Sunday, September 23, 2012

Studio Tour - Victoria Quilters' Guild Sept 22/12

Yesterday, my quilt guild held a tour of six studios of members in our guild.  The ticket prices were $10.00 and the funds are going into a special fund to bring in guest speakers from further afar.  I thought it was a great idea and promptly bought my ticket.  After our B&B guests had checked out and the laundry and dishes had been started, it was time for me to sneak away for a few hours for some inspiration.  And I was inspired!

It's always great to see the other girls' stashes, storage, workspaces, projects and this tour did not disappoint.  We have some quality quilters/teachers in our community.  Let me introduce you to some of them who were highlighted in yesterday's tour:

I started in Fairfield, just off Dallas Road where our very own Laine Canivet  has her studio.  Laine does abstract and pictorial fabric art and handmade journals and has taught in the past at our Quilting in the Trees annual retreat.

This is a photo in her basement workshop where does all the messy creative stuff with fabric dying, painting and booking binding.

I apologize for the fuzzy picture.  Blackberry camera and light coming in from her window made it not the best photo but you get the idea.



Here is one of Laine's photo transfers on canvas that is then quilted:


Upstairs is her sewing room.  I loved her storage system for her stash, tucked away in a cove in the wire baskets.  It works great!   I really admire Laine's 'read and play' approach and her talent for design.  She told us about some of her sources of inspiration, Cloth, Paper Scissors Magazine and Quilting Arts Magazine, and that after reading she'll just go and play and experiment.   I read those too, but haven't actually been brave enough to play and experiment.  Laine inspired me to take a chance next time I get one (workshop probably) and I think I will.  It's good to stretch our creative muscles and I'm going to!


My next stop was Sharon White's place.  She's another storage queen. 


I love how she painted plain banker boxes with the same paint as her walls and then adorned her shelves with these beauties.  Sharon is obviously an organized quilter.  She had a small but orderly and efficient space.
 


 Don't you love these little bins used for her thread?



My hubby has used them in his shop, but it has never occurred to me to use them in my sewing studio.  She also had fashioned a layout surface on top of an old bed with wooden rails all around it, and a great design wall in her living room which doubles as a rod for hanging quilts when she doesn't need the design wall.  Brilliant use of space!


Next was Lenny DeGroot's studio.  Oh my!!  Lenny has taught free motion quilting among other things for the guild and her work is exquisite!  Here's a photo of her 'Flowers" quilt that she did as 'quilt as you go'.  Isn't it gorgeous!?  It took two strong men to hang this quilt in her livingroom and what a breathtaking view as you enter this room.



This is her sewing room which is bright and tidy.  Don't you love the quilting blocks in her window valance? 


I would love to take a class with Lenny for this quilt which she currently has for sale:



Next was Bette Anderson's studio, also in Saanich.  Bette's studio is above what I think is a garage and she calls it her "Girl Cave".



There is a small deck off her studio and I could imagine having a nice cup of coffee out there while looking through patterns or quilting books/magazines.  Bette's space is very organized and her storage system is to die for!  Look at these storage bins that her hubby built for her!  She said he bent and molded the plastic which stands just over a foot high.  And every one has holes so that the fabric can breathe (at least that's my assumption).  They are each on a pull out drawer and all colour coordinated and behind closed doors when not being used.


I love her ironing board too.  It's a standard ironing board with marine wood added and wrapped in special material to withstand the heat.  Maybe if I show the photo to my hubby he could make me one too.  :o)




This is a beautiful studio and it was hard not to be envious of her space.  In a word ~ gorgeous!

And then I headed up the Saanich Peninsula to Daphne Greig's studio.   Daphne also owns www.patchworkstudio.com and travels internationally teaching. 


This quilt greeted us on her front door:



Daphne had quilts, patterns and even fabric kits and videos for sale.  I managed to resist but thoroughly enjoyed talking with her and seeing her quilts and class samples.   Here are a few that were on her wall.  Some were for sale and some were 'priceless'.


I've never taken one of her workshops but will hopefully get the chance soon.  Daphne is teaching in Kona, Hawaii in February 8-17, 2013 at www.comequiltwithme.com.  Oh, I wish!!  Wouldn't that be fun?

Before I lieft I noticed that she had her stash cupboard open for us to see.  This one is more like mine (but tidier than mine at the moment) with plastic containers organized by size or colour family:



And my last stop was Arlene MacKenzie's studio.  Arlene was the only longarm quilter on the tour and we got to see her in action working on a baby quilt.   I forgot to take a picture at her place unfortunately so you can visit her website (link above) and see some photos there.

Arlene has now done over 1,000 quilts and her work is stunning.  In fact, she has one of my quilts waiting in line and I was wondering if it might be on the frame when I arrived.  It wasn't as it's still waiting its turn.  I wasn't expecting it until the beginning of October  but I thought it might be fun to see my quilt on the frame but it was still sleeping soundly in its bag.  Hey it's all good.  She was waiting for some new parts for her Gammill and now it's as smooth as butter and she'll be back working on big quilts soon, including mine.  Yippee!  I can hardly wait.

So, it was a great day and I learned about some of our guild members, saw some beautiful sewing/creative spaces and quilts and came home with an unction to clean up my sewing space and revisit my storage solution and stretch my creative muscles into the art quilts arena.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing these photos and that you will visit their respective websites/blogs.

Until next time,

Mavis




2 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing the tour of the studios. I find it very hard to not make comparisons to my own humble space. I'm just glad to not hafta sew on a dining room or kitchen table and put it all away every time. It's good to be grateful for what I have! LOL!

    ReplyDelete