Fiber Artists Exhibit at Betz Gallery

HAFA group (Houston Association of Fiber Artists) Gallery Exhibit is being hosted by Betz Gallery through October 26th.  If you have a chance, drop into this gallery and give these pieces a look.  Here is just a few photos of what you can enjoy there.

This lovely garment greets you as you enter the front door.  Entitled "Into-Me-See-The Language of Love" by Carol Watson. 

Here is the back view of the garment.

Here is an interesting crochet hanging by Fermin Coronado who used various techniques to create "Sea Scape".

This piece is not on display but Fermin showed it off at the regular meeting.  This scarf  will be sent to be exhibited in New York as a tuxedo accessory.

"Empty Nest" by Hope Wilmarth uses various quilting and surface design tecniques  for this small wall hanging.

Susan Abouhalkah wove "Yesterday's Towel-Today".  It is displayed on a modern towel stand.

Ginny Eckley has a way with color and needles.  This hanging is entitled "Koi Pond Under the Willow II".  Her larger piece that was entered in the exhibit received Best of Show.  You'll need to stop in the gallery to see that piece.

Aileen Gugenheim is exhibiting "Matrix Field", a work of layered silk, pieced collage with speciality threads and bead embellishments.

In an earlier blog, there was a photo of threads that were used to create this lovely drapey scarf.  Knitted by Scharine Kirchoff and entitled "Peace Be With You", this shawl is linen paper with silk stainless steel thread.

Brenda Bunten-Schloesser has given us this creative mosaic of painted cotton, dyed and woven yarn threads and she has titled it "Light of Morning at Sunrise"

Mari Omori with "Incubator, 2011"  Can you guess the what the incubator holds?  This interesting display in a hundred year old wooden box or incubator holds babies of .................teabags!  Yes, teabags, cotton, cotton seeds.  Stop in Betz Gallery before the closing date to see other creative pieces on display.

Fiber, Fiber Everywhere!

What a treat the HAFA (Houston Association of Fiber Artists) meeting was!  Inspiring, inspirational and intriguing--all wrapped up in two hour meeting--lots of show and tell, happenings and activities upcoming with this group.  The program was presented by Emily Davlin,  a member of HAFA and shared her technique of what she called "Heat Gun Fabric".  Here is the description from the newsletter:  "Artistic Fabric Texturing", Emily will demonstrate how heat is used to form texture on polyester lining weight fabric by using an embossing tool. The resulting pieces have many possible applications from jewelry to wearable art garments to wall art.

She had the fabric ready for demo--sprists some water, brushed on some diluted acrylic paint (cheap paint, Emily recommends) and then apply heat!  Must be cheap polyester fabric too.

And the end product--she also did the back with the heat gun for awhile.  Interesting texture for sure.

Some of her samples on display.  Notice the 'burn' out hole in the fabric; a result of the heat gun.

The black was outstanding!

Emily uses her 'heat gun' fabric for many fashionable wearables--purses and jewelry.  She even uses the finished fabric as lining in garments to add that extra touch.

We all fell in love with "Emily's Book"--a creative gathering of thoughts and ideas.

She even uses machine stitching for more detail work.  This was an interesting program and gets your "juices" flowing and thinking "What if...................."  Thanks Emily for sharing your inventive way to change plain ole polyester into a useful fabric.

Weaver's Delight!

When we return from our summer away, it is always the highlight of the month to return to our regular scheduled programming and the first week of the month, we are delighted to visit with not one but two weaver study groups.  WSW (West Side Weavers) continue their study of waffle weave.  But, before we launch into that topic...................................

Our hostess, Scharine, brings out one of the towels she purchased at the recent guild show/sell.  It's a lovely towel woven by fellow weaver Marian, who just took up weaving a short time ago.  She has progressed by leaps and bounds! 

Okay, onto study topic at hand--waffle weave.  This hand cloth is the product from Penny's loom--great handle and perfect for washcloth and just the right size.

Connie's silk noil scarf reminds one of spring days and colors.  It is light and airy and she worked hard to achieve the waffles right where she wanted them.

Our newest member is on the learning curve--almost there.....and she wove this great cloth but there were some treadling errors---she is definitely going to give us a run for our money!

Dottie, who is master at whatever she sets her hand to, showed off one of her Christmas ornaments--felted fabric, hand embroidered and she recycles as well (using one of her empty yarn cones as a base).

She shows off one of her 'postcards' before it is placed in the mail to her dear friend.  Ahh, to be one of those 'dear' friends.

Scharine models one of the 'rejects' from the recent fiber artist show.  "Reject?" we say--"no way"!  Scharine uses her family tecniques to fashion this interesting fabric for her jacket. 

She has used traditional Japanese flower fabric and her fermented dyed fabric as accent.

Another reject--her lovely silk fermented dyed scarf.  She uses indigo leaves for the dye process, which takes several days to achieve.

What can you do with linen paper yarn and stainless steel/silk?  Easy, knit a scarf--that is exactly what Scharine did.  And this scarf was accepted into the fiber artist show.  Can't wait to see it in person!

Can we say color!!??  This is a warp that Scharine is to thread on her loom for the upcoming Ruby Leslie workshop.  It's all about color, which fits nicely into the second weaver study group's work for the year.

D'Anne, from the WOW (Way Out West) group has this warp for the workshop.  Ruby has wound all the warps for the participants and sent specific instructions on the threading. 

Ahh, a blast from the past!  But, now look ,this complete study session has been printed in lovely book form.  The old one on the storage shelf is on loose paper printed by the hand of Else herself.  We studied with Else many moons ago and had a wonderful learning experience.

Our faithful leader, Leigh, brought some of the yarn cones that she wants to weave with.  She was asking for suggestion of weave structure.  Oh, we had plenty of ideas for her!

Barbara had her weave draft at hand--a colorful crackle variation.  We'll see the real deal soon, knowing Barbara, who does wonderful weavings!  In all, it was a super week filled with so many ideas that could explore one's brain!  Home to weave, if only..............................why is there always that excuse standing in the way??

Auditioning!

No matter if you are auditioning for "X Factor", the local choir or gallery--we all need to audition somehow and somewhere. It's the same with quilts--how do you finish them off with the right border?

This quilt top was completed some time ago--it was a mystery from Lyn Brown.  So now, that we have it finished, it is time to find the right border.

Will it be a light first border with a red outer?

Or reverse that--red inner and light blue outer?

We are still placing that light blue on the outside with a dark inner.

We've ditched the light blue for dark blue inner and red outer.

And now the reverse of the last one.  What will it be?  Maybe, we should call in the panel of judges to give us a clue--of course, there are other options and the top could be auditioning for weeks.

"Spooooooooky!"

It's that time of the year again--spooky time!  And to make the season just right and even more spooky (if that is possible!), Craft-lit podcast is now reading "Dracula" by Bram Stroker.  We have listened to the first chapter and boy, we got goose bumps................what a super reader! 

To go along with the reading, two knit-a-longs are being sponsored with patterns from What Would Madame Defarge Knit?  This is the beginning of Whilhelmina's Shawlette.

Loving this KAL!  Haven't decided if we'll participate in the October KAL--mittens--don't need them too often in Texas weather.

Now, we leave you with a nice cool scene from our trip to Southern Colorado--the autumn colors were outstanding and we were in awe!  Off to unpack.......................................

Nature At Its Best!!

Soon we are departing our summer residence.  It has been a good summer--one filled with great adventures, wonderful times spent with brown headed daughter and many hours of relaxation.  The mountains are receiving snows and that is a sign to head south, just as the birds do. 

It seems now is the time when the sunsets are the greatest!  This photo taken from our back deck as we dined--what color surrounded us!  You just couldn't ask for a better dining view.

We took one final summer journey into Rocky Mountain National Park to view some wildlife--hoping that aspens had taken their fall turn to orange, red, yellow and golden and the elk were down from the high country.

Since it was a weekend day, the park was crowded--many had come out to bask in the changing of the leaves.  This view was taken from Many Curves pullout.  In the background is Longs Peak, 14,000 ft.

Not many of the aspens had turned this reddish-purple color, but the ground cover had.  And amongst the lowly ground bushes, summer flowers still burst forth.

We picnicked at Upper Beaver Meadow in anticipation of elk viewing, but all we could see were these postings along the way.  Guess we were at the wrong time of day for elk.  In years past during mid day we had seen elk in downtown Estes, along the roadsides, and some just hopped out in front of our car as we drove Trail Ridge.

Several areas in the park are fenced to allow for vegetation to reseed and grow.  These are the areas that elk have frequented.  The sign reads "20 year project".  Several of the older aspen trees have had the bark chewed off up to 8 feet from the ground--a hardy sign that elk feed here in the cold, snowy winter months.

Through the wires you can see a good stand of aspens and wonderful under growth.

We were off to visit the first campground where we took the kids back in June, 1974.  They remember well and so do we adults!  After pitching our tent, eating our evening meal and climbing into our tent, the rains came and that soon turned to snow!  By morning we had several inches of snow around--fixed breakfast over the campfire (bundled up in layers of garments) and as soon as the eggs hit the plate--instant cold!!  The only thing to do was pack up and head out of the high country.  This visit the campground was closed for the winter--too bad!  We wanted to visit the Big Rock where the kids sat to have their photo taken--oh, well, we'll pull out those photos and remember that time again!

We did continue up the road into Bear Lake parking lot--a much visited spot.  So visited that rangers/volunteers direct traffic in and out; buses pick up at various locations in the park and Estes to deliver to this spot.  We were fortunate to find a parking spot and took the short hike to the lake--where once again, we sat on the banks and thought back to those  many visits to this area when visitors weren't so common.
As to the elk viewing--none existent--except for three young bull elk that were seen at the top of Trail Ridge Road (too far away to take a photo).  We did see one small herd as we exited the park--a bull rested royally as his harem of cows enjoyed their grazing.  A ranger was directing traffic so it was impossible to stop for photos--alas, we did see a few elk and our day was complete.