Quilt Show: Canmore

Quilt Show in Canmore, Alberta. Oct 17 & 18/2015.  My booth will be in the Vendor's section  and if you are in the area please stop in.

 
Mug rug / wine mat sales were so successful at the recent Nelson Quilt Show, that the lights in my studio have been on well into the evenings catching up. If you are looking for gifts that mail well these are a great option. Here are a few samples I will have at the market this weekend.

This one was influenced from my recent month of painting in Alberta.

Oh, our Creston apples are so... sweet right now!

Another Alberta influence. We painters can't resist those red farm buildings!

Mauve. I am seeing a lot of purplish fall flowers right now.

 

New since the last Canmore Quilt show I attended, I have paired a local artisan's handmade buttons, from Lavender Lampworks with my artwork to create a card and gift in one. They are such a great gift for those that sew.

Another choice for a card and gift in one are these one of a kind textile bookmarks. They are removable from the card. Oh yea, the card can then be used for colouring too.

Quiltable hand painted squares in 3 sizes are popular for using in quilts, wall hangings and pillows. If you are looking for something specific, be sure to ask me. Maybe I can create it for you.

 

Larger quiltable panels are also available at a special market savings.

 Buttons  by Blue Moon Pottery look great with my hand dyed fabrics. I picture purses and pillows.

I will be bringing Win Din's mandala colouring book. http://windinnart.blogspot.ca/ Great for colouring and stitching pattern ideas.

 

 I have been dyeing and sewing all summer and will have a selection of the frameable textile cards. These have always been my most in demand item. 

Sat Oct 17 & Sun Oct 18,  you can find me at the Vendor's Market of the Canmore Quilt show. I hope to see you there.  If you can't make it but are looking for one of the items mentioned you can purchase them by contacting me directly at eileengidman@kootenay.com

Creston Quilt Show

Creston Valley Quilters' Guild Show

What a successful quilt show this was on Friday and Saturday. This post will mostly be photos as I am rather spent from all the organizing that goes around getting to a show. Thank you Creston, Nelson, Moyie, Cranbrook, Kimberley, Idaho, Kootenay Lake residents for all the support you give me by visiting my booth and by buying my hand (dye) painted fabrics.

Stephanie Longpre (right) drawing the winning name for my free draw of a mug rug with hand painted fabric, textile card, artisan button card and package of hand painted fabrics. Stephanie was the event organizer and she did a fantastic job. One of her plans is to be an event planner for weddings. She will be great at it I am sure. Thank you Stephanie for your hard work organizing the show.

My booth of hand (dye) painted fabrics, textile cards, artisan button cards, mug rugs, and artisan pillows.

A few hand painted fat quarters. Win Dinn's mandala colouring book which can be ordered online here: http://windinnart.blogspot.ca/p/color-me-up.html

 Some of the Entries in the Quilt Show

 

This photo is especially for my friend Patty who also loves to use striped material.

This complicated colour combination delighted me.

The Quilt Group Challenge

Samples from the Quilt Group Challenge

Vendor's at a show develop a special connection and I met some lovely people this weekend. Here is one of the other Vendor's booths. Keith and Carol Kepke's sell precision wood crafted items for quilters. See you at the Canmore Show.



I love calendar pictures. One person did all these!

Wow what a wonderful organization that donates quilts for children. Take a look at that total.

Self portraits

The winner of viewer's choice. Such talent!

Handmade Buttons: A Card and a Gift in one.

BUTTONS FROM ITALIAN GLASS:
Are you noticing lots of lovely buttons lately? I don't know if they are popular right now or I am just seeing more button related things because I am currently focused on them. What do you think?

 

A local artisan creates buttons from Italian glass and they are gorgeous. You can find her Facebook page here . Working with the individual glass buttons in my studio, I find the ideas simply flow when creating card designs for them. For now, I have focused on flowers, birds and birds wearing knitted sweaters. Yes, I said birds wearing sweaters. Okay, I am not sure why that idea popped into my head but it was spontaneous when I started sketching the sparrow. These buttons look fabulous on knitted sweaters and scarves so I decided to clothe an owl in a sweater too.

  

When my friend was picking up peacock feathers at a bird sanctuary where we were this winter, I wasn't thinking of buttons but when I was looking at some turquoise and green glass buttons I was reminded of the eye in a peacock feather.  

 

 I couldn't help thinking about owls when I saw this style and colour of button.

 

 

 

 

 ALSO BUTTONS IN THE MAIL:

 

Look at this set of handmade buttons made by my friend Jenn that came in the mail for me recently. Aren't I the lucky one.  :)

 

METALLIC BUTTONS:

Now I must get sorting my fabric and notions from our move as I've promised Win Dinn some metal buttons for her three dimensional mixed media work. Check out her blog here: http://windinnart.blogspot.ca/

Translating a Charmed Life into Textile

 A NEW SERIES!

 'Carol & Sue'

Kootenay living, for me has been a wonderful life and over the years I see people, particularly friends, doing things that reminded me of how fortunate we are to be living where we do. Things such seeing a friend's kitchen counters lined with jars of canned salsa, taking photos of friends as we are hiking through the mountains, watching the progression of wildflowers on spring walks, admiring vendor's wares at our local market,.....and the list goes on.

 

The series was envisioned in watercolour and although I won't discard that thought, the first of the series is done with thread sketching on textile. Why now? Some of the things that finally pushed me into starting the series were:

• Sketching one of the artists at a weekly sketching session in the fall.
• The interest of a student, from the Friday watercolour group, in drawing figures.
• Looking through my sketch pad and adding the chicken to the watercolour sketch done several months earlier.  Choosing the chicken to reflect the model's love of her farm.
• My friend wearing some beautifully flowered rubber boots to an art show we went to this fall. Loved those boots.
• A fellow quilter sharing some very small print fabric with me two weeks ago after I exclaimed over it.
• Recently thread sketching on some textile cards got me excited about creating in thread again.
• A desire to create some larger textile pieces. 

The watercolour sketch upside down as I follow along as I thread sketch with my machine.

Watercolour sketch (left) that inspired the textile art. Oops, too much thread to the upper lip looks like a moustache and that chicken is a bit fat.

Chicken slimmed down.

Mouth fixed and background stitching added in white thread.

Do you have any ideas for a title for this series? These are my ideas so far: Kootenay Charms, Kootenay's Charm, A Kootenay Life, What a Life or The Kootenays' Charm.

Artisan Button Embellishments

These handmade artisan buttons have been niggling my creative thinking since I purchased them from 'Lavender Lampworks' in Nov of 2014. Click here for a post about the buttons. Below are two ideas I came up with.

Those of us who quilt and sew like to give and receive little gifts. At least I think so, don't you? So I've been designing card fronts for those lovely 'one of a kind' buttons to be attached to for gift giving. Do you have a favorite of the ones shown below: 1-4? I would love to hear about your choice in the comments or in an email egidman@kootenay.com  

 

CARD DESIGNS ON WATERCOLOUR PAPER

 

Card front design #1 with a little colour added to the design

Card front design #2

Card front design #3

 

Card front design #4

More bird designs, I'm a thinking!

TEXTILE ART

Then I thought I would try free motion stitching on white cotton. These are only small 4 X 6" size samples again for card fronts or to be used in textile art.

Textile Art # A

Textile Art #B

Textile Art #C

Textile Art #D

 Using coloured fabrics could take these pieces in so many directions. "Would raw edge pieces neutrals work as a background", I wonder?

Textile Art #E

What about adding some pieced work? Do you have some other ideas to share with me?