Category Archives: Diva Meetings

Briare Patch, Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, QBL- Quilting By the Lake, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

QBL 2016 Plus

August 4, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hell,

So much has happened in the last weeks it is hard to know where to start. Quilting by the lake was as wonderful as ever. I helped hang the quilt show for QBL on the Friday before. We started out with a empty gym and over the course of the day filled it with beautiful quilts. This shot is of a special exhibit is of work by Debbie Heaps. She did one of the little lectures about her work during week one where she explained her process and philosophy of quilting. It was great.

I had a class with Carol Southerlund called in the Thick of It. She is a strong teacher with lots to share. The first day she sent us out at noon to find images that we enjoyed. I got hooked on the patterns and shapes in car tail lights. These images turned into the inspiration for our foam stamps. We did them in both positive and negative.

This is a shot of my work space on the third day.

My good friend Regina was seated behind me.

There was lots of work going on . Carol showed us how she built her steamer to fix color in cloth on Thur eve.

She also showed us how to discharge fabric. This is a shot of part of the class wearing out masks. One can never be to careful when it comes to using chemicals in dyeing.

My friend Sharron worked in Independent Studio. This is her sixth summer of working on six Dear Jane Quilts. She is doing the triangle boarder blocks now and she assures me that they will all be done by next summer.

Friday Evenings at QBL is show an tell form the classes were students hold up There work and the teacher’s explain what they did.

Randy was in Valerie Goodwin’s class and did many little works.

There are two other parts to the final evening. There is a raffle and my friend Ethel Whittamore gave me one of her unfinished quilt to put into this project. I finished it and put it in the raffle as she requested. The money goes to the scholarship fund. Sally Davis won the quilt. She was an old friend of Ethel’s too so I am sure it went to a good home.

The teachers also altered bags that are then auctioned off to add more money to the scholarship fund.

It was a good week and I went home tired.

I unloaded my car with the dye stuff and packed it again for week two and my class on Pattern, Rhythem and Repetition with Rosalie Dace.

Like week one there were lectures. John Kubiniec talked on Monday and showed all the quilts that are in his new book Spin on Drunkards’s Path. The book came out this week too.

Nancy Bailes also did a talk for us. She will be teaching her

techniques next year. I am so happy for her.

Rosalie started us out with some paper work were we built our designs. She spent a lot of time talking about value and I think I have a better understanding of it now. This is a lay out on my desk of light , medium and dark values that is considered for my piece.

This shot is of my work space on day two.

Again Regina was seated behind me. This is an early shot of her first piece in Rosalie’s class.

I got involved with Graffiti again in this class and did my name in two colors on different backgrounds.

I then sliced them up and reassembled them in this pattern. It is all put together now and I am pondering how to quilt it.

At the end of class we had a short critique. John was in the class and this was his work for the week.

Regina and I also took down the part of the quilt show. That process always make me feel sad.

This is how it looked before we started. In the end it was just a gym again.

Week two ended with the same pattern as week one. Here is Debbie with her top and Jean Riley too.

Again the teachers did bags and made more money for the Scholarship fund.

Sat. morning I got up and went to Ithaca to take down the Diva 15 show. I had great help so it did not take long.

These are two of my woks that were in that show.

Briar Patch was in it too.

I feel I am still recovering but I did go to both the QuIG’s meeting and the Diva meeting on Tuesday.

Noel was in Rosalie’s Transparencies class the first week This is one of her works.

Lori started this work at QBL.

Liesa did this work for her living room wall.

Maureen is doing free motion machine work on her work now. It is fun.

Susan shared her Bronte sister dolls with us. The Diva group is so diverse that it is always exciting to see what folks are doing. I enjoy it very much.

Label Blocks #70 and 71 I did manage to keep at this project and made progress.

Keep Creating

Carol

Diva Meetings, Felt Work, Garden Gate, Label Blocks

Diva 15 Show- plus

July 7, 2016 admin

Hello,

This week has been a full one starting with the opening of the Diva 15 Show. This work is Anne’s and it sure looked great on the gallery wall. I think the whole show was a wonder of our diversity and talent.

Sally’s piece just glowed on the wall with its bright colors. I enjoyed the large number of people who visited and talked with lots of them. There where fellow quilters of course and lots of younger folks too.

Maureen really showed off her shobori with this piece. The evening went quickly and I had a good time.

This is Alice’s entry for the 15 wall. It is one of the works that has sold already too. She also has a show at the Earlville Opera House this month. The 15 wall was a big draw as the display took the entire back wall of the space. Cindy’s little work was a real gem with all its machine worked movement.

I was espically taken by Noel’s piece because it grew out of a play day she and I had with Susan last summer.

Susan’s work looked good near the food table and I heard lots of positive things about it. I feel the opening was a success and the whole show is as well.

This is also the fist week of the month so, I had meetings. The QuIG’s had lots of nice work. Angela is making great progress with her felted pieces and Liz keeps putting out her little blocks every week too.

The Diva meeting is doing more critique work so not a lot of pieces were/are completed . Only Regina has a big display of her Black and White studies. The were based on paper sketches she did in a class. But all the fiber work she did in isolation. They were so strong and went she changed their orenatation there were big changes too. I find them dramatic and can hardly wait to see were she goes with these ideas.

Progress Report: Blue Iris This work is 39″ l X 34” w. It features the Sachiko panel of course. The Japanese characters are scattered around as I felt they went together. I ended up making a panel for the back with the translations on it. That seemed like the simplest way to transmit that information. This panel is Luck.

This panel is Good Health. This is another Ethel project as she had all of this fabric sorted into a little bag. The Sachiko was not even started so I feel this is more my work then many of the other projects of her that I have completed.

Garden Gate I am now ready to start the quilting on this project. I am using the orange print as the basis for the quilting patters. They are so complex that I drew them in paper and cut them out. I will now stitch around the paper patters in the non printed areas.

Generational Whispers I took this work to the Diva meeting and got some good direction from my fellow art quilters. I stitched down Mom and myself yesterday. I decided that Gwen who was the only person in profile did not work so I took her image off the surface and will re do her. Sometimes errors are made – “Rumpus” as Susan calls them.- They lead to growth.

Wool works There are no titles for these wool pieces yet. But this on is the oldest of the four and it has the most machine work on it. There is a lot of distortions of the wool as the machine work is added. All four of these works are based on rock structure photos. This one is from on of my visits with Marty. I am not staying with the colors of the rocks- but I am trying to keep with the dark and light patterns. I enjoy this step and I like how the threads, yarns and bits of fabric build up the surface. The first two are built on a tweed wool base. This piece has a great deal of silk fabric built up on top of it. Beth gave me a bag of silk scarves last fall and I finally got into it and I am having a good time using them.

This wool piece is done on a black felted wool skirt that I cut up. Building over the dark color sure makes the wool roving glow some how. This piece only has about and hour’s worth of work at the sewing machine in it at this point.

This wool piece has not had any sewing machine work done on it. The roving has only been punched into the skirt felt. This is an example of step one for all these wool projects. I have not worked much on this project as I usually run out of time before I get to it.

New Work I do not seem to do well when the pin wall is blank so I started another 3 Challenge piece. It is in the fabric/color selections stage. Here is the collage that is the inspiration.

Label Block # 68 Week another square.

Keep Creating

Carol

Along the Shore, Blue Stone, Collage Based Work, Diva Meetings, Ice on Vincent, Label Blocks, Lion King- Cherrywood Challenge, Machine Drawing, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Wine and Cheese

May Days

May 5, 2016 admin

Hello,

This wonderful little blue flower filled in the neighbors front lawn and made me smile on my walk yesterday. They are so small only about a fourth on an inch across and so plentiful. I wore a smile for a long way down the street were it was refreshed several times as I came across several more mini fields of the little blue bundles.

I have had a full week with three days of Quilting Retreat at the Schweinfurth and the meetings of both QuIG’s and Divas. The retreat was great stimulation. It was good to see old friends and to see all that folks were doing. Norma was making hostess gifts. One of the five she did is in the background of this shot. Susan was quilting away at pieces that needed that to be completed. Great colors here.

Sally was piecing and assembling a one block wonder that was based on a fish print fabric. Watching her do the arranging of the blocks was wonderful because every time I looked up the work looked different.

Nancy G. did hand work on one of the row by row projects and this little quilt of NYC.

Linda L used the retreat to add boarders and based a big quilt of 110”x 110” that her sister had asked her to finish. She had to crawl around on the top of the tables to do all the basing in the center. The work is wonderfully complex and will look great on the bed when it is complete.

Victoria worked with the fabric she had created in Pat Paulie’s class in the fall. This shot is of one of the early layouts. She made lots of changes before the retreat was over. I love the bright colors.

Seated behind me was a gal named Janet W. She made her fist quilt at the retreat. I sure enjoyed working with her too. I think she is hooked.

Lots of wonderful things were going on at the QuIG’s meeting too. Both Linda and Angela were showing off pictures that are going to be inspirations for new work. Liz is still working away on the Splendid Simple Blocks project. Getting a new pattern every three of four days, is that is only a 8” block is very doable she says. She also is working away on big projects too. I just love this whole silk cloth work that she intends to start quilting soon.

Most of the Diva meeting went to talk about the up coming show that will open on June 3. Ruth did a great job with the post card.

Noel is doing service project quilts for the Tow Path guild. They are beautifully colored.

It is really great when folks bring works in progress. That is what Anne did. This is a Water quilt she shared with us . She asked for suggestions on how to quilt it. Now how she quilts chooses to do this will be interesting to see.

Lori also brought a project that is in an early stage. She has felted, fused and already added paint to the surface. All this before she begins to stitch on top. I am looking forward to watching it grow over time because I already love all the texture.

Progress Report: Ice on Vincent This quilt is in the stretching/flattening stage. I got help from Nancy Bales at the retreat on how to get it flat and now it is drying after a lot of steam ironing. Hopefully I will get a back on it this week.

Blue Stone I am still building up the surface with stitching on this work. I like this process,but it is very slow and tiring. Only about three more hours of work until I am done…… I think.

Along the Shore This is another of Ethel’s UFO’s I am completing. This is also my hand work project for the time being.

Wine and Cheese

I stared this project to relieve the pressure that all the free motion work on Ice and Blue Stone were creating in me this week. I did use a lot of the fabric that I had altered in this project. Most of the commercial orange is Ethel’s material.

Memory Map- Columbus Junction I did not do a lot of work on this project this week. I did add the spring flowers however. I like the Jack in the Pulpit the most. The Dutchman’s Britches are well shaped, but I wish they were a bit whiter. Perhaps I will add some paint to the surface.

Lion King –Cherrywood Challenge At the retreat I started this project. I had purchased the kit at the Chicago Quilt Festival when I was visiting with Sharron. First I did a little research and some drawing.

Then I stated building up the background. One of the limits on this challenge is to use only the Cherrywood fabrics. The pack was two shades of gold and dark brown fabric. Most of the piece is to be from these fabrics. The background is one of the gold’s. But it is not the full 20” that is required on a side, so I added the gray at the bottom.That is were I will put the masks when they are done. At the end of day one I did the loin’s body. I was tired and it was made backward. Fixing that was the first job of day two. I then made the main and stopped working on the project because I want to do the face with embroidery work. The whole thing is not due until July so I can take my time.

New Work Before I left home I had pulled out all my purples to do a new project using this collage as my starting point. It is early in the building of this work but I feel I am staying with the feel of it at this point.

Label Block # 50 I will take help were ever I can get it. The label at the top “ worker pant” is from my grandson.

Keep Creating

Carol

Briar Patch, Diva Meetings, Foggy Dawn, Label Blocks, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Silver Growth, Trickle

Ice Cycles

March 3, 2016 admin

Hello,

Long ice cycles are one of the sure signs of spring to me. The weather keeps shifting from cold to warm here and that means melt and thaw and melt again.

I had lots of meetings this week. Sat was a meeting of the Mixed Group. It is always very stimulation and enjoyable to see the work of other artists and get their feed back on one’s own work. Tuesday the first of March so both QuIG’s and the Divas meant. Liz found a weekly offer by Moda on Their web sight were they publish two new blocks ever week. She has a note book already and four blocks are completed.

Corinne shared her print work from our last play day at Angle’s.

At the DIva meeting Kristen shared her shop entry for the “Row by Row “ show at

quilters corner. Donna shared her Bernie Sanders doll.

Noel showed off her piece for the “ 15” show that the Divas will have this summer. It was inspiration to see what everyone is doing. I am so very lucky to have such wonderfully creative friends.

Progress Report: Trickle This is the forth stretched quilt that I felted first. For this one I did not add any thing to the back of my woven wool fabric before I felted it. This meant that it all stretch at the same rate and so it ended up much flatter. Now I need to get the corners of the work to be smooth and flat. It seems there is always something to learn.

Foggy Dawn I have taken the advice of my fellow quilters from Tuesday’s meetings on how to quilt this work and did it all in swirling patterns. It is now ready for the facings.

Briar Patch I am having fun doing free motion raw edge applique of the leaves on this work. I will also do free motion to add the black berries .

Silver Growth I started this work because of the gift of a beautiful top that my friend Regina gave me. The deep purple with the silver work on it at the bottom. Now I need to figure out how to ingrate this work.

New Work I have enjoyed laying out the balance of this work. Now I am ready to begin the sewing step. I will fill in the white areas with narrow strips of fabric as I always do.

Scrap Happy I am to the step in this quilt where I have put the blocks in rows. I need to stop now and make a back for this project before I can go forward. It will make a good quilt to pass on.

Label Block # 42 I just keep working away on these little pieces.

Keep Creating

Carol

#3, Blown Blossems, Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Uncategorized

Marks

February 3, 2016 admin

Hello,

It has taken me a while to decide on my word of focus for this year and I have considered many and tossed several away. But yesterday I decided that the word would be MARKS. I make marks f all sorts as do all humans. Think of the margins of note books in high school. Perhaps that is disappearing as kids spend more time on the computers , IPhones and pads, but I doubt it will ever disappear totally. Animals leave marks of there passing in the mud , snow and dirt. As do machines. Like skid marks that many of us created with our bikes. As an artist it will be a focus that I feel I need to pursue.

I sure seem to have a lot on my plate as we move into February. I did finish the Upstate Cancer Mask and returned it to the hospital before the dead line. I chose to treat the whole thing as a big

three dimensional needle point project. I can hardly wait to see how others treated this challenge.

This week being the first one of the month meant that both QuIG’s and Diva’s had meetings. The turn

out for QuIG’s was small but full of exciting projects. Sally is all ready for Valentine’s day with some wonderful cards for her grandkids. She also created some wonderful heart shaped book marks and bird candy holders.

Liz had just finished a on line class and she enjoyed doing personal historic explorations as well as learning some new techniques.

The Diva gals were busy too. Regina is building on her doodles and adding color and bead work to them. Noel is doing old fashion Paining work with her wonderful silk kimono fabrics.I can hardly wait to see how this develops.

Lori and Kirsten both too a class at the Schweinfurt with Victoria Finley Wolf last month and did strong works with very different feels. It is the wonder of the old patterns, that different fabrics, prints, colors and sets can make such different solutions.

I am getting ready for the “heART” sale at the Turquoise Street studio next week on Friday and Saturday with more images. Please feel free to come between 11 and 8 both days. The studio is through and behind Eureka Crafts in downtown Syracuse NY.

Progress Report: Parts

I am still adding parts to the surface of this work. I can see the bottom of the box that I collected all the little bits in, so I will need to add more hand work as I go forward.

Coastal Color III

I am ready to start building on this third felted base. I am trying to avoid the warp by adding a felted back unit to the work for this stage.

New Work I made a bunch of collages this week and I selected this one to be the beginning of a new work.

I have pinned up these fabrics and I think they will be the start. I do not know what color I will make the contrast pieces.

New Work I pulled out this big piece of print fabric and I feel ready to build on top of and add to it. A lot of the base work is already done for me I think.

Blown Blossoms This piece got a lot of attention this week and I am nearly ready to add the facings and finish it up. It is a small so it too went together quickly.

6X6 I was at a bit of a loose end this week so I started my entries for the Rochester 6X6 show. I decided to do little paper quilts this year as I had not done any work in this style for a while. I really like working this small as they come together very quickly. Two done and two to go.

Label Block #38 I just keep stitching away on these.

Keep Creating

Carol

Breaking Up, Butterflies For Ethel, Curvie Cuts, Diva Meetings, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Taffy Pull

Indian Summer

November 4, 2015 admin

Hello

We are enjoying a wonderful bit of Indian Summer with mild temperatures and sunny days. Fall is here and some of the trees are striped of leaves. But many still are dressed in colors. I noticed as I was swishing through the leaves on the ground that trees tend to lose there leaves from the far ends of the branches first. That makes sense, just I had not paid attention to that detail before. I have managed to play a little of my favorite fall game of catch the falling leaves while walking. I also realized I get a lot of joy out of having an acorn or two in my pocket.

The week has been a full one. I visited Nancy at her home to see her newest lay out for her next quilt. She uses bold patterns and colors in a way that I so admire. I know it will go through many changes before she is done. Watching her process is great.

Last Friday I went to the opening of Quilt=Art=Quilts at the Schweinfurth. I was delighted by the fact that I knew so many of the quilters who were accepted into this show- seven to be exact. This shot shows Cheri with her work at the opening. I love these wonderful silhouetted works she is doing now.

At the QuIGs meeting Liz was full of news about her trip to The Barn a few weeks ago. She had a notebook that she had covered with her own treatment of Cantha. I like what she did. Sue Ellen brought us some raw cotton and cotton pods from her trip south. I really love the shapes of the pods.

The Diva’s meant on Tue too and folks had lots great things to share. I got a lot of help with my works in progress. That is one of the best things about the group.

Progress Report: Taffy Pull At one point last week I thought I was done with this work. But when I took my second look the day after in the low light of early morning- I realized it was not very strong. So I took to my meetings. That is the best part of showing my stuff to new eyes. I am now working on adding more color to this surface in the form of thread painting. It is helping.

Butterflies for Ethel I am to the quilting stage of this work too. It also went to my meetings without being completed. I had the butterflies attached with the sliver thread as I did the first two in this series but did not have what I felt was a strong enough ideas for the quilting that it needed to be complete. Again my fellow artists came through with lots of suggestions. Now I need to get going on the machine process.

Breaking Up I am to the quilting stage of this work that I started last summer at QBL. I was challenging myself to add slender lines to the surface and I think I was successful with that part of the idea.

New Curvy Cut Work I picked up lots of leaves on my walks this week too. So I decided I needed a place to print there images and this is what I built to do so. I will paint the leaves and hand stamp them on this surface.

New Work/Challenge I am off this week end to do some more fabric dyeing and so I looked through the stack of older dyed stuff. I decided I would challenge myself to do at least a quilt a month using some of the hand dyed fabric. In this photo my hand dyed/printed fabric in the center. I am not sure about the next step- but I am sure going to try.

Label Block TV news goes on every night and so does my work on these blocks. Keep Creating

Carol

Diva Meetings, QBL- Quilting By the Lake, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Uncategorized

After QBL 2015

August 6, 2015 admin 2 Comments

Hello,

I am still feeling the effects of Quilting By the Lake and I am almost a week away from the event. I helped hang the quilt show that is part of QBL. (that was four weeks ago now) It is always great as one gets to look closely all the work. This piece is by my friend Randy Keenan. This shot of her is in the dorm lounging after a hard day.

The first night we had a great lecture and trunk show by Katie Pasquini Masopust. She was very excited about her log cabin work and it was very enjoyable.

Seeing old friends is always a big part of QBL for me. This hand work is by my friend Sharron Evens . She was in Independent Studio class with me all week although she was in the other room. She is still working on her “Dear Jane” quilts, but she is now doing the boarder triangles. She is doing seven variations on this quilt all by machine and all at the same time.There is one for each of her children. Each is different color pallet with a different special effect. Over the two weeks of QBL she finished seven of the triangle units for all seven of the quilts. ( see some in the background of the second shot) She assures me she will be done with all of them by QBL time next year so she can take a class. It has taken four years to complete this task. This shot of her on the floor is when she was getting ready to insert the center of this quilt on point. She has written a note book to go along with the project too. It is quite a task.

The really great thing about Independent Studio is how much is going on. Trina and Leona were working on two quilts based on the same photo of a Chinese Garden. It was fun to watch it change over the course of the week and to hear them talk- sort of a peek into the two different ways their brains worked on the same problems. I worked on a new rock /foundation piece. I did take a photo every day this is day 2. The second is day 5.

The other wonderful thing about studio is we can do just what we want and on Thursday afternoon I taught a mini lesson in how to make silk paper in the women’s bathroom( it was too windy to work out of doors). It was fun and everyone who did it walked away with a little bit of silk paper to use .

There was a new feature this year at QBL- it was a lecture/or trunk show every afternoon after class. The topics ranged from “How to care for your Quilts” by a textile conservator, a talk by Donna Lamb on “Future planning for QBL” to trunks shows. Week one I made it to two of the trunk shows. One by Julia Graziano and a second by Nancy Breland. Week two I went to Marcia De Camps’s trunk show. She showed forty works in forty min.

A second event that took place both weeks was a mini mall were participants and a few outsiders came and sold there wears at the quilt show. There was also a raffle in conjunction with that event

and I won a prize.

There was an special show / event at the Schweinfurth both weeks as well and I found it to be really fun and exciting. All the work was done with recycled materials. I encourage any one to go and see it.

In between weeks one and two of QLB I went home and did laundry and switched gears as I went off to a new class. On Sunday on my way back to QBL I stopped and visited the Syracuse Arts and Crafts fair. My friend Sharon Souva won a first place ribbon in the show. It does look good.

Donna and Stephany were there to greet everyone when we returned. I took a class with David Hornung week two- Color/Collage.

This shot is of my work table day two in the morning before I got started.

It is still sort of tidy- but things went down hill from there. Marcia worked next to me and I really enjoyed watching her build her projects. Her style is so clean and beautiful. Linda was across the room and this shot is of one of Linda’s more lyrical projects.

Angela was in the class too and she ended up doing lots of Gelli plate printing of her backgrounds instead of painting them. She even demonstrated for David and other interested folks how the process works. I think David is hooked and will try this technique.

The last night of QBL is always a mixture of excitement and sadness. We have a class show and tell for all the classes. This shot is of the folks in Sherri Lyn Woods class. This year was the final teacher apron auction for the scholarship fund. I really liked Judy Bliden’s “eat out” apron .

I went back to the dorm for one last bit of talk and parting. Sharron made am a root beer float and it was wonderful way to end a great week of QBL activites .

Then there was the AQS Quilt Week going on down town too.

Saturday morning I went down and meant Cheri and her mom to check out the show at the On Center . The quilt show was a good one and I had a hard time choosing my favorite. Marcia’s quilt was among the quilts of friends that I spotted at the show.

I enjoyed the SAQA section of the show too. Most of the quilts in that part were from Europe. I really liked this wonderful piece with all the different textures the most.

Things did not stop with the second show for me either. The first Tuesday of the mount was this week so I had QuIG’s and Diva meetings too. So many folks were also QBL partisipants that we spent a lot of time talking about what folks did.

Several folks- Liz, Linda C, Linda H and Angela were all in a Cantha class together.

The hand work is wonderful. Angela has already started two shawls with this type of stitching in mind. It will be a while until it is done- but I really like the start of this one.

Linda H is taking an on line class with Elizabeth Barton. This is her solution to the problem for the July Challenge. What great movement. Linda C has finished the work she showed us last month. I really like what she does with small inserted lines.

Angela is taking an on line class too and this is her felted interpretation of one of her drawings.

Sally did this work about Dr. Who for her daughter who is crazy about the story.

She was busy with her embroidery too and getting ready for Christmas. This is a part of a Christmas tree skirt.

Sue Ellen is working away on her tree series and this is the newest one. She also took a class at QBL with Cynthia Corbin and did a lot of work with purples. This shot also shows the inspiration for the piece she did in this class.

Liz is making progress on her Row by Row work . It will make a great summer quilt when she is done.

Victoria was in Judy Bliden’s class and here is her final sketch for the next quilt she will be working on.

Julia was asked to be a part of Nancy Crow’s Circles Show and this is her entry. It is wonderful.

Sally is moving so we made a little box full of little quilts form all of us. She is holding up Alice’s work here. This second is Susan’s piece for Sally.

Anne is working away on finishing this piece for a show. I really like the interesting machine quilting she is doing with her work.

Noel took a painting class at QBL and she learned how to paint sea shells among other things. This work will be fun to watch grow.

Ruth purchased this piece from the AQS show. It is on of the Egyptian tent works that they were featuring and selling. I like all the wonderful color and usage of traditional Egyptian patterns.

I have not done any work out side of QBL but I am very full of ideas.

Keep Creating

Carol

Color- Spring Onion, Colors- Hands, Colors- Imagination, Dance, Diva Meetings, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Insect ology, Machine Drawing, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Visual Effects

June 4, 2015 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

I have spent my week with many other creative people and in doing so my world is richer. Yesterday, while coming home from a wonderful performance of West Side Story with my friend Barb and I, we were enjoying the beautiful landscapes of up state New York. In doing so we talked at length about how we are so eager to feast our eyes on the world around us and that we easy find and celebrate the wonders of our world with joy and delight. That is a job all artists do – with our works we celebrate our own joy and in doing so hopefully open others eyes to the beauty all around all of us. Our acts of “ Valuing the Visual” with each work or art, hopefully makes others value the world as well.

I went to a FAB meeting this week. Nancy displayed her dyed fabrics from the week before. Now she is ready to move on to the final assembly of here quilt. Patti work on one of her mini weaving projects during the meeting.

I then went to the QuEG’s meeting . Sue Ellen is working away on a Tree series and this is one of her pieces in that series. She had several others pinned up in her studio. It will be fun to watch the series get completed. We seem to have a rash of baby related works going on in the group at the moment. This is green and purple one is Linda’s new baby quilt.

Here are two more by another expectant grandmother.

Angela is doing hand work on this felted work that she cut up. We gave her lots of ideas about how to expand and play with this idea. That is one of the great things about a group- the expanded brain power is wonderful and one can pick and choose from the ideas folks toss out for your benefit. Liz had a wonderful little bowl carrier project that she shared with us. This soft hot pad “fits” around a bowl while it is in the micro wave and makes for easy removal with out burning the fingers. Corrine is busy doing paper piecing with very small log cabin blocks.

I stopped and picked up Susan on my way to the Diva meeting. This shot is of her table in her studio. She is really expanding the Flag Challenge in a great way. I am enjoying the contrast of our two styles and will talk more about that in the future. At Diva’s we saw this new work. Anne did a wonderful job with the quilting on this project. The front is wonderful too- but I do not have a shot of that. This is picture of Lori’s layered embroidery work. There is foiling and organza in this as well.

Alice is working on smaller units to sell for Art Trail and this stain glass type pieces is one of her works for that endeavor. I like her color choices. Regina was my guest at the meeting and she showed us her felted butterfly. This was only one of three she had completed sense I had seen her the Wed. before.

Meeting all three groups in one day is exhausting and I will work not to have that happen again any time soon. One can have too much of a good thing.

Progress Report Insect Ology

I am surprised by how much people like this work. The colors are natural, the subject matter is some what off potting- but I get lots of positive feed. I like it too, but not nearly as much as my viewers do. I will make another companion stencil and see if working two together also gets this type of response. I really enjoyed quilting all the leaves on the surface the most when it came to completing this work.

Flag- Dance This flag is really the last of the official series – I think. Both Susan and I did the same image in black and white to start this project. I held this flag until the end to complete. It seemed like a way of closing off. the process for me. But after seeing what Susan is doing I am not so sure.

Flags- Assorted Colors Being unsure of were we were going Susan and I started by using up her paper paste before we did anything else. The flag challenge grew out of that play . I did these colored flags last so when I got to these I was feeling more confident about the use of words and adding objects to the surfaces. For this one, Imagination, I embossed the saying on metal and stitched it to the surface.

The second one- Hands – got its darker additions in the form of painted wonder under that I ironed to the surface.

The paper paste was thinning down by the time we got to the last this last flag so it is paler. I added the oil crayons to is for the onion.

It is a copy of the stencil that Susan made on Wed of my visit when we went to drawing class.

The studio is calling as I have not spent a lot of time there this week.

Keep Creating

Carol

Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, Name Game, Patti, Running Red, Whip Shock Hill #2

Spring Effects

April 9, 2015 admin

Hello,

I will admit that the weather and the sight of spring flowers does effect me. I have been on real “start new” push of late. I have also been a little upset with one of my pieces- but more on that later. This week was the Diva meeting and I was very excited as I have not been to one sense Oct. The winter has been a bad one and it really kept me home. But before the meeting Cheri, Noel and I went to see Alice’s show of her accordion fabric books in down town Ithaca. They looked wonderful on the walls. There were several I had never seen and so I am glad we made the effort to go and check the show out. There was lots and lots of new work at the Diva meeting too .Alice is getting ready for the Spring Art Trail and so she had this pillow among other things to share. This one along with several others that will be for sale on the trail.

One of the things that Lorrie does, is deep layered hand work and this is the one she is currently working on. She builds so many stitches on top of organza and other fabrics to create great depth. A different sort of collage fabric effect.

Cheri is doing wonderful canvas work were she starts with freezer paper masks and builds paint layers on top and then stitches by hand and machine on top. The layering is amazing to me. Like me, she always has many things going at the same time and this spider ( in progress) is and example of her 3-D work. I had given her the fabric that she used for the legs and body and I think that is why she brought it along. Liese did this soft “Island Garden “ as her entry for a garden completion. The plants that she stitched are ones that could grow under the sea/ tide/ wet conditions of the area. Quilting can expand your horizons in unusual ways.

Anne had this specular work to share too. I really enjoy how she cuts up her photo graphics to use as strong jumping off points for her work. I find this piece wonderful!

Noel showed us several works and among them were these two quilts for the Rainbow Challenge for the Tow Path Quilt Guild. These two along with 22 others will be on display next week end at the guild show in the Manilas Library. Ruth has finished her quilt about Kemo Treatment and it is wonderful. I am sorry that my photo of the full work is not sharp enough to post- but this close up shows how powerful her stitching is. She has such strong skills.

Then Wednesday, I went and spent the day playing at Batik with my friend Ethel. We had a grand time and I now have six new pieces that will be starting off places for more work. She has a wonderful piece on the pin wall and I took a shot of it too. She uses her hand dyes so very well. I have been watching this one develop over the course of this year. She keeps moving the pieces about as she develops the idea.

Progress Report: Whip Shock Hill II This work has given me a mix of emotions this week. I had worked so carefully on mimicking the photo and I liked that portion of the work. I am done with the stitch work and all the textures are down. But- it does not work for me at all! So I roll it up on Friday and decided to take it to the Diva meeting and ask for help. I am so very glad I did! One can easily get trapped in there own head and not “see” how to get out ad solve a problem. When I put this work on the wall next to Whip Shock Hill I the group could see it was not working too. But they helped with an easy suggestion. Flip the new piece and add it to the other side. I love the results and I can now add the sleeve and complete the set.

New Start All the frustration I was feeling about Whip Shock Hill and the effects of spring pushed me to pull materials for a new work. I think all of these fabrics play well together and will make a nice piece. It will be my next project.

New Start Running Red I pulled these fabrics at the same time. I created the red and white fabric in the Deconstructed Screen Class last fall and I really wanted to use it so I started with that stack. There is some silk kimono and taffeta in this work too. I think the frustration I was feeling also effected me a bit so I wanted to do something that I felt sure about. It is coming along nicely now.

Name Game III- Patti This is how this work looks before I started to cut it up. A little planning will help the next time I do this technique. And that planning is in the size of the work. I was so concerned with getting the letters to fit that I was not careful with the size of the base. In the last two pieces I stared with 22” squares and made 5.5” squares when I cut up the two layers. This time I made the base 24 “ and had to make 4.5” squares and I lost some of the image from each row because it did not cut down to even units. One needs to make the mistakes to grow. I then pinned the blocks to the pin wall And stated arranging them. That step took a while and I took many photos of the many layouts as I went along. This is the one I settled on. Now I will join them and quilt them together.

Ribbon Work This work is growing slowly. This is a case were not having a per plan may get me in lots of trouble as I go forward. I have been just adding one hour’s worth of work on at a time. But at this point I have no feeling for were I need to go next. So I am just looking at the work.

Label Block 3
The hand work goes on with my evening TV work.

Keep Creating

Carol

Diva Meetings, Donna's Wedding Dress II, Memory Map Quilts, Uncategorized, Wedding quilts, Yellowstone

More Fall

November 13, 2014 admin

Hello,

I could not resist this oak leaf with its rain spots this morning. They look so like glass beads. I am so influenced by the natural elements around me that I am not even aware of it. This is photo of fruit on a limb that I took yesterday when I went for my morning walk was not on the top of my mind at 3:30 when I painted tyveck for an unknown project-( I wanted to have a bit of the texture that ironed tyveck creates for some use) but the colors came out anyway. The Diva’s did a Trunk Show at the Schweinfurth Art Center on Sunday in conjunction with their Quilts= Art= Quilts show that is currently hanging in their galleries. Eight of the members showed off her works and talk about their personal influences. The presentation was well received and and there where about 45 people who attended. There were lots of positive comments from the viewers after the talk. Sharon Bottle Souva sold two pieces! I tend to forget how strong and unique each of the gals in the group are until I see a group presentation like this one. I feel so

privileged to be a part of such a strong group of supportive and creative fiber artists.

I went to Nancy’s this week and we talked about her possible next steps for her summer quilt. This photo is of the center section. She plans to add butterflies on the surface and to machine draw/quilt in two trees to represent Bret and herself . Nancy always finds a way to take a simple idea and build on it to create a very complex work- I love it!

Progress Report: Donna’s Wedding Quilt I am still quilting away on this work. At this point I am just a little beyond half way with the center section. I find that I can only work for about an hour on this before I begin to get tired and must stop.

Broadcasting I am continueing to add more instrument pads to the surface of this quilt. It is starting to get the feel I want. I am going very slowly and pinning the work up every evening after I have added more to the surface. Then I study before I make new additions.

Memory Map- Yellowstone I am playing with paper patterns of the objects/ parts I want to add to the surface of this project. Sally reminded me that one does not need nor should they try to include everything in the work. I am struggling with that part of the process so it too is going slowly.

New Stone Work I started a new rock piece this week. I am working from a black and white photograph so I am choosing the colors that are the tones and shades like the ones in the image. I used corduroy, hand dyed silk and organza in this work as well as yarns and silk paper. I love all the textures.

New Work I started this work about a month ago. I did not know where I was going with it at the time and I am still not sure. But I am pushing forward none the less. I have added some vertical units and I am doing hand stitching on the surface to add more texture. This is a pure experimental thing.

If you have a comment please post it.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Diva Meetings

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Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer