Wild Women Textile Arts Group

Our monthly challenges are a fun way to get refocused and are a fabulous source of camaraderie and inspiration.  For December we are making Christmas decorations.   They can be ornaments for your tree, table, front door or person. Whatever you like as long as you made them! You don't need to be a member or attend our meetings to participate in our challenges.  We post photos of our creations on Instagram - for this challenge we will be using the hashtag #wwtagxmasdecorations . If Christmas decorations aren't your thing check out our Challenges and Projects page for other ideas to kick start that creative muse.

We decided to have some fun with colour for our November meeting. So we got out the calico and our acrylic paints and went crazy. It great fun to be working collaboratively and we have all a piece to play with over the next few weeks!

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of hosting some of our smArtArts friends from Redlands.  It was a fabulous day sharing ideas and we had some fun making silk paper.  Needless to say the work on show was inspirational!  Click here to see all the photos from the day.

Once again, Wild Women put on a splendid Show n Tell at our meeting yesterday. Grab a cuppa and enjoy! This is a long post. Mitzi rose to the Fire & Ice challenge with her striking painted canvas; produced another 2 scrappy bags; shared a much loved stitchery as her response to the Words challenge AND crocheted a glorious rug. She has been busy! Fire and Ice Scrappy bags Words Stitchery Mitzi and her crocheted rug Margret delighted with her beautifully stitched scrappy bag and Stitch a Story hanging. Her felted fire flower is awaiting ice. Margret's Scrappy bag   Margret's Stitch a Story Fire flower- Margret   Helen inspired us all with the beginnings of her self portrait and a sunflower artwork. Impressive! Maggie has also launched into the self portrait challenge - painting on fabric with thread sketching to follow. She added a whimsical dotted canvas to the line-up. Busy hands have produced another delightful crocheted bag for

While we often get blown away by the array of technical skill our textile artists demonstrate in their work, and the creativity on show, it is the stories behind the works that make them so special ... and our August meeting didn't disappoint! There were the tales of fire and ice: Rhonda's chilli oven mitt and chilli & iceberg lettuce bag; Carolyn's Sami drum symbol piece; Hilary's fiddle quilts Carolyn's #wwtagfireandice challenge piece of Sami drum symbols embroidered on white felt was inspired by the evocative BBC4 YouTube video " All aboard.  The sleigh ride ".  Hilary used the red, blue and white fire and ice colour pallette to create two very special fiddle quilts .  These highly visual, tactile small quilts are designed to sooth and stimulate people living with dementia.  Rhonda's interpretation of the theme combined hot and cold elements - chillis and iceberg lettuce prints! Christine's offering for the #wwtagwords challeng

With the frantic pace of the last few weeks it was nice to be able to sit back and relax with friends at our July Sew and Chat . There was so much on show it is impossible to include it all in one blog post ... but to give you a taste Carolyn's Autumn Floats page; Wendy's fabric art journal; Mutzi's scrappy bag; Helen's rose petal embedded tissue paper There were the stunning finished pieces from our recent Scrappy Bags and Painted Tissue Paper workshops with Ro Bruhn.  There were creations inpired by our June/July Words and April/May Sunflowers challenges. Maggie's crocheted bag; Linda's wildcat print felt wrap; Rhonda's felted sample; Eileen's nuno felt scarf; Leona's tiled felt scarf There was crochet, felt, embroidery, papercraft, fabric art journals and more - click here and on the workshop and challenge liks above to see all the photos from the day.

11th Avenue Creative @ Palm Beach Library was buzzing on Saturday as Gold Coast Libraries hosted a Handmade Marketplace.  The Wild Women were out in force!  Carolyn, Heather and Margret were representing the Paper, Patchwork and Felting rooms which they run each month.  Leona, Lilyan, Hilary & Eileen were busy on the WWTAG stall. It was a fabulous way to spend the morning with so much talent on show.

The Wild Women took some time out from our regular monthly meeting schedule to host two one-day workshops with the inspirational Ro Bruhn ... and what a fantastic weekend it was! Saturday saw the sewing machines humming which we all fashioned furnishing fabrics and other interesting bits and pieces into Scrappy Bags. Sunday's Painted Tissue workshop saw a change of pace as we painted, stamped, stencilled and embedded objects into tissue paper - battling with the elements to get it all dry in time.  Both workshops were excellent and Ro is always a delight.  For information about her workshops and to see some of her amazing pieces check out her Facebook , Instagram and Blog pages.  We will showcase the finished pieces from the workshops over the next few weeks.

So much creativity on show at our May Sew & Chat meeting last Saturday.  Everybody was beavering away ... whether it was our latest  #wwtagsunflowers challenge pieces in support of the Gold Coast Libraries Seeds of Change project ... finishing off our long overdue Ro Bruhn inspired art fabric journals ... or working on our latest individual projects.  Everyone was focussed, industrious and willing to share advice or support. And then there was the outstanding work on on display for Show and Tell:   Pat's Ro Bruhn inspired art journal Weaving from Carolyn and Margret Mitzi's amazing dolls, Lilyan's painted silk and Hilary's jewellery Pat's experimental art journals

Our Wild Women have been inspired by Gold Coast Libraries ' Seeds for Change ' program in support of people affected by domestic and family violence. We are using sunflowers as our challenge theme through April and May and posting our photos on Facebook and Instagram using the  # wwtagsunflowers  and #GCseedsofchange hashtags.To find out more about the program visit  http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/…/calendar-of-events-11041.…

While we love getting together for our member led activities and tutor led workshops, there is something so special about just getting together for a casual Sew & Chat.  It is a great opportunity to work on those unfinished projects, share knowledge, be inspired or just relax with some social stitching. We had some fabulous pieces on show - Eileen had been felting up a storm and Leona brought in her finished project piece from Katia Mokeyeva's Structural and textural methods for fiber artists  online course. Margret had been covering tins and containers, Linda was working on a fabulous quilt and Wendy brought in her beautiful collection of dolls. Carolyn had been been making some fabulous bags and had finished her "Miss February" TAST panel.  Mitzi had crocheted a lovely blanket for her granddaughter and Maggie completed her Purple/Lace challege piece.

It is such a pleasure to see the wonderful work that is being inspired by our monthly challenges … speaking for myself, as soon as the new challenge is announced my mind starts  thinking of all sorts of possibilities.  At each meeting I’m blown away by the diversity and creativity on display.   Special mention this month has to go to the delightful Hilary, who has taken her challenge pieces to a whole new level.  First she took one of her Paint and Play pieces and turned it into a fabulous tote bag.  She turned more of her beautiful fabric paintings into padded postcards.  Her whimsical fabric collages and paintings for the Purple / Lace challenge have been used to weave the tale of Lady Purple of Jacaranda Avenue .  As for Covered Objects , I doubt that any of us will forget the story of her turkey box evening bag! Superb effort Hilary – you are an inspiration to us all!

What a fun meeting we had at 11th Avenue Creative on Saturday.  A huge thank you to Eileen, who introduced us to the joys of making paper and fabric beads ... I think it is safe to say we are all well and truly hooked! Our challenge for March is Covered Objects and there were a lot of fabulous examples on show - we will be posting photos of these on Instagram using the hashtag #wwtagcoveredobjects - feel free to join in and contribute at any time. Show & Tell was a smorgasboard of delights ... our Wild Women had been stitching, knitting, felting, dyeing, making fabrics from scraps ... and of course covering everything from polystyerene balls, to books, postcards, cardboard boxes to teapots.  Here are just a few - you can view all the photos from the day by clicking here . Fashionistas - Maggie's hat & brooches, Linda & Leona's felted fashion ... with modelling assistance from Helen Literary delights - Linda & Margret's bookcov

Is there any better way to while away a few hours than relaxing with a group of friends, chatting and being creative?  Our Wild Women were hard at work on their Purple / Lace challenge pieces but had still managed to complete a wonderful range of work for our February Show & Tell . Linda brought in this fabulous Dragonfly Dreaming quilt, pattern design by JoAnn Hoffman Quilting Designs. Carolyn, Pat and Eileen showed off some fabulous fabric book pages ... while Judith had created a fabulous free form collar at a recent Prudence Mapstone workshop.  We has some of Eileen's lovely lace postcards, and Pat had been experimenting with pounded flower prints. Pat also had this gorgeous felt art quilt on display.