Category Archives: Explorations

Applique, Consider, Contemplating, Coy Pond, Creative Strength Training, Hand Out, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Pondering, Reaching

Rolling Along

Hello,

This week was a good one for me.  I had lots of social stuff over the week end, and great studio time this week. The Pixies and Creative Strength Training went forward as well.  I am re reading the Creative Strength Training book that Jane wrote and I had too.  I am following the exercises she recommends and I started a little self challenge to do a bunch of Expanded Squares.    In keeping with the ideas of using what you have I cut my squares out of some dark gray paper that I had. 

 

Too  easy to  put  off   doing the exercise when one does not have exactly what is  required.

 

 

I also put in a day in the studio with my Grandson Nick on Sunday.   He designed and printed the shirt  for one of his friends.

We  spent the rest of the day designing and starting a back pack in the form of a fox.     Without  a pattern it took a lot of thought and we got about half done we ran out of gas on that project.  It was great fun though.

Progress Report:    Ponder   I  worked on all three of the pieces in this group.  This one is now done with the quilting and the binding has been completed.  I need to do some hand work in the solid colored areas to hold them down.   Contemplation is at that same point.  I need to finish the binding on  Consider and add a sleeve there too.

Lap Quilt  I stared and completed this top this week. I intend to send it to my Uncle in Iowa in the fall when it is done.

 

 

 

 

 

Golden Leaves   This work got its start at QBL this summer.  I am now ready to begin stitching the parts down.

 

 

Three Witches  – Samantha   I worked mostly on this second witch this week.    I am mixing the weight  of the thread just like I would do if I was drawing and adding more or less pressure.   I like how it is developing.

 

 

 

 Coy Pond    I started this project before I went off to QBL and it got buried.  I uncovered it this week and went to work . 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the coy fish are made of at least three  parts and many have four. I think it needs about 10 more fish for me to be happy with the numbers.   But in looking at it  I realized that everything is of the same value .   That dose not make for a good work so I will build a new background this week  and hope I can fix the problem to my satisfaction.

 

Reaching ( hand project 3)   I was given a wonderful old  hand worked wool blanket that was falling to shreds.  My friend Ginny  said do what ever you want with it.  I am trying to save the good parts and make tributes to the hand work of women in the past.  I made two works using parts of the blanket  for Creative Stitch Club and I had  a few new ideas so I am moving forward with them now.

 

 

Hand Out( hand project 4)   This is the other idea.  I have only laid out the back ground at this point.     I sure have lots of hand work to do this week.

I hope you are enjoying the summer and keeping creative

Carol

 

Consider, Contemplating, Creative Strength Training, Drawing, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Pondering, Sisterhood of the Scissors, Three Witches

Busy Summer Time

Hello,

  As the title suggests I have had a full week.    I ran the Finger Lakes Fiber Artists meeting on Sat.  We had a lot to talk about and share.   I am  sharing  this  work of Bev’s because I think  she   took  a real  chance  here  when she burned the edges  of  this  work  with  a blow torch.   The  effect  really  works.

We had a lively and productive meeting.

There was also  a Creative Strength Training on line meeting , a Pixie meeting and a meeting of the Sisterhood of the Scissors.   I have spent a lot of time setting at the computer.    In addition to that I spent a day at the Schweinfurth helping take down the Fiber Arts show on Tue and I went with Sharon up to 1.000 Islands in Clayton on Wed to pick up her art work from the show there.     Its all been very stimulating,  but it sure eats into my studio time.

  Progress Report: Circling Circles   This work is 69″ w  X 64″ l.   I have stitched lots of circles in this piece and feel it is stable at this point.  It is most certainly a bed topper  piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spider’s Weds  I am done with the hand work on this piece now.  I think I want to frame it  as it is so very fragile.

 

 

 

 

 

Contemplation    I am all done with the quilting step on this work now.  I started to square it for binding when I realized  that I wanted all the works in this series the same size and I did not know how they would all trim down yet.

Consider  I am almost done with the quilting on this work.   I think I have about one more hour and it will be done.

 

 

Ponder   I have taken a page form my class with Paula for the quilting on this piece.  She called these bump quilted l stitch lines fence posts.

 

 

New Work   I pulled these fabrics for the next lap quilt that I hope to start this week.

 

 

 

 

 

Three Witches    I did this drawing to prepare for the stitching of the second witch.    I have transferred the drawing to the surface and I have started the stitching.   I just keep adding stitches to this.  It is building slowly as hand work always does.

 

 

 

I am enjoying all the activity of summer and hope you are as well.

 

Keep Creating

Carol

Brown Study, Cattails and Dragonflies, Consider, Contemplating, Creative Strength Training, Daily Practice, Hand work, Pixies Group, Pondering, Three Witches

Summer Days

  Hello,

I hope summer it treating you well.   I am enjoying my walks and savoring every moment of the sun, pleasant temperatures  and gentle winds of the season.   I have had several encounters with wild life this week.  On my way home in the city of Syracuse at about 2:00 in the afternoon, I turned a corner to find a doe crossing the street followed by a young spotted fawn.  It makes one slow down and really look at our wonderful world.  Then on Tue eve when we were setting out on our patio, listening to music and quietly talking, a skunk walked about a foot away from my husband on his nightly food search.  Then Eric had a face to face encounter with yet another Skunk last eve.   No doer either time.

I had my usual meetings with Creative Strength Training and Pixies this week.  There was a special class for  CST called Negative Painting that I enjoyed too.   I have not finished the work for that class yet so.  The Slow Stitch group meant last week and I have finished  two  6″ squares that were the challenge.    This one is the non objective square.

 

This one is the abstract one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are all sorts of extra positive effects from QBL.  For example, I got  a box full of ties to use a raw material from my friend, Diane.   All the ties are gutted now and ready for use.     Here are my new treasures and a new challenge too.

 

 

 

 

I also made a connection with a fellow post card creator,  Becky.   She sent me this wonderful work this week.

 

 

Progress Report: Twilight Crows    This work is 16″ w X 30.5″ l.   I made the work in Valerie Goodwin’s Light and Easy workshop at QBL and finished it this week.

 

 

 

 

I am enjoying the working with crows and the transparency stuff too.

 

 

Brown Study- rework    The work is 24.5″w X 8″ t.  This piece is another project from QBL that I completed this week.  Paula Kovark taught us how to insert quilted  pieces into existing quilts.   The four contrasting triangles show that effect.    She called the effect “suturing “.    It sure makes for lots of fun applications I think.

 

 

 

 

Cattails and Dragonflies   This work is 11″ square.  This project is also the result of Paula’s class. one of her many challenging assignments was to make a continuous line drawing the filled the page.  I was not quite successful with the continuous line part,  but most of it is.   Color and paint were added this week.

Circling Circles  I have been working on the quilting of this work for a while and I can now see the end.  I only need to quilt three more of these circles and I will completed the job.

 

Complementary Colors Tryptic 

 Paula’s emphasis on quilting lines and talk with my friend Sharon has lead to some great quilting with this series.  I am all done with the quilting on Contemplate ( yellow and purple).  Not only did I make the quilting reflective , but I also inserted little points into the lines sometimes.   Now I am quilting on Consider( red and green), and I am starting with the colors them selves and will build out from there.    I will begin to quilt on Ponder this  week with yet another quilting approach.

 

 

 

Handwork  With the addition of a few more beads and stitched I declared this  work done and I will move on.

 

 

Three Witches  I won a beautiful piece of linen as a door prize at QBL the first week.  So I stared a big project.  I am going to try to created a black on white hand  stitch  piece of the Three Witches from Macbeth.   I have drawn one an done some research on faces for the second and third.   I only started stitching yesterday.

Stay cool and keep Creating

Carol

 

Contemplating, Creative Strength Training, Daily Practice, Explorations, Hand work, Pixies Group, Pondering, QBL- Quilting By the Lake, Time Life Line

July 2022

3 Comments

Hello,

Summer is always a busy time and this week was no exception.   We had a big family Birthday party picnic on Sat to celebrate the July birthdays and it was wonderful.   Everyone ate great food, enjoyed the weather and laughed a lot. What more can you ask for.  Then I went off to a play day in Varna on Sunday.   Spent the day with seven other folks exploring printing.  I did work on my Pondering piece.  I am so glad events like that are  opening again.  Then on Tuesday, Liz and I got together and dyed again.  That is always lots of fun. 

 

The Creative Strength Training class meant yesterday and it was a good discussion.    I also had a session with the Pixies on Wed too.

My other big news is, my friend David B is now the proud owner of Against the Wind.

This will be the last entry for July as I am off to Quilting by the Lake on Sunday for two weeks.

Progress Report: Pondering   

This top is all put together now.  My goal is to have  the tops of all three of the pieces of this set before I go off to QBL.

 

 

 

 

Contemplating   This is the third top.  I have only made a few of the units for this work.  It is pinned to a dark background so I can see how I want the placement of those parts.

 

 

Daily Practice Quilt  I am now quilting circles on the  quilt.   It is calming work.

 

 

Handwork    I keep adding to this work every evening.  It is nearing completion.

 

 

 

Life Line Drawing  After giving it some thought I decided not to add color to this work and I consider it done.   It was a good way for me to think about my life beyond the childhood work.

Enjoy Summer  and I will write again after Quilting by the Lake with lots of new stories and ideas I am sure.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily Practice, Diva Meetings, Drawing, Hand work, Pixies Group, Pondering

Quiet Summer Days

Hello,

I hope everyone is enjoying the after the holiday quiet.   Things did slow down a bit for me and I spent some time looking at the sky and enjoying all the greens.    I join a great Diva meeting in Trumansburg, NY. this week.   Our next group show is there and we went to see the space and get things limned up for Aug when we will hang the show.  Donna had some great new rust pieces to share with us.  She is getting really good at that I think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maureen showed off her latest work too.

There was a Pixie meeting and a Show Stitch Group Zoom meeting as well.  It is the season of lots of family and  out door activity for everyone  so I did not do much work.

Progress Report: Against the Wind     It is   54″ X 54″ .     I am all done with this work now.  I have learned a lot about free piecing and it remains a real challenge for me.  I will try it again, but not any time soon.   The quilting did not smooth it out enough for me to be real happy with it.

 

 

 

 

 

Stitched Top   I have done stitch in the ditch work on this piece.  Now I will do some hand work as it needs more quilting to be complete.

 

 

 

 

Goldfish   I started this work based on an old sketch and I am using  some of my hand dyed fabrics.

 

 

 

 

 

Pondering    This is the second in the complimentary color challenge from Jane.  I am still working through the Irene Roderick’s  book,  “Improv Quilting ” with its exercise and the units are based of her suggestions.   The black will disappear from the final top.

 

 

 

Handwork  This is the newest hand work piece using add-ons.  They are painted and heat treated Tyveck shapes.  I will continue the embellishment with beads.

 

 

 

 

Drawing   For Valerie  Goodwin’s class “Light and Lacy ” I drew up these birds to use as my first print.   I am looking forward to QBL in two weeks and seeing how we use them.

Enjoy the season and keep creating

Carol

College Life, Consider, Creative Strength Training, Explorations, Hand work, Pixies Group, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Summer Season

Hello,

I hope everyone is enjoying the season.  I am just home from my daily walk and I enjoyed the sun, sky and the green world.   Our  block party was on the week end and it was great to reconnect with the folks who live around me.  Several folks know us by seeing us walking by.  This week was the end of the month and there were fewer meetings.  I did meet with the Pixies and Textile Artists Stitch club had a new assignment so I was still busy.    I did work on  both of the pieces that I started using the hand as the beginning.

This work,  Reaching Up  is       2535443543o  X 23432439u .  I need to finish stitching on the sleeve but that is all that remains for completion here.

The second one,  Reaching Out, is all stitched together and now needs a boarder and the rest of the finish work. 

I have enjoyed using wool as the primary element in these two works.

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Against the Wind

I have now layered and pin basted this work.  I hope to begin the “wind” quilting later today.

 

 Handwork Top     I have now assembled all the parts for this work and added boarders.  I need to do the pin basing and quilting on this one as well.

 

Consider  I started this work last week in response to Jane Dunnewold’s  challenge to do a work using complementary color combinations.  I mixed this idea with the exploration of the some of  suggested  piecing processes in Irene Roderick’s book “Improv Quilting. ”   I had fun and plan to to the other two complementary color combos and explore more of the suggested techniques.

New Daily Practice   I decided to challenge myself to do some hand work were I add unusual objects to the surface of some of the stained old family fabrics I have an abundance of .   This is painted and melted Tyveck with part of an old hat vail.

 

This is the last of my childhood series.  I think changing my name from Carol McElhinney, my birth name to Carol Boyer is a good marker for the end of childhood.  Susan challenged us to do this project in April of 2019 and all the other participants have long dropped away, but I am glad I did it.  There have been 162  entries.  It has been a good journey and I look forward to a new project that will engage me as much as this one has.

College Life – Wedding Day

June 7, 1969, finally arrived. I was more scared than excited. I was full of doubt, but Eric came up stairs and talked with me about my fears. I will admit I was ready to run away from the whole event, but he assured me that we would be fine and it would all work out. Then it was off to Brook Drive and my old home. The house was full of family all excitedly preparing for the church. The Dean boys seemed to be every where, helping with everything. It was my last time in my old bedroom as Carol McElhinney. That was my thought as I put on my gown. Carrying the veil, I got in the car with Mom, Dad, and Gene and we drove to the church. Kelly looked so cute in her white dress, with her new pixie hair cut and the little basket of flowers. Tracy, wearing a dress with a matching coat, was tending the wedding book at the door to the chapel. She was laughing as usual. I went into the prep room and Mom helped me with the veil and someone handed me the beautiful yellow flowers. Margaret and Ellie filed into the sanctuary followed by Kelly and Scott. Then I heard Larry’s beautiful voice singing “What is a Youth?” He was followed by the recorded entry music, Purcell’s Trumpet Voluntary, which Larry had selected. Dad took my arm and told me I looked beautiful as we walked down the aisle toward Eric, Dean, and Gene. I only had eyes for Eric and the beautiful green of the woods behind him.

It got quiet as Reverend O’Kelly started the service. Folks told me later that I was so quiet in my responses to his questions that they could not hear a thing. Eric did and that was the only thing that was important to me. It was time for the rings and Scott passed them to us. I jammed the ring on Eric’s finger when he presented it to me. “I pronounce you Husband and Wife.” We kissed each other, turned, the wedding march started, and we hurried down the isle out into the lobby. Eric dropped my hand and ran to the bathroom. I turned a little panicked to see Mom and Dad coming out and seeing me standing alone both had expressions of inquiry on their faces. That uncertainly did not last long as Eric re appeared. It seems he had stuck out his right hand and I had forced the ring onto the correct finger of the wrong. A little soap and things were fixed. “I hope its still official!” Eric said.

The rest of the reception, in the education hall of the church, was a blur of happy faces, hugs, and words of congratulation. Punch was served along with wedding cake, of course. Eric and I then opened some gifts. I don’t remember most of them, but I do recall being a little embarrassed by Eric’s joke about a cut silver waste basket and matching tissue box from Aunt Margaret. There were also red pots and pans that lasted years. Eric and I went off to the chapel for pictures and then we both changed for our trip north. Folks threw rice as we went to the car and drove away, heading to Holland, Michigan, for our weekend Honeymoon. I was excited, but I don’t recall too much except we went swimming in the hotel pool after dark one night. At one of the little shops in town, I did purchase a little pair of wooden shoes that I still have. Sunday and it was time to start for home. We took some back roads and had to make a stop just after crossing back into Indiana. There was a turtle crossing the road. We picked him up and took him to the side before continuing our journey home. Monday was the start of summer school for both of us, and the start of our life together. Reverend O’Kelly had told us to check with the court house to make sure the marriage licence got filed properly. We never did. “It’s our escape clause,” Eric said. The event must have been a good take, since fifty-three years, one child, two dogs, a bunch of cats, four moves, and several college degrees later, we’re still together.

I hope everyone continues to enjoy the season.

Keep playing

Carol