Category Archives: Label Blocks

Crow Calls, Label Blocks, Pods, Samurai Romance, Truquoise Street Studio

New Growth

April 21, 2017 admin

Hello-

Spring is fast upon us here in central New York. From the blooming of the trees to the lots of green sprouts across the ground it is here. Not having to always load up with hats and gloves is a very freeing feeling. I went off to visit with Regina this week. She did this wonderful piece with a snow dyed background and then she hand painted the grapes and leaves on top. It will be wonderful when she is done. She also showed off her machine work. The more I learn about this process the more I respect the gals who do it. There is or can be lots of computer programing in the process as well as all thread and color selection that goes on. It looks to take a lot of skill to me. We also did silk paper and had a long and good day.

Then I help Judy and Nancy work on the basing of Nancy’s Blue Bird quilt. There are lots of hours of machine drawing left on this project and I am certain that the end result will be a beauty.

I spent Thursday afternoon in the Turquoise Street Studio with Beth and Barbara. They are both working on there entries for the St David’s Show next in two weeks.I did hand work all afternoon and enjoyed the conversation.

Progress Report: Samurai Romance This work is 18.5 “ X 37.5 “.

I did four different techniques for adding textures to the surface for this work. I really like using foil and will try to keep that in mind as I go forward with new works.Foil can be added to paper, wool and interfacing. I have only applied it to fabric in the past. With each project I seem to be doing more and more free motion work too. It is also a powerful tool to use the machine as a drawing tool.

Pods I was doing some sorting and found some unique and beautiful buttons in my stash. They come in packs of five- but I am still going to use them as part of the embellishment of these pods. I cut quite a few more this week but there is still the fabric that I created in all four colors left so there will be lots of these to pass to folks at Christmas time as well as plenty to keep for myself.

Guatemalan Top This top is all done now. I will be sure to wear it at QBL this summer so show off how to use some of the great needle work.

I think Pricilla will be glad to see how I used the embroidery I purchased from her too.

Crow Calls I am working away on this project. I am adding the crow in flight to it now as the trees are mostly full of birds. I am almost out of the suede too so when that is all gone I will stop.

Iced Leaves I am making slow progress on this work. I have cut and embossed some of the copper leaves I want to use. I have also started to stitch down some of the fabric leaves too. I will admit now that it is spring I do not seem to have the drive to work on this I had earlier in the year.

Tan Rock This background is all done now. I have done some research and some drawings trying to decide what plant life I want to add on top. I am still in this part of the design stage.

Red Rock The same can be said for this red rock face.

Label Block # 117 The stitching keeps going forward on this project. I did a lot of hand work on the pods so not as much extra time was put into this project this week. I still meant my goal of completing one more block.

Keep Creating
Carol

Cherry Blossom Time, Crow Calls, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Label Blocks, Pods, Samurai Romance, Starfish, Still Life

Moving Forward

April 13, 2017 admin

Hello,

I am enjoying the unfolding of spring here. There are lots of buds and birds. I went to the Towpath Quilt Guild quilt show on Friday.

My friend Noel’s quilt looked great as did many others. I enjoyed the show and saw many friends too. It was inspired to go home and work in the studio.

FAB had a meeting on Monday and Nancy show us this label that she programed for her Mom’s Blue Bird quilt. It looks good to me.

Progress Report: Cherry Blossom Time This work is 39” X 35”. I created it from the branch that was left over from the Blooming Branch project. It was too dark for that work so this one was born. The branch was created from the sleeve of a wool jacket that I then built up with two different yarns.

There area 61 blossoms on this quilt. I made the centers from silk paper that I cut in circles and then stitched down with long French Knots.

Flag-Starfish This is my newest flag from the Susan Challenge. The text on this piece is machine writing in the section on the bottom.

Pods These are the newest completed pods. I am enjoying the embellishing step as I get to use lots of beads sequins and pearls with this project. I cut six more felt embellished units this morning so there will be more in the future.

Crow Calls This project is a reworking of a completed quilt. I built up the trees and stitched them to the quilt. Now I am adding the crows. They are cut from suede that is then free motion stitched down. I added twenty five birds yesterday.

Samurai Romance I have been following the suggested techniques in Stitch, Fiber, Metal and Mixed Media. I have not purchased any new materials to do this project, but adapted what I have on hand to do the projects. This week I applied foil to thick interfacing and then did free motion machine drawing on top to create the flowers. The centers are glass beads.

Still Life This work is an experiment. I have been making silk paper for a while and for this project I made the silk in the flower shapes instead of the sheet form. Now I am stitching them down.

Ice I have started adding the leaves to this project. This week I made leaves out of copper. They are embossed with a blunt pencil. This first one is trapped under a bit of “ice” and I like the effect. The other one isset to be in the water section of the work. It may need netting too but I do not know at this time. I also want to also add some fabric leaves too.

New Works This is a started build up for a new work. There is a minimum of free motion machine work on this piece at this time. It is based on a photo of a rock face. This is a second pin up for another new work. It is based on another section of the same rock face- with a different color base

Top I fell in love with this piece form Guatemala. he hand work is beautiful. But it is far too short for me and I wanted the sides closed. So I have started altering it to work as a top for me.

Label Block #115 #116

I got inspired and did two blocks this week. I also cut 15 more black squares to complete the top.

Keep Creating,

Carol

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

Blossoming Branch, Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Xavier Wood Ice

March

March 9, 2017 admin 1 Comment

Hello-

The week has been a busy one as it was the first Tuesday of the month and I had QuEG’s and Diva meetings. This hand painted and printed fabric was created by Linda last fall before she fell and injured her shoulder. I like the three layers she built up. Angela is doing wonderful hand work of some Hawaiian flowers. She is exploring with paint too. It seems like we all keep playing with new ideas.

At the Diva meeting Regina shared her Butterfly piece and a second forest floor work.

Lori finished up this wonderful hand stitched piece this month too. She really likes to build lots and lots of layers of stitching. I love her final effect. It’s so rich.

Donna shared some of her Shobori work form Maureen’s class.

Ruth share this wonderful Guatemalan weaving.

I always get a bit lift form the meetings and go home inspired.

Progress Report: Xavier Wood Ice This work is 34” X 40”. It is based on one of my photographs from earlier this winter. I have been working on the quilting for the last few weeks as it is all done free motion and that takes a lot of energy so I can not work too long before I must stop. I used plastics, ribbon, yarns netting and hand dyed cheese cloth as parts of the texture for this piece. The snow has so many textures to do because some of it is melted and refrozen while other areas are melted and other areas are thin with think areas too . I have lots more photos and I am already thinking about how I want to show the leaves captured in the ice on the next one.

Blooming Branch This work has been the area where I have done the most concentration this week. I made two limbs for this piece. This is the second limb and I made it because I was worried that the first was too light. When I pinned up this second limb and I then took a shot of it in the gray scale I could see that the dark value was too close to the background and it got lost. Here is tha shot. So I returned to the light branch and pinned it up and took a gray scale photo of it. It looked like this So that’s the one I sewed down and I am using in this work.

I have started to add the stamens to some of the blossoms.

Second Branch The second branch is pinned to a lighter background and I am hoping that adding blossoms to it will push it back a bit and create more of the balance I am looking for. This Value thing is not easy for me.

Samurai Romance The gold panel on the left is mostly done. I am working on step two where I stenciled copper paint on felt that I had created. I am learning lots of new techniques with this project and that is what I wanted to do.

Summer Meadow I finished the bobbin cord application and did the painting on this work this week. I am now ready to build up more grass and flowers on top with machine drawing.

Re working I am building a forest on top of this piece. It was Ok- but did not excite me much. A great background as Ethel would have said. So here goes…….

Label Block # 110 I keep working away on this project.

I will be away for the next two weeks so there will not be any posts until Mach 30.

Enjoy the beginnings of spring.

Carol

!7" Blocks- Ethel's scraps, Curvie Cuts, Label Blocks, Natural Elements, Scrap Happy Quilts, Summer Meadow, Teasil II, Xavier Wood Ice

Could be Spring

February 23, 2017 admin

Hello,

It has been so warm the last few days that the plants are a bit confused. These Snow Drops are proof of that. I am enjoying it though.

There is a class at QBL taught by Elizabeth Bush were one is encouraged to rework pieces that are one is not happy with. I have been looking at First Fall and feel it is not as successful as it could be. So I took the plunge and re did the leaf by adding orange to it. I feel that this rework helps the final piece. The center of interest is stronger and draws the eye to one of Maureen’s “ Golden Points”.

Progress Report:Teasel Trouble This work is 24” X 28” inside the frame. The frame was a gift from my friend Patti. These are the original teasel heads that were too small that got lost on the first background.

When I made this one I made the background simpler and in a rusty color to show off the heads. ( the color in this photo is awful! the color in the full shot is a lot closer to reality)

The smaller heads in the background are made from silk paper.

Sharron’s Challenge This top is all assembled. I find it to be a little quiet and not to interesting so I decided to add a cherry blossom limb on top of it. I drew a limb on wash away in magic marker and then built a limb on top. The white paper shapes and the pink/orange shape represent the flowers. I plan to add more.

Then I did a second look and decided that the limb was too light in value so I started a second one yesterday. It works with the background much better. It is made from the sleeve of a tweed wool jacket that Tanya had given. It does not take over the background either. I am about half done with the build up of the limb and then I will add pink blossoms.

Wiggle Cut Being a frugal person, I decided I would still use the first limb on a different background so I built this one for that purpose. I will slice this vertically and shuffle the parts and then add the fist limb on top.

Summer Meadow I am reading Layer, Paint, Stitch by Wendy Dolan. This is my attempt at the first exercise she suggests. It is built up with layers of white and off white textured materials. I need to add some more lace flower forms on this before I go onto the next step.

Samurai Romance I am also still working through Stitch, Fiber, Metal and Mixed Media by Alysn Midgelow-Morden too. This is the first step of the second assignment in that book. ( the pods were the first) I still need to attach more cording to the surface of this section so I can go onto the next one. I am enjoying thinking about how I can apply these different little ideas to my own work.

Bird Land

This is 12” X 12” and it is my entry for the SAQA auction for 2017. I only need to add a sleeve and label to the back and it will be ready to ship. I enjoy the organization and I am glad to add to the fund raiser.

Xavier Wood Ice I continue to do the free motion work on this piece. The build up is slow as it is so large and I only work for an hour at a time on this process. I find that if I try to do more it becomes very sloppy and I feel like I lose control.

Scarp Happy All the rows of this quilt are done now. I started cutting pieces for the back yesterday so now the end is in sight.

Label Block # 108 With the completion of this block I only have twelve more to finish this step. I will do a recount this week to make sure that my numbers are correct. I am getting excited. The bad news is I still have lots of labels left over…….

Keep Creating

Carol

!7" Blocks- Ethel's scraps, Label Blocks, Pods, Teasil I, Teasil II, Three- D works, Xavier Wood Ice

Wintery walks

February 16, 2017 admin

Hello-

I am so very fortunate to live where I can walk three blocks and be in a wild area. This was the trial( made by deer) I took earlier this week after we had a 10 inch snow fall of lake effect snow. It really loaded down the branches and out lined them as well. I so enjoy looking at the way the snow shows off the liner structures of different types of trees. It is fascinating to me. It has also set me on a new approach for some new work I want to try. That idea is not developed enough to share it yet but if and when it does I will inform you.

With all that snow I did two batches of snow dyeing. And the new snow today will be the beginning of a third. Only one is completed and pressed. These are a great combination of yellow, green and brown.

Progress Report: Teasel I This work is 24” X 18”. It is stretched and has a wire in the back for hanging. The pods are made from a bit of Kimono silk with hat netting placed on top to give the feel of the many sections in the pods. The spear’s are hand embroidered on top and along the sides. The handwork step is done last.

Teasel II This work is now ready for the spear’s to be added to the work. Again they will be done by hand.

Xavier Wood Ice This work is just getting the start of the machine tack down. I keep turning it different directions to decide what way is up. Things will change a lot as I add in more and more texture.

Pods I have finished all of step three for the first pods. Now I need to add a few beads to the bottoms and decide if I want to make more of them or move onto the next project in the book. I have lots of created fabric leftover. It could go into other things too. I need to consider.

Sharron’s Challenge All the parts of the silk have been connected for this challenge. I am thinking that I will build up a further surface on top of this work. It is too mono chromatic at this point.

Scrap Happy All thirty 17.5” blocks are built for this project at this point. The photo shows two blocks. All the fabric is from Ethel’s scrap box. I need to build more sashing and assemble it now. It will be colorful.

Label Block # 107

The two big labels made this block go together quickly this week.

Enjoy the season and

Keep Creating

Carol

PS One last snow covered tree.

Circle Challenge, Diva Meetings, Green Leaf scarf, Label Blocks, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Snow Dyeing, Teasil I, Teasil II, Three Jacks, Xavier Wood Ice

Winter

February 9, 2017 admin

Hello,

We are deep in the cold of winter here and that makes me stay in the studio and get a lot done. But I do have the meetings that come at the first of each month. QuEG’s meant. Liz is busy doing hand work on her project that she dyed last fall at the play/work retreat at the Schweinfurth. That is her work at the top.

Sue Ellen is busy too and she made this colorful quilt for the Linus Project. I always get a lot more out of the group meetings.

This time I showed them all the Circle Challenge pieces all together. That lead to a whole lot of playing with how they could or should be presented. I continued the whole idea when I got home.

There are just so many ways to go with them.

The Diva’s had a good time playing with them too. There was a lot going on at that meeting as well.

Alice has finished her Bed Quilt and she made prints of the finished work to give to all the folks in the family who owned the bed so they have the history. I think that is a good idea.

Liesa is building a wonderful book on stamps. She printed the stamps on fabric for this work and laments that she still has all the original stamps left.

Donna just returned from a 10 day retreat where she did a lot of Gelli printing and pastel work. Maureen is doing lots of work with indigo so she can do more teaching of the techniques. She shares her knowledge so very kindly.

Regina went off to the conference called “ Rocky Road to California” and took a class with the Tentmakers of Cairo. She keeps exploring new techniques.

Ruth is busy with her wonderful clam shells too. It was a good meeting and I came home with new ideas of things to do with my own work.

Progress report: Three Jacks This work is 28” X 40”. Because I had to take it apart to fix the nail at the bottom I took photos of the work without the glass. No problems with reflections that way. I also did a major cleaning of the glass- something that I had not thought of before either. The work is dramatic and I like it a lot.

The velvet jacks really convey the rich contrast of the two parts of the flower.

Snow Dying

It snowed this week and so I did a bit more snow dyeing. It is snowing today too so I will do an orange batch next.

Tease I I did the hand stitching on this work this week. It is almost ready to stretch.

Teasel II I pulled this fabric for the background of the green teasel heads I made the week before on Monday. Then I worked hard on getting that section done. I got all excited and even moved on to pinning the heads in place. They are not stitched down. No problem with contrast this time.

Leaf Scarf I did a lot of free motion work on this piece and determined yesterday that it was complete. It is based on a work I saw on Pintrest by Amanda McCarvour. I only work from what I remember not from any reading or recheck. So when I did look a second time yesterday, I was surprised by how different they were. I like the vanes of leaves mixed with the wool roving . The places where I tried to work in air collapsed so I think when I try it again I will put a layer of nylon net in the middle of the sandwich so there is a some stability to the whole thing. That and more stitching lines will do the trick I think. It will also help avoid the arching that happened with some of the gold leaves.

Xavier Wood Ice I have been taking a lot of photos on my walks of ice and now I am ready to begin a new ice work. This is the fabric lay out at about the middle of the process.

Pods I have assembled two of the pods from the felted pieces that I made. They are nor quite finished as I think I want to add some additional beads on the bottoms of them. But I am making progress. It is like the circle challenge in the way that I can think of more variations for each side as I go along. I will play until I tire of the process.

Scrap Happy I have been assembling the strips and cut pieces from Ethel’s scrap box for a few weeks. I cut them into five inch squares yesterday and made a block. It is 17” on a side. That is a little bigger then I usually use so I may need to make adjustments as I move forward.

Label Block # 106 I was in Jo Ann’s this week and I was tempted to purchase some additional embroidery thread- but I resisted. Then when I got home I did a little search and found a new bag full, so I am very happy I did not give into temptation. Only fourteen more blocks to build.

Keep Creating

Carol

Circle Challenge VI, Circle Challenge VII, Creative Assistants, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Fling, Label Blocks, Scrap Happy Quilts, Three Jacks

Working time

February 2, 2017 admin

Hello,

I feel good about the confines of winter as I seem to get a lot done. I am still feeling the energy of my show too. I will take it down tomorrow however. I have four works in the Cabin Fever Quilt show at Bette Branch Library here in town though. These four little works pictured here are my 6” X 6” pieces for the Rochester Art center. I mailed them off on Tuesday. They are all part of the felted work I was doing last week. I still have big chunks of the felting to use in the project when I get the final additional parts.

FAB meant this week and everyone had work to show and talk about. This is Patti’s new weaving project. The can at the bottom is full of her woof threads. Judy put aside her red sweater for the summer and has not pulled it out again. She is getting to the arm wholes near the top now.

Nancy got busy and finished off six new placemats for her home. They are spring like I think.

We had another snow storm last night so I am doing more snow dyeing. This is a shot of the top of the bucket shortly after I put the dye on top of the snow that is setting on top of the prepared fabric. Now to await the melting/dyeing.

Progress Report: Fling This work is 50” X 34”. It is based on a collage and has Ethel’s Marbleized fabric( the orange) and my hand dyed yellow and the light green and blue stuff. The quilting is done in two styles. For the orange and the white fabrics I followed the edges of the color changes. For the purples I did a pebble style.

Circle Challenge VI This work is 14” X 19” . It has a lot of movement in it. The quilting is reflective of the circles and done in quilting thread. I liked adding the beading at the end and I will do that again in number VII.

Circle Challenge VII I finished the quilting last eve. It is trimmed and ready for beads and facings so I will finish it quickly this week .

Three Jacks I put this work under glass this week- and that makes for awful reflections. Then before I sealed the back with brown paper I checked it and noticed that I had some how gotten a nail on the outside between the matt and the glass. So I will need to take it all apart and do it again before it is complete.

Scrap Happy I continue to work through Ethel’s scrap box. I need to complete a scrap happy quilt for the Prevention Network so I have been putting in an hour a day putting the scarps together. They are cheerful I think.

Scarf I have always enjoyed looking at a project and trying to figure out how it was done. So this week when I saw a wonderful image on Pinterest I thought- I will try to do something similar. First I pulled out a lot of green roving. After adding some leaves I cut from gold ribbon, I placed them on some wash away and drizzle some yarn on top of the whole thing. After placing a second bit of wash away on top to create a sandwich I started stitching everything together. This will take me a while to complete, but I am looking forward to this little challenge.

New Work I am all done with the assembly of the background for this project. But when I added the Tezel on top I did not quite work as I though it would. Then I looked at it in gray scale on my camera and realized the Tezel heads are too small and too close in value to the background. The opposite of what I did with the Jack in a Pulpit project. So I took the heads off and created new ones that are bigger and have a bit of orange in their color to create a contrast with the background. They work a lot better. Now I will need to create a new background for the first heads. I am going to test myself by creating it in the same size as the first and see if I can make it work with just a value changes.

Sharron’s Challenge Sharron and I purchased the same kimono( the stuff in the center) last year and have a challenge to created something with it. I pulled some fabrics that I think work well with this fabric and will start a project soon.

Creative Assistants I finished off a new batch of these little fellows this week. I need to really get going on them as I do not have much of a tribe yet this year. I want to be able to give them away at QBL this summer and not leave anyone out so I need to get going.

Label Block # 105 I think that I only need to do fifteen more and I will be done with this step of this project.

Keep Creating

Carol

Circle Challenge IV, Circle Challenge V, Circle Challenge VI, Collage Based Work, Felt Work, Label Blocks, Three Jacks

English

January 26, 2017 admin

Hello,

I was looking at how the light shown off this tree against the gray sky and liked the sheen there. That lead me to think of all the different words we have in the English Language to talk about light. Objects can have gloss, glint, sparkle, luster, shimmer, flicker and glow. Light as a concept expands our language to make it more colorful too. We can see the light. Things can dawn on one or we can have a flash of inspiration. There are bright folks as well as dim wits. One can have a brilliant idea. There are many more examples of words related to light that are a part of our language that we use to describe a lustrous world and I am enjoying that.

I went to an opening at Onondaga Community College yesterday were Jill Doscher talked about her fiber work. She talked of her process and how she grew from a printer to a fiber artist who dyes her own fabric and prints on it too. It was great.

I also checked out the Scholastic Art show that is also on display there. The teachers are doing a fine job with their students.

Progress Report: Small Spill This work is 12” X 12”. It is my usual construction but I did not use any wool roving on this work. I did use parts of a silk scarf I hand dye painted about fifteen years ago when Barbara anduse to get together and play with art ideas one a week . There are also some yarns that were free motion stitched down to add texture.

Blue Too This stretched work is also 12” X 12”. I played with taffeta, metallic fabric and organza on this one. I also stitched down purple candy wrappers because the color was what I wanted. The candy was from the bed and breakfast were I stayed with Marty and Rosalie last summer. It’s a fun way to add a personal memory to this work.

Three Jacks This work is ready for the frame now. Judy gave a big frame and glass that I will try to add this work to. I enjoyed doing all the machine embellishing on the Jacks this week. Lots of wide satin stitching.

Color Challenge VI This work is 15.5” x19”. I am enjoying the exploration this challenge is giving me.

This is the last piece in this series were I will have three of the light colored circles on its surface. But change is suppose to be a part of the process.

Color Challenge V I only need to tack the last two facing ( brown at the top and bottom ) and add the sleeve to this work to complete it.

Color Challenge VI I am doing the quilting on this one before I add the bead work. I am not sure how this will effect that aspect. This is suppose to be a challenge and a place to explore……

Felt Studies I did three more studies in felting this week. The pink uses organza ribbons as well as the wool roving. The orange used silk and organza scarves and roving, plus a bit of candy foil. The green got it sheen from Angelina and a bit of taffeta. These ideas are all from the book Stitch, Fabric, Metal and Mixed Media.

New Collage work I needed to do a bit of piecing this week so I went back to the collage based working idea and found an old collage( from Sept) to build a work around. The orange marbleized sections are Ethel’s work. The yellow and pale blue are mine altered fabrics.

New Work I started another stacked fabric work this week. I enjoy the process so much I can not seem to stop doing it. Building the surface it time consuming and so transformative.

Ice Dying I did yellow ice dyeing this week . I like the softer colors here. There is also a bucket full of the next batch that I need to wash out today. I used yellow and turquoise- and learned that the turquoise takes over. I will try again after the next snowfall to see if I can mix these two colors and keep some yellow in the final fabric.

Label Block # 104 I keep stitching away.

Happy CHinese New Year Sat.

Keep Creating

Carol

My friend Judy gave this to me last week. It smells heavenly.

Cre-8

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Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer