Category Archives: Twilight Crows

Childhood Memories, Coral Sea II, Daily Practice, Drawing, Horsetails, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Scrap Happy Quilts, Stencels, Twilight Crows

Quiet Spring

Hello,
This week I seem to have finished up lots of things. Clearing the decks is always a good thing in my mind.   It is like the raking I have done this week to clear out the gardens for new growth.   One needs to move on.

Yesterday Liz ands  I went to “Sew What”, a recycle sewing supplies shop in Auburn NY .   It felt great spending my money to up cycle materials that other sewers no longer needed.     I know that as a society we are generating far too much material that can easily end up on land fills  or polluting the water.  That is really only  a poor solution for our planet.    This resel/recycle shop is so much better!      Liz purchase two quilting hoops as they were so inexpensive and she did not know what would work best for her.    She also sorted through there button    bin to find some 50’s buttons to make a bracelet for herself.   As you can see I made a bigger purchase- but it is all stuff that I can and will use.  I used the pre wrapped bobbin thread today in my machine when I did the illustration  for Childhood.    They had a wide selection of sewing related materials, yarns and books.    It is a good resource and I will donate to it as I sort through my studio and support it by stopping and purchasing materials that I will use in my work.    We all need to take care of this world and recycling is one of the best ways we can all do our small part.

Pixies was the only group that meant this week. Susan challenged us to draw last week and these two are my answer to that. The Woman is my Mom.

 

 

These are my favorite red shoes.

 

 

 

Progress Report: Coral Sea II This work is 16 X 18. I enjoyed embellishing this work. The fish are made from fancy ribbons so they will not fray.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twilight Crows This work is 40″ X 48″. I cut all the stencils in the past and just used them together in a different arrangement this time. Most of the other fabric are altered as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt # 10 This work is 37″ X 51″. I so enjoy just putting fabrics together to create a new unit. I always seem to make extra filler and I am challenging myself to use that as the starting off point for then next one.

 

 

Scrap Happy. I finished this scrap happy this week. I plan to pass it on to my granddaughter.

 

 

 

 

 

Poppy Fields I was frustrated by this work and Liz suggested that I stamp on it to build up the contrast. I am much happier with it now. I plan to push forward now.

 

New base I built this base of all silks. It proved to be a challenge to get them all strait. I plan to use it for a base for my next leaf exploration piece.

 

 

 

 

Horsetails This quilt is a result of a dream I had this week. I have no idea where it came from, but I am enjoying the process. I have not tried couching poplr fleece before.

 

 

 

Daily Practice I am done stitching all the units down now and moving on to the background. I am about one forth done with that step on this section.

 

Stencils   I cut and printed some new and stencils that I mixed with some other ones.  A fun way to build more complexity in my work.

 

Childhood Memories – Sophomore Year II
I was always good at sports and   loved the gym class that meant alternate days with the Health class. Indiana is a big basketball state and Muncie Central was a real sports  power house .They had won the state   Basketball championship several times and for  two years in a row before I attended. I was looking forward to playing basketball in high school, so when  the school  morning announcement   made no mention of girls  basketball try-outs, Iwas  baffled.  After  the second day announcement of boys try-outs, I went to the Principal’S office and asked. The Vice Principal told me that” We don’t do that, because its not “ Lady-Like”. When I asked Dad about this, because I knew he had coached girls ball, he just laughed. “ Carol,” Dad said, “ There is only one gym and if there is a girls team, that would cut the practice time for boys in half.” That realization made me quite angry. I also realized that the cards were stacked against me and there was little I could do. I sort of worked on the issue of girls sports with Miss Anderson and by the time I was a senior there was a girls Track team and I was on it. No threat to the boys with that sport. We had the hand me down uniforms from the boys team. I was the base for the relay team and we won several races. I do have one ribbon from that activity.    I took synchronized S swimming at the YMCA as my  fall Junior year  physical ed class and joined that team. I was glad that having  straight hair was popular as the class was just before lunch and my hair was dry by the time my first class started. There was no travel for the swimming team and we did only  two performances . Despite the lack of outside support, I did have fun. I can still do all the fun moves we learned like  the clam shell and star fish.
> Lunch was a full hour and I  often at in the Cafeteria .   Sometimes I spent some of my lunch hours playing Chess with the Chess Club  that met  in one corner of the big room. We were also allowed to leave campus at noon to eat in the community. I got in trouble financially with that in October . I went with a couple of other gals to the Woolworths counter and  where we ate lunch. The cost of one Woolwoth lunch was more then a whole weeks work of lunch from the school lunch room. I should have realized early on – but the social aspect of it captured me. The last week of Oct I had only 15  cents in my pocket. Just enough to purchase milk at school at three cents a box for the week. So I stopped going to lunch with the “in crowd” and carried peanut butter sandwiches that week. I needed to learn that lesson. Being downtown also presented other temptations. There were three bookstores in the downtown area and I used them to purchase many paper back books. I know I spent money on every copy of an Edger Rice Burrows book I could find. Charm bracelets were all the rage at this time and I often checked out jewelry stores for charms for my self and gifts for friends Birthdays. My friend Ann’s parents owned a jewelry store there too. I did go several times and looked at charms there, but found they were just a little bit more expensive than the other stores, so they did not get much business from me. I still have my three bracelets that include charms from all the states I had lived in and some of my interests,   another bracelet that is all gifts , and a third , witch was the last one I built and it is very eclectic with a small Opal, a cowboy, a part of scissors  and a graduation hat , among other things.

Please take good care of yourselves
> Carol

 

 

Childhood Memories, Coral Sea II, Daily Practice, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Twilight Crows

Earth Day

1 Comment

Hello,
Happy Earth Day 2021. I got up to a fresh dollop of snow this morning. The Hosta were just coming up outside my window and now they are covered in white. Mother Nature and Old Man Winter are at odds I guess.   It is a good time to consider how important this planet is to our existence.     We do need to care for it as there are no alternatives.

QuEG’s, FAD, and Pixies all got together via Zoom. I am happy to be saving the fuel it takes to go to meetings, but I do miss seeing folks face to face. I did use my paint brushes that I had created for Pixies. Here are a few of the more successful ones.

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report- Lap Quilt #9 This work is 37″ X 63″. I used mostly my altered fabrics on this piece. There are only two commercials. I am enjoying making these little works as there is no pressure from anyone to do them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twilight Crows I finally got this top all assembled.   I used several pieces of my hand dyed along with commercial fabrics here.   There are also several types of silks and syntheticts in this top.   I will layer and quilt it in the next few days.

 

 

 

Coral Reef II This hand work piece is nearing completion too. I enjoyed adding the fish as they give it an extra feel of life.  The fish ar cut from metallic ribbon so they do not fray and need lots of stitching.

Poppy Field I did the grass the other day. Then I felt defeated. There is not enough contrast and from a few feet away it looks like nothing is going on. I was ready to toss it. But after talking with Liz, I have a few things to try to see if I can save the work. Only time will tell.

Daily Practice This work continues to grow each evening. I have learned that I do not want to do another piece for this project that is this large. If I have another base this big I will tear it in half before I begin working. It is too difficult to see all of the surface at once in ones lap.

New Work     I started a new lap quilt today.  This is the first step were I lay out colored blocks in places I think they might work in for the piece.   I will add strips in 2.5″ and 4.5″ around these blocks to unite them and build the top.

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- Sophomore Year

 In the fall of 1963, I started attending Muncie Central High School in downtown Muncie, Indiana.   That change presented me with lots of changes.    For the first time I caught the bus at the end of our driveway and went for a 20 minute ride to school.     To my mind, the building was huge- it took up a whole city block.   It was crowded as it was the only high school in town.  A new high school called South Side opened the following fall and cut way down on the crowding.    I was the last stop on the bus route and the first one off in the evening.     My best friend Margaret Dunn however was the first one on and last off in the evening.  She often saved me a seat near the front of the bus.  Her ride was an hour and a half and she often was done with homework when she got there.    She calculated that by the time she ended high school she had ridden the bus 12 days going to and from school.    The first day started by going to a home room of fellow Sophomores and we remained together for all three years.  We were selected and seated in alphabetical order.   I was seated between Mike Merl and Marla Miller.   Marla and I became friends and  we were initiated into  Honor Society together.   As it turned out she and I were both commuters at Ball State and in the same class of 350 freshman there in the fall.  We agreed to  sit  in the front row to make sure we stayed awake as the class was at 7:00 am  three days a week.  When class was over at 8 we went together to the  Music Library to study and hang out until our next class.    There is more story there, but I will hold that until later.     In the first home room meeting we filled out lots color coded cards.  Name, add, phone number, date of birth etc…….   Then the teacher collected them ; the white card, the blue card, the canary card, the violet card and the salmon card .    We got locker cards and we were given our class order assignment after she went over the  rule handbook   with us.   We also returned to the same room for  standard tests and to  get class assignments and fill out the same cards in our Jr and Senior years.     There were few changes over the three years, but a few folks disappeared.  I did not have class with any of the folks in the home room or any of the friends from Middle School.  I wrote in my diary that I was not happy about that.

   The Geometry class that Dad had insisted that I take was my first one every day.  I remember the yellow paper back book that we used.     It was complex, but logical.  I do not recall needing help from Dad either.     I think I got mostly A’s and B’s in that class.     My second   period class was  World History.    There was lots of geography in that class too.    Period three was Art class.     I recall that there was much more Art History in this version of art class.    We studied Cubism and did paintings in that style.  Later in the year we studied Alexander Calder.    We made big mobiles out of the big metal cans from the Calfeteria. I remember making a Mandolin  out of one of the cans and punching holes  with a nail to outline the hole  and the edges of the instrument.   I used wire to show the strings.     I also make a bunch of flowers out of wire and balanced those elements with others to make my mobile.  It was huge.  When the teacher hung them from the lights , mine was quite low and some one attached a note to one of the flower stems  that said “ Take me down!”

Fourth period I had Nursing class with Mrs Webster.    The only thing I recall from  that class was learning about Syphilis.   The images of its effects were so gross, that I swore I would never kiss any body in my life.   She did scare us  straight- for a while at least.

Stay safe,.

Carol