Hello Friends,

Summer is really upon us, although it has been very rainy and cool here in the north east.  I can not believe that Summer Solstice  is tomorrow.  Time is flying before me.  I have been busy with events almost every day for the  last two weeks,  so time really moves in my point of view.

I started out with the hanging of my solo show at the Maxwell library.  There are 17 piece in that show titled “Earth Tones” , many have

never been seen before in public with a few works from the “Goddess” show as well.   The work spans over four years and it was a good chance for me to reflect on how much I like and use browns and golds.   This show also shows examples of the wide variety of techniques I use in my work. ” Know Now” for example has copper and leather added to the surface with some dish washer soap discharged work in the black areas of the top.   “Rusty Rings” on the other hand,  is a rust dyed silk with embroidery on it.

I also added dark fabric below the white silk to make “shadow” circles appear in the quilt.

“Collapse ” is from the Warped Work series and is one quilt on top of another with snaps to allow for a warped surface of the top quilt.  I did five works in this fashion to explore folds and shadows with my work.   I enjoyed this series, but no one seemed to understand what I was doing so I stopped working in this direction.  I may yet go back and do further exploration with this idea later.

“Mummy Cave Ruins” ( see last May 31 posting) along with  Ancient Voices and Rain Run were also a part of this show.  Putting up this show was fun, but it took me a long time to do the job.  I will be taking it down in a week.

 

The day after that was a Play Group event were we all played with stamping.    This picture is of cut eraser stamps that I taught.   The stamped image to the left shows how one can make a really big image by making one of your elements warp around the four sides of the eraser, so it flows together( the white line from all four images.)  This shot is of Linda’s exploration page from her eraser  cuttings.     Then I showed everyone how to use ” fun foam” to make stamps and apply the images to clear plastic so you can easily see were you are placing the stamp.   Liz made some fanciful shapes and she used a whole punch to add detail to her work as well.   Then Corinne demonstrated how to cut  on a circular form with linoleum cutters.   The shape does seem to effect the style and way one thinks about the images.    I cut two and stamped them both.   It was quit enjoyable.  I think I will use the  stamp, printed in blue here,  on my Fossil quilt as it resembles a Trilobite.

The next event in my life was a trip to  Rochester to the Genesee Vally Quilt Show.  There are 600 members in that quilt group and the show was very enjoyable.  While there  I participated in  my second Iron Quilter event.  There were 19 quilters and in 3 1/2 hours we all produced a quilt that was at least 24 inches on a side.  The topic, told to us at  the start, was  “Vanishing Act”.   We all rushed to the table of fabric provided and pulled stuff from the collection.   I started pawing with no idea at all about how to show this concept.  But I came across someone’s discarded block with two small elephants printed on it  and I had my brain storm.  I was off and running then.     This first shot is of the work at noon when then made us all stop for  lunch.  At this point I had fabric ironed and pinned to the surface, but no stitches yet.   Back form Lunch and two hours later and we all had a piece done.    I was exhausted as were most of my peers.

The “Vanishing Color” ( center quilt here) won second place.

I neglected to take a photo of the winner.

My quilt titled  “Vanishing Environments”  is OK for a work with limited time.  I learned that I can really re-lie on my machine drawing skills to pull me through when time is  short.    When asked if I would do it again- sure I would.  It is fun to stretch every now and then.

I have lots more to talk about, but find I am getting tired, so look  for an extra post in the next day or two.

Keep Creating

Carol

To Be Continued