PATHWAYS - Exhibition of Original Fibre Art by Juanita Sauve

"Our lives are shaped by our roots, by geography and events, by the people we meet and the choices we make.  "Pathways" is an exhibit that encourages an awareness of the paths we are on and a desire to gravitate towards that which brings us joy, feeds our spirit and encourages us to thrive."

PATHWAYS is a solo exhibition of my hand stitched fibre art which will be taking place at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum this summer from June 23, 2012 to August 18, 2012.  Please see my Exhibitions page for details and join me at my vernissage on June 23, 2012.

PATHWAYS EXHIBIT - Autumn in Stoney Swamp

Kitchen Party-New Fibre Art

I have completed a new piece which I am calling "Kitchen Party".  It was inspired by a photo by Neville Hamilton and used with permission.   Walking near Rustico PEI, he and his partner came upon 3 kitchen chairs positioned in a conversational manner in a field by the path.   They looked so incongruous just sitting there abandoned.   What thoughts come to mind.   Who sat in those chairs?  Mothers having a midday rest and cuppa?    It gives a new definition of 'kitchen party' (in the Maritimes usually defined as a group of people getting together to play music and sing, usually in someone's kitchen).   The ideas in the photo just captivated me.  I ended up just having two chairs because three looked too crowded.  It does diminish the meaning somewhat but I think it works.  I may try adding a third to create a semi circle though.  I did a lot of hand stitching on the flowers and grasses.  I had thought of adding a ghostly figure in one of the chairs but it looked more striking without.

A Quilting Weekend

The cardinals are visiting my backyard regularly (as are the red winged blackbirds, robins, woodpeckers and grackles) and I purchased these lovely tulips to help me to feel more like spring. Then I packed up all my pieces for next weekend's fibre art show and tea (see last post) and delivered them to our Out of the Box meeting on Monday.   Now I am looking forward to a weekend away.  I have been invited to a weekend retreat in the country with 10 other quilters (who have been doing this once or twice every year.).  The idea is to sew, eat, drink, walk or just relax.  Things have been stressful in my life lately with preparing for my summer show, working with my son to design business cards, postcards, and greeting cards, finishing my income tax, dealing with tree issues and neighbours (my trees are taking over the back yard), and worrying about my son keeping his government job with all the federal government cuts.  I am also doing some serious thinking about my future (anybody got any ideas about how to go through 40 years of accumulated stuff?).   So I am looking forward to this weekend.  I plan to bring fused fabric to work on more bookmarks and fabric art cards.   I will also bring my camera and may have some interesting photos to post - with permission of course.  

Exhibition and High Tea/Best of the Web

I have two upcoming events to tell you about.

Later this month I will be taking part in a group exhibition with my fibre arts group (Out of the Box).   We are teaming up with the Kitchissippi United Church in Ottawa for a show and tea.   There will be a dessert tea on Friday evening, April 27 and a high tea on Saturday, April 28.   It all sounds yummy!  Fibre art and food together!   If you find yourself in the Ottawa area you might want to drop in to feed body and soul.  Please check out my Exhibitions page for details.

As well, I was approached last week to have my blog featured in a series called 'Best of the Web'.  This blog features a variety of interesting subjects from home decor to fibre art.    This week my blog is one of the featured blogs complete with a photo of my newly completed piece called 'Blueberry Magic'.   To check it out, go to    Be @ Home Decor Blog
                                                 

Down the Garden Path - New Fibre Art

Here is an early configuration of my floral piece using my sun print cloth for the background and with a dyed cheesecloth path.  I wasn't too happy with the single path cutting through so  I tried moving it up so the division wouldn't be too symmetrical then I added a smaller path off the main one (see below).  I changed the placement of flowers and removed some of them.  I also tried out some photo transfers done by painting a laser copy of flowers with a medium then wetting down the paper backing and removing it.   I placed them on the piece in various configurations but did not really like the result. 

 Finally I removed the photo transfers and I think this is the one I will go with (see below).  The lower path is not very well delineated.  It was done with different colours of cheese cloth.  I placed some smaller flowers along the pathways and may need to do more work on that smaller path to make it more prominent.  When I look at photographs I can more easily see where placement was off or where I need more foliage or flowers to balance.   I have been practising my free motion stitching but still need to improve  before I move to an actual project so I will hand applique the flowers but hope to add some free motion embroidery before this piece is done.    I'll show some samples once I get some that are half decent....

March Sketchbook Challenge - flowers

Flowers - one of my favourite things to sketch and it has taken me almost a month to get to this sketchbook challenge.  But I finally curled up in front of the TV with pencil and watercolour pencils and covered a page with flowers.  I had a vase full of tulips in front of me so I started with them them then looked around to a fibre piece I did called Birds of Paradise (see my About Me picture) then just improvised the rest.  I'm still working on my floral fibre piece but can't seem to commit to any of the designs enough to fuse them down and start stitching.