Category Archives: Diva Meetings

Diva Meetings, Glyph II, Glyph III, Glyph IV with Beads, Glyph V, Label Blocks, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Time

Time out

September 7, 2017 admin

Hello-

Again my mind is with the folks in the line of the new Hurricane. The folks there have my thoughts and best wishes for a minimal impact and a easy recovery. I have been thinking about time a lot this week. It is such a forward moving event that effects each of us . Time is used to label when events will happen like tomorrow, next week two weeks from now and years off. It also can be a general time of day like meal times, bed times work time and play time. Time can be used to demote an event time like time to get up, time to brush your teeth, time to move, time to go to bed. It can be used for the seasonal events like summer time, winter time , fall and spring. Or more specifically, like a holiday time, celebratory time, or time to morn. It can be used to describe moods like high time, good time troubled time, or a disastrous time. We try to control and use time to our best advantage by setting time limits or dead lines. Time can have speeds like move at a snails pace, it can inch forward, drag, race, slip away, and fly. When I am creating in the studio I get lost in time and the clock will indicate that four hours have past in what feels like the blink of an eye to me. We can spend time, but we can not bye time unless you are talking about purchasing a time piece. We mark time with seconds, minuets, hours, days. months, years, and centuries. Our bodies change with the passage of time and our memories fade and change too. It is constantly with us and shapes our future. We are effected by the times we are in and the history that came before. It is a powerful force that is constantly with us. I guess our best bet is to use our time wisely and enjoy the time we have together.

The fist Tuesday of the month came this last week an so I had meetings with both QuEG’s and Diva gals. This is Sue Ellen’s latest garden quilt. Lynn showed us this vegetable garden quilt for her nephew. Lots of color in this one.Liz took a water color class and she shared her exercises with us. Angela showed us her works from Kerr’s class. Nice strong prints.

The Diva gals shared lots of work too. This is Regina’s wall of completed projects. The one on the upper left was what she started in Cynthia’s class. Her word is love. Ruth is nearly done with her “ foot print” project. It looks good to me.Anne is madly quilting away on this piece. Blind Justice is spelled out in Braille here. It is always so inspiring and enjoyable to meet with these women.

Progress Report: Glyph III This work is 28” w X 41” l. The word owl is still the base of the glyph and it really grew out of the cut away from Glyph IV. I pebble quilted in the yellow area of the actual glyph and reflective line quilted the orange area. The bottom was line quilted.

Glyph II This work also came as a result of the work before it. The cut aways from Glyph I were added to the surface of this cloth construction and then Zig-Zagged down. I only need to decide how I want to quilt the purple area and I will be ready to finish this piece.

Glyph IV This work came out of the cut away from Glyph III. I am beading on all of the orange from that work.

Glyph V I was still in love with the complex shapes of the glyph- but I was ready to branch off for this one. The parts are there but scrambled and there are additions. I have started to pebble quilt in the green areas on this peoject.

New work Glyph VI And here we have the leftovers from # V. I feel the from has changed enough that I may drop the glyph reference. I have only tacked the piece on top of the cream and green background. Those colored sections will be cut away from the bach and be a part of the jump off for the next piece.

Time Card I continue to do the cards for Susan’s challenge. This is my entry for this week.

Creative Assistants Football season has begun and my work on these little fellow has started too. Debbie sent me a great box of trims and yarn bits. These guys all show some of that influence.

Label Block I am excited as I see there are only three more black square in the basket. I am pondering what I will tackle next too. I need to brain storm a bit on that topic.

Keep Creating

Carol

Diva Meetings, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Label Blocks, QBL- Quilting By the Lake, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Quilting by the Lake 2017

August 4, 2017 admin

Hello,

I can not believe that this is how the gym at Onondaga Community Collage looked on Friday July 14 the day after my last post and the day we started preparing for Quilting by the Lake for this year. This post will be full of photos and snippets of what happened in those glorious days plus a bit of what has happened this week too.

So by the end of the day we had filled the gym with all the quilts that we had received at that time. It was not ready for guests as more work

came in on Saturday, but we did a lot.

I spent my Saturday helping my friend Sharron move into her dorm room and decorate for Christmas in July. We had fun, but more about that later.

There were four special shows within the quilt show at QBL this year. One was five Dear Jane Quilts by Sharron.

She talked about her journey with the development of this project one afternoon after class. I have watched her work away on the blocks doing all the color variations at the same time for each of the 350 blocks. It has taken her six plus years to complete this master body of work. It looks great. Marcia De Camp had a solo show as well. Non on my photos of that are strong enough to be included here, but believe me when I say it was powerful too.

The Finger Lakes Fiber Artists had a great display . These two works are from that section. The top Quilt is by Sharon Souva. The bottom one is by Cheri Sheridan.

This quilt is by Liz Anderson, she is also a part of the Finger Lakes Fiber Artist’s group. The little girl on the far right is Liz at the age of six.

Noel Keith also had a solo show and talk the second week . Some of her works have been included in the Quilts=Art=Quilts shows in the past. She works with silks that she has hand dyed herself and that adds a wonderful layer of excitement to her work.

Sister Sew and Sew made an appearance at the quilt show. She had lots of tips and bits of knowledge that she shared with us as well.

This shot is of Sister checking the length of this woman’s hem from the floor. An item that my Catholic friends assure me was common in their pasts.

My class week one was with Cynthia Corbin. I am going to post a few of the solutions that folks created in class.This is a shot of Annette’s project in the middle of the week. It changes as she assembled it. I really like the quiet colors.

This work is by Diane. Her first work with all solids she tells me. This shot is of my table partner Robin and her work as we did our Mimi talks about our work for the week on Friday afternoon.

We were Cynthia’s last topic class and so we gave her flowers as a thank you for her kind support and help.

Friday night at the end of the first week of QBL we have show and tell where each class with their teacher get up on the stage and show what they worked on. This is a shot of Alice with her project from Studio class.

One class- on the use of wedges- just moved there boards with their work into the auditorium and display them. Nice touch.

Another event at the end of the week is the action of TOTE Bags to raise money for the Scholarship Fund. This is Rosalie Dace with her “Chicken bag” .

Week two I had a class called “One Theme – Many Variations” with Kerr Garbowski.

We started each morning with some drawing. This shot is of Cherri doing a blind contour.of onions- her subject.

We worked with colored pencils, chalk and paint blocks too. This is Cherri’s experiment using those things on a silk screen. With each pass she added more color so the image changed with each print.

Lots of my friends where in this class and we all had great fun. We did lots of deconstructed screen work. Cris and Ann were in front of me. Both worked hard. Robin sat next to me again and did some strong work.

Gerri really did some big works with her little screens. I have been dyeing with Liz on most Mondays this summer and her big strong gestural work is so inspiriting. These two works from class confirm this feeling.

Angela was also in this class and she did this wonderful series using a glue line print of her husband’s saxophone keys. She too changed the background color with each pull.

These are some of my fabrics from class.

Quilters are a divers group. One of my friends, Emily has done a lot of beading in the form of bracelets this year. She shared them with us. They are wonderful!

Week II of QBL also brought our Christmas in July celebration.

We played games based on carols. We pulled poppers. We drank eggnog, we had a garb bag gift exchange and laughed a lot. Sharron dressed in red and was our master of ceremonies. It was great fun.

The second week ended with show and tell like the first. Debbie had completed this quilt.

This shot is of Linda with one of the works she did in class. And another class project.

The week ended with the tote auction and Cynthia’s tote sold for $1,350.00 – the highest price paid for any work that was going to the scholarship fund. Cynthia sweetened the pop of her tote by adding some of her own hand dyed materials to the collection. This is a shot of the bag after the sale. Nice way to close QBL for 2017.

Saturday I went downtown to the Art’s and Crafts fair where I saw several artists friends and watch the native American dancers. They really moved and I enjoyed all the action.

My daughter’s company had a booth there too and this shot is of her and several of her fellow workers. Wendy is the one in the middle.

I also had QuEG’s and Diva meetings this week. At QuEG’s we looked at many projects folks worked on at QBL.This is the piece that Linda was working on in Independent Studio.

This piece is what Liz worked on in Rosalie’s class week one at QBL.

This is another 3-D work by Sally. The whole section at the bottom is all made with thread- except the door. The light house had a lite in the top too. She does amazing work with her embroidery machine.This is another bit of jewelry by my quilting friend Corrine.

The Diva gals had lots of wonderful work too. Lori showed off her knitting with these hand warmers that she made on her curse to keep her hands warm. She also showed off her stitch work.

Sandy proudly displayed her work just home from a quilt show.

Noel showed off her newest work where she was mixing black and white with solid colors.

Sally displayed her second quilt showing off her morning walks. The quilt shows a map of the rout in red and the photos are some of the items she sees.

Ruth is actively working away on her dinosaur track quilt. These first layers are ready for the mud layer now.

Maureen is working away on layers of dye for her new projects. This is lovely.

Susan is still doing little units of work on Pellon. These are memory pieces of her experience in Mexico. As I have said many times I am so very fortunate to have so many stimulating and creative friends.

Progress Report: Owl project

The first week I took a class with Cynthia Corbin called The ABC’s of Composition. In this class we design blocks using letter forms as the basis of the blocks.This is the black fabric patters for my blocks. We then interpreted the patters in color and built the quilt around them. I stayed with this word all week and went from this first start to a “glyph” using the word owl.

I have always been fascinated by the positive and negative spaces in art and this project played into and developed several more pieces in this vain.

At this point I wondered about a size variation with the glyph. I did a shrink and an enlargement. I have not done any work with the smaller ones even though I have several ideas.

The larger one however has become two pinned works. Watch for upcoming developments.

Label Blocks More blocks is getting smaller and the end of this step is insight.

It has been a busy few weeks and my mind is full of ideas. Now I need to slow down and get some work done.

Keep Creating.

Carol

Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, Natural Elements, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Teasel III

Preparations

July 13, 2017 admin

Hello-

I am getting ready for the start of Quilting By the Lake this week along with the usual stuff. I always get excited about seeing my gal pals that I only see for these two weeks every year. It really begins tomorrow for me as I will spend the day helping to hang the quilt show that is a part of the two week event.

This week was busy. I did go and dye with Liz one day and we did a few more pieces. I will take a lot along to use in my class the first week. These are Liz’s dyed works that she shared at the QuEG’s meeting on Tuesday. She also finished her piece that is her entry for the Finger Lakes Fiber Artists show that is a part of the QBL show . This is not the best shot of it and I will try to get a better one. There was also a Diva meeting this week. This it a shot of Alice’s new work for the Women’s museum. It is early in the process so things will change. But a strong beginning. Anne is working on this piece for a show about folks with disabilities. This is braile. Both meetings where stimulating and I enjoyed them.

My Three Jacks was finally installed in its new home with my friends Dave and Betty. This is a shot of it’s place of honor over their new fireplace.. I am quite proud of how good it looks there.

Progress Report: Teasel III This work is 17” w X 22” l. It is going to my friend Vyvian who lives in England . I will try to get it shipped soon. It is the last of the teasel works that will have this shurbi dyed fabric in it as there is none left in my stash.

I hope she enjoys the piece. I certainly enjoyed creating it with her in mind.

Prayer Flags I made up three more of these little guys this week. They are so much fun and go so fast. I often get nice positive comments on then too.

Label Blocks Two more label blocks are done now. I am nearly finished with a third. It was my plan to have three as I will be away at QBL for the next two weeks and there will not be any posting until I return . The next post will be Aug 4.

Enjoy summer

Carol

Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, Pods, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

May Apples

May 5, 2017 admin

Hello,

As this image shows the May Apples are up. No blossoms yet- or at least none as of yesterday. But they will appear soon. They are such fleeting plants as they will all be gone in a month. Knowing the hill side where these live means I look for them year after year in one of the small wild areas close to home.

This week was a busy one that started last Friday with a three day open studio at the Schweinfurt Art Center. I spent the time in the wet studio again and had a great time. There were only three of us down stairs, so we all had lots of space to work. Liz worked on top of old black ans white samples for her dyeing. Good way to give this work a second life. Penny built paper screens and did lots of stamping. I had a lot of new thermofax screens that I enjoyed playing with. There were some problems though. Liz and I used the dye and print paste we

had mixed up in Oct. Most of Liz’s work washed out to very pale colors. This great big piece went from a strong powerful work to this timid pastel work. I did not have as poor a luck as she but my works could not seem to keep their whites.

None of the browns, that I truly love ,worked either. I did have good luck with my greens though.

Liz shot this one of me working.

I am still washing out they dyes so I will wait for my final decision about the success of it all. We will start from scratch next week. There were seven gals upstairs working in the sewing studio too. We got to talk with them at lunch time.

The “Made in New York” show was also up in the gallery. The wings were especially striking. The whole week end event was fun and exhausting.

Because Tuesday was the first Tuesday of the month, I had QuEG’s and Diva meetings too.

At QuEG’s Sally had lots of great work to share. The more I learn about machine embroidery the more impressed I become. All those little red snowflakes on this tree skirt are machine drawn! She had some wonderful hand work too. The light color of the ribbon, basket and flowers was done with Crayola crayons before she did the embroidery work. It is quietly luscious. Linda has been exploring water soluble crayons and having fun at that. She is also playing with black and white fabrics .

The Divas were also inspiring this month. Regina shared more rust dyeing and this wonderful Bird of Paradise miniature quilt. It is paper pieced. I find the idea of all those little 1/4” seams coming together in the points a task I do not even want to attempt. Ruth is working on a social commentary piece about the massacre. It will be a pleasure to watch this work grow. Lori is doing Gelli plate printing to create backgrounds for her stitching work. The quiet colors are so beautiful here.

Noel brought her big leaf top from a Pat Pulley Workshop she took a few weeks ago. The fabrics are very strong. There was a lot of stimulation this week so not a lot of work got done.

Progress Report: Ice I am to the point on this piece where I am machine drawing the leaves that are in the water. There is no pattern for what I am doing and I get to invent the vain and leaf shapes as I go along. It is fun, but very exhausting at the same time. The few place where I have cut and applied fabric leaves are much easier to complete.

Pods Only one pod was finished this week. I have two more that I am sure I will complete this eve, but they are not done yet. I am using lots of the special buttons I have been purchasing over the years and some from the of the fancy ones that Sharron gave me as my center points on some of these latest ones.

Label Block # 119

Again I keep working away on these blocks. Only 26 to go now.

Keep Creating,

Carol

Birds, Blossoming Branch, Crow Calls, Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, Pods, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Summer Meadow, Year Of the Rooster

Spring

April 7, 2017 admin

Hello-

It is starting to really feel like spring here in central New York. I see little bits of green on the tips of branches and shoots in the flower beds on my walks. This was the fist week of the month so I had meetings. The QuEG’s meeting was small but there was lots of work.

Liz finished this beauty using all Kay Facet’s fabrics. She and Sue Ellen both had work for the group challenge for the guild.

This is Liz’s finished star challenge piece. It looks good I think. Sue Ellen’s star is a good one as well. The use of the light blue fabric and the size were the other two limitations to the challenge. Angela is busy working on felting some of her patterns from her tip to Hawaii I think the limited pallet will server her well with this exploration.

The Divas also meant on Tue eve. with more exciting stuff. This is Lori’s completed tundra piece from her trip to Alaska.Maureen showed us lots of the new wonderful hand printed fabric that she is working on. Donna is proud of finally finishing her big king sized top. It is amazing as it is her first quilt.

She is also working away on some figures in paper clay. These bathing beauties are fun I think.

Regina is doing lots of handwork on her shobori pieces from last month. She is also exploring with rust dyeing.

Lliesa shared her memory scrolls from her semester in Japan. They are so wonderful. All created while she was there with her husband and made from fabric she got at the temple sales that she attended.

There are four scrolls and each one is full of beautiful appliqued works all with memories and stories too. She stitched the insect by hand here and told a story about the cricket pets one has in the small houses there. I just could not look enough at this piece of work.

Progress Report: Summer Meadow

This work is 15” X 21.5 “ in size. Sewing of the flowers was done from the back of the work with thick thread and cord in the bobbin. The dragon fly has wings cut from ribbon that was then free motion attached to the background. The body is made of bugle beads that I hand stitched to the surface.

Blooming Branch This work is 33” X 40.5”. It is the result of a challenge by my friend Sharron. We bot purchased some silk kimono fabric

This shot is a close up of that fabric. The challenge was to use it in a project to show at QBL in the summer of 2017. This is my solution.

Crow Calls I am adding the trees to the surface of the work now. It takes about 50 minuets to do each tree and the birds have not been started yet. I am enjoying it none the less.

Samurai Romance I finished the leaf panels this week . I am beginning to feel it is a bit over crowded and I still have one more technique to add to the surface.

I may do some editing before this is all done and I am happy now that I only pinned things in place as I went along.

Banner –Year of the Rooster This is one of my works that I started in Florida with Susan. The lettering on this one is stamped. The rooster is colored with crayon.

Banner- Birds This is my second banner this week. The texture is created by rubbing over a plastic doily with crayon. The text here is cut felt letters that were machine stitched down.

New IceI am just starting to free motion stitch down the parts of this work. The bright pink at the bottom, is the felt inside that I am building on.

New Scarves Chris asked for more scarves so I got busy and did these two this week. I am always surprised by the bits of stuff that seem to pile up and work in these projects.

Pod 6 I gave in and decided to create a few more pods. This one needs some weight/beads on the bottom and it will be complete.

Label Block # 114 I made it to the fabric store this week and got more black fabric for the last 25 blocks. Cutting them is the next step. Only 36 to go now.

Keep Creating

Carol

PS check out my tutorial on how to rust print.

Blossoming Branch, Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Xavier Wood Ice

March

March 9, 2017 admin 1 Comment

Hello-

The week has been a busy one as it was the first Tuesday of the month and I had QuEG’s and Diva meetings. This hand painted and printed fabric was created by Linda last fall before she fell and injured her shoulder. I like the three layers she built up. Angela is doing wonderful hand work of some Hawaiian flowers. She is exploring with paint too. It seems like we all keep playing with new ideas.

At the Diva meeting Regina shared her Butterfly piece and a second forest floor work.

Lori finished up this wonderful hand stitched piece this month too. She really likes to build lots and lots of layers of stitching. I love her final effect. It’s so rich.

Donna shared some of her Shobori work form Maureen’s class.

Ruth share this wonderful Guatemalan weaving.

I always get a bit lift form the meetings and go home inspired.

Progress Report: Xavier Wood Ice This work is 34” X 40”. It is based on one of my photographs from earlier this winter. I have been working on the quilting for the last few weeks as it is all done free motion and that takes a lot of energy so I can not work too long before I must stop. I used plastics, ribbon, yarns netting and hand dyed cheese cloth as parts of the texture for this piece. The snow has so many textures to do because some of it is melted and refrozen while other areas are melted and other areas are thin with think areas too . I have lots more photos and I am already thinking about how I want to show the leaves captured in the ice on the next one.

Blooming Branch This work has been the area where I have done the most concentration this week. I made two limbs for this piece. This is the second limb and I made it because I was worried that the first was too light. When I pinned up this second limb and I then took a shot of it in the gray scale I could see that the dark value was too close to the background and it got lost. Here is tha shot. So I returned to the light branch and pinned it up and took a gray scale photo of it. It looked like this So that’s the one I sewed down and I am using in this work.

I have started to add the stamens to some of the blossoms.

Second Branch The second branch is pinned to a lighter background and I am hoping that adding blossoms to it will push it back a bit and create more of the balance I am looking for. This Value thing is not easy for me.

Samurai Romance The gold panel on the left is mostly done. I am working on step two where I stenciled copper paint on felt that I had created. I am learning lots of new techniques with this project and that is what I wanted to do.

Summer Meadow I finished the bobbin cord application and did the painting on this work this week. I am now ready to build up more grass and flowers on top with machine drawing.

Re working I am building a forest on top of this piece. It was Ok- but did not excite me much. A great background as Ethel would have said. So here goes…….

Label Block # 110 I keep working away on this project.

I will be away for the next two weeks so there will not be any posts until Mach 30.

Enjoy the beginnings of spring.

Carol

Circle Challenge, Diva Meetings, Green Leaf scarf, Label Blocks, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Snow Dyeing, Teasil I, Teasil II, Three Jacks, Xavier Wood Ice

Winter

February 9, 2017 admin

Hello,

We are deep in the cold of winter here and that makes me stay in the studio and get a lot done. But I do have the meetings that come at the first of each month. QuEG’s meant. Liz is busy doing hand work on her project that she dyed last fall at the play/work retreat at the Schweinfurth. That is her work at the top.

Sue Ellen is busy too and she made this colorful quilt for the Linus Project. I always get a lot more out of the group meetings.

This time I showed them all the Circle Challenge pieces all together. That lead to a whole lot of playing with how they could or should be presented. I continued the whole idea when I got home.

There are just so many ways to go with them.

The Diva’s had a good time playing with them too. There was a lot going on at that meeting as well.

Alice has finished her Bed Quilt and she made prints of the finished work to give to all the folks in the family who owned the bed so they have the history. I think that is a good idea.

Liesa is building a wonderful book on stamps. She printed the stamps on fabric for this work and laments that she still has all the original stamps left.

Donna just returned from a 10 day retreat where she did a lot of Gelli printing and pastel work. Maureen is doing lots of work with indigo so she can do more teaching of the techniques. She shares her knowledge so very kindly.

Regina went off to the conference called “ Rocky Road to California” and took a class with the Tentmakers of Cairo. She keeps exploring new techniques.

Ruth is busy with her wonderful clam shells too. It was a good meeting and I came home with new ideas of things to do with my own work.

Progress report: Three Jacks This work is 28” X 40”. Because I had to take it apart to fix the nail at the bottom I took photos of the work without the glass. No problems with reflections that way. I also did a major cleaning of the glass- something that I had not thought of before either. The work is dramatic and I like it a lot.

The velvet jacks really convey the rich contrast of the two parts of the flower.

Snow Dying

It snowed this week and so I did a bit more snow dyeing. It is snowing today too so I will do an orange batch next.

Tease I I did the hand stitching on this work this week. It is almost ready to stretch.

Teasel II I pulled this fabric for the background of the green teasel heads I made the week before on Monday. Then I worked hard on getting that section done. I got all excited and even moved on to pinning the heads in place. They are not stitched down. No problem with contrast this time.

Leaf Scarf I did a lot of free motion work on this piece and determined yesterday that it was complete. It is based on a work I saw on Pintrest by Amanda McCarvour. I only work from what I remember not from any reading or recheck. So when I did look a second time yesterday, I was surprised by how different they were. I like the vanes of leaves mixed with the wool roving . The places where I tried to work in air collapsed so I think when I try it again I will put a layer of nylon net in the middle of the sandwich so there is a some stability to the whole thing. That and more stitching lines will do the trick I think. It will also help avoid the arching that happened with some of the gold leaves.

Xavier Wood Ice I have been taking a lot of photos on my walks of ice and now I am ready to begin a new ice work. This is the fabric lay out at about the middle of the process.

Pods I have assembled two of the pods from the felted pieces that I made. They are nor quite finished as I think I want to add some additional beads on the bottoms of them. But I am making progress. It is like the circle challenge in the way that I can think of more variations for each side as I go along. I will play until I tire of the process.

Scrap Happy I have been assembling the strips and cut pieces from Ethel’s scrap box for a few weeks. I cut them into five inch squares yesterday and made a block. It is 17” on a side. That is a little bigger then I usually use so I may need to make adjustments as I move forward.

Label Block # 106 I was in Jo Ann’s this week and I was tempted to purchase some additional embroidery thread- but I resisted. Then when I got home I did a little search and found a new bag full, so I am very happy I did not give into temptation. Only fourteen more blocks to build.

Keep Creating

Carol

Circle Challenge, Circle Challenge 2, Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Three Jacks, Wendy and Mark

New Beginnings

January 6, 2017 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

In the deep cold we are experiencing now, I think of the wonderful warmth of spring and the new beginnings that a new year makes on consider. New sketchbooks, new book keeping, and new calender’s are all part of the new start for 2017. I am working on choosing a new word for my focus this year too, but have not decided quite yet. Sue Ellen at the QuIG’s meeting was thinking of spring too with this new Hosta leaf pillow she shared. The machine work is wonderful. The Diva’s also meant this week. Because of the show that Donna is hosting for us there was lots of talk and work for that event. I served as transport for work for Noel and Sharon as both could not attend. Sharon kindly gave me a little gift in the form of one of the book marks that she makes for her booth. I like it. Regina has been doing a lot of indigo dyeing. ( look at that pile) Cheri had two new pieces for the show as well as to share. She also does such nice little surprises for the backs of her quilts that I am sharing one of those too.

Ruth got into a traveling trunk show for SAQA and she showed us the new wave she did just for that. I like the waves out to sea too. Then there is the wonderful foam under the wave. It is really a strong work I think.

Lliese had a wonderful piece to share with us as well. This piece is much bigger than she usually works.

I hung my Solo Show yesterday with the help of Steve and Lynne. Preparing for this was a good experience for me as I got to really look at the body of work. I have been on this earthy foundations work for about three years now. We hung 21 pieces and I took 24 home with me that we did not use. I like having a choice. It is a beautiful place to display and I enjoyed doing that step too because of the wonderful help.

Progress Report: Circle Challenge 1 I am pleased with how this turned out. All the parts seem to work together for me.

Circle Challenge 2 This second challenge has different colors in some of the strips and the rotation is different. Three additional colored circles remain but the parts of the solid yellow circle have been dropped and replaced with four triangles. I am ready to do the bead work now .

Name Game Wendy and Mark I am all done assembling the strips of this work now. I made the back the other day and I am now ready to add the batting and begin quilting it.

Three Jacks I have finished the background of this work. Then I did some research followed by some drawing. The paper patterns are enlargements of the sketch. I still have one more to do as you can easily see. I could not find the color fabric in my stash that I wanted to use so I had to purchase the green on Tues at Quilters Corner when I was there.

Bird Block I am playing with some leftover bird cuts from the Bird land quit here. It is always a little challenge to see if the remainders can become something on there own. I am thinking now that I will balance the birds with some free motion bushes based on this sketch book drawing. They have such a light feeling that I feel they can balance the heavy birds on the left.

Label Block # 101 I am working away on these little blocks. Only 19 more to build now.

Keep Creating

Carol

Bird Land, Diva Meetings, Fabric Collage Constructions, Fall Fires, Felt Work, Label Blocks, Natural Elements, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Deep in Fall

November 3, 2016 admin

Hello-

I am finding the fall color all around me now. And there is a lot on the ground. I raked big piles to the street yesterday. The leaf piles are deep . This week was the beginning of the month and so I had meetings with both QuEGs and Divas on Tuesday. Sally started us off with a warm and fuzzy baby quilt for her grand child. Linda showed

us the project she had completed from her class at QBL this summer. Liz was just home from Nancy Crow’s Barn and she had some great work to share too. She is mixing her drawing skills with her fabric work.

Sue Ellen is playing with line. It was a good meeting. The I went off to the Diva meeting in the evening. There again folks have been busy with projects and events.

Regina is doing great free motion machine drawing. I like her use of layers of fabric for this too. Anne and Ruth both took a Shobori class at the Schweinfurth and the results are wonderful. I look forward to seeing these wonderful fabrics in new works.

Maureen showed her finished Shobori quilt. She will be teaching these techniques in the spring.

Maureen also shared some antique quilt blocks she picked up on her trip to Maine. I really like the wonderful stitches.

Alice showed us the progress she is making on “The Bed” quilt. She had such a strong style!

Lliesa has finished her village piece. “The Tracks Divide Us” the title.

Progress Report: Bird Land This quilt is 50” lone and 49” wide. I started this quilt in Class with Rosalie Dace and the assignment was to choose a shape and repeat it against a patterned background. I also added to the challenge by using the negative space too. I did reflective quilting on this surface to fill it in.

Fall Fires This stretch work is 30” X 22”. This work is my second attempt to use my collage build up technique and try to pull away from the “rock” imagery that is where I usually go. I enjoyed mixing the wool, organza and silks to build up this work.

New work 1, 2, 3 When I finish a work I usually get going on a new piece. I have drawn out three new layouts for work that use the collage build up technique. This one had the felt base built in. With this one I a building up with bits and scraps of fabric fist. There is a third but it is just lines on the black wool.

Self Challenge I stated this self challenge this week too. I want to do seven little works that are all the same size using a strip section and a circle cut from that strip unit. I did not know how to cut away the circle and maintain the strip unit so I could rotate the circle and re insert it. But the folks at the Diva meeting gave me two possible ways to do that. I think I am ready to go forward now.

Label Blocks # 90 & 91 I continue to do the work. I am going to hunt up a stitch book this week to make some more exciting stitches though.

Keep Crating

Carol

Diva Meetings, Ethel's Scarp Nine Patch, Label Blocks, Land Fall, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Water Run

First Week in October

October 6, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello-

It is the first full week of October and I went to my group meetings on Tuesday. At QuEG’s, Angela started us out with a baby quilt top she has finished for her yet to be born grand daughter. She is excited about it. She also showed us some of her work from an on line class she took. I really like the idea of making your sketch life sized before beginning work. A simple idea that had never occurred to me. I have always done a thumb nail sketch- but I can see value in doing it life sized. She also had her books from her class at QBL to share. It looks like she learned a lot and had a good time.

Linda shared her workings with her new felter. This is a great start and I think she will do more on it and do several other projects.

Linda also created this wonderful forest quilt. It has so much depth.

Sue Ellen is busy getting ready for Christmas at the shop so she was trying out new ideas and this tree was one of them. There were only five of us at the meeting, but we still managed to fill the two hours with sharing and talk.

Then it was off to the Diva meeting. Lliesa started us out with a new map quilt. Unlike her one from last year that was based on a real location, this one is all imagined. I like how it is growing.

Ruth is doing a series of works based on Dinosaur tracks. I like the way she is working . The irregular shapes really look like chunks of rock to me.

Lorrie made this little quilt for the sale at the quilt show next week end. It is a happy little thing.

Donna is doing rust dyeing now and has achieved some great effects. I always go home for the meetings with a real high on things to think about and try Like the rust dyeing……. It is great to meet with folks of a like mind.

Progress Report: Water Run This work is 24” X 20” wide. I sure enjoyed working away on this work. When I stretched it I really got going on the next ones too. I like doing the free motion work as the fibers sometimes move as I work.

That movement makes it feel more organic to me.

Land Fall This work was designed on a vertical layout, but is has turned to become a landscape type of work. I try to pay attention when the work directs me and go with that flow. It has about four hours of work in it so far. Slow but enjoyable for me.

Felting I am still adding roving and fabric to the surface of this work. I found some wonderful organza in one of my boxes when I was looking for something else. I know it will blend well in this work. No stitching yet. It is starting to look a bit like a flame to me.

Ethel’s Nine Patch This is the back of Ethel’s Nine patch. Again I am using her fabric and I though I would add some solids in primary colors to it- but I like the effect so I have just built it this way. There are lots of scraps left in the box, so I know there will be more work like this in my furture.

Queen Anne’s Lace

I am working on the hand stitching on this work. There are only two more flower heads to do and that step will be complete. My fried Tanya gave me some Eamu feathers a few weeks ago and I think I may use them in this work. The gray feather pinned to the center area is one of the feathers.

Bird Land This work is on the bottom of the stack so it does not get much attention. I did finish all the cutting of the birds this week though. Now to stitch things down.

Label Block # 83

I keep working away on these blocks and they keep getting completed. No rush and no pressure really is a nice thing.

Keep Creating

Carol

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Category Archives: Diva Meetings

Time out

Quilting by the Lake 2017

Preparations

May Apples

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March

Winter

New Beginnings

Deep in Fall

First Week in October

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer