The Moon is full and I love to see how the moon light makes the branches have little sliver out lines. The shadows are wonderful too. I am so glad it was clear and warm last night so I could enjoy the evening. It is cold today however.
I did a little walking in the woods this week and enjoyed the sounds of the leaves under foot as the trees are mostly stripped now. It was a gray day when I made this excursion, but I still enjoyed the sounds and this tree bark bark.
This week there were QuEG’s and FAB meetings. The Diva group is doing a trunk show at the Schweinfurth on Sunday so they did not meet. The QuEG’s gals had lots to share. Sally did this fun little landscape to give to a friend who let her stay on the lake this summer. There is lots of machine work here as she always applies a lot of that.
Sue Ellen is busy thinking of Christmas too and creating little machine drawn mini images 6″ X 8″ in the seasonal vain.
Angela has been experimenting with her felter and she was trying with this copy to see how effective she could be with a pre-felted surface that she felted into. Looks good to me.
Jane is doing her amazing wool embroidery as usual. She had several pieces this time.
There were four of us from the QuEGs group who were in Kerr Groboski’s Deconstructed class last week, so there were lots of wonderful dyed works to share too! This shot of one of Linda’s fabrics shows how the print paste breaks down one the screen with each print. Seeing all our works together sure made me aware of how we all have our own unique color sense as well as style. I hope we do some more of this technique because I was so happy with the color that I achieved in this workshop. Now the real work begins when one uses the fabric as a start or works back into it…….. I think they will need to hang in my line of sight for a while before I know what to do.
Progress Report : New Work I still have not come up with a title for this work. I have started to stitch down the key pads however. It is a fun and very slow process. I will work on that this week.
Donna’s Second Wedding Dress Quilt This is the second commission for my friend Donna. I am to the free motion quilting step now after spending over two hours crawling around on the floor pin basting it on Monday. I wore my knee pads but the knees still hurt. I am following the strong lines in the print for the quilting design . This shot shows the top( green, gold white and red) with the back folded over so one can also see how the quilting pattern is coming along.
Fall is still all around and painting the landscape here with color. I love it.
When football season starts, I watch and spend my time making my Creative Assistants. This is the first batch of 49 that I have completed. I so enjoy the process and it does make the football go by faster for me. It seems the games have lots of time when there is nothing much going on- but commercials, so I stitch away. I enjoy giving them away when I go to Quilting by the Lake every summer. ( there is a tutorial on how to construct your own Creative Assistants below)
I am taking a class called Deconstructed Screen printing with Kerr Grabowski. It starts today and lasting for three days. This is my pile of stuff for the class. I am sure I will come home with lots of new altered fabric to use.
Spill 17″ X30″ $185
Progress Report: Spill I had a good time working on this piece. I so love texture and this one has lots of different materials that add to that. There is the usual cotton of course, and my current favorite – silk paper then I added iron melted plastic bags and turquoise mylar as well as satin, and course woven silk. I added hand stitching t in the form of french knots, button whole stitches and chain stitches to the surface as well as machine drawing too. I am pleased with the results.
This piece fits very nicely in a little nook in the wall.
Watermarked Sandstone 33.5″ X 25″ $305.00
Watermarked Sandstone- Foundations XXIII I am finally finished with this newest member ofthe foundations series. I really enjoyed the free motion work on this project. I had a good time doing the painting on the surface of this piece. Adding the iron nodes to the surface was a bit of a challenge as I tried them in many different locations before I finally selected this layout. Then when I was shooting the work for this entry I discovered that I like it on a 90 degree turn from the direction that I had been looking all the time I was working on the construction. One always needs to be open and aware of what is in front of them.
New Work As I was nearing the end of my work on Spill I realized I needed a new piece to do hand work on so I looked through my sketchbook of ideas. I came across this old idea of using circles and lines for a piece and though I would try it. I have a box full of old Saxaphone keypads that a friend had passed to me and I thought this would be my opportunity to use them to express this idea. There are so many different sizes, colors and textures here- I am sure I will have fun with this work.
I hope all enjoy the colors of the season and the kids all dressed up for Halloween.
Leaves continue to be a big part of my daily dose of nature. But I want to talk about a Jewish Proverb I came across in my reading this week. “The Quality of life is fuelled by our productive wealth.” That idea has been on my mind while I have been walking for the last two days. To begin with I really think that my life is a rich and wealthy one, but I think even though I am productive that is not the only thing that adds meaning and value to my life. Quality is strongly related to context. One can have “Quality Time” and for me that can mean just
time spent listening and interacting with a friend or child. A big part of that quality comes with the focus of that time- no distractions or concerns for other things. When I was making the halloween costume for my grandson- (some video game character that I do not know anything about)- that” one on one time ” with him telling me exactly what he wanted and helping with the sewing machine work was real quality time. I spent quality time talking with Nancy on Wed at the FAB meeting when there were only the two us and we got to telling stories about our youth to one another. That shows a quality of trust too. (She is making progress on her quilt and the sky with the clouds she made in silk paper on that sky is great. ) Then there is also quality friendships like the one I share with Nancy and a few others. There is a degree of necessary quality in all our lives for things like shelter, food, good quality air and water- without those assuredness none of the other quality things can come about. We need those quality ingredients to be healthy and to fully appreciate the degrees of wealthy excellence our lives hold.
Agate 23″ X 36″ $300.00
Progress Report:Agate I finished this work this week. It has been created from a big piece of silk paper that I made with Ethel a few weeks ago. The most difficult part of this project was deciding what side of the silk paper to use- they were both so lovely. I had a good time attaching the silk paper to the quilt with many hand stitches. This project was created with silk hankies that were hand dyed before I put the paper together. I might not have selected these colors to use together on my own, but I sure like them and will try to add this type of mix to my own way of thinking.
Spill This quilt is coming along nicely now. I love all the textures on the surface of this work. This shot shows silk paper- two types the sheet form (on the far left) and the flow form(the green blue at the top) , the iron melted mylar( the turquoise ) and iron melted plastic bag( the apple green). The whole thing has been fun for me.
Watermarked Sandstone I am still doing machine drawing on this work but I can see the end is in sight. Again I am playing with texture- my favorite thing. There are “nodes of iron ore” in the image and so I have created some solid rust colored circles to add to the surface of the piece. Before I can stitch them down I need to add rust colored paint to the surface to show how the water wears away the iron too and in so doing it stains the surrounding stone.
Yellowstone Memory Map I so enjoyed creating the Sandstone Church project that I thought I would do a second memory map type quilt from my childhood. When I was seven, my Dad was a summer ranger in Yellowstone National Park at South Gate. I have wonderful memories of that summer and want to try to put them into this new project. This is layer one and it too is ready for a paint layer to soften and unify some of these parts.
I hope you too are enjoying the fall color and creating fun works.
I want to talk about being eliminated from a judged show. I have entered three this fall and of the five quilts I entered and paid fees for, none was accepted for the shows. One never knows the” why “of such rejections. Even having been a” holder” for Scholastic art compactions and being in the same room as the Judges- I sometimes could not understand that “Why” question. Judges are people with tastes and biases of their own. One time I did hear one judge say” I never accept any art with a skelton in it.” Sense I as a teacher, had used a skelton from the science room as part of a still life with my own students, I felt that sure was an unfair feeling for a judge to carry. But they are people – not gods even though they are given lots of power. Perhaps the work did not go with the others selected. Or maybe the judge did not like the design or color combinations. The artist never knows those things. My Father often said” It’s not so much what happens to you, as what you THINK about what happens to you that makes the difference.” With that in mind, the whole experience becomes one of choice. I could be angry , hurt and sad by these developments, but I choose not be be. I still feel my work is good and I am proud of what I do. I
enjoy the process and that is the important part for me. It would be nice to have someone- a judge confirm my feelings- but that is not the case at this time. Lastly, I am the one who chooses to enter the competitions. I will let time heal over the feelings and try another competition that may fit what I do a little better next time.
I spent a couple of days working with Nancy on her sky again. She is becoming quite a good painter with a sponge. She built up more clouds and the work has some real depth now. I think that we are done with this step and the quilting will add even more demention to the final. I am so proud of all the chances she takes with her work.
Asurite Foundations XX 34″ X 44″ $1100.00
Progress Report: Asurite Foundation XX This quilt was finished in June, but I have not posted it because it was an entry for one of the shows I mentioned above . One of the limitations on entry to this show was that the work was not to be shown publicly before . This quilt was lots of fun to work on and I am quite happy with it even all these mouths later. I added lots of metallic fabric in this work as well as many silks and satins.
I used some fancy yarns and threads in this work as well. I find that when I pickup the actual rock that I used as inspiration- I see more possibilities for additional pieces . Only time will tell.
This is a new technique that I am developing that is a very college like approach to quilting. I am continuing to think more in the way of color for the solutions then the type of fabric I am using. I even used an old bit of a paper quilt that was the correct color and texture for the water in this work. I used some double knit on this one as well as silk, silk paper, organza and cotton fabrics. I even did a little free motion zig zag work to add more texture to the tree. I need more practice to get that under control.
Agate I am still adding hand work to this felted work to add texture to the surface. I may have given up doing Daily’s , but I still am doing lots of hand work.
WaterMarked Sandstone I started this new Foundations Piece earlier this week. This one is loosely based on an old black and white photographic of sandstone that has watermarke erosion on it. I know the typical colors of sandstone so I am trying to stay in that limited range with this first step. I really love the texture and I am having fun planning ways to show it in this work.
New work This is a pure play piece. I am not at all sure what I am doing and have no clear idea where I am going with this. The scarps had just been in the bottom of one of my baskets and I thought they looked good together…… Quilting, crumpling and following the directions of the work may or may not help this. But I am willing to give it a bit of time and freedom to see what happens. Giving myself permission to mess up is very freeing!
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 .
Chrysanthemum 39″ X 48″ $675.00
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.
It has been a very busy two weeks for me. I not only traveled to Ottawa for four days I took a felting workshop, spent a day with Ethel making silk paper and a day painting sky with Nancy. The world around here is starting to show its fall colors as well and the days have all been wonderfully comfortable. I spent the end of the first week doing a felting workshop. We played at all the techniques we knew with each one of the participants demonstrating her expertise in different areas. Victoria taught us about nano felting as she has been doing a bit of this with her niece. All of us come with a different design approach, so they all came out very unique. Cherri really liked this method of creating felt and she ended up doing at least three pieces in this style. I was told she is making a vest for her granddaughter with some of it. One of the gals did not do wet felting but started with wool that had been felted in the washing machine and needle felted little pins with this technique. By doing this method she had lots of control and created very detailed work. She was making pins and added beads and manipulated the felt as she worked to create various textures in her pieces. I really liked the way she manipulated little wisps of wool to add nice details like the soft line of green in the leaves of the red and gray green pin. The second day we did wet felted Jelly Rolls. Mostly we created flat disk like units – but Cherri also created some plant like forms with her green felted units. After lunch I tried making felted beads and had a good time with that too. I have no goal for their use and they may rattle around the studio for a long time before they find a home- But I sure enjoyed the process. One can also do three dementional felting using the dry method. This mushroom is a great example of that. I did a little seasonal piece using a wool base and dry felted roving into the surface were I wanted the different colors to remain. It was a fun time and I enjoyed it very much. I can certainly add this technique to my work.
Then I went on my travels to Canada. I love to travel and feel it is very invigorating. Travel can open ones eyes to look at ordinary thing and pay attention to the every day. I was especially taken by the wonderful gingerbread work on this house. I might have noticed it at home, but I probably would not have taken the time to look carefully at it or take a photo. The fact that it would not appear in my life again if I did not act then helped to sharpen my vision. We went to Ottawa with the intention of visiting the museums and did that. We visited all three of the major ones there. Our fiat stop was the museum of First Peoples. It is a wonderful mix of history and the current lives of the Native Americans of Canada. By building these mock up of Traditional Northwest Tribal buildings the museum presented the totem poles in their normal settings. Inside the houses were displays of artwork again showing historic works and contempary ones as well. I found the whole day very exciting and I am sure I will soon create a work using this influence.
The next day we went to the National Art Gallery of Canada. Again it was inspiring. I have always liked the work of the Canadian seven and it was great to see the work live.
Then on Friday we visited the Museum of Natural History. The building is beautiful although it looks like it was built in the early part of the last century with its stain glass and carved wood. Some of the displays show this same old flavor but most are very current. There are lots of interactive displays and each sections also had a play area for smaller children.
I spent yesterday working with Nancy painting a sky for her quilt. It was a beautiful day to paint out doors.
We had a good base to work on top of from the first attempt two weeks before. We agreed it needs one more day to get the finial effect she wants for this portion of her quilt.
Progress Report: Harmony
Harmony 24″ X 42.5″ $370.00
This work displays the Japanise Character that stands for Harmony. That is where I got the title. The two orange silks are from Japan and I felt that this was a good way to celebrate that fact. I looked at many renditions of this character before I settled on this form. The black of the shape is all chain stitched in embroidery thread.
Sand Stone Church
Sand Stone Church 16″ X 21″ $125.00
I purchased Valerie Goodwin’s book “Art Quilt Maps” in the spring even before I took my second class with her this summer. I thought I should try to follow her instructions on how to build this type of map quilt and this project is the result. This work is based on childhood memories of a Sand Stone Church that was in the pasture next to the one my grandparents owned. My brother and I often played in the church and in the cemetery that was just up the hill from the old building. The church it’s self had no roof and the local natural stand stone was curmbeling away in some places so we felt safer in the cemetery- espiceally under the big old oak that stood in the corner. The branches were low and we could easily climb quite high in that tree. The second close up is an areal view of the gravel rural road that ran in front of my grandparents house and the farm yard around the house, plus the garage and barns.
Smoky Twilight I am enjoying using the many tints and shades of gray I have for this work. It is in the very early stages of assembly, but I think it is starting work.
Chrysanthemum I am to the free motion stitching/quilting part of this project. This work got away from me as far as size is concerned and grew quite a bit from my original plan, but that does happen from time to time. Again I am using some of Ginny’s silk in this project( the red show here)
Enjoy the colors of fall and keep your eyes open to the possibilities for ideas all around .
I have been a little under the weather this week. I have taken lots of naps and consumed a lot of water. This slowdown has helped me focus a little and think about where I am and where I want to go . I have lots of friends and I have the freedom to explore. It’s a wonderful time for me and for that I am truly Thankful.
Yesterday, I went to Nancy’s house and we spent a fun morning painting sky for one of her quilts. At the end of the time we decided that we needed to revisit this activity and so we will alter this work and try again early next week.
Progress Report: Necklace
This is the last of the necklaces that I have created flowers for. I put away the materials and will try to wear them this year. It has been fun and I may use some of the techniques to add additional textures to some quilts in the future. One can never have too many tool in the toolbox of processes.
Harmony I am filling in the symbol of Harmony with the chain stitch on the surface of this quilt. The process of doing this hand work is very calming and good for a person like me who is not in top form. It is also filling in the time that I had been doing the hand work on my Daily News project.
Chrysanthemum
I have now finished assembling this top. I think that this time I got a little carried away with the strange angles . It is not at all flat at this point and I hope that I can press it into that condition. I may have to open some seams and add or subtract to do that process. I am not convinced that this is the up position for this work either. I will do the look for a flat surface and rotate thing for a while before I go forward to the quilting step.
I want to tell my readers in advance that I will be away next week and there will be no post. I will be back and the next entry will be Oct 2.
When one needs ideas for solutions or inspiration I believe one has some choices. I was struggling with part of the Stone Church project. There is a old cemetery that is a part of that area and I wanted to include it in my piece. But I was having trouble so I took a walk in the near by cemetery to refresh my mind. I was surprised by the presence of the deer. There were two actually and the cemetery is surrounded by city on all four sides. Looking at how compact these stones and how much they overlapped has helped me formulate a solution to the work I must do on the project.
Sometimes the ideas are as much about paying attention as anything else. There was a FAB meeting at my house this week. Folks showed their work and Victoria is moving along nicely with this quilt. She got inspired by Ginny’s silks that she had purchased a few weeks ago. They are shown here in the orange and gray strip. ( I got inspired by that same orange silk) I think the shadow of the leaf looks wonderful too. She also showed a top that she had assembled for a bed quilt that she is making for her new house. I am so impressed by the large number of prints she uses and the colors. I would not have put that strong orange with the turquoise myself- but I love the combination. So by paying attention to this little surprise I now have a jumping off color combination to try in the future. The real trick here is to note the surprises and in my case write them down. I do that in my idea journal and it helps me when I need to get going with a new piece.
Progress Report:
Foundations XXI Elsies Stone – Cape Cod Rock 43″ X 44″ $595.00
Foundations XXI Elsie’s Stone- Cape Cod Rock The Road Less Traveled
I am finally done with this project. I love all the texture on the surface of this wonderful stone. I am very grateful that Elsie gave me this parting gift. The many fascists of its surface with the limited colors make it fascinating to me. I think I could revisit this rock and work from a different side too.
I used yarn , nylon netting and lots of torn fabric bits to produce the colors and textures. There is also my favorite silk paper at work on this piece.
The Road Less Traveled 35″ X 45″ $535.00
The Road Less Traveled
I started this quilt in Rosalie Daces Color class at QBL. I have finally completed the process. I used many of the techniques she taught us. I did insert slender curved lines into sections. I let colors “bleed” or flow across seam lines to make connections. I used raw edges to add texture and I hand embroidered across parts of the surface to draw sections together. Even using all thoughts techniques I did not use all the techniques that she taught us. As a teacher she has a lot to share and she does so very willingly.
I enjoyed using these
earthtones and I will continue to pursue the techniques she taught. I am still not happy with size of my slender inerts- so there is work to do there.
Stone Church
I already mentioned the bit with the cemetary so I will not cover that again. I added lots of machine lines on the roads as they were gravel and I remember how there seemed to be lots of “tracks” of the tries on them. I remember too that Grandmother Ester liked to drive down the middle and only pulled the turquoise ford over when she could see a car coming toward her.
Harmony I am done with the assembly of the form of this quilt. I decided to use the character that
represents Harmony for the central focus and so far I have just quilted around that shape to create the quilting pattern. I want to fill in the character with black hand stitches/ patterns so it stand out. But I have not come up with the correct stitch to do that job yet. So I keep looking in books and paying attention to the world around me and hope that I will find inspiration. Until then the project will just hang in the studio awaiting the correct solution.
New Work In Valeri’s Goodwins class she had a do a fabric ” sketches” of 4″ X 6″ before we started work. So in keeping with using the best the teachers have to offer I made the sketch first. This is the one I selected as my jumping off place. I wanted to use the big printed flower I created a few weeks ago as a big part of this work. Now I am in the process of pinning up parts that I think will work to do the job. I have split the two flowers apart and added parts of a third to the design. Very few parts are connected or solid in its position at this point . This is fun but scary part of the process- but I need the challenge.
Daily News This project is finally complete. I have now sewn all the blocks closed and will continue to play with placement for as long as the process interests me. This will be the last post where the project will appear because at this point all the finished units have been appeared at least twice and some more times then that. I have enjoyed doing a daily sewing pieces and it is very true that the whole is made of of lots of little parts. If I had started out with the intention of making 180 hand embroidered blocks I do not think I would have done it. But by making small manageable units- it as a doable task. I have been encouraged by Susan to submit this idea as an airticle for Quilting Arts so that is my next project.
The last fling of summer is over and the kids are all back in school. I find that this time offers me a great time to reorganize as I prepare for the fall and up coming winter. I need to sort a bit as I put away the shorts and summer tees. It is also a good time for me to look critically at what I really use. Like that wonderful divided basket that I thought I would use to carry dinner things to the patio that I never even pulled out of the cupboard this summer. The back end of my station wagon is full of items like that- all perfect ally good, but not necessary to my life that I am now passing along. It is very easy to pile up too much stuff- so now I feel a bit lighter and look forward to doing a bit of wall painting next week.
I hung a solo show at Man in the Moon Gallery in Kings Ferry on Friday last week. There are about a dozen works in this show all featuring the golds, oranges and browns of fall. I had a good time preparing and hanging the show.
Tuesday this week was the first Tuesday of the month and so I had meetings. The QuEG’s had wonderful things to share.
Angela is creating a wonderful hand embroidered baby quilt for her first grand child. The theme is Australian birds and animals. The Kookaburra is one of them. She is doing a beautiful job .
Barb is creating family history works with bits of hand work from her relatives.
Linda is quilting away on a very colorful lap quilt to keep her knees comfortable this winter. I think these colors will keep summer memories worm too.
Liz kindly modeled my latest fabric flower necklace at the meeting. I thank her for that. I only have one more to complete.
She also has been taking a
watercolor class and did some wonderful work in that area as well.
Then in the evening, I went off to the Diva meeting. This time of year seems to make many quilters want to dye. Both Sally and Ruth put in time on that topic this month. They both show their individuality even in their dying colors and techniques. I love that. Sally is also putting together a small accordion book to send to Elsie who has moved away. Everyone is adding a small 4″ X 6″ page to the work. The wood cut is by Liese and the Fimo bird is by Donna. The book will be sent to her when it is complete. It is so very thoughtful of Sally to come up with this idea.
Liese is working on wonderful project using Valerie Goodwin’s book, Art Quilt Maps her jumping off point. This is her start of her work displaying her favorite place in the whole world. This is just an early stage she says and she has yet to add houses and churches and trees to the work. I find it fascinating and look forward to seeing how it grows and changes with her efforts.
Anne is working on several things. One is a block exchange that she is creating wonderful reverse applique leave blocks for. I like the fact that she has pieced the fabric for the appliqued units she is using to create her leaves. They will all be unique that way.
Susan made us all laugh with her big head parrot choris. She made the removable paper mache’ heads over little soft bodied little creatures that she had picked up at garage sales for about ten cents a piece. What fun.
Noel does wonderful work with silk and this is a close up of some of her style. She too dyes many of her fabrics to get the tones and shades she wants. They are just luscious and I can hardly keep my fingers off of them. She really is a master of curved piecing.
I feel so very fortunate to be a part of such strong artistic groups of women.
Progress Report: The Road Less Traveled I am still doing the hand and machine work on this piece. I am doing lots of fly stitch as well as chain and ladder stitches on this one.
Stone Church This work has not appeared in a while. I did not know what I wanted to do with it. Like Liesi it is based on a memory of a location. I was stuck so I looked again in Valerie Goodwin’s book and decided to push forward. I painted the church on the organza and and then I carefully placed dark fabrics behind the opening in the decaying structure. It is getting there but the concept is not quite in place yet. Some work just takes lots of time.
New Work This is a close up of the quilt using the orange kimono fabric I purchased a few weeks ago. I am almost ready to start quilting it. I thought I knew what I wanted to do and had picked out some wonderful Chinese Characters to use as my pattern – then I realized – this is Japanese material- not Chinese. I will keep thinking.
Daily News I am still working on finishing the blocks for this project. But I can see the end of the process now. I am still adding/ subtracting and altering the units daily and that is why there is so much size in the photos. I do not always stand at the same distance from one day to the next.
Hello,
on Sunday so they did not meet. The QuEG’s gals had lots to share. Sally did this fun little landscape to give to a friend who let her stay on the lake this summer. There is lots of machine 
work here as she always applies a lot of that.
Christmas too and creating little machine drawn mini images 6″ X 8″ in the seasonal vain.
good to me.
so there were lots of wonderful dyed works to share too! This shot of one of Linda’s fabrics shows how the print paste breaks down one the screen with each print. Seeing all our 
works together sure made me aware of how we all have our own unique color sense as well as style. I hope we do some more of this technique because I was so happy with the color that I achieved 
in this workshop. Now the real work begins when one uses the fabric as a start or works back into it…….. I think they will need to hang in my line of sight for a while before I know what to do.
Work I still have not come up with a title for this work. I have started to stitch down the key pads however. It is a fun and very slow process. I will work on that this week.
friend Donna. I am to the free motion quilting step now after spending over two hours crawling around on the floor pin basting it on Monday. I wore my knee pads but the knees still hurt. I am following the strong lines in the print for the quilting design . This shot shows the top( green, gold white and red) with the back folded over so one can also see how the quilting pattern is coming along.
. In actually it is about 500 yards long and a very humbling sight. I added lots of yarns and ribbons to the surface of the quilt as there were lots of little fractures and lines of thin deposited 
