Category Archives: Machine Drawing

Baby Quilts, Daily's, Diva Meetings, New Iris, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Seeing July 3, 2014

1 Comment

SKetch - CopyHello,

As we head for the 4 of July celebrations I have been thinking about seeing.   I read “We don’t see what we see.  We see what we want to see.” by ALan Fletcher.    My first response to this was surprize.  But as I though about it I agreed.  I then though- Oh this is not so true of artists- we pay more attention to what we see.  Then to test myselfshoes I tried to visualize my walking shoes that I wear almost daily and recall how many holes were there for laces.    Five I though with confince…. but when I checked there are six, although I only have my laces in five of the holes.     So I drew them as my drawing  exercise  this morning.    This will help me really “see”  them I though.    And that is true, I really did see them,  but in the  looking at the shoes I shut out all the things around the shoes.   I would be quickly overwhelmed by the visuals if I did not do that editing and selecting of things in my world.   LIz's-work In the end I have to agree with Mr Fletcher- we all are confinded by our choices of “what we want to see”.

This week was the first Tuesday of the month of July so I went to meetings.   QuEGS meant and we all had lots to share.  Liz is making progress on her memory quilt for her friend.  All the blocks are made now and she will begin the final assembly soon.    Linda's work

Linda C. showed us her crazy quilt and amazed us by flipping up the work to show the  paper and that showed the planning pages she had under the  sewn squares.  Several of us admitted  we would not have planned out as much as she did, but would have let the process tell us what to do next.   We all have different procedures BJULY3LInda's-drawing we follow as we work.  This work will be a stunner when it is complete.     The good thing  about seeing the processes of others does  help us all of us to think more carefully about our own work and consider if we can improve by following the  the examples around us. ANGELA 's Batic

Angela is still being influnced by her tip to Hawaii.  She showed us several beautiful  silk painted flower pictures  this week.   BJULY3Cheri's-work

Then I was off to my DIVA meeting.  Cheri shared her  “Miss Liberty” wall piece and her new lady lizard( in the for ground)   She mixes fabric and yarn in her sculptures and I think that is  a great idea.

BJULY3ALIC - CopyAlice had her fabric books to show us.  They are so delightful.  I enjoy how she mixes commercial  fabric images- the water lily- with her own hand painted materials- the turtle. Ruth's

Ruth assembeled all the units she had created in the class she took last month.   They do make a pleasing little collection I think.  And what a great visual review of  techniques to have on the studio wall so one does not forget about them.

Yarn Progress Report:  New Iris   I am happy to say this work is now complete.    I took it to both meetings on Tue and asked for ideas on the beards for the iris.  I had thought that purple was the color to use, but the others felt yellow or white would be better.

New Iris 28" X 22.5"
New Iris
28″ X 22.5″

I tried both colors before I settled on the yellow.     The  yellow sure does pop forward on the purple flowers and draw the eye.  That is what contrasting colors are suppose to do, but I do not think of it most of the time while I am working.

NewIriscl1I like the depth this quilt has – all the applique on top of what I once thought was  a completed work, helps that idea.    I will try to keep this more in mind in the furture too. New Iris Close up 2

 

 

 

 

 

West-Window East Window     This work is done now .  I made this quilt to put over the  window in the east bedroom in the winter.  I used a special batting that has a foil liner in the center to reflect heat into the room and cold out.   There is not a lot of quilting on this work.  I only stitched in the seam lines( in the ditch) to connect the top and back.   I would have done a lot more machine drawing on the closeup1surface if it was not for  window use.

 

 Baby Quilt    This one got completed this Lauren's-bably-quiltweek as well.  I was surprised when I finished putting the last hem stitches in last even and realized I had finished off three this week.    The bad news is I have no new beginnings.

I try to be practical with baby quilts and make them so they can be easily washed.  I also add a sleeve so  they can hang on the wall if  the parents choose.  This  is Baby quilt close up -the second child for this family so there are two bears, one for each child.  The bigger one is helping the smaller bear and that  is my way of saying that they should care for one another and the older one is a part of the process.

I like the simple -baby quilt close-up3outline applique technique that is easy to use with this style of quilting.  It goes  quickly when the layout of the parts is done.  One only needs to think about the layers of  the pieces so there are as few starts and stops as possible.  Here I did the mane first, then the ear, then the body, and last I added the reins and the eye details. Dadily news 3

Daily News       I can now see that it will take a lot of time to finish this piece.  It takes a seven min. toDaily News2 machine add the velcro  spot, and stitch around the two units , leaving an opening.   When I set down to do the hand  work  I trim the corners  and turn the block right side out, before stitching it closed.    I Daily News2get between four and five of them done in an hour.      I know I am working as fast as I feel comfortable withDaily-News1– but the process of finishing up seems a long way off at this point.

Please leave me a comet in the area provided at the bottom.   I would love to hear your thoughts.

Keep Creating

Carol

Baby Quilts, Daily's, Dusty Roads, New Iris

Choices June 26, 2014

Flowers Hello,

It is  another  gray and rainy day here.  There are lots of reasons to feel down.  I am having trouble with the tension on my sewing machine.   It is very humid  and my hair is droopy. The sky is gray and all this rain even makes the Martha Washington  Greniums  hang low.  In my effort to empty some of  the excess rainwater from them , I accidenty spilled it all over my feet and my sandels are all wet.  Inspite of  all this stuff I still  feel happy.  I am making progress on my projects even with  the thread problem, because all the rain keeps me in the studio a bit more.  The birds are singing and I even saw one taking a bath in one of the mud puddles on my walk in the rain.  I noted too Dusty-Trailsthe circular patterns of falling rain in one of the puddles and thought it might make a good starting place for a quilting pattern.      So why I feel so good?   I believe it goes back to what my Dad always use to say to me as a kid” It ‘s not what happens to you that matters so much as what you THINK about what happens to you that matters.”    I am choosing to be happy about the possibilites of today.

Progress Report:   Dusty Trails    I am to the quilting stage of this project now.  I was tempted to just quilt in the ditch, but staying in the seam lines with the quilting  seemed like a cop out.  So  I am using is wandering stitch pattern that  reflects the seams instead.  My title has more to do with color than the stitch pattern. New Iris

 New Iris  I am all done with the hand applique of the new leaves and flowers.   I was considering adding some of the fuzzy trim to the flowers as the beards of the iris.   The color has more red in it than the existing flowers but I really like the texture.   I guess it is again a  decision I can only make after I try it  and see how it looks.   That  really is the best approach any way.

baby-quilt New project-Baby Quilt   My niece had a new baby last week  and so I am busy creating a baby quilt for the new child.  He as an older sister so I am putting two teddy  bears on this one.   The three butterflies allow me to add quilting for stability in the sky.  One might also be able to teach a little counting to a little one with this work.

 New work- East Window    I am creating a new window cover for the east room window.     WhenEast-Window I work on these types of quilts I   first  do a wrogh  layout of where I think some fabrics will end up.      I am trying to start quilts now using fabrics I have altered in some way.  This time I used some marbleized  fabric, a piece from the soy wax class, and some painted fabrics.  When I have selected these materials, I chose  things that work with them.     I think of  the second choices as fillers and I cut them into strips of one and a half, two and a half and three and a half inch startssections and sew them into long mixed units.   This method  means I can just add the units  to the fabric sections as I go along and do not have to keep stopping and cutting new fabric.  This method does create some unused material at the end of the assembley.  But I always just add that to my scrap basket and it becomes part East windowof the material I use in my scrap happy quilts that I give as fund raisers .          I always enjoy my time doing the assembly process of quilt construction.

 

 

 Daily News  I have finished the base for the Daily’s now.  It is a black rectangle with 30  black velcro  units on it.   I put the quilt on the door to my studio so I see it first thing every day and my new habit has become to change the layout each morning. Daily-News1Daily News2    Its a fun exercise and it means that I finish  several more  blocks every evening during the news like before.

Daily News2 Keep  Creating

Carol

 

Daily's, Dusty Roads, New Iris

Quarter Moon June 19, 2014

Hello,

This evening we will view the last quarter moon for this month.    I have always wondered why the  cookies that are half choclate and half white are called Half Moon cookies?  silk paperQuarter moon would be more accurate.  Oh well, I know they are all good to eat no matter what they are called.  The other seasonal event this week is Summer Solstice.  That happens on Saturday .  Hurray! Bring on Summer.

I spent last Friday with my friend Susan.  We made silk paper.  Susan is very interested including  text and words in her work,  so I did some experimenting that I might not have tried other wise.   The 3’s are letters on tying paper that are tarped between layers of silk.  Then I thought why not just write words – so I tried my Topsname as you can see.   It is doable.  I will use my name  to make a new name tag to put over my work area at QBL.

Then on Monday I drove down to visit Regina.  She is amazing and I had a wonderful day.  She gave me this stack of sample l dress tops  to play with.  Her techniques is to cut off all the beads and use them in other work.   I do not know just what I will do with them- but I love the challenge.  Regna  lovesSweet-bag texture almost  as much as I do.  This wonderful  little evening bag is a good example of that.     She weaves rag rugs that are all over her house.  She has an embroidery machine and has wonderful examples all over the place too.     I went home with my head spinning full of ideas and aw.

With all my travel I have not done a lot of work in the studio this week, but that seem to be the nature of summer.   I want to be out of doors and enjoy my environment.

New-IrisProgress Report:   New Iris’s     I am adding applique iris on the surface of this quilt now.    I am going to add the greenery first and then the flowers.    I may need more blossems – but I will only know that with lots of looking and thinking.

 Dusty Roads    This was formerly labeled as new work one.   I can see where I am going with it now so it has a name.  This is a good example of many of the surfacing altering techniques I like to use.  There is rust  work,  eraser Dusty-Trailsstamping, silk screen printing, direct painting,  and fabric from the soy dye class in this piece.   The dark brown with the white lines is drawing done with liquid dish washer detergent.   Most of the blue areas on this work are painted interfacing pieces.   I sure had fun mixing all of them  and it made me realize that I do work in color families most of the time.

Daily News   I am working away on the back unit to put my little squares on now with this project.  It is all black so I did not do a photo of it- not very interesting at this point.    When it is done I will start to shoot it with the various squares velcro-ed  on the surface.

Enjoy the beauty of the season.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, New Iris

Tomorrow…..June 12, 2013

roses BJUNE12Worktalble Hello,

I am greeting you with flowers because my husband did the same to me this week.  I enjoy the rich deep color of red roses.

I realized that tomorrow is the full moon and it is Friday the 13.   I wonder how often that happens?

Saterday was our second play date at the Verna Fire Hall.   We again were exploring the Gelli Plate and its many printing wonders.  There were 10 folks this time and only three of us were repeats from the time before.    This shot is of my work table at noon before I fired Pladay2up for my second layer of fun and surprises.   I made a mistake and left half of my paints at home.   But I chose to see that as a challenge and because I did not have any red, orange  or purple all the pieces will work together do to the limited pallet.

I had a wonderful surprise Patti's Squaresyesterday as Patti stopped by.  She presented me with a gift of two of the squares she made using the  fabric yarn I had given to her last week.   She sure is enjoying her new pin loom!   Both  of these squares use the  the same  weff fabric yarn- but the color she used for the woof really makes them appear different.   The black sure tones down the color!

I went to visit Nancy this week too. Nancy's-work She works on a tabletop to lay out her work.   I do realize she has a much more realistic feel for how the project will look on the bed by doing it that way, but I really like working vertically myself.   This quilt will be the summer quilt for her own bed when it is done.  She is building a rainbow layout Bookacross the main part of the bed top with some black and white added in for interest.  This is also the quilt she made the clouds for last week.  They are set to go in the pillow sections of the quilt.    She lent me this book on color to read before I take my color  classes at QBL this summer.  It is written for paintes, but I am enjoying it throughly.   I am sure thankful I live in a time when one can just go purchase paint off the shelf instead of collect the materials, grinding down  the pigments and mix the formulas to get the desired colors.

BJune12SelectionsProgress Report:  New Work One     I thought I should revisit some of the fabrics I made in the soy wax class earlier this spring and use them.  I pulled one and then I noticed how it worked with the rust fabric I did last fall and  a piece of the stencil work I did last winter as well as some stamping work I had done the Layoutwinter before.      So I started this possible lay out.  It was too  monochromatic so  I added some  blue to the  mix.  The blue is from my stash of self embellished fabric too.   Things will surely shift and change from this starting point- but I try to be open to the changes the fabrics suggest as I work along.

possiblites2New Work Two  I piled up a second collection of fabrics as a starting point for yet another new quilt.  It is not “talking” to me in the same way the brown one is so this may not go beyond this point.  I just have  to live with it a bit.

New Iris’s     I was Spring Irisnot happy with the way this  quilt   was going.  It was coming out too much like the first one I did earlier this spring.  So I let it hang on the pin wall for two weeks.  Then  I decided to add another layer to the work.   I painted purple Iris’s Iris'slike the ones I saw in Monet’s garden last month.     I then sewed organza to the  back of the flowers and truned them to create the new blossoms.          That process is very time consuming when the shapes are as complex as these are. It takes about 20 min to do each one.     I will start to applique them to the top of the quilt this week.

 Daily NewsDaily-News

The title of this work has changed because of how I want to finish this work.  I decided I want it to be   a flexible  work that could change.  To that end I have finished these squares off with each of them having a velcro patch in the center of the back of each “block”.   I have only started this process and so I will be doing the flipping of the units and sewing them shut by hand for a while.  Soon I will build a back unit with its own corrisponding velcor units placed four inches apart all over its surface so one can add or subtract any square from any location at any time.  I think I will limit the back unit to 30 squares( or velco  spots)  to invite as many possible playing combinations as possible. ( and one  does not need to fill all the spots)  I hope it is fun to play with  when I am done.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

Daily's, Diva Meetings, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Three Trees

Enjoying the Spring June 5, 2014

ColembineHello,

I have been enjoying being out of doors and doing lots of yard work this week.  Being gone always means lots of catch up for me and that seems to be how I have spent most of my time.  That and meeting with my friends that is.    The first Tuesday of the month was this week so I had the usual QuEG’s  and DivaBarb meetings plus the FAB group has moved to the first of the mouth too.  It is good to see all my friends  and it is very stimulating.

Barb started off the QuEGs meeting  with her three “sliced block” tops.    She sure seemed to be having fun with them.   Then we moved on to Linda who is taking an on- line class where she is doing prep work for a quilt about her Irish Linda's-notebook BJuneLiz's-work Grandfather.   The notebook is a work of art all by it’s self I think.    She is collecting lots of ideas to work from for the project.

Then we looked at Liz’s strip blocks.   It is a memory quilt using  her friends father’s shirts. The  outside  strips of each block  are from the shirts.  The florial  prints in the centers rBJUneSueEllen's-new-fishepresent the friend.

Then we looked at Sue Ellen’s work.  This new fish quilt of hers really is a joyful one I think.   This photo does not show it- but the green has a wonderful reflective quality that really adds to the feel of water in this piece.

Next we Sally's-onelooked at Sally’s wonderful work.  She has finally finished piecing  her “One Block Wonder” top.   I love how she used the fabric in such a way that the quilt goes from light to dark in a Sally's-work machine embroderydiagonal sweep across the top.      She continues to work hard on her Machine Embrodery too.   All the lemons are drawn in thread as is the green sprig and the pie crust.     Her work always blows me away.

After the meeting I drove south and picked up Susan who is now back in Central New York andBJUNE5Sharon we rove to the Diva meeting together. Where I got my second jolt of creative stimulation.   Sharon who is going to graduate school had lots to share. Photos, prints and quilts   as she prepares for the many art  shows she partisipates in during the summer.   She is one busy gal.

BJUNE5-Donna Donna is taking a class in Spirit Cards and this a shot of one of them.   I am sorry that there is so much glaire here.   I like too how all the groups I belong to are so accepting of a wide varitey  of different materials as well as styles.  ANNE's-work

Anne peresented this finished piece at the meeting too.  I think the machine work really adds a lot of secondary interest to the surface.    I admire how she uses her fabrics.

-Susan's-holidaySusan spent six weeks in Mexico and she built this day journal of that event.   She challenged herself to try lots of different techniques on  six inch pellon squares with each square representing an event for each day of the trip.    I think it is a wonderful way to stay on track and to be creative at the same time. This close up shows foil she found in Mexico behind the painted and  cut out pellon sheet.  SUSANcloseup

 

 

 

 

 

 

The FAB group meant this Victoiraweek as well.    I taught them how to make silk paper.  This shot shows Victoria working at that.   Nancy made clouds with the silk roving that she intends to use on her new bed room quilt  as a part of  the sky.

Victoria and I are in a color class later this summer.   She is preparing for that by doing a  bit of progressive dying  for that -Victoria's-colorrun - Copyproject.   I think this color run is great.  It will be fun to use them in class later.

Patti is the Patti's-loomowner of a new pin loom and she has been weaving away.    She loaded it up and started a new project during our meeting.  I can hardly wait to see  the finished piece.

PattiI like all the color that she is using here.     With all the visiting going on, I did not do much work on my own stuff.  I am OK with that one needs to fill the well every now and then.

 

 

 

 Progress

Three Trees and a Singer 21" x21" $80.00
Three Trees and a Singer
21″ x21″
$80.00

Report:  Three Trees and a Singer   The title of this quilt has changed from just Three Trees  to the new one because I added a black bird.   It is very small in this image, but it is there on the far left tree about half way up.  I added the bird last because I thought the work needed a little  reason to look with  a bit more care.

Bird The bird is in this closeup. The trees are all based on pictures  I took  in the winter of  trees in my  backyard.  The trees are all full of leaves now I am glad to say.      The photo to the left here shows all three techniques that I used to create the  trees.     The brown is a woolThree-close up I started with and the black is yarn that I stitched down on top of  the wool.  Then after I had stitched together i sewed it  to the background.   Then  I loaded the bobbin with thick tread and from the back I free motion drew the limbs onto the surface of the quilt.   I enjoyed creating  this quilt.

 

 

 Daily News ( Formerly Daily’s) Daily's  These are the last of my Daily’s.  I say that because I feel I have learned what I needed to from this project.  I am calling the work Daily News because I worked on the pieces every evening  during the time the news was on TV.   Now I have to figure how what to do with the pieces I have created.   I have 240  four and half inch squares.   They are not finished so this can’t be the end.   I do not want them to simply end up in a box and  I do not want to simply sew them together as I have enjoyed placing them next to one another in various arrangements.      I am thinking of several possible solutions and I will spent this week making my final decision about that during this time.  That and planning the next possible mini challenge.

I hope the week ahead is full of good creative time for all.

Hugs

Carol

Daily's, Fundations XIX Mossy Stone, Fundations XX Asurite, Growing in the Dark, Machine Drawing, Paper Quilts, Spring Iris's, Three Trees

Back in the Studio May 29, 2014

Foundations XIX -Mossy Stone 33" X 29" $340.00
Foundations XIX -Mossy Stone
33″ X 29″
$340.00

Hello

It is good to be home and after I recovered from my jet lag I enjoyed getting back into the studio and working.    I think having something partly finished helped me get started too.   So I will jump into the Progress Report.

Progress Report: Foundations XIX Mossy Stone   As this image shows I am now done with this quilt.      I am not sure about Mossy Stone-cl2how to declare the size, but have settled on measuring the distance at the longest points to  come up with the numbers.   This quilt  has a very large number of fabrics in it as well as threads, yarns  and some silk paper.   I enjoy the extensive thread work that finishing the quilts in this series requires.   The thread patterns create nice direction and flow directions  to Mossy-stone-cl3my eye  and when I get to that step it is almost meditative in nature when I am working away at it.    I do not see the end of this series any time soon- it is just too much fun to see how many fabrics I can use and how many textures I can include in the process.

 

 

 

Growing in the Dark – Paper Quilt  

Growing in the Dark Paper Quilt 16" X 21"
Growing in the Dark
Paper Quilt
16″ X 21″

 

I took a  day workshop in  using the Gelli plate on the weekend before I went off to Paris.  I  made a lot of  wonderful paper and fabric printed images.  I decided to challenge myself and use some of them to do paper quilts again.  I have not done that style growing in the dark -cl2in over two years so it was a bit of a challenge just to recall the process.   The Gelli Plate process is full of chance and I really like that aspect of  using them.  Paper is in the bottom section of this shot   and fabric in the top- they do take the paint /ink differently , but I like them both.    This work because of the nature of the stiffness of the paper Growing-in-the-dark-cl1requires  that one work smaller.  I can only roll so much under the machine arm.  The paper  also is a much flatter material  so it goes together much more quickly .  I added in some of the silk paper as you can see here and it works well with the  other materials.  I have pulled another pile of paper and fabric from the workshop to start another soon.

 

 

 

three-trees

 

 Three Trees   This work is coming along.  I made the base of the trees on wash away with a dark gray green  wool and then added black yarn on top with machine stitching.  I then trimmed the  away as much of the wash away as I could before I submerged them in  back-of-3-treeshot water.  When they were dry I arranged the trees on the surface and sewed them down.   I loaded my bobbin with brown embroidery thread and the top of my machine with black.   I turned the quilt over and did free motion drawing of smaller branches in the trees using the outlines of applying the trees to the top as my three-trees close up 2guide.    This shot of the back of the quilt helps show what I did.    This closeup shows all three processes.  The dark green is the wool, the black is the  yarn and the brown is the thread.  This project  proved to be a very good way to get back into the free motion process for me.

 

 

 

AsuriteFoundations XX- Asurite  This is my new inspiration stone for the new work in the series.   The first step is to cut the bucrum in the shape of the stone.  Then I  start pinning the background  fabrics to the surface.  Asuritestart   I did the light area first this time and used two different blues and some hand dyed that had blue, white and gray in Pileit.  I then pulled  a pile of blue fabrics that I thought could work and piled them on the floor below the BM29Pinned-Asuritepinwall.  Having them at my feet meant I could pin look down and cut the next piece I wanted with ease.   I continued building on the surface until I had the whole color areas built  in.    The next step was to begin to Asurite close upstitch and pin more into the work and start to build the surface.  I like to work in this free form way and let the process guide me along.  It does mean that I stop and pin the work up frequently and look at the work, but I like that step  as well.

 

Spring Iris BM29-Spring-Iriscl1 Spring Iris   I am doing the free motion outline step of this work now.    I was so happy to see the Iris in Monet’s garden and I took a lot of photos.  I think I will try to add a  bit of applique on top with the photos in mind.   I am not sure how I will do this yet- but I am thinking on the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Canvas   red-canvus I started the painting process of this work in the fall as a play day with Cheri.     Seeing the great way she used what we started that day at the Diva Meeting  in March got me to pull the canvases I had created out again.  I cut them up and then zig zagged them back to create a bigger unit.  I then painted on top again to add more depth.  I was still not happy.  So I have now done some hand work and I think I am nearing completion.  I added beads, buttons and some altered metal to the  red canvas close upsurface.   I need some assistance as to how to finish this work  so I will take it to the Diva meeting and get some help.

 

 

Daily's Daily’s     I think I am done with this series as far as making the little units is concerned.  I have eight more and that will complete the thirty blocks I have with the two triangles on them.   I have done this daily work for eight months and feel I am ready to find and ending place and move on.  I will take this week as I finish the blocks to decide on a way to complete the project and to think about a new daily or weekly challenge.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

Daily's, Diva Meetings, Foundations XVII Granite, Foundations XVII Obsidian, Foundations XVIII Rusty, New Iris

National Choclate Chip Day May 8, 2014

Hello,

I hope everyone is enjoying a choclate chip cookie today.  What a wonderfully silly thing to make a national day.  Not sure of the origian of this idea, but I am sure  the cooks approve.  As do those of us who will eat a cookie for any reason.

BM8SueEllenThis week contained the first Tuesday of the mouth so I had meetings.   The  QuEG’s  meeting was  great with lots of show and tell.  Sue Ellen showed us this wonderful book/ album/portfolio of all of the fish quilts she has done this year.  What a great wayCorrinie to present your work.     Corrinie is not beading on this wall piece.  I sure love the semenate.    Linda and I showed the  fabrics we had created in the soy dyeing class from last month.

Anne work1Then it was off to the Diva meeting on Tuesday evening.     Anne and Ruth had both taken a workshop with Gwen Marsdon.  This first one is Anne’s take on the processes.   I like how crisp and clean Anne’s work always is.  She limits her color and uses it so very well- something that I could afford to learn a little be more of.

Ruth chose to try all the techniques and plans to assemble them into a samplerRuthall type thing when  she is done.    As is usually true in a class each person puts their own stamp on the final outcome. They both had a good time too.Donna

Spring seems to bring a lot of workshops to all of us as Donna took one as well on Encostics.   She came away with three wonderful images and I found it difficult choosing the one I liked best to show here.

Liese continues to wow Save-the-waterus with her wonderful little dioramas.    This one she finished up on Earth Day (April 22) and it is her statement about all the pollution in our Oceans.     I really enjoy her little people- they are so very animated and full of life.   She told us this work was the center piece for the dinner table on Earth day too.

This meeting marked my fifth anniversay with this very diverse group of gals.  I so enjoy them and I drive home with my mind spinning with new ideas and inspirations every time.

Foundations XVII Obsidian 34" X 33.5 $400.00
Foundations XVII Obsidian
34″ X 33.5
$400.00

Progress Report: Foundations XVII Obsidian   This quilt has many different fabrics in it.  I used some denim from my husbands pants in one area.  There is velvet, silk, cotton, taffata and nylon fabric here too.   I made my choices based on  the  colors  that I saw in the rock  ( there are lots of reflections due to the nature of the stone)  – it did not matter what type of material it was.     The process alsoObsidian cl1 involved some fibers that  I purchased years ago  without any knowledge of the content or type.  I was delighted by the color Obsidian close up 2then and I still am.    I am glad to finally find a home for some of them.      There is some aposistory fabrics in this too.   the textured gray black show here was on the piano seat  Mom covered when I was in Jr high.      I m glad to find a home for it too.ObsidianCl3

 

 

 

 

Foundations XVIII - Rust 26" X 42" $385.00
Foundations XVIII – Rust
26″ X 42″
$385.00

 Foundations XVIII – Rusty    This quilt has lots of old fabric that was intended to become clothing.  The rust colored wool was  purchased for an a-line skirt.     I am still struggling with  the  irregular shape and the high point at the top of this quilt  is still a problem   here.  I though I had it sloved, but that proved not to be the case.  I plan to add some stays in to that section today.  I am not surprised  as there are always new problems withRustycl1 unexplored territioy.    This first close up shows some fabric that I rust dyed.  I did break a needle when I tried to  free motion through the three layers of the Rusty close up2rust dyed fabric.  I do not know why, but I fear that even though I did wash it when I finished the fabric there still could contain a bit of  residue .    Again I used lots of different fabrics on this piece.  Wool, velvet, cotton and the back side of taffata can be seen here.   I am enjoying the process.Rusty cl3

Maya's-quiltMaya’s  Tee Shirt Quilt    I finished this quilt this week  too.    It took me   four hours to do the hand stitching on the binding of this project.     It is a queen sized quilt.    The free motion work  Maya's close up on the blocks was the most enjoyable part for me.

 

 

 

New-IrisNew Iris’s     This top is now ready for the quilting step.  It is a little too much like a very nice background at this point so I will  need to think carefully about how to go forward on this  project.

 

 Foundations XIX –     Foundations XIX stone  This is the new pinned up section for the next work.  I love the wonderful moss green fabric that Noel gave me a few weeks ago.   This mossy stone is  the outgrowth of that feeling.   I feel the striped fabric that is the base for this one is still too strong so I will keep building on top of it.

Daily'sDaily’s       My  storage box for these little exercises is almost too full so I think I will end this series soon.    I want to move on to another idea as well.

Keep Creating.

Carol

PS  I am off to spend a week in Paris so there will be no post next week.  Look for lots of pictures the following week.

Daily's, Electric, Green Grow the Grasses, Scrap Happy, Scrap Happy Quilts, Smoke

Knowing when to stop. March 27, 2014

Hello,

BM27fullOne  problem I  often face when I  paint  is not knowing when to stop work on a painting.   So I often go too far and add that extra tree or bit of red and then  ruining a  work because I am not be able to repair the problem…… I usually do not face that with my fiber work because I can pin things up and nothing is permanente until I make the final decision ans sew then down.    This week I seem to  be filled with lots of doubt about this completion  “thing”.   I can not seem to decide if I am  finished with either of the  two Foundations pieces that I am currently working on.    So I pinned then backward to the wall top-halfand have not looked at the surface  for several days.  I hope when I  face them with fresh eyes early next week  the absence will help me make the decision about rather to go forward or stop.     There is one other little quirk in my mental state as I  discovered a work I had folded up last fall  with a similar problem. (This blue and purple work)botton half  Now it is easy to see that the there are really two haves to this work and they do not go together.   So I think I will slice then apart and try to solve each half independently of the other.  After I slice them in two I will be able to work with each half  to see if I can save all or any portion of the work.  I may still need to rotate the  sections but as seperate units I think my chances of success are much better.

Scarp-Happy-1 Progress Report: Scarp Happy  I have been working on this bed quilt for a few weeks.    It is done and has gone from my life.  The woman from Prevention Net Work came yesterday and picked it up for their Spring Fund Raiser.  This organization works to keep teen off drugs by providing alternate activites for them to work on.  My grandson worked on a play with/for this organization a few years ago.  I am glad to support groups that deal with teens.   scrap-happy- 2

Scrap Happy   I also  passed this quilt to a second auction.  This Scarp Happy  has a diagonal  block lay out.   It is going to the Meals on Wheels of North Syracuse for there benefit.   I was assured that it will sell well and add to their coffers.  Again I am happy to support this organization.

ElectricElectric    This top really went together quickly when I finally got to it this week.  I am now in the process of adding the quilting.  I am using the silk screen printed fabric that I made as the inspiration for that quilting.   It is fun- but very slow as I have to stop so often and change the direction of the stitches at sharp angles.  No  stitching line thus far is longer than an inch and a half and most are under a half an inch.

It is quite a slow  process.Electric close up

 

 

 

 

Green Grow the Grasses  Green-grasses-cl  I am having a good time doing the free motion drawing of the flowers on this quilt.  Some of the  machine drawing is just on top of the print on the fabric and some is just my own creation.   I have also added some leaves to the surface to add interest and varity.

Smoke-cl

 

Smoke I am still working away on this piece.  Every time I think I am done with it I pin it on the wall at the end of the day and then look at it first thing in the morning before I turn the lights on.  That is when I  can see what the quilt needs and thus far that has been more hand quilting.  One cannot rush the process.

 

New Worknew-work Then of course when I do not know what else to do I start a new piece.   Seriously,  I was not done exploring the slender inserts idea and this thing popped into my head just as  I awoke the on Tueseday morning.   So I am off and running with a new thing.

Daily'sDaily’s   These little works seem to be one of the constants in my life at the moment.  Thank goodness for routine.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Foundations XI- Stream Bed, Machine Drawing, Smoke, Striking Gold

Changing Spring Weather March 13, 2014

snow-treeHello,

The Weather is full of spring surprises.  Tue is it was sunny and 54 degrees here. I enjoyed my walk noting all the bare ground and seeing may birds.  Wednesday morning  it stared raining early and continued  until about 8 am  and then started snowing.  By 3  in the afternoon I only did a shot walk as the snow on top of ice  was a foot deep, slippery  and the slogging was difficult.  Today it is beautiful with full sun and blue sky’s- but a chilly  16 degrees with wind.    Tomorrow it is set to be 43.  All this snow and cold will soon be a memory as we all enjoy the wonderful changes spring brings.

Progress Report:Foundations XI  -Rust and  Rifts

Foundations XI Rust and Rifts 30" X 38" $400.00
Foundations XI
Rust and Rifts
30″ X 38″
$400.00

 

I continue to truly enjoy this collage like process of assembling works.   The chance to use so many fabrics combined with how one can twist and turn those fabrics as one works with them is so much fun.  I like too the fact that I can just keep building on top of each section until I get the effect I want.   This means that I can use yarns and threads to produce different types of lines across the surface.  The free motion work adds so much freedom and direction to the surface.

 

Rust&Riftscl1

This shots shows rusty velvet and the back side of one of the rusty colored fabrics. Rust and Rifts close up 2                                                         This second close up shows the several of the threads that I used on this piece as well as the tucked and folded fabric.   

Rust and Rifts close up 3

In this third  close shot you can see the silk paper the frayed out heavy  fabrics  and threads that are attached.

 

Green Nebula.  I finally got this Green-Nebulafelted piece framed.  I think that is the best solution for felted works.  I think I will work a bit smaller on the next one as so much of it is lost in the framing process.  I did enjoy adding all the bead work to represent planets and stars among the green gasses.

 

 

 

Green nebula-close up 2 The sequins on  this  piece are antique ones from my Aunt May’s sewing box.  They are of a material that is not fractured or as highly reflective as most of the sequins that one can purchase today.   I learned a little bit more about photography with this project.  Both

Green Nebula -close up 3 closeups have flash reflections in the form of  lines near the center and the  full sized shot has a shadow across the glass.    It seems there is always more to learn.

 

 

 

 

 Foundations XI – Stream Bed FoundationsXII -stream-be  I am doing the fun stage of this project now.  I love the free motion work that all of the works in this series require.    I like how the project leads me forward and how much time it takes, because the time means I put it up and look at the work in progress a lot.  I am not real happy with the piece at the moment.   I see that it is too dark- and the one tan area is far too square.    All these problems can be changes and that is exciting to me.Smoke

 

 

 

 Smoke This quilt sort of got away from me as I worked on it.  I did not intend for it to become so large, but the gray silk units seemed to call for that action.  I did fuse inner facing to the back of those same units as they were far too flexible and wandered around a bit with the seaming.  I am now in the process of doing hand stitching on this one.  In my typical style I am letting the surface tell me what to do next.

 Striking Gold I am having lot of fun working on this piece. The base is one solid piece of fabric and thenStruck-Gold I added Lumier painted torn grown cloth on top.  There is also a bit of orange nylon netting on the surface as well as fabric bits.  I then did some hand work with some Taylor’s thread that my friend Judy had given me several years ago.  I also have added some free motion bobbin work to the surface. (The zig –zag lines)  I am enjoying working away on this project.

New-WorkNew Work  All the snow covering the ground has brought my desire to work with spring colors back to the surface.    Just pinning these up yesterday in the snow storm was cheering.  I am going to really emphasis the green this time in the form of long lines to represent grass coming up.

 

 

 Daily’s   I think these little Daily’s are the reason I am doing so  much more hand work then I have been doing past years.  I just seem to get going onDaily's the square and the thing is done.  So picking up another project is a very easy and natural progression.

Keep Creating

CarolblueSky

Daily's, Foundations IX, Foundations Series, Foundations X, Machine Drawing, Rounding up Green, Spring Iris's, Tropical Palms

Valentines’s Day February 13, 2014

ValentinesHello,

Valentines’ day was always one of my favorite holidays, I am a romantic I guess.  I never really had any big crushes on anyone as a child- but it was decorating the shoe box or the big envelope that all the exchanged Valentines came in that I enjoyed the most.  When I was teaching IIce1 always had the kids spend a day making a Valentine creature- the only shape they could cut was a heart.  Now the heart could be long and slender , short and fat- just what worked.  We used the scarp box of construction paper so there was lots of colors to choose from.  I loved the green heart frogs, black  bats and other animals that the kids produced.  This year   I  had some wonderful Mylar red paper so I started playing and made Valentines with it.  I great fun and I put them in the mail yesterday.  It really cheered me up as all the snow is getting to 6X6me a bit.

I did four entries for the  6″X 6″ fund raiser that the Rochester …….. does every year.  I think it is a great concept/fund raiser  were they accept small( 6″ X 6″) works from everyone who wants to particiat.   The gallery t then sells them all for $20 each.   I enjoy making  my little petroglyphics stencils and stitching them to the backgrounds.  I made four.

Rounding Up Green 34.5" X 38.5" $ 465.00
Rounding Up Green
34.5″ X 38.5″
$ 465.00

Progress Report:  Rounding Up Green  This quilt was nearly completed last week.  I was working on the facings last Thursday.  I created the blue fabric a few years ago with a silk screen print.

rounding up green close up 1This close up shows some of the dyed fabric and on the far left there is some commerically  embrodiered fabric that was in my stash.  Rounding up Green Cl1     I also used a bit of the fabric that I experimented with when I was preparing to dye.   I really like the wildness of these “rags”  and always find a good use for them in my work.

Tropical Palms 16" X 23" $130.00
Tropical Palms
16″ X 23″
$130.00

  Tropical Palms    This quilt went together really quickly.  I realized with this one that I am ready for spring as there is lots of fabric out on the  cutting table  that is in the pastel range- with a big emphasis on pinks.  I had a very enjoyable time drawing the palm trees on this project.   It did make me feel warmer too.  The purple hand dyed fabric in this work  is bye Judy Roberts.   She does wonderful stuff in my option.   I used the print fabric as my starting point for the quilting pattern.  The biggest area needed Tropical Palms cl2a bigger tree so I improvised and mad the leaves of the tree with that section.    The other quilting- all in a horizontal waving pattern- is meant to represent the rolling sands that I remember from a trip were I saw palm trees.   I was tempted to add texture to the stump of the tree- but after doing a drawing first I decided Palms 1that an addition like that would be distracting.   Using my sketchbook is never lost effort and it really dose help clarify what needs to happen some times.

 

 

Spring Iris’s   This is another one of my

Spring Iris's 17" X 21" $125.00
Spring Iris’s
17″ X 21″
$125.00

responces to all the cold and snow.  The big print that dominates this work was a piece of decorator fabric.  I really liked the beautiful color work in the flowers and tried to emphasis that with my quilting.  I also tried to spread out the limited bit of fabric that I had across the surface of the work to add to the movement of ones eye around the piece.  There is some of the pink and purple fabric that I printed a few weeks ago in this Spring Iris's close up 2work.      After I did  a few drawing in my sketchbook I  free motion drew around the flowers and again with the same types of lines.  I added some flowers using the same style in different areas of the quilt to make sure there was enough quilting to keep the work stable.  I also did free motion work around the leaves and tried to push the iris close up 1garden idea even further  with this action.   Then as I did the clean up of the materials form this project I found another piece of the Iris close up 3florial print so there is a place to begin another quilt with this theme.

 

 

 

 

Foundations IX 25" X 32.5" $285.00
Foundations IX
25″ X 32.5″
$285.00

Foundations IX   This quilt was nearly complete last week too.   I just wanted more green it the work so I held it back until I had made that addition.    I added treads I had pulled from some green silk and some green silk paper to get that additional color on the surface.   The works in this series are highly textured and all the wadding and overlapping of the fabrics makes some areas very thick and others very thin, but I sure like the Foundations IX close up 3effect I am getting with this technique.   The machine drawing Foundations IX-close up 2adds to the texture and colors of the surface too.  I am still using some of the fabric that Marty and I discharged last spring on these works too.    The dark fabric with the light areas is one of those pieces.  

Foundations X   I pulled fabric Foundation Xfor the next work in this series and this is my current selection.    I may add some additional material and or subtract material- this is just a beginning pallet.

Daily'sDaily’s  They are still being produced.  I only have a little more than a weeks worth of this layout left and I will need a new starting place for the next batch of works.   It all goes together so quickly when one does a little bit at a time.

Keep Creating

Carol