Hello-

The show is all hung.  I will admit that I am very pleased with how the thing looks.  As the creator of this work, I had never viewed  as a group.  I do not have a big enough space to even spread it all out in one room.  I was quite surprised by the fact that Lauren insisted we hang them all, and by how well they all worked together.  This shot at the top is of three of the quilts and three of Lauren’s baskets below.   It was a fun experience doing the work with her too as she was so very excited by my pieces.  She had asked me to do the show after seeing only one piece of my work.  This third shot with the pink wall behind it is in the bar room of the  resterant. She also has pointed me in several other directions for places to contact about future shows too.  It was a very up lifting day for me.   These photos do not show all the work I will add more next week.   I now look forward to the opening on Sunday.

Progress Report:Spiraling Out

   This quilt is finished now.  I added a lot more quilting to the surface this week and I like how that pulls it together.   This work was  created do primary because of the silk screen material that I had purchased from randy Kennan this summer.    I really liked the action in the fabric  and tried to repeat some of the patterns in the quilting patterns I added.   The close up shows the decomposing screen and some of the needle work.     It was a fun project.

Twilight Trees    I have really enjoyed doing these twisted tree forms.  I am enjoying  the movement using curves has added to my quilt work.

I liked the new skill I am building and feel now that I am ready to tackle the DMC Challenge that they were meant to be a prelude for.  I sure hope that my vision can be full filled- but that remains to be seen.     Tree Men     I have been playing with the felt work tree too.  This shot is a partial of  two of the faces.   Thus  far I have done all the work by hand and so the green tool to the lift side is in the photo.   I have rediscovered that the black wool felted skirt that is the dark background unit is difficult to felt to.  I am glad that I need to soften the intensity of the dark so I am going to really build up the other grays and browns on top of it.  That will help unify the work too I hope.

Pele    I spent time this week getting this top to be flat.   I cut and stitched away several wedges of fabric for this purpose.  There is still a lot for me to learn about the curved cutting process like do not make the action too sharp.   Anyway it is flat now.  This shot shows the arms of the fire goddess drawn in thread  on organza.  I will trim away the the outside portion before I attach it to the top.   I am still considering if I want to add some more color to the arms before I do that step too.   I  do want the arms to appear as a spirit like presence on the surface.

Play Day Printing I spent  Friday last week printing with my Styrofoam stamps.   The Styrofoam is the thick sponge like  type  that comes packed around big items like printers or computer screens.  One draws into them with a welding iron in a well ventilated location.  I cut mine last summer out doors  The teacher who taught me  how to do use this technique was teaching a second class on the same day and I was tempted to take it a second time, but decided instead to just play by my self with what I remembered.   I think I got more accomplished too because I did not have to pack up my materials and  spend travel time to get to the workshop. This top one shows two fabrics printed with fabric paint on  commercial textured fabrics.  This shot shows more turquoise fabric with a Styrofoam  leaf stamp print and on the gray a stamp made from some plastic floor matting.  The white is a mixture and I like this piece of fabric the most.    This last piece is the white again with the last Styrofoam stamp  of the figures dancing.    I cut one set on one side of the foam an the other set on the back.    I had a good time and although I have no plan for there use at the moment, I am confident they will all go into work in the future.

I hope winter is treating everyone well.

Keep Creating

Carol