Happy New Year everyone! Some musings for New Year’s day as I contemplate my word for the year. Good bye 2015 – Hello 2016. What do you hold in store for me? 2015 has been a year of tremendous ups and downs. Can we continue with the ups and eliminate some of the downs? As you may divine, I am not sorry to have 2015 behind me. Without going into details, I had a wonderful start to the year but it I am not so happy with how it wound...

What a roller coaster I have been on! The year has flown by and I am just now collecting myself enough to get back to blogging. When I left off I was traveling in British Columbia, having great adventures and meeting wonderful people. The problem was, I frequently had little or no internet! And our planned three to four week excursion stretched into two months!  And thanks to subsequent events, it has been a while since I have felt I could sit...

Donna Polos works with colour not only in her fabulous painted landscapes but also in her wonderful, whimsical gardens. I recently had the pleasure of spending time with her and learning more about her work. Outside her home her spring gardens are flourishing and attest to her loving care.  The children’s tree-house is now a favorite place for summer afternoon painting and a small greenhouse is a mix of art and plant seedlings. Look...

Marianne Parsons was one of the people to whom we owe gratitude for the formation of the Fibre Art Network (FAN). She is one of the charter members of the group. Coming from a farm background in Saskatchewan, this woman has taken her early training in clothing construction and her training as a teacher to influence the lives of many. After teaching quilting for a number of years she decided she didn’t want to sew any more straight lines...

Janet Bednarczyk recently moved from North Vancouver to Oliver BC and can’t believe her luck in finding a home with space for a studio with a wall of windows overlooking vineyards and orchards. Janet and her husband Don are busy personalizing the gardens surrounding their new home and building a controlled environment greenhouse for Don’s prize orchids. They are busy settling into their new community but Janet, now working only part...

Diana Bartelings, lives and works near Midway BC, a small town along Highway 3 in southern British Columbia. She joined FAN about the same time I did and has been an co-exhibitor in most of the group shows since 2010. Diana’s story is similar to that of many fibre artists in that she entered the fibre art world via traditional quilting. As she learned the basics she discovered that she really liked ‘doing her own thing’, designing rather...

Only a few days before departure on our ‘bucket list’ trip to the west coast of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, I realized that this was an opportunity to connect with as many FAN (Fibre Art Network) members as possible. I’ve belonged to this group for several years and have met a number of members but how better to get to know people than to see where they create their work. It is also a way for me to personalize this bucket-list...

  I am really enjoying the 5 day art challenges that are currently circulating on Facebook and have just been challenged to do my bit. I must assure you that I don’t mind participating but now I have to make a decision about what to post. If you have visited my website and/or blog you may notice that I don’t post a lot of pictures of my current work. Rightly or wrongly, I am playing it safe. Most of my current work is destined...

Name Nostalgia – My First Crewel Embroidery (1965) Medium Fabric, wool tapestry yarn, Description Nostalgia – My First Crewel Embroidery (1965) was part of a shipment of household items moved to Calgary and recently sorted. The frame for this piece was outdated and although the original mounting was terrible and left a glue residue in the fabric (the brown spots) I wanted to save it. After removing the backing and soaking it in a...

Name Stitches from India Medium Fabric, embroidery floss, pearle cotton, sequins, shiva mirrors Description Stitches from India is a sampler created during a work session with one of the groups that I belong to – Fibre Optics Tuesday Group (FOG). FOG meets monthly and it is a ‘play day’ when members experiment with new or different techniques. There is no pressure to ‘produce’, just good times and fun! Jan and...