Second Entry for the Brott Music Festival

Three Corner Hat Dance

This was much fun to make and designed very quickly. I had the hand dyed fabric by Elaine Quehl on hand and the rest came together nicely.Shiva Sticks added dimension to the centre of the hats and the quilting put in the action of the sound waves.

Creating for a Cause

Fibras Musicales is a fibre art exhibit in which the pieces are inspired by Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole; Ravel's Bolero; and Falla's Three Cornered hat.It is a fundraiser for the youth orchestra and the works will be auctioned after the performance which takes place on August 11th at the Mohawk Concert Hall in Burlington.

This whole idea captured my attention and also because I have been working with circle cut ruffles this was perfect. My idea to replicate a portion of a Spanish dancer's skirt came very quickly and all the fabrics  were in my stash. It was meant to be.

Spanish Dance One 

Because I used Elaine's fabulous hand dyed silk organza once again I needed to make a paper mock up of the piece to make sure that it would work. I got the volume that I wanted.  

More Retreat News

Art With Loose Threads

Oct. 28-30

Gananoque Inn and Spa

Pat Lemaire is the Queen of embellishing and texturizing fabric.At this retreat she will be covering everything 

to do with Shiva Sticks as seen below with her take on our fish theme.

Wendo Van Essen is our resident artist and like to work in three dimension.below you see her 3-D fish in all it's glory, if you want to know how to do it, join us.

Our format is warm and encouraging, demos will be presented non stop, and kits will be provided for a nominal fee. All you bring is your sewing machine, your threads, and anything else that you may want to do.

The numbers are kept small (20) so that the instructors are able to give lots of individual help.

Sheers

Sheers have always had a certain fascination for me from the first time I took a workshop totally devoted to what we can do with sheers with Carrol Godhue at a CQA Conference in my early days,to burning it away in a class with Anna Hergert, to now playing with Elaine Quehl's fabulous hand dyed silk organza it is a wonderful world.

Below is my challenge piece for our guild show "Quilts on the Tay". We have formed a small group of local fibre enthusiasts who meet every couple of week to explore their craft. One of our members Helga challenged us to interpret Georgia O'Keefe's work in a piece of our own. I had an interesting closeup photo of my peony and this it the result. 

 Method:
1.First I hand painted the fabric using Seta colour paints.A bit of a stretch since it was January and pretty cold outside, I didn't know if the fabric would dry or freeze. The sun was strong enough to dry the wet fabric and I was happy with the result.
2.I drew a pattern, cut out my inset pieces of white silk organza and proceeded to piece it together using freezer paper. It had to be accurate.
3.Then quilting being careful not to catch the free pieces, finishing with facings,  beading, and a new idea had born fruit.

I had discovered another direction to take which totally satisfied my soul.

After 65

Hi everyone, It's been a busy time.This month I turned 65, quite a milestone I think. For a few months while approaching this date I started to feel old and finished. But after wallowing in self pity for awhile I realized that I could not give up on my dream of having a solo show in Toronto.So onwards we go.

First of all every day I need to take care of my body, especially if I want to do all of this stuff.I have become a high maintenance woman and it has nothing to do with hair, makeup or clothes. I do yoga so I don't get stiff, I go to aqua fit to stay strong without hurting my knees,I meditate so I don't go crazy in my head and I have to eat well which means taking the time to prepare food. Now it is 11 a.m. and I can start to sew.

Since January I have been exploring new and exciting techniques which I will share with you. I have been taking pics of all the steps in my new process so that I can blog about it.More to come as I am not quite finished with this piece.

But the Loose  Threads, Wendo Van Essen,  Pat Lemaire and myself, have been busy preparing for our next Fibre Art Retreat. My offering on this weekend will be everything to do with sheers.Layering,cutting away, burning and trapping are all techniques that I will demonstrate.Our theme is fish and below you will find my sample.The pattern will be in the retreat instructions.

Can you see the holes that were burned on the yellow to create texture?

Fish scales burned in the orange sheer on the pink cotton fabric.

We are holding our retreat at the beautiful Gananoque Inn and Spa  . Check it out, our rooms will be on the water, our work room is at the same level on the water,the food is great, the rooms are fab, and mini spa treatments are available for those who are so inclined.

Pat Lemaire will be covering all things to do with Shiva Sticks and Wendo Van Wesson will be teaching you how to make fabric sculpture. Come and join in on the fun. 

Email me if you would like me information. catelaw@ripnet.com

New Website

Hi all.

For the past few months I have been working on my new website.

Wanting to make the leap from quilting to fibre art, I was determined to do it myself.

Using Web Studio as my web design program off I went. With a few hick-ups , a lost website and a phone call to a friendly techy from Web Studio it is up and running.

check it out:

www.catharinabreedyklaw.com

I am at my brother's right now blogging but once I get home I will post the particulars of the program I used. I really learned a lot and did it all myself, a novice techy.

Quilted Sculpture

If you have been wondering what I have been up to the last few months besides the retreat, here it is. A quilted sculpture called "RISE ABOVE" It is made of four one by six foot pieces that are hinged together so that it can be displayed in several ways.

It symbolizes for me how you can go through life, work through all of the tough stuff and come out the other side.

The winter panel.

A side view.

Spring .

Some details.

The piece as a screen.