Hello,

When I was out today I saw lots of flags flying in Honor of Flag Day today.   The WWII vet from down the street all ways has  his flag out , but there were others on the street joining his.   It is so clear and beautiful that they all look wonderful.   I have lots of memories of flags.   Of course I said the pledge every day at school and the same all the years that I taught.  When I was a crossing grad in sixth grade we where also charged with putting the flag up every morning and taking it down carefully and folding it up at the end of our duties.   I remember making a norther  civil war flag with Mom out of a pillow case that I dutifully colored.  She then pressed it to make the colors permanent- my first coloring fabric experience.  It was carried in the 4th of July parade when we celebrated the Civil War centennial.  Many of the kids in town marched in a double line wearing  cards around there necks with the names of soldiers from Grandview who went to that war.  I do not recall who got to wear Great Grandfather’s name, but I got to march as the one nurse that volunteered.  That flag got pinned to the ceiling in the play house and stayed there for years.   The only other time I remember making flags was for the play Annie Get your gun at school and thous flags were the colorful triangle ones you see at fairs and around car lots.   My friend Susan is always making prayer flags and they do look festive in her garden all summer long.   My thoughts do not seem very patriotic- but I do love that wonderful flag called the Stars and Strips- may she always fly over this wondrous land.

I had a busy week as far as quilt events are concerned.  Sally celebrated her birthday by renting the fire hall in Varna and invited us to come and spend the day with her playing on any project we wanted. It was great fun.    There were about a dozen of us and all sorts of work was going on. Sally is wearing the apron in this photo.   Sandy was working on copper wire jewelry.  She bent and pound away all day long and created one fine piece. 
This shot shows all the pieces.  The one she worked on is the rectangle one  in the center.   I think she is having fun exploring this new technique.

 

 

 

Carol spent the day working on a jacket. She was creating Seminole Piecing strips to insert into the work in this shot.   Cherri worked on a paper quilt all day long.   This photo is of her with the quilt under the machine.   I really like her irregular edges.  Because it is paper there is lots of strength and the shape does not fold or droop.   I think I will try an irregular shape some time myself do to her inspiration.

By the end of that day she had created  a paper dragonfly to apply to the top of her work.  It is in the center of the quilt.  This shot shows her making notes and the work with some black  she was auditioning behind the openings.  Several of us worked wet.   Ruth did the oldest Chines form of marbling. ( I am not even going to try to repeat the name as I know I can not spell it)   She was trying to create an image for the Breast Cancer quilt  she showed last Tue at the Diva meeting.I did rubbings that I then silk screened over them  in the morning.  Then in the afternoon I stenciled over the images  for a third layer.

  This shot is only a few of the fabrics I worked on.   I got all excited by the name stencil and cut two more letter based ones this week.  One is my name again and the other is the word JOY.    This shot is a close up of the fabric that got me started on the new stencils. I have not used the new ones yet but plan to do so soon.    I think we all had a good time and went home happy and excited by the day.  It was a fine way to celebrate Sally Birthday and an inspiration to all of us.

Progress Report:  Slipping Through     I am making progress on this work although it does seem slow to me at times.  I have stared quilting around the openings that are completed.   There is only one more to be placed, faced, cut and flipped.  When that is done then I can spend the whole hour on quilting.  The quilting pattern is reflective of the wholes with little rectangular sections added for interest.

 

 

New Top- now titled Circling Events–   This quilt was only a top last week and I am now adding the facings so I did not take a full shot of it.  Deciding to add metal disks and beads gave the surface little centers of interest.  Then I featured those further with quilting patterns. I really like the colors of the fabrics in  this work.

Dandelions     Work on this quilt too ready  for the facing stage, so again I am showing just a detail.  I put a little glass bead at the end of each arm of the seeding units on this top.  They add a little sparkle as well as finish to the stitch lines.  The rest of the top is reflective quilting. one can really see the beads in this close up.

 

 

Paper Quilt   Cheri’s work on Sat really inspired me to get going on my paper quilt.  I already had a bit of a vision about where I wanted this one to go so it is still a rectangle.  Now the edges are all zig-zagged and I am ready to play with how to add the back and paper parts on top.  On the left is extra material that I can use for more top shapes.    I have not decided what color to use behind this work  either.

 

 

 

 

Lace Play   I did a bit of playing yesterday and started two new pieces.  This fist one is highly textured because I started with a panel of fabric and just added lace to the surface.  After I had done a bit of that I added a few of those fancy stitches that many  new machines have, but I do not use.  They have added extra  texture to the surface so they seem like a good idea.  I did the yellow block fist and then though I wanted more contrast to show all the work I was doing.
This is a close up showing two of the stitches a triangle and a spiked curved stitch. The stitches really show on the  the black.   I also added ribbon to the surface.   I plan to cut the blocks into smaller units when I am done creating several more.

 

 

 

Fuchsia Fabric Fun

   I also did a bit of curved piecing with the  fuchsia fabrics.  I cut some long pieces and they layered one piece on top of a second.  Then I cut a curved line with my rotary cutter from the top to the bottom of the stack.   First I took the wright hand piece from the top and stitched it to the left hand piece from the bottom of the stack.  Because the two pieces were cut at the same time they fit together perfectly.  The next step was to stitch the two remaining pieces together.   I then changed the fabrics and repeated the process adding two more to the edge of the first two.  This  photo shows two pieces of fabric with  four cut united with one another.   Then I tried slicing horizontally with smaller blocks.     I am not at all sure where this will lead- but I am enjoying the process.
Blue Blocks   Lastly here are two more hand worked blocks for this week.

I am having fun with my summer and enjoying the creative process .  I hope you can say the same for your self.

Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

PS.  Please check out the newest issue of “Cloth Paper Scissors” as my friends Susan and Carolyn are  featured  in the article On-the-Road Art Experiments. Page 56.