Oakville Fibre Arts Debut

The Love of the Arts

Oakville Town Hall

Our newly formed Fibre Arts group debuted at the Love of the Arts Festival on May 16th. We are 12 members strong and by invitation at this time. We displayed our art work at the Town Hall.

You may recognize some of my art work amongst the lovely work of my friends!

Here is Marda, who was struck with an idea for a new group! I will have more news as our group evolves and grows!

Happy New Year Funky Monkey!

A Happy Heartfelt New Year to all my Friends!

This Funky Monkey and his book about monkeys jumping on the bed is a present for my sweet grand neice, Madelyn! I finally completed it last night and will be delivering it to her tomorrow!

This is also a little peak at my sewing area! But I can still produce art in amongst all the clutter!
I've made a few challenges for the new year:
1. Susan Sorrell's monthly challenge to try a new technique each month
2. Complete 2 projects for juried shows, coming up soon
3. Do my blog every week, none of this catch up stuff!
4. Work on writing articles for magazines
5. Have fun at my stitching guilds and continue with my volunteer work
6. Complete a few UFOs and prepare for gallery sales ahead of time
7. Take a few classes during the year, to get stimulated with art
8. Start a new sketchbook for 2010
9. Meet with my group Material Girls as often as possible and play all day
10. Spend time with Oatie, every day

That's it friends, Happy New Year! Best Wishes to Maggi in the UK! My most loyal follower! Hugs from afar!

Another Sale!

Walk this Way!

I have a small show at a local chiropractor's office in Milton. Another African like fibre art piece, called 'Walk This Way', sold just before Christmas. This one is based on Diane S. Hire's piecing techniques. It is pieced, appliqued, machine quilted, embroidered and beaded. The lady who bought it, is giving it to her daughter and son-in -law. Whooohooo, its been a very good year!

My Little Fat Bluebird and bad puppy!

This is one of my new stitcheries inspired by Quilting Arts magazine! Marker lines, painted areas and embroidery.

Yarn spread throughout the living room!!!




The bad puppy trying to ignore me!

A small landscape for the AM Gallery.

These are six more bookmarks I made for the gallery and my friend and fellow artist, Sandra Spagnuolo. The chicken one is just for her. We traded art and now I own one of her little house collages. I love trading with other artists!

A Big Sale!

A Taste of Africa Quilt

Just before Christmas, I had great news! My quilt was in the Oshawa Show and had enticed a purchaser and all I had to do was decide on a price and did I want to sell it! After speaking to the vice president of a Scarborough company, I realized this was the perfect person to have my quilt. It was to be a gift to the President of the company who is involved and dedicated to doing charitable work in Africa, such as providing clean drinking water. The price negotiated was secured and a courier delivered a cheque and off my quilt went to a new home!

Close up of A Taste of Africa


Another Close up

These are the last photos I took of my quilt, in case I want to make a second similar quilt. This Christmas I decided to part with some of my more traditional quilts as gifts to appreciative relatives. I don't know what I have been waiting for by storing my works in a big chest! Time to share my art!

More Art at the AM Gallery

Bookmarks for the Gallery

A new show opened at the Arts Milton gallery for December. This time we have 20 artists showing and selling their art! It is so exciting because we are actually selling our art. Some of the purchases are small but it is a start. The show is colourful and varied from oil paintings to photography, pottery, wood turning, mixed media from nature, paper art, fibre art, acrylics and watercolours.

My bookmarks, which are reasonably priced are selling out and I am hoping customers will come back for more expensive items. Above is my Doddle Dog edition, fibre collage.

My other popular theme is the environment for book marks. I love these and they are a lot of fun to make recycling my own scraps. My fish and bird in a nest are also sold out. I love meeting the other artists in the show and supervising the gallery and meeting the public. We have updated the gallery with a debit machine and gift bags, next a real cash register!

This sweet little needlecase sold to a lovely lady from Mexico living in Milton. It is going to make its way to Mexico as a gift for a needleworker.

Finally, I have been making frameable cards from a Jane Wild technique in a Stitch UK magazine using brown paper, stitch, lace, paint and shiva stick sewn onto my own handmade paper.

Its been a busy time of year, teaching at Chris Hadfield school and sewing for the gallery. I have been enriching the kids at school showing them how to make Zentangles. Such fun! www.zentangle.com

Until next week, I hope you are not stressing about the holiday season.

A Two Month Break

The last of summer at Lakeside Park in Oakville. I discovered this little gem of a park, while delivering a piece of art to the Oakville Museum for the Festival of the World of Threads. I took my little buddy along and we had a delightful time at the park. I love the Lakeshore in Oakville!

Lake Ontario shore line.

View from the park

A Grand Tree in the Park!!!! Yes, those are artists and their easels.

Oatie enjoying the surroundings.

Nesting is a new theme challenge for the new year of the Oakville Stitchery Guild. My little ATC is going to be in a book cover pocket, for my completed Sketchbook, another OSG challenge. This ATC is hand felted.

,

Among the many shows I have been participating in, this was one of them, The St. Clair Artwalk in Toronto at Penny Milton's gorgeous home and studio.

My art work hanging on the wall at Penny's.

My one stitch challenge for the OSG, president's Challenge. I used a piece of painted and stamped fabric, a straight stitch and some silk applique for the poppies. I is embroidered only with straight stitch and beaded. It is also the correct size for the Ontario Network of Needle workers Challenge for next May! I am ahead of the game!!!! More to come very soon on the other shows, I have had and I am getting ready for! My apologies to my followers that thought sometime had happened to me. I love you for asking why I wasn't blogging. And congratulations to my young mixed media artist friend, Sandra Spagnuolo who has just started her blog. I should have a link very soon,

Keep stitching, Donna

Ontario Network of Needleworkers

This week I was fortunate enough to go to the annual meeting of the Network of Needleworkers representing the Oakville Stitchery Guild. This year it was held in Peterborough in the Kawarthas. The Guild in Peterborough put on a very fine meeting in the Evinrude Center with very good food. The displays of work from 16 different guilds were awesome. I got so many ideas and was able to take many pictures to share with the guild. I took our guild project, St. Peter Patch and our Go Green Challenges for our display. Above is part of our display with a variety of projects all made from recycled materials.




This is a fibre art piece made by Jan Vinnai and a doll made by Sherry Del Rizzo.




A unique fibre book made by Heather Van Reisen and a beautiful wallhanging by Val Garnett

A photo of our whole display of Go Green Challenges.

A close up of a St. Peter block made with paper, stitch witchery, watercolour crayons and fabric made by Sybil Rampen. Sybil held the Mycon workshop at Joshua Creek Studio for our members. My job was to complete the project. I backed each block with peltex, black fabric and quilting cotton. Also, I added embroidery to each block.

Another block made by Sandra Spagnuolo during our Guild At Work Day.

The whole Guild project hanging at ONN. I added cotton strapping and ribbon between each block to create a gridded wall hanging. We are planning to enter our Guild's St. Peter Patch into the Guilded Threads Show in September at the World of Threads in Oakville.

Above is a photo of my small fibre art piece called Black Dog, Blue Chair. It recently sold on the last day of my show. Last of all, my name on the street in front of the Greenwood Quiltery Gallery in Guelph.

Tomorrow I am off to the Grand National Postcard Reception at the Joseph Schneider Haus in Kitchener. More exciting news on that next week.