Category Archives: Label Blocks

Grounded, Label Blocks, Truquoise Street Studio, William's Quilt

Moving Along

December 3, 2015 admin

Hello,

Our fall has been dry and crisp. I have enjoyed my walks and enjoyed natures bounty. It is raining today however and I will walk to the Dr with my eyes and umbrella open.

A week ago Saturday I went to a new group. Lots of old friends were there and we talked and shared ideas about going forward with a unified idea. There was show and tell of course. Anne talked about her work as did everyone else. I really like this work that she created for a challenge project. There was a lot of talent in that room.

I also spend a day at the Turquoise Street Studio last week. Barbara was working on a sign for a Black Friday event. Beth worked on two pastels. This one of cows and another of a barn landscape. Both were from pictures she took last summer on the same day.

I went off to the Schweinfurt on Sunday to hear my good friend, Cheri do a trunk show and talk. She was very entertaining and I enjoyed seeing all her work together again.

This is also the beginning of a new month so I had group meetings to attend.

At Diva’s Regina had four Christmas banners she had completed to share with us. They all used Christmas carols as the themes for the blocks. She said she will put one up and then replace it with another the next week. All the thread she uses makes my mind boggle.

Noel showed us a fun nine patch she had done years ago of her husband to demonstrate what she was working on. She has a cartoon of her grand daughter that she was cutting up in the same fashion to make for her a Christmas gift. It was cute but still all in pieces.

Tanya came to the studio yesterday and we made silk paper. I have more material for my rock quilts now.

Progress Report: Grounded I am to the fun part of this project now. I do enjoy the free motion work so very much. I am outlining the leaves- each in a different colored thread as my quilting on this one. I am about half way done with the process.

Christmas Cards I took time to make a batch of Christmas cards this week too. I am finally using the great printed papers that I got from the British Museum. Simple but enjoyable.

Williams Quilt I finally got the images transferred to fabric this week. I plan to really concentrate on this project now as I want it finished in two weeks if possible. The fabrics are all washed and ready for cutting. It was fun looking for the topic fabrics on the list. Nancy found the brownie print fabric for me.

Label Blocks Two more blocks numbers 28 ans 29. Soon I will be one forth done with this project. I do need and infusion of labels though as it seems I am getting near the bottom of my box. I will just have to ask for help with this.

Keep Creating

Carol

Curvie Cuts, Dead Horse Canyon Rock Face, Grounded, Label Blocks, Stretched Works

Leaves

November 19, 2015 admin

Hello,

Leaves seem to remain a strong interest to me. Most of our local trees are stripped now, but as this photo shows some still have their fruit. I am still searching out places were I can walk through the piles of crisp fallen leaves and enjoying the crunch. I found a wall in the park where the leaves are piled deeper then my knees and I felt like I was six again as I plowed through them. There is still lots of colors in those piles too- pinks, greens, tans, browns, yellows and purples. So wonderful! The fact that I am printing leaves on one of my tops is part of the reason for my strong interest I am sure.

The FAB group meant here this week and we had a good talk. Judy finished tieing the bunk bed quilts she brought with her that day. Nancy has added two of her boarders on the quilt she is making for her daughter. It is great when we all make progress.

Progress Report: Grounded-This work is a part of the curvy cut series. I am stamping the leaves I made last week. The colors are not as strong on the brown as I would like. But I feel it will work out in the end. I am stamping from the largest stamp to the smallest. Each stamp is a different color combination. There is also a number increase with each stamp I am using. I started with five of the biggest leaf and moved to seven for the next one. I am increasing by two every time I change leaves to get a deep pile feeling.

Dead Horse Canyon Rock Face This work is going to be stretch. I think I am ready for that step as I have done all the free motion drawing and tacking of the parts. I am finding the small format a challenge. There are three more canvases so I will keep putting in the effort.

New work This work is one of my first pieces using some fabric from pile of hand dyed works I have been creating sense the beginning of Oct. In this shot there are about six units. I was happily putting them together this morning and I did not pin then back on the board every time after I pressed the seams. That was a mistake as I put an early connection together backward and did not notice that error until I was “done”. Now I have lots of seam ripping to do before I can go forward with this piece.

Label Block #27 The daily hand work goes forward on this project.

Keep Creating

Carol

Breaking Up, Butterflies For Ethel, Curvie Cuts, Label Blocks, Taffy Pull, Uncategorized

Leaf Dance

November 13, 2015 admin 2 Comments

Hello,

As this photos shows the crows are populating the trees now. A few trees still have leaves and watching them fall is still something I do was I walk. The wind is the biggest factor in that process and over the course of a week I see all types of winds resulting in sorts of fall patterns. Some leaves zip and race away from there high homes to the ground. While others flutter, twirl and drift down. The wind can effect the leaves on the ground too. Some tumble across my path and others skitter, bounce and jump, while there fellows cart wheel or roll away to be caught in hedges or cluster at the base of trees . Some times they stack against walls or sail across pools. Until we get a rain the dance will fill my walks.

For three days this week I was a part of the Open Studio work at the Schweinfurt Art Center.

There were six of us in the wet studio. Cris and Liz were at the tables near me. Liz and I learned a lot as we had never mixed dyes for our own use before. The really fortunate thing was two very experienced dyers were also in the wet studio, so we had great brains to pick. Pat the woman who I had as class instructor was there doing her own thing. And Maureen was also there dyeing. She was making yardage.

My buddy, Barbara was also in the wet studio dye painting silk scarves. She only got three done – but considering she had never done this before I am proud of her. I am also in love with the rich colors she achieved. This is my wall of work for the first day. Barbara, Liz and I really got the bug and will all do more on our own.

Folks were working in the sewing studio up stairs in the Schweinfurth too. Donna came down and showed us her newest paper piecing project. Looks like new garland for her tree this year. They were all working just as hard up stairs as we were in the basement. It was great fun. There was also a trunk show by my good friend Ruth at the Schweinfurth this week end. I saw some of her work I had never seen before. It was great.

Liz and I spent Thursday making more dye colors to use. We worked in her garage and mixed up six more colors to play with. I have fabric setting in buckets of water in my shower washing out the dye now. Good thing I vowed I would make a piece using some hand dyed fabric I had altered every month, and even that many not be enough to use all of this great stuff up. Even Liz looked at all the wonderful dye Ethel gave me and said “ you will go a lift time and not need to purchase any more dye.” This is some of the new fabric that I altered.

Progress Report: Taffy Pull

Taffy Pull 44" X 29" — Taffy Pull
44″ X 29″

After the quilt meetings last week I did a little rework of this piece. I also changed it’s orientation. Maureen suggested I pull some of the colors out into other areas and I like what happened when I added the thread work to the surface. I also intensified the blue lines. It is a stronger piece for the additions.

Butterflies for Ethel I am so very happy about this piece. It is the third and last in this series of Butterfly pieces. I used only fabric from Ethel’s stash that her children so generously gave to me. The title is part of my tribute. The butterflies are form the ground cloth as before. I also added several machine drawn butterflies to represent Ethel’s being gone from my life but still strong in my memories. No one can see memories- but they are still a strong part of me.

Breaking Up 16" X 30" — Breaking Up
16″ X 30″

Breaking Up This quilt got started at QBL last summer. I was working on the thin line thing. I am feeling much more confident about controlling the width of those lines now.

Curvy Cut Project I did not really get any work done on this project. But I did make the eight leaf stamps to use on the surface. Hopefully I will get to that step this week.

New Work This is the start of my newest rock piece. I am going to try to work on and 18” X 24” scale for four pieces. So far I would say it is proving to be more of a challenge then I expected.

Label Block # 26 One more done.

Keep Creating

Carol

Earthly Fissures, Label Blocks, Taffy Pull

Reflection

October 21, 2015 admin

Hello,

I am still enjoying the sights of fall. These wall nuts still in their husks are reflective of the colors we are experiencing at the moment. Reflection is another way to check out the composition of ones work. I have a long mirror that I sometimes pick up and look into to see if the work is balanced. The image is in reverse and that helps me see if thing are off in one way or another. It makes the emphasis different and that helps.

I have been busy supporting my fellow artists this week. My great friend Barbara had an opening on Sunday at the Library. It was/is a wonderful show of the work representing her whole creative career. I really enjoyed it. Then when the FAB group meant, Sally showed off one of her pastels. It is based on a photo she took on Nancy and myself getting into a canoe.That brought back fond memories for all of us. I like the work as well.

Progress Report: Taffy Pull The top is all together now and I am

ready to start the quilting. I sure hope the pressing helps level it out. I am still struggling with the cutting of curves. It is a technique that takes lots of repeat action to master.

Earthly Fissures I am still building up the surface of this work. It is nearly completed. I really enjoy stitching down the yarns and adding lines of stitching to the surface.

Label Block # 23 One more completed. The box full of labels does not seem to be at all diminished however.

Keep Creating

Carol

Collage Based Work, Earthly Fissures, Label Blocks, Scrap Happy Quilts

Looking

October 15, 2015 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

I was struck this morning by how much I depend on the low light of morning to help me see my work. When the light is soft before I turn on the studio lights, I can really see the grays of light med and dark in my working pieces without the distractions of color. Now I am not saying I always pay attention to this- but I do know that when I take note- look at the balance , note the movement of the eye – the work is stronger.

Progress Report: Earthly Fissures This photo is of a rock formation in the Adorancks that I took a few weeks ago when I was up to visit Cris at the Pink House Gallery. I have selected a small section of the photo to be my jumping off point for this new work. I am building up the layers for the look I want now. This process always takes longer then I expect. But I love the final process so much it is well work the time.

Scrap Happy I have now finished this work. I just keep playing at this process. This one is very cheerful even though there is gray and black in the quilt.

15 I am doing the hand quilting on this little project in preparation of work on Ethel’s quilt.

New Work I started a new piece this week based on a collage I did over the week end. I did six collages and then picked out this one to be my challenge/ starting place. I am really exploring with this new process. That is both fun and scary at the same time.

The quilt top does seem to take on a mind of its own and the enlarging of a small” sketch/collage( 3”X 5”) and going to a different color combo changes things. I am enjoying the challenge however and feel I am growing with the process.

Label Block 22 The beat goes on for this project. Enjoy the fall colors.

Carol

Incisions, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing

Fall- Indian Summer

October 8, 2015 admin 2 Comments

Hello,

We are in Indian Summer now. Many trees are changing color over the course of a single day. My favorite time of year with its cold nights and worm days. I have truly enjoyed my walks. This week was a busy one. My first adventure was a trip down to see the opening of the Rock Garden show. I knew many artists in this one including Susan( pictured with her work), Carolyn and Cheri. It was a strong show with lots of variety.

Then on the week end I took a class at the Schweinfurth entitled “ Surface Designs” with Pat Pauly. I learned a lot about dyeing as I paid much more attention this time because I now have Ethel’s stash of dyes to play with. This is my wall at the end of the first day. I have lots of friends in this class and that made it epically wonderful. This shot is of Regina pulling a print.

Susan was in the class and so was Victoria. This shot is of her wall at noon on the second day.

Annette and Regina were the first ones to sort there work out of the first days wash out of the dyed fabric. We all enjoyed our selves and

laughed a lot.

This is a shot of some of my fabric after my the wash out when I got home. I now have a new stash of stuff to play with.

Then on Tuesday this week I had meetings of both the QuIG’s and the Diva groups. I get a great deal of stimulation from both of those groups and find the hour drive back from Ithaca after 9:00 flies as I think about and process my day.

Progress Report: Incisions This quilt is based on a collage that I did in David’s class at QBL last summer. It is 29 ” wide by 43″ long. I ended up turning my quilt upside down to make it work for me- and there were lots of alterations on the design as I went along. But I like the process enough that I will use it again.This is the collage I started from.

I quilted the cream areas in pebble patterns and in the browns I outlined the light areas. I feel like this quilt was a real growth experience for me. I got a lot of help form the QuIGS on how to make the quilt lie flat. They were very instructive at the Sept Meeting when I showed it. I was so far off that I was ready to toss the whole thing. Now I feel differently.

Project 15 I have just started doing the hand quilting on this project. I am going to mostly make that a reflective pattern of the pieces.

New Work I am ready to begin a new rock based piece. The photo is from a long ago trip to the California shore that I took with Eric. I have again just selected a small portion of the photo for this quilt. So I think I will do several based on the same image.

Label Block 22 The process goes on for this project. I realized this week I will need 120 blocks to have enough for a quilt so I will be at this for over two year span…. I almost wish I had not figured that out.

Keep Being Creative

Carol

Blossoms and Butterflies, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Incisions, Label Blocks

Fall Feeling

October 1, 2015 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

This is the time of year when we are reminded of Natures Bounty. This picture is of the grapes on Susan’s front walk. I love the light filtering through.

From my point of view it seems like I have not set down to take stock in a long time. I have been very active. The Friday after the last post I went and visited my friend Susan and we had a day that was mostly organization. That is a task that needs to be taken on more frequently than I do it. Susan with her eye always on the dates of her migrations to and from Florida, has a thing to teach me in that area.Even her desk – pictured here- is far more structured than mine.

Next on the list for me was a Creative Play Day at Varna. I spent the morning making silk paper in preparation for my workshop and after lunch I played with the 3-D pen the grand kids had given me. I have come to the conclusion that one could make nice light weight ear rings. I wish I could wear them. My next event was the teaching of the Silk Paper Workshop. Alice did some wonderful dye painting on here silk. Cris worked away capturing different objects in her silk. She put in paper, leaves and flower petals to some fine results. I experimented with using leaves as “molds” for thin layers of silk.( see photo above)

Then on Thursday Cris and I did some silk screen printing. I have two wonderful new pieces of fabric to use as a result. I drove home on that afternoon. Mother Nature was just starting her fall display and I had to stop more than once to take pictures.

The Friday after that adventure I went south to help again with the clean out of Ethel’s house. Elise has been so generous with her Mother’s quilting materials- that I feel surrounded by Ethel’s love. I have also been charged with the completion of her last quilt. I put all the pieces together this week and will now create a back form some of her fabrics. The hand quilting will begin some time soon.

The last event was this week and it was a FAB meeting. Judy had completed the top of a new wool quilt. She plans to tie it. Sally got some feed back from all of us about how she could finish up a project from a old QBL class and Nancy wanted help with a new top she is considering making. We had fun.

Progress Report: Blossoms and Butterflies This is the second in the butterfly series. I sure enjoyed doing all the free motion work that this one entailed. The flowers are all drawn in with pebble quilting for their centers. I think with this quilt I made the Butterflies too strong. I will try for a better light dark balance on the next one.

Incisions I am almost done with the free motion work on this quilt. I did the pebble quilting in the white areas and let the designs on the printed fabric tell me how to quilt the darker areas.

Silk Paper Still Life At the creative play day I made some silk flowers. They are pinned now and I am ready to begin hand work on them. I do have about four other hand work projects going now so they will not get any attention for a while.

15 Challenge I now have the 15” block assembled. I plan to hand quilt this project too.

Label Block 21 I did some thinking and realized I will need at least 80 blocks of this size to create a bed quilt. I guess I will be at this process awhile.

Keep Creating

Carol

PS: One last shot from the trip. I enjoy how the stream bottom and the sky is reflected in this clear brook.

Blossoms and Butterflies, Incisions, Label Blocks, Scrap Happy Quilts

Dealing

September 17, 2015 admin 1 Comment

Ethel Whittamore's work — Ethel Whittamore’s work

Hello,

We all have losses in our lives. Some are small like losing a thimble and other are bigger like a death. I suffered a big one with the death of my quilting buddy Ethel. I am so very fortunate that her daughter, Elise, has included me in her end of life events and in doing so, the loss, although deep, is becoming one of bitter sweetness. I have been tasked with the completion of Ethel’s last top to become a quilt for the Quilting by the Lake raffle for the Scholarship fund. What a gracious honor. I plan to finish the assemblage and then hand quilt it in the style Ehtel her self would have done. Elise has included me in the dismantling of Ethel’s studio and in the distribution of her many quilting treasures too. We spent a lovely day last Friday sorting and boxing up her fabrics. My studio is bursting with the boxes and I feel very comforted by there presents. I will not keep most of the material, but pass a lot onto her many other quilting friends with the hope that it makes them feel her spirit around them as I do. I did most of my dyeing with Ethel’s guidance and now I have all of her materials to continue the process. I am thankful. Ethel was also the person who got me interested in silk paper making. That is something that I continue to explore and I even teach the process. This week I did two sheets in preparation for a work shop on that topic that I will be teaching next week. There will be no post because I will be at the Pink House Art Gallery in Saranac Lake presenting at that time.

There was a FAB meeting here this week too. With lots of thought and with great care I am posting a quilt by one of the group members Okay. Nancy is quit proud of this quilt and I think she should be. She has a design sense that I so admire. I have been a big part of this quilt too as the thin dark blue line near the outside boarder is one she and I over dyed earlier this summer. She now has to decide how she wants to quilt this colorful work.

Progress Report: Blossoms and Butterflies This work is moving along nicely now. It is the second in the butterfly series. The background is completed now and I will now build the butterflies to add on top.

Incisions This work now has a title and I feel good about it. I have started the free motion quilting on this piece and think it will be finished soon. The red is the felt/batting so this part of the image will not be part of the final work.

Scrap Happy I finished the second twin Scrap Happy quilt on Tuesday and it went with the first to its new home. I can’t seem to leave well enough alone – so I made the rows from the left overs from this project and several others. The shoe box that I keep leftover squares in, is still overflowing so there will be at least two more quilts of this style in the near future.

Creative Assistants All these guys got arms, hair and backs this week. Now they only need there final paint embellishments and they will be done. I am ready to switch back to making more faces on the next batch. That is what I do during TV football games.

Fifteen Challenge The Diva group is fifteen years old and we are having a big show next summer. The group challenge is to create a 15” square quit that has fifteen in the work in some way. I have designed a square that has a roman numeral –XV in it. I made the block and because there is lots of bias in the shapes it got greatly distorted when I assembled it on the machine. So I am re doing it and making the blocks by hand. This is one fourth of the final piece.

Label Blocks This is # 20 in the label block line up. I can see this process still has weeks to go as there are still lots of labels in my box. I am glad to take contributions from any source for this project too.

Keep Creating

Carol

Label Blocks, Rifts, Scrap Happy Quilts

Line Types

September 10, 2015 admin

Hello,
I have been thinking a lot about lines. That is my emphasis for this year. I think lines in art at least can be put into five categorize. There are strait lines, curved lines, broken or dotted lines and a combination type line that puts two or more of these types together. The last category is the outline or the edge line. This type does not really exist in nature, but artist us it all the time. The edge line is some times created when two colors meet. Another time you get the edge/out line is when an object meets space. This air to earth line also helps us see and define up and down. We tend to think of the sun as being up and light from that source is on top of objects while the line is dark on the underside that is away from the sun, there for it is down. I am still pondering this effect of edge/outline and I am sure not that it is in my consciousness I will see it more often.
Progress Report: Rifts

This is the newest member of the Foundations series. I am enjoying doing all this rock work. This piece is the third based on a photo that I took in Maine a few years ago. I really enjoyed all the deep cracks in the surface of the rock and tried to show the depth of that with these last two close up treatments of the image. I am enjoying using the silk papers as well as threads and various fabrics.

New work This work is based on a collage from my class with David Hornung. He suggested that we use collage as a way to work out design problems before doing all the fabric work. because I liked the print on the light brown fabric I used it in this work. It is a very loose weave and so it did not sew quite the way regular cotton does. It took a lot of adjustment and re-seaming to get it to lie flat. I still need to work on the bottom edge.

New Butterfly work At the Diva meeting a few weeks ago Noel challenged me to make a second butterfly that showed off the butterfly’s more. This is my new background for that idea.

Creative Assistants Football season has begun and so has my work on the Creative Assistants. I have about 19 faces done now. I do enjoy this process.

Scrap Happy Twin 1 I am building a set of quilts for some bunk beds for a friend. This is the first of the two. I am only to the step were I add boarders so there is still a ways to go.

Label Block #19 I decided to number the label blocks so I can tell how many I have done.

Keep Creating

Carol

Foundations Series, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing, Mill Site Melody, Rifts, Sunny Seas

Mistake

September 4, 2015 admin

Hello-
I take a great deal of joy in celebrating the work of friends. That has been my intent with the images I have shown in the past here on the blog. But even good intentions can create disasterous effects and such was true here. My posting went viral. I do not know how this happened and Goggle could not give a clear answer either. The unknown and unintended consequence of my actions caused the denial of a powerful potential opportunity for the friend. The out come for me was a badly brushed friendship and a feeling of shame. She as forgiven me, but I have not forgiven myself fully for this action. I ma truly sorry. I will no longer be posting images of anyone else’s work on my sight. Please learn form my mistake.

Progress Report:

This little quilt came together very quickly when I got started. I used a lot of silk paperon this one to represent the sea weed and the flow patterns of the water.

Mill Site Melody

I have been enjoying the free motion work on this piece this week. The dis charged fabric was done by Randy and the print was created by Jean. I used very heavy thread around the fern print to help it show up.

The idea for the free motion wheat heads came form Randy’s fabric.

Rift’s I am still not sure what direction I want this quilt to hang so if it looks different- that many be the reason. I keep adding layers of stitching yarn and fabric to this one and it will ” tell me “when there is enough.

Diva 15 Block The Diva’s will be celebrating there 15th year together with a show next summer. For that event we are designing a block that is 15″ X 15″ and has some aspect of fifteen in the work. This is my first run at that challenge.

Label Blocks: I have finally got the label blocks back on track. These two represent blocks 20 an 21.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Label Blocks

Moving Along

Leaves

Leaf Dance

Reflection

Looking

Fall- Indian Summer

Fall Feeling

Dealing

Line Types

Mistake

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer