July 30th – World Embroidery Day

July 30th is World Embroidery Day.

Find a way to celebrate !

Manifesto for World Embroidery Day 30th of July

Textile reflects our world; embroideries can show the expressions of our time. Embroidery and textiles can focus on the social injustices between countries.

By the means of embroidery we can draw attention to the necessity of engaging in the force of textile in global trade and with it in world peace. Textiles is a power and let us use embroidery as an inspiration for people to engage in creativity that leads to a better understanding between countries and between people.

To embroider is a peaceful occupation. It can be traditional made from a common remembrance, drawn designs, from a pattern, or from your own imagination. You em- broider for joy, beauty, decoration and for the creation of identity.

Stitches can be decorative, beautiful, comforting, repeating, healing, telling, plea- surable, rebellious, caressing and perfect.

People embroider out of joy, as a hobby, professionally, for the bare necessities of life and as an act of freedom. You embroider together with others or in meditative soli- tude.

We want to acknowledge embroidery as an act of free creativity, which can lead to free, creative thoughts and ideas. We want to tie our embroidery threads from the privi- leged northern hemisphere together with stiches that are sewn by embroidering sisters and brothers all over the world.

We want to be part of a joyfully creative peace movement.

The initiative came from Skåne Sy-d, a local group of Broderiakademin, the Swedish Embroiderer’s Guild. The rst World Embroidery Day took place in Vismarlöv, 30th July 2011. The importance of embroidery must be made known and World Embroidery Day will spread around the world. Make 30th July a day lled with creativity for the sake of Peace, Freedom and Equality.

www.broderiakademin.nu

 

Stitching in Paradise !

Eleven SOFAAR members and one guest came out to work on projects together last evening in the delightful Paradise Hall.

We all had a chance to get a couple of hours work done on all our projects and also enjoy some delicious blondies baked by Coryna !

We had knitting, hooking, quilting, edging, felting and cross-stitching all going on at once and it was, as it always is, interesting to see what everyone is up to.

We hope to see some more of you at our next evening event.

Many thanks to Coryna for preparing coffee, tea and sweets and to everyone who came out – from as far as Weymouth and Digby.

Cross-stitch, edging, quilting and knitting.
Cross-stitch, edging, quilting and knitting.
Ray says he still has a year and half to go on his five year cross stitch !
Ray says he still has a year and half to go on his five year cross stitch !
Audrey has a Maude Lewis piece on the go.
Audrey has a Maude Lewis piece on the go.
A beautiful felted bird by Brenda.
A beautiful felted bird by Brenda.
Cross-stitched horses.
Cross-stitched horses.
Kay knitting away.
Kay knitting away.
Christine getting the background worked.
Christine getting the background worked.

Fibre fun evening in Paradise: July 19th 6 to 9 pm

Come join us for a fun and relaxing fibre evening at the Paradise Hall on July 19th between 6 and 9 pm.

 

Drop in anytime in the evening!

All members are welcome to come and bring the project they are working on and enjoy a social evening. There will be tea and coffee and sweets and lots of people to share ideas with and to show and tell your latest work whatever fibre it may be!

The Paradise Hall is located at 10300 Highway One in Paradise.

Celebrating a love of stitching!
Celebrating a love of stitching!

 

Felting workshop with Leslie MacFarlane: June 24th

If you loved Leslie’s felting demonstration at the Come Play with Us event, you will want to be part of this upcoming workshop on June 24th.

Space is limited, so reserve your spot today!

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Nunofelt Wall Décor with Shibori Technique

Come join us and learn the art of nunofelting. In this workshop, we will create a nunofelt piece and then learn to incorporate the shibori technique to add more texture and interest. We will also cover adding beads for embellishment. Once completed, we will prepare the piece for framing. The finished piece will be ready to mount in an 11” x 14” frame (not included). Feel free to bring along any small embellishments that you may like to incorporate. The materials provided will be in the same colour scheme as the sample. You will need to bring an old towel, small bucket and a pair of small scissors for cutting thread. Open to all skill levels.

Saturday June 24th from 10-4
Granville Ferry Hall – 5352 Granville Rd Bring along a lunch.

Cost: $75 for SOFAAR members – $85 for non-members Maximum number: 10

Please email Heather Garner at hgarner2999@gmail.com or call evenings or weekends 902-638-8879 to arrange payment and secure your spot.

Leslie demonstrating wet felting
Leslie demonstrating wet felting

 

June members’ exhibit

Coming right up in conjunction with Annapolis Royal’s First Friday events, is our 2nd annual Fabulous Fibre Show and Tell.

Many of the 90 SOFAAR members will be displaying their fibre creations at the Saint Luke Parish Hall in Annapolis Royal on Friday evening June 2nd between 6 and 9 pm and again on Saturday from 10 to 3 pm.

We hope you will all come out and see what wonderful work is being done.

Admission is free!

SOFAAR.June2017.poster copy

“Come Play with Us” a great success

With over 225 people coming through the door of the Firehall on Saturday, April 23rd, “Come Play with Us” was a great success for everyone. 23 demonstrators (members and non-members of SOFAAR) spent the day talking and demonstrating about their favourite fibre art. We had everything from knitting (including spool-knitting) and crochet to quilting, needlepoint and surface embroidery, Swedish weaving, needlefelting, spinning, basket making and hooking.

We were delighted to see so many families come out and spend several hours trying all kinds of techniques. The children were fascinated by the hooking and wet felting. Many visitors were intrigued by Swedish weaving and the spinning. We even had a “sew on a button” station which young and old both had a go at!

SOFAAR would like to thank “Awesome Annapolis” for their $1,000 grant which enabled us to promote this event.

We look forward to seeing you all at our members’s exhibit on June 2nd and 3rd at the Saint-Luke’s Parish Hall in Annapolis Royal.

 

Learning to quilt
Learning to quilt
Learning to hook
Learning to hook
Leslie demonstrating wet felting
Leslie demonstrating wet felting

Come Play with Us!

SOFAAR is hosting an open door, hands-on public fibre exploration event at the Annapolis Royal Fire Hall on Saturday, April 22nd from 10 to 4 pm.

We encourage all SOFAAR members and the general public to come out and explore the fibre arts.

There will be crafters of all sorts working away and demonstrating their love of all things fibre.

We will have: quilting, hooking, felting, needlepoint, cross-stitch, embroidery, knitting, crochet, basket-masking and much more!

You will be able to touch and try your hand at different techniques.

Everyone is welcome! Hope to see you there.

SOFAAR Come Play With Us_April 22_Colour

 

SOFAAR Retreat: only one room left !

We are thrilled that the SOFAAR retreat planned for the last weekend in September is just one room short of happening. We have no doubt this last room will soon be booked.

Once we know how many “stitchers” will be in the rooms, we will open the event up to day-stitchers. We have room for 35 stitchers so we will keep you posted.

Thanks for all your enthusiasm.

It’s going to be a great event.

 

Fibre Arts Retreat this fall. Book now!

We are very excited about our Fibre Arts Retreat weekend  planned for this fall at the Historic Queen Anne Inn in Annapolis Royal. The weekend is September 29th to October 1st, 2017

Historic Queen Anne Inn
Historic Queen Anne Inn

We have organized a full weekend with time for working on your projects as well as exploring and learning about the birthplace of Canada.

Included in the weekend is a private guided tour of the Fort Anne Historic Tapestry and a reception at the art gallery for a private viewing of the SOFAAR “O Canada” exhibit. There will be a lovely, catered dinner at the Inn on the Saturday night.

There are 12 rooms only available at the Queen Anne and FIVE of them have already been booked!

We need to fill the Queen Anne by April 15th for the event to go ahead so if you are thinking about coming, we would love to hear from you.

While in Town, you can visit the Historic Gardens, take the famous Graveyard Tour, play a round of golf, stroll the walking trails and immerse yourselves in the history of our region founded in 1605.

We hope you will think about spending a glorious, relaxing weekend with us.

Here is a link to the .pdf file with all the information you need to know about this fibre weekend get-away.

SOFAARFallFibreRetreat.2017

 

AGM and stash sale a huge success!

Thanks to everyone who braved the bitterly cold winter day to come out to our second annual AGM and our first Fibre stash sale and give-away.

The afternoon was a great success and we thank everyone who participated and helped out.

SOFAAR now boasts 78 members and a new executive (details to follow).

Next event will be our Come Play with Us – fibre open house at the Firehall in Annapolis Royal on April 22nd. Stay tuned for details.

Shoppers at the stash sale and give-away. March 11th, 2017
Shoppers at the stash sale and give-away. March 11th, 2017