Category Archives: Flag Challenge

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

Spring

April 7, 2017 admin

Hello-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Progress Report: Summer Meadow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep Creating

Carol

PS check out my tutorial on how to rust print.

Bee Happy, Blossoming Branch, Crow Calls, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Flag Challenge, Label Blocks, llegado

Home again

March 30, 2017 admin 1 Comment

Hello-

I am home from my trip to Florida. I had a good time and enjoyed my stay with Susan. We got up with the sun and went to the shore to see it rise. She and I worked on rust dyeing and I came home with a nice selection. Jim took this great photo of me holding one of my rust creations. We went to his home one night and drew all evening too. I will do a tutorial of the process rust and post it by next week. This shot is of Susan across the table at drawing on Tues.

Chris Winter visited on afternoon and we did image transfers with Citra Solv .

Through out the week we cut stencils and made flags with them. Now all I need to do is the finish up on all fifteen of them. They all need text of some sort because that was the main challenge to begin with. I will put the two I have completed in the progress report section. We worked away very day and the time flew bye. I came home to find ice and snow still remaining from the storm that dumped 24” before I left. This shot is of the sky light in the airport.

Monday I went off to visit with my friend Angela. She did a special demonstration for me of how to use pre felt. I now feel I know a lot more about how to use my roving and felt more effectively. She is a good teacher. I am sure the processes will be a part of future works.

This morning the FAB gals meant at my house. Nancy has finished the top of her quilt for her mom. It is beautiful. The colors make one feel so summery and warm. We will get together and pin baste it in the near future. Judy is still knitting away on her red sweater. She is working on the arm wholes now , so the end is in sight.

Progress Report: Flags 1 Bee Happy This is the fist flag I finished. I did most of it in Florida and only added the sleeve here at home.

Flag 2- Llegado I added the tabs and the beaded fringe on the bottom of this one to make it long enough to fit the size we agreed upon. Llegado is Spanish for alight.

Blooming Branch All the blossoms are stitch down now. I am working on the hand quilting step of this project. I did not add enough wind lines with the machine for me to feel it is stable . So I am outlining things in the background by hand.

Summer Meadow This work is nearly done now. I added the daises and little yellow flowers to the surface . All the work was done from the back side of the work with extra thick threads in the bobbin. Another new machine process that I will add to my tool box of techniques for use in the future.

Crow Calls I thought I was ready to add these trees to the surface of the quilt. But when I started pinning them up, it became apparent that the black trees are too dark. The crows will be lost in them if I do not build up more browns and grays into the black trees. So there is work ahead for this week on this project. I think the wash away partly obscured this problem until this point.

Samurai Romance I am adding the beads around the outside of the leaf panels for this project. That and the Turkey Work stitches take lots of time. This panel is done the other similar one does not have any hand work yet. It is smaller then thisfist pannel.

New Ice I started a new ice piece this week. I took a lot of photos of the ice forming in Xavier wood and this one had leaves sticking up through the ice and snow. I want to try to capture/show them with this piece. I have some ideas, so stay tuned.

Label Blocks # 111, #112,#113

The one thing I have completed in the last three weeks is my label blocks. But I did discover that when I laided them out that 120 blocks will not be enough to cover the bed without sashing. I do not like that idea so I will cut 25 more black squares and add labels to them before I put the top together.

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

Continue, Insect ology, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing, Pock Marked

Work Space

May 28, 2015 admin

Hello,

Summer is upon us now with all its wonders. I love how fast a beautifully the flowers are opening and changing the landscape. This Poppy is from Regina’s garden were I was visiting yesterday. I enjoy her work an find her approach exciting. One of the things she is working on is printing on fabric with a linoleum block and then quilting into the image. She added the red thread to emphasize the blossoms. She has asked a friend to enlarge the image and print it on the fabric for her so there will be even more of this image in her future work.

I also spent time with Nancy this week doing some dye painting. She could not find the color she wanted for one of her works and decided to paint to get what she wants. I am proud of her.

Through this door is the studio. I think it is very important to have a place of your own to work. I have a wonderful converted garage space for my studio. I has had several lives before it became my space. I served as a bedroom for two different boarders, my daughter and young grand kids and then for Eric and myself. Now it is my refuge for creative work. It has a wonderful bay window in the front and a door out side on the east wall. A long four foot deep closet in the back with book shelves is were I store most of my fabrics, yarns and papers as well as my felting machine. I have filled the space with my stuff and it suits me well. This first shot is from the door looking toward the front of the house. My desk/ sit down work space is a U in this far corner. I enjoy using my Grandmother Ruth’s sewing table as a work space for my own machine. That is one leg of the U and the desk its self is the other two sides.

I spend most of my time working in this area of the room..By walking strait across the room from the door and looking back this shot shows the view. Here is my cutting table with a small ironing board on the top at the far end. The pin wall is also along that wall. Next to that I have a book case that is full of projects in progress as I like to keep materials all together until I have completed an idea. This view is achieved when one walks diagonally from the point of view of the second shot into corner I just described and look back. ( the end of the sewing machine is on the lower right ) Here one can see the book shelves. The have lots of quit books and reference materials as well as my tin container collection. They serve as storage for sequins, oils sticks, markers, special fabric bits and small items that I find inspirational. In the corner the plastic drawer unit is full of beads, paints, buttons, lace trims and other attachments. My guest chair, also shown, often serves as a staging area for hand work that will be done outside the studio. I feel fournate to have such a wonderful work area and I enjoy it almost daily.

Progress Report ; Modeled Surface I used lots of surface altering techniques on this work. This red purple section is from the Deconstructed Screen Printing class from the fall.

The light blue is from some dyeing I did with the QuEGs group last spring. This dark blue is from a day I spent playing with paint in my own studio. I was doing tape resist on the fabric and then running the roller over it. The left side of this images shows printing on an old table cloth and the right side is a double print of a silk screen. It was a fun challenge to use only fabrics that I had altered myself.

Insect OlogyI am still working on the free motion part of this work. I so liked the shapes of these leaves that I used them several places in the quilt to fill in the sections. I like finding inspiration from the fabric for my free motion work.

Flag-Continue I only finished one flag this week. This one is Susan’s design and her quote too. I just added the flowers. Now I only have five to finish before Tue next week so that project will get lots of my attention.

New Work True to the way I work I have pulled out a new patch of fabric and pinned it to the wall. I always like to audition fabrics before I use them.

Label Block

Two more are now completed.

Keep Creating

Carol

Consideration, Find Ecstasy, Hand Bags, Insect ology, Minion, Pock Marked, Rejoice, Uncategorized

Travel Log

May 21, 2015 admin

Hello,

I am home from a wonderful trip and I still seem to be flying along with lots of new experiences. Maine was/is beautiful as it too awakens to spring. I enjoyed the tulips in Barb’s yard and took lots of pictures. There are so many wonderful colors. We visited two artists with studios on this trip. The first was Elizabeth Busch’s place. She is working on a new commission for the state capital building in Augusta. This is a shot of the models. She is building in her wonderful weaving on bird netting.She carefully explained how she used her photos of different parts of Maine to build the landscape that she wanted for the project. She refers to them often as she works with the weaving to keep the colors close to the natural look she is building. She has a large collection of printed and painted strips of plastic to choose from when she is working. Elizabeth sometime weaves as many as four strips into one section to create the color she wants for rocks, trees, water and other natural elements. She is working on all three panels at one time so they will flow into one another as they spin from the three eye beams in the lobby. The job needs to be completed by September so she will have a busy summer.

The second Studio was that of Nanci Kohn She is a photographer and paper Mache’ artist. She too was very willing to talk about her process and work. I really love this song bird that is covered in sheet music.

We then stopped and looked at a welded sculpture of an Osprey on a bridge on our way to Portland. It was an enjoyable and stimulating trip as travel always seems to be for me.

Tuesday the FAB group meant here. Patti had nearly completed this happy little wall hanging. I like how she used buttons and beads for the eyes of the kittens.

Judy was busy working on a new sweater. She is doing hand embroidery stitched flowers on it now to add more interest. I like the soft colors she is using.

Progress Report: Paper Quilt- Consideration

I am done working on the surface of this project. I want to add a sleeve in a different manner than I have with previouse paper quilts,because it is so wide. I want to make the slat removable for this one. The papers that I started with were from a Gelli print play day last fall. I have enjoyed doing all the stitching on this one and adding textures

I added painted and melted tyveck for that texture. I used both sides so some areas have the bubble up and some have the bubble down.

Hand Bag I made a new hand bag out of some of the wonderful fabric that Regina gave me a few weeks ago. It is time to switch to a summer color so I put the old one( it was browns and blacks) away.

Place Mats When I was sorting through the material for the hand bag I pulled fabric for place mats too. These are the newly finished batch. I have stacks two more sets setting on the cutting table.

Pock Marked I am working on the free motion portion of the quilting on this project. It is going slowly as I am trying to find lines to follow for all the stitching and it is very complex in some areas.

Insect Ology I am to the free motion quilting on this project too. It is a much different process than Pock Marked- much more a reflective process. It is good for me to switch from one type of free motion work to the other.

Flag – Rejoice For the experiment on this flag I drew on the surface with magic markers and then stayed it with rubbing Alcohol. I hung it on the line so it would run down as it dried. Not all the makers ran because they were different types of markers. The “Sharpies” rand the most. The quote is” Rejoice in the common place.” from an unknown source.

Flag- Find Ecstasy This flag does not have much in the way of experimentation. But when I found this quote l knew I had to use it. It is from Emily Dickenson: “Find ecstasy in life – the mere sense of living in joy is enough.

More Minions I am now finished with the last four minions. I will pass them along to friends who need a lift as I come across them.

I hope summer is on everyone’s door step.

Keep Creating

Carol

Arches, By the Shore, Freedom's Joy, Label Blocks, Minion, Paper Quilts

Buds Opening

April 30, 2015 admin 2 Comments

Hello,

I have noticed as I have been walking this week a daily change in the environment. Not only is the grass growing but flowers are up. I also see that spring flowers are different here than in mid west. These white violets are a good example. ( I have purple ones in the yard too) Every day the shadows cast by the trees changes as the buds explode out into the sunny world. I find it exciting to see the major changes from one day to the next. I spent Monday playing with Cheri in her studio. She was busy creating freezer paper stencils, ironing them down and then painting over them them. While she did that I worked on adding a layer to the puppet heads that I made at Varna last month. I added paper clay over the two human heads and the dog head as I was happy with the forms. I then built up the bird head with more paper Mache’. I moved from that to building a mask with a cardboard base. The mask seemed to take on a life of it’s own as I started out trying to create a lion- but it seems I have a horse instead. Cheri suggested a different type of Mache paste and so I added the paper layer on top of the cardboard. I like what is happening even though it is not were I thought I was going. Then the third 3-D project this week was to start to create a new batch of Minions. I seem to be exploding with my own creative push as I also pulled out and sorted stacks of fabric for six new projects this week. This shot shows four of the piles. I only have eight yellow tubs for separated projects and they are all full, that along with the 3-D stuff and I have a lot on my hands to work at for a while.

Make Visible 23"X 29" $235.00 — Make Visible
23″X 29″
$235.00

Progress Report: Make Visible I am done with this quilt now. This project started last summer when Susan and I were playing with all her different mark making tools. I did several different quotes with the tools and I am now getting around to finishing them off. I quilted the words Make Visible seven times on the surface of this quilt . Some times I did them in block letters and some times in cursive. Then did reflective quilting to finish it off. I used the obi that I got from Ginny in this project too.

Regina’s Blanket This project is made from some of the wonderful designer samples that Regina gave me a few weeks ago. It was fun to try her techniques with her fabric. It is great to snuggle under too.

By The Shore I was looking at my photos of the trip to Arcadia with Barb and Marty from a few years ago. Among the pictures was a great shot of the basalt along the shore. So I decided to use it as the start of my next Foundations piece. This is just the pin up.

Paper Quilt I came across some papers I had done as Gelli plate prints. Two of them seemed to go together so I started this work in the Carol Weibe technique. It has two cuts in it. I had also melted the tyvek that Cheri and I had painted from the week before. Now there is lots of that to play with and I may add a little of that texture to the surface of this paper quilt too.

Flag- Arches I am using these flags as a place to really play with things I do not normally try. In this case I used Caran D’ache water soluble crayons to add color. Then I spritzed it with water. The word “Arches” is written in broad line Liquid Copper magic paint marker by Deco Color. It did not bleed when I sprayed it with water.

Flag Freedom’s Joy With this project I stamped a bird with a foam stamp that I had made several years go and then I used colored pencil on top to enhance it . I also used the colored pencil in the lines to add motion. The words are done in permanent marker.

Label Block I am doing my daily stitch work with this project. Every little bit adds up.

Keep Creating

Carol

Baby Quilts, Dive In, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing, Make Visable, Ribbon Work, Running Red, Stretch Daily

Victories

April 23, 2015 admin

Hello,

This week has been a week with several little victories. The first was last Thursday evening when I went to the Prevention Network banquet. Just by chance I sat next to Carolyn and she wanted the quilt I had donated to the cause. As this picture suggests she was successful in her pursuit of that goal. I was as delighted with her achievement of that goal as she was and the Network got the benefit too. Friday was the Towpath Quilt show and I attended that event. This is Victoria’s finished work. I have watched her struggle with this piece and I think her solution is great.

Another event in my week was a trip to the SAQA meeting on Saturday. The group was small but full of exciting ideas. My friend Chris showed two of her framed works. It made me think again about working in that direction.

On Monday I went to visit with another quilting buddy Regina. We had not seen each other sense fall so she had lots of new works. I really like this one were she used discharged paste and then embellished it with lock washers. She had also completed four works from the

Carol Soderlands class in Soy Wax printing that the both of us were in at QBL II. This shot is of the wonderful potato smasher that she brought to class and we all used to print with wax. This shot is a work in progress but she also had four she had completed. They were wonderful insect type pieces that I truly enjoyed. Then because I just can’t seem to get enough play time with other creative soles, I went to play with Cheri yesterday. We had fun painting on Tyveck. I now have a new pile of altered material to add to my stash. I will do the melting of some of the surfaces tomorrow. Ans as Cheri suggested one does not need to melt all the Tyvec to use it.

The Big success of this week was saving the Baby quilt I had ruined. At the Towpath show I talked with Angela about the problem of my marker marks. I told her of the methods I had tried and she listened very sympathetically. Her suggestion was I try Oxi Clean. I stopped on the way home and got some at the grocery store. It did not take all of the marks out on the first run( the fifth wash) but it did diminish them. I air dried it and Sue Ellen looked at it on Sat before we went to the SAQA meeting. She said they barely showed and suggested I repeat the process again. So I did. To my delight when I went down and took the work off the line yesterday it was clean. I only took six washes to do the trick. I will give the quilt to the expectant mother and tell her that I know it will withstand lots of washing. I am so very thankful for my encouraging friends. They pushed me forward on this project until it was a Success.

Running Red 39" X 46" — Running Red
39″ X 46″

Progress Report: Running Red I am delighted with how this quilt finally came out. The curving quilting did prove to be a big challenge for me, but I think it works in the end. I used a variegated thread and that proved to be a good idea as well because some times it faded into the background and other times it stood out.

I used silk from an Obi, taffeta, and old table cloth I had done deconstructed screen printing on and cotton in this work. The quilting pattern of the swirls came from the Obi.

Make Visible I had so much success with the circular quilt pattern in Running Red that I tried a variation on that idea with this quilt. I am going to write the words in the quilting pattern on the surface. This shot is of the letter patterns I will be following.

Flags: Stretch DailyI am working away on the flag challenge too. What a great place to try new things and explore. This time I did a little trumpto on the dark green figures. I added green plastic to give more interest and I cut new bigger stencils that I then spray painted on the work. Lastly, I added the letters. They are cut from a photograph and stitched down. My talk with Susan made me feel that adding paper to the work was okay.

Flags: Dive In With this flag I took the paper idea even further. The week before I had been dyeing with Ethel and I put paper under the work so the wax would be absorbed and I left it under when I dyed too. So I had several pieces of beautiful papers on the desk when I was playing with this project. I traced the painted sections of the flag on the papers and cut them out. Then I stitched them down.

Ribbon Work This work is moving along- but I have hit a snag with the fact that I have used the whole spool of yellow ribbon now. I need to live with it before I decide what will be my next move.

Label Block The nightly work goes on with this project.

Keep Creating

Carol

Baby Quilts, Fabric Collage Constructions, Flag Challenge, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing, Make Visable, Name Game, Patti, Running Red, Spring Grass, Vernal Equinox

Mistake- Lesson Learned

April 16, 2015 admin

Hello,

I have had a mixed week. I spent Friday morning last week helping my friend Nancy and her Grand Daughter Jaelyn do a little stencil work. They were making a back pack and Jaelyn wanted her name on the flap. We had a pleaset time stenciling and as soon as she was finished, Jaelyn pulled out the feather weigh and was ready to get back to assembly.

The upsetting thing this week was a gift project. I was making a baby quilt for a friends grandchild and I was nearly done. I only had to add the strings for the balloons that the bears were holding and I would be complete. I thought I really wanted to the strings to be strait so I pulled out a marker and drew the lines on to follow. I was excited as I could see the end of the surface work for this project. I did not take time to test the marker and that was my down fall. When it came time to wash out the marks I found that I had picked up the wrong tool and the marks will not come out. I have tried several of the ways various folks have suggested from the inner net, but no success. The quilt is ruined as a gift of course. The pens do look similar, but that is an excuse. I can go and purchase a gift, but some how that will not be the same. I have no one to blame but myself for my haste. I am disappointed with myself. I am certain I will not make that mistake again.

Progress Report: Name Game III- Patti This quilt is 14” X 26” . I am so enjoying this process as it really challenges my design skills when it comes to putting the blocks together. One change in direction can change the whole movement of the work. I like all the texture of the raw edges too as they seem to add a different type of movement to the final work. There is also the challenge of using letters as a starting point because the shapes of letters involve strait lines and curves in ways I do not think of drawing usually. This shot is of the work before I cut it into pieces. I am dreaming of a new challenge using more then one name. This could add to the spice of the project.

Vernal Equinox This work is 22” X 25”. I call this building process fabric collage. I used lots of fabric textures in this work. There are velvets, valures, satins, cottons, corduroys, and brocades here. The wading and folding adds its own texture to the end product too. I was trying to fill the surface with visual interest and I feel it was successful.

Running RedI am to the quilting stage of this project so I am only showing a detail this week. I used the pattern on the red silk as my inspiration for that quilting pattern. As it is turning out the double knit on the old table cloth( on the left here) has some woven patterns in it that are similar to the swirls of the silk pattern.

Make Visible is the title I have chosen for this new work. I spent and afternoon with Susan last summer trying out all her mark making tools and in doing that I wrote lots of different quotes. I had pulled out a bunch of fabric last week and this piece seemed to go with one of the collections. This shot shows how I star the assembly of this type of quilt. I lay out were I want the big blocks and then I begin to fill in the spaces around them to create the top using 2.5 ” and 1″ strips.

Flag- Spring Grass I got a call from Susan this week. She too is struggling with this flag challenge that we created. We agreed that for both of us, starting with the central image or center of interest first- is not the way either of us works. I am not comfortable filling in around the graphics we are both working with. But I will persist as that is how growth takes place. I only finished this one this week. I am still struggling with the text as a part of this challenge too.

Label Block The beat goes on with this project.

Keep Creating

Carol

Foundations Series, Heart of Gold, Label Blocks, Patti, Relaxed Energy, Scrap Happy Quilts, Vernal Equinox, Whip Shock Hill #2

Spring

April 2, 2015 admin

Hello,

The trees are still bare, but the sun is shinning and I have spotted several Robins while I have been out of doors, and I even ate my lunch out side today. This shot not only shows the tree but is also shows an aspect of line. A line can change its thickness as well as it’s direction. The more I pay attention to lines the more I am aware of how vestal they are. Lines can be used to express a wide array of emotions. They can be sad, nervous , silly angry, graceful, calm, excited and dancing to name a few. Our culture uses them to communicate with words and images. They are every were when one starts to look for them.

I made Easter Cards one day this week. I took a heavy card stock and on top of that I placed ribbons, yarn and plastic twist. I kept the pallet limited to light spring like colors and then stitched in many directions across the surface to attached the materials. When I felt that the surface was strong enough I cut out the egg shapes. I added pipe cleaner ears and a pome-pome tail to create little rabbits. Then I glued them down to the cards were I had drawn some grass with a green marker. I did leave some of the eggs as just eggs and glued them into nests so I had two different cards. I had a good time and I hope my friends enjoyed my spring fling.

Progress Report: Whip Shock Hill II I am still working away on this piece. I like adding all the texture to the surface of the work. It makes for nice soft color changes is some areas. I am sure I will complete this piece this week.

Scrap Happy 6 &7 The only thing I needed to do to complete this quilt this week was add the binding. That takes me about an hour. This one has center blocks that are all in grays and black and whites, with a few center blocks that have browns in them.

I also completed Scarp Happy # 7. This one has deep red center blocks and gray center blocks. The scale of the prints is much smaller than # 6 so it is not nearly as busy.

Verna Equinox This is the newest piece using the Fabric Collage technique. I am trying to add lots of different fabric textures along with the wrinkle and wad stuff that I have been working on. This piece has cotton, valure, taffeta, silk, double knit, organza, grow grain ribbon, and wide whale corduroy in it. The fabrics alone are lots of textures. I hope I can make it work.

Name Game III – Patti This shot shows the first cut from the brown and gray fabric. The top image is the negative in brown and the bottom image is the positive in brown. I have been very careful in my documentation of this process this time and I will put up a tutorial of the process this next week. Hopefully I will be finished with the work too.

Ribbon Work I stared this new piece trying to play with the same ribbon application technique that was on a piece of red fabric that Susan gave me. The process is slow and I cannot seem to work with the closeness the example has– but I do like the effect. My ribbon is much wider then the example. I am still trying to stay true to my New Years resolution of not purchasing any thing new so I will continue to work with the ribbons I have here.

Flags: Heart of Gold I am continuing on the Susan’s Flag Challenge. This week I tackled the purple stencils. Susan did the rib cage that is on this work. I added more color with various fabric markers. The heart is a small bit of gold fabric that was remaindered from some other project as it was just pinned to the wall.

Flags: Relaxed Energy This is my purple stencil. I selected this pose from Susan’s book because I was surprised that many of the exercises that the physical therapist gave me for my back are also Yoga poses. I added a beautiful glittered nylon net that Susan had purchased in Mexico and given me as a part of this flag. I was also thinking about negative space when I made the stencil and when I cut away some of the netting.

Label Blocks 1 &2 I need to have a hand work project for my evenings. So I stated doing these label blocks again. I did my last label quilt in 1988. Some of the labels I am using are left overs form those works. But I will soon be using only current labels. They are much harder to find now because many labels are printed on the fabric as apposed to added units. If you have any you can send them my way.

Enjoy the days as they get longer and warmer.

Keep Creating ,

Carol

Flag Challenge, Lexi, Magic, Name Game, Spring Onion, Whip Shock Hill #2

Mud Puddle Luscious

March 26, 2015 admin

Hello,

My world is headed toward spring. I heard and then saw geese flying north yesterday on my walk. Today it is raining and I am reminded of a line from an e e cummings poem were he described spring rain as creating a world that is “ mud puddle luscious and the goat footed balloon man wanders far and wee” . I will not be walking today for that reason- too much mud in every direction. This week has been as full Saturday I went to a play day were all sorts of things were going on. Noel and I worked on making puppet heads out of paper Mache’. Some folks painted like Annie while others sew on quilt projects and dolls.

At noon we had a little show and tell were June showed off this fun doll. She was working on it the last time we got together. I like the use of the antique wood block as the front of the body. The hair is cool too.

This quilt is a group challenge project by the Modern Quilters. Each person go the same colors and the background fabric. They all made a row that they then assembled. Marie showed us what she has started last time too from the online class she is taking called 100 Sheets of Cheep Paper. This is one of the works she did.

The Social Art Club had a art show this week and the work was wonderful. This piece is a fiber work by Kathleen Simpson. I displayed my chickens as a part of the table decorations for that affair.

I gave two quilts to my local Public TV Station this morning. One was one of those Scrap Happy that I have been working on sense January and the second was Golden Weeds. I will be watching the auction and hoping to see the sales of both works.

This is also the time of year that

Quilt Surface Design Association calls for donations for their auction so I did a work for that too.

This work is a small 12″ X 12 “. Easy Flow is ready in the box for shipping and I will go to the post tomorrow and send it off.

Progress Report: Name Game II – Lexi, For this quilt I used my Grand Daughter’s nick name as my starting point. I used the same sew and cut method that I employed last week with Carol. The big change this time was that background fabric was a plaid taffeta and that added a different design problem. I did the quilting on the background just like before with silver thread. This time I also made the work bigger before I cut it into blocks. As a result I have squares that I did not use for this quilt so there may be a smaller one later. I want to try this type of construction one more time so I can try for a writing text instead of a printed letter form.

Whip Shock Hill II This work is to be a partner with the first Whip Shock Hill and is based on a second shot of the same rock face just further north. This images is a close up as I do not think the full work is very interesting at this point.

Susan’s Flag Challenge: Spring Onion Susan and I both have a dozen flags with the same images on them. How we choose to finish the works will be a fun comparison study when we get together again in June. There is crayon drawing on this work and some beads were added to represent soil under the plants. I learned that one can not add stamped letters over a seam and get a smooth image with this project. The word onion had to be stamped on a second cloth and added on top. Experimenting with new materials and methods is one of the goals of this challenge. The stamped letters on fabric is a new thing for me.

Flag Challenge- Magic This flag uses my stencil of hands . I added the crayon drawing of the swirls and stars then pressed the fabric. I then washed the whole thing in the blue. My test this time was done with magic marker.

New work This work is the next one in the fabric collage series . There is not a stitch on this one yet- just lots and lots of pins. It will morph and change as the stitching and addition of ribbon, yarn and paper goes forward. I look forward to working on this one.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Flag Challenge

Spring

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Visual Effects

Work Space

Travel Log

Buds Opening

Victories

Mistake- Lesson Learned

Spring

Mud Puddle Luscious

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer