Category Archives: Hand Bags

3X3, Childhood Memories, Hand Bags, Icarus, Tee Shirt Quilts

Moving Along

May 23, 2019 admin

Hello,
I saw this toad on my walk this week. He is difficult to see. Looked for him in the same area every day sense, but no luck. I am just glad to know he is in our world.
The Associated Artists had their opening for the Flight show. This wing is Liz’s entry. There was a woman who was 102 how came along with one of the other artist. It was fascinating talking with her. Openings can open one to new ideas and this one was especially simulating.

This is Barbara’s entry. The top one sold that day too.

Liz took this shot of me and my piece there.

Progress Report: Tee Shirt Quilt
This quilt in nearing the completions stage now. The back is complete and I am in the middle of the quilting.

Purple Squares-Nine patches I did a lot of work on this project this week. The some of the older blue blocks have been combined with the newly completed purple ones to create these four nine patch units.

I plan to make a second entry for the 3X3 show if I can get them done in time.

Hand Bag I made a new more colorful spring bag this week.

Scarp Assembly This process just keeps inching forward. I have been putting in about an hour every day stripping together fabric strips.

Preparations I am preparing to depart for QSDS on Sunday. I did two more drawings from the car was photos. I think they will be a good jumping off place for me.

It also means that I have limited my color pallet and that means a concentrated box of fabric for me. I decided yesterday that I need a little security too, so I pin based a base for a new wild fire piece. I have a clear idea of what I want to do on it so when I feel too frustrated with the car was project I can work on a piece with more potential for success.

Childhood Memoirs- Belief
As a child I had a great imagination. I really could believe in the stories that were read to me and fairies, witches, trolls and pixies were just out of sight. One summer day I spent with my Aunt May. I spent a frustrating morning trying to learn how to jump rope. At lunch she talked to me about believing one could and would accomplish things with time and belief. “I belief you will learn how to jump rope”, she told me. After lunch she read a story about Aladdin and the flying carpet before I was to take a nap. I was fascinated by the idea and could not get to sleep for thinking about it. In my childhood mind, one didn’t need the carpet-just belief. So I climbed out the window over the poach and walked to the edge. I folded my arms, step off and folded my legs and proceeded to “Fly” down into the snowball bush. Aunt May say me “Fly” past as she was setting on the front poach and screamed as I passed by. Needless to say the snowball bush was never the same. My only injuries were a few scratches. Mom could not believe I had not broken anything – the power of belief saved me. I did conquer the jump rope later that afternoon too.
I am off to Quilt Surface Design Symposium on Sunday and will not return until June 3, so there will be no posting next week.
Keep Creating
Carol

Double Joy, Emperor, Glyph I, Glyph IV with Beads, Hand Bags, Hand work, Intensity, JOY II, Mystory

Winter Color

February 1, 2018 admin

Hello,

I went off to Ithaca this morning to help take down the Threads of Change show that has been up sense Dec 1. It was a great show and was well received. The quilt “Glyph I “ was in it as well as this quilt by Anne. “ This is what Social Change Looks Like” and it is one of my favorites from this social change show.

On my return drive I was struck by the colors of winter. There are lots of blacks, grays, whites and browns in the winter landscape. Many tans and gold’s as well plus the occasional dark green of evergreen trees. Mother natures limited pallet was beautifully contrasted by the intense blue of the sky. It was a beautiful drive.

Progress Report: Handbag This is my newest Handbag with my thanks to Regina as she provided me with the fabric. I noticed that the old one was getting tread bare so I made this replacement. This one is large enough to hold a tablet.

Joy II I am doing the reflective quilting on this project now. I have not decided if I will quilt the words yet but that will be the next decision.

Double Joy I am to the quilting stage with this work as well, with the same questions about this quilt as with the letters of Joy II. Sometimes I just need to live with the work a while before I know what to do.

Collage- Destiny I am stay true to my vow to do a collage a week. The browns of the season seem to be invading here as well.

Gold Play I got carried away as usual and this second smaller collage was produced this week. I talked with Susan and she suggested that I try to keep the size format the same for all the weekly pieces so I will do that in the future. Like most of my work I do not see the total vision at the beginning of a series.

Wool 1 This project is all felted down now. I am not sure where it is headed, but I like this start.

Wool 2 This work however has a strong destination. The colors suggest a forest floor to me so I am running with that idea. The bracken is about half way free motion stitched down. Then I got all excited by the idea of doing Indian Pipe as the feather plant so I did a little test this week. This is one possiblesolution. I zigzagged over pipe cleaners that are wrapped with the cut away organza from the Ice project with flower heads made with bits of ribbon. I have two other possible ideas for the pipes and I will try them both before I make the final decision as to what I want to use.

Ice I have started layering the organza on top of the stream bed. The zigzag appliqued cording does indeed look like the line patterns on the surface of the ice so I will move forward on this project this week too.

Glyph IV I keep inching along on the beading step for this work. As one can see, I am a little beyond the half way point on the right side of the O now.

Handwork I continue to do my daily practice with hand work. I intended to be done with this panel at the end of Jan. But I am not through yet so I will keep working until the pieces is finished. I can alter my goal. I am the director and I make the rules so I can change or break them as I see fit.

Crochet As this photo shows I think I have mastered the shell stitch with my crocket hook. In doing this weekly blog I also take a good look at what I am doing and I feel that I may take all the work out and start for a third time as I think this is a bit narrow for an afghan.

Card- The Emperor In an effort to unify the Tarot challenge that this card is suppose to be a part of- it was suggested that all the folks work on the major arcanna at the same time. That is the starting point for this card. I do not feel to connected to the concept of Emperor so I played with the idea of how the fist Roman emperors came the ranks of soldiers who had good leadership skills.

Dizzying Intensity As I sifted through my collection of paper images that I had collected for collage I did more than one work. I was having too much fun playing with the paper and the images and this card came out of the play. I can’t really say it is part of the Tarot series- the only thing that links it to that idea is the size.

Mystery Solved

This work too is only part of the series do to size. Sometimes I just cannot help myself. And as to what the mystery is – that is up to the viewer……..

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

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

Broadcasting, Hand Bags, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Sounds like the Blues

Clean Up

December 4, 2014 admin

Hello,

In the process of returning all my quilts to their normal storage spots I noticed how much orange I use in my work. Then on further consideration I realized that it tends to appear more in the work I do in the fall when I see more orange and brown as the leaves change color here. But now my world has become very muted and almost mono chromatic. That was espically true today when the sky was gray and trees were black against it . The leaves on the ground tended toward brows, and tans with a little rust there. I will try to take note as to the color choices I make in the studio in the next few weeks. I spent Tuesday with the QuEG’s folks and we played with the Gelli plates. Several of the gals had never done it before. After a quick demo- the paint started flying and we all produced lots of colorful prints.

Folks did show and tell too of course.

Angela showed off her “10 Min Wonder ” table runners. It really only took 10 min to put together she says and she is set to make lots.Corinne had been to the Red

Thread Retreat and she was excited by the experience too. She came home with a box full of treasures. Mostly in book forms this time. It was a good day.

At the moment I am not making lots of progress on my work because my sewing machine is in the repair shop. I was free motion sewing on the wedding quilt when I noticed there was a problem with the tension.So I did pull out grandmother Butterworth’s old Feather Weight and went to work on the scrap bags. Being limited to froward and backward means I am limited to piecing. It took the better part of last week and Monday to finish putting all the scraps into groups. I started slicing them into 2.5inch units today and started assembling those into long strips for my Scarp Happy quilts.

Progress Report:

Flow Patterns 21.5X 38.5 $300.00 — Flow Patterns
21.5X 38.5
$300.00

Flow Patterns Although I do not have a machine now- I did earlier and I did finish the free motion work on this quilt befor. This project just seemed to flow out my finger tips when I was pinning the parts up. I so enjoy using my silk paper and that is what the most of this project is made of. It does have some gold painted tyvek as an add on portion too.

This work has lots of movement from my point of view.

Broadcasting

I can do some work with only strait stitching and this piece only needed to have the facings added to do that part. I enjoyed adding all the round elements by hand to this piece. There are beads and pads from saxafones on the surface of this work. It was easy to stitch through the felted pads and the ones with leather were also easy to push the needles through.

A friend who plays the sax is very impressed.

Memory Maps- Yellowstone Even though I can only sew strait stitching I can work on this project a little. I outlined the park and painted in the rives and Yellowstone lake. Then I did the road lines. I have added the Ranger Station at South Gate where Dad worked when we lived there. I am still working out exactly where I want to place the trailer that was our home at this point. And the trees- I remember so many lodge pole pine trees in all directions…. It is fun to work away on this project as more and more memories of that wonderful season when I was seven keep flowing back to me.

Silk Clutch I needed a elegant small hand bag for a seasonal event last week. So I looked at the silk paper( I was working on Flow Patterns at the time) and found a bigger piece of some I had created with Ethel as fall. This is strong enough to be a bag because we sandwiched a piece of silk organza in the middle of the silk roving when we created the paper. It worked well and I got several compliments on the bag.

Sound like the Blues I am still doing lots of hand stitching on this work. All the textures are starting to come together for me.

Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

Adventure Challenge 2013, Hand Bags, Purple Trees, Truquoise Street Studio

Feb 28, 2013 Time is flying

February 28, 2013 admin

Hello,

I can not believe that this is the end of February already. It seems like we just celebrated New Years a day or two ago. I am busy as everyone else seems to be. This week has been one with lots of travel in it. I went off to the Turquoise Street studio on Friday last week and spent my time playing with decolorant. It was especially cool as the stuff I used not only took the color out of the fabric, but added a new color in its place. This first shot is Barbara applying the decolorant to a foam block. I enjoyed the exploration of the process and did it again with Ethel on Wed. One of the nice benefits is I am using lots of foam stamps that I had created but never touched before. There is also the fringe benefit of when someone else uses the stamps they sometimes put things together in a fashion that I had not considered. Its a great learning experience for me too. Beth and Pat were there too all working at pastels. We all seem to benefit from working in parallel. It was a fun day.

Progress Report Growing Up
I really enjoyed working on this project. There was lots of shifting of the horizontal lines as I went along and I think that I will try to change that in the furture by doing more basting. It was so much fun doing the pod shapes of the plants that I really did not notice the shifting until I looked at the work again at the end. So that too is something I need to work on- more looking!

Gearing Up

When ever someone gives me an interesting object or thing I usually hold it for a while and then most times it becomes a part of a work of my art. This quilt is an exception. Barbara used the gear stencil on felt on one of the first play days. She then painted the gesso red. She did use some of the stuff that she painted, but this red felt did not get used and she passed it on to me- that become the jumping off point for this quilt. These little adventures often lead me in directions that I might not have gone under my own direction. After Barbara’s gift I made some gear gesso fabric on canvas so I added it to this quilt as well.

Blue Fuse This project is nearly completed. This is another project that I would not have started except for the influence of a friend. Ethel and I painted fusible web in January and I started this project because of that event. My friends sure help me explore- and I am grateful. I decided to add different sized boarders on it to help with the balance of the piece. I added a solid back and the quilting that is only on that boarder area is all the work that will go all the way through the piece. I enjoyed the process even though I do not think this is what most folks do with painted fusible web.

Tropical Day Dreaming
This quilt has some gesso stencil work on it too. The white on the turquoise is gesso and the multi colored areas are as well. It has been so very cold and snowy that I have wanted to be in a warm place- so playing with these colors helps. I have started quilting this in a pebble type of pattern with nylon threads.

Purple Trees I am still struggling with this project. I do feel like I am getting better at the control of the work however. The learning curve on this one is real slow for me. I am glad I have the time to work through this problem.

Blue, Blue, Blue

This top went together rather quickly in two days. I wanted to feature the square that is pinned to the top and I have an idea of how to do just that. It is dyed paper with a wax resits on top. That makes it very stiff and I can not add to the surface with additional drawing and it will not stick to other papers. Sewing is the only answer. Now I need to find the time to work at it.

Stump Men felt project. I am still working away on this project. The faces are becoming more distinct with the continued felting I think. I may need a bit of feed from my peers as I am reaching the point where I can not really see what to do next.

Hand Bag Anne gave me two hand woven belts from Pure at the last DIVA meeting. I decided to use one as a handle for a bag and this project is the result. I seem to always need a new bag and this will do the trick for a while.

I hope that spring will soon be greeting us with flowers and showers.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Hand Bags

Moving Along

Winter Color

Falling Back

Travel Log

Clean Up

Feb 28, 2013 Time is flying

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer