Hello,   

The weather is still somewhat mild here.  I find because I am working on the quilt with the oak leaves on it I am looking more at other oak trees too.  This one is in the Oak Wood Cemetery were I walk some days.  I Have noticed how different trees have differnt colorations.  This old one is  a deep red.  The one along the drive is primary yellow- but that is only at the bottom, now as the top has turned brown.  I have also observed that there are many different shapes to the leaves. I know that has to do with species differences.  Some leaves are very sharply pointed like the one in my yard and some are all curves ends.  I picked up one in the parking lot in Ithaca yesterday and not only were the ends of the leaves very curved the leaf had a really deep dip, almost to the spine, after the first vain from the base of the leaf.   Mother Nature loves variation on a theme.  I may have to get a tree book and do some serious study. 

This week was the first full week of November and so I had my group meetings on Tue.   Both were very exciting.  The QUEGs group had severl members who had be to the big quilt show in Houston and they had lots of wonderful pictures and gadets to share.    The Diva’s were inspirational too.   Everyone seems to be so energized with lots to share.  Ruth is working on a project using African simbiles as the bases for the block.  This one sure is bold.  She had also created a wonderful study using her style of expertly mixing  batikand hand dyed fabrics.      Cindy shared her amazing prints.  She did them with the big Gelly Plate.  She is now going back into the work and adding machine stitching in top.  They are the faint red lines crossing the yellow in this photo.   The work is very elegant.   Donna was kind enough to bring her Alchemist  Mask. I love masks and this one is a great one.  She built it over the old store mannequin she has in her studio.  The face is nobel.   I like the life size doll eyes she put in the face too.  They add so much in the way of focus.     Alice is working on a Human Angles series and this is one of them.  I am showing this image because she has a unique style of working were she paints the image she wants on the back of her cloth.  Then she turn it over and  lays a piece of black fabric  on top. With the two layers  together she flips the work to the back and  sews around the image she has painted.  So this picture is from the back.  She then trims the black off the front  along her seam lines and her images are outlined in black- her signature style.   It is very cool I think.      

 This work with four figures is by Cheri.  I especially like the unfinished edge she used here.    They are a wonderful and inspiring group of gals who seem to be all working away in their own direction.

Progress Report:  Blue Yonder  This quilt is ready for quilting now.   I have done my “stitch in the ditch” step after basting.  Doing that makes the work stable for all the crazy directions I always seem to want to go.   I have not decided  what that  free motion quilting will be yet.

 Oak Leaves   This is a close up of the project.  I am having lots of fun making more and more leaves.  I just love how the unattached body of the leaves casts such wonderful shadows on the quilt.  They also flutter a bit when there is a breeze, like when I come in the studio door.    There is a lot of texture here and I love that.

Daily’s   The Daily’s are coming along.   I now have a full cigar box of the little fellows and they are starting to look really impressive when on puts them all out.  I still have ideas of layouts for the parts and shape and color changes I want to try- so I will keep the practice up.  I also added a silly rule- no new purchases for this project.   I am almost out of red embroidery thread so I will have to switch to crochet thread- I have several huge balls of that.  I am sure that will change the character of the stitches.   But that is part of the experiment.

Keep Creating

Carol