Wild Women Textile Arts Group

Lots of good food and good company at our final WWTAG gathering for the year. 

The stars came out in force at 11th Avenue Creative for our final community workshop for the year Stitch a Star workshop Not to be outdone our Wild Women have been equally productive over the past few weeks.  Eileen & Leona have been participating in a series of online felting classes with Yekaterina (Katia) Mokeyeva.  Eileen also had found time to do some additional felting on the side and displayed these two exquisite scarves. Eileen's scarves Pat had been experimenting with sun dyeing Pat's sun-dyed quilt Lilyan had also been doing some dyeing and made up these funky bags Lilyan's tie dyed bags While Margret kept up the Christmas preparation with these amazing fabric pine cone ornaments Margret's pine cones  

Our next community workshop will be held at Palm Beach Library on Saturday November 17 2018 from 9am to 10.30am. Click here to book Relax with the Wild Women Textile Arts Group and create beautiful stars through stitchery embellished with a bit of sparkle and shine - ready to pop against a window, display on a shelf or hang from a tree. Materials will be supplied but if you wish to bring some special motif, beads or thread, please do so. A basic sewing kit will be handy but not essential.

We are very excited to announce that the December issue of Embellish will feature Helen's article on the Wild Women. Click here to order your copy

We were delighted to learn yesterday that The Magic Kingdom by Carolyn Collins was the recipient of the People's Choice Award from our recent Wild Women Textile Journeys exhibition.   Passage of intrigue by Margret Tregilgas and  1 year of stitches 2017 by Leona Jennings were the 2nd and 3rd placegetters.  There were also presentations to Patti McCandless and Helen Basch for their tireless work on the exhibition.  Our grateful thanks to Councillor Hermann Vorster for sponsoring three Volunteer awards and the People Choice Award.

A fantastic turnout of Wild Women and friends for our October meeting.  Three guests, Linda, Lyn and Rhonda joined us for a morning's stitching as Helen led us through making a set of  Crafty Coasters getting us ready for those pre-Christmas festivities!!! Then for show & tell, Margret left us all in awe (and a fair bit of envy) with her wonderful, quirky sewing box.

A huge thank you from all the participating artists to the 700+ people who visited our Wild Women Textile Journeys exhibition over the past two weeks.  Your enthusiastic and very generous feedback is a fantastic inspiration for the group.  We hope to see some of you soon at our meetings, or to keep in touch with you via our social media sites - here or on Facebook or Instagram .

Click here for more information.

There is something for everyone at our Wild Women Textile Journeys exhibition. Closes Sunday ... don’t miss out!

Back in November 2016 we had were extremely fortunate to have a workshop with the divine Svenja, who showed us how to turn our " precious fragments " of lace, beaded fabrics and special momentos into the most beautiful felted capelets. Three of ourt artists: Mitzi, Helen and Eileen were inspired to create these beautiful works which feature in our Wild Women Textile Journeys exhibtion . The exhibition is on until September 23 at Robina Community Art Gallery, 196 Robina Town Centre Drive.

One of Carolyn’s lovely fabric books.

There was quite a buzz going at Robina Community Art Gallery last night for the opening of our Wild Women Textile Journeys exhibition. A huge thank you to Sue Dennis for opening the exhibition and to Councillor Hermann Vorster for sponsoring three Volunteer awards and the People Choice Award. L to R: Sue Dennis, Helen Basch, Cr Hermann Vorster, Leona Jennings and Carolyn Collins. The exhibition runs from 12 to 23 September 2018.

Last, but by no means least, in our Meet the artists series is the amazing Margret.  So talented in so many areas, her grasp of technique and composition is second to none.  She is exceedingly generous and very supportive of all our efforts. Oh ... and she likes a bit of colour and bling!

Following closely behind her incredible textile talents, Linda's culinary contributions to our meetings are eagerly awaited! Her generosity and patience in passing on her amazing skills are much appreciated!

Native animals appear in many of Christine's textile pieces, whether as knitted creatures or on quilts or clothing! Her vibrant colours and flowing designs enhance all her magical creations!

Colour and texture abound aplenty in the wonderfully tactile works of our tenth artist, Pat. From gloriously rich felted pieces embellished with joyful stitching to eco dyed pieces, Pat is an inspiration. Her enthusiasm for all things original is infectious.

Always keen to experiment and play, Leona's creations are sure to dazzle and delight, be it felting, silk printing, freeform stitching, silk paper making. Her enthusiasm for all things textile knows no bounds. She generously shares her expertise and time, conducting  workshops for both Wild Women and the community.

With her infectious sunny nature, and her boundless enthusiasm for everything we do, our eighth artist Hilary is a delightful addition to the Wild Women.  Her creative talents span a broad range and she always brings a very personal element into her work, which makes it very special and very moving. She also has a penchant for hats and is always happy to model any of our creations  - in this case, one of Maggie's!

Our next artist, Heather, designs the most exquisite quilts - one of which appears in our forthcoming exhibition Wild Women Textile Journeys . With a long history in tutoring sewing and patchwork, Heather has published an article in Australian Patchwork & Quilting  Vol. 28 No.1 giving instructions on how the quilt was constructed.  Sadly, the magazine has now ceased publication - but copies are held the City of Gold Coast libraries, which you can find here . I am interested in creating beautiful and/or useful objects from items that other people might cast aside; transforming the unwanted to loved. - Heather

Our sixth artist, our WWTAG coordinator Helen, is passionate, enthusiastic and loves to play.

Whether it be machine embroidery, felting, painting, knitting, crochet or weaving, our fifth artist, Mitzi approaches it all with a frenetic energy that leaves us breathless.  Her work is bold, flamboyant and pulsing with colour.

It is hard not to smile when you see the quirky and joyous work of our fourth artist, Carolyn.  But look closer and you see layers of complexity, of technique and meaning.

With 2 weeks to go before the opening of the Wild Women Textile Journeys exhibition, who better to feature than the lovely Lilyan. “My serious textile journey started in Germany on a rainy day with silk painting lessons at the community college with an inspiring tutor ...” - Lilyan Many of us can say the same thing about Lilyan, who so generously shares her skills and experience with us on a regular basis - and we are so very grateful!

Our second artist, Eileen is the epitome of elegance, both in syle and in her meticulous creations.  She also has a totally infectious grin!

In the leadup to our Wild Women Textile Journeys exhibition in September we will be featuring the past and present work of our contributing artists here, and on the WWTAG Facebook and Instagram pages.   The posts will be different on all three sites - so visit all three to see the amazing diversity of work each of these ladies produce. Our first artist is the incomparable, irrepressible Patti. "I love arts, love crafts, a week without being able to create at least something along these lines is a ‘lost’ week for me." - Patti

We had lots of fun creating some funky luggage tags at our community workshop this morning! A huge thank you to all who participated - we now have a fabulous collection of tags to use in our community art work for our Wild Women Textile Journeys exhibition  September 12 to 23 2018 at Robina Community Art Gallery.  Hope to see you there! Some of the fabulous tags created today

Getting the kit together for our community workshop next Saturday. We are being creative with luggage tags!    Our wacky, quirky, colourful tags will be used to form a collaborative art piece in the Wild Women Textile Journeys exhibition at the Robina Community Art Gallery In September. So if you are in the mood for some light hearted, relaxing fun join us at 11th Avenue Creative, Palm Beach Library from 9.00 to 10.30 am, Saturday 18 August 2018.

Wild Women got hands-on with silk paper making at our meeting yesterday. Leona led the workshop, generously sharing her knowledge and skills. True to form the Wild Women delighted in creating a kaleidoscope of coloured silk papers. Check out all the action here .

A fantastic turnout for our second community workshop for the year - Crazy Cords - which was lead by Pat and Eileen. Colourful and funky yarns, twisting, braiding, wrapping, beads and bling - and in what seemed no time at all there was a fabulous array of cords on display. A huge thank you to everyone who joined in, and to Pat & Eileen for their expert guidance while making it all such fun!

On the weekend we were very excited to host the delightful Caroline Sharkey for her two day Freedom with Nature-Scapes workshop - and boy did she deliver!  We covered a lot of ground over the two days and it was a large group.  Despite this Caroline still had time to work with each of us to show a technique, or guide us through composition and palette.  There was a great atmosphere of camaraderie and encouragement - and of course we had a lot of fun! The result - fabric collage at it's best using scraps to create fabrics, layering contrasting fabrics and translucents, yarns, embellishments and stitching to create texture and movement - with colour pulsing throughout.   Everything to appeal to a wild woman!  To see more from the weekend click here or on any of the images. A huge thank you to Caroline and the friends who joined us from near and not too far, to make it such a fabulous experience.

Looking for some inspiration or outlets for your creativity?  There is a lot happening about the Coast and surrounds over the new few weeks - including some exhibitions featuring our Wild Women: Rita has two tapestry pieces on display - one of which won 1st prize in the 2D artwork category.  You can see them this Sunday at the Sculptor's Society ART OF GOLD 2018 exhibition at the Old Schoolhouse Gallery, Cnr Ashmore Rd & Carrara Street Benowa.  Sunday 29 April 9am - 2pm.   The Open Studios of the Scenic Rim are on during each weekend in May and the first weekend in June.  Linda and our TMAC friends will be part of the Tamborine Mountain trail on 5-6 May.  Venue is the The Georgian Room, St George's Anglican Church, 2 Dapsang Dr, Tamborine Mountain. Pat and Eileen will be running our next community workhop: Crazy Cords on 19 May at 11th Avenue Creative, Palm Beach Library. 9am - 10.30 am. For more information on these or some of the other events happening during

Great photos that capture the day so well, big thanks Leona and to all who contributed - lovely work! Congratulations Heather on your beautiful quilts that have been accepted for publication. Love the colours in both.

After the hustle and bustle of Easter and the Commonwealth Games, it was a relief to have time to relax with a Sew & Chat day for our April meeting. The distractions of the last few weeks certainly hadn't stopped the creativity of our Wild Women!  Heather brought in two of her exquisite quilts... Mitzi's fabric journal pages and flow paintings were an explosion of vivid colour, while Patti's experiments with crepe paper dyeing on commercial felt were a pastel dream... Hilary, Helen, and Heather brought in their shibori samples from the Indigo dyeing workshop at Kirra Hill, while Lilyan had been experimenting with fibre reactive dyes and stitching.  Such diversity of shibori techniques on show!  The results were stunning.

When you're next at 11th Avenue Creative Palm Beach, check out the display cabinets in the library lounge. Wild Women Textile Arts Group have added a splash of colour and texture in 2 of the glass cabinets. This is our first use of the cabinets. Given the productive creativity of Wild Women, I'm sure there are any more displays to come. The 3 Divas keeping watch Eco dyeing, felt and postcards nestled A big thank you to Amelia, the very helpful and enthusiastic librarian, who encouraged our use of the spaces.