To Be Touched: A Fiber Art Experience

To Be Touched: A Fiber Art Experience

Displayed at: The Old Bakery and Emporium thru November 24, 2010

1006 Congress Avenue, Austin. Phone 512 477 5961

Unlike traditional fiber art exhibits, which are to be viewed only, this exhibit is designed to be touched and to encourage seniors to reconnect to their earlier experiences and perhaps stimulate interest in future fiber arts activities. The exhibit includes handmade doilies, hand-stitched quilt blocks and an antique apron line. The items have been collected from the membership of AFA and in most cases have been made by members’ mothers or grandmothers. Prior to its installation at The Old Bakery, the exhibit has been at Parsons House in Austin and at the South Austin Senior Activity Center.

The Old Bakery is operated by the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department as an information center for out-of-town visitors and a handicrafts consignment store for persons at least 50 years of age. The exhibit will hang in this lovely old building through Thanksgiving. It can be seen on part of the stairway, upstairs corridor, and the rear of the upstairs room, which has fabulous views of the State Capitol Building.

Built in 1876, The Old Bakery, is a registered national landmark and functioned as a bakery until 1936. Vacant and scheduled for demolition, it was rescued by the Austin Heritage Society and the Junior League. When the mortgage was paid off in 1970, the Old Bakery was sold to the State of Texas which later deeded the building and property to the City of Austin in 1980.

Now is a wonderful time to visit the building, located at 1006 Congress Avenue. Free parking is available on 10th Street on the south side of the building. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Saturday, September 11, 2010 Ginny Eckley: Painting Workshop Please visit www.fabricpainting.com Cost is $75 for members; $90 for non members. $40 deposit will secure your space with the remaining $35 due on September 1, 2010. There is also a kit supply fee of $35 due to Ginny on the day of the workshop. Please email Jean Dahlgren at jdahlgren@austin.rr.com to sign up for the workshop. Only a few spaces left!!!

Be sure to attend our meeting this Wednesday, April 21, 2010.  We’re set to vote on our new slate of officers who’ll take the helm for the June 2010-May 2011 fiscal year.  The proposed slate is:

President:  Diane Sandlin

Vice President:  Barb Forrister

Treasurer: Marge Carson

Secretary:  Pam Farley

Historian:  Pam Hayes

Membership Chair:  Martha Tsihlas

Communications Chair:  Anita Mester

Members at Large:

Web/Computer:  Rob Bartlett

Workshops/Retreats:  Jean Dahlgren

Members Annual Sale:  Cheryl Elms

Exhibits/Venues:  Meg Wilson

In addition, the following folks have volunteered to help the Members at Large with their rather “large” tasks.

Web/Computer:  Cynthia Wenslow

Workshops/Retreats:  Jane Hayman

Members Annual Sale:  Dee Ramirez

Exhibits/Venues:  Lynne Allen

Don’t miss these members’ quilts at Houston Quilt Festival

Hoffman Challenge, Janis Hooker, “Yo Yo Fairy #1″

West Coast Wonders II, Barb Forrister, “Emerald Treasures” and “Life’s a Beach”

IQF Group Quilt Division, Barb Forrister, Diane Sandlin, Jean Dahlgren, Sherri McCauley, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Connie Hudson, Kathy York, Pearl Gonzales, and Frances Holliday Alford, “Group Conversations”

Ami Simms’ Alzheimer’s Silent Auction, Barb Forrister, “Colorado Trail”

Misty Fuse Booth (#957), Various AFA Members, Fun Fall Folly Quilts

And the Houston Center on Contemporary Craft will still have its fiber art exhibit up–see an older post for the AFA members with pieces in that show.

Enjoy the shows!

Three members of AFA have quilts in the Chisholm Trail Quilt Guild quilt show:
Martha Tsihlas, Linda Miles and Dianne Hegebarth

WHERE: Dell Diamond United Heritage Conference Center
ADDRESS: 3400 East Palm Blvd. (Hwy 79) Round Rock, Tx.
WHEN: Fri. and Sat. from 10 am to 6pm
Very easy to get to from all points in Austin. Just off I-35 North on Hwy 79.
Vendors, Silent Auction and Boutique

If you are in town come and visit.

Six AFA members were juried into the Texas Federation of Fiber Artists exhibit, Celebrating Our Creative Spirit, at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.  Congratulations to Diane Sandlin, Barbara Sandberg, Jean Dahlgren, Mary Ann Vaca-Lambert, Denna Hardin, and Caryl Gabatz.

The opening reception is Friday, October 2, 5:30-8:00 PM.  The Center is located at 4848 Main Street in Houston.  The exhibit will be up through December 24th.  AFA is well represented yet again.

Barbara Jackson of Golden Artist Colors was the speaker at the September 2009 meeting.  Although I missed the last AFA meeting, there was a lot of good information that Gail McGlamery passed on to me for this post.  Here are Gail’s notes.  Thanks Gail.

Barbara talked about the company and its history, that it is run by artists, and there is a great attention to detail.  For example, on each tube of paint, when you look at the color spot to see the color of the paint inside, that is actual paint on the outside of the tube.  She joked you don’t need to go in the corner of the art store and open the tube because you can rely on the painted stroke on the tube itself.

Barbara described the various paint products and mediums that Golden has in its line as well as the purposes for which the various paints and mediums are best used.  She then introduced the digital ground clear and gloss products.  She reminded all that fiber is porous and something like foil is non-porous.  Digital group products are used to treat fiber so it can be sent through a printer to print photographs and photo images.  She showed several examples of the process, from linen to lamé.   She emphasized the importance of preparing the carrier sheet and demonstrated how to do so.  She also wanted to be sure folks were careful experimenting with their printers.

Some of the digital grounds cause a big change in fabric hand resulting in a rigid fabric.  GAC 900 was mentioned as something to look into for maintaining a soft hand on fabric.  Barbara encouraged folks to read more detailed information on how to use the digital grounds from the Golden website.

Soon after that meeting, Anita Mester, AFA Newsletter Editor Extraordinaire, forwarded a link to Linda Matthews’ website, Creative Textile & Quilting Arts, where Linda is experimenting with the Golden Digital Grounds on a wide range of fabrics.  Here’s what Linda told me in an e-mail:

I found in my research that most if not all users of digital grounds are multi-media artists and [they] tend to lean towards printing on stuff other than fabric which is not really suitable for inclusion in textile art, so I’m narrowing the field, but my results to date are really exciting as you’ll see in some upcoming posts.  I’ve also had such a positive response to this series (and it’s only just begun) that I’ll be putting together my own workshop teaching techniques for using digital grounds on fabric only.  I already do an image transfer workshop so this will be a nice addition.

So visit Linda’s website and see her results.

AFA’s Jaime Matute will be showing several pieces of her fiber art at Hill Country Bible Church, 12124 RR 620 N in the NW Worship Center Balcony (Building A).  The ART Reception is Friday, September 18, 7PM – 9PM.  There will be refreshments, music from the jazz trio, Just for You, a monoprinting demonstration, and door prizes of 4″ x 6″ art.  The exhibit will be open through January 10, 2010.  Please call 512-577-3339 to schedule a gallery tour if you can’t make it to the reception.

Congratulations to the AFA artists who were juried in to the Copper Shade Tree Gallery Exhibit, “The Art in Fiber”.   Be sure you set aside time to visit the gallery during the show from February 5 – March 7, 2010, to see the works of Pam Farley, Malissa Long, Letitia Rogers, Martha Tsihlas, Denna Hardin, Barb Forrister, Mary Macaulay, and Diane Sandlin.

The entries were judged by acclaimed fiber artist, Liz Axford.  Copper Shade Tree Gallery is located at 206 E. Mill St., Round Top, Texas.