Seven Create

This is a long post, a documentation of “Seven Create”, a seven panel wall hanging, created by the seven members of the Northern Ontario Fibre Artists.

Seven Create

Seven Create has been juried into the Canadian Quilters Association's National Juried Show.

It will be on display at:

Quilt Canada 2014 
St. Catharines (Niagara Region)
ONTARIO 
June 11 - 14, 2014,

The following write-up by our member, Marie Black, has been displayed along side our project “Seven Create” in two exhibitions and in a newspaper article by Darlene Wroe, in The Temiskaming Speaker.

I can't describe it any better.

By Marie Black:

Our goal was to create a large wall hanging, neutral in colour, with a lot of texture. Terry designed the pattern and cut it into seven sections.

Each member brought pieces of neutral fabric to the table to be shared and used in our pieces.

Additional neutral fabrics and embellishments could be used and there were no restrictions on theme or design.

We worked independently on our sections off and on for a period of two years.

For the most part, none of us knew what the other persons were creating.

Finally, in early 2013, we got a sneak preview of the designed and partially completed sections.

The final completed piece, “Seven Create”, took two years from the time we started, to it's completion on May 25, 2013.

The following are what each member had to say about participating in this piece as well as photos of each panel (photos by Calvin Knight), and a close-up.

The write-ups are from the article in Temiskaming Speaker. Newspaper writer, Darlene Wroe asked each member to write about their inspiration and/or techniques.

Terry Whyte - Kenogami

My favourite quilting techniques all involve thread in one way or another. If using the sewing machine, thread painting and free-motion quilting and by hand, experimenting with a lot of different embroidery stitches. These are all represented on my panel as well as curved piecing, fabric manipulation and three-dimensional leaves.

Marie Black - Englehart

My art piece is a combination of collage, machine stitching, hand stitching, zentagle, raw edge applique, painted and dyed natural and synthetic fabrics, buttons, antique nails, wire and beads. The background base, is comprised of small squares of muslin, machine stitched and spray dyed. African prints were used in the bottom section and the tree. The fence is recycled nails. Synthetic felt was stitched and burnt. I enjoy working with fabrics with texture and geometric shapes.

Manie Mascioli - Timmins

The inspiration for my section was circles. Circles create movement and using a spiky circle helps to make them feel like they are spinning. I used the horizontal lines which divide the piece to separate each section into light, medium and dark values. I contrasted these values in the spinning circles to create balance. I am a long arm quilter, so I used stitch to create texture. We each shared a fat quarter of fabric and I incorporated a piece of each fabric into the circles to make the whole piece cohesive.

Jane Hughes - Timmins

Inspiration for the piece came from a trip to Vancouver and a deadline looming. The nature and arts communities in Vancouver were inspiring. Techniques include: raw edge applique, mosaic tiles, stamping (city), pleating, machine embroidery and buttons for additional texture.

Kit Ormsby - Kenogami

My inspiration came from a desire to connect the three communities represented by our members. I chose: an early picture of the Englehart train station, an outline of Kenogami Lake and a picture of the MacIntyre Mine head from in Timmins. I printed the pictures onto fabric, highlighting them with ink and thread. I then used a variety of texture, abstract shapes and embellishments to complete the piece. To make the connection across the three areas I included a version of “Flying geese” and refer to my individual piece as “Birds of a Feather!”

Silvia Bos - Englehart

This textural panel gave me an opportunity to try many techniques. I had a plan for the top and bottom sections, but it took me a while to create an idea for the middle that would work. Once I was inspired, I was able to continue and finish the overall design. Some of the techniques used are pleating, weaving, rusting fabric, burning, machine and hand-stitching, embroidery, beading, fabric manipulation, and embellishment. I was very pleased when all our pieces came together and how wonderful it looked.

Karen Pilch - Englehart

I am inspired by nature's ability to heal itself. In my piece I have woven a tree from wool, silk and cotton yarns. The roots are twined into the earth and the trunk and branch rise up the side. I have hand-stitched the fields and embroidered shrubs, flowers and grasses adding beads and buttons. The treed area is trapuntoed and the tree trunks are straws wrapped in fabric. The sun or moon is embellished with beads and some foil. The whole piece is hand and machine-quilted.

Seven Create hung in two local exhibitions, at The Englehart and Area Historial Museum and the Cobalt Classic Threatre.

Terry, Marie, Jane, Kit, Silvia,Karen (Marnie was absent)

The Northern Ontario Fibre Artists are Marie Black, Silvia Bos, Jane Hughes, Marnie Mascioli, Kit Ormsby, Karen Pilch, Terry Whyte from three northern communities, Timmins, Englehart and Kenogami.

The whole piece - all seven panels - measures approximately 10 feet across and 55 inches tall.

Linking up to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday

Happy Quilting

Terry