Hello,

When one needs ideas for solutions  or inspiration I believe  one has some  choices.         I was struggling with part of the  Stone Church project.     There is a old cemetery that is a part of that area and I wanted to include it in my piece.  But I was having trouble  so I took a walk in the near by cemetery to refresh my mind.  I was surprised by the presence of the deer.  There  were two actually and the cemetery  is surrounded by city on all four sides.   Looking at  how compact these stones and how much they overlapped has helped me formulate a solution to the  work I must do on the project.

Sometimes the ideas are as much about paying attention as anything else.     There was a FAB meeting at my house this week.  Folks showed their work and  Victoria is moving along nicely with this quilt.  She got inspired by Ginny’s silks that she had purchased a few weeks ago.  They  are shown here in the orange and  gray strip. ( I got inspired by that same orange silk)    I think the shadow of the leaf looks wonderful too.   She  also showed a top that she had assembled for a bed quilt that she is making for her new house.    I am so impressed by the large number of prints she uses and the colors.    I would not have put that strong orange with the turquoise myself- but I love the combination.   So by paying attention to this  little surprise I now have  a jumping off  color  combination  to try in the future.   The real trick here is to note the surprises and in my case write them down.  I do that in my idea journal and it helps me when I need to get going with a new piece.

Progress Report:

Foundations XXI Elsie’s Stone- Cape Cod Rock   The Road Less Traveled

I am finally done with this project.  I love all the texture on the surface of this wonderful stone.  I am very grateful that Elsie gave me this parting gift.     The many fascists of its surface with the limited colors make it fascinating to me.   I think I could revisit this rock and work from a different side  too.

I used yarn ,  nylon netting and lots of torn fabric bits to produce the colors and textures.    There is also my favorite silk paper at work on this piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Road Less Traveled

  I started this quilt in Rosalie Daces Color class at QBL.  I have finally completed the process.      I used many of the techniques she taught us.  I did insert slender curved lines into sections.  I let colors “bleed” or flow  across seam lines to make connections.  I used raw edges to add texture  and I hand embroidered across parts of the surface to draw sections together.      Even using all thoughts techniques  I did not use all the techniques that she taught us.  As a teacher she has a lot to share and she does so very willingly.

I enjoyed using these

earthtones and I will continue to  pursue the techniques she taught.  I am still not happy with size of my slender inerts- so there is work  to do there.

 

 

Stone Church

I already mentioned the bit with the cemetary so I will not cover that again.  I added lots of machine lines on the roads as they were gravel and I remember how there seemed to be lots of “tracks” of the tries on them.   I remember too that Grandmother Ester liked to drive down the middle and only pulled the turquoise ford  over when she could see a car coming toward her.

Harmony     I am done with the assembly of the form of this quilt.  I decided to use the character that

represents Harmony for the central focus and so far I have just quilted around that shape to create the quilting pattern.   I want to fill in the character with black hand stitches/ patterns so it stand out.   But I have not come up with the correct stitch to do that job yet.   So I keep looking in books and paying attention to the world around me and hope that I will find inspiration.  Until then  the project will just hang in the studio awaiting the correct solution.

New Work      In Valeri’s Goodwins class she had a do a fabric ” sketches” of 4″ X 6″ before we started work.   So in keeping with using the best the teachers have to offer I made the sketch first.  This is the one I selected as my jumping off place.    I wanted to use the big printed flower I created a few weeks ago as a big part of this work.  Now I am in the process of pinning up parts that I think will work to do the job.  I have split the two flowers apart and added parts of a third to the design.  Very few parts are  connected or solid in its position at this point .  This is  fun but scary part of the process-  but I need the challenge.

 

 Daily News    This project is finally complete.  I have now sewn all the blocks closed and will continue to play with placement  for as long as the process interests me.   This will be the last post where the  project will appear because at this point all the finished units have been appeared at  least twice and some more times then that.   I have enjoyed doing a daily sewing pieces and it is very true that the whole is made of of lots of little parts.  If I had started out with the intention of making  180  hand embroidered  blocks I do not think I would have done it.  But by making small manageable  units- it as a doable task.    I have been encouraged by Susan to submit this idea as an airticle for Quilting Arts so that is my next project.

Keep Creating

Carol