Category Archives: Curvie Cuts

Daily's, Foundation XV New Direction, Mia's Tee shirt quilt, Trees, Wind Fall

Flowers April 17, 2014

April 17, 2014 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

Spring is teasing us here in central New York. It was so very nice and warm for three days and then we had a cold day that ended in a snowstorm. I am waiting for my spring flowers to appear. The day that it snowed I took matters into my own hands and spent the day with Noel in her studio along with several others and we made our own flowers. (look back two weeks to see Noel and Victoria’s first ones) It always amazes me how we human beings fliter and apply our own tastes to the same processes. These red, pink and purple blossems are Cheri’s and the black, tan and white ones are Noel’s. We all took the same basic materials and techhniques but treated them with our own unique “stamp”. Noel showed us how to create several types of flowers and then turned us loose. Victoria, like Noel had made flowers before, she cheerfully tried a complex rose type flower where each petal is made indavigaly. I can hardly wait to see how everyone finishes her necklace. I was so excited by the processes that I kept making more flowers for the next two evenings. I am sure I will have two or three necklaces even if I stopped with what I have. I did take the time to lay out one possible combination. It needs small additions like beads and buttons. I just keep thinking of more ways to play with these ideas. And recalling things I did not try yet like yoyo flowers that Cherri did. It sure was a wonderful way to combat the snow falling outside that day!

Progress Report: Foundations XV –New Direction I am still struggling with this project. I have added to the sides to pull away from the square format. Then this morning when I hung it on the wall- “What If” – hit and I turned it 45 degrees to the right and I liked it better- and even more so when I added to the those two sides as well. I try to always be open to what is happening while I am designing and wonderful things can happen. I will push myself to do the remaining work on this one over the next few days.

New Work I am still playing with this newest member of the Foundation series. This one does not seem to know what way is up yet either- but I am enjoying the process. I do think I will leaves this one in a basic square format even though I am trying to go beyond that idea. It is holding it’s own without that challenge.

Grove I am making progress here too. All the trees now have their horizontal branches. I have them all connected to one another but I feel that it is almost too much to take in visually. The blue below the trees is too busy as well, so I plan to remove it and try again. I just don’t know what will work until I try it sometimes.

Mia’s Quilt These green and blue pieces are my prepations for the back of Mia’s Tee shirt quilt. I am building the units and when they are big enough I will assemble them into the big back. It is a fun process from my point of view.

Daily’s I am finding time to do my Daily’s too. They are starting to really pile up.

Think Spring and Keep Creating

Carol

Choosing Cherry, Daily's, Green Nebula, On the Road to Dry Falls

November 14, 2013 Fall’s Bounty

November 14, 2013 admin

Hello,

Fall always brings a riot of color in so many ways. Not only the trees and all their hues, but in the harvest of all the fruits and vegetables is also a color filled part of fall. Barbara could not resist the wonderful colors of the cabbages and I love them too. I visited her Turquoise Street Studio this week and was impressed by this wilting still life. I can hardly wait to see the pastel that grows out of it.

There also seems to be a bounty of events to attend in the fall. I went to Julia Graziano’s lecture on machine quilting at the Schwienfurth on Sunday. This photo shows her in front of one of her Arches quilts,althouth this one is not in the show. She said she did this series to learn how to sew curves. I think she is successful.

I also went to an opening at the Art Rage Gallery this week. The show “Spoken Threads” displayed many different fiber and thread related work. There were several quilters among the many artists in this show. Sharron Bottle Souva is shown here in a detailed talk with one of the many people at the opening. Sally Dutko also had a piece in this show. She made this quilt as a personal response to the shooting of the school children earlier this year. I along with Sally and several other fiber artists had spent an earlier part of the day visiting the Delevan Center Open Studio event. It was a very stimulating time going in and out of studios of all sorts of artist and talking with them. Even looking at the many ways they organized themselves was an education of sorts.

I am just home from a meeting of the “Fab” group. Fab stands for fabric. It is very small at the moment and we are mostly getting together to support each other and share our pursuits. Victoria is working on these wonderful mini squares using a limited pallet of only seven colors all form the Cherry Wood collection. The other gals in the group gave me some encouragement about how to improve my Oak Leaves quilt and I am going to follow through before I share it. I am sure it will be completed by next week.

I also spent a day with my friend Cherri this week. We were playing with painted canvas in a style like Katie Pasquini Masapust taught us in her workshop. After painting the canvas one adds fabric units and then a second coat of paint. The next step is to place the two works on top of one another and free form cut through them both and reassembel. This is a shot of one of my pieces at this point. I am enjoying the process.

So with the visits to studios, the galleries, the lecture and the group meetings, I am enjoying the full bounty of fall.

Choosing Cherry 12.5" X18" $60.00 — Choosing Cherry
12.5″ X18″
$60.00

Progress Report: Paper Quilt – Choosing Cherry I am delighted to say I finished this quilt after a long delay. I was missing the filler for the biggest opening so I did not complete it. The plastic printed images that appear green and red are from a seasonal food bag. When it appeared again this fall, I purchased the fruit and enjoyed sharing it with my friend Barbara last week. With the bag empty, I cut it up and added it to the back of the work and completed the project. From the close up, it is easy to see the thread bridges and the plastic bag parts behind them. I had not done a paper quilt in such a long time I had forgotten how much I enjoy Carol Weib’s process. So now I am all revved up to do another. From the second close up one can see that I mix fabric and paper in my quilt as well as the plastic.

Green Nebula This was the project that I worked on at the Turquoise Street Studio. I am done with the bead work now and into the quilting. It a great project to carry around as there is very little material involved.

Long Stitches This is a new project that I am experimenting with. I read about doing stitches on “wash away” and them doing free motion machine work on top. I did not have any “wash away” on hand, but had some nylon netting – so I stretched it in a hoop and did long stitches that crossed one another over and through the netting. I then took the work to the machine and did the free motion work that the book suggested on the surface. I think my solution will work for a “moss like” look on a rock surface – my ultimate goal- and be more stable too. I always like to alter ideas to fit my apporaches and this does that.

On the Raod to Dry Falls

I have finally gotten back this work too. I started it at QBL last summer and it got put in the box with the leftover fabrics when I packed up from that adventure. I thought I had already completed all the starts from those two weeks- but here was another. I am ready to start doing the free motion quilting on it now and look forward to that process this next week.

Daily’s I continue to work away on the Daily’s. I think they are getting a little more complex with time. It is very calming work for me now too.

Keep Creating

Carol

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

On the Road to Dry Falls, Pumpkin Lichens, Rounds

September 19, 2013 Harvest Moon

September 19, 2013 admin

Hello,

Last evening the harvest moon rose round and orange as a giant pumpkin. It was beautiful! I tried to capture it with my camera- but I am not happy with any of the shots so I am going to leave the idea to you imagination. The Harvest moon is the last full moon before Autumnal Equinox.

This week has been a full one as they all seem to be. I went to the Bead show here in town on Sunday and managed to keep from purchasing too many new beads.

Friday was the Explores day to play with Fused Silk. I think I can speak for everyone in declaring it a big success. This top shot is of Barb spreading the GAC* out on her silk.

Liz and Corinne working on step one- spreading out the silk fibers.

Sue Ellen concentration on her work.

We all had fun and Angela even go far enough along with her fibers to add them to a top. I think we all took home at lease four pieces of fused silk. Liz even experimented with fusing the silk directly to the fabric with the GAC and that seemed to work too.

I make mine very thin- only one layer of fibers to use with my rock wall stuff in the future. It was a fun day for all of us.

Progress Report: Pumpkin Lichens

Pumpkin Lichens 36" X 40" $375.00 — Pumpkin Lichens
36″ X 40″
$375.00

This work had given me fits when it comes to being square and it still looks off kilter to me. The work measures true though. I did have a good time using more of Randy’s wonderful fabric . There is also a bit of the discharged fabric that I did with Marty this summer in this piece( the light orange cream in the middle). I used the curves of Randy’s images to get me started with the quilting patterns too. They were so organic and the lichens I used for part of the inspiration were also irregular like that. This second close up show one of the areas where I started reflective quilting when I got away from the “lichen ” centers.

On the Road to Dry Falls

I worked on this piece this week and all the fabric it attached. I did not shoot it because it does not look any different than last week.

Oak Leaves This is the same limb that I was working on last week from the other side. It also shows the limb all frapped in a second layer of black textured yarn. I plan to get to the background work this week and start putting it all together soon.

Rounds I started this work before QBL – eight weeks ago now. Working through my stack of UFO’s it finally came to the top again. I sliced the work vertically into seven units. Then I pulled out some solid blue fabric and stamped on it with one of the stamps that I cut in my “one a day for 30 day Challenge”. I did the stamping in a purple/pink that works with some of the fabric in the circles. I have ideas for more additions,but will wait to work on them until I have all the units added together. Make the visual decision based on what I see.

New Work This one got some hand work and some paint this week too. The leaves are just pinned on- auditioning so to speak. I like the idea of them, but feel they are not strong enough to work with all the little units of this piece. I think I got a bit carried away with the paint step here. But errors show growth is taking place.

Enjoy the wonders of the season

Keep Creating

Carol

* GAC is a Golden Product used to thin down acrylic paint. GAC 900 is what we used and it is designed for fabric so you keep the soft hand.

Oak Leaves, On the Road to Dry Falls

September 12, 2013 Fall Rains

September 12, 2013 admin

Hello, Today in my part of the world it is raining again. We need the water, but I am tired of the gloom that the gray skies seem to bring along too. It makes me want to take a nap. This photo is one I took on my way home on Tuesday after taking down the “Sticks and Stones” show. As you can see from the image it was gray that day too.

Progress Report: Pumpkin Lichens
I am not showing this work this week because I had a bit of a disaster with it . I though I had trimmed it all up and I was adding the sleeve when I realized that one side was a good inch longer than the other….. I have not done all the deconstruction that needs to happen before I can correct that mistake yet, but I will do so and show that next week.

On the Road to Dry Falls I made progress on this work this week. I am doing more of the tron and free motion stitch down work on this surface. I used this technique with the fused silk, some taffeta and some nylon netting. I like how it allowed for a feeling of shadow and texture.

Oak Leaves
I started this at Quilting by the Lake. The leaves are free floating and made with a top layer of silk and a bottom of cotton. I have been looking at it in this state for a few weeks now and it finally came to me that It needed a three dimensional limb too. So I pulled out some roving and frapped it with a dark patterned fabric. In this closeup you can see how the fabric is wrapping around and creating a new texture. There is a little of the roving showing at the bottom of this shot.

This second shot is of the full limb as it is now. I need to create a background and stitch the limb to it before I add the leaves.

I though I might add fused silk clouds to this work as well. I will at least create some clouds for myself in the fused silk workshop that I am teaching on Friday.

New Work
I am doing pure explorations with this new piece. I took a class with Valerie Goodwin at QBL in 2012 and she suggested we use all the different way we knew to attach fabric to the surface to add texture. I had not really applied this idea before but when I came across my class notes I though I would give it a try. So with this small piece I have used flip piecing, raw edge and hand stitching. The next process is to add paint….. I am having fun as I am not at all sure what I am doing and the class notes are not as complete as I had though. A year plus is a long time and one does forget details.

I hope fall is sending you visual joy and creative time.

Hugs

Carol

Curvie Cuts, Diva Meetings, Pumpkin Lichens, Rock Series East Wall

Sept 6 , 2013 Back to School

September 6, 2013 admin

Hello,

It was the first day of school for students here in central New York. When I went out for my walk this morning there were two boys waiting for the bus on the corner. The same place that my daughter waited for the bus many years ago. I passed others on my trek and thought that this is a sure sign that fall has begun.
This week was the first Tuesday of the mouth and so I went off to my DIVA group meeting on Tuesday. I had missed the mouth before so I was very excited about seeing what others were doing and I was not disappointed! Liese had been doing a lot of marbling on paper . She created two books. I really like the one with the quotes and her second one was an accordion book with wonderful creatures that she saw in the marbling.

She said that she learned that the newsprint paper worked the best for this job.

Susan is doing some great exploration based on sleep. She is printing on fabric with old stencils and writing her quotes in water soluble graphic pencils.

She has a wild collection of stencils and is trying not to cut any new ones for this project. I really like the long line of people she repeated in this second print.

She is also dealing with the inside of things- including people. The rib cage is made with painted canvas suspended in the opening. I can hardly wait to see how this develops.

She always looks at things with such a unique eye.

Sally brought a problem to the group for suggestions. She is getting ready for the Art Trail in the Ithaca area and one of her practices is to have each of her visitors add a piece of fabric to a background that she has selected. Then the sews them down were they are placed. Every five years she take the panels and puts them together in some fashion. She was after suggestions. We brainstormed and gave her several ideas- I can hardly wait to see what she finally does. I really get a lot out of this group for the support as well as the many skills and ideas that each person brings to the setting.

Occasions 35.5" X 49.5" $ 440.00 — Occasions
35.5″ X 49.5″
$ 440.00

Progress Report: Occasions This quilt is one more of the ones that I started at Quilting by the Lake, the second week. I had purchased some deconstructed fabric( the light blue) from her the first week of the conference and used it as my starting place for this piece. This fist close up show the wonderful texture she had created with lines that attracted me to it. I pulled the rest of the materials from my stash and supplemented with a few new pieces that I purchased from the venders there. I enjoyed doing the circular quilting on this piece and feel it is just what the quilt needed to pull all the sections together. The gals at the Diva meeting really liked this work too and had lots of kind word about this work.

I enjoyed working on this one.

…………… ……………………… …………………….. ……………………….. ……………………… ……………………

East Wall – Rock Series
This work got lots of additional machine drawing added this last week. There is so much texture now that I feel it is pulling together a bit better.

I used some of my painted wonder under on the surface to add more color and pattern. There is also a bit of intense quilted pink velvet on the right side of this shot for more texture.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Pumpkin Lichens : I am to the quilting stage on this quilt. It too has some of Randy’s wonderful decomposing screen fabric as it start- The orange with the the dark circles on it. The colors of the trip to southwest really have had a long time effect on me if the work shown here is any indication.

……………………………………………………..

New Work Here is some more of the curved piecing work I am trying to conquer. I am ready to start the placement of the fused silk paper on this top to add texture and unity to it. There are two pieces sort of pinned in place. I think more will help as well as some of the painted wonder under.

Then the quilting will really pull it all together .

Keep Creating

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

Curvie Cuts, Felt Work, Fossil Bed, Green Nebula, Machine Drawing, Red Nebula, Rock Face 1

June 27, 2013 More Summer Fun

June 28, 2013 admin

Hello everyone,

I am as busy as ever, but I have taken time to listen to the birds sing and enjoy the beauty of the summer season. Yesterday I went off to visit with my friend Ethel and we used the beautiful weather to spend a day dyeing out side. This shot shows one of the fabrics I dye painted. I can still feel the influence of the rocks and the water on what I am doing. Along with dyeing is the batching step. This small shot is of some of the fabric under plastic so it will not dry out. The last step is the rinsing out- a project for later today. I worked on 10 pieces of fabric so that will take me a while I am sure.

Fossil Bed 23" X 32.5" $ 188.00 — Fossil Bed
23″ X 32.5″
$ 188.00

Progress Report: Fossil Bed This quilt is complete now. I have enjoyed doing all the stencil work here. The last bit of embellishment that I did, was the addition of gold foil shells and then the little round stamps that I created at our last play day in May. In this second closeup the circle stamps are shown in orange and blue along with a second foil section. I also did quilting in gold thread. Susan told me that she want to see more images of the finished surfaces and so there is a third closeup of this quilt.This last closeup shows the brown stryophone stamped area with the quilting in gold too.

Red Nebula I think that I am done adding to this work. I need to decide now how I want to finish it. One of my works is off being framed now. I may want to do that to this work as well. I will know better when the framed work comes back to me.

Green Nebula I have only just started my hand work on this second felted work.
This piece has a hand dyed fabric backing. I am enjoying that hand work as always and this time I am using some antique pale green sequins on the surface.The sequins are from my great aunt’s sewing box.

Rock Face
This is my newest top. I got so inspired by my trip to Idaho and looking at all the rocks, that I just had to do a work on that subject. I got to use my newly developing skill with slender curved inserts too. I think this is just the start of a new series.

I hope that summer is treating you well and that you are enjoying the great out doors .

Keep Creating

Carol

Abame- Sisters Quilt, Curvie Cuts, Explorations 3, Out of the Dark, Text in Quilts, Written Word

Thur Dec 20- Solstices computer failure……

December 20, 2012 admin

Hello ,

Happy Solstices! I am looking forward to the days getting longer – even if it is cold. I am not a fan of the long nights even though I do enjoy setting by a fire. I just hate to find crows flying to roost in the darkening 4 o’clock sky.

Sorry to have dropped on the map so abruptly. The computer crashed. We took it off to Best Bye and they had to send it out to have the Mother Board replaced. When it came back the machine crashed again while they were running a diagnostic check. Off the machine went again for 10 days. Needless to say I learned how much I depend on the silly thing and short cuts as I could not excess this sight for the whole time. The second computer that I did have access too did not have Photos Shop either so I could not do photos even if I could have gotten to it. I will try to up date without being overwhelming.

Progress Report: Exploration 3

I really enjoyed working away on this quilt with the free form cutting and the irregular edges. It is both freeing and a bit worrisome as I give up control and the reliance on the ruler for strait lines. I do really enjoy the feeling of flow however and feel there is a lot more room for exploration here.

Thunder Boomer I started this work because I was nervous about the wiggle cut things I was trying . I needed to work on something

that I felt comfortable with. I did challenge myself by using silk as a part of this work. The silk was a way of expressing how the air feels all electric when a storm is going on.

I enjoyed doing the machine drawing here as well. This was a good confidence builder for me at that time.

Pillows I did two pillows to accompany the quilt I did for the bride last mouth. They came out looking good and I think they will enhance the bed when they are placed on top of the quilt.

Abame – Sisters Quilt This little quilt is the next in the wiggle series. I call it a sister quilt because a second quilt grew out of this work as well. I made too much material and found it worked better as a separate unit. I am almost done with the stitching of the face panels.

Sunmi Wash Up
This top is mostly done by hand. I have been seeing lots of images of the large amounts of plastic washing up on the west cost. The piles I find distressing so I thought I might do a bit of a “junk ” collection piece to highlight this idea.

Out of the Dark This top is my next work for the solo show that I will be doing in late Jan. I have always been fascinated by stories of the gods and goddess of the past as well as all the little stone figures of women that have been uncovered. Joseph Campbell’s books have also influenced me. I was delighted when he came and spook at Ball State.

Letters This is just the working title of this piece that I just started. There is a challenge to do a quilt using text and this is my first attempt at that idea. I feel this does not say exactly what I had in mind- but I like the way it is coming together so I think I will finish it none the less.

Out of Control This too is a working title. I am so upset by the shooting in the elementary school this last week. I used some discharged fabric to start this quilt because one has so little control with that process and league of control is how I feel in relationship to this tragedy. I tried to show the chaos I felt with this piece. It does not give that feel yet – I think that the quilting I plan to use with help with this.

Discharging
I did a little hand writing with dish washer soap to discharge the surface of this black fabric. This is another go at the text thing. I put the dishwasher soap in the mustard container to do the writhing and it worked well. The fabric is in the washer at the moment . Even if I do not use this in the Text Challenge, it was a fun thing to try

I enjoy preparing for the up coming celebrations so that is where my energy will be going for the next few day. May the wonders of the season ans the joys of your life fill you in the up coming holidays.

Keep Crating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Curvie Cuts

Flowers April 17, 2014

November 14, 2013 Fall’s Bounty

Thursday October 17, 2013

September 19, 2013 Harvest Moon

September 12, 2013 Fall Rains

Sept 6 , 2013 Back to School

August 16, 2013 Nature is Lush

July 11, 2013 Summer Days

June 27, 2013 More Summer Fun

Thur Dec 20- Solstices computer failure……

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer