Category Archives: Memory Map Quilts

Carrol Iowa, Collage, Daily Practice, Diva Meetings, Iamgine, Memory Map Quilts, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

April Melt

April 5, 2018 admin

Hello,

We are deep into the spring melt in this part of the world. Eric and I stopped at Chittagong on our way home on Sunday to check the falls. It was so loud that we had to yell at one another to be herd. The experience sure was an adrenaline rush and all we did was look and feel the spray on our faces. Water is a powerful force in nature.

This week was the first Tuesday of the month so I had meetings. QuEGs meant at Angela’s house this time and we had a lot to share. Sue Ellen is making twin bed quilts for her nieces and nephews. This one is for the six year old and I think he will like the bright colors.

Corrine is doing leather notebooks now and this is just one of five that she shared. They are beautiful I think.

Sally is doing a wonderful flower series and she had four of them to share with us. Her hand work is beautiful!

Then I went off to the Diva meeting with Noel. This shot is one of her fabric collages. She said sometimes it takes an hour to find and eyebrow for a piece. What a challenge.

Liesa is knitting puppets for her grandchildren. This one sure has personality.

Lori is doing a class where she is making lots of samples of stitches. This work fits her life at the moment. It is good to have a reference points for further work.

Regina took two felting workshops this month and did great projects. As is her style she jumps into things with both feet. I think this shawl is beautiful.In workshop 2 she learned how to create a bag. This is her design and it hast two pockets in it. One on the inside and one on the back. She felted the handle too I sure am lucky to have such talented and stimulating friends.

Progress Report: Asters

The leaves are all attached now. I made faced circles the size of quarters for the centers of the flowers this week too. Now I am ready to begin the purple petals for those flowers.

Dill I am ready to add the seed heads on the tops of the plants now. Then I can stretch the piece and do the finishing.

Memory Map: Carroll Iowa I painted the street map and the outside of the house on organza this week for this project. Now I need to work on the other parts and add them too. I will not stitch anything down to the base until I have them all in place so I can shuffle them if I need to.

Fiddle Head Ferns This project is creeping along. I got the idea to feature the Fiddle Head Ferns last week at the Social Art meeting when one of the women though my Indian Pipes were the ferns. So I did a bit of research and they are a similar shape although quite a different color. I dyed the white pipe cleaners green and wrapped them part way up with a green fabric to create the young ferns. I think it will work when I build up the background a bit more and add mature ferns too.

Daily Practice II This work is nearly complete. I seem to be at a sort of at a stand still on this one. So I will pin it to the stretcher bars before I stop work to see how it appears. I hope that action will tell me what needs more attention.

Parts I am still building little units for this project.

W Block This block is for a group project were each block is to have a W in it. It for a friend who is battling cancer and the W is to represent wellness. I plan to free motion write lots of word of encouragement around the letter.

Collage 13 I just keep working on on collages and sorting my paper collection.

Cards I got a little carried away this week. I was still so full of adrenalin when we got home from the falls visit that I made this card in no time. One can never tell just what will inspire one.

I then rushed forward and did Perhaps followed by Extraordinary. Sometimes one just is just the conduit for the art action.

Keep Creating

Carol

Carrol Iowa, Equinox, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Glyph IV with Beads, Memory Map Quilts, Travel

Spring Break

March 29, 2018 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

I am home again from my trip to sunny Florida. I continue to be in love with the sea grape leaves and the pelicans that I see only there. . I now have lots of shots of both of those subjects along with lots of others.

My week was full of adventures. Chris did a wonderful workshop on Eco Dyeing on Monday and I got to do it too. I came home with a beautiful silk scarf that was dyed with oak leaves and onion skins. I will enjoy wearing it for a long time.

We went to the Museum of Art in St Petersburg and visited a great traveling costume show with wardrobe pieces from the Star Wars series. There were wonderful detailed concept drawings along with the final works. There were lots of explanations about the sources for many of the costumes too.The Interviews from the actors who had to “live” inside the droids was also a fascinating part of this exhibit.

I got to meet with the folks who are part of the card exchange on Wed. and we did a little folded book project together. This shot is of Robert and his book. I can’t believe we have been at this a year. We will continue to do this little challenge.

Cris and I walked along the beach on day and found this egg case and bit of coral. That resulted in a little challenge between the two of us. ( watch for further developments)

Cris, Laura and I went to the Fabulous Fashions play day on Friday. Cris worked on this top that she made form an antique table cloth.

Laura made this colorful ruffled scarf from an old blouse.

Sat was play day in Susan’s studio. We all printed different stuff. Cris worked with her Gelli Plate and printed beautiful leaves from Susan’s garden. Susan did some fun altering/printing on an old baby gown that she then hung on the fence. I got carried away as usual and now have a group of black birds to work into with stitches and beads. I had a good time on my adventure.

At home on Tues I went to the final meeting of Social Art for this season and was a part of the small art show of work from the women who are a part of the group. This shot is of Noel explaining something about her work( in the background) She used “Punch and Judy” to talk about female abuse.

Yesterday the FAB group meant and Nancy had a lot to share. This is a shot of the bottom half of Arabic Twist. One of two works that she is doing at the moment.

Progress Report: Glyph IV This work is finally completed. I was so excited about finally finishing this pieces that I put the sleeve on the bottom and only discovered the mistake this morning when I hung it to shot it for the blog. I removed the sleeve and it is pinned in the correct place now. I will add the sleeve on the top this eve.I have been showing shots of the bead and button additions all along. I started this work in July in Cyntaia Corbin’s Class at QBL.

Asters I am still working on the veins of the leaves on this project. I am half done with that step now.

FrozenI am still struggling to decide if this work is complete. I feel I am almost there.

Memory map- Carroll, Iowa I am just starting the organza add on’s for this project. I drew the house and street on the organza and will add paint and stitching before I stitch them to the surface.

Parts One of my personal goals for this year is to try some projects that are inspired fro m some of the magazines I get and have collected. This month the Quilting Arts had an article about making many little units and adding them to the surface to build a complex final work. This is my start

Daily Practice II I am nearing the end of my six weeks work on this project. I want to add some buttons on this week and I hope to finish it.

Daily Practice III I did not take Daily Practice II ( pictured above) with me on my trip- but I did take the start of then next piece all pinned together. I did hand work for about an hour a day during the week and will move on to it when I have finished Daily Practice II.

New Work This is just the pin up for a new piece. I am still working toward Liz’s challenge to use some of the fabric that I have hand dyed. This is early in the development and I am not at all sure this is how the final product will be arranged.

Cards: Travel I always feel traveling opens one up to new ideas and perspectives so I am celebrating those ideas with this card.

Equinox Last week the days and nights were in perfect balance for one 24 hour period- or at least the light and dark hours were the same. That will happen again in the fall of course- but that equal distribution of light and dark needs to be celebrated. Most of the time our lives are anything but an equal balance . But it is something to strive for.

Keep Creating

Carol

Carrol Iowa, Collage, Daily Practice, Finger Lakes Fiber Artist Group, Glyph IV with Beads, Memory Map Quilts, Radiating Joy, The Dancer

Busy Week

March 15, 2018 admin

Hello,

The birds are returning! If you look carefully at the photo and follow the stratus tree to the top you can see the little song bird who was singing his heart out one day last week. It sure give me hope- then it started snowing again. I went to the Schweinfurth this week and was delighted to find work by several of my friends including this wall sculpture by Carol A. It makes me happy. There was also a Finger Lakes Fiber Artist meeting this week. This piece is by Pat. She is challenging herself to use only two pieces of fabric to create a new series. It’s a great idea. Maureen is doing wonderful dyeing work. These are three of the works she showed us. Marcia finished this wonderful piece too. Her strong graphic images always blow me away.

Progress Report: Radiating Joy

This work is 38.5” w X 45” l. It is one of the first works in this series that uses one big piece of commercial fabric as the background.

The many colors in the hand dyed fabric are strong enough to stand out from the complex pattern. The hand dyed is an Ethel fabric.

The colors work for me and I do get a joyful feeling when I look at this piece.

Purple Asters I just keep working on the vanes of the leaves here.

Memory Map: Carroll I have moved to the painting step on this work and done a few sketches for the parts I want to add on top to create the piece.

Frozen This work is going slowly as I have mislaid the photo that was the start. I add one line of ice and then have to stop and look to see if it needs more……. It is moving along slowly.

Dill I am not at all happy with this piece. The plants were done on wash away and applied to the felted background. But the there is not enough contrast for the plants to stand out or the background is too busy for the frail dill plants. I will get some feed back from my fellow artists- but it may be a work that needs to be tossed.

Glyph IV I am done with the beading. Now I only need to finish the vertical line quilting on this work. It is very heavy with all the beads at this point.

New Work I pulled these fabrics to start to build another quilt. There are lots of my hand dyed fabrics here that will get mixed with some commercial fabrics .

Daily Practice II I am nearly done with this project. There are only a few more details I want to add and I am sure I will get them done this week.

New Work: Daily Practice For the next Daily Practice, I wanted to challenge myself to work with orange and purple. The scraps are from Zapped. I did not change the shape of any of the scraps from that project. I just had a good time shuffling them until I came up with this layout.

Collage 12 This is the newest collage. I did some machine stitching on this work too as I had done one another a few weeks ago.

Cards: Believe I am fascinated by the flight of birds and this hawk is a beautiful example. I find the fact that birds can fly amazing.

The Dancer Movement is such and important part of life. And dancers do movement with such grace and beauty. They too have my admiration.

I am off to visit with Susan and Cris in Florida next week, so there will be no posting for the 22. I will be back on the 29th of March.

Keep Creating

Carol

Carrol Iowa, Diva Meetings, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Frozen, Glyph IV with Beads, Label Cards, Spring Forest, The Lovers

Moving Forward

March 8, 2018 admin

Hello, The wet heavy snow this week really effected the landscape. We got about 17 inches and it really ground things to a halt. But by Monday the world was almost normal at least for March. I got a bit of cheer with these tulips from my friend Joyce. The first Tuesday of the month came this week so I had meetings. The QuEG’s meant at Sue Ellen’s. She had a lot to share as she is working on a commission. This shot is of the sun set she is working on. All the rows are cut- but not connected yet and there is a sea to add on the bottom. I look forward to seeing how this turns out. Liz is pulling up her UFO’s and working on this long lost piece.

The Diva’s also had a lot to share. Liesa is doing great things with the marbleized fabric she has created.

Sharon is busy creating now that she has finished Graduate school . I really like the colors she has put together here.

Cheri showed off her DNA quilt. She stared it in the Surfaces class we were in at the Schweinfurth last fall. She is mixing papers in her surfaces now too.

Regina is being as productive as ever. This is just one of four wool birds quilts that she has created this month. She also shared her felted scarf that is very jewel like. I always get so much inspiration and support from all these gals.

Yesterday the FAB group meant. Patti showed off her loaded loom. And explained how it works.

Progress Report: Forest I have been beading away on my Spring Forest piece. The colors of the beads make me feel like a season other than spring so I am going to change the name to just Forest. It may not work so well for the Awakening show. But I will see.

New Work The base layer is cut and pinned for this work.

.Most of the leaves are my own hand dyed with a few ( the dark green ones) cut from commercial fabrics. I like the red brown of the vanes in the leaves so I tried to follow that idea. I loaded the eye of the sewing machine with a light green thread and a red thread to get this effect. It takes about 15 to do the vanes in each leaf so it will take a while to finish this step.

Glyph IV I keep doing the beading on this piece too. I am more than half way down the left side of the O now.

Frozen This project is inching forward. I think most of the rocks that are protruding through the ice are done now and I only need to concentrate of the last few ice flow patterns. This project requires lots of looking and thinking on my part.

Memory Map: Carroll I stared a new Memory Map project. It is the same size as the other three completed ones. I spent my life from the third grade to seventh grade in Carroll Iowa and have great memories that I will try to incorporate into this work. This is the base layer.

Daily Practice The hand work on this piece goes forward. I continue to use the strait stitch as much as possible on this piece.

Collage X- Flower Dance The work goes forward.

The Lovers This is the next card. I love to use old photographs when I can in my collage work. They are not family ones but little jewels that I have picked up along the way.

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

Blue Stone, Columbus Junction, Ice on Vincent, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing, Memory Map Quilts, One for Me, Two for You

Spring Changes

April 28, 2016 admin

Hello,

This week has been a quiet one with not a lot of activates. I have done a lot of work on the computer and getting ready for shows and such and put in alot of time in the studio. But beyond on that I have mostly enjoyed the rapid transformation that Mother Nature is doing to the plants. The grass is so much greener. As the leaves unfurl the long views of the neighborhood are cutting down. There is a wonderful feeling of being surrounded/ hugged by the natural world around me. Every day there are more buds opening and green things sprouting. I love it.

Progress Report: Two for You, One fore Me

I pulled out this work started by Ethel and worked away on it this week. The two trees; center and right were created by Ethel and I added the one on the left for balance. They were all bare trees at the beginning of the week and as the outside world added foliage so too did I.

Ice on Vincent I put in a lot of time on this work this week. Thread painting is a very slow process but I so like how it looks. It is another form of texture to me. I only started adding the ice yesterday. Fortunately I have several types of organza to build with so I can make the surface look similar to the photo I am working from.

Blue Stone This work also involves lots of thread work so it too is still in the building stage. Again I am adding lots of ribbon, nylon netting, organza and thread texture to the surface of the piece.

Memory Map: Columbus Junction This work also got attention this week. It is also a slow process as I do the machine drawing of specific events and things on this project. I tried drawing myself as a six year old on tissue paper and then following that lines on the sewing machine. It took several tries to get a image I am half way happy with. I added the nylon netting on the ballet skirt because I remember how very scratchy it was. The little matching skirt on my doll is lost in all the netting though. I had better luck drawing directly on the organza and then stitching on the lines like on the child climbing the slide. This morning I did drawing and painting on the organza to create the wild flowers I remember being so abundant around that house. I will stitch them down using black thread and they will be a lot easier to see I think. I am sure I am not the first to try to adding this type of detail to my work. I just am inventing as I do not know of any other way to find out what works.

Scrap Happy I did work on this project to balance out the careful intense work of the first three mentioned here. I have made so many of these quilts that I do not even need to think much when I am working on them. Some times I need that type of work.

Along the Shore When I finished the tree project I went back into the UFO Ethel box and pulled out this photo she had transferred to fabric. The I read an article in the April May issue of Quilting Arts about a way to Make a Mixed-Media Landscape , and thought I would try that technique with the photo.This is what I have so far. I need to do some hand work on the surface now.

New Project A possible title for this work is Wine and Cheese as the colors suggest that to me. It is in the very early stage. Again it is a process that I know well and I needed to begin this to help balance off all the machine drawing that Ice and Blue Stone require.

Label Block #49 They just seem to keep getting there little bits of attention and in doing so get completed.

Keep Creating

Carol

One last spring thing. May Apples

Blue Stone, Canyon de Chilly, Collage Based Work, Columbus Junction, Creative Assistants, Green Grass of Home, Ice on Vincent, Label Blocks, Memory Map Quilts

On Marks

April 21, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

The sky was so full of contrails – man made marks and I felt I must comment on my focus subject of this year. Marks seem to be every were when you start to look for them. There are marks left by animals like these deer and raccoon tracks are that show marks of passing. But there is a difference between the mark left behind by nature and the marks made by mankind. Man made marks are a conscious decision. There for my con trails are not really marks on the sky as I have defended it. Because I live in an urban setting I seem to find most marks on my walks. I saw these marks of love in the sand when I was visiting Susan in Florida. Then I found these marks scratched in cement on a sidewalk. I observe many spray painted marks. I talked with a man replacing a stop sign that had been grifittied spray painted yesterday on my walk. Then I found these two in the stair well of the art building. They all point to the fact that folks seem to be driven to make marks on surfaces when the opportunity arises. Think about all the silly doodles around the note pad by the telephone or look at a students note book at the end of the school year. Both are covered with marks. We all seem to have a driving need to leave evidence of our passing in the world. Even this strange sculpture is a mark of sorts of some folks existence. I can’t begin to explain why we leave behind the marks. I just know we do and I find it fascinating.

About a month ago I wrote about the “ surFACE” show where artists were given the plastic masks that Cancer patents used as a part of their treatment . I went to the opening/sale of the art works that came out of that Challenge and was amazed by the transformation that the artists did with the masks. This roman fighter was one. Some artists cut up and distorted the masks like this flat work that became and elegant type of painting. I was amazed by this wonderful grass hopper were the artist mixed the plastic with corrugated cardboard. There were several courageous lions. lots of butterflies and angles among the altered masks. Over 90 wonderful creations came out of this powerful challenge.

Progress Report: Green Grass of Home This quilt is 22.5” X 45” and a part of the self challenge project. The collage that I started this work with is in a whole different color pallet- and it morphed as it grew, but I am quilt happy with the final results. When one enlarges from 4” X 6” to a bigger size one does need to break up things a bit differently. I had a good time with the quilting on this work and it is very flat even though I did sew at 45 degree angles in some places.

Memory Map- Canyon De Chelly This quilt is 18 “ X 20”. It has been missing for several months. Some how in my frustration with what to do next it got buried in a pile of fabric and only surfaced this week when I was putting away fabric form my trip to Chicago. I am so glad it got lost because I was so frustrated with it I was ready to throw it away the last time I saw it. But with fresh eyes I saw what it needed and now I am pleased with the work. It mostly needed more definition and needle work. It got both this week.

Memory Map- Columbus Junction Finding Canyon De Chelly also got me going on this work that was at a stall too. I have added more detail to the map section and I am in the process of doing the drawing of the figure for this work now.

Creative Assistants I got busy and finished up 21 more of these little fellows this week. I was pushed forward on this project by unearthing a small box of necklaces with wonderful beads for face parts- but I told myself I could not begin to play with them until I had finished all the started pins. There will be more.

Ice on Vincent I am building up the texture on this work now. It is the slow step were it seems like not much is happening. But I love all the thread play and the tacking down of fabric bits and yarns.

Blue Rock This work is just a little behind the Ice piece. I am still filling in the base layer for it. I like selecting the fabrics and filling in the gaps .

Label Block # 48 The building of the blocks keeps on coming.

Keep Creating

Carol

Columbus Junction, Ethel's Trees, Green Grass of Spring, Label Blocks, Memory Map Quilts, Out the Window, Second Wall, Stretch Works, Stretched Works, Truquoise Street Studio, Uncategorized, Watakoo Wall

Spring get away

March 31, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

Before I left for Florida I was a part of a second show at Turquoise Street Studio on the week end. I even sold a piece and I am thrilled by that. Barbara is so kind to share her studio with us and help us all benefit from that experience.

The photos tells the story of how I started many of my days when I visited Susan and Carolyn in Florida. The sun rises were wonderful. The light was truly “golden” as Barbara says. A big reason for my trip was to see their show. I went through the door and was stopped short by the visual impact. There was so very much to see I could not get myself started. I think I was fortunate to have seem some of the work before or I think I could have been truly overwhelmed. In trying to decide my favorite I was struck by the variety and the powerful use of color. I really like this altered Barbie that has become a god. Carolyn’s Swing Clocks with the moving feet made me smile too. This picture is only two of seven different variations that were presented. Some works were small and intimate and others were bigger than life size like this red dress. I liked Susan’s piece that was based on Little Red Riding Hood too because it had so many parts that were all fascinating all by them selves and also worked together. It was a full and delightful experience for me. We went to the building next to the gallery and saw a second exhibit of the works of the collage faculty and staff. I was taken by this wonderful small weaving. Susan told my it was by the director of the gallery were their work was on display.

Susan and I worked in the studio every day too. This shot is of Susan painting on Tyveck for her project for the Diva 15 Show. We worked with wood and fabric as well and had a lot of fun. We went for a morning at the beach as our way of celebrating Easter. The day was a perfect one for our ramble with a clear blue sky, white sands, crisp ocean smells and a cool breeze.

I found so many fascinating patterns and textures that I took over 75 pictures. But I decided that this shot of Cyprus stumps is my favorite. They almost look like they could walk the shore them selves. I had a great visit.

Progress Report: Watakoo Wall This is another in my stretch works. I am getting better at trimming back the corners enough that they lay flat now. It seems I learn a new trick with every one of these projects. I put lots of fabric bits on the surface as I build up the effect I am after. This one even has some “plastic twist” on it to give it a bit of a punch. It has silk paper as a part of the texture and color as well.

Second Wall This work is a partner to Watakoo Wall. Both are from the same photo, but a very different part of the rock face. This is a very early stage and I am sure it will grow and change as I work on the surface. It seems to cry out for some light at the moment.

Out My Windows I am to the fun stage of the work on this piece. I am doing the free motion drawing part and I always enjoy that step. I did all the dark purple squares yesterday afternoon. They are all night views across the roof tops showing the bare trees.

Green Grass of Spring This work is another of the pieces that is based on a collage. It grew and changed a lot as I enlarged it from the 5”X7” card I did the collage on. I did try to keep the tones of light medium and dark in the same areas however. I have it layered together and it is ready for the quilting. I am just looking and thinking about that step at the moment as I have no real clear idea of how I want to do that.

Memory Maps:Columbus Junction I started this work after talking with Susan before I went off to Florida. She mentioned how much she liked one of the other Memory Map works and I realized that I had not done all the pieces I wanted to do in that series. So after checking my list of possible subjects I selected Columbus Junction the home that I lived in from Kindergarten to the end of third grade. Then I did a list of possible subjects and began some drawings. I built my base and then started working on top. This shot is of the map section with our house being the square with the blue roof. This shot is of the upper right hand corner of the work.

Ethel’s Trees I inherited lots of Ethel’s unfinished work and this is one. I am sure I will not not put my stamp on all of her pieces, but using it as a starting point is a good challenge for me. This started out as only the brown tree painted on the white cloth. I added the gray painted “wonder under” to build up the land and then found this second Ethel cut tree yesterday. I need to live with this work to know were to go from here. The gray tree is not stitched down so it may move before I fuse it down.

Label Block # 45 I worked on this as I waited for the connections flying back and forth. I did not want to get behind while I was away and the activity does not require a lot of attention and its small so it travels well. Susan gave me a new batch of labels so I have more to work with.

I am going off to Chicago to the Quilt Festival and a visit with my Friend Sharron Evens on Wed next week so there will be no posting for April 7. It will be another double shot when I get back.

Keep Creating,

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Memory Map Quilts

April Melt

Spring Break

Busy Week

Moving Forward

Active time

Blooming

New Growth

Spring Changes

On Marks

Spring get away

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer