Beyond the Block Fiber Artists Luncheon

Hello! I wanted to tell you about a special Christmas party I went to last week. 

A few months ago I started attending the meetings of a subgroup of my quilting guild. The ladies are "art quilters" and their group is called "Beyond the Block."  They very much focus on using fabrics and sewing techniques as a form of art expression and they exhibit and sell their work. They have ongoing project prompts and challenges to keep everyone looking forward and designing. They are somewhat intimidating to me as there are a number of them with excellent skills and prolific output while I feel very much behind. I am learning a lot at the monthly meetings and looking forward to the wool felting that will be taught at the January meeting.

Every December they hold a Christmas luncheon and exchange homemade gifts. I joined them for the first time. The gift exchange challenge was a "container made with fiber". 

The luncheon was held at a local winery, my favorite one, owned by an Italian immigrant. 

Franco Marchesi is from northern Italy- Piemonte- and he recently built this marvelous Italian style home on the winery property. It really stands out in our orchard country. 

We have a lot of wineries here in the valley and the Columbia Gorge; I've always enjoyed the Italian style wines here at Marchesi. 

 We had a rustic private room for our luncheon where it was quite chilly but the fellowship was warm. Everyone brought finger foods to share. Above are the gifts ready for an anonymous exchange.

First- here are a few examples of the type of art quilts that are made in this group. All are original designs. 

I thought about "containers made from fiber" for a long time and resisted googling for a pattern. 

I finally decided to make a pouch out of a cotton cable knit sweater that I have been saving. I intend to make a pillow cover with the body of the sweater. For the pouch I cut off the lower part of the sleeve (cuff to the elbow) and sewed the bottom. 

I embellished it with beads and buttons and made a cord and looped it to latch the opening with a glass bead. 

I have a collection of handmade glass beads so I sewed on a few for embellishment. While I was satisfied with the result, it was very - completely!- different from all the other containers that the ladies made. Maybe I thought too far outside the box?

We exchanged the gifts by drawing numbers and each choosing from the wrapped packages or stealing an especially nice one from what had already been opened and revealed. 

This one was an asymmetrical vase shape made from fabric panels.

I did not take individual photos of the pieces. There were bowls made with different sewing techniques and several that were made with cords wound in circles and sewn together into the bowl. There were also several box shapes made from fabric panels.

The red piece is the one I received. It is a simple felt container with a painted design of a plant. The gifter had just returned from a trip to New Zealand and that felt piece came from a gift shop there. The blue box is fabric panels that make a box just like a Chinese take-out container and even had fabric fortune cookies inside. The white piece is a glass candle holder with a cover of felted fabric with embroidery embellishment. 

It is very enjoyable to socialize with a group of crafting ladies and to exchange hand made gifts!