Wild Women Textile Arts Group

 We've been a bit quiet on the blog over the past few months, so I decided it was time to do a few catch up posts on what the Wild Women have been up to this year.  This first post takes us through January to March 2022. A new year and a new challenge - Eye to eye - #wwtageyetoeye An outbreak of omicron on the Gold Coast meant we couldn't go ahead with our January meeting - but we were all kept busy working on our first challenge of the year " Eye to eye ".  Click on the hash tag above to view our Instagram gallery throughout he year to see additional works as they are completed. February What better way to ease back into the routine with a social sew 'n' chat and our regular Show 'n' tell". March Some fabulous work on show at our March meeting.  Pat brought some of her wonderful art journals of leaf prints and stitching. Lyn showed some stunning quilts while Eileen had been needle felting.   Those participating in Anne Brooke's challenges for

  It was wonderful to be back at Palm Beach 11th Avenue Community Space for our August meeting! What an incredible array of textile arts were on show: we had fabric dyeing and painting; stitching; felting; scrumbling, applique and collage.   There were bags, beads, books, cards, cases, clothing, cushions, cosies, samples, tags and Works-In-Progress. Despite the border closures we were still able to catch up with our NSW contingent for Show 'n' Tell over Zoom.  

The Wild Women had a very special treat in May - a scrumbling workshop with the fabulous Shannon Hunter! Shannon is a wonderful fibre artist based on Mount Tamborine, well known for her flair with colour and texture. In this workshop she took us through the joys of freeform knitting and crochet (scrumbling) While a few of us were old hands, most of us were novices and we were very appreciative of Shannon's endless patience and good humour!  And as you can see from the photo below, Wendy in particular took to scrumbling like a duck to water!

One of the things we most most value as a group are the opportunities to learn from each other - after all we each have such diverse skills and interests.   So we get particularly excited when one of our own agrees to lead a group activity. For our February and March meetings Hilary is showing us how to make sensory quilts (also known as fidget quilts).  These small lap sized quilts, which can also be made as a wearable apron, provide sensory and tactile stimulation for the restless hands of someone with Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia, such as ADD, or an autism spectrum disability. The use of sensory activities can help people living with dementia make more meaningful connections to their past memories that may otherwise be difficult to recall. Our Wild Women at work creating quilt blocks

What a wonderful start to 2021 with our first Show 'n' Tell for the year.  Wendy had her delightful gardening "minnie me" on show and our " Hearts " challenge featured significantly - you can see all the challenge photos on Instagram by searching the tag #wwtaghearts or by clicking  here.   We were so excited to have Eileen back with us after the on-again off-again saga of closed borders - and she had some gorgeous work to share with us. Two scarves: one a divine hand dyed shibori wool and the other a sinfully soft reversible nuno felt. A number of us have decided to participate in the Anne Brooks #52tagshannemade challenge for 2021.  Here are Carolyn, Maggie and Hilary's week 1 tags " Simply white " - to learn more about the challenge click here. And some more " hearts " from Maggie, Heather and Hilary to finish up