Hello,

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 I 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 me 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.

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.

This close up shows some of the dyed fabric and on the far left there is some commerically  embrodiered fabric that was in my stash.      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    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 a 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 that 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

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 work.      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 garden 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 florial print so there is a place to begin another quilt with this theme.

 

 

 

 

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 effect I am getting with this technique.   The machine drawing adds 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 for 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’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