All posts by admin

Earthly Fissures, Label Blocks, Taffy Pull

Reflection

October 21, 2015 admin

Hello,

I am still enjoying the sights of fall. These wall nuts still in their husks are reflective of the colors we are experiencing at the moment. Reflection is another way to check out the composition of ones work. I have a long mirror that I sometimes pick up and look into to see if the work is balanced. The image is in reverse and that helps me see if thing are off in one way or another. It makes the emphasis different and that helps.

I have been busy supporting my fellow artists this week. My great friend Barbara had an opening on Sunday at the Library. It was/is a wonderful show of the work representing her whole creative career. I really enjoyed it. Then when the FAB group meant, Sally showed off one of her pastels. It is based on a photo she took on Nancy and myself getting into a canoe.That brought back fond memories for all of us. I like the work as well.

Progress Report: Taffy Pull The top is all together now and I am

ready to start the quilting. I sure hope the pressing helps level it out. I am still struggling with the cutting of curves. It is a technique that takes lots of repeat action to master.

Earthly Fissures I am still building up the surface of this work. It is nearly completed. I really enjoy stitching down the yarns and adding lines of stitching to the surface.

Label Block # 23 One more completed. The box full of labels does not seem to be at all diminished however.

Keep Creating

Carol

Collage Based Work, Earthly Fissures, Label Blocks, Scrap Happy Quilts

Looking

October 15, 2015 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

I was struck this morning by how much I depend on the low light of morning to help me see my work. When the light is soft before I turn on the studio lights, I can really see the grays of light med and dark in my working pieces without the distractions of color. Now I am not saying I always pay attention to this- but I do know that when I take note- look at the balance , note the movement of the eye – the work is stronger.

Progress Report: Earthly Fissures This photo is of a rock formation in the Adorancks that I took a few weeks ago when I was up to visit Cris at the Pink House Gallery. I have selected a small section of the photo to be my jumping off point for this new work. I am building up the layers for the look I want now. This process always takes longer then I expect. But I love the final process so much it is well work the time.

Scrap Happy I have now finished this work. I just keep playing at this process. This one is very cheerful even though there is gray and black in the quilt.

15 I am doing the hand quilting on this little project in preparation of work on Ethel’s quilt.

New Work I started a new piece this week based on a collage I did over the week end. I did six collages and then picked out this one to be my challenge/ starting place. I am really exploring with this new process. That is both fun and scary at the same time.

The quilt top does seem to take on a mind of its own and the enlarging of a small” sketch/collage( 3”X 5”) and going to a different color combo changes things. I am enjoying the challenge however and feel I am growing with the process.

Label Block 22 The beat goes on for this project. Enjoy the fall colors.

Carol

Incisions, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing

Fall- Indian Summer

October 8, 2015 admin 2 Comments

Hello,

We are in Indian Summer now. Many trees are changing color over the course of a single day. My favorite time of year with its cold nights and worm days. I have truly enjoyed my walks. This week was a busy one. My first adventure was a trip down to see the opening of the Rock Garden show. I knew many artists in this one including Susan( pictured with her work), Carolyn and Cheri. It was a strong show with lots of variety.

Then on the week end I took a class at the Schweinfurth entitled “ Surface Designs” with Pat Pauly. I learned a lot about dyeing as I paid much more attention this time because I now have Ethel’s stash of dyes to play with. This is my wall at the end of the first day. I have lots of friends in this class and that made it epically wonderful. This shot is of Regina pulling a print.

Susan was in the class and so was Victoria. This shot is of her wall at noon on the second day.

Annette and Regina were the first ones to sort there work out of the first days wash out of the dyed fabric. We all enjoyed our selves and

laughed a lot.

This is a shot of some of my fabric after my the wash out when I got home. I now have a new stash of stuff to play with.

Then on Tuesday this week I had meetings of both the QuIG’s and the Diva groups. I get a great deal of stimulation from both of those groups and find the hour drive back from Ithaca after 9:00 flies as I think about and process my day.

Progress Report: Incisions This quilt is based on a collage that I did in David’s class at QBL last summer. It is 29 ” wide by 43″ long. I ended up turning my quilt upside down to make it work for me- and there were lots of alterations on the design as I went along. But I like the process enough that I will use it again.This is the collage I started from.

I quilted the cream areas in pebble patterns and in the browns I outlined the light areas. I feel like this quilt was a real growth experience for me. I got a lot of help form the QuIGS on how to make the quilt lie flat. They were very instructive at the Sept Meeting when I showed it. I was so far off that I was ready to toss the whole thing. Now I feel differently.

Project 15 I have just started doing the hand quilting on this project. I am going to mostly make that a reflective pattern of the pieces.

New Work I am ready to begin a new rock based piece. The photo is from a long ago trip to the California shore that I took with Eric. I have again just selected a small portion of the photo for this quilt. So I think I will do several based on the same image.

Label Block 22 The process goes on for this project. I realized this week I will need 120 blocks to have enough for a quilt so I will be at this for over two year span…. I almost wish I had not figured that out.

Keep Being Creative

Carol

Blossoms and Butterflies, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Incisions, Label Blocks

Fall Feeling

October 1, 2015 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

This is the time of year when we are reminded of Natures Bounty. This picture is of the grapes on Susan’s front walk. I love the light filtering through.

From my point of view it seems like I have not set down to take stock in a long time. I have been very active. The Friday after the last post I went and visited my friend Susan and we had a day that was mostly organization. That is a task that needs to be taken on more frequently than I do it. Susan with her eye always on the dates of her migrations to and from Florida, has a thing to teach me in that area.Even her desk – pictured here- is far more structured than mine.

Next on the list for me was a Creative Play Day at Varna. I spent the morning making silk paper in preparation for my workshop and after lunch I played with the 3-D pen the grand kids had given me. I have come to the conclusion that one could make nice light weight ear rings. I wish I could wear them. My next event was the teaching of the Silk Paper Workshop. Alice did some wonderful dye painting on here silk. Cris worked away capturing different objects in her silk. She put in paper, leaves and flower petals to some fine results. I experimented with using leaves as “molds” for thin layers of silk.( see photo above)

Then on Thursday Cris and I did some silk screen printing. I have two wonderful new pieces of fabric to use as a result. I drove home on that afternoon. Mother Nature was just starting her fall display and I had to stop more than once to take pictures.

The Friday after that adventure I went south to help again with the clean out of Ethel’s house. Elise has been so generous with her Mother’s quilting materials- that I feel surrounded by Ethel’s love. I have also been charged with the completion of her last quilt. I put all the pieces together this week and will now create a back form some of her fabrics. The hand quilting will begin some time soon.

The last event was this week and it was a FAB meeting. Judy had completed the top of a new wool quilt. She plans to tie it. Sally got some feed back from all of us about how she could finish up a project from a old QBL class and Nancy wanted help with a new top she is considering making. We had fun.

Progress Report: Blossoms and Butterflies This is the second in the butterfly series. I sure enjoyed doing all the free motion work that this one entailed. The flowers are all drawn in with pebble quilting for their centers. I think with this quilt I made the Butterflies too strong. I will try for a better light dark balance on the next one.

Incisions I am almost done with the free motion work on this quilt. I did the pebble quilting in the white areas and let the designs on the printed fabric tell me how to quilt the darker areas.

Silk Paper Still Life At the creative play day I made some silk flowers. They are pinned now and I am ready to begin hand work on them. I do have about four other hand work projects going now so they will not get any attention for a while.

15 Challenge I now have the 15” block assembled. I plan to hand quilt this project too.

Label Block 21 I did some thinking and realized I will need at least 80 blocks of this size to create a bed quilt. I guess I will be at this process awhile.

Keep Creating

Carol

PS: One last shot from the trip. I enjoy how the stream bottom and the sky is reflected in this clear brook.

Blossoms and Butterflies, Incisions, Label Blocks, Scrap Happy Quilts

Dealing

September 17, 2015 admin 1 Comment

Ethel Whittamore's work — Ethel Whittamore’s work

Hello,

We all have losses in our lives. Some are small like losing a thimble and other are bigger like a death. I suffered a big one with the death of my quilting buddy Ethel. I am so very fortunate that her daughter, Elise, has included me in her end of life events and in doing so, the loss, although deep, is becoming one of bitter sweetness. I have been tasked with the completion of Ethel’s last top to become a quilt for the Quilting by the Lake raffle for the Scholarship fund. What a gracious honor. I plan to finish the assemblage and then hand quilt it in the style Ehtel her self would have done. Elise has included me in the dismantling of Ethel’s studio and in the distribution of her many quilting treasures too. We spent a lovely day last Friday sorting and boxing up her fabrics. My studio is bursting with the boxes and I feel very comforted by there presents. I will not keep most of the material, but pass a lot onto her many other quilting friends with the hope that it makes them feel her spirit around them as I do. I did most of my dyeing with Ethel’s guidance and now I have all of her materials to continue the process. I am thankful. Ethel was also the person who got me interested in silk paper making. That is something that I continue to explore and I even teach the process. This week I did two sheets in preparation for a work shop on that topic that I will be teaching next week. There will be no post because I will be at the Pink House Art Gallery in Saranac Lake presenting at that time.

There was a FAB meeting here this week too. With lots of thought and with great care I am posting a quilt by one of the group members Okay. Nancy is quit proud of this quilt and I think she should be. She has a design sense that I so admire. I have been a big part of this quilt too as the thin dark blue line near the outside boarder is one she and I over dyed earlier this summer. She now has to decide how she wants to quilt this colorful work.

Progress Report: Blossoms and Butterflies This work is moving along nicely now. It is the second in the butterfly series. The background is completed now and I will now build the butterflies to add on top.

Incisions This work now has a title and I feel good about it. I have started the free motion quilting on this piece and think it will be finished soon. The red is the felt/batting so this part of the image will not be part of the final work.

Scrap Happy I finished the second twin Scrap Happy quilt on Tuesday and it went with the first to its new home. I can’t seem to leave well enough alone – so I made the rows from the left overs from this project and several others. The shoe box that I keep leftover squares in, is still overflowing so there will be at least two more quilts of this style in the near future.

Creative Assistants All these guys got arms, hair and backs this week. Now they only need there final paint embellishments and they will be done. I am ready to switch back to making more faces on the next batch. That is what I do during TV football games.

Fifteen Challenge The Diva group is fifteen years old and we are having a big show next summer. The group challenge is to create a 15” square quit that has fifteen in the work in some way. I have designed a square that has a roman numeral –XV in it. I made the block and because there is lots of bias in the shapes it got greatly distorted when I assembled it on the machine. So I am re doing it and making the blocks by hand. This is one fourth of the final piece.

Label Blocks This is # 20 in the label block line up. I can see this process still has weeks to go as there are still lots of labels in my box. I am glad to take contributions from any source for this project too.

Keep Creating

Carol

Label Blocks, Rifts, Scrap Happy Quilts

Line Types

September 10, 2015 admin

Hello,
I have been thinking a lot about lines. That is my emphasis for this year. I think lines in art at least can be put into five categorize. There are strait lines, curved lines, broken or dotted lines and a combination type line that puts two or more of these types together. The last category is the outline or the edge line. This type does not really exist in nature, but artist us it all the time. The edge line is some times created when two colors meet. Another time you get the edge/out line is when an object meets space. This air to earth line also helps us see and define up and down. We tend to think of the sun as being up and light from that source is on top of objects while the line is dark on the underside that is away from the sun, there for it is down. I am still pondering this effect of edge/outline and I am sure not that it is in my consciousness I will see it more often.
Progress Report: Rifts

This is the newest member of the Foundations series. I am enjoying doing all this rock work. This piece is the third based on a photo that I took in Maine a few years ago. I really enjoyed all the deep cracks in the surface of the rock and tried to show the depth of that with these last two close up treatments of the image. I am enjoying using the silk papers as well as threads and various fabrics.

New work This work is based on a collage from my class with David Hornung. He suggested that we use collage as a way to work out design problems before doing all the fabric work. because I liked the print on the light brown fabric I used it in this work. It is a very loose weave and so it did not sew quite the way regular cotton does. It took a lot of adjustment and re-seaming to get it to lie flat. I still need to work on the bottom edge.

New Butterfly work At the Diva meeting a few weeks ago Noel challenged me to make a second butterfly that showed off the butterfly’s more. This is my new background for that idea.

Creative Assistants Football season has begun and so has my work on the Creative Assistants. I have about 19 faces done now. I do enjoy this process.

Scrap Happy Twin 1 I am building a set of quilts for some bunk beds for a friend. This is the first of the two. I am only to the step were I add boarders so there is still a ways to go.

Label Block #19 I decided to number the label blocks so I can tell how many I have done.

Keep Creating

Carol

Foundations Series, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing, Mill Site Melody, Rifts, Sunny Seas

Mistake

September 4, 2015 admin

Hello-
I take a great deal of joy in celebrating the work of friends. That has been my intent with the images I have shown in the past here on the blog. But even good intentions can create disasterous effects and such was true here. My posting went viral. I do not know how this happened and Goggle could not give a clear answer either. The unknown and unintended consequence of my actions caused the denial of a powerful potential opportunity for the friend. The out come for me was a badly brushed friendship and a feeling of shame. She as forgiven me, but I have not forgiven myself fully for this action. I ma truly sorry. I will no longer be posting images of anyone else’s work on my sight. Please learn form my mistake.

Progress Report:

This little quilt came together very quickly when I got started. I used a lot of silk paperon this one to represent the sea weed and the flow patterns of the water.

Mill Site Melody

I have been enjoying the free motion work on this piece this week. The dis charged fabric was done by Randy and the print was created by Jean. I used very heavy thread around the fern print to help it show up.

The idea for the free motion wheat heads came form Randy’s fabric.

Rift’s I am still not sure what direction I want this quilt to hang so if it looks different- that many be the reason. I keep adding layers of stitching yarn and fabric to this one and it will ” tell me “when there is enough.

Diva 15 Block The Diva’s will be celebrating there 15th year together with a show next summer. For that event we are designing a block that is 15″ X 15″ and has some aspect of fifteen in the work. This is my first run at that challenge.

Label Blocks: I have finally got the label blocks back on track. These two represent blocks 20 an 21.

Keep Creating

Carol

Forest Floor, Mill Site Melody, Rifts, Scrap Happy Quilts

Summer Actions

August 26, 2015 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

These beautiful Morning Glories are from Susan’s garden. I had an unexpected invite to go to Quilt National last week and that happened on Thursday and Friday. That was the reason there was no post. It was a glorious experience and I have a ton of new thoughts and ideas about work.

There were wonderful works by many folks I have seen before as well as lots of new comers. I purchased the book, and I treated myself to a poster with Elizabeth Bush’s quilt on it. It was a good experience.

I did not get busy and write on Wed before we departed because I went to Susan’s with Noel and we had a play day. We did a mimic of the work form David’s class and I have a lot more paper to play with now. It was a pleasant day and we all enjoyed ourselves.

I also spent a day both weeks making silk paper. I have used some of it on quilts already. But my main reason for making the paper is I want to teach a class were the we make the paper and then use some of it to make book jackets.

Progress Report:Rifts

This is the new rock piece that I am working on. It too is another close up of the shore of Arcadia. I am struggling with direction on this one and keep pinning it up with different orientations. Looking is the only answer for me. It is also were I used some of the silk paper that I mentioned earlier.

The process is still in it’s early stages so there will be lots more build up of the surface and changes.

Mill Site Melody I stared this piece at QBL and I am to the quilting stage now. I have had a good time doing reflective quilting in this section and making additional machine drawing in other areas.

These wheat like shapes are based on the images I see in the discharged print image.

Forest Floor I continue to do hand work on this piece. The stitches are beginning to build up with more remaining to be added.

Scrap Happy I finished this quilt this week. It will be a gift to help comfort my friend Tanya who had to have her horse put down. She is quite sad about that and I hope this red and black quilt with give her warmth and comfort.

New Work I took David’s suggestion and selected one of my collages as a starting point for a new work.

The collage only has two pieces of paper in it- but I could not limit myself to just two fabrics. I have added more and as I build I can see I am making alternations in the design due mostly to scale I think. It is a different approach and I like that.

There is no shot of a finished block this week either because I am not done with one. I am off to spend tomorrow playing with another friend working on Gelli plates so I am writing this a day ahead. Summer is just a busy time.

Keep Creating

Carol

Label Blocks, Remote Recesses, Scrap Happy Quilts

Good Old Summer Time

August 13, 2015 admin

Hello,

I am enjoying a bit of a slow down that one associates with summer. I have done a lot of walking and enjoying all the colors of summer. This shot is from Susan’s garden. I have been doing a bit of sorting too. When I put things away from QBL it is always a good time to look at the collections of stuff I have and prepare some of it to pass along to others who can and will use it. Most will go to the school that I once taught in as I know Margaret will use it with the kids.

Progress Report: Remote Recesses

I started this work in Independent Studio at QBL. It is a selected section from the same photo graph that I used for Relinquished Regions. I am enjoy the movement and action in this piece. This work has lots of different textures and materials in it. There is silk fabric, silk paper, wool, velour, and organza, and some imitation leather that Susan gave me when I went to visit her in FL. The cream and white fabric with the orange speckles on it is from the studio sale that I went to two weeks before QBL. I just find fabric every were that works for me.

Free Flight I had started this work before I went away to quilt camp. It did not get quilted until this week. The Butterflies are cut from ground cloth and painted. I then stitched them down with silver thread and did reflective quilting around the out side with little loops added every now and then to represent butterfly erratic flight patterns.

Scrap Happy This quilt is will be a wedding gift for one of my friends sons. I sure enjoy building these and I think this is # 140 of this style.

New Work This quilt is also one I started in independent studio. Some of the fabric is from Randy and the brown pieces with the leaf prints on them are from a long ago week end outing at Mill Sight Lake. I have started the quilting by doing some stitch in the ditch so it is well anchored. Now I need to decide what type of free motion decorative stitching I will add to fill in the rest of the spaces.

New Rock I started a new rock based piece on Wenesday. My friend Tanya gave me some fabric and it just had to be used in this manner.

This work is only the pin up stage and it will change with time. It too is a detailed section of my Arcadia shore shot. A very small section that this shot shows. It is the basis of the quilt for what I have pinned down.

Label Block I am back in the hand work pattern again. Enjoy the slow days of summer.

Carol

Diva Meetings, QBL- Quilting By the Lake, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Uncategorized

After QBL 2015

August 6, 2015 admin 2 Comments

Hello,

I am still feeling the effects of Quilting By the Lake and I am almost a week away from the event. I helped hang the quilt show that is part of QBL. (that was four weeks ago now) It is always great as one gets to look closely all the work. This piece is by my friend Randy Keenan. This shot of her is in the dorm lounging after a hard day.

The first night we had a great lecture and trunk show by Katie Pasquini Masopust. She was very excited about her log cabin work and it was very enjoyable.

Seeing old friends is always a big part of QBL for me. This hand work is by my friend Sharron Evens . She was in Independent Studio class with me all week although she was in the other room. She is still working on her “Dear Jane” quilts, but she is now doing the boarder triangles. She is doing seven variations on this quilt all by machine and all at the same time.There is one for each of her children. Each is different color pallet with a different special effect. Over the two weeks of QBL she finished seven of the triangle units for all seven of the quilts. ( see some in the background of the second shot) She assures me she will be done with all of them by QBL time next year so she can take a class. It has taken four years to complete this task. This shot of her on the floor is when she was getting ready to insert the center of this quilt on point. She has written a note book to go along with the project too. It is quite a task.

The really great thing about Independent Studio is how much is going on. Trina and Leona were working on two quilts based on the same photo of a Chinese Garden. It was fun to watch it change over the course of the week and to hear them talk- sort of a peek into the two different ways their brains worked on the same problems. I worked on a new rock /foundation piece. I did take a photo every day this is day 2. The second is day 5.

The other wonderful thing about studio is we can do just what we want and on Thursday afternoon I taught a mini lesson in how to make silk paper in the women’s bathroom( it was too windy to work out of doors). It was fun and everyone who did it walked away with a little bit of silk paper to use .

There was a new feature this year at QBL- it was a lecture/or trunk show every afternoon after class. The topics ranged from “How to care for your Quilts” by a textile conservator, a talk by Donna Lamb on “Future planning for QBL” to trunks shows. Week one I made it to two of the trunk shows. One by Julia Graziano and a second by Nancy Breland. Week two I went to Marcia De Camps’s trunk show. She showed forty works in forty min.

A second event that took place both weeks was a mini mall were participants and a few outsiders came and sold there wears at the quilt show. There was also a raffle in conjunction with that event

and I won a prize.

There was an special show / event at the Schweinfurth both weeks as well and I found it to be really fun and exciting. All the work was done with recycled materials. I encourage any one to go and see it.

In between weeks one and two of QLB I went home and did laundry and switched gears as I went off to a new class. On Sunday on my way back to QBL I stopped and visited the Syracuse Arts and Crafts fair. My friend Sharon Souva won a first place ribbon in the show. It does look good.

Donna and Stephany were there to greet everyone when we returned. I took a class with David Hornung week two- Color/Collage.

This shot is of my work table day two in the morning before I got started.

It is still sort of tidy- but things went down hill from there. Marcia worked next to me and I really enjoyed watching her build her projects. Her style is so clean and beautiful. Linda was across the room and this shot is of one of Linda’s more lyrical projects.

Angela was in the class too and she ended up doing lots of Gelli plate printing of her backgrounds instead of painting them. She even demonstrated for David and other interested folks how the process works. I think David is hooked and will try this technique.

The last night of QBL is always a mixture of excitement and sadness. We have a class show and tell for all the classes. This shot is of the folks in Sherri Lyn Woods class. This year was the final teacher apron auction for the scholarship fund. I really liked Judy Bliden’s “eat out” apron .

I went back to the dorm for one last bit of talk and parting. Sharron made am a root beer float and it was wonderful way to end a great week of QBL activites .

Then there was the AQS Quilt Week going on down town too.

Saturday morning I went down and meant Cheri and her mom to check out the show at the On Center . The quilt show was a good one and I had a hard time choosing my favorite. Marcia’s quilt was among the quilts of friends that I spotted at the show.

I enjoyed the SAQA section of the show too. Most of the quilts in that part were from Europe. I really liked this wonderful piece with all the different textures the most.

Things did not stop with the second show for me either. The first Tuesday of the mount was this week so I had QuIG’s and Diva meetings too. So many folks were also QBL partisipants that we spent a lot of time talking about what folks did.

Several folks- Liz, Linda C, Linda H and Angela were all in a Cantha class together.

The hand work is wonderful. Angela has already started two shawls with this type of stitching in mind. It will be a while until it is done- but I really like the start of this one.

Linda H is taking an on line class with Elizabeth Barton. This is her solution to the problem for the July Challenge. What great movement. Linda C has finished the work she showed us last month. I really like what she does with small inserted lines.

Angela is taking an on line class too and this is her felted interpretation of one of her drawings.

Sally did this work about Dr. Who for her daughter who is crazy about the story.

She was busy with her embroidery too and getting ready for Christmas. This is a part of a Christmas tree skirt.

Sue Ellen is working away on her tree series and this is the newest one. She also took a class at QBL with Cynthia Corbin and did a lot of work with purples. This shot also shows the inspiration for the piece she did in this class.

Liz is making progress on her Row by Row work . It will make a great summer quilt when she is done.

Victoria was in Judy Bliden’s class and here is her final sketch for the next quilt she will be working on.

Julia was asked to be a part of Nancy Crow’s Circles Show and this is her entry. It is wonderful.

Sally is moving so we made a little box full of little quilts form all of us. She is holding up Alice’s work here. This second is Susan’s piece for Sally.

Anne is working away on finishing this piece for a show. I really like the interesting machine quilting she is doing with her work.

Noel took a painting class at QBL and she learned how to paint sea shells among other things. This work will be fun to watch grow.

Ruth purchased this piece from the AQS show. It is on of the Egyptian tent works that they were featuring and selling. I like all the wonderful color and usage of traditional Egyptian patterns.

I have not done any work out side of QBL but I am very full of ideas.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

All posts by admin

Reflection

Looking

Fall- Indian Summer

Fall Feeling

Dealing

Line Types

Mistake

Summer Actions

Good Old Summer Time

After QBL 2015

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer