Welcome to Fiber Arts! Please introduce yourself!!

[Gypsy*]

Greetings! Happy to see this inspiring and informative forum take shape!

I was taught to sew at the age of five, by my grandmother who had a treadle machine. I was finally allowed to use an electric one at age ten, but by then, I was making all my own play clothes. I got serious about sewing after that, and made clothing for myself for years, aceing the required Home Economics Sewing course in high school. Fast forward a few years, and I am making clothing for my four children, and polyester spots coats for my dh. Then, I lost interest in sewing, trying all sorts of other crafts. I've dabbled in lots of different ones, mostly whatever the trend was, at the moment. After the kids grew up, I fell ill for a number of years, finally having a life-saving double-lung transplant Jan. 3, 2006. Since getting my life back (and the kids are grown and moved out), I have found renewed interest in crafts and sewing. Currently, I am working on machine needle art and on jewelry making.

I look forward to being inspired here!

[lisilk]

Originally Posted by Gypsy*

After the kids grew up, I fell ill for a number of years, finally having a life-saving double-lung transplant Jan. 3, 2006.

Good grief! Bless you! What a difficult journey. We're thrilled to have you with us and healthy again. Looking forward to seeing your creations Sylvia. I remember you from wearable arts and possibly mixed media(?).

Li

[tvandeb]

Wow! I just ran into this forum... I have several interest: besides drawing, painting and encaustic. I quilt, crochet, macramae( mostly jewlery and religious themes), sew, embroidery. I have not used fiber into my art yet, but as many new ideas I have written down I may have to try.

This is so wonderful, Thanks for whom ever thought of this!!!!!!

[lisilk]

Welcome Tammy! Can't wait to see your work.

Li

[Falconess]

Hi all,

My name's Kat and I'm an addict. My DH has had me banned from all the local fiber stores and most of those within a 50 mile radius. I have to sneak my eBay fiber purchases past him and into the "do it" room. My yarn, fabric and bead collections have been likened to the "tribble" problem on the Enterprise and the Energizer bunny. It just keeps going and going...

I got started hand sewing ornaments and crocheting around the age of five or so. Since then I've tried just about everything you can do with a piece of string and a sharp pointy thing, including archery. Some of my current interests are weaving, knitting (machine and frame), crochet (there's a plethora of pregnancies amongst my friends and baby blankets are pouring out of my house), painting (acrylic and watercolor), lampwork (those are my beads in my avatar), quilting and chasing my 8 month old baby boy around the house. The baby takes most of my time these days, so most of my projects are very slow to get finished and a few are slow to get started!

I'm so glad I have a place to check out everyone's creativity with fiber!

[Sneuart]

Hi to all, I am so thrilled with this forum.
I have been a fabric collector all my life, even though for years I did not have a sewing machine and still can barely sew a straight line with correct tension.
I knit straight scarves. I can't crochet - the working loop on the hook gets big enough to rope cattle. I did cross stitch in college - to offset the pressure of the classes, as I lost focus as soon as I graduated. I am in the middle of a rag quilt and a stenciled wreath on a square of fabric.
Wheat I'm about to dive into is silk painting. I dyed a few scarves a few years back, and now that my husband and I own our own home, I have more room to work, as well as my own washer and dryer.
My goal this weekend was to have my husband help me build a stretcher frame for the few blank scarves I have left to paint. I did the first few ironed onto freezer paper, and that is a rather unsatisfactory way to work if you want to do any more than washes of color. At least, for me that's all I can make work in that way.
I also have a couple of doll patterns that I want to use.
I'll post my initial attempts down the line.

[bullyluvver]

Hello all! I'm Gail, and I've recently joined the mixed media forum which I'm enjoying. In the past I've made lots of different things from cloth dolls to a wedding dress, but haven't really done anything with a sewing machine for years although I have one hidden in the cupboard. I prefer to hand sew and I'm trying to find new ways of combining my love of paint & fabric so that I don't have to choose! I can't knit or crochet to save my life, but I'd like to learn how to needle felt - hint, hint!! Looking forward to learning lots of new skills with you lovely people.

Gail

[greyart]

Wow! just found this forum. I am a fiber junkie! I love to collect fabrics, a swatch here, a yard there. I have yet to find a way to put them to use. But I have tried crochet, wasn't good at it, machine knitting, weaving, and tapestry. But I found my place with punchneedle.

I look forward to reading this forum!

Carol M.

[lisilk]

Welcome Carol, Kat, Gail and Stephanie. I'm anxious to see what you all do.
Stephanie~ my husband make all my silk frames. The commercial one are too expensive when all you really need is a few slabs of wood slapped together!

Hope to see work from all of you very soon! ( hint...hint)

Li

[Rose Queen]

Originally Posted by greyart

...I am a fiber junkie! I love to collect fabrics, a swatch here, a yard there. I have yet to find a way to put them to use...

OK, you need to join the first-ever Fiber Arts forum project, right here: http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=448070

[girlfriday1962]

I love this place already!

My name is Maxine... live in Australia... you can normally find me being quite silly in the glass arts forum!

My other passion (besides glass beads) is sewing, mainly vintage patterns, fabrics from the 40's 50's. I do love historical costuming also. I don't mind a bit of hand embroidery on clothes, & would love to have a go at lace making 'one of these days'.

I do bellydancing in my spare time (to get away from the house - I am a full time mum) and my next thing to do is to hand bead & make a bellydancing costume from scratch.

Here is an example of what I get up to...

[greyart]

Hey Maxine! I just rented a belly dance fitness DVD and gave it a try. What fun! But I am so sore! I wish I could find a class around here. At after I loss a few more pounds!
Carol m

[Rose Queen]

What an interesting bunch we have in this forum already!

[sec]

Hello. I'm an art student at the University of Wisconsin--Green Bay which has a great Fiber/Textiles program. I'm currently taking Intro to Fiber/Textiles and wasn't quite sure what it would be about, however, I've been converted into a fiber artist suddenly and now I'm addicted! I'm enjoying knitting together things that weren't meant to be knitted at the moment. I'll post soon...

[Shirley C.]

hi folks! my name is shirley, and I'm a fabric- and fiber-aholic! some of you might know me from the wearable art forum (despite the fact that i've been missing for quite awhile). i got a message about this new forum from rose queen and had to come right out here to take a look!

a bit about me and my above-stated addictions:

i started sewing when i was just a kidling. my mom's older sister was a professional sewer, and she and her husband owned a singer sewing machine store. they gave me a kid's hand-crank singer (which i really wish i still had!), and i made doll clothes with it. i took lessons when i was 10 at a local singer store, which was the foundation for the years in which i made most of my clothing (high school). i also did a bit of knitting and crocheting - a few scarves here and there.

after i got out of college (computer science major) i started doing crewel embroidery and latch-hook rug making. i moved to california from connecticut when i turned 22, and shortly thereafter i started messing around with quilting. i got completely addicted to fabric over the next several years and have built up quite a stash of yards, halves and fat quarters. i now consider myself a recovering quilter, since i don't do that anymore - although i still attend all the local quilt shows. and i still can't stay away from fabric! through all the years of my tech career, i think it was "creating stuff with my hands" that kept me sane.

in 1995, one of my co-workers held a lunch-time class in a conference room on how to make earrings with beads. that was the beginning of my obsession with beads, and i spent the next 4 years buying books and teaching myself how to make jewelry. i took a 2-day lampwork class at the end of 1999 and have been making glass beads ever since. you can see some of my beads in the Lark publication "1000 Glass Beads".

beads area a wonderful thing, but i had a strong yearning to get back to the textural world of fibers. i began making kumihimo braids a few years ago and found that beads and fiber are a wonderful combination! i've dyed a few silk scarves over the last 6 months, and a few months ago i taught myself how to crochet because this past weekend i was a vendor at "The Knit & Crochet Show" put on by CGOA and TKGA. i figured i'd better learn something about this stuff if i'm going to be hanging with the yarn folks. wouldn't you know it - i am now extremely hooked on crochet!! (no pun intended). at the show, i got to see first-hand some of the freeform work by the members of the international freeform crochet guild - holy cow!! that's my new goal in the world of fiber, i definitely want to experiment with that.

my tech team was laid off in 2003, and since then i have devoted all my time to my creative endeavours. beads and jewelry are my main business, but i'm most definitely getting more fiber in my diet!

that's it in a nutshell. i'm really looking forward to seeing all of your work out here on the forum as well as getting some great tips. hopefully i can help too.