and love-filled gift from my close friend, Susan Maclean... thank you Susan! The quilt is truly beautiful and so are YOU!

Last night I had the opportunity to attend the Limestone Quilters Guild meeting in Kingston and see many old friends again after a summer break! MARTA SMITH was the Guest Speaker, and gave all of us a delightful introduction to her work and passion, ART DOLLS. Please look for Marta's work at the PEC Studio Tour coming up the weekend of Sept. 20/21st. Please see the Prince Edward County Studio Tour website for more details.

The meeting was great, and I have to admit that I am likely NOT in the good graces of our President as I took (stole to be truthful) 20 minutes of time during the meeting's end to introduce the wonderful courses that are available at ST. LAWRENCE COLLEGE this fall. Those of you who know me well also know that I am a hugely committed and determined advocate of the Textile Design Diploma Program at the college here in Kingston, Ontario. As an Instructor with St. Lawrence since 1997, I have developed and supported the educational programs for Summer School for the Arts in Brockville and developed and delivered eight of the the courses for the 10 course Full Credit Diploma Program since January of 2005. The students in this Program have been very active as participants in the fibre art community here in Kingston, with some as members of the Kingston Fibre Artists Group, others members of the new Fibre Arts group meeting at the Scout Hall on Monday evenings and working toward community Shows in this new year. Others are active members of the Cataraqui Guild of Needle Arts and are hugely involved preparing for the National Seminar of the Canadian Embroidery Association which will come to Kingston in Spring 2009 at St. lawrence College. Many are Studio Artists now, as a result of creative work done at St. Lawrence College, which gave them the courage to strike out and develop new work which is exhibition worthy. Others are submitting work to national and international Shows and competitions, and placing their work for sale in Galleries in our area and beyond.

Many of the courses at St. Lawrence College this fall are filling nicely, and I am sad to say that the TEXTILE DESIGN course in the program which I will Instruct (and which would be in it's third presentation in three years to ensure that everyone has a chance to take the course for their diploma) is NOT filling well. Only five students are registered and we need a minimum of 10 to get the course rolling. This course will be an exciting opportunity for students to come and explore the amazing and important aspects of creating ORIGINAL DESIGN... whether a Traditional Quilter or a Contemporary Fibre Artist, students would have the chance to explore design in an all new way - through the development of a delightful and important course required JOURNAL/Sketchbook that will be submitted at the end of the course an assessment tool for the course grade. The goal of the course is to introduce commitment to design principles into the student's planning processes and add some fun and excitement to the 12 weeks of work in the classroom. Students will be working with paints, dyes and of course stitch, both by hand and machine. Developing new work is challenging and dynamic to the design process. Having the courage to step up to the plate and get work done rather than "intending to" is something that all of the students in this program have committed to throughout the past three years.

I invite you to join in on the fun and excitement of taking on a DESIGN journey with like-minded students. Please know that this appeal for enrollment is not to fill a personal need for ME (though I love sharing with my students), but a need that YOU might consider - taking those first steps toward your development as a serious and committed Fibre Arts enthusiast. Yes, there are dollars and time required for taking courses in the College's line-up this fall, and YES, I do definitley know that your discretionary dollars are limited. Fall is always a busy time, and with so many options open to students, there have to be courses that do not run. The college cannot afford to support courses with low enrollment, so I will happily defer to those courses that students DO support, but if you can join us or if you have a friend who would like to be introduced to the fun of original design, please share the information and invitation to join us! And yes, you can be a traditional quilter and work on advancing your love of traditional patterns, colours, fabrics and perspective in this course - just do come play. Be inspired by the work of new friends and area fibre artists and quilters who are working through the diploma requirements or as an "interest only" participant. Let colour, exciting materials, techniques and developing all new design provide new excitement in your life as a textile lover. Consider taking our Textile Design Course as an investment rather than a challenge or a cost...making new work is an inspiring and awesome experience. Watching and participating as friends develop THEIR new work is even more fulfilling. We all learn from each other at every step in the process.Please feel free to call me for more information or email me at garner@kingston.net

There are huge obstacles to filling this course for Fall 2008... there are MANY choices for students in the course catalogue line-up this fall. I have mentioned here before the FIBRE TO FABRIC course being presented by Beth Abbott of Godfrey. I encourage anyone who is wanting a great foundation for study of the history of Textiles to enroll for this course - Beth will share many samples of fibre with her students, and create a dynamic study environment for exploring the various Fibre types and their use. Janice VanDijk is the Instructor for several Photography Courses at the College this fall and some of our students from the Textile Design Program are required to take the courses in lieu of the Portfolio Development Course which did not run this summer. Janice's courses are hugely popular and will offer those who are wishing to learn more about Digital Photography, Image Editing and Photo Transfer the opportunity to get those skills under their belts for future exhibition and project development work. Christina Barnes will Instruct not only a three level FLORAL DESIGN course at SLC this fall, but is also the Co-Instructor of the SILK PAINTING Course with talented and experienced Silk Artist, Zahra Husain. This course will run in competition with the Textile Design course on Thursday evenings, Sept. 11-November 27th... and that means huge decision dilemmas for students. Which courses to take and which courses to pass on..

I will sign off for now, but encourage you to visit the College's website at SL.on.ca or simply get on the phone and sign up for the courses that are of most interest to YOU. The college phone number to register for classes is 613-544-5400, ext. 60.

Have a GREAT Day and enjoy the beautiful sunshine.... take a walk. I intend to do just that all of the next four beautiful days.