Category Archives: Childhood Memories

3X3, Childhood Memories, Diva Meetings, Finger Lakes Fiber Artist Group, Hand work, Old and New - Purple and Blue, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Summer visitor

Hello
I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July. We where graced with a visitor in our neighbors yard in the middle of the day. Mother Nature is very abatable.

 

 

 

 

There were lots of meetings this week. Sat was the Finger Lakes Fiber Artist group meeting. Pat who had taught at The Surface and Design Symposium in Ohio for both week shared this little work by Sherri  ( she was behind me in class) that she purchased at the auction. She said it was based on advice about how to get a baby so go to sleep by one of the older gals at the symposium.
The meeting was a good one and folks had a lot to share.  Regina had lots to share.   The one at the top is her  3X3 piece.  We sure had fun with that challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joyce  had a lot to share too. the two at the bottom are her experiments  with Potato Dextrose  that she did at the spring retreat.

 

Noel    made this top in Pat’s class at The symposium.    She had this work quilted by the Diva meeting on Tue along with several others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sharon  is really stretcher as she works on this commission of 6 quilts using the clothing of a woman who has passed away.

 

Maureen  displayed here banner that is 8 feet tall by 24 ” wide.  It hung at the Women’s exhibit in Huston.

 

 

 

 

 

Angela had a wonderful contribution.    She has finished these three pieces based on her husbands sax keys.    The blue one will be at QBL  in two weeks.

 

 

 

The Schweinfurt has a wonderful set of shows on recycled work in the main galleries as well.   

 

This artist is working totally with packing materials and labels.   I love how he has used a box as he frame.

 

 

 

This artist built all her pieces from materials that she got from the city dump.      It is a fascinating  show.

The QuEG’s and Diva’s meant too. The QuEGs meeting was small with only 4 of us but we did enjoy our selves.

At Divas Noel shared the  pieces she   had  finished sense Sat..

 

 

 

 

Anne  showed a piece got some advice on one how to improve it. I love the stitching in the leaves here.

Liesa did a nice floral work. Can’t believe she will be 99 on her next Birthday and still creating! It is always stimulating and a good time.

 

 

 

 

Monday Liz and I did do a dye day. This is her piece and it is very vivid. We had trouble with our color washing out to very light last week so we added fresh dye to the paste and I hope this helps. I am washing out mine today and I will know by this eve.

 

 

Progress Report: Diminishing

I ma now quilting on this work.   Doing free motion circles is a bit of a challenge and I am having fun.

 

 

 

 

Shirt   I just keep building up the surface of this work.  I am enjoying  this handwork too.

 

 

 

 

 

Rework of Old and New- Purple and Blue

After some careful study I decided that this work needed more quilting so I am doing cant ha stitches around each block.  I think I will add some French Knots to each block as well to further the uniting of the three layers.

 

 

Childhood- Watermelon Feast

When we lived in Columbus Junction the park was next door. It was a wonderful play ground for us and we used it almost daily. One summer day the JC’s had a Watermelon Feast. I was thrilled and ate 8 slices of watermelon. Three were lots of bees in the park that day attracted to the sweet rines and I was afraid to toss mine into the bin. They few up in a swarm but were not interested in anything but the fruit just as I had not interest in dinner that night.

Keep Creating

Carol

3X3, Childhood Memories, Diminish, Geza Series, Hand work, Heat, Old and New - Purple and Blue

Summer 2019

Hello,
This week has been a full one for me Summer comes and we all get busy. I taught a workshop in silk paper making on Thur and we all seemed to have a good time. Joyce did a lot of work that she will really use in books I think.

This shot is of Regina separating the silk paper from the nylon netting.

 

 

 

 

 

This shot is of my final products. I was working on building some material for my Rock Class at QBL in two weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

I also did wash out the dyed work from the week before. It was very pale so I think we need to add more powered dye to the mix to keep the intense colors.

 

 

Progress Report: Heat This is the fourth work in the Car Wash series. It is 31″w X 38″l. I had a good start on this work when I was in Ohio.

The two orange panels are silk paper that I made before I made the trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old and New- Purple and Blue 3X3 This work is 56″ square. It is my second entry for the 3X3 show. I found the blue squares and I made the purple ones to add to them to create this work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diminished This work is the last of the Car Wash series. I was following a driver who kept hitting his breaks and the circles of his tail lights made an impression on me. I have abstracted it to suit me as you can see.

 

Shirt   I keep putting in the stitches on this work.    I  have also added a second color to the work.

 

 

 

Childhood: 4th of July 1961 Being a part of the of 4th of July parade in Grandview Iowa was always one of the joys of summer. Grandpa Howard was the organizer for yeas and that also pulled me in. In 1961 at the 100 anniversary of the start of the Civil War, that was the theme of the parade. Many kids dressed in blue shirts, union hats and carrying BB guns marched with tags around their necks listing the 27 men who went form the community to join the 19 Regiment of the Iowa Infantry. My cousin Danny, wore the sign for our great grandfather Herman Gast, who was a immigrant from Germany. Great Grandfather was discharged from Mobile in July 1865 and walked all the way home to Iowa from that point. He arrived in Oct. I wore a sign for Heneritta Wickelman, the only nurse from the county that volunteered to go. Because she was not a family member I do not know any history of that woman. It was a good experience for me as a kid.

Have a pleasant  Holiday on the 4th and I will post again on Friday next week.

Keep Creating

Carol

Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, Geza Series, Manzi, Pants Leg Monster

Quilt and Surface Design Symposium

 

Hello,
I am home form my adventure to QSDS.  Susan very generous and kindly asked me to ask me t replace her on this adventure. It was great!   This conference was held on the Columbus Collage of Art and Design  campus  in Columbus Ohio.    I was  in Independent Studio/ Master Class with Rosalie Dace for seven days. What a great way to imerce one in a new challenge. I prepared myself by choosing a new subject that I had never tried before and set a goal of trying to find ways to blur the edges of my work. I am pleased with my progress and will keep developing this train of thought.  My photos of the car wash were a great jumping off place. The class only had 7 folks in it.
Jenny was setting behind me and her simplified drawings developed into a wonderful work by the end of the week.

 

 

 

Sherry spent the week working on a quilt based on the back side of a water lily leaf.

 

 

 

Dale worked on a piece based on the blue sound in space.

 

 

 

 

Susan was preparing for a solo show that has 30 works in it. She is also writing a book and hopes to turn her quilts into posters to sell to other cooks.

 

 

Rosalie did hand work all week jumping from one project to another. This is one of my favorites.

I checked in with Victoria too and this shot shows her first piece dealing with fusing.

 

 

We took a field trip to on Wed. First stop was the Ohio Museum of Craft. I was delighted by this wonderful sunflower by Mark Wiesner. It made me recall my corrugated mask series that I did at SU.

The show was wonderful with a lot of great work.
Then it was back to the bus and off to Athens to Quilt National. No photos there of course but it was stimulating. I was looking seriously at how others blurred the edges and ways they quilted that were not the typical strait line work. I got lots of ideas.

 

Victoria’s fist class ended on Friday and she had three more works to add to her future.

 

 

There was a walk about on Friday too and I visited all the classes.

 

 

 

This is a shot of Pat Pauly’s dye class- one of five rooms.

 In keeping with my attention focus on machine work, I was fascinated by this work by Joe Cunningham that he had out for the walk about.
Victoria went on to a two day class with Joe for the weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a challenge and Pat Pauly did these works in response to that.  The folks  where to do four little 12 X 12 quilts in red, yellow blue and green.   These are Pat’s yellow and blue works.

 

 

 

This is Susan’s response to green .

 

 

 

 

 

The teachers did a lecture one evening and this is a shot of Joe on stage talking about his work.

 

 

 

 

There was one other event that needs to be mentioned, it is not offered every year.    But on Tues at 11:45 we had to evacuate our beds due to a tornado alarm warning. We all went to the basement were we  enjoyed a sleep ware fashion show while we waited to return to sleep.
The week was great and I feel like a gained a lot from being there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Geza series: Pants Leg Monster   This work  is 38.5″ w X  50″ l.     I did it in class with Rosalie. One of my faults is I try to put everything in one work and being in class stopped  me from dong that with this time.

 

 

 

 

The parts are suspended from the top with a few  “drops” running down as quilting.

 

 

 

 

Geza   Manzi         Manzi   is Zulu for  water.    I am still straggling with the quilting on this project. Again Rosalie saved me from trying to fill this with too much stuff.

 

Geza series: 3 I have not decided on a title for this work yet. It is loosly based on the bubbles sliding down the windshield and grew directly out of my photos . I had intended to put the Tyvec bubbles on top of Manzi .

This work is also my first mix of hand stitches with machine work.

 

Geza 4 I made the heat panels from silk paper before I left for Ohio. This  is early in the process and only pinned in place.

 

 

 

 

 

Geza 5 The car in front of me in the wash  kept tapping his breaks….. this work grew out of that.   I am feeling more confident just using the suggestion of the idea as my starting place then before this class.

 

 

 

 

Purple Squares At night in Columbus  I worked on my Daily Practice every eve. I got ten  blocks finished.

Childhood:  Milking     Grandfather Merritt taught me to milk when I was 10.   I was quite proud although I never developed enough stamina to to fill a bucket.   My cousin  Kelly was allergic to cow’s milk so they had goats.  Phoebe was her favorite and one day after proudly barging I could milk a cow she challenged me to milk the goat.  I almost completed the task and the goat kicked over the bucket and knocked me off my pride perch.

I had a good and full week and feel charged to go forward.

Keep Creating

Carol

3X3, Childhood Memories, Hand Bags, Icarus, Tee Shirt Quilts

Moving Along

Hello,
I saw this toad on my walk this week. He is difficult to see. Looked for him in the same area every day sense, but no luck.   I am just glad to know he is in our world.
The Associated Artists had their opening for the Flight show.   This wing is Liz’s entry.   There was a woman who was 102 how came along with one of the other artist. It was fascinating talking with her. Openings can open one to new ideas and this one was especially simulating.

This is Barbara’s entry.  The top one sold that day too.

 

 

 

 

 

Liz took this shot of me  and my piece there.

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Tee Shirt Quilt
This quilt in nearing the completions stage now. The back is complete and I am in the middle of the quilting.

 

 

 

Purple Squares-Nine patches I did a lot of work on this project this week. The some of the older blue blocks have been combined with the newly completed purple ones to create these four nine patch units.

 

I plan to make a second entry for the 3X3 show if I can get them done in time.

 

 

 

 

 

Hand Bag I made a new more colorful spring bag this week.

 

 

 

 

Scarp Assembly This process just keeps inching forward. I have been putting in about an hour every day stripping together fabric strips.

 

 

Preparations I am preparing to depart for QSDS on Sunday. I did two more drawings from the car was photos.   I think they will be a good jumping off place for me.

It also means that I have limited my color pallet and that means a concentrated box of fabric for me. I decided yesterday that I need a little security too, so I pin based a base for a new wild fire piece. I have a clear idea of what I want to do on it  so when I feel too frustrated with the car was project I can work on a piece with more potential for success.

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memoirs- Belief
As a child I had a great imagination. I really could believe in the stories that were read to me and fairies, witches, trolls and pixies were just out of sight. One summer day I spent with my Aunt May. I spent a frustrating morning trying to learn how to jump rope.   At lunch she talked to me about believing one could and would accomplish things with time and belief. “I belief you will learn how to jump rope”, she told me. After lunch she read a story about Aladdin and the flying carpet before I was to take a nap. I was fascinated by the idea and could not get to sleep for thinking about it. In my childhood mind, one didn’t need the carpet-just belief. So I climbed out the window over the poach and walked to the edge. I folded my arms, step off and folded my legs and proceeded to “Fly” down into the snowball bush. Aunt May say me “Fly” past as she was setting on the front poach  and screamed as I passed by. Needless to say the snowball bush was never the same. My only injuries were a few scratches.  Mom could not believe I had not broken anything – the power of belief saved me. I did conquer the jump rope later that afternoon too.
I am off to Quilt Surface Design Symposium on Sunday and will not return until June 3, so there will be no posting next week.
Keep Creating
Carol

3X3, Childhood Memories, Collage, Creative Assistants, Finger Lakes Fiber Artist Group, Scrap Happy Quilts

Lilac Time

 

Hello,
As the photo shows the Lilac are blooming. The smell is wonderful. We continue to have warm days with lots of rain.
There was a Finger Lakes Fiber Artists meeting this week end. It was good to see the gals and the discussions were good ones.   I know I took photos but I can’t seem to put my fingers on them at this time.  Lets just agree it was a visual feast.

The Sketchbook Revival class ended and I did a lot of drawing / collage works to finish up. It was enjoyable to stretch in that way for a while.  It is always good to step out of ones routine and try new things every now and then.

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Circular Thinking I am glad that I did the rework on this piece. The edges are square now and I like the flipped piece. It did mean some additional stitching across the seams, but it was well worth the efforts.

 

 

 

 

Tee Shirt Quilt 1 This work is moving forward now. All the shirts are assembled into the top  and I am building a scarp back in  shades of green and brown.

I would love to get this one completed in the next week.

 

 

 

 

 

Creative Assistants I got busy and made a new batch of faces for these little fellows this week. It is always a playful activity.

 

 

Prep Work I am going to the Surface Design Symposiums in Ohio the last week in May thanks to Susan G.   She can not go due to a join replacement she had last week. She is gifting me her spot with Rosalie Dace in Independent Studio for seven days. I am working on sketches of things to try with her guidance.
The this one is of an antique auto  that I took years ago. I want to do a few more before I limit my choices and then I will start to pull fabric to do the work.

This is my pencil interpretation of a shot I took in the car was.   I have several more from this adventure that I want to try.

 

 

 

 

Scrap Assembly   I  keep putting together my scarps and the box is now almost full of units to cut up. I have emptied one of my five bags of scarps too.

 

 

Purple Squares I had a good week and managed to finish off six new blocks this week. I want to complete three more and then I will build a nine patch by adding them to some of the blue squares that I excavated before the retreat.

 

 

Childhood Memories- Berrying Doubloons One of the summers that Gene and I stayed with the grandparents while my parents went to Iowa City to work on their Master’s Degrees, we where in love with the idea of pirates. Our great Aunt May had worked in the button factory when she was younger and she was allowed to bring home the button  seconds. There were buckets full of pearl buttons in Grandmother Ruth’s house. Gene, cousin Russell and I called them doubloons and decided to make a treasure map and bury some. We got a old cigar box from grandmother and filled it with the buttons. We even tried to make “ink” with some berry juice, used a chicken feather for a pen and drew a map of “ Cocklin Island” .   Cocklin was my grandparents name- and the map was our interpretation  of the yard.  We noted all the landmarks in the yard like the three Blue Pines and the dead cherry tree .  We  put an X where we buried the treasure of course.   It was in the garden near the old  stone encrusted  cement pillars that  great  grandfather Herman, had made when Mom was young.    We berried the “treasure chest”  there because  it was the only place in the yard that was soft enough for us to dig  successfully.   I do not know if anyone ever went in search of the treasure or what became of the map. I am sure grandmother dug up the box when she dug potato that fall. It was a great way to spend a summer day  and my memory of the day is a golden one.

Keep Creating

Carol

3X3, Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, Diva Meetings, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Icarus, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Re Work, Scrap Happy Quilts

Spring Studio Schweinfurth 2019

Hello.

This last week end was the spring retreat at the Schweinfurth.  It is a time when one can work on projects of one’s own choosing and be with other like minded folks. This time I was in the dry studio and worked on lots of projects. Many of my friends were present too. Sharon did some wonderful pillow covers down stairs in the wet studio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joyce did some explorations that look a lot like her paintings.   As you can see she really  loves the apple green color.

 

 

 

 

 

Regina worked in the wet studio too and showed me one of her finished indigo/ hand dye painted pieces the first morning before she got to work.

 

 

 

 

Liz was up stairs and she took advantage of Nancy’s expertise to move forward with machine quilting.

 

 

 

Donna did hand work.

 

 

 

 

Norma put together a new top made with fabric her grandson brought back from Sweden for her.

 

 

Sally worked diligently on this piece and got the top all assembled over the weekend.

 

 

 

 

I worked away on may projects- but folks were most amused by my “Pig Pen” like approach to building scrap units.

 

 

 

 

I put in a lot of thought into the old blue squares and decided to cut them down to 6″ squares. The 42 of them will be added to 43 newly embroidered  purple squares that will be my new Daily Practice work.   Later   I will assembled the old ones and then new blocks into  a quilt.

It was a great fun weekend and we did get silly as this picture shows- we were excited talking over one another and laughing when the Kindergarten teacher in Liz came out and she put us in line.

There was an extra benefit to being at the Schweinfurth, we got to see the Made in New York show. I really liked this wonderful bit of fiber work that greets one at the opening of the show.

 

 

Tues was also meeting day for QuEG’s and Diva’s. For QuEG’s we meant at Dori’s house.  Sue Ellen had a great sunset to share with us.

 

 

Corrine had more of her wonderful leather works.

 

 

 

 

Victoria showed off one of her new projects too.

 

 

 

Dori had a beautiful bed quilt that she is doing for her grand daughter. Dori also shared a portion of her Paper Doll collection with us.

It was amazing and brought lots of laughs as well as memories to all of us. A fun meeting.

Diva’s was a lot quieter. Maureen showed off her newest bit of hand work. This photo does not show all the stitch work.

 

Mary brought back her finished “Painted Ladies”. They are delightful.

Wednesday, the FAB group helped Nancy do a bit of moving by all showing up at her old house and loading up our  cars and  then driving to the new house and unloading there. I took this shot of the drooping tulip in the garden at the old house. I was taken by the shape.   Nancy is leaving beautiful gardens behind- but looking forward to building new ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Icarus This work is 35″w X 41.5″ l. I spent a lot of time on this at the retreat. Not only did I add the  body  parts to the background I added the loin cloth and did more quilting. I added the harness and wing connections on Monday when I got home.

I am quite pleased with it and it is off to be hung at a part of the “ Flight Show “ by Associated Artists in the Maniluas Library for the next 30 days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Circular Thinking 3 X 3- revisited. The more I looked at this piece the more unhappy I was with it. So over the weekend I took it apart and re assembled it. I am still working on evening up the sides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scraps assembly This is the way the strips look when they are sewn together and pressed. I will then cut them  horizontally  into 2.5″ strips and put the strips into long rows that will later be added to blocks or as boarders for the Scarp Happy quilts I make.

 

 

Sketchbook Revival: This class is over now but I am still working doing the lessons that I did not get to. This is what I did in response to Rachel Taylor’s instruction. The whole process  has been a good way to stretch a bit.

 

 

 

 

Daily Practice – Purple squares Here is the first purple square to go with the blue ones I mentioned before.

Fortunately I still had the cut letters  that I had created for the first set of squares so I could add the stamping like the first ones.

 

Childhood Memories- Fishing in Minnesota
My brother, Gene always liked to fish. Me – not so much, but I would go along and read while he did the fishing. One summer our family took a vacation in the 1,000 lakes of Minnesota. For 10 days we did not see or talk to anyone other then the family members. Gene and I spent several days” fishing”. On one of those days we were quietly floating in a nice sunny area when Gene had a strike. He reeled the fish up and out of the water- it was a big one! Then the line snapped and the fish fell back into the water. Gene was upset. But upon looking over the side of the boat he spotted the bright silver  lure against the  dark green bottom. He quickly tied another lure  to his line and carefully dropped it back into the water and hooked the new lure into the first and proceeded to reel everything back in. This time however he quickly pulled the fish over the boat where the line broke for a second time and the fish and two lures landed in the bottom of the boat. He was thrilled. A great fish story.   He went on to catch three more fish that afternoon. And guess who got to clean the fish?- Me of course.

Keep Creating
Carol

3X3, Childhood Memories, Creative Assistants, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Icarus, Shows, Tee Shirt Quilts

Show Work Week

Hello,

The Blood root is from my garden. Spring keeps pushing forward. Thank goodness!

 

 

This week has been a busy one. Sat. Liz and I went to Varna for a play day. I taught folks how to make a boiled book. We had mixed results as the leaves are still too soft to get really strong images. But we did have fun with it. Liz made progress on her applique circles. I think this will be a great quilt when it is finished.

 

These books and tags are the work of Donna.

 

 

I have put in a lot of time making labels  doing artists statements and making sure I have all the necessary items to hang and present a good shows.   Yesterday with the help of Angela and Julia,  we hung the Finger Lakes Fiber Artist show at May Memorial at 3800 Gennesee St here in Syracuse.     The quilt  by Sharon is a part of the show.   The works  looks good against these dark walls.

It was great to have the help and the process took less then two hours. I forgot to print out our into statements so I made a stop there today to post that addition. The show will be up until Wed May 29 and is open most days from 9 until 4:30.
Today  with Beth’s help we hung a show at the Life Force Center.   This quilt is called Tucson’s and is one of 32  of my works  in this show.  It  will hang  from now until the middle of June.    Beth was very helpful and it took about two hours to hang this show too.  Building  and hanging shows is a part of being an artist,  but  I   look forward to doing my own creative work for  a while now.

Progress Report: Circular Thinking- 3 X 3 This work is 51″w X 51″l and it  is my response to the Sisterhood of the Scissors challenge 3 X 3 . It was a bear to assemble. I see now that I really need to take a second look at the one side and perhaps re do the facing there. When one is working on a piece as big as this it is hard to see the total until the end.
I am glad I did all the stitching, even thought there seems to be as much embroidery thread in my stash as when I started.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Icarus I am finishing up the machine drawing on this work now. Even though I fused the fabric to batting before I did that step it sure got distorted.    Lots and lots of heave pressing has flattened out most of that however.   Again I need to live with this a while to see where to go from this point.

 

 

Creative Assistants I finished another batch of these little fellows this week. There are 23 this time. When I was cleaning I discovered under my chair, one more that needed the last three steps to finish it off . Guess that means I have a starter for the next group.

 

 

Tee Shirt Quilt I have make little progress on this work this week, but it is moving forward.

 

 

 

 

 

Sketchbook Revisited Class   Along with many others am doing a online free class for the last week and a half.  It is a great way to stretch and explore.      This lesson was by Anne Butera.   The emphasis on studying the subject, but not getting too hung up on the details.  Looking  at color and using a big brush captures it all quickly.  I  am enjoying myself even though I am behind a few lessons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories -Crack the Whip    One year at Thanksgiving time we had a real cold snap for about 4 days and there was no snow. We all went to the cabin that Grandfather Howard had built on the slew.( It is a back water of the Iowa River- created when the river changed its course and left old Chanel still full of water) The ice was thick and flat. One could skate in a strait line for as long as one wanted to if you went up the slew. All the cousins who had ice skates spent a wonderful afternoon skating.   Being one of the older kids I had done the “hand me down” thing with several pairs of skates.    Uncle Paul pulled us in a laugh filled game of Crack the Whip. Gene, Danny, Russell, Tracy and Doug were there I am sure.  My memory is a little fuzzy about who else was there.  When we  got cold  and tired we went up to the cabin and had hot coco and popcorn from the popcorn machine around the stone fireplace that grandfather had built.   It was a great day!

Keep Creating

Carol

3X3, Collections, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Icarus, Linnen Jacket, Scrap Happy Quilts, The Grandfathers

Birthday Week 2019

Hello,
It was my Birthday this week and Eric got me these beautiful spring flowers a great card and took me to dinner.  I had dessert and ice cream with the FAD gals, some cards from my aunts came in the snail mail, got lots of emails, a great phone call from my daughter and a text from my grand daughter. It was a great day for me.


The FAD gals meant and we had  a good time. Sharon was doing the hem on her quilt – Moon River in the Rain.   I like the way ones’s eye roams across the surface with this quilt.


I made a vow at to try to do a follow up on an idea from one of the magazines I get every month. This month I tried cheese cloth painting from Julie Booth’s article in the April May issue in the  Quilting Arts magazine. It was fun and messy. I was trying to build up some more material for my next wild fire piece. I also just played- something most of us do not spend enough time doing.

 

Progress Report :   Jacket 
I just keep working during the news on this project. I am adding the Turkey work on the last patch. It will be evaluation time again before I know if I am done or not.

 

 

 

 

Tee Shirt Quilt I am now starting to build units with this project. I cut 2.5″ and 4.5″ strips of various blues, browns and greens and connected them to the sides of the squares from the clothing. I do not want the work to have an up or down so I am placing the blocks together with the text reading from both directions. All the small units are built and now I am adding things together.

 

Scarp Happy.     I am done with the assembly of the rows for this   Scarp Happy quilt,  But I am out of the strips of scarps that I use for the edges and boarders.   Here is one of four bags full  leftovers and “cut aways ”  that I have to make those  new strips with.  So I  guess I will have to get going and put some together for this quilt in order to finish it.

  Blue Squares  I was doing a bit of spring cleaning and I came across this stack of 42   squares. I do not remember what my intentions were- but I think I got frustrated when I reached this point because the squares are not all the same size.    After giving it thought, I think I will make 45 more squares using the same theme and put them together as nine patches. I will make them all the same size by cutting down the big ones so everything goes together smoothly.  All the new squares will be this new size to start with too!  I guess this will be my new Daily Practice for a while.

Collections VI I have started stitching a few things to the base on this project. It is not getting much attention at the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Icarus I put in a lot of time  in on this work this week. I fused the body and legs to quarter inch batting.  I have done colored pencil  drawing and free motion thread painting on he work to create  the shading. The top half is done. I have stitched down the wings so I am playing with position for the head and trunk at this point. The legs need the thread work before I can trim away the extra  batting and add them to the surface. I am happy with the progress.

 3 X 3 -Circular Thinking 

This is a shot of the back of the work.   I am done with the most of the embroidery work on this piece now and have moved to assembling the rows into a nine patch.     The yellow with the red and blue print is sashing.  The center row shows how the back of the work looks before I fuse a solid print onto it to stabilize the work  and finish it.  There are 27 sides to stitch down to finish this piece.   

Childhood Memories- the Grandfathers This project keeps evolving as I work on it.   I have been looking at slides and photos of when I was a kid  and noticed that mom seems to have dressed me   in  red a lot, so I will use that to help identify me in the works from now on.     As the title suggests this piece is about my grandfathers. Grandpa Howard was my Mother’s father. I remember him always wearing Carhart pants and shirts in forest green. He had a very inquiring mind and a good sense of humor. He helped my parents build three of the four houses that we lived in as I grew up. He was helping Mom on the house in Columbus Junction, Iowa, the year I started Kindergarten. I come home from lunch every day. After eating together he and I would set in the red and silver print chair in our living room  and he would read one chapter of Alice in Wonderland to me before I ran back to school in the afternoon.
Grandpa Merritt was a farmer. Except for Sundays, he always wore gray and white striped overhauls from Oskash and a woven hat. I remember enjoying running in the furrow of the plow behind the tractor. It was a red International Harvester. The feeling of the rich dark earth between my toes and the powerful earth smell always delighted me. I can’t remember how many springs I followed him as he plowed that 160 acre filed, planted it and harvested the bounty when fall came. He lovingly rotated his crops to keep the fields rich too.

Keep Creating
Carol

3X3, Collections, Curvie Cuts, Mom VI, Scrap Happy Quilts, Sea Stars, The Grandmothers

Itching for Spring

Hello
I am itching for warmth and more flowers and green leaves. We continue to get little tastes as these photos show.  Even the trees are blooming -But I am greedy and I want more Spring.

This week was a very quiet one when it came to seeing other folks and meetings. So I got a lot done in the studio.

Progress Report: Sea Stars This work is 36.5″w X 21″ l.  The base of this work came from leftovers from Wave. I just put the remainders together in a curvy cut fashion and had a great pallet to begin on top of. The starfish are created from wired ribbon that was leftover from Christmas.  The coral came from a purchase of paper that I made last spring in Rochester at the Art store.  Beads and yarn were in my collection. It was a fun project.   No money was spent on the creation of this project.   I already had/ have a deep supply of stuff to use in my work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puck This stretched work is 12″ w X 16″l. I stared this work years ago and came across it in one of my searches. I decided to completes this work because with time I  could see what it needed. I added some shading and then did the machine drawing on top to complete the work.

I have a friend who is in Mid Summer’s Nights Dream next month and I will give this work to her as a memento.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Collections This work is slowly moving forward. I added the old leather book mark that was my mothers. The post card was from her trip to India. The pictures of Candy Grandmother, ( upper left) and Grandma Butterworth(  the flapper)  I had, so I decided to use them as well.

 

 

Icarus  The feathers are all made now and most are stitched down to the wings. I will finish this step and then move onto the body in the up coming week.

 

 

Circular Thinking- 3 X 3 I continue to work on the assembly step of this project. Columns A and B are stitched together in long columns. I have also stitched the first two blocks in column C.

Each connection also includes adding circles that cross over the boundary between squares.  I will begin to connect the columns this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scrap Happy This is the newest scrap happy and it is made  from leftovers. I even made the back yesterday from remainders of other backs that I created for other projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jacket

I keep working to integrate the patches into the body of the work.   each stitch moves me forward.

 

 

 

Childhood Memories – The Grandmothers On the left is grandmother Ester, my fathers mother. I will show her in pale purple from now on, because the dress that she made and I loved the most was a calico print with purple pussy willows printed on it. Grandmother  Ester taught me to sew in the summer before  seventh grade.   My first project was pajamas in cotton  duck fabric. The top was white with big quarter sized multi colored circles. The bottoms were turquoise. I made them to wear to church camp that summer.
The    tall figure on the right is grandmother Ruth, my mothers’s mother. I will show her in royal blue as I remember a blue dress with a big white line pattern on it.  She always wore an apron made from a retired dress- just the skirt over the top of her clothing. I decide to show a summer day when she and I were clearing out the out buildings of Great Grama Gast’s home. ( that was Grandma Ruth’s mother)
In one of the buildings we opened the door to find a big ball of string so large it could not come out of the space. Strings from the butcher, mailed packages and groceries were tied one to the next and wrapped into this ball. Because  Grandmother Ruth and her mother Great Grandmother  Gast had lived through the depression, they   did not toss out any thing that could be reused! We had to cut away the string with a knife until it was small enough roll it our the door. But the real amazing thing was on one of the shelves in the back of the room. In a brown paper bag- and it was full- written in Grandmother Gast’s hand were the words “ string too short to save”. It was full of the knots and bits! I still have that bit of brown paper under glass on the back porch.
Keep Creating
Carol

3X3, Childhood Memories, Core family, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Mom VI, Scrap Happy Quilts, Sea Stars

Spring Flowers

 

Hello,
It is so nice to walk out the door without boots, gloves and hats.   The early spring flowers are making their appearance in central NY as well . That is always a good sign.


The FAD group meant this week and the talk was lively.  Judy shared her newly completed sweater. She was working away on the next one all during the meeting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sharon has been busy at her machine and she had three quilts to share. This one is a commission where she tried adding pines in the background for the first time.   That layering adds a lot of depth.


Progress Report: 3 X 3 Circular Thinking I finished the last square this week and I am now in the process of connecting all the squares together. The first row of three is stitched.  I now need to go back into the work and add a bit more stitching to complete some of the circles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sea Stars I have stitched down the stars now and I am on to the coral. I did the coral by machine. The coral is cut from hand made paper that I purchaed at The Art  Store in Rochester last spring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jacket This work goes forward now that I have a new direction. I have added Turkey Work to three of the patches to integrate them into the jacket. I think it really pushes them back and anchors them too.

 

Icarus Here I am working on creating feathers for the wings. It takes a little over 12 min to do each one, but I think it is worth the effort.    I have created  16 feathers so far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Collections I keep pining items on the surface as I come across them. I am just about ready to begin stitching on this project.

 

 

Scrap Happy I looked  again at the box of fabric that Angela gave  to me and found more of the fruit  bathers in a much bigger format. So I cut the 4.5 in strips from  it and added the sides. These new blocks  plus the leftovers from the first fruit swimmers  quilt will go together to make a second.

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories This is a new venture that will be my  weekly project. This square is to introduce the core family characters. The memory connected with this work is one that happened every in our house  every Christmas as I grew up. My parents were married on Christmas eve and my Mom put on her wedding dress on that night every year.  Dad took a photo of my brother Gene and myself in the folds of the gown. I loved the dress as it was a beautiful silk double weave of a star pattern.   When one grows up one dies not realize that every family has its own traditions.   I  was Jr high before I realized no one else’s Mom dressed in her wedding gown on Christmas eve for a yearly photo.    The idea of celebrating an anniversary by dressing in the wedding  gown was just something my family did and it  had nothing to do with Christmas.   What childhood “traditions” where particular to your family?

Next week I will be trying to represent my grandparents in a new machine drawn  collage image.

Keep Creating
Carol