Category Archives: Felt Work

Circle Challenge 2, Cotton Candy, Dead Horse Canyon, Felt Work, Label Blocks, Name Game, Uncategorized, Wendy and Mark

Numbers

December 29, 2016 admin

Hello,

We are racing now toward the end of 2016. In thinking about the end of the year and closing my book keeping, I become very aware of numbers. Because I am still enjoying Ethel’s fabrics I only purchased 38 yards of fabric this year and most of that in half yard units. The first for the Label Block project for this year was block # 34. This week I completed block # 100 so that is 67 blocks for the year. A bit more than one a week. I make pillows and fill them with the cut off bits of batting from the trimming and squaring off of quilt work. This year I completed 9 pillows. I donate quilts to almost every organization that asks for them and this year I gladly gave away 13 to such deserving origination’s like Ronald McDonald House, the Art Rage Gallery and my local Public TV station. I am still ahead in that game as I completed 59 on my own creations. I use lots of thread in my work and this year and I emptied 65 spools. I was a part of 5 quilt shows and I am looking forward to my solo show in January. I participated in 4 challenges. A good way to stretch ones self. I was rejected from 7 competitions. But I keep trying. I wrote and posted 37 blogs this year too. This year has been a full one with lots of things going on in my quilt life. Looking back, I feel that 2016 has been a good one for me and I hope you can say the same. I hope that I can face 2017 and handle the challenges it presents as successfully as I did this year.

Progress Report: Aunt Shirley’s Quilt This work got shipped off to it’s new home on Monday. I hope it gets to my Aunt before her birthday Jan 2.

Cotton Candy This work is 12” X 12”. It seemed to take me a long time to get to this little work. I just kept shuffling it to the bottom of the pile. The colors are so very different from what I am working with at the moment. But once I decided not to try to make it into one of my rock works it was easy and enjoyable. I will try again for rose quarts later.

Name Game- Wendy and Mark This work has gone through a major change sense last week. I added Mark’s name- (he is Wendy’s husband)- because the Wendy section was not enough. Still it is not something I look forward to working on. But I felt the same way about the one I did last summer where I used my own name. Perhaps that is the nature of this project. I am still shuffling the strips at this point.

Dead Horse Canyon I have been calling this wool work 1 for the last few weeks. That just does not cut it so I selected a name. This name comes from a childhood play area near my then home in Carroll Iowa. I have been thinking about it a lot of late and though this could be a tribute to all those memories.

New Work This is the newest rock based piece. I used gabardine for the base and I also added fusible inner facing to the back. That extra body has some real strength. I really like how it is not a warped as the wool piece above.

Circle Challenge 1 I have finished the hand circle quilting on this work now. I am ready to add the facing and finish it off.

Circle Challenge 2 With the end of Circle Challenge 1 in sight I put in machine quilting work on this one. I now feel I need to work on the layout for the third in that series now.

Scrap Happy I am working with the scraps from Ethel’s box this week. She had a whole stack of batik samples and they are all 5” square just like the ones I made for my quilt in the fall. So I am using them with some old and new 5″ squares for this new top.

Label Block # 100 As the big Spiegel label ( upper left corner) shows I am still using labels that are not all current. I just enjoy the process.

May the new year bring you joy and creative times.

Carol

Circle Challenge, From Dry Falls, Label Blocks, Pond Water, Red Nebula, Spotted, Wild Patches

Supporting a Friend

December 16, 2016 admin

Hello,

It’s a brisk 10 degrees out side this morning and the heat from my neighbors chimney is clearly visibel.

My big event for this week was to be a support a person for my friend Noel at her Trunk show at the Schweinfurth on Sunday. This shot is of Donna and Noel.

As it turned out most of the work was displayed on the walls and I only ended up holding a few pieces. It was very impressive to see most of her wonderful work hanging toghther.

These works represent years of effort on her part and they show how she has taken an idea that she loves and run forward with it playing with new color approaches and ides along the way. She even explored using an artist’s work as a jumping off place for some of her own work. I sure cant tell what work is based on another artist. A lot can be learned from this process.

She dyes most of the silk she uses in her work too so there is an extra layer of personal involvement in what she does. It is one thing to see works by others one and two at a time and quite a impressive and wonderful thing to see them all together. I am glad she is a friend.

Progress Report: Spotted This work is 39” X 38” and is one based on a collage. I am seeing the end of this type of exploration for a while. Doing one a month is not necessary any more. Not only have I learned how to build a work without strait lines I feel my quilting has improved with this series of projects. I also feel more free in my approach to design.

Red Nebula I am getting ready for a solo show in Januray and as a part of this process I am looking at older works. I did this piece a while ago but did not finish it. I decided to stretch it and add it to the mix of possible works for the show. Working with older pieces and doing this additional work makes me want to return to this subject and do further exploration.

From Dry Falls This work too is one I did over a year ago. When I check this piece for the stack of works to be considered I discovered that I had not stitched the label to the back. So I had to do that to complete this project.My labels include the title, size, my name and add.

Pond Water
This work has not had any attention for a few weeks and it too came to the top of the pile this week. I am enjoying adding embellishments to the top with hand stitches. I have seven pieces that need hand work on them at this time so it may be a while before I finish this one.

Wild Patch This work is in the washer at the moment. I have stitched all the patches to a solid purple background fabric with may raw edges on the top. I want to see if the frayed parts add a texture that I can use and control in my work.

Circle Challenge I This is a personal challenge I am working on. I want to use circles as a stronger element in my work. I am to the hand step here and the threads on top are what I am thinking about using for some big hand stitched lines on top to hold the work together.

Circle Challenge II

This is the second on in this challenge. More circles and I am still using the cut away as a part of the design. I will trim it to the same size as the first one. Beyond that I have not made any decisions about this second work. I know I will have to make some modifications as I am out of one of the fabrics in the circle section.

Dog quilt Our local dog pound has called for little quilts to add to the metal cages that the dogs are put in to add to there comfort. I had started the quilt, but lost my intention so it was just a top. I thought it would do better to go to this cause then sent in the box of UFO’s.

Label Block #98 One more done. I am happy to say my embroidery thread stash is shrinking as I work on this project.

Keep Creating

Carol

Awakened by Black Birds, Coastal Color, Felt Work, Label Blocks

Reworking

December 8, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello- I am getting ready for my solo show that I will hang on Jan 4. I am not a person who puts things off and being a quilter I know the value of doing lots of small things completes a task with a lot more success then tackling the whole thing. So I have started pulling pieces for the show and looking with care at them to make sure they are ready for the public eye. Big Blue( 36” X 24” X 2”) is one of the works I needed to add to. I had not added a label so that was one of the little finish up projects I took on this week. That just meant that I had to stitch a white square of fabric to the back of the stretched workand write the label infoirmation on it. This process of pulling out work for the show also revealed a work that I really liked, but it was badly warped. It was one of the early works in my wool based projects and I had just added batting and a black back to the wool felted quilt like project. I took the time to take the project apart and stretched it over a canvas based set of stretcher bars. Coastal Color 1 ( 20” X 16”) looks a lot better now and I am happy with it. It will now go into the show if there is space. This rework is a much better solution than the process I had used with it before. Time and pashents really worked together to make this new treatment a much more successful piece then it was before.

The fist Tues of the month was this week so I had meetingsof both the QuEG’s and Diva’s. Corrine did this wonderful piece of jewelry that she shared with us at the QuEG’s meeting . Sally had a whole pile of Christmas projects that she had completed, but I love the Snow Man the best. Even the the hat has thread work all over its surface. Angela is in the middle of a on line class on three dimensional wool works. I really love this one she did withits wool units about 2” tall sticking up from the surface. She sure had become a major felter.

I then went off to the Diva meeting. It was a very small group of us – only six, with not a lot of work to share. But I do enjoy seeing folks.

Anne has created a wonderful top with a very limited pallet. She has gotten very good at inserting those points too.

Noel is working on a small Van Goth landscape. It is inspired from a card she received.

Ruth took an indigo class. She had some real beauties from that experience. This is her sampler of different stitches. She was also in the Open Wet studio at the Schweinfurth early in Nov. She did some specular dye pieces. This one is my favorite. Both meeting got me all excited again as they usually do.

Progress Report: Awakened by Black Birds This work is 19.5” X 19.5 “. This felt based pieceinspired by my experience at the Open Wet studio weekend is complete now. I used the fly stitch to add the feeling of birds in flight in the sky as well as the cut ones. I also did a lot of machine drawing to create the limbs on the tree.

In the ground trees I added just little strait stitches to indicate the birds.

Spot On I am still doing the free motion machine drawing on this work. I only have the big white areas and the yellow ones to fill now so I am sure it will be done by next week.

Wild Patch I am trying a new approach with this work. I laid down a solid base and drew with a white pencil the areas I wanted broken up on the surface. The I proceeded to place fabric on top in those shapes. Sometimes I stitched the adjacent pieces together with the raw edges out and sometime I did it in the regular manner. In other areas I just left raw edges with the background showing through. Most of this is not sewn to the back ground yet – but that is the next step I plan to take. When everything is attached to the background I will wash it to make the raw edges fray. This is unchartered- so I do not know if it will be successful or not. It is a true “what if” project.

Label Blocks # 96 and # 97

I did finish two this week to make up for not finishing any the week before.

Keep Creating

Carol

Awakened by Black Birds

New York City

December 2, 2016 admin

Hello-

I am just home form a three day trip to the big Apple. Nancy, Patti and had a grand time. (yes the sculpture is made of Lego’s.) We spent a day shopping in the Garment District. The array of wonderful fabrics was a bit overwhelming. I did come home with a wonderful piece from Mood and lots of samples that I am sure I will use in a rock piece at some time. I learned that Mood runs a sewing school in the store too. Open sewing class was just starting when I looked in.

We went to The Museum of Arts and Design yesterday. What a great space. It is always full of exciting stuff. I was most taken by the Crochet Coral Reef Toxic Seas show by Margaret and Chrustine Wertheim. The sisters took crochet to a whole new level with this one. Their piece on coral bleaching was made primarily out of recycled plastics. Some of the beautiful little works made from beads were displayed on “plastic sands collected from Hawaii. There was lots of vidio tap used to create the crochet work on some of the parts.

I found myself looking very closely at the works and trying to see what plastic objects they used to create the wonderful works. The ear phones here look like some sort of strange sea growth. I had wanted to see this work sense I had read about it in the American Craft Magazine several years ago. It was wonderful! I came away all excited to try some sea life of my own.

The jewelry display was wild. The gold leaves- about the size of ones hands- were so powerful the jewelry was almost lost.

I took about six photos of just the light on those leaves that I think will be great jumping off places for new work.

New Your City was all decked out for Christmas- even the Lego store. There were lights and trees every where. We had a great time and walked over 9,900 steps two of the three days. I wore a whole in the bottom of my shoes too. ( they were older- but supportive)

Progress Report; Awakened by Black Birds Being away for three days cut down on work time so I made little progress. I am adding birds in flight to this work at this point.

Collage based work The work is all pinned and I have started the free motion work on it.

Wool #1 I am still building on this work, but I have stitched down all the darks that I had added last week.

Label Block No blocks got completed this week. I thought I could work on it on the bus coming home from NYC. But the lights on the bus did not function. I will finish two this week.

Keep Creating

Carol

Approach, Awakened by Black Birds, Circle Challenge, First Fall, Label Blocks

Systems Failure

November 25, 2016 admin

Hello-

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. I am thankful for my family, friends and health. This week I had a little bit of a break down with my projects system. I try to keep the fabric for each project in a separate little plastic bin. There is a bookshelf on in the corner were they are stacked. Well I have been so harried these last few weeks I had not been using my system- hurrying too much meant I did not put things back and sometimes threw things in the wrong bin. The bins themselves were piled up on the cutting table instead of the shelves so it was a real mess. I was spending far too much time looking for what I needed and I was frustrated. I had to stop work for a morning and put everything to writes again. It was worth it as I was so very relived the next day when I walked back into the studio and things were tidy again. I hope I have learned my lesson and will do a better job of taking the time at the end of each work period to do the clean up correctly. Last Saturday was the first year anniversary of the mixed group meetings. ( all the gals pictured are from that meeting) It was good to get together again and talk even thought there were only 8 of us.

Progress report: Approach This piece is 18 ” high by 13″ wide. I do so enjoy doing these free motion drawing works. This one like many is based on a rock image that I shot. I try to sty true to the lights and darks on the rocks surfaces but I do not feel I must stay with the colors that I see in my photo. I enjoy building up the textures.

First Fall This work too is based on a rock shot. It is 26″ long by 20″ wide. It was formerly referred to as Wool 2. I added the single maple leaf to the surface to give the work a focus. Building the veins added more to this part of the image too. Again my love of texture is a strong part of this work.

Awakened by Black Birds This project grew out of my experience at the dye workshop the weekend before. Sense our room was on the third floor we were even with the tops of the trees and the crows roosting there. They awakened us early in the morning and flew off as the sun came up. I want to remember the wonder I felt as we watched them. There where so many! I need to darken the bottom section of the work and add more birds to the sky and it will be complete.

New Work This is a work based on a drawing I did based on a dream image. I have changed it and modified it as I enlarged it. There is some of the dyed fabric ( the yellow ) that I did at the dye workshop.

Wool 1 I am to the fabric addition stage with this work. No machine work yet. It still needs more fabric on top too.

Circle Challenge 1 I have added the extra circles to the surface and I am now ready to do the quilting step on this project. There are beads in the upper left hand corner that I plan to add by hand.

Label Block #95 I just keep at it one little square at a time.

Keep Creating

Carol

PS: There will be no blog post until Friday next week as well as I will be away in NYC until Thursday evening.

FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Felt Work, Label Blocks, Landscapes

Golden Carpet

November 17, 2016 admin

Hello,

Mother Nature has now stripped the trees of all there golden leaves and put down a carpet of gold and cream on the lawn. I sure like the quiet colors. But, I need to rake yet again. This week was a retreat at the Schweinfurth. I along with 11 other gals took advantages of the open wet studio to dye and print fabric.

We all made messes and wonderful fabric too. The wash room line quickly filled with a colorful collection of fabrics that were batching.

Liz and Susan took advantage of the big sinks that are in the wet studio to wash out dyes before putting them in the washers. Penny and I along with other retreaters, did visit the Quilts= Art = Quilts show up stairs at lunch time and enjoyed it.

Not everyone worked with dye. Cheri painted this wonderful piece for her circle challenge. It was all very exciting and I am still washing out the dye from the stuff that I tried. But here are some of the final pieces. I have a lot of raw material for some future work.

There was a FAB meeting this week too. Judy has made great progress on the quilt she started in Augest when we were up at her camp. I really love the colors she is using on this piece.

Progress Report: Wool Works 1 This work has the felted part done and a bit of fabric pinned to the surface. Last week it was only a line drawing on the black felt. This is just a beginning.

Wool 2 I put in a lot of time on this work this week. I added the yellow leaf to the top of the rock yesterday as I though it needed a more focused point of interest. It is not stitched down yet and I keep moving it about as I am not sure about were I want it to “fall”. When it is just right I will stitch it down.

Wool work 3 This wool work is now ready for lots of machine work. I have started that process- but just in small areas.

Self Challenge I did not do much on this work as I was away. I am also unsure about what I want to do with it so it sets were I can look up and see it very now and then. I hope that will lead to inspiration.

Felted Landscape Regina and I shared a room at the retreat. We were awakened on Sat morning at 5 am by the call of crows. Our room was on the third floor so when we looked out we were in the tree tops along with the crows. There were so many in the predawn that it looked like the trees had leaves on them. As the sun came up the birds flew away a few at a time. It was a wonderful experience. We watched until most of them had left for their foraging for the day. It was amazing. I am going to use my felted landscape from last week as a place to add this memory to a new work. So far I have only gotten the tree to add to the top.

Label Block # 94 Being away I only got one block completed this week.

Keep Creating

Carol

Creative Assistants, Felt Work, Hand Bags, Hand work, Label Blocks, Pond Water

Falling Back

November 10, 2016 admin

Hello-

The winds of autumn are stripping the trees of their golden bounty now. I have been out raking for two days. It is cold and soon days will be spent inside. This last week has been a busy one out side the studio for me. I spent Friday mixing dye with my friend Liz. We will be a part of open studio at the Schweinfurth during the up coming weekend. Play is in my future.

Then this week end I was part of and Exhibition and Sale at John Doweling’s studio for two days. I sold three little framed works and I am very happy about that. The work is still hanging there although I am not in attendance. It will be there until the middle of Dec.

Progress Report: Hand Bag I did put together a hand bag this week so I guess I did finish one thing.

Pond Waters Because I was away so much there is not a lot of progress to report. I continue to work away on this project in the evenings and it is building. Hand work is just slowbut very calming.

Circle Play This is my self challenge to play with faced circles in a creative way. I have a lot to learn with this process. I have challenged myself to do seven works using this striped circle as the main unit.

Wool works 1 2 3 I started these works last week but did not put too much time into them yet. This work is # 2 only because I numbered my sketches as I did them. I am sure it will get a better name with time. This one is just about ready for some machine stitching.

#3 This one is ready for fabric and machine work. It really is not much different than last week.

#1 is still at the prep for wool stage.I have drawn the areas our for the color changes but that is all. I will get to that later today I hope as the felting machine is out on the desk and waiting.

Felted Landscape I did make progress on one wool piece though. This too is in an early stage. I will keep you posted.

New Work I did pull fabric for a new pieced work too. This one will be a lot simpler then the pieced work I have been doing of late. I hope I can stick with that attitude.

Label Blocks # 92 & # 93 I can see the end of this project. There are only 27 more blocks to complete.

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

Bird Land, Curvie Cuts, Fall Fires, Felt Work, Label Blocks, Leaving the Land, Natural Elements

Time

October 27, 2016 admin

Hello,

This week has been the usual one full of events and I did not get as much time in the studio as I usually do. That realization has made me think about how I am not guarding my time as I really should. I need to say “No Thank you” to protect that studio time. Not and easy task as I so enjoy the company of others. But as I grow older I realize there is not an infinite amount of time and one must choose how it is spent.

This shot is of Patti teaching Nancy how to use the loom. We all did a little weaving at the FAB meeting this week. It was fun and now I have a new “Mug Rug” as Patti calls it.

Progress Report: Leaving the Land This work is 20”l X 26” w, got it stretched this week. When I showed it to my friend Diane she said it looked like an air view of lakes and mountains. So I knew I was successful in what I was shooting for. I do enjoy working with the fleece and silk paper in combinations with yarns and threads to build up the surface. The surfaces become so very deep and rich.

Bird Land I am to the machine quilting stage with this work now. It is going smoothly and I am a little beyond half way done at this point. It is enjoyable.

Fall Fires This work is ready for stretching at this point. Hopfully the ripples will pull out when that is done. I had to make a run to the Art Store to purchase additional stretchers. I could have used what I had and lost a lot of the surface, but I decided that this piece deserved as much of the surface showing as possible. I have to keep telling myself I will not do this again and there fore it is worth the effort to do the job properly.

New Work The curvy cut work I started last week got some hand work attention this week. I pulled out all the fibers and threads that I thought might work on the surface and started working. The big size of this piece means I will be at it a long while.

Label Blocks # 88 and # 89 Two more done. This new effort to do two a week is good as I see the pile building.

Keep Creating

Carol

Bird Land, Curvie Cuts, Fall Fires, Label Blocks, Leaving the Land, Queen Anne's Lace

Fall Color

October 20, 2016 admin

Hello-

On my walks this week I have been enjoying the fall colors. There is such a wide range. I love the oranges and reds as they contrast with the greens, but the browns and rusts have a beauty of their own. I was stopped by the deep purple\ blue I found on the ground here. So many colors! There are also lots of mushrooms in various colors out now as well. I have taken a lot of photos of the trees and bark too. I am sure I will have a good supply to begin some new work with. So keep your eyes open and while you are enjoying the season and perhaps you too may become inspired to start a new project.

Progress Report: Ethel’s Nine Patch I

finished the double bed quilt this week. I sure enjoyed working on this project and thought of Ethel every step along the way. The back is all done in her black and white scraps too and the quilt is reversiable. I think this side will be the winter side.

Queen Anne’s Lace This quilt is

26” l X 18” wide. It is one of my works that is built on the curvy cut system. I quilted in lines of the wind with the same curvy feel.I enjoy the hand work that I put into the surface of this work.

Fall Fires I am still working away on this piece. I am just about ready to begin to build in the smoke around the flames. The bottom area is not done either.

Leaving the Land I put in time on this felt based work this week too. It is much closer to being complete then Fall Fires. There are only islands of spaces were I need to do the free motion work. The dark area on the far left about half way up is an example of a space where I need to add stitching.

Bird Land I have assembled the top for this work at this time. It sort of got out of my control as far as size is concerned. I do not usually work quite this big on art quilts. I will do a little drawing of possible free motion quilt patterns that have a bird motif this week before I begin that step.

Curvy Cut As I finished the last curvy cut piece, Queen Anne’s Lace, I thought I should begin a new work in that vain. Again I used Randy’s deconstructed screen printed fabric as my starting place. It is about 41” l X 37” w a little big for this type of project.( Is there a theme here?) I have pulled a pile of fibers and threads that I might use to embellish this project.

Label Blocks # 86 #87

I am working away on this project too. Only 69 more blocks to go.

Keep your eyes open in this time of wonderful fall color and enjoy creating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Felt Work

Numbers

Supporting a Friend

Reworking

New York City

Systems Failure

Golden Carpet

Falling Back

Deep in Fall

Time

Fall Color

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer