Fiber Art Divas Show October 22 to 30, 2011

The annual Fiber Art Divas show will be held  at the Naperville Fine Art Center and Gallery, 508 North Center St., Naperville, IL. The show will feature one-of-a-kind art incorporating techniques such as art quilting, wool felting, knitting, mixed fiber, silk painting, and more. Items on display will include wall art, fiber sculpture, jewelry, and art-to wear. Several items will be available for purchase.

The show represents the work of the Fiber Art Divas, a local group of fiber art enthusiasts who meet monthly to share ideas and explore new techniques.  Several of the group’s members are award-winning or published artists.  Theme challenges from the past year will be featured along with other work by the artists.

An artists’ reception, open to the public, will be held Sunday, October 20 from 1 to 4 p.m.  Demonstrations of various fiber art methods will be held.

Show hours are Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday 1 to 4 p.m., Monday 7 to 9 p.m., closed Tuesday, Wednesday through Saturday noon to 4 p.m.  Admission is free.

October, 2011

Hello, earthlings! I have come a great distance to get this information to you. I apologize for not getting to you sooner, but life has a way of getting in the way.

QUILT SHOW INFO: Forms and artist statement info will be delivered to your e-mail address. Remember, if you haven't come to the meetings, you will be unable to show your work. Sorry about that. Drop off is on Friday, October 21st, from 12 to 6. If you find that this time slot doesn't work for you, please get your submissions to a friend who can deliver them. The show will be hung by a select few after that time. When dropping off, be prepared to have an entry form filled out. You or your good buddy will need to fill out one card per piece to be hung with each submission. If it's for sale, you'll need that info as well. I believe there is a list out there with people who are willing to spend time at the Naperville Art League to show a face for the show, answer questions, do some handwork,.... The Artist's Reception will be on Sunday, October 23rd from 1 - 4 p.m. The more the merrier! And there will be demo's for both Saturday and Sunday, October 22 and 23. People have been just as interested in basic hand work, as well as the more exotic things like Shiva sticks. Knock your socks off! Go ahead! Knock THEIR socks off!! Take down will be when we close the doors on the show on Sunday, October 30 at 4 p.m. Again, if you can't make it, have a friend help out.

OCTOBER MEETING IS OCTOBER 24th: 7 p.m. as usual. The show will be open on that night as well.

CHALLENGE DUE: I believe the challenge was due last month, but there was a poor "turn out" of quilts. So, if this last month gave you the time, please bring them in. If they're in the show, then we can walk in and visit them! Perhaps we can bring them chocolates! Perhaps we can bring ME chocolates! Yea! I like the sound of that!! Okay, it's agreed. We're all bringing me chocolate! I love this group! Two of my favorite things...quilts and chocolate. Of course, this doesn't diminish the love for my family any. It's just that they're not made of chocolate.

Probably good for them because they would have been eaten long before this. Would that be considered cannibalism? I mean, they would have been CHOCOLATE, not flesh and blood!

WRAP UP: Okay, that's enough for now. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at the show, as well as at the meeting. This will be way fun. Till we meet again....

xo, Laurie

July 2011 Newslsetter

Good day to you, ladies and gentleman!

Haven't seen you in a few months, but do intend to be there this Monday, July 25th at 7 p.m. for the meeting.

This will be a very brief letter due to minimal info to hand out. More next time. (Thank you, Cheryl, for your meeting notes!)

JULY 25TH MEETING: We will be discussing our upcoming show. Be prepared to come with suggested names for our show. (Don't forget that sometimes it's best to repeat the name so people begin to recognize that name with our work) We are also supposed to be thinking about a group logo. (I'm thinking about maybe a sparkly tiara! I mean...think about it...what do divas wear?) Anyway, those who have taken on specific portions of the upcoming show, please arrive with your notes that were set up after the last show. This show will be way more organized than last time, which we found is necessary. Flying by the seat of our pants will have to be a transportation choice no longer!

AUGUST 22ND MEETING: Zentangles (a repetitive pattern drawing art form that has applications for sewing) will be the subject du jour. Check out www.zentangle.com to be better informed than I am! (Okay, I peeked! It's basically pen and ink doodling in a creative way. Some of which would be very easily turned into free form quilting patterns, and way more complicated applique. Interesting, and the kind of thing that has had my interest for years.)

SEPTEMBER 26TH MEETING: Our very own Catherine Redford will be giving a coil pot demo. Check it out at www.catherineredford.com. Hit GALLERY, then hit WEARABLE, USABLE, AND OTHER 3-D ITEMS. Coil pots are number 3 in that portion of her gallery. Way cool!

THE POWER OF PLAY: Our current challenge theme is Power of Play. More on that next time. That's all I know about it. Power of Play. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that it can be interpreted in any way you'd like. Don't quote me on that though!

OKAY, that's it until next time. We'll meet at 7 p.m. on Monday, July 25th at the Naperville Art League, 508 N. Center Street, in...waittttttttt for ittttttttttt...NAPERVILLE!!!!!!!! I know that was a surprise!

xxxooo, Laurie

April 2011 Newsletter

Good day to you, ladies! Spring is here and laughing at us. Very rude on spring's part, if you ask me! The last meeting was very nice, with lots of show and tell. We then started working on our name tags, thanks to some nudging by Linda and Camille! Mine is still unfinished, but I have great intentions! Let's see how many are ready to wear at the next meeting. Thanks for spurring us on, ladies!

Illinois State Museum, Lockport, IL has a show up until September 16, 2011: Amish and "English": Quilts from the Illinois State Museum Collection. The quilts date from 1870 through 1950. Looks very interesting. Check it out at www.museum.state.il.us/ismsites/lockport/exhibitions.html

The Art and Science Exhibit for PAQA will be on exhibit somewhere in Joliet this May

(more on that in the next newsletter, maybe), and at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle this September. They always put on a nice show.

Catherine Redford has a piece for the Alzheimer's exhibit, "Heart Break to Hope", which will be traveling for 3 years. Yea!!!

An "Electric Quilts" presentation will take place at the April 25th meeting! Cheryl will be giving a 40 minute Powerpoint talk on e-textiles, and will also bring her electronic quilts. Lucky thing for all of you, I have my electronic robots to sleep under them! I'll be sure to bring them. This will be very interesting for dinosaurs such as myself. Thank you, Cheryl!

May 23rd will have Nancy with a demo on paper fabric ala Kelli Perkins! I just checked it out on-line, and it's way cool, and very collage-like. You can scan through part of her book at www.amazon.com/Stitch-Alchemy-Combining-Fabric-Paper/dp/1596681136 All you need to do is pull it up and click on the arrows to the left or right, rather than scrolling down and doing the same thing. Looking forward to this! Thanks!

June 27th will bring Sharon Malec with a hands on demo/do it yourself thingy on Felting Animals! $2 will get you the supplies you need to participate, in addition to the normal $3 meeting fee. Sharon does beautiful work,...everything from leaves and branches, to buffalo! Very impressive. Thank you, my dear!

Lynne Erbach will be giving a lecture on "How Do Judges Choose Award-winning Quilts?" This will be next Wednesday, April 27, 2011, at the Faithful Circle Quilt Guild meeting. It starts at 7 p.m. and I believe there is a $5 fee for non-members,...BUT they have a sweets table during break! Woo-woo! Maybe this is where the true meaning of "fat quarters" comes from! Lynn is a certified judge, and this lecture should prove to be very informative for those of us who are submitting our work to shows. You can get more information as to the location, as well as upcoming shows and workshops at www.fcquilters.com

You lucked out! I don't have much to report this time! "Blabber fingers Laurie" will be signing off shortly. Remember, our next meeting will be on Monday, April 25th at 7 p.m. at the Naperville Art League, 508 N. Center St, Naperville, IL. $3 will get you in, and life will be good! See you Monday, moo-cha-cha's! xo, Laurie

March 2011 Newsletter

Hello, one and all! Welcome to the wild and wacky world of the Fiber Art Divas!

Our last meeting was on February 28th, and there were 19 of us.

GRAFFITI FABRICS was taught by Cheryl, and was way fun! This involved pre-washed fabrics and Tulip brand fabric paints in spray bottles. Add stencils and you've got some fun fabrics! The stencils she brought were a variety that went from elegant swirls to cockroaches. (Strange girl, that Cheryl!) And the results were great. Everyone had a great time. Thanks to you, Cheryl!

THIS NEXT MEETING IS OUR NAME TAG MEETING! Linda and Camille have been kind enough to offer up a night to FINALLY make our name tags. As much as I'd like to say that I have a great memory, I still have trouble with the names of our members. What a dope! You will need to bring a 5" square of top fabric of your choice. This should be a light enough color so your name shows. If you want to make a name tag that hangs around your neck, bring extra fabric or cording.

Embellishments and a hand sewing kit are also necessary. Linda and Camille will provide backing fabrics, batting, pens, extra embellishments, fusible web, fabric glue, and an iron and ironing board. Your finished name tags will be approximately 3" x 3". So, come on out to the March meeting and make your name tag so that we'll finally know who you are!

DEMOS COMING UP are listed in the February newsletter, but are "E-Quilts" in April,

Paper fabric in May, and felted animals (or something) in June (with a $2 supply fee). Can't wait!

Put your thinking caps on and come to the meeting with any ideas of demos or "classes" you'd like

to give to the group. Thanks in advance.

HARVEST HOUSE QUILTING has a great offer for you. They will give you a 90 minute lesson on their long arm quilting machine for $25. You will need to purchase zippers ($25) to attach to your piece, which will make for easy installation of your quilts onto the machine. It will also allow you to zip on and zip off if you don't finish quilting your piece in one session. At $9.50/hour, you may now schedule to use their long arm to finish up your quilts. How cool is that!

Harvest House Quilting, 24231 Apple Tree Lane, Plainfield, IL 60585,

815-609-5831 www.harvesthousequilting.com/about-us.htm

THE CLEARING FOLK SCHOOL is in Door County, Wisconsin. It has classes starting in May

for their summer programs, and are said to be excellent and in a wonderful, relaxing environment.

http://theclearing.org/2010/index.shtml will get you to their website, and lists everything from

bird watching to quilting, wood turning to photography, poetry, watercolor...and the list goes on.

Check it out!

GRACE ERREA from California will be speaking at the Faithful Circle Quilt Guild on June 22

at 7 pm (for more info go to www.fcquilters.com). "The Value of Quilting" is the topic. She'll be

teaching 2 classes for Faithful Circle Quilting Guild on June 23 and 24 of this year. The first is on

values, and the 2nd concerns a pattern from her website (www.amazingquiltsbygrace.com). I just

checked it out, and amazing is definitely the operative word here! If you hit "about", along the left

edge is "categories", with class descriptions. Anyway, it's $5 for the lecture, and $45 for non

members per class. You may take either class, or both classes, no problemo.

PHOTOS FROM OUR LAST 2 QUILT SHOWS are available to us. Please bring a zipdrive,

jump drive, memory stick or whatever you call it to the meeting. A 2 GB will have plenty of room.

Bring it in a bag marked with your name on it, hand it to Yvette. She will transfer the photos

and bring it back to us. The only cost to you is that of the memory stick and a hug. Thanks, Yvette!

MARCH CHALLENGE, UNDERFOOT is due at this meeting. No restrictions of any kind other

than the theme. This can be interpreted in any way you'd like. Can't wait to see what y'all have

come up with!

THE ORIGINAL SEWING & QUILTING EXPO IS MARCH 31 - APRIL 2 at the Renaissance

Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center, 1551 N. Thoreau Dr, Schaumburg, IL. Admission is $10.

Hours Th & F 10 t0 6, Sat 10 - 5. Go to www.sewingexpo.com

OUR NEXT MEETING will be on Monday, March 28th at 7 p.m. at the Naperville Art League, 508 N Center Street, Naperville, IL 60563 (a block or so from the intersection of Washington & 5th).

Be sure to bring your name tag making kit, as well as some show and tell! April 25 & May 23 are

the next two meetings after that. See you soon. xxxooo, Laurie

February 2011 Newsletter

Today is Wednesday, February 23rd, and I am way late on getting this out to you. I apologize. Life has a way of getting in the way of the newsletter,...or anything else getting done for that matter. Note to self: Never try to juggle too many balls at one time!

January 24, 2011 meeting highlights: When we first started this group, one of our focuses was to have a member given demo at most of the meetings, in addition to show and tell and general jaw flapping in the night air. We seem to have lost that, and are now about to reinstate it starting with the next meeting. More later.

Next Divas' Show: We have been given the dates for our next show which is to be held at the Naperville Art League once again, thank you very much to you, NAL! Set up will be on Friday, October 21, 2011, take down will be Sunday, October 30,...MAYBE. We may be able to leave it up for more than a week. That is yet to be decided.

We will have more rules, earlier deadlines, more organized in every aspect. We are learning more with each show that we have, and intend to use that knowledge. Yea for us! We will kick in the discussions on this starting at the July meeting.

March Challenge: This meeting will be the official unveiling of the latest challenge, Underfoot! There were no rules, size restrictions,...only a willingness to explore it's many different interpretations. Looking forward to see what you folks are up to!

Anne Lullie: We have all agreed that we'd like to have Anne give us a class. We forgot to discuss WHICH class! Duh! And I haven't had time to call the church to see if they have any opening dates, and what it would cost to rent the space.

www.harbor-sales.com: That's the website for DeColourant. This is a product that is painted onto fabric, removing the dye in that area, leaving the original fabric color pre-overdying. It comes in 23 colors, smells citrusy, and has ads in Quilting Arts magazine (Dec/Jan 2011, and Pg. 77 in the Feb/March 2011 issue). We saw a sample at the meeting, and it was way cool!

ThermoChromatic Paint: I have no info on this other than it changes color with heat.

www.wheaton.edu/art/gallery/indes.html: Check out this sight. Jeremy Botts is a quilt artist who is exhibiting his work At the Wheaton College Hansen Main Gallery until March 9th. I apologize for cutting this so close for you.

Our very own DEMO SCHEDULE:

FEBRUARY 28: Cheryl will demo GRAFFITI FABRICS, and there will be a small fee in addition to the usual $3 meeting fee.

Everyone will need to bring:

-a large plastic garbage bag

- an apron or clothes you don’t mind getting paint on

-3-4 fat quarters of muslin or pastel colored fabric

-your own stencils (optional)

-Fabric markers (optional)

-$2 for materials

I will bring:

-an extra folding table

-fabric spray paint

-painters tape (to tape garbage bags to table)

-stencils

-samples

-baby wipes to clean the stencils

We will need paper towels.

We will need to put 2 people per table and we have about 5 tables there, correct? That means 12 people can take the class with my extra folding table. We can squeeze 3 people on some of the longer tables, I think.

MARCH 28: Linda and Camille will organize a name tag meeting. Now we'll actually know who we're talking to!

APRIL 25: Cheryl will give a demo on "E" textiles, "Electric Quilt" kind of stuff. (I feel like a dinosaur already! NOT FAIR!)

MAY 23: Nancy will demo Kelly Perkins paper fabric technique.

JUNE 27: Sharon will have us felting animals with a class fee included.

More on all of those later. The fees, if it applies, will be listed later, as well as any supplies. A lot to look forward to thanks to those who actually know something! (That excludes me because...REMEMBER? I'm a DINOSAUR!!!! You don't have to rub it in my face like that! It's just a little bit rude!)

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28 is our next meeting with Cheryl's demo, so come prepared if you'd like to participate. Naperville Art League at 7 pm. $3 plus the additional mystery fee (which is minimal) for the demo supplies (you are actually participating in this one, so demo is the wrong word to use here). See you soon! xo, Laurie