Category Archives: Egyptian Quilts

Childhood Memories, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Mayan - Monkey Dancer, Mayan- Turtle Dancer, Squares a Dancing, Textile Artist Stitch Club, Thoth

Smoky Fall

Hello,
It is a gray and cloudy day here with the smoke from western fires mixed in our air.     I am not complaining – I am just surprised at how far the smoke has traveled.    My sympathy goes out to the folks in the fire area .    The  burning   wildfires continue to bather me.   I want to make a third quilt noting these destructive events .     I tried to dye, reds, oranges, yellows and blacks  last Friday with that in mind. I was not successful! I am not sure exactly why, but Liz did mix lots of new dye last time. Hopefully tomorrow when we dye again I will get what I want and can start the work.

 

 

 

 

Textile Artists Stitch Club started a new assignment on Saturday with Clarissa Calksen. She showed us how she creates potatoes and puffs and how she suggests we assemble them. I am still building my forms and I have yet to embellish them. I seem to be working slowly on this new project, but I really like the challenge.

The Pixies had a meeting this week and we are going to continue to work with crows. My flags were a success.
FAB also had a Zoom meeting and it was stimulating.

Progress Report: Monkey Dancer- Mayan Series This piece is 21.5″ X 23.5″. This series continues to fascinate me

Golden Garden    This work is 38″ X 49″.       It is made completely from fabrics   I have altered in some way.   Some I did with Liz an some in the QBL class in the summer of 2019.  There is silk folded dyeing, silk screen, direct painting and a bit of shobori in this one.

 

 

 

I am enjoying using my fabrics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turtle Dancer- Mayan Series I finished cutting and placing all the parts for this work yesterday. Now I need to begin the outlining in black.

 

 

 

 

Green on Green I finished assembling  and quilting on this work  this week . I am ready to do the hand work of stitching down the binding now.

 

Squares a Dancing. I finished seven more of these fellows this week I now have 168 done. I also cut into 5 inch squares the last pair of Eric’s pants.   With these last squares, I   thinks I am nearing the end of this project.

 

 

Wool Rug     The work is 29″ X 36″ . This project is now on the floor in the entry to the studio.   It is made from wool scraps form shirts and extra’s from a jacket.    Lots of fun.

 

 

 

 

 

Thoth  Pillow       I finished this pillow this week too.  I like to make a form and stuff it with the extra batting that I cut away from projects.   That is what this one is full of.   I made the stencil  of Thoth  for a quilt that I did for my husbands  office   years ago.   The quilt is hanging in the living room now.

 

 

Childhood Memories: Grandpa Merritt’s Domain

    Grandfather Merritt was a farmer who used diversity to make himself successful.    He was a short  round man, who wore a straw hat in summer and a felt hat in winter.  The only time one did not see him in a hat was indoors or on Sundays at church.   He had the perfect farmer  tan.   For work days he wore a blue shirt and blue and white striped  Oshkosh Bygosh bib overalls.   Sunday was a brown suit, white shirt and tie.      We went to church on Sunday morning and came home for  lunch and a quiet afternoon, that often included a nap with an occasional Bible story  from   Grandmother’s  Bible story book for  Children. The “Blue laws”meant that nothing was open any way.  We then went back  to Church for the evening service .   Grandpa raised a variety of live stock and the land beyond the door yard, with the exception of the chicken yard was his kingdom.    He did visit the chicken yard when, he cleaned the manure  out  of the chicken house and when he chopped off the heads of chickens for our chicken  dinners .      The barn  yard surrounded the house on three sides and the  forth side was the road.   Next to the house on the south was the two bay garage.    A turquoise blue ford occupied the first bay and Grandpa’s green ford pickup occupied the other.  There were windows along the back of the garage with a work bench under them. There was also a set of stairs that lead up to the top of the garage were lumber was stored.   Farmers have to be able to repair machinery so he often had odd stuff on that work bench.   Grandfather used lots of bailing wire to “fix” stuff too.

    Beyond the garage and across a gated lane was the sheep shed and a small pasture. I remember one spring job for Dad and Grandpa, was to sheered the sheep. Gene and I had a job too and that, with the help of Snookie- a white maxed breed dog, was to separate the lambs and move them to the barn yard. Snookie could also cut out one ewe at a time and herd it into the pen for shearing. Dad and Grandpa would select a ewe and after turning it over would tuck it’s head  under and between their legs  to hold it still. They then would begin shearing  at the throat,   and cut the wool as close to the body as they could down to the flank of the ewe. They slowly turned the animal as they worked from top to bottom until they reached the other side. Keeping the fleece in one big piece was the goal. When they were done shearing they released the ewe into the farm  yard to find their lamb again. There was lots of bleating. Grandfather put a tight rubber band on all the lambs tails when they were born. That rubber band cut off the blood circulation and the tails would eventually fall off. This was done for sanitary reasons. As the shed and pasture emptied. Gene and I would collect all the lambs tails. After shearing 75 ewes, both Dad and Grandpa always had blisters at the end of the day even though they traded the electrical shears and hand powered ones back and forth. Snookie, Gene and I heard all the sheep back into their pasture and barn when the shearing was done. It was a full days job.

Stay safe

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

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.   Sorting

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.Anastasi Ruins 3    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. BJ11Ruins1 - Copy

Anastasi Ruins - Closeup 3I 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 22.5" X 31" $ 175.00
Sunny Crannies
22.5″ X 31″
$ 175.00

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.Sunny rannies cl3 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.

 

Sunny Crannies Cl1  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.

 

 

 

 

sunny cranny cl2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ROUNDS

 

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.

 

Thoth fullEric’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.  Thoth3

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.

 

Thoth -wordsI 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  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 BacteriaBlooming Bactorial-Growth - Copy

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

 

Nebula, Thoth

May 9, 2013 Enjoying the Spring

Hello,

This is the fourth and final entry of the “Noting Natural Changes” assignment.  I am amazed at how much the leaves have come out on all the trees this week .  This branch is so full now that I hardly recognize it from the first one I drew on the 18 of April.   There are even blooms of the lilac on the higher branches of this bush now.  I love the fast daily changes that are every were.     When I showed my “Before the Bud” quilt at the QEG’s meeting on Tuesday  and   I explained that I had started it because I was starved for leaves on the trees- I  got a bit of a chuckle.  How soon we forget.

 

The lecture and gallery guided tour of the Kendell Show was Tuesday too.  It looks great.

The pale  quilt on the left is all hand dyed silk and it is by Liese.  The center one  is beautifully pieced and quilted by Ruth White.  The colors really make the eye dance.     I look at this show and feel delighted by the wide variety of styles and techniques that the other artists in the group display.   There is so much talent !

This work is called Hand Made and it is by Mary Diamond a very good quilting teacher.   I really like all the tones and shades of color she used in this work.

This shot shows the work of three different quilters, Sally, Sharon and Cheri are represented here.  Sally’s work ( far left) is a paper, fabric  and paint quilt.   Sharon’s work( middle) has raw edges on both sides of all of those vertical cuts.   She makes her tops cuts through and washes them before she  assembles the quilt.  The two leaf works ( far right) were items that Cheri felt were unsuccessful until she cut freezer paper leaves and ironed them to the surface.  She then added more paint over the whole thing.  When she removed the freezer paper units she was happy with the work.  There are so many varying ideas and techniques in this group it is almost too much some times.

Progress Report:  Thoth    I am still struggling with this work.  I can not seem to get a layout pinned to the wall that works for me so I can even put two pieces together.   I tried creating a new image of Thoth- and that does not seems to solve the problem either.The attempt in gold may give the image more a feel of “god “- but I think it may be too pale on the fabric……   I  have covered it with white paper and moved on to other things and hope my sub conscious will keep working away on this and the solution will come to me.

 

Nebula – 1 Mean while I seem to be fascinated by Nebula of late.  I have found lots of new images of the heavens in Pintrest and so many are wonderful Nebula that I just had to try to create some of my own.  The back ground fabric is hand dyed material that I purchased at QBL.   I felted green and gold wool on top to create the feel of the nebula.  I will now go back into the surface with stitches and beads to fill it out and add more definition to the work.

Nebula 2  Being true to the way I work and having such a good time with the felting machine I started a second one as well.    There was lots of warping of the fabric with the green nebula so I also tried felting the wool into some red paper like material that came wrapped around  my valentine flowers.  The felting part worked, but the red “paper”  melted when I tried to iron it and that created a problem.  After cleaning the iron and the non stick matt that I had wisely put on top before ironing- I put the whole thing on gray felt and ironed it down.  I think the red “paper”  made the nebula too sold and so I am going to felt more darks on top to make it feel more open.  I also got a little carried away with the yarn on this second work so I plan to tone it down as well.   The love the layering of the process as I feel I can always add to the surface.

Notebooks      I use three ringed binders to keep my stamps and stencils organized. Pictured here are two three ring notebooks with quilted covers.  In the front and under the notebooks are stencil and stamped fabrics that did not become parts of quilts, but are destine to become the next notebook cover.  These two books are full and I am ready to create a new one so I pulled some altered fabrics and put them together.  I keep the works inside the note books in the plastic page protectors that one can purchase at office supply stores. I did this to keep the like things together.  I was surprised at how the gals in my stencil workshops over the last few weeks have responded.  They thought this idea was a good one so I am passing it along.   Making a soft cover out of leftovers is just my way of using things up.

I hope spring is adding life to your step and all is good in your world.

 

Keep Creating

Carol

Bird Goddesses, Goddess Series, ISIS quilt, Madum Peli, Motherhood Maze, Truquoise Street Studio

January 31,2013 Opening

Hello Friends,

  Here in central New York the wind is blowing up a storm as a cold front from the north hits a worm front form the south.   Trees are bending and swaying and  some tree limbs have blown down.  The snow has been blown  horizontally  off and on this afternoon.  I am glad to be inside working in my studio today!

The Opening was Sunday afternoon and it went well.  I was delighted by the many friends that appeared from all parts of my life.  My daughter and grandson appeared early in the afternoon and my husband along with several of the folks that he works with near the end of the event.  My friends from school, from Social Art and fellow quilters also showed up to support me and enjoy the wonderful banquet that the director provided.   I was delighted to discover that I have now sold two of my works, the second being the Kachina Sun quilt that was on the post card.    It can be very affirming for an artist like my self to sell a work to a total stranger.

I think that Spider Woman’s Spires looks really strong on the brick wall  background too.

 

 

 

The placement of Motherhood Maze so it is seen from the doorway as you enter the dinning area makes it one of the first works you see.  I think I talked about it more as an individual piece then any of the others.  I am still flying high from the experience.

 

Progress Report:   Play Day
 Barbara invited me to the Turquoise Studio to have a play day on Thur last week.  We were working with gesso- stenciling and stamping with it .  I put on it on fabric and felt and Barbara mostly applied it to stretched canvas.  After the gesso was dry in the afternoon we painted the surfaces.  The gesso resisted the paint a bit and that changed the color as well as the texture.   I was so excited by the results that I created a top with some of the altered fabric already.

 

 

I am calling this Eventide.   I used all of one  of the  turquoise felt pieces in this as well as a second painted piece.   The white is the pure gesso.  The turquoise felt has been painted with purple and blue acrylic paint.

 

Pepe’   I started this quilt  before the show but did not get it finished.  It too is a goddess quilt as Pepe’ is  the Hawaiian goddess of the vocano.  I have started  the quilting with a copper metallic thread in a swirling pattern.   But the thread kept breaking so I put the thread  on the bobbin and I have been quilting from the back side.  It is just a little scary to do it this way but the braking is not happening now.   The ghost like color changes shown  here in this close up come from using painted fusible web that I painted orange and brown.   I keep learning new tricks along the way and that is exciting for me.     

   Painted Fusible Web     I went off to my friend Ethel and had a second play day this week.   She and I painted the fusible web.  I did blue, orange and yellow, black and a pink gold  pieces.  I do not know where I will use most of this but  it did the trick for the Pepe piece.   I sure had fun and one can never have too many tools in the creative tool box.

 

Soy Wax Resist     This was another thing Ethel and I played with.   We had both read  about this technique in the February/March  issue of Quilting Arts Magazine- issue 61.  The article is by Susan Purney Mark.  We followed the instructions  and did the sewing  step first .  Then we painted with soy wax on the mountains and tried not to get the wax in the valleys were the tread was.  The next step was to paint in the dye in thous valleys.  It is batching now so the final images will not appear until next week. This second shot   shows how the dye penetrates to through   the  batting to the back.  The dye will all wash away as the batting is synthetic and the dye will not adhere. The same batting can be reused for a second try of this method.  Ethel and I plan to do just that.

Tsunami Wash Up    I have been hand stitching down mostly plastic  objects like the ones I have seen in photos of the plastics that have been washing ashore on the west cost do to the Tsunami last year.   We are really polluting our environment and events like this really play that up. We have too much plastic in our lives. It does not break down into reusable materials like natural objects.  So were does it go?  Sure it gets broken and ground into smaller and smaller bits.  Sometimes birds and fish eat it.  What are the effects on those creatures?  Do we end up with it in ourselves when we eat sea food?  How dangerous  is that?   What are the long term effects?   I do not have any answers, just lots of questions.

Keep Creating

Carol