Category Archives: Blooming Bacteria

Blooming Bacteria, Daily's, Gray Wall, Oak Leaves

Thursday October 17, 2013

October 17, 2013 admin

Hello,

Fall is in about in all its colorful beauty here in central New York. The yellow leaves have forsaken the trees to lay down a carpet of gold in many locations. That is not to say that all the leaves have fallen yet- there are still lots in the trees, but I so love to walk in the crunch that they provide this time of year. I just go a little crazy with my camera and shoot lots of pictures.

I have been busy with lots of play dates and a workshop this week. The workshop was last Friday eve and it was on curved piecing. I was trying to learn how to make very skinny lines with the cruves and I think I am getting closer to what I intended. I mostly selected colors for this experiment that are not my usual pallet. I go for the second class with Ruth White on Friday this week. It is about how to create wholes. I have done some of that on my own, but it is always valuable to get instructions I think.

I spent a play day with Susan on Monday and I played with my Gelli plate the whole time. It was great fun. Susan was experimenting with a new technique for creating stencils. Sadly she was not very successful and discovered mostly what did not work. Her work is on the top shelf and mine is the stuff on the bottom. We did enjoy making our commitment lists for the winter as she has departed for the south now and I will not see her for six mouths. I now have a mini goal to work for and she does as well.

I spend yesterday playing with Liz and Angela. The day was a handwork day and it was great too. Angela is the queen of stitches in my world. Both Liz and I looked at tons of books on the topic too. I have two luscious videos and several books to study now too. It is wonderful to have friends that are so very sharing. Liz did not even get her needles out, but Angela and I both did. She worked on her on going Tapa cloth Hawaiian embroidery block quilt. It is going to be a real stunner when she is done I am sure. Liz drew stitch pattern ideas in her journal. Angela taught us some new hand stitches and I now know the difference between a steam stitch and an outline stitch. ( that has to do with the side of the line that the thread endes up lying on.) She also taught us how to do a Colonel Knot. I worked on my Blooming Bacteria quilt. I also picked up my new thermo fax screens. I need to do the taping of the edges now and then find some time to start to print them. I am excited about that, but it willl need to stay on the back burner until later this fall.

Progress Report: Gray Wall I am very pleased with out

Gray Wall 38" X 36" $700.00 — Gray Wall
38″ X 36″
$700.00

this rock quilt has turned out. I love all the texture and the mix of fabric types that it contains. It really flows for me the way I remember the wall being. I enjoy the raw edges and all the free motion stitch work that is part of this quilt. The paint work adds to the lichen feel of the rock face for me as well.

Susan really helped me with the finishing of this work. Or it would be better to say she encouraged me to leave the raw edges and the exposed back of this work. There is no hiding of my processes in this piece.

Oak Leaves I have been doing handwork on this piece too. The limb is almost all stitched to the surface. I can see that I need to add more machine quilting to make it more stable now that the branch has added so much weight to the quilt. It is a learning process when one is trying new stuff.

Blooming Bacteria This quilt has been setting and waiting for attention for a while.(see Aug 16, 2013) I somehow lost most of the crouched circles I had created for it. I put them some place so safe that I cannot find them at all and that is frustrating. I have done a lot of cleaning in my search and the only conclusion I can come to now is that I mistakenly tossed them out. I took it to the handworks play day yesterday and added some of the circles that I had and started creating more. It will be a long process before this quilt is done.

Daily’s I am doing my Daily’s as I am now calling my hand work square projects. They are still fun and with the new stitches that Angela taught me I still can see more ways to play with the idea.

I hope everyone is enjoying the colors fall as much as I am.

Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

Blooming Bacteria, on the Road to Dry Falls, Wind Fall

August 16, 2013 Nature is Lush

August 16, 2013 admin 1 Comment

Hello followers,

I am always amazed by the growth that happens every summer. These beautiful flowers are at the top of some swamp loving plat that is nearly six feet tall. They are annuals and the amount of energy it takes to grow from a small seed to this towering colorful plant just makes me stop in my tracks.

I have had a busy week as the kids are getting ready for a return to school and we all seem to be in a rush to do all summer activities that we have put off thinking there was still time for them in the future . With that though in mind I will tell you that there were be no post next week as I am off for a trip to Ohio next week.

This week included a play day with my friend Cheri. We painted fabric on Wed. Cheri did the two pieces and I did the single one. This is only the first step of many so we will be getting together again. It is always fun to experiment with a fellow artist and we had a good time even though it rained off and on all day.

I am putting most of my efforts into preparation for the “Sticks and Stones” show at the Americana Winery now. It will be hung on Wed next week. I am doing a bit of rework and additional quilting to some of my Grand Canyon works for that show. Images will appear in the next post.

Wind Fall 23" X 42" $245.00 — Wind Fall
23″ X 42″
$245.00

Progress Report: Wind Fall I am very happy with how this quilt turned out. All the twigs that I pick up after the wind storm work well on this curved pieced background. I had a lot of fun doing all the hand stitching as well. The only real problem with this quilt is it must be rolled and not folded as the sticks will break if it is folded.

I like all the color changes that are present in the tan twigs- from very dark brown to a cream color- some times on the same branch.

I machine drew in branches in the dark areas of this work to add bit more interest too.

The Machine drawing came about because I felt that the quilt needed a bit of horizontal action to contrast the strong verticals present in the sticks and most of the other quilting.

Synapse Firing 30" X 47.5" $ 360.00 — Synapse Firing
30″ X 47.5″
$ 360.00

Synapse Firing I am happy with how this quilt came out. I have found that when I am exploring new territory I can only go so far before I need to fall back to familiar ground were I know what to do. Such was the case with this work that I created at QBL. I was playing and working on all the rock/texture stuff and I needed to feel safe again- so I pulled out this fabric that I had purchased from Randy last summer and put this quilt together. I quilted this with silver thread and then added a variegated around the out side of the work .

On the Road to Dry Falls
This is the work I was constructing when I did Synapse Firing. It is highly textured with fabric that is wadded and then pressed in the wadded state before it is sewn to the surface. I also used a satin fabric ( dark brown) that was shinny on one side and matt on the other to add additional texture. I tore strips of fabric and left the raw edges exposed for a further texture. I am enjoying the free motion quilt drawing process to continue the wrought feel of the rock too. At this point I am more concerned with the way the eye does not quite flow across surface as I intended then I am with the texture parts. There is always work to do.

Blooming Bacteria This quilt I started before QBL as I wanted to keep my direction with this idea. I am adding the black button wholes on top by hand now. They really add a wonderful texture to the surface of this piece. It will take a long time to complete it however as the hand work is quite slow. I do think the time and effort it worth it however.

Please remember there will be no post next week.

Keep Creating

Carol

Anastasie Ruin, Bacterial Bloom, Blooming Bacteria, Curvie Cuts, Egyptian Quilts, Eric's Thoth, Felt Work, Green Nebula, Landscapes, Sunny Crannies

July 11, 2013 Summer Days

July 11, 2013 admin

Hello,

I feel we have reached the slow days of summer when Mother Nature really does her magic. I have noticed on my walks changes especially in the trees. Hickories, pines and oaks all have immature versions of the seeds to come in fall. Because of all of the rain we have experienced here, I think the apples will be really big this year because the green ones on the trees now are already bigger then gulf balls. Nature provides me with a visual feast each day.

I am getting ready to attend the Quilting By the Lake conference. I so look forward to seeing my friends and to getting stimulated by lots of new ideas and thoughts about the art of quilting. In preparation for that work I had to do a bit of sorting. One thing lead to another and I ended up pulling all the fabric out of the closet and refolding and stacking it. This shot shows the job as it neared completion. As you can see I have lots of fabric. This activity not only cleaned up the shelves, and sorted out the material that I need for my projects, but it also made me realize I do not need to purchase anything new. I hope I can stay to that resolution over the next two weeks while I am there and tempted by the fabrics of the venders. I am doing two weeks of Independent study this year and I plan to keep working on the Rocks and Canyon series. I will allow my self to find other ideas as well. Please be aware that there will not be any posts for the two weeks of QBL. Then we plan on a little vacation so this will be the last post until Aug 8.

Anastasi Ruins 18" X 24" $ 110.00 — Anastazi Ruins
18″ X 24″
$ 110.00

Progress Report: Anastazi Ruins
This work is complete now. I have really enjoyed putting the silk paper into this work. It makes the feel of the flow of the rocks really work for me. I liked doing the free motion work to add texture to the surface too. The other thing I tried here and on the Sunny Crannies quilt was adding torn strips of satin to the surface. The strips were slender so they folded in on them selves and they flipped over that also added to the textural changes that were created.

I ended up not using the painted unit I posted last week on the ruins. It was just too much. But I did add nylon net to the top of the cave area to help with the darkness.

Sunny Crannies

This quilt is a part of the Rock Face series. I really seem to be fascinated by the surfaces of road cuts and cliffs. This one came from on of the photos that I took in Idaho a few weeks ago. Here I went back to the free cut method to put the work together. Rocks do not break in continual strait lines most of the time so the free cut is the only way to get the correct feel.

This shot shows that I also turned the brown commercial fabric over and use the “back” side to get another tone to the surface.

I used some of the fabric that Marty and I discharged in this quilt along with some slender torn gray jean fabric as well. I really like this plus the satin surfaces on the work. Finally I used more of the silk paper here too. This piece of silk paper has some glitter and gold added to the silk as well as the color. I look forward to teaching this technique with the Quilt Exploration Group in September.

Rounds

This project is moving along nicely for me. It is changing under my finger tips however, but one needs to be open to that as it happens. All the circles are stitch down now and it has been washed so there is fraying of the shapes. I plan to slice the top and invert one or more to the slices before I reassemble it. I also want to add so yarn appliqued to the surface to add more texture. I will then have to see what the quilt tells me to do.

Eric’s Thoth

Thoth is the Egyption god of writing. I intended to complete this quilt for my husbands birthday. That happens to be today so I will not make it. But I am sure he will accept it later. He is an English teacher and worked on his collage publication called ” Thoth” so this seems like a good idea to me. I made the stencils- Thoth, the Eye or Horis and the Eagle mouths ago, but never put them together until now.

The scarab stencil is even older. I added the scarab after the whole top was assembled as I discovered that the area needed an addition.

I enjoyed adding the Hiroglyphs to this project too although I did them before I assembled the top. I have had this set of stamps sense I taught school and I used them with the kids. Here I spelled out ” Eric the Teacher” using the Heiroglyph guild book.

Green Nebula

I keep working on the beading work on this quilt. I am just about ready to do the quilting now. About three more evening of watching TV should to the trick to finish the beading step. Then I will begin the hand quilting.

Blooming Bacteria

Here again I made my background using the free hand cut method. I did the cut and flip thing on this background too. The red circles are just pinned to the surface now . When I get the placement exactly were I want it I will satin stitch them down and begin hand work. I imagine it will be a while before this work reappears again, as the work I do at QBL will probably capture my attention for a while. I wanted to have this work started because I have made all the “add ons” and I do not want to forget the direction while I am away.

I will look forward to posting again Aug 8.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Blooming Bacteria

Thursday October 17, 2013

August 16, 2013 Nature is Lush

July 11, 2013 Summer Days

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer