Whats up? Lutradur

Whats up? Lutradur...

This is the subject that has been keeping my mind busy for months. As a guest on for May on  andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com it has been a busy winter for me. Making samples, reading, watching, procrastinating... Working three days a week was not in my plan when I suggested this topic and agreed to do it. But I have found out that I don't mind working as admin help where my husband works.Who knew...

But I also find it hard to fit in everything else I have to do or want to. My hats are off to women who are creative and work full time and have families. I don't know how you do it. Balance. This is what I need to find. There are just to many interesting things to do in the world...

So be prepared to head on over to andthenwesetitonfire for the month to see some great and interesting things about Lutradur.

 Lesley Riley who wrote the book Fabulous Fabric Art with Lutradur is joining us for some questions and answers. 

Linda Matthews is joining in for some information on ink aid and Lutradur. 

Elle  is hopping in from the coop to show her progress and journey in creating... 

The Fabrigo's my small art group was game and played a day at my house. They are going to show you some of their results. So thanks Karen, Robynne and Al. You guys make me laugh and inspire me. 

Meanwhile here is a teaser.... somewhere in the month we will be giving a digital copy of Leslie's book by C & T publishing.

Hope you enjoy the journey.

Jo

A Book Review - Rayna Gillman's - Create Your Own Free Form Quilts

Having been a long time "traditional quilter" and relatively new "art quilter" I have lots of bits and pieces of fabric that I have not been able to throw out.

 It is all sorted into strip sizes and cut up into squares waiting for a project or the need for just that little amount of colour. 

I have long been a blog follower of Rayna Gillman and love her style of blogging and thought I could stumble my way through doing some free form quilting of my own. My initial attempts was ok... but lack the zing of pictures I have seen via the internet.

Rayna' book has long been on my list of books to purchase so I ordered it from Amazon. [[ASIN:1607052504 Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts: A Stress-Free Journey to Original Design]] and it arrived swiftly to my mail box. I devoured the book.

Rayna's book is well written and full of wonderful pictures of her work and her friends and students. The book goes through a series of methods and what if's to lead you through the journey of creating one of your own creations. It is full of tips, design principle and suggestions including colour theory.

The book has sparked my creativity. There is no wrong way to create but leads you on an intuitive journey. If you don't like a unit you have created then put it back in "the box" until you may put it in another creation or you may decide to cut it up or add to it some other time.

Now I am off to the races sewing strips, creating units and finding out why or why not I like certain combinations. When you are using up your bits and pieces or even some of your stash in small amounts it is freeing. It enables you to create something that is not a huge investment in money...that you are willing to try things that you may not normally do and you will be in for some surprises too! 

I like the book so much I watched the DVD Rayna did from Interweave - Free Form Fabric Art. The DVD is not as in depth as the book but does give a live visual glimpse of her work.

So the journey continues... I am off to play with strips, pieces and my rotary cutter! 

And thanks to Rayna for sparking my creativity again... 

Warning this process is addictive... 

Have fun! 

Jo

Hiatus...

Hiatus
Just for a week.
A revist to a beautiful place.

All arrangements final... Kids taking care of home and pets. Taking no committee work, no things that have to be done. Just some books, magazines, hubby and 6 of my great friends. Laughter here we come! 

Jo

Art and Fear - A book review.

An Interesting Book to Read ...
I was given this book for Christmas from a good friend.
It is not a hard read... and not a long book.
Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland

I really enjoyed this book. I can't even really say why I liked it but I think that it made me realize that all people who are creative have things that they worry about or hold them back. It made me feel normal. So often you see the confidence of people. The ones who seem to have made it. It is not a how to book to succeed but a book which can help you reflect. 

And it is a book that you can read with a group to work through to see how much of the writers observations affect your group and what you do about it. 

Jo 

It is not a hard book to read... but it does make some observations which 

Do you hate having pins stick into you?

I hate having pins stick into me!

That is why I was so interested in buying some Pinmoors. Which look like a great product but are fairly expensive at $17.50 for 50 . Pinmoor's

Pinmoor's are probably a much better long term solution to my temporary solution as they look like a more dense and would hold the pin more securely. The next time I am going to visit my sister I will have to order a package to see how they compare with my local hardware store find.

1 role of foam "caulking" This caulking - as I understand - goes into the crack first and then the regular caulking goes over it to seal a door, window, etc. 

 For less the $6 dollars I got this roll. Which I cut up with my regular scissors into 1.5 cm sizes. 

And you stick the pin into the foam to stop the pin poke you. 

I then took a flower vase I had and through the pins and foam into a container. 

Leah Day of   freemotionquilting shows how to use P'inmoors when she is free motion quilting. 

I know my hardware store foam things will not be as good. But for now they will work. 

Have you used Pinmoor's or foam caulking? 

Jo

WIP Wednesday.... Williams Quillow.

I started this quillow in the summer. It was going to be a quick project for my nephew who loves fishing.  It started with a panel of fish... seemed a bit to easy... So I recreated a fishing pond to remind him of the local fishing hole at home and when he visits his Canadian Grandparents. 

Here are the fish on the lower depths. 

Starting to applique the fish. 

This is taking a lot of time to do the traditional satin stitch. So I may start to do some free motion to speed it up.

Linking up with the Thread and Needle Work Network  WIP Wednesdays 

Jo

So what do you do when you are tired....

So what do you do when you are kind of blocked and a little tired. It has been a busy month in Chez Sewinggeek.  I decided to use up some scraps. I pulled out my drawers of fabric and am working on my blues, greens, greys, batiks etc. All the colours you see here. Here is a shot of the two blocks I have finished. 

Here they are closer up. 

I am not sure I like them yet or not. But I am going to make a few more... because as you can see below I have a few to use up. 

And then after making all that mess I got to clean up and re organize them.

So until next time....

Jo

Something I have been working on ....just for pure fun and colour

It has been a busy month this past January in our house.

I volunteered my services to do a month on one of my favorite blogs... and now am the guest artist for May with all things Lutradur on the and then they set it on fire . blog.

So I am getting myself prepared for this adventure.

Met with 3 other artists and started a group. We enjoyed a play day doing things with Lurtadur so that jump started the ideas for May's experiences. We may call ourselfs the "Fabrigos" It was such a fun day.

Here are some creations.

Our challenge to ourselves was to use what we made in something for next month.

I experimented with making random wonky blocks with scraps I have.... 

Then life happened, Illness of a friend, family crisis, and filling in for a person on sick leave. 

Creative things went down the tubes. 

But I also still managed to start the media notification for the fibre art show I am helping with in the fall. 

Fibre Content 2014 info is alive and out there. If interested in the past show and this one go to Fibre Content 2014 It should be a great one and you will hear more about it I am sure. 

May February be less busy in some areas and more creative... 

Jo

Guest Appearance on "and then they set it on fire"

I am so excited and looking forward to being a guest on the and then we set it on fire blog in May.  http://andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.ca/2014/01/may-with-jo-vandermey-and-adventures.html

My intro is up there this morning. I worked hard on writing last week ad-midst a crazy week of crisis. I looked it over carefully several times and did not see the "mistakes" but my hubby saw them right away. lol The fact is he has a great eye for things grammatical, spelling, numbers, etc. He is an accountant. But not very artsy.... So we balance each other quite well.

Today my wonderful husband of 28 years is 54. And he is still the guy for me.

So if you are here as a result of the ....and then they set it on fire blog... be rest assured we will be having fun in the month of May... just don't expect  all posts to be without error in spelling. lol I will try hard to have them correct but life around this place gets crazy.

In the next few months I plan to post regularly re: my activities in my playroom. Posts without pictures seem kind of dull so I hope to include many pictures as well.

Saturday will be the first time this week that I get to spend in my space since I am temping at my husbands office while someone is on sudden sick leave. So I hope to prep a few posts of what I have been up to...

Now it is off to work and then to celebrate my husbands birthday with going to see the Hobbit movie. This is something we planed to do all Christmas season.

More prep on playing with Lutradur coming up. What a fun year this is going to be!

And remember to visit Elle my first playmate in this venture. I love her blog. And hope to learn a lot from her too! http://ellendacoop.blogspot.ca/2014/01/tapes-transfers-tutorials.html


Jo

Opportunities...

So I have my room cleaned up...
My scraps put away...

On to 2014.

Opportunity is part being in the right place at the right time and offering something.

I find that in order for me to grow I need to jump into a project. So I put myself out there and I am now going to be "Guest Artist" on the ....and then they set it on fire blog .http://andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.ca This is one of my favorite blogs!

So in May I will along with a few friends will play and present Lutradur...

 I played with this topic last spring for when I presented a workshop for my Burlington Fiber Arts group.... (miss you ladies already) .

I am taking a break from some groups this year because of this and some other commitments.

One  of the other commitments is the 2nd Fiber Content show. This will be held in September at the Burlington Arts Centre and we will be looking for calls of entry to this show. I am helping with media - getting the show out there and promoted.

I also plan as a personal goal to create at least two pieces to enter into this show. The goal is to enter, to try, to grow.

These things alone are going to make a great year.

Things will be a learning curve. Blogging... writing more, testing, putting my self out there. Balance that with my family and my energy levels with the fibromyalgia.

If you don't follow the blog above please join in... it will be a great year!

Jo

A New Year... 2014

2013 was a busy year... each passing year seems to be. Family wedding, babies born, friends, family, sadness and joy...

But I am grateful to have my family...

For 2014 I have a few goals...

Blog... more... about my creative journey

Start... just start to do the things I want to. I am a perfectionist at heart so I always find reasons not to do something. Materials, knowledge, time.... To get over this weird feeling of failure... I just go back to the tried and true and gather material to do something new. When I jump in full feet and have a deadline I get stuff done. I just need to start...

Be... Be more in the moment, Be more careful of getting myself involved in negative or unhealthy situations. Be happy, grateful and loving each day. To be Jo... the person who is inside me not the expectations of others.

2014 will be busy... planning a few trips with family and friends. The routine stuff of life... parents, kids, friends, house, work, etc.
Committee work.. on the library board of our town library, helping with advertising of a group I am involved with art show... local quilt guild board.
Starting a small art quilting group with 3 other people. Once a month to explore, share and grow.

Starting out the year with a cold but it gives me time to plan.

And what is a blog post with out a picture...

I leave with two pictures I took in Southern Ontario's ice storm several days ago.

This one is my dog Moe catching snow balls... Moe is instantly happy, living in the moment. I want to be like Moe... although I don't want to roll in the snow so much as he does. 

This picture is ice formed on the bunch stems left on the vine after grape harvesting. Beautiful to see the ice formations on the plants and trees but also reminds me of how much damage something can do. We did not suffer some of the longer term effects this storm caused in Ontario. glad that now most people are hooked back up to hydro. 

Off to put up my new words on my wall ... Start and Be. 

Jo

Merry Christmas... and

Christmas is a special time of year. For our family it includes presents, friends, gatherings, family and attending services. We attend services at our own church throughout the year but this year we attend services at a friends church because we were invited. And today we will attend services with my mom at my childhood church. Very different services. One very contemporary... video, song, dance, praise team. One traditional. Organ, communion, reflective. Is one service better than the other? no just different.

I am trying to be more open in my thinking. Inclusive, outreaching, reflective, quiet, attentive, less words spoken . I always feel that I need to talk, respond to something that I am told. A confirmation story, advice or just plainly my point of view.

Often people pick a word for the year. Today it came to me that if my intention is to do the above I need a word to match.  The words that come is "be still..." Not be still and do nothing but more of a be still so that you can process information and be open to others.

So for this up coming year of 2014 I am going to try to "be still...." 

Be still so that I can...

• Learn to listen without making quick decisions
• Learn to not give advice so quickly
• Learn to not jump in to "solve" a problem
• Slow down and enjoy what I am involved in
• Allow myself to create
• Allow myself to take care of me physically,mentally and spiritually

I am sure that "be still..." will evolve. 

During the ice storm on Sunday morning. I took time to go outside and take some pictures. It was very quiet with not as much activities going on. A "snow day" for  most. Besides the sound of ice cracking and the delight of a happy dog playing while we walked and enjoyed the moment. 

Here are a couple of pictures that I took that showed the ice on the vineyards near by... beautiful but potentially harmful to the plant. 

and one of one happy dog... 

Wishing anyone reading the peace that passes all understanding, 

for 2014 and beyond. 

Jo

Where have I been...

I really haven't been far since March.. I just have been on Sabbatical from  my creative side.
My DS1 was getting married. Showers, dresses to be made for the bridal party, a carnival instead of a stag and doe, vacation, water in my basement, working for my hubby's company temporarily...
Time has flown by. DS1 is now married... I am only working one day a week... house is back in order. Just my canning to do. Time to rethink again. What do I want to do when I grow up?

Here is a snap of the beautiful bride.

With the equally adorable flower girl my great niece.

and a random shot of the bridesmaids

and the happy couple.

Wishing this couple Gods blessings on their lives ... and the strength that they will need for their live journey. 

Love you guys!