Bloom Where you are Planted

Karen here.

Bloom where you are planted-a self portrait.

I used to own a lot of red shoes. They've pretty much lost out now to brown leather slip-ons and Dr. Scholl's sensible footwear.

I also used to colour my hair-sometimes red, sometimes brown-now its white. Although I must say my hair has not lost a lot of its  do your own thing attitude. 

In the quilt my red shoes have planted themselves and have decided to bloom. the petals are lined with red seed beads.

I always have had an attitude that things would be better if I lived somewhere else, had a different job, lost 50 pounds --and on and on and on.

Our friend Al Cote has been blooming. His latest work is on display at the Grimsby, Ontario library. The show will be there until the end of December and is really a great display. He works in a small controlled way with lots of interesting details and texture. Al has recently started to use natural dying techniques and rusted stained fabrics that give his work a very organic feeling.  Lots of surface design, many beads and found objects and hand stitched embellishment are skillfully employed.

Congratulations Al. A beautiful display.

Buying new things

 In June my husband switched our provider to Bell Fibe TV. I wasn't too keen on it because I like to watch WNED and I couldn't find it on their list - but it got switched anyway. It is more economical.


We had a few kinks that had to be fixed the first month but it has worked well since then and there are a few features  that I really like- plus my husband found WNED-even when the rep couldn't.


Yesterday, Robynne, Al and I were at a luncheon and we were talking about Fibe tv. Robynne has just had it installed in her house and she likes the wireless feature. I said that I really didn't think that we were wireless.


I checked when I got home and, no, we are not wireless. The reason for that is that our TV is not SMART. It is so old that the new technology is not available.


I don't know how old the TV is but neither my husband or I can even remember how old it is or even where or when we bought it. It still works well-we have had to replace the remote a few times but have never had any problems with it-so why would I buy a new one? Just to get a smarter one?


I really hate buying new things.

Hi  everyone.  I have not added to the blog  in a long time.  A lot has happened since my last blog.
I returned from the show in Italy and immediately prepared for my first annual Fiber Art retreat.
I was overwhelmed to find that I had 24 people sign up!  I was well prepared as far as the programme went.  We experimented with everything from thread painting, fabric dyeing, folding, a little rust dyeing and curved piecing.  They produced an amazing amount of work!  My wife Debbie cooked all the meals which was not an easy task, but enjoyed by all.  The house we rented was wonderful with lots of sleeping room but the work area was a bit tight, but we all managed.  On Saturday evening Fabrigos members Karen and Robynne  ( plus myself) came and presented a mini trunk show.  Unfortunately, Jo was relaxing at her cottage ( poor thing) but was there in spirit.  We talked a bit about our collaborative work and how we got together as a group.
The retreat was such a success that I am planning to run two in the spring and only having about twelve people at each one.
In September Debbie and I travelled by ship to Hawaii, Fiji, Samoa and Australia. It was an adventure!  We purchased a lot of fabrics including Tapa cloth from Fiji which I can not wait to experiment with.  We also purchased a lot of art.
I continue being busy with trunk shows and workshops and of course my fellow Fabrigos keep me grounded and prolific!
I have a showing of 13 pieces at the Grimsby Library until December 31.
Now I can catch up with customers quilts and get ready for the 2016 schedule!

quilts=art=quilts

My sister and I had the pleasure this week of a visit to the Shweinfurth Art center in Auburn New York to see the annual Quilts-Art-Quilts show.
It is an annual event in its 35th year but this is the first time we have seen it.  Its is a wonderful show and well worth the two hour drive to get there. I first heard about it last year but the weather last year was just to bad to travel there. this year we had a beautiful sunny day.


There were over 70 quilts in the show and each piece was a delight.


I'll just tell you about a few of my favourites.
A piece by Amy Meissner of Anchorage Alaska was one of the reasons I went to the show. I follow Amy's blog and enjoy her work. She re-uses old fabrics which happens to be a favourite thing for me to do. The piece  that was in the show was one of her reliquary series-number one Accumulation.
The words on the quilt spell out My Teeth my teeth are falling out. In her blog she talks about dreams of teeth falling out and an accident when she was a child which damage her two front teeth. Hand embroidery on the center panel spell out words all related to teeth and problems with teeth.
Its always a great pleasure to see a work in person. Photographs don't always capture the feeling of the work. I was delighted to see some of the small details that a photograph just doesn't capture. I knew that there were small found objects attached to this work but it was great to really see them.


A work by Patricia Kennedy-Zafred  called Sunset across Burma was another favourite. hand dyed cotton, screen printed photos of the dalai lama at three different ages, repeated with small changes and bits of embellishment was very striking.


Golden Canyon by Vicki Conley was very striking. A story of fire and rejuvenation and great printed fabrics.


There were a lot of quilts made using photographs-some more toward realism than others but it was quite evident that printing photos onto fabric is a trend that is still very popular and creative. Hand dyed fabric and altering commercial fabrics with dyes and inks and bleach was also used in many of the works.


A trend that is near to my heart is the reuse of vintage fabrics. There were many works that did just that. Hooray!!


This show should be on the Do Not Miss list for any one in the area. Well Done!!