Category Archives: Lion King- Cherrywood Challenge

Deep Jellies, Lion King- Cherrywood Challenge, Sashicko

Summer Begins

June 2, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

My iris are blooming. These are the last ones from Dad’s garden on the farm that have survived the upstate winters. I feel like summer has truly begun as we celebrated Memorial Day this week. The weather has cooperated with that attitude too as it has really gotten warmer. The week has been a full one starting with last Thursday as I went off to the Schweinfurth Art Center after I wrote last weeks blog and helped hang the new fiber show from the Surface Design Association. It was wonderful to see how folks designed there work up close and really check out the backs too. It is a great show with lots of variety from weaving to sewing on x-ray plates. Then I ran home and off to a pop up dinner, were we learned how the chief prepared food for presentation. We each followed the instructions on how to present our plates. This is mine with pea sauce and egg dots. I forgot to take a photo of the final before I ate it. It was very good.

The other event of this week really starts tomorrow with the opening of the Quilt Diva 15 show in Ithaca.

Progress Report: Lion King- Coming Home This work is 20” X 20”. The quilting is all done on the machine. I used a wiggle ray type of pattern for the sky and a serpentine pattern to show the heat on the ground.

The giraffes were out lined and then a spot pattern was added to bodies.

The masks all got out lining and free motion work to show off the shapes of the areas. I was glad I had this little stamp of a bounding lion to add to the edge of the work.

Generational Whispers It took a bit of work to find images of all of the women in the family that I want to use in this quilt. Now I need to do the drawing so I can begin the machine work on this project.

Deep Jellies I am beginning to put down the parts of this work. I made the stunners for the jelly fish out of a metallic fabric and lace I had painted the aqua color on the photo.

New work Sachiko The white on blue hand work of iris’s is done now. So I pulled fabrics that I thought would go with it. I had a pack of ten stamped Japanese words that I though might go with it. There is not a real clear vision for were I am going with this one yet.

New work I used one of the collages from last week to build this work. It is about half way assembled now. Finding a title is proving to be a challenge however.

Label Blocks # 60 and #61 Now I really am half way through with the creating of the blocks for this project.

Enjoy summer and Keep Creating

Carol

Columbus Junction, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Label Blocks, Lion King- Cherrywood Challenge, Memory Map Quilts, Purple Pleasures, The Heron

Active time

May 27, 2016 admin

Hello-

Do you see the four leaf clover on the right in this cluster I was out in the yard the other day and it just jumped out at me. Had to capture the image to share. I hope that everyone enjoys the out doors on this Memorial Day Week End.
This week has been a full and active time. It began last Thursday afternoon when I went off to Turquoise Street Studio to play with Barbara. She worked on her pastel of beach folks and I did hand work on my own. It was a pleasant time.

Saturday was a meeting of the mixed group folks. This quilt is by Bev Kondolf. We talked of many things, but most important from my point of view was about how museums like the detentions of works to be presented in high first and then width. So I will be using that system in the future.

This work is by Anne Garrison. It is always such a stimulating time and I always go home so worked up with ideas and thoughts.

This work is by Noel Keith and is one of her entries for the Diva 15 show That opens on June 3 and runs until July 29 i n Ithaca NY. The round circle at the bottom is rust stained silk.

Regina brought this piece to the meeting to show Pat what she had done with some of the fabric that she altered in her class in the fall. As a teacher I sure appreciate seeing finished results and Pat did too.

On Monday Noel, Victoria and I went down to have a play day in Regina’s studio. This shot is if Noel and Regina looking at one of Regina’s new yard sale finds. It is so kind of her to open her space to us to play. I like the way she has starts hung on the wall like I do. I find this one epically exciting.

Regina’s computerized machine gets a real work out . This is a great example of that.

We were dye painting. This shot is of Victoria carefully painting symbols on the fabric with Dye Magnet. Hope to see this when it is done. Noel really played. She started with this blank . The end piece looked like this. So much color!

Then on Tues I had the FAB group here. Judy is working on finishing up old started projects. This soft summer quilt is a real beauty with its mix of black and deep blue centers.

Nancy is working on a quilt for her Mother that has daises and blue birds on it. She is a real wiz when it comes to medallion quilts. She had lots of boarders and always makes a great challenge for her self with these projects.

Yesterday I went off and spent my time with Joyce who is a collage artist. I did three little works- two are suitable for starts for quilts I think. The top two.

Progress Report: Memory Map: Columbus Junction This work is 21” l X 14” w. I am calling it done although I do not think it is a good piece. There are too many things that are the same size I feel.The images tell the story but it is weak. I may show this to some other folks and see if they have suggestions. I will do much more drawing and pre planning for the next piece in this series.

The Heron This work is 16” l x 16” w. I got the heron printed on organza from Ethel a few years ago. It hung on the pin wall and made me feel good, but I could not place it. Then this week it all came together in one afternoon. Using Ethel’s fabric’s and her style , plus my love of texture. I am quite happy with the results.

Lion King:Coming Home No one but me will see the differences here. But I did take off the lion and redo him this week. Thats done and it is pin basted and ready for quilting… A whole different challenge.

Purple Pleasures The triangles just keep filling up the surface of this work. It is very slow however.

New Work This is what I worked on at Turquoise Street. All the raw edges are tacked down with hand stitches and I have done the paint step on this work. Now I need to begin the machine drawings of my grandmothers on organza.

Label Blocks #59.I finished # 59 on Friday last week. Two more blocks and I will be half done.

Keep Creating

Carol

Along the Shore, Blue Stone, Columbus Junction, Deep Jellies, Hand work, Label Blocks, Lion King- Cherrywood Challenge, Purple Pleasures

Blooming

May 19, 2016 admin

Hello,

My world is really alive with blossoms now. Blue bells, buttercups, violets, lilacs, as well as many I do not know the names of carpet the ground. Flowering crab apples and tulip trees color the air. The dandy lions are are in seed and they join the Oak, Maple and Beech as they dump there pollen on the wind- my world is awash with wonderful sensations. I am enjoying spring.

I did a little ice cube dyeing this week. I wanted to play with some oranges and that is a color I do not seem to have a lot of in my stash.

Progress Report: Blue Stone This work is on stretcher bars and is 24” X 36”. It is based on a photo of a rock face that I took a few years ago in Washington State. I enjoyed working up the color changes with yarn and threads on top of the scrunched fabric pieces. There is nylon netting, taffeta and silk paper in this work as well as a bit of flannel. I sure like mixing my textures.

Along the Shore This work is 20” X 15”. It started with the photo image that Ethel had transferred on to fabric. Not knowing anything about the setting I got to invent it to suit myself. I painted the edges of the photo on the fabric so it would have a softer edge and stitched across the edge as well to make it blend into the top.

The quote is from Vincent Van Goth. I find it to be very true for my life. Creating the pine tree branches was an enjoyable process for me as I have always been attracted to them.

Memory Map- Columbus Junction I am working on the details of this piece now.Adding the plants in the garden is just one part of this process. I am considering adding a bit of text to this work.

Purple Pleasures I am to the quilting stage on this work now. Deciding to quilt triangles was a good idea, but it is very slow work with lots of stops, turns and starts. I am trying to use the triangles in the piecing as my guides, but sometimes I am just filling in with that same shape pattern.

Lion King-Coming Home I have added the masks to the bottom of this work. Then I put the stamped lions on under that boarder. I think I am now ready to begin quilting on this work.

New Work I want to do a entry for the Layered Voices Challenge for SAQA. This is my base, using Valerie Goodwin’s base construction method. I am now ready to tack down the open edges by hand. I am also gathering images of my mom and my grandmothers to use as a part of this work.

Deep Jellies I saw a beautiful image of Jellyfish on the web and I was captivated by it . I started a piece based on the wonderful use of color and texture from this image.

Label Block #58 Working away on these little blocks sure reinforces the idea that the whole is bigger then the sum of its parts.

Keep Creating

Carol

Along the Shore, Blue Stone, Columbus Junction, Ice on Vincent, Label Blocks, Lion King- Cherrywood Challenge, Memory Map Quilts

New Growth

May 12, 2016 admin

Hello-

I am delighted by the amazingly fast changes I see in nature every day. A leaf may be two inches across on Tuesday and by Wed morning it is doubled. They all look so transparent too. It is wonderful!

This week has been a quiet one, with only a few events and most not related to quilting. I spent a rainy Friday afternoon planting trees with the Cornell extension and neighborhood association . One even got planted across the street and I can view it outside my studio window.

Progress Report: Ice on Vincent After a lot of steaming and pressing this quilt is finally flat and finished. I really enjoyed working away on this piece. This time in addition to adding a sleeve to the back I have added a pocket with a copy of the images that it is inspired from on it. After Sharon came and took pictures of my work and the inspirations for a talk she was giving I thought it might not be a bad idea to keep all that stuff together.

I used lots of different colored threads build up the texture of the areas in this work. There is also a lot of thread painting to make areas work too.I liked working with the organza’s for the ice although it does fray a lot.

Blue Stone This work is now ready for stretching. It is the biggest one I have done that to. It will be a 24” X 36” surface with a inch and a half deep warp around the edge when it is done.

Wine and Cheese This piece is finally done as far as stitch in the ditch is concerned. Now I am going to do some free motion drawing in the form of wine bottles and glasses as well as cheese in the larger areas to make it complete. The white is paper patters that I will use to do this task.

Lion King- Coming Home It has taken me longer to do the hand work on this project then I expected. I discovered that the head needed a stuffing all it’s own so I had to remove it and a take out the embroidery and do it a second time to get the effect I wanted.

Memory Map; Columbus Junction I added lots of details on this piece this week. This shot is of the little dressing table that I had and a little cabinet that my grandfather Howard built for me. This section is of the memory I have of Grandfather Howard reading Alice in Wonderland to me every day after lunch before I walked back to school. He was helping Mon work on the house at that time.

Label Blocks # 56 and # 57 Due to some miss counting no my part I discovered that I had five more blocks then I thought. Good news in my book. I also got busy- spring energy- and finished two this week.

Keep Creating

Carol

Along the Shore, Blue Stone, Collage Based Work, Diva Meetings, Ice on Vincent, Label Blocks, Lion King- Cherrywood Challenge, Machine Drawing, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Wine and Cheese

May Days

May 5, 2016 admin

Hello,

This wonderful little blue flower filled in the neighbors front lawn and made me smile on my walk yesterday. They are so small only about a fourth on an inch across and so plentiful. I wore a smile for a long way down the street were it was refreshed several times as I came across several more mini fields of the little blue bundles.

I have had a full week with three days of Quilting Retreat at the Schweinfurth and the meetings of both QuIG’s and Divas. The retreat was great stimulation. It was good to see old friends and to see all that folks were doing. Norma was making hostess gifts. One of the five she did is in the background of this shot. Susan was quilting away at pieces that needed that to be completed. Great colors here.

Sally was piecing and assembling a one block wonder that was based on a fish print fabric. Watching her do the arranging of the blocks was wonderful because every time I looked up the work looked different.

Nancy G. did hand work on one of the row by row projects and this little quilt of NYC.

Linda L used the retreat to add boarders and based a big quilt of 110”x 110” that her sister had asked her to finish. She had to crawl around on the top of the tables to do all the basing in the center. The work is wonderfully complex and will look great on the bed when it is complete.

Victoria worked with the fabric she had created in Pat Paulie’s class in the fall. This shot is of one of the early layouts. She made lots of changes before the retreat was over. I love the bright colors.

Seated behind me was a gal named Janet W. She made her fist quilt at the retreat. I sure enjoyed working with her too. I think she is hooked.

Lots of wonderful things were going on at the QuIG’s meeting too. Both Linda and Angela were showing off pictures that are going to be inspirations for new work. Liz is still working away on the Splendid Simple Blocks project. Getting a new pattern every three of four days, is that is only a 8” block is very doable she says. She also is working away on big projects too. I just love this whole silk cloth work that she intends to start quilting soon.

Most of the Diva meeting went to talk about the up coming show that will open on June 3. Ruth did a great job with the post card.

Noel is doing service project quilts for the Tow Path guild. They are beautifully colored.

It is really great when folks bring works in progress. That is what Anne did. This is a Water quilt she shared with us . She asked for suggestions on how to quilt it. Now how she quilts chooses to do this will be interesting to see.

Lori also brought a project that is in an early stage. She has felted, fused and already added paint to the surface. All this before she begins to stitch on top. I am looking forward to watching it grow over time because I already love all the texture.

Progress Report: Ice on Vincent This quilt is in the stretching/flattening stage. I got help from Nancy Bales at the retreat on how to get it flat and now it is drying after a lot of steam ironing. Hopefully I will get a back on it this week.

Blue Stone I am still building up the surface with stitching on this work. I like this process,but it is very slow and tiring. Only about three more hours of work until I am done…… I think.

Along the Shore This is another of Ethel’s UFO’s I am completing. This is also my hand work project for the time being.

Wine and Cheese

I stared this project to relieve the pressure that all the free motion work on Ice and Blue Stone were creating in me this week. I did use a lot of the fabric that I had altered in this project. Most of the commercial orange is Ethel’s material.

Memory Map- Columbus Junction I did not do a lot of work on this project this week. I did add the spring flowers however. I like the Jack in the Pulpit the most. The Dutchman’s Britches are well shaped, but I wish they were a bit whiter. Perhaps I will add some paint to the surface.

Lion King –Cherrywood Challenge At the retreat I started this project. I had purchased the kit at the Chicago Quilt Festival when I was visiting with Sharron. First I did a little research and some drawing.

Then I stated building up the background. One of the limits on this challenge is to use only the Cherrywood fabrics. The pack was two shades of gold and dark brown fabric. Most of the piece is to be from these fabrics. The background is one of the gold’s. But it is not the full 20” that is required on a side, so I added the gray at the bottom.That is were I will put the masks when they are done. At the end of day one I did the loin’s body. I was tired and it was made backward. Fixing that was the first job of day two. I then made the main and stopped working on the project because I want to do the face with embroidery work. The whole thing is not due until July so I can take my time.

New Work Before I left home I had pulled out all my purples to do a new project using this collage as my starting point. It is early in the building of this work but I feel I am staying with the feel of it at this point.