Hello,

This is the fourth and final entry of the “Noting Natural Changes” assignment.  I am amazed at how much the leaves have come out on all the trees this week .  This branch is so full now that I hardly recognize it from the first one I drew on the 18 of April.   There are even blooms of the lilac on the higher branches of this bush now.  I love the fast daily changes that are every were.     When I showed my “Before the Bud” quilt at the QEG’s meeting on Tuesday  and   I explained that I had started it because I was starved for leaves on the trees- I  got a bit of a chuckle.  How soon we forget.

 

The lecture and gallery guided tour of the Kendell Show was Tuesday too.  It looks great.

The pale  quilt on the left is all hand dyed silk and it is by Liese.  The center one  is beautifully pieced and quilted by Ruth White.  The colors really make the eye dance.     I look at this show and feel delighted by the wide variety of styles and techniques that the other artists in the group display.   There is so much talent !

This work is called Hand Made and it is by Mary Diamond a very good quilting teacher.   I really like all the tones and shades of color she used in this work.

This shot shows the work of three different quilters, Sally, Sharon and Cheri are represented here.  Sally’s work ( far left) is a paper, fabric  and paint quilt.   Sharon’s work( middle) has raw edges on both sides of all of those vertical cuts.   She makes her tops cuts through and washes them before she  assembles the quilt.  The two leaf works ( far right) were items that Cheri felt were unsuccessful until she cut freezer paper leaves and ironed them to the surface.  She then added more paint over the whole thing.  When she removed the freezer paper units she was happy with the work.  There are so many varying ideas and techniques in this group it is almost too much some times.

Progress Report:  Thoth    I am still struggling with this work.  I can not seem to get a layout pinned to the wall that works for me so I can even put two pieces together.   I tried creating a new image of Thoth- and that does not seems to solve the problem either.The attempt in gold may give the image more a feel of “god “- but I think it may be too pale on the fabric……   I  have covered it with white paper and moved on to other things and hope my sub conscious will keep working away on this and the solution will come to me.

 

Nebula – 1 Mean while I seem to be fascinated by Nebula of late.  I have found lots of new images of the heavens in Pintrest and so many are wonderful Nebula that I just had to try to create some of my own.  The back ground fabric is hand dyed material that I purchased at QBL.   I felted green and gold wool on top to create the feel of the nebula.  I will now go back into the surface with stitches and beads to fill it out and add more definition to the work.

Nebula 2  Being true to the way I work and having such a good time with the felting machine I started a second one as well.    There was lots of warping of the fabric with the green nebula so I also tried felting the wool into some red paper like material that came wrapped around  my valentine flowers.  The felting part worked, but the red “paper”  melted when I tried to iron it and that created a problem.  After cleaning the iron and the non stick matt that I had wisely put on top before ironing- I put the whole thing on gray felt and ironed it down.  I think the red “paper”  made the nebula too sold and so I am going to felt more darks on top to make it feel more open.  I also got a little carried away with the yarn on this second work so I plan to tone it down as well.   The love the layering of the process as I feel I can always add to the surface.

Notebooks      I use three ringed binders to keep my stamps and stencils organized. Pictured here are two three ring notebooks with quilted covers.  In the front and under the notebooks are stencil and stamped fabrics that did not become parts of quilts, but are destine to become the next notebook cover.  These two books are full and I am ready to create a new one so I pulled some altered fabrics and put them together.  I keep the works inside the note books in the plastic page protectors that one can purchase at office supply stores. I did this to keep the like things together.  I was surprised at how the gals in my stencil workshops over the last few weeks have responded.  They thought this idea was a good one so I am passing it along.   Making a soft cover out of leftovers is just my way of using things up.

I hope spring is adding life to your step and all is good in your world.

 

Keep Creating

Carol