All posts by admin

FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Felt Work, Label Blocks, Landscapes

Golden Carpet

November 17, 2016 admin

Hello,

Mother Nature has now stripped the trees of all there golden leaves and put down a carpet of gold and cream on the lawn. I sure like the quiet colors. But, I need to rake yet again. This week was a retreat at the Schweinfurth. I along with 11 other gals took advantages of the open wet studio to dye and print fabric.

We all made messes and wonderful fabric too. The wash room line quickly filled with a colorful collection of fabrics that were batching.

Liz and Susan took advantage of the big sinks that are in the wet studio to wash out dyes before putting them in the washers. Penny and I along with other retreaters, did visit the Quilts= Art = Quilts show up stairs at lunch time and enjoyed it.

Not everyone worked with dye. Cheri painted this wonderful piece for her circle challenge. It was all very exciting and I am still washing out the dye from the stuff that I tried. But here are some of the final pieces. I have a lot of raw material for some future work.

There was a FAB meeting this week too. Judy has made great progress on the quilt she started in Augest when we were up at her camp. I really love the colors she is using on this piece.

Progress Report: Wool Works 1 This work has the felted part done and a bit of fabric pinned to the surface. Last week it was only a line drawing on the black felt. This is just a beginning.

Wool 2 I put in a lot of time on this work this week. I added the yellow leaf to the top of the rock yesterday as I though it needed a more focused point of interest. It is not stitched down yet and I keep moving it about as I am not sure about were I want it to “fall”. When it is just right I will stitch it down.

Wool work 3 This wool work is now ready for lots of machine work. I have started that process- but just in small areas.

Self Challenge I did not do much on this work as I was away. I am also unsure about what I want to do with it so it sets were I can look up and see it very now and then. I hope that will lead to inspiration.

Felted Landscape Regina and I shared a room at the retreat. We were awakened on Sat morning at 5 am by the call of crows. Our room was on the third floor so when we looked out we were in the tree tops along with the crows. There were so many in the predawn that it looked like the trees had leaves on them. As the sun came up the birds flew away a few at a time. It was a wonderful experience. We watched until most of them had left for their foraging for the day. It was amazing. I am going to use my felted landscape from last week as a place to add this memory to a new work. So far I have only gotten the tree to add to the top.

Label Block # 94 Being away I only got one block completed this week.

Keep Creating

Carol

Creative Assistants, Felt Work, Hand Bags, Hand work, Label Blocks, Pond Water

Falling Back

November 10, 2016 admin

Hello-

The winds of autumn are stripping the trees of their golden bounty now. I have been out raking for two days. It is cold and soon days will be spent inside. This last week has been a busy one out side the studio for me. I spent Friday mixing dye with my friend Liz. We will be a part of open studio at the Schweinfurth during the up coming weekend. Play is in my future.

Then this week end I was part of and Exhibition and Sale at John Doweling’s studio for two days. I sold three little framed works and I am very happy about that. The work is still hanging there although I am not in attendance. It will be there until the middle of Dec.

Progress Report: Hand Bag I did put together a hand bag this week so I guess I did finish one thing.

Pond Waters Because I was away so much there is not a lot of progress to report. I continue to work away on this project in the evenings and it is building. Hand work is just slowbut very calming.

Circle Play This is my self challenge to play with faced circles in a creative way. I have a lot to learn with this process. I have challenged myself to do seven works using this striped circle as the main unit.

Wool works 1 2 3 I started these works last week but did not put too much time into them yet. This work is # 2 only because I numbered my sketches as I did them. I am sure it will get a better name with time. This one is just about ready for some machine stitching.

#3 This one is ready for fabric and machine work. It really is not much different than last week.

#1 is still at the prep for wool stage.I have drawn the areas our for the color changes but that is all. I will get to that later today I hope as the felting machine is out on the desk and waiting.

Felted Landscape I did make progress on one wool piece though. This too is in an early stage. I will keep you posted.

New Work I did pull fabric for a new pieced work too. This one will be a lot simpler then the pieced work I have been doing of late. I hope I can stick with that attitude.

Label Blocks # 92 & # 93 I can see the end of this project. There are only 27 more blocks to complete.

Keep Creating

Carol

Bird Land, Diva Meetings, Fabric Collage Constructions, Fall Fires, Felt Work, Label Blocks, Natural Elements, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Deep in Fall

November 3, 2016 admin

Hello-

I am finding the fall color all around me now. And there is a lot on the ground. I raked big piles to the street yesterday. The leaf piles are deep . This week was the beginning of the month and so I had meetings with both QuEGs and Divas on Tuesday. Sally started us off with a warm and fuzzy baby quilt for her grand child. Linda showed

us the project she had completed from her class at QBL this summer. Liz was just home from Nancy Crow’s Barn and she had some great work to share too. She is mixing her drawing skills with her fabric work.

Sue Ellen is playing with line. It was a good meeting. The I went off to the Diva meeting in the evening. There again folks have been busy with projects and events.

Regina is doing great free motion machine drawing. I like her use of layers of fabric for this too. Anne and Ruth both took a Shobori class at the Schweinfurth and the results are wonderful. I look forward to seeing these wonderful fabrics in new works.

Maureen showed her finished Shobori quilt. She will be teaching these techniques in the spring.

Maureen also shared some antique quilt blocks she picked up on her trip to Maine. I really like the wonderful stitches.

Alice showed us the progress she is making on “The Bed” quilt. She had such a strong style!

Lliesa has finished her village piece. “The Tracks Divide Us” the title.

Progress Report: Bird Land This quilt is 50” lone and 49” wide. I started this quilt in Class with Rosalie Dace and the assignment was to choose a shape and repeat it against a patterned background. I also added to the challenge by using the negative space too. I did reflective quilting on this surface to fill it in.

Fall Fires This stretch work is 30” X 22”. This work is my second attempt to use my collage build up technique and try to pull away from the “rock” imagery that is where I usually go. I enjoyed mixing the wool, organza and silks to build up this work.

New work 1, 2, 3 When I finish a work I usually get going on a new piece. I have drawn out three new layouts for work that use the collage build up technique. This one had the felt base built in. With this one I a building up with bits and scraps of fabric fist. There is a third but it is just lines on the black wool.

Self Challenge I stated this self challenge this week too. I want to do seven little works that are all the same size using a strip section and a circle cut from that strip unit. I did not know how to cut away the circle and maintain the strip unit so I could rotate the circle and re insert it. But the folks at the Diva meeting gave me two possible ways to do that. I think I am ready to go forward now.

Label Blocks # 90 & 91 I continue to do the work. I am going to hunt up a stitch book this week to make some more exciting stitches though.

Keep Crating

Carol

Bird Land, Curvie Cuts, Fall Fires, Felt Work, Label Blocks, Leaving the Land, Natural Elements

Time

October 27, 2016 admin

Hello,

This week has been the usual one full of events and I did not get as much time in the studio as I usually do. That realization has made me think about how I am not guarding my time as I really should. I need to say “No Thank you” to protect that studio time. Not and easy task as I so enjoy the company of others. But as I grow older I realize there is not an infinite amount of time and one must choose how it is spent.

This shot is of Patti teaching Nancy how to use the loom. We all did a little weaving at the FAB meeting this week. It was fun and now I have a new “Mug Rug” as Patti calls it.

Progress Report: Leaving the Land This work is 20”l X 26” w, got it stretched this week. When I showed it to my friend Diane she said it looked like an air view of lakes and mountains. So I knew I was successful in what I was shooting for. I do enjoy working with the fleece and silk paper in combinations with yarns and threads to build up the surface. The surfaces become so very deep and rich.

Bird Land I am to the machine quilting stage with this work now. It is going smoothly and I am a little beyond half way done at this point. It is enjoyable.

Fall Fires This work is ready for stretching at this point. Hopfully the ripples will pull out when that is done. I had to make a run to the Art Store to purchase additional stretchers. I could have used what I had and lost a lot of the surface, but I decided that this piece deserved as much of the surface showing as possible. I have to keep telling myself I will not do this again and there fore it is worth the effort to do the job properly.

New Work The curvy cut work I started last week got some hand work attention this week. I pulled out all the fibers and threads that I thought might work on the surface and started working. The big size of this piece means I will be at it a long while.

Label Blocks # 88 and # 89 Two more done. This new effort to do two a week is good as I see the pile building.

Keep Creating

Carol

Bird Land, Curvie Cuts, Fall Fires, Label Blocks, Leaving the Land, Queen Anne's Lace

Fall Color

October 20, 2016 admin

Hello-

On my walks this week I have been enjoying the fall colors. There is such a wide range. I love the oranges and reds as they contrast with the greens, but the browns and rusts have a beauty of their own. I was stopped by the deep purple\ blue I found on the ground here. So many colors! There are also lots of mushrooms in various colors out now as well. I have taken a lot of photos of the trees and bark too. I am sure I will have a good supply to begin some new work with. So keep your eyes open and while you are enjoying the season and perhaps you too may become inspired to start a new project.

Progress Report: Ethel’s Nine Patch I

finished the double bed quilt this week. I sure enjoyed working on this project and thought of Ethel every step along the way. The back is all done in her black and white scraps too and the quilt is reversiable. I think this side will be the winter side.

Queen Anne’s Lace This quilt is

26” l X 18” wide. It is one of my works that is built on the curvy cut system. I quilted in lines of the wind with the same curvy feel.I enjoy the hand work that I put into the surface of this work.

Fall Fires I am still working away on this piece. I am just about ready to begin to build in the smoke around the flames. The bottom area is not done either.

Leaving the Land I put in time on this felt based work this week too. It is much closer to being complete then Fall Fires. There are only islands of spaces were I need to do the free motion work. The dark area on the far left about half way up is an example of a space where I need to add stitching.

Bird Land I have assembled the top for this work at this time. It sort of got out of my control as far as size is concerned. I do not usually work quite this big on art quilts. I will do a little drawing of possible free motion quilt patterns that have a bird motif this week before I begin that step.

Curvy Cut As I finished the last curvy cut piece, Queen Anne’s Lace, I thought I should begin a new work in that vain. Again I used Randy’s deconstructed screen printed fabric as my starting place. It is about 41” l X 37” w a little big for this type of project.( Is there a theme here?) I have pulled a pile of fibers and threads that I might use to embellish this project.

Label Blocks # 86 #87

I am working away on this project too. Only 69 more blocks to go.

Keep your eyes open in this time of wonderful fall color and enjoy creating

Carol

Ethel's Nine Patch, Felt Work, Label Blocks, Queen Ann's Lace

Leaves Change

October 13, 2016 admin

Hello-

It is really starting to be colorful here in central New York. I have seen all shades of green, yellow, orange and red this week. Mother Nature has been busy. I went off to a Fiber Arts show on Sat. There was lots of weaving, spinning and roving. I came home with a back pack full of new colors to work with. The yarns were beautiful as well. It almost made me want to knit…. then I remembered all the yarn I already have so I walked away. I also went off to the Rock Garden Art Group Show. Two Fiber arts friends had work in the show Cheri and Terri. It was great. I so enjoy seeing the work of my fellow fiber Artists in gallery settings.

Progress Report: Ethel’s Nine Patch I got all of the quilt put together with week. I am working on the binding and that is about one third done. I am sure it will be completed this week.

Birds I am making progress on this work too. I have not put much of it together but the layout is getting more and more complete.

Land Fall I did work on this piece this week but this is the slow stage were not a lot seem to be happening in the over all image.

Orange Wool This work is like the other wool based piece. Lots of time but little difference on the surface. I am pushing myself to go more toward a fire like image. Time will tell if I can make this work.

Queen Ann’s Lace I did work on the heads of the steams on this project. I have been so busy doing hand work on other things that I have not really spent much time on this project.

Thread Painting At the QuEG’s meeting Angela talked about doing thread painting on wash away. Well I tried it this week. I like the concept, but I need to plan more carefully with the grid I put down to build on. I also marked the pattern were I wanted the white in red washable marker. I turned the thread pink. Not my plan at all. Mistakes are what we need to move forward. Then today I re read the instructions and it said to do the machine drawing on both sides. A second mistake.

Label Blocks # 83 and # 84

I just keep working at the little daily blocks.

Keep Creating

Carol

Diva Meetings, Ethel's Scarp Nine Patch, Label Blocks, Land Fall, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Water Run

First Week in October

October 6, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello-

It is the first full week of October and I went to my group meetings on Tuesday. At QuEG’s, Angela started us out with a baby quilt top she has finished for her yet to be born grand daughter. She is excited about it. She also showed us some of her work from an on line class she took. I really like the idea of making your sketch life sized before beginning work. A simple idea that had never occurred to me. I have always done a thumb nail sketch- but I can see value in doing it life sized. She also had her books from her class at QBL to share. It looks like she learned a lot and had a good time.

Linda shared her workings with her new felter. This is a great start and I think she will do more on it and do several other projects.

Linda also created this wonderful forest quilt. It has so much depth.

Sue Ellen is busy getting ready for Christmas at the shop so she was trying out new ideas and this tree was one of them. There were only five of us at the meeting, but we still managed to fill the two hours with sharing and talk.

Then it was off to the Diva meeting. Lliesa started us out with a new map quilt. Unlike her one from last year that was based on a real location, this one is all imagined. I like how it is growing.

Ruth is doing a series of works based on Dinosaur tracks. I like the way she is working . The irregular shapes really look like chunks of rock to me.

Lorrie made this little quilt for the sale at the quilt show next week end. It is a happy little thing.

Donna is doing rust dyeing now and has achieved some great effects. I always go home for the meetings with a real high on things to think about and try Like the rust dyeing……. It is great to meet with folks of a like mind.

Progress Report: Water Run This work is 24” X 20” wide. I sure enjoyed working away on this work. When I stretched it I really got going on the next ones too. I like doing the free motion work as the fibers sometimes move as I work.

That movement makes it feel more organic to me.

Land Fall This work was designed on a vertical layout, but is has turned to become a landscape type of work. I try to pay attention when the work directs me and go with that flow. It has about four hours of work in it so far. Slow but enjoyable for me.

Felting I am still adding roving and fabric to the surface of this work. I found some wonderful organza in one of my boxes when I was looking for something else. I know it will blend well in this work. No stitching yet. It is starting to look a bit like a flame to me.

Ethel’s Nine Patch This is the back of Ethel’s Nine patch. Again I am using her fabric and I though I would add some solids in primary colors to it- but I like the effect so I have just built it this way. There are lots of scraps left in the box, so I know there will be more work like this in my furture.

Queen Anne’s Lace

I am working on the hand stitching on this work. There are only two more flower heads to do and that step will be complete. My fried Tanya gave me some Eamu feathers a few weeks ago and I think I may use them in this work. The gray feather pinned to the center area is one of the feathers.

Bird Land This work is on the bottom of the stack so it does not get much attention. I did finish all the cutting of the birds this week though. Now to stitch things down.

Label Block # 83

I keep working away on these blocks and they keep getting completed. No rush and no pressure really is a nice thing.

Keep Creating

Carol

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly, Label Blocks

Entering Shows

September 29, 2016 admin

Hello,

This beautiful painting is by my friend Barbara. It plus two other paintings of hers are hanging in the Manlius library as a part of the Associated Artist Of Central New York show that is open now until Oct 15. I have two works in the show too. It is always exciting to see ones work on the wall among other pieces. In Aug I talked about rejection, so I felt I should talk a bit about entering shows too. It is worth the effort to put ones work out in public. There are all sorts of shows, some judged and some not. If you are entering be sure to read all the rules and follow them. I am in the process of hurrying toward a dead line and when I re read the rules I find that my images are not the correct pixel size to be a part of this one. I will see if I can resize them, but if that does not work I will not waste the judges time by putting work before them that that dose not qualify. One needs to work toward being successful and I feel showing ones work is a part of that process.

Progress Report: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly This work is 22” l X 15” w. It is one of the quieter pieces I have done. I did enjoy doing the thread painting on this the butterfly and I now have a new respect for all the shading work folks who do that thread painting work as it takes a lot of effort and skill to do that work well. It is very slow and difficult work. This little butterfly took me four and a half hours and it is small and far from perfect. Adding the commercial ivy leaves was a lot simpler. I do love the texture though.

Hand work This pieces has been at the bottom of the pile for a while. I did work on the Queen Ann’s lace section this week and only have a few more blossoms to finish that step.

Ethel’s Nine Patch I finished assembling the rows of this piece this week and the pile in the photographic is of the fabrics I am going to use for the back of this piece. Most of them are from Ethel’s collection too.

Felting- rust This piece is only about an hour old. I draw out the areas I want in different colors with Taylor’s chalk. Then felt roving, silk paper and yarn are placed over the wool and felted into place.

Felting-gray This piece is much further along then the first one. I am just about ready to start applying the fabric bits and doing some tread drawing on the surface of this piece.

New work This project has been on the wall for several weeks. I finally buckled down and created all the units for the bird cutaways so I can get going on this piece.

Label Block # 82 I am just a bit beyond the half way point in this project. Down hill from here.

Keep Creating

Carol

Along the Shore, Collage Based Work, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Generational Whispers, Small Cleft

A Bit about process

September 22, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello-

I am getting back into my usual grove this week. I went to a FAB meeting where Judy showed us more of the blocks she created after the Mill Sight weekend. I think the colors work well together well and it will result in a grand quilt. I have finished several pieces this week so it is time to begin new work. I though I might talk about one of my processes. First I select an image. This is a photo that I took in Washington state of a cut in the road. Then I make a little windows and run them around the photo to find an area I think is a good jumping off point. When I choose one and I then do a little sketch of it using dark, medium and light. At this point I need to decided on a size and select a fabric for a base. Because of the great amount of shrinkage and warping that occures with all the felting and the stitching I apply I make the background fabric 10 inches bigger then the final projected finished size. The next step is to lay out roving in the areas that are light med and dark and felt it down. I then build up the surface with yarn, silk paper and fabric strips.

Progress Report: Small Cleft This work is 24” long and 20” wide. It is based on a photo I took four years ago. I used the same process I described above for this work. I incorporated silk yarn in this work as well as silk paper. There is also some fabric bits and yarns here too.

Beach Front This quilt is another in the three challenges process. My hand dyed fabric is the white with colored spots and Ethel’s is the blue and dark batiks. It is based on a collage. The top half is quilted in parallel lines while the bottom section is done in a wavy pattern to suggest water.

Generational Whispers This work is 43” long and 38” high. I shows five generations of women in my family with my grand daughter at the center in the bottom. I did free motion drawing on organza to create the portraits and then sewed them to the background. The last step was to add the names of the women represented then quilt. There was not enough space below all the heads to add their dates of birth and death on the top so I have added a panel on the back with that information.

Butterfly I am just about done with the thread painting on this butterfly. The black sections on the body and the left wing remain. Then I will add it to the top and do the final quilting on that piece.

Ethel’s Nine Patch I am enjoying building these squares. I have completed 25 at this point. To make it a queen sized quilt it will take 43 blocks so I am a little beyond half way done at this point. Looking at the scrap box I know there will be a second one of these too.

Label Block # 81 I feel back into my old pattern and only finished on block this week. I have started making Creative Assistants in the evening so I did not put in any extra time on this project.

Keep Creating.

Carol

Along the Shore, Ethel's Scarp Nine Patch, Idaho, Label Blocks

Travel With Marty- To Lincoln Nebraska

September 15, 2016 admin 2 Comments

Hello-

I am home from a wonderful and stimulating trip from Spokane Washington to Lincoln Nebraska. We loaded a black rented jeep with 20 boxes of Marty’s books and our suit cases and we were off. First we went south along the mountains between Idaho and Montanta and enjoyed the landscape. Our fist goal was to see a falt in southern Idaho

where the land shifted fifteen feet in the 70s. The exposed slip is the white area in this photo. The drive to this location resulted in a flat tire. Thank goodness for the help of a Fireman from Texas who helped us put on the spare. But that meant taking the boxes of books out of the car so we could get to the spare and reloading them afterward. We drove to the next town and although it was Labor Day week end we found a tire dealership that was open. They agreed to patch the tire. So I unloaded the boxes again to get to the tire. After he patched it the tire bulged so we did not put it on the car. Loaded the books yet again and drove to Idaho Falls airport where the car rental company traded our Jeep for a bigger car. This picture is of Marty waiting outside the airport. The new one was white and had so much fancy stuff on it that we never figure them all out. There was so much space in this one that we did not even need to stack the boxes on top of one another. We could have slept flat on top of them if we had to- but that did not happen. Then on to Yellowstone. Lots of stops there with geysers and hot springs,museums and animals. We checked put the petrified tree and enjoyed the day until about two in the afternoon when it started to hail on us. We pulled off and waited for it to stop as the hail balls were the size of marbles. The storm lasted about half and hour and left the road covered with hail that made for slow slick driving. This picture

is a view out the windshield early on in the storm. We left the park and were told that the road we needed to use to get to our lodging was closed due to snow. So we stop and found another cabin to stay in. It stormed during the night but we got up to sunny skies and snow covered canyon walls on both sides of our resting place. We altered our plans again and opted to drive south and cross the Continental Divide at Dead Indian Pass as it was lower and less likely to be closed. It was a beautiful drive and we made lots of stops for pictures. We continued south in Wyoming .

Ate lunch along the Wind River and continued to enjoy the landscapes.

We went to Fossil Butte National Monument and enjoyed the wonderful museum there. Life sized alligator and turtles with the four foot shells were among the fossils as well as lots of leaves and ferns. We had crossed the Continental Divide seven times before we left the mountains. We drove across the southern portion of Wyoming and into Scott’s Bluff just at sun set. It is a good thing we got to see it that evening because when we got up in the morning there was so much fog one could hardly see across the four lane highway. It took the better part of two days to cross the Nebraska sand hills. We saw lots of wind mills, cattle and train cars loaded with coal.

We visited the Ashfall Fossil Beds. They were a wonder, with the remains of over one 50 rhinos, turtles, tortoises ,and Sand Hill Cranes. There were the skeletons of three types of houses- three toed and single hoofed ones. And species of saber toothed rabbit- something I had never heard of before. We left the fossils for Lincoln where we meant Rosalie.Friday was the last unloading of the boxes at the International Quilt Study Museum. A man came with a cart and did the job that time.

We enjoyed the museum. There was a great display of quilts from southern China. The silk made them very beautiful when they were mixed with gold couched embroidery thread. We took the tour of the Mountain Mist Collection too. We explored Lincoln on the week end and enjoyed the public art that is so much a part of the city. There are lots of beautiful brick houses too. We also went to the German Russian Immigrant museum on Sunday. It was great too.

On Monday we had a meeting with the director were she took Marty’s QBL quilt and showed us the storage and preservation parts of the museum. She spent a couple of hours talking with us and it was g good visit. We enjoyed out stay at the Rogers House Bed and Breakfast but we were all glad to be on our way home on Tues. morning.

Progress Report: Ethel’s Nine Patch I did do a bit of work before I left on Tues for the start of this trip. I had the strips put together from our weekend at Judy’s camp and I started cutting them into 5” squares and matching them with solids from my Ethel stash. The blocks are a nine patch and I may add sashing. That remains to be seen

Along the Shore I am doing the machine quilting on this one now.

Machine Painting I started working on the machine drawing on this butterfly yesterday. The printed butterfly is fused to organza with a paper backed fishable. Then it is hooped before I began the machine work. I would not trim the butterfly before I did the machine work next time. Even though it is fussed it is still fraying.

Label Blocks # 76,#77, #78, #79, #80 I took this project with me on the trip and found lots of little snippets of time to do hand work so I got five blocks done in two weeks.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

All posts by admin

Golden Carpet

Falling Back

Deep in Fall

Time

Fall Color

Leaves Change

First Week in October

Entering Shows

A Bit about process

Travel With Marty- To Lincoln Nebraska

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer