retreat Blog Posts

Textile Illustration Retreat - Catherine Nicholls Part 1

Textile Illustration - a two day workshop held in early March 2012. Catherine Nicholls lead this exciting workshop for us on Salt spring Island. The first day was spent sampling techniques including pen and ink, painting, printing and working with stencils as ways to add text and drawing to fabric. Working from a source of inspiration, day two was used to develop ideas for an art quilt.

Our students gave us the following feedback :

Textile Illustration Retreat -Catherine Nicholls Part 2

pen drawing, inktense pencils spread with water

Friday evening before the start of the workshop, Catherine presented a wonderful trunk show of her quilts, where she uses hand dyed fabrics for many of her backgrounds.

Student Work

Trudy won 3rd place at the Arizona Quilt Show

Art Quilt by Sylvie Lajoie using various mixed media products

We are excited to share some student work with you. Please keep it coming!

The first three images show Cedar Forest by Trudy Cowan. She has the following to say about her project:

Salt Spring Island Retreats

Thank you to everyone who participated in our successful retreats this year. Wtih class size limited to 14, each student receives plenty of instruction and has ample space to spread out their sewing machines and supplies.

We offer a choice of registering for the course only if accomodation is not required. For those who wish assistance with accomodation, complete packages offer a choice of hotel room arangements. Please follow our newsletter to recieve updates on new courses for the coming year.

Felted Landscape

Here are some images from our recent felting class. Students used wool roving and embellishments to create a unique landscape wallhanging. Photos are a good souce of inspiration as a starting point for a composition.

Wool fibres are spread out horizontally and vertically on a silk base. Water, soap and aggitation encourage the fibres to felt into the base.

After felting, additional details were added with needle felting. The diversity in the finished products was amazing. Thanks to everyone who participted in the class.