Hello,

I so enjoy fall, not just the color- and this year it it wonderful, but one of the best things is the sound of walking through the fallen leaves.   The crunch, the swish, the crackel, all those sounds and the earthy smell  always seems to bring me warm  feeling of golden days and slowing down.   A heightened feel of awareness of the wonder of the world we live in. I love it.

These beautiful flowers are a gift from my friend Noel.  They sure bring the colors and feel of the season into my dinning room.

This was meeting week for me.  Tuesday QuEG’s  meant  at noon.   Everyone had lots to share.  This shot is of some electron microscope images that Linda thinks she may use as starting  points for  some work.  All of these are various liquors.

Liz is just home from a two week trip to Ohio to Nancy Crow’s barn and a workshop in using Graffiti and Lettering.   She had a pile of altered fabrics that she has created that will  keep her busy working all winter on just this topic.  This one is called  “Art Boys”.  It sounds like she had fun. 

Barb continues to work on her crazy quilts.  I really like the Victorian feel this one has.  She will have some great family remembrances when she is done and what a great way to collect and display the little bits one seems to collect from family members- like pins and such.

 

Angela is busy dying again.  I love how she uses her abilities to get such wonderful work.   This work has several layers of dye on it.  These scarves are for the hostesses who are doing a baby shower for her grandson later this fall.  She is so wonderfully generous with her work.

Sally is back at her embroidery machine creating wonderful cards for Christmas and fun family gifts.   This strawberry is her own design and a family gift.  She always give the kids $  presented in a unique way.  This year the cash is wrapped inside the  layers of the toilet paper inside the berry.  She also went so far as to machine embroider the family’s name on the first sheet of each roll.   Too much!

Sue Ellen and Corrine  are both  doing finish up work.   Something about fall I think, we want to tidy up a bit before the confinement of winter.  Corrine  had three wedge cut baby quilts that she was finishing.

Sue Ellen had three distinct, but traditional quilts she had finished and this wonderfully fun Sea Horse piece she created.  Each panel in the horse body is a different print and they are all connected with metallic  cord that has been zig zaged in place.

 

Then I went off to the Diva meeting.    Cheri and several others of us had spent a few days felting last month.  Using materials she produced at that time, Cheri has finished a felted vest for her grand daughter.   She used one of her  jelly roll slices to create a pin too- its on the right. What fun!

 

Marty went along with me to the meetings and she showed one of her wonderful  Nebula quilts.  Everyone is amazed, myself included, in all the bead work and her tiny button whole  stitching.   She told us she used over 400 beads on one of the nebula pieces.    I enjoy how she uses hand dyed fabrics too.   wonderful images.

 Liesa is working on her Map quilt.  All the trees and buildings are in place now.   She says there will be more quilts like this one of different locations.

 

Anne had lots of work to show- four pieces I think.  She is getting ready for the Ithaca Art Trail that happens this weekend and next.  I like this little whimsical piece the most.  So much freedom and action here.

 

 

 

Noel had a wonderful little work that again displayed her techinque.  She makes all the blocks and then can try  out several arrangements before she puts them together.  I like this layout  myself.

Susan is getting ready to fly south for the winter.  She sold one of her unique little birds that she showed us at the last meeting.      Because she  wanted to commemorate that  event she did these four little paintings of the birds saying good bye.  They sure project the  happy smiling feeling that Susan always brings to every situation.

 

Then there was a FAB meeting yesterday morning.  Nancy is making great progress on her Flower Bed  quilt.  She uses big prints and strong colors so very well.  This is about one fourth of the top.   I can hardly wait to see the full effect.

Patti is doing beading.  I love this wonderfully designed small bead- it is only about one fourth inch long( that is the grid of a cutting matt it is  setting on)  This is the first for a bracelet that will have at least eight unique beads similar to this one .

 

Progress Report: Chrysanthemum  I am very happy with this work.  I used lots of the wonderful silk that I had pruchased from Ginny – most of the reds and purples are her fabrics- and I used the fabrics I had printed on as well.     I am  still playing with the off square cutting and piecing with this work.  It creates challenges when one is quilting and putting sections together, but I  am enjoying the process.

I had a good time with the  free motion quilting on this work as too.  I started with the center most blossom and sort of followed the shapes and forms of the flower to unite the layers of the work.  This photos shows how I extended  the quilt lines out to finish the petals were need be too.  I did total free designing of the flowers in various sizes to fill in all the spaces that remained.   I enjoyed this project, but I will admit that I will back my silks with interfacing the next time I use them so I do not get quite so much uncontrolled  movement of the seam lines.

Golden Weeds   This quilt is having a second life- a sort  of face lift.   I thought it was done three years ago- and it was OK- but when I was considering work for the Man In the Moon show and I had pulled it out- I thought this just is a good background.   Then it hung on the wall for a few weeks.   While on a walk, I was taken by the beauty of the Tessel weeds along the road side and  thought they were strong enough to stand on top of the old work.      First I machine drew in the heads and stems of the plants in a variegated thread.   Then I looked for a stronger unit to place on top of that work to make it appear as though some of the plants were even closer to the viewer.   I found this copper colored woven ribbon in my stash and felt it would do the job.  By adding folded satin ribbon for stems the job was complete.     The work is a lot stronger now and  I just added a second label to give info about the additions  and name change on the back.

Alpine Lake    I started playing with the idea of creating a landscape of a mountain setting with a lake. It is all created on  top of buckram- so it will not wrinkle up on me – in  what I am starting to think of as my college  style of construction.  I am not gluing anything down, but building from the sky forward with the image.   I attach all the parts with machine drawing that adds texture and detail to the work.   It is a process that I am enjoying.

New Work  blue     This is just a background- done this time on purpose- that I want to play on top of.  I have some vague ideas about where I am going, but I am still in the sketching stage.

 

New Work- wavy cuts   This top is the same as the  one above it. No plan other than to see if I could use wavy cuts in this piece.    This too is pure experiment.

I am having a good fall and enjoying walking in the leaves, keeping my eyes open for ideas and just soaking in the sun shine.

Keep your curiosity  alive.

Carol