Category Archives: Label Blocks

Label Blocks, Remote Recesses, Scrap Happy Quilts

Good Old Summer Time

August 13, 2015 admin

Hello,

I am enjoying a bit of a slow down that one associates with summer. I have done a lot of walking and enjoying all the colors of summer. This shot is from Susan’s garden. I have been doing a bit of sorting too. When I put things away from QBL it is always a good time to look at the collections of stuff I have and prepare some of it to pass along to others who can and will use it. Most will go to the school that I once taught in as I know Margaret will use it with the kids.

Progress Report: Remote Recesses

I started this work in Independent Studio at QBL. It is a selected section from the same photo graph that I used for Relinquished Regions. I am enjoy the movement and action in this piece. This work has lots of different textures and materials in it. There is silk fabric, silk paper, wool, velour, and organza, and some imitation leather that Susan gave me when I went to visit her in FL. The cream and white fabric with the orange speckles on it is from the studio sale that I went to two weeks before QBL. I just find fabric every were that works for me.

Free Flight I had started this work before I went away to quilt camp. It did not get quilted until this week. The Butterflies are cut from ground cloth and painted. I then stitched them down with silver thread and did reflective quilting around the out side with little loops added every now and then to represent butterfly erratic flight patterns.

Scrap Happy This quilt is will be a wedding gift for one of my friends sons. I sure enjoy building these and I think this is # 140 of this style.

New Work This quilt is also one I started in independent studio. Some of the fabric is from Randy and the brown pieces with the leaf prints on them are from a long ago week end outing at Mill Sight Lake. I have started the quilting by doing some stitch in the ditch so it is well anchored. Now I need to decide what type of free motion decorative stitching I will add to fill in the rest of the spaces.

New Rock I started a new rock based piece on Wenesday. My friend Tanya gave me some fabric and it just had to be used in this manner.

This work is only the pin up stage and it will change with time. It too is a detailed section of my Arcadia shore shot. A very small section that this shot shows. It is the basis of the quilt for what I have pinned down.

Label Block I am back in the hand work pattern again. Enjoy the slow days of summer.

Carol

Label Blocks, Name Game, Relinquished Region, Spray Painted Works, Three Grand Sons, Working in a Mans World

Summer Days

July 9, 2015 admin

Hello,

Its summer here and I am enjoying the weather. I spent a day on the lake with my art friends and enjoyed myself toughly. As the pictures shows we played with bubbles and it was great fun. I especially like how the bubbles still floating in the air are lightly reflated in the water.

The first Tuesday of the month was this week so I had meetings. First I went to the QuEGs meeting. Linda is making great progress and quilting on her quilt. She will be teaching this construction method at her quilt guild next month. Barb was on a completion of work push last month and she showed us four works. I like this one with all its texture.

Liz did a shop hop and got into the Row by Row game along with the shop license plate thing. She will be busy at the machine for a while now.

Then I went off to theDiva meeting. Sharon got things started with her wonderful hand printed screen. There is a layer of organza on top with light green leaves printed on it too.

Lori was also on a finish up mission this month. She completed three of her little works. This one features a hand made button o the left. I love how she builds up so many layers of stitching in her work.

Susan is looking and then working on old work with a new eye. The dolls were started long ago and the wood cuts were as well. It is always a challenge to return to unfinished business after time. Her life style of living six months in Florida and six months in New York means she does this all the time. Quite a challenge in its self.

Anne is doing a powerful job with this work on grasslands and concrete. I love how the roads add to the broken feeling of the trees.

Alice is working of getting ready for

the Art Trail. I like this happy little fox work the best this time.

We had three visitors from the PEEPs group at this meeting. They kindly showed us their work too. Perscilla is working on this great quilt using some of the Mola’s she has collected over the years. I really like how she put space between each panel and the red and green patchwork boarder is a strong addition too.

Jean dyed all the fabric

used in this piece. I admire how she used the blue and orange together.

Marcia explained her personal challenge for this quilt. I like how she created great depth with all her own hand dyed fabric.

Progress Report: Relinquished Region After the Diva meeting I felt I had to change the title of this work. Formerly it was called By the Shore. This new title helps give more of a feel for the location. I really enjoyed working on this project. Some areas must have eight or nine layers of fabric work

with lots of stitches on the surface. I so wanted the long vertical to be dark- but not black. Building that area was a great challenge to me. There are a wide variety of fabrics and yarns in this work: Silk paper, silk organza, velvet, wool, valor, yarn, netting, upholstery fabric, rust dyed cotton and burlap. If it was the write color –I used it. Some areas took up to six hours to complete.

Working in a Man’s World Not until I took this to the QuEGs meeting did I see how a turn of 90 degrees could save this work. I was just about ready to call it a lost cause when some one suggested I rotate it.

The difference was amazing. This only reinforces how important having a support group is to me.

The hand work also adds to the work.

Name Game IV- Three Grandsons This quilt also got finished this week. Each of the boys is done in a different color. It makes for a nice overall movement. I like too, how some of the lines meet across the seam lines.

Label Block This block is number 15 in the series. My pile is building ever so slowly.

Keep enjoying summer and Creating too.

Hugs

Carol

By the Shore, Curvie Cuts, Foundations Series, Label Blocks, Name Game, Three Grand Sons

Visits

July 1, 2015 admin

Hello,

This quilt-” Unbroken Circle” is by my friend Sally Dutko. I purchased it from her before I went to Indiana and I am enjoying it a great deal. I think I can learn from looking at the details of this work. I made the trip to Sally Dutko’s studio sale before I went off to Indiana. She has a wonderful space with lots of display areas. She is an artist I have long admired and I was fortunate to purchase one of her works for my self. I will be very sorry when she makes her final move from this area. She has given me great advice about my work in the past.

I had a wonderful time on my trip to Indiana. Barbie is a wonderful hostess and we did a lot during my stay. We went to a visitors center in Nashville IN and looked at this wonderful Chihuly among other things.

This work, “Family Life” by Susan Else, was a part of a wonderful show at the Carnegie Center for Arts and History in New Albany IN. The works were all excellent and we enjoyed ourselves. Got me to thinking about some new approaches too. Making our viewers choice created lots of discussion among the four of us.

We spent two days in Barbie’s studio doing silk painting. This strong scarf is her work. Her work is wonderfully complex and she sells them at the Holiday event in town. My work on the other hand is quite simple. Barbie has developed this wonderful stretch technique with pipes, rubber bands, rings and clips. It is so very flexible that she can adapt it most sizes of silk that she wants to use just by moving the parts around. The process of adding the guta was was easy and clean. I have not done this type of thing in a long time and it dose require skill.

This top one came home with me as we got some work steam set on Sunday . The second one is still in Indiana with Barbie. She will mail it to me when it is steamed too.

Progress Report: Hand Work I felt I needed to take some hand work with me to Indiana so I started this piece. The base is a silk screen I did a while ago. I did a lot of couching on the surface and then added some of the slices from the jelly roll felting that I did last fall at Cheri’s Blue Moon studio. I am enjoying the process.

Name Game- Three Grand Sons

I worked on this one before I left and again when I got home. I have cut the three names into 4.5” squares and I am in the process of moving and playing with placement now. When I am happy with that I will stitch them all together.

Curvy Cuts – New Project I got such positive feed on my work on “Encounters” that I had to go looking through my stash of fabric and make a second starter for a similar project. I do enjoy cutting the curves more every time I do it. I have the other hand work project too so this one will not be seen again for a while.

Van Goth When I went to Maine in April I purchased a panel print of Van Goth’s Iris’s. I though it would be a good place for me to practice free motion work. I tend to get excited and my stitches are not uniform in size. So I have been doing little bits of this picture to help me build some uniformity .

Near the Shore I am working away on this piece. There are lots of bits of different colored fabrics and yarns building up on top of one another with this one. I am building rich color layers like a painter.

Spray Paint When we went to visit Elizabeth she showed us her spray painted works. They were amazing. Marty and I tried it when we got home. Control was much more difficult then we both expected- but we had fun. I have tried to build a work using some of that material. At this point I do not feel it is at all successful. Even adding hand work did not seem to pull the piece together or give it the focus I think it needs. Perhaps so input from my Diva and QuEG’s friends will help save this. I am willing to just say it was a learning experience too.

Label Blocks I have two blocks this time as two weeks have passed by.

Keep Creating

Carol

By the Shore, Encounters, Foundations Series, Label Blocks, Scrap Happy Quilts, Three Grand Sons

More on Lines

June 18, 2015 admin

Hello-

I just had to post these flowers today. I love both the color and the contrast in textures. I have not been very good about

concentrating on lines as I intended to be this year. But I took a renewed look this week. I was caught by the lines on the street and thought the are indeed one type of line- strait. They are a lines of direction and ones of illusion. They create a feeling of depth on a flat surface and lead the eye back in space. Most art is an illusion and a bit of magic. I say magic because if one looks at the materials ( paint, pastels, fabrics and yarns) that an artists starts with-it is nothing but magic when one looks at the end result.

Encounters 26" X 25" — Encounters
26″ X 25″

Progress Report: Encounters This is my newest completed hand embellished work. I put a postage stamp on the lower left to help with scale. It is a standard size- but I am not happy with it. So I will keep looking for an item to add along the side to help give the viewer a clue as to the size of the piece.

This work has more of the fabric form the discharge screen printing class in it. The dark fabric is a Judy Roberts piece form her monthly mailing. It came in January and I just knew I had to use it with the white material. I think they play well together. I have enjoyed doing the various stitches on the surface of this piece. I only did machine work as stitch in the ditch on some of the seams to hold it together.

By the Shore

I am ready to start to build up the dark sections of this work. I want it to feel deep – not just black so I am going slowly. I like all the textures too

Name Game- Three Grand Sons This is the next one in the series. Stage one here with Nick and Ben. Both positive and negative shapes are shown here.

Gavin shows the second cut of the fabric. It is already getting difficult to read the name. I will slice all three of the names into 4.5″ blocks and shuffle them next and put them all together for the top of this quilt.

New Work This top is all put together now. It seems quite weak to me so I will have to do some wild machine work on top to pull it into a work of some interest.

Scrap Happy Sense I sold one more of my Scrap Happies to Beth and there is a wedding for Barb’s son coming up I started more work on these types of quilts. The one with the red and black centers is all set in rows. This shot is only three rows.

This second with three shades of blue as it’s centers is not as far along When the rows are all assembled . I will make scarp backs for the two of them. They are always fun.

New Hand Work Because I always want to have some hand work to do I laid out and pinned up this new start for my next hand challenge. The white base has a bit of screen printing in pink on it. I added some organza, yarn, silk paper and some of the felt slices I made as a part of a play day with Cheri had last fall. I will be using mostly the same colors of yarn and floss as I did for “ Encounters”.

Spray Painted I plunged in and started the quilting on this one this week. I am outlining the reds and purples and then inventing the areas on the solid units on this top. I am enjoying the process, but I am not sure about what I am doing.

Label Block I just keep working away on these little fellows.

I will be away next week so there will be no post again until July 2.

Keep Creating

Carol

By the Shore, Encounters, Foundations Series, Label Blocks

Natural Beauty

June 11, 2015 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

This moth was in my yard this week. I have never seen a live one before and it is beautiful . Marty and I came across it when we were out side painting on Friday. We were so taken by Elizabeth’s spray technique when we were in Maine that we had to try it our selves. It was a lot of fun and we both have a new respect for what Elizabeth is doing. It takes a lot of skill to control the application and just folding the fabric is not all that is involved. We altered lots of different types of surfaces with the paint. From cotton, satin to corduroy and organza. This play sent me off in a bit of a new direction.

Progress Report: Painted Work I got all excited by the painted cloth and so I started and assembled a new top. It is big simple blocks because I want to feature the painted surfaces. Adding in sharp quilted lines will really extend and enhance the painted areas I hope. I am really taken by the sometime crisp edges and sometime soft ones.

By the Shore Now I am to the fun stage with this work as I am building up the surface with colors and textures. It is so much fun to add all the different types of fabric, paper and yarn to the surface.

Encounters I am still doing hand work on this project. The base is a mix of fabric that I did deconstructed silk screen printing work on and some of Judy Roberts wonderful hand dyed material. It seems to become lost for periods of time and when I come across it again I see it with new eyes. I think I am nearing the end as I add different types of stitches to the surface. They have helped me solidify the vision for the work.

New work I am still building this piece. At the moment I am not real delighted with it and feel it is only a background for something more. It needs a focus I think.

Label Block These nightly practices are moving along. I am finding it very hard to keep the labels square sense I can not stretch the fabric. I will not do a hand project like this again.

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

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

Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, Name Game, Patti, Running Red, Whip Shock Hill #2

Spring Effects

April 9, 2015 admin

Hello,

I will admit that the weather and the sight of spring flowers does effect me. I have been on real “start new” push of late. I have also been a little upset with one of my pieces- but more on that later. This week was the Diva meeting and I was very excited as I have not been to one sense Oct. The winter has been a bad one and it really kept me home. But before the meeting Cheri, Noel and I went to see Alice’s show of her accordion fabric books in down town Ithaca. They looked wonderful on the walls. There were several I had never seen and so I am glad we made the effort to go and check the show out. There was lots and lots of new work at the Diva meeting too .Alice is getting ready for the Spring Art Trail and so she had this pillow among other things to share. This one along with several others that will be for sale on the trail.

One of the things that Lorrie does, is deep layered hand work and this is the one she is currently working on. She builds so many stitches on top of organza and other fabrics to create great depth. A different sort of collage fabric effect.

Cheri is doing wonderful canvas work were she starts with freezer paper masks and builds paint layers on top and then stitches by hand and machine on top. The layering is amazing to me. Like me, she always has many things going at the same time and this spider ( in progress) is and example of her 3-D work. I had given her the fabric that she used for the legs and body and I think that is why she brought it along. Liese did this soft “Island Garden “ as her entry for a garden completion. The plants that she stitched are ones that could grow under the sea/ tide/ wet conditions of the area. Quilting can expand your horizons in unusual ways.

Anne had this specular work to share too. I really enjoy how she cuts up her photo graphics to use as strong jumping off points for her work. I find this piece wonderful!

Noel showed us several works and among them were these two quilts for the Rainbow Challenge for the Tow Path Quilt Guild. These two along with 22 others will be on display next week end at the guild show in the Manilas Library. Ruth has finished her quilt about Kemo Treatment and it is wonderful. I am sorry that my photo of the full work is not sharp enough to post- but this close up shows how powerful her stitching is. She has such strong skills.

Then Wednesday, I went and spent the day playing at Batik with my friend Ethel. We had a grand time and I now have six new pieces that will be starting off places for more work. She has a wonderful piece on the pin wall and I took a shot of it too. She uses her hand dyes so very well. I have been watching this one develop over the course of this year. She keeps moving the pieces about as she develops the idea.

Progress Report: Whip Shock Hill II This work has given me a mix of emotions this week. I had worked so carefully on mimicking the photo and I liked that portion of the work. I am done with the stitch work and all the textures are down. But- it does not work for me at all! So I roll it up on Friday and decided to take it to the Diva meeting and ask for help. I am so very glad I did! One can easily get trapped in there own head and not “see” how to get out ad solve a problem. When I put this work on the wall next to Whip Shock Hill I the group could see it was not working too. But they helped with an easy suggestion. Flip the new piece and add it to the other side. I love the results and I can now add the sleeve and complete the set.

New Start All the frustration I was feeling about Whip Shock Hill and the effects of spring pushed me to pull materials for a new work. I think all of these fabrics play well together and will make a nice piece. It will be my next project.

New Start Running Red I pulled these fabrics at the same time. I created the red and white fabric in the Deconstructed Screen Class last fall and I really wanted to use it so I started with that stack. There is some silk kimono and taffeta in this work too. I think the frustration I was feeling also effected me a bit so I wanted to do something that I felt sure about. It is coming along nicely now.

Name Game III- Patti This is how this work looks before I started to cut it up. A little planning will help the next time I do this technique. And that planning is in the size of the work. I was so concerned with getting the letters to fit that I was not careful with the size of the base. In the last two pieces I stared with 22” squares and made 5.5” squares when I cut up the two layers. This time I made the base 24 “ and had to make 4.5” squares and I lost some of the image from each row because it did not cut down to even units. One needs to make the mistakes to grow. I then pinned the blocks to the pin wall And stated arranging them. That step took a while and I took many photos of the many layouts as I went along. This is the one I settled on. Now I will join them and quilt them together.

Ribbon Work This work is growing slowly. This is a case were not having a per plan may get me in lots of trouble as I go forward. I have been just adding one hour’s worth of work on at a time. But at this point I have no feeling for were I need to go next. So I am just looking at the work.

Label Block 3
The hand work goes on with my evening TV work.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Label Blocks

Good Old Summer Time

Summer Days

Visits

More on Lines

Natural Beauty

Work Space

Buds Opening

Victories

Mistake- Lesson Learned

Spring Effects

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer