Exciting things on the horizon... as SPRING evolves and the days begin to be longer. Time still is impacted with the wonderful things a creative life brings along with it...

CREATIVITY...

So what is happening in YOUR corner of the world???

Spring 2015 has arrived and with it the "busy calendar' comes as well... QUILTS KINGSTON 2015 Show and Sale is just two months away. My entries have been submitted, and I am awaiting the "sure your quilts will be hung" message from the Quilt Show Design Committee...

 

Working away on the Quilts Kingston 2015 Publicity Committee, and partnered with the very talented community supporter, Heather Buchan, means that as a team we will move through the myriad of duties that will ensure that the door opens with a long line of visitors to the Show. Plan to find many terrific Vendors booths, our ever popular Members' Boutique, The "Sir John A/Sir John, Eh?" and Childrens Quilts special exhibits. AND most importantly, you will be able to walk through the aisles on the Show Floor, filled with more than 200 beautiful quilts.

 

Visit the QUILTS KINGSTON website for all of the details....

The Kingston Fibre Artists will be opening their spring Exhibition "HANGING BY A THREAD" at the WINDOW ART GALLERY at the Kingston School of Art, at the corner of Victoria St. and Princess St., Kingston, ON with the Opening Reception on May 7th...

I am laser focused as I add final stitches to my own new work for the show. The members work I saw last week at our group's planning meeting is just amazing. The KFA always delivers an exhibition 'not to be missed', as this group of very talented artist friends never fails to pull together a most exciting new collection of fibre focused work in multiple mediums, all with stitch and outstanding design explorations!

 

All of the news and information about both the KINGSTON FIBRE ARTISTS and their work and coming events can be found at their website.

 

Everyone welcome, May 6-31, 2015. (and the Opening Reception always promises great treats)



 

 

As the STUDIO ART QUILT ASSOCIATES (SAQA) Co-Representative for Central Canada, I was invited by Executive Director Martha Sielman to participate in the planning for two terrific new SAQA sponsored exhibitions for 2016. The process was exciting, with much to learn about preparing the Call For Entry details for the first ever ALL CANADIAN SAQA ARTISTS Exhibition: My Corner Of The World - CANADA

 

 

This exciting Canadian exhibition will open in May of 2016, partnered with the SAQA International Exhibition, My Corner of the World, with entries open to all 3000+ SAQA members from around the world.

 

I will be working closely with the organizers over the next few months as Exhibition Curator, and hoping that our many SAQA artists across Canada will participate by  beginning now to design and execute their beautiful work in fibre for either or BOTH of these exhibitions. 

 

The two exhibitions are scheduled for first visits at STRATFORD PERTH MUSEUM in Stratford, Ontario at the Opening Reception on May 21, 2016 and travel across Canada and beyond for two years. Micaela Fitzsimmons, Exhibition Juror, will work with Galleries and Museums across Canada to plan a travel itinerary that will see these amazing quilts being available for viewing by Canadians across all of our Provinces and Territories.

 

 

 

 

 

CQA/ACC Quilt Canada 2016 will be held in Toronto  and I have sent off my submission to contribute as a Workshops Instructor. The submission deadline has now passed and I wish all of the Instructors waiting to secure the coveted teaching contracts the very best as Liz Thompson, Quilt Canada 2016 Coordinator and her team select the teaching staff for this exciting conference.

 

As a CQA/ACC Past President, I strive to support the organization any way I can and always encourage area members here in Ontario to attend the Annual Conferences. I  had the honor of receiving the CQA/ACC Canadian TEACHER OF THE YEAR Award at the annual gathering of quilters in London, ON in 2011. 

 

I am so very excited to have the opportunity in 2015 to apply to share my favourite Mixed Media and Art Quilt workshops, techniques and lots of FUN with the 2016 Conference participants. CQA/ACC is very dear to my heart and I encourage each of you to consider membership in our national Quilting Association and make plans to attend our Ontario 2016 CQA/ACC Conference.

 

Other terrific opportunities for members include the chance to study and be certified as a CQA/ACC Certified Quilt Judge. The courses are held annually at the National Conferences... this year in Lethbridge, Alberta.

 

All of the exciting news and events can be found at the CQA/ACC website .



The TETT Centre for Creativity and Learning

King Street West, Kingston, ON Canada

photo by Bearnard Clark



 

I have recently joined the TETT Board of Directors, appointed as the Kingston Handloom Weavers and Spinners Guild tenant group representative. This will be an exciting opportunity to share in the growth and development planning at the Tett. The board is comprised of members representing each of the eight tenant arts groups including the Kingston Handloom Weavers and Spinners, the Kingston Potters Guild, Kingston Lapidary and Mineral Club, the Kingston Arts Council, Modern Fuel Gallery, the Kingston School of Dance, Theatre Kingston and the Joe Chithalen Memorial Musical Instrument Lending Library.

 

The J.K. Tett Centre is a City of Kingston-owned heritage building on the Lake Ontario waterfront. It is operated by the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning, a not-for-profit arts organization made up of tenant groups and community members. It originally formed part of the Morton Brewery and Distillery Company, which was built in the mid-19th century. Learn more the history of The Tett Centre site.

This wonderful building is home to eight arts organizations, artists’ studios, and a variety of rental spaces, including the Malting Tower, rehearsal and multipurpose studios, and a community gallery.
The Tett is part of an arts hub on the waterfront that also includes the Queen’s University world class performing arts facility, the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts.

The Tett Center offers lots of opportunity to enrich yourself in the Canadian arts, such as plays, concerts, and dance. We have many visitors and members who join us from nearby places like Inverary, Verona, Seeley's Bay, Mallorytown, Belleville and Odessa.

The Tett contributes to a vibrant arts community in Kingston, fosters collaboration among the tenant groups and with Queen's University, and engages and supports new artists. Learn more about the mission of The Tett Centre.

 

The Kingston Handloom Weavers & Spinners

The Kingston Handloom Weavers and Spinners (KHWS) guild has been in existence since 1948

 

KHWS is a not-for-profit corporation that promotes the teaching of weaving, spinning and other related crafts in both their historic, contemporary and technical context to interested community members of all ages.

 

The guild is the only one of its kind in the Kingston area and currently has 80 members drawn from over a 100 Km. radius.  The learn to weave and spin organization is run entirely by volunteers. In addition to monthly meetings (7:00 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month from September through June), the KHWS gives numerous workshops throughout the year to both members and non-members (including children) from the community. An “open studio” is available on Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to members and non-members. Each November we present a Weaving and Spinning Sale, featuring unique, quality items created by KHWS.

 

From 1973 onwards the guild had a meeting room and studio in the J.K. Tett Centre which was closed for renovation in 2010 by the City of Kingston. We moved back to the Tett Centre in 2013 once the renovations are completed.

 

I am blessed to have all of the new friends I have met since last summer while taking classes to learn to weave in the Studio at KHWS... and for all of the help and encouragement of the members all throughout the learning curve I have undertaken this past year.

 

If you would like to join us, please visit the Studio on Open Studio Days, every Thursday at the Tett Centre, 10 am - 2 p or at our monthly meetings held in the studio on the second Wednesday evening each month September - June.

  

Kingston Handloom Weavers & Spinners

Location: 370 King St. West, Unit 205

Email: adyoung@sympatico.ca

Website: http://www.khws.ca



So it is FIBREWORKS KINGSTON Weekend Workshops SPRING SERIES time again... and we are all awaiting the arrival of HOLLY DEAN and DIANNE GIBSON

Today, a blogger's didactic.... on the state of the fibre arts in our neighborhood and beyond! Your thoughts?

A few years ago, dear friend and forever mentor, HILARY SCANLON, passed the candle to me as FIBREWORKS Coordinator, asking that I carry on her 33 year commitment to delivering Creative Workshops to friends near and far who were committed to the Fibre Arts. Hilary had spent the best years of her life (after raising her children and standing beside her husband through his education and working career) building a small business which she so fondly called FIBREWORKS Kingston.

In 1979, while she was teaching at St. Lawrence College and creating the most beautiful fibre art pieces herself, Hilary committed to not only share her skills with others, but to bring the very best of the best Instructors in Textile Art - the history, diversity and technique to Kingston and provide a venue where their skills, shared through a workshops format could be available for like-minded arts enthusiasts throughout Southern Ontario. In all of her 33 years as Fibreworks Coordinator, Hilary ensured that the FIBREWORKS classrooms were filled with creative fun, exciting Instructor-led technique demonstration and inspiration for the students who attended the Workshops Series.

Starting in 1997, I was very proud to assist Hilary as a classroom assistant, Registrar and helpful friend in fibre until 2008. I stepped out of the team with Hilary's blessing and Donna Hamilton stepped in until the end of the 2012 season, with my goal being to devote time to my own art work and teaching at St. Lawrence College as a Professor in the Textile Design Program... only one of three in all of Canada. Several years have passed since the candle passed as FIBREWORKS COORDINATOR  to me in 2013, and I am still as excited to bring our area and distance Canadian artists opportunities to study with wonderfully multi-talented Guest Instructors, and have the chance to learn the new techniques that are supporting the Textile Arts in Canada today as I was nearly eighteen years ago....

We have two truly amazing artists visiting with us this spring - HOLLY DEAN from Merrickville, ON and DIANNE GIBSON of Fonthill, ON - both well recognized exhibition artists and designers. Both are active in the arts community and provide not only sharing experiences in their studios and beyond, but are leaders in the arts fields through the exhibition art they share with the world. The workshops will run this spring and the small numbers of student participants will be afforded the wonders of study with these two Master Artists, and I will be there to observe the wonder and excitement as new art work evolves...the role continues. 

For me... the commitment to FIBREWORKS is serious and a labour of love. We would really love to have you join us and spend time with these two beautiful and talented women artists.... do please make time to check them out! 

Holly Dean's website:  https://www.HollyDean.com

Dianne's Artist page at http://www.Connectionsfibreartsists.com

So, I decided today to use this forum to speak out...sharing the only thing that is troubling me about the role I serve in as your friend in the arts and Coordinator for FIBREWORKS Kingston. There is really a changing dimension in the communities of artists I support and serve. On one hand I understand it - but who is going to carry on the traditions and joy of sharing art in textile if we can't support the new ones walking into the field by encouraging them to participate and providing the venues for their learning? While years ago, we were a strong network and partnership of friends and colleagues in the arts, so many of our artist friends have decided to step back, to pull in... to work on their own once again as so many others did in the distant past. 

Workshop interest and enrollment has dropped off, not only for FIBREWORKS, but we are seeing/hearing about it indeed all around the globe - in Guilds and Shops, at Retreats, online, and both at the national and international level . This can be attributed partly to the financial constraints many of us are feeling as we move from the working world of the adult partners in our homes, to suddenly feeling the impact of fixed incomes in retirement years... it just costs more to be a homeowner and support a family. But the changes are also attributable to the fact that many of our artists friends are now finding they are seemingly more content to work at home in their studios, and to share in smaller, more intimate settings, choosing to be with just their closest friends and sharing skills with each other at invitation only in-studio stitch days. 

I fully understand, as this is a place I too have settled into...no longer bringing in a "working wage", and wanting to have the time to relax, with needle in hand, and stitch while enjoying the quietude in my home or with friends. This conflicts strongly with my goal of supporting FIBREWORKS in the Coordinator's role, and the commitments I have made to my quilting Guild(s), the new roles I have taken on with The Tett Centre Board of Directors and with my new friends at the Kingston Handloom Weavers and Spinners Guild.  I really cherish time with  my new friends in the CONNECTIONS Fibre Artists Group and with my long time colleagues in fibre art, the members of the Kingston Fibre Artists. I do enjoy sharing what I know and especially watching my students grow, so I will stay on at St. Lawrence College as long as  there are students to share with and strive to encourage area artists to continue to support our Textile Design Program. I am a proud and honoured teaching partner and supporter of those who have stepped out of our classrooms -like DENISE SOKOLSKY, a graduate of the Textile Design Program at SLC, and who has moved on in the arts, and is now preparing her Thesis for her Masters in Fine Arts - Textiles at UMass Boston... how much prouder could an Instructor be?

So I would love to hear from you - how do you see the future of the Fibre Arts in Canada? In your towns and cities? What role do you play and what do you need to see your involvement in the Arts continue to evolve and be recognized? Please do keep the lines of communication open - be a part f the dialogue and don't forget to share your skills with friends - old and new.

And if you have time, come join us at the Spring FIBREWORKS workshops... all the details are here at www.fibreworkskingston.blogspot.ca (on the right sidebar). Come PLAY!

Bethany

Please join Kingston's PETA GILLYATT BAILEY, LINDA COULTER, JANET ELLIOTT and JANINE GATES for the Vernissage introducing their first joint Exhibition, MAKING OUR MARKS at the VERB Gallery, Kingston

There are times in the life of a teacher/facilitator/innovation coach that really make it all worth while. You share bits and pieces of information, demonstrate some of your skills and share a lot of materials/resources and wonder if it all makes sense... here is an example of why we do what we do...

Posting the first group exhibition of four stellar students that have walked into the world of expression through art and watching as they find the diversity and joy that can be had in creating their Art Quilts/Stitch - and as a part of a wonderful group of friends, all with the goal to take their skills to the next step - is one of those. 

I would like to introduce to you the artists exhibiting at VERB Gallery, downtown Kingston starting March 2nd, 2015. Please make time to stop in - more than once. Their work is beautiful, thought provoking, seamless in quality and just wonderfully executed...

VERNISSAGE

Saturday March 7, 2015

3-5 pm

Verb Gallery at Wayfarer Books

Wellington at Princess Streets, downtown Kingston

Everyone Welcome

These four women, all with professional careers in the community,  have formed an alliance, a close friendship, and it happened at St. Lawrence College, in the Textile Design Program... 

And sure they learned some things in the Program, but more importantly, they have stepped up and taken a hold on their creativity and set goals together for new work, delving into the Fibre Arts with a team approach. Now they have made the decision to put their work out there and see what others think.  Exploring multiple styles of applying the elements and principles of design to their work and then bringing their innate decision making skills to the new work makes them strong and very cohesive as a group. 

How much bolder can four great women, all with individual skills and insight, but stronger together be? Only you can decide when you walk through the Gallery and see the results of about three years of working together, exploring textiles and fibre art - the history, diversity and techniques.

Janine Gates and Janet Elliott are members of the Kingston Fibre Artists and their work is known to the community already... watch as Peta and Linda join in the success of their first local exhibition.

As an Instructor and friend, I could not be more proud and happy for these four Artists... watch for what comes next. 

Enjoy the Exhibition.

Please make time for a drive to Belleville, ON for the Fabric Arts Exhibition before February 14th... Stunning art and so much COLOUR! Enjoy Lunch downtown!

For those of you who have always wanted to travel to the American Quilters' Society's QUILT WEEK IN PADUCAH - here is your opportunity. Register now, as the seats are limited!

The Limestone Quilters Guild, Kingston ON

is sponsoring a 

QUILTERS BUS TRIP 

to the American Quilters Society 's 

"QUILT WEEK IN PADUCAH" 

this spring,  April 20-27th.

It is one amazing trip, and a very reasonable alternative to driving yourself, booking all of your own hotels and being on your own. Who wouldn't want to be among a group of great quilters and seeing the sights, touring the Quilt Shows, visiting the amazing Quilt Show and all of the Quilt Week events in Paducah, the National Quilt Museum and so much more. You will shop til you drop, share great evenings with quilt friends old and new and have so much time on your hands to see all that Paducah has to offer....

Seats are available now!!! The bus leaves from Kingston, and by special arrangement, may be able to pick quilters up at designated points across the 401 as they are driving through to Sarnia to cross into the USA. Passports are required, and yes, a minor technicality of a special rate $15 "membership" in the Limestone Quilters Guild as detailed below (this is a sponsored trip by LQG). .

And you be back well before the QUILTS KINGSTON 2015 Show, or events that your group or Guild is planning next spring. ... make this your reward for getting your exhibition entries in right away! There is no more beautiful city than PADUCAH in April - green grass, beautiful city, hundreds of vendors to shop for quilt supplies and MORE!

Contact Trip Conveanor, Susan Clarke at:  sjcway@cogeco.ca  for all of the details and be a part of all of the fun!

Note: Susan can email you a larger copy of the details sheet below...don't wait. Seats are filling fast!