Category Archives: 25 Million Stitches Project

25 Million Stitches Project, Cardinals, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Killdeer, Mom VI, Robins

Winter

Hello-
Snow continues to fall here in central New York. We just shovel and drive with care. This week there was a Finger Lakes Fiber Artist meeting. It was good to see folks even if there were not a lot of gals in attendance. Pat had three pieces – two big and one small to share. This is a close up of one.

This is Bev’s newest work. It is all pin basted for quilting now.

 

 

 

Noel is back to working with silks in an effective new approach.

 

 

 

Liz is doing lots of hand work and she asked for advice on how to quilt this great piece.

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a FAB meeting this week. It was good to see these gals again too. Sharon is busy finishing the last commission in the series of 7. These little flowers will be added to the base she has already produced.

I did get my two pieces for the 25 Million Stitches project mailed off this week too.

Project Report: Two Cardinals This work is 10″w X 16″ t. I am really enjoying doing the free motion drawing of birds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Killdeer This work is 19″w X 12″ t. I had to do some small modifications to is after I showed it to the gals at the FLFA meeting. The birds faded into the background too much until I added some dark to their backs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall Robins This work is 24″w X 18″h. I did end up adding the third adult robin to make the composition work. Because I had done five other birds before it only took and hour and 15 min to do the new bird. Experience does help.

Exploring Blue  This work is going along slowly as it is all done by hand. I am enjoying working away attaching all the little units I have pinned down.

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood- Move to Carroll

At the end of second grade we moved from Columbus Junction to Carroll Iowa. About a six hour drive from the part of Iowa that my Grandparents lived. Dad got a new job as a high school principal in a larger school there. We moved into the Park View Apartments that summer . The apartment was a half level with the windows on ground level. It was dark. A girl a little older named Joanna lived in the apartment above ours. She taught me to play the card game “War” that summer and we spend many an afternoon at that activity. At the back of the lot behind the apartments there was a tall hedge and just in front of that was a huge sand box.
We spent a lot of time playing there as well. Across the street in front of the apartments was a big city park. There was a band shell there and on most Friday evenings there was a concert. Gene and I went with Mom and Dad to listen and play in the dark. The public swimming pool was across the park. Mom did not know how to swim so she signed up both of us for lessons. I remember putting my clothing in a numbered wire basket and pinning a safety pin with the same number on it to my suit to get my clothing back. The one had to walk through a very cold chlorine wash to get out to the pool area. One day we were late and so I ran across the park bare footed. I cut my foot on a piece of glass. I had to set out for that lesson . I did learn how to swim that summer and passed the test at the end of lessons as did Gene. Most days Dad went off to Adams street and worked with Grandpa Howard and some twins from the high school on the house. I remember seeing the place the day they removed the forms from the pored cement basement walls. They were tall I though. My next clear memory was visiting the house when they were framing the main floor. The furnace was also being put in at that time. I was fascinated by the furnace man because he could do tricks. He was a “ sward shallower” of sorts.   At least he could swallow those long slender strips of metal that were used between the joints of the heating ducks. He was not fooling me as I walked around him to view from all sides. We moved into the basement before school started. Mom and Grandpa worked on the upstairs that fall and winter to finish the house.

Keep Creating

Carol

25 Million Stitches Project, Birds, Childhood Memories, Collage, Drawing, Sandpipers, Summer Robins, Thread Painting

On the Go

1 Comment

Hello,

I am home from my travels to Florida to help with Susan’s recovery. In the fifteen days of my stay I saw a lot of growth on her part.

 

She progressed for a support forher broken wrist on her walker to using a cane some of the time. She mastered use of the stairs with the walker on her own. She went form house bound to an outing where she went nine blocks. I am quite proud of her.    This is a shot of her with the stamps she made and printed one afternoon.

 

 

Laura came many times and we worked in a parallel fashion.  She is and excellent water color painter in my mind and this is her painting of me one day.

 

 

I started the Childhood Memories project because of Susan’s suggestion so I  brought them along so she could see them.   I had never laid then all  out before and was a bit surprised  by the size.

 

I enjoyed the green and all the flowers as well as the bird song during my visit.    We worked every day on art of some sort. Chris came   one day to visit and we did collage.

 

 

 

 

I did a lot of collage work at Susan’s.    Here are about half of them.

 

 

 

 

 

On the Friday before I left I went to a play day at Barbara’s. Beth had all the fixings for making knows and we had a good time creating the little guys.

 

Here are the finished little guys.   Left to right – mine  Barbara’s , Beth’s,  Georgia’s.      It was a fun day.

 

 

 

 

Georgia also shared her paintings. I like what she is doing.

 

 

 

 

Tue was the first one of Feb so there was a QuEGs meeting. Sue Ellen was busy and made this great pillow case that will be for sale in Cazenovia at the Artisans.

 

 

Susan is working on these four 12″ pieces for QSDS this summer. The challenge was/is 1 2 3 4.

 

 

 

Progress Report: Sandpipers  I got this work nearly completed before I went away. The birds are all stitched down and I only need to stretch it.

 

 

Summer Robins I finished the machine drawing and washed out these too. I am not happy with the placement yet and may even need to create an additional bird to be happy with it. I am still shifting and testing.

Drawings
I did draw every day and have a lot on new work. There were two specific evenings where that was the soul purpose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did lots of little collages too,

25 Million Stitches I am glad to have finished this work while I was visiting. I will press it and add the label and then it will be ready for shipping.

New work I did purchase some beautiful linen while I was away and started this bit of hand work as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- First and Second Grades
The early school years for me meant that we made a special trip to the local drug store to bye workbooks along with new pencils, tablets  and crayons. I stared first grade with a bad case of Poison Ivy. There were lots of weeping soars on my skin and the teacher sure made me aware if how repulsive she found that. I did wear a lotion, but by late morning before I went home for lunch it was really bad. My parents did take me off to Iowa City to see a specialist and that really helped and cleared up the problem.   From that experience, I learned it is really hard to get beyond first impressions. My only other memory of first grade was the difficulty I had with word regition and spelling. I did the work in the spelling book and Mom spent time quizzing me. She even made red construction paper flash cards. I especially remember straggling with “ What – Where -Were- When and Why”. The reading technique in that school at  that  time that was used was one of shape recognition- not individual letters or sounding out  the words.  I am sure that did not help me at all. The teacher was so frustrated with me that I got spanked in front of the class for each word I misspelled on the spelling tests. I was so shamed by the whole thing I did not tell Mom until years later and she was appalled. Mom worked with me on addition and subtraction too. She made up games with playing cards were I had to add every two cards that were turned over.  The game  was modified for subtraction, having to always subtract the smaller number from the larger one. Later the game changed to one of color to determine the process. If I drew red first it was addition and if I drew black first it was subtraction. I really got the logic of mathematics and did well in that subject all through school.
Despite my trouble with spelling I was advanced to the second grade. That class room was up stairs on the left. We learned cursive that year and I was so very proud of myself even though I did not think it was fair that Joe Fox got the same red star for his name that I did for mine – Carol Mc Elhinney. An early lesson on the” fairness factor” in  life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Toys
I have good memories of the toys that we got as we grew up and where we lived when we got them. Gene and I got a little red folding table and  a two chairs set while we lived in the Junction. We had a few meals on it and played many a game at that table. Grandfather Howard made a wooden cupboard with a pullout drawer that was painted blue for Christmas while we lived there. It was so very sturdy that it survived through my child hood and Wendy’s. It was here in the house when Alexis was little but I do not think she played with it. I recall two different “Play School” products. One was a red plastic clock with white hands that one could adjust. The numbers were pale blue and could be removed to show minutes underneath. I got that concept quickly as a result I think. The second Play School toy was a balance scale with hooks on both ends. There were lots of blue plastic numbers with loops on the tops of them that were all of increasing size and weigh. The goal was to teach values and have the arm of the scale be strait. We also had various games like Kootie and card games. My first memorable baby doll was a Betsy Wetsy. She came with a beautiful white dress, eyes that opened and closed and wonderful short, soft, curly brown hair. She took a bottle that was filled with water and then wet her diaper. I remember wanting her – perhaps due to TV adds- but quickly tired of the novelty. The doll bed soon gave way to a home for my Tony Doll that I loved. She had a stiff body and limbs with eyes that opened and closed and hair one could comb. She could even stand alone if one balanced her correctly.   Mom made lots of changes of cloth for her and I still have that doll. Mom made soft dolls too. Gene had a sock little boy with green stripe pajamas that was called Mousy. I had an Aunt Jemina made with a pair of Dad’s brown socks and she had a red poke-a-dot dress and scarf along with a white apron. Both of them survived to recent times and although gave Jemina to a friend who collects dolls, I still have Mousy.

Keep Creating

Carol

25 Million Stitches Project, Childhood Memories, Coral Sea, Creative Assistants, Curvie Cuts, Experiments, Felt Work, Jumping Off Place, Three Grosbeaks

New Year 2020

Happy 2020,
I hope that good things to come to all who read this blog. 2019 certainly was a full and good year for me. With trips to Mexico and Australia as the highlights. I still have lots of ideas to explore for both of those events. They are a big part of my To Do list for this new year. After giving it a lot of though this week I think my color emphasis for this year will be Red. It is not a color that I go to often although I do like it. I hope to use more and started out this week in the studio with at in mind.   A little challenge.

Progress Report: Jumping Off Place this piece is 30″w X 15″ t. Angela gave me a work pack full of goodies last spring and I finally got it all together. It is fully my own design using mostly the things in the pack plus a lot of my own stuff that I thought went along well. The packet was to be a starting place – hence the name. I did have fun.

Three Grosbeaks This work is 16″w X 15″ t. I needed to do a little free motion machine drawing this week and the birds are the result. here is a red wool base that I felted into to  build this work.    It fits into my new  Red goal.

The leaves are silk paper.

 

 

 

 

 

25 Million Stitches Project This project is 15″w X 25″l. I will send it off to the California add this week. I have an idea for a second and may do that too as I am still quite concerned about the kids separated from their parents on our boarder.   After sewing the work to my friend Sharron  she pointed out two spelling errors.  So I will be doing some reworking on this project before I send it out.  It is goo to have friend who are honest with me and will help me do a better job.

 

 

 

 

Coral Reef I am doing the hand embellishing on this project now. Building the patterns on the sea horses is fun.

 

 

 

Experiment- Lone Tree  I had the roving out for the background  of  the birds and though why now see if one can free motion work on top of it? I drew the tree on the wash- away and put a layer of nylon netting, then the roving, topping that with a second layer of wash- away.

 

 

It seems to be effective as I did so much stitching. I will place it on this rocky landscape that I created last summer in class.

 

The clouds are silk paper too made  with silk batting so they are courser.

Creative Assistants I can see the end of creating these little faces as football season is drawing to a close. There will be a few more this weekend I am sure.

 

 

Felted Landscape The Machine Felter is still out on the desk so I ma using it. I did purchase some roving at the Plow Shears show and it was a good starting place for this.

 

Then I did some felting to try a water fall like felt base.    It is not very effective yet so  I will work with it.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I tried mixing  roving with fabric to build a surface.   I feel there is potential here but is is not quite it either.      I may have gotten carried away with the color play a bit too.

 

 

 

 

More Felting As usual I was having so much fun I just kept building backgrounds. These two have not been under the machine’s influence yet. I have only hand punched them. One of my next jobs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drawing I have been working to improve my drawing skills  by drawing for 10 min every morning after I do my  Morning Pages.      This Thorn-bug represents about  four days with my ball   point pen.  It is a good way to start my studio work every day.

 

 

 

Childhood Memories  Geysers, Putrefied Trees and Bears

When we were in Yellowstone that summer, we visited all the Geyser Basins. Gene always ran ahead on the board walks. I remember Old Faithful as erupting about every half  hour in those days as compared to the 40 to 60 min. intervals now. But then things change. Norris geyser basin was much louder too. Growler howled so loud one could not even shout and be heard. Even in the parking lot a bus had to honk at us to let us know he was coming up behind us. Mom pointed out the sign for Handkerchief Pool- ( it was dead ) – too many folks throwing their handkerchiefs into the pool and watching them rise again to the surface had clogged it up. Mom taught us to never take anything away with us from the park except photos. “Leave no evidence of your passing” was the rule. We visited the Petrified Tree sight. It is a big tree that is about 20 feet tall and six feet in diameter. The whole thing is surrounded by a metal fence like a zoo exhibit. It seems there were three trees at one time( I later saw an old post card to confirm that ) and folks just helped themselves to a little souvenir until two were gone. We did hike the Petrified Forest trail and got to see lots of petrified trees and stumps. Mom took lots of photos on that walk and we got to touch the rock trees as well.
One cannot talk about Yellowstone with out thinking about bears. We did experience lots of “bear jams”. I remember seeing one bear family with the two cubs up in a tree. One day near the end of summer the trail crew brought a bear trap into the housing area. It was a corrugated pipe, like the kind used under roads, with metal bars welded to one end and a trap door on the other. I learned that they trapped a “problem bear “ in the cage and then released in the back country. They did tag the “problem creature” and if he continued to cause problems they would have to eliminate it. One of our trips was on a dirt road along the back side of Yellowstone Lake to the dump. We watch 8 bears foraging there from the safety of the car. I know that the garbage is no longer stored that way and trash cans are much improved. The trash  barrels are buried and all have heavy latched lids now days so bears can not get inside.
One other memorable adventure was to Cody Wyoming for the forth of July parade. Gene and I both got cowboy hats that day. Mine was red and his was black. We wore them nonstop from then until the end of summer. There were lots of horses with fancy saddles and dressed up riders in the parade. There were Indians in full regalia and floats too. In the afternoon we went to the Rodeo. I remember the sun was very hot and Dad finally bought a bottle of pop that Gene and I shared. I found the calf roping a bit cruel and rooted for the horses when it came to the bronc riding. Gene and I fell asleep on the way home. I recall Dad tucking me in and noticing that the full moon was lined up with the circular window in the door of the trailer. A coyote was howling too. It was a good day.

I hope the best for everyone in 2020 .

Keep Creating

Carol

 

25 Million Stitches Project, Childhood Memories, Creative Assistants, Owl, Scrap Happy Quilts, small god

Happy Kwanzaa

 

Hello,
I hope the holidays are being filled with joy and delight for all of you. Kwanza begins today and for those who celebrate it, enjoy. This time of year one  takes stock of all the people who mean something to each one of us. As I write each holiday card I think of old friends and miss those who are on longer part of my life.

This week was full of many for me with lots of family events and for that I am truly grateful. I did finish Nick Quilt on Tues eve so I really meant my goal.


Progress Report: Owl quilt for Nick This queen sized quilt proved to be a struggle when it came to appliqueing the owl down. It is difficult to roll the quilt tight enough to fit under the arm of the machine and still be able to turn it to do the machine work. Nick and Haily did seem to like it however.

 

 

 

 

 

Small God      This work is 23″ W X 28.5 “ long. I found the blue woven fabric when I was pulling fabric for the back of Nicks ‘s Owl and set it aside.

So it did not take long to add it to the sides of the already stitched piece.  I did the drawing for this work over two years ago.   Sometimes I just have to wait for the fabric to show up to complete the task.

 

Scrap Happy I just keep inching along on this project. I surely will finish it soon.

 

 

 

 

 

25 Million Stitches Project

I am working away on the figures now and only need to add the work HOPE in the center of the circle and complete the figures.

 

 

 

Creative Assistants These little guys just keep rolling off the work table. I will need to stop and count sometime soon.

 

 

 

Childhood Memories: Yellowstone Critters
Mom was a continuous explore and   constant teacher. We learned the wild flowers in Yellowstone just like back in the Junction. I could quickly identify Bear Grass, Fire Weed and Shooting Stars. We walked up the high way one day and spent the afternoon exploring a lily pond. Gene just wanted to throw in rocks, something he seemed to driven to do with any body of water. One day we saw a solo Buffalo in a small meadow off the road. Mom charged us to take note of how high the buffalo was in relationship to a small tree there. On a later day we stopped the car and walked across the meadow up to the tree. I realized that my sense of scale was way off as I could only reach the branch that seemed to be level with the buffalo’s hump, if Dad boosted me a bit. They are very big animals!

On one of our outings we saw a Porcupine. He was very shy and ran away before Mom could get a photo.

One of our hikes revealed a Fire Ant mound. The nest was built of pine needles to help it suede water, Mom said.  The mound also made it possible for some of the aunts to weather the winter.  The mound  was so tall it reached about Gene’s waste and was three feet across. The bite of those ants hurt a lot too.
One of our outings  was up to a fire lookout station. The station was above the tree line and one could see across tree tops and peeks in all directions. There was a large brass device in the center of the room that cold be turned in any direction with a little window that the ranger then lined up with smoke so the fire could be pinpointed. The Range also gave us his binoculars and pointed out a Balled Eagle nest with 3 young all brown birds in it. They do not get white head feathers until they are three years old.   They were only six weeks old he told us.    Yellowstone  was a great experience for me as a kid.

I am stating to think about my goals for 2020.

Keep Creating

Carol