Category Archives: Name Game

Foundations Series, Heart of Gold, Label Blocks, Patti, Relaxed Energy, Scrap Happy Quilts, Vernal Equinox, Whip Shock Hill #2

Spring

April 2, 2015 admin

Hello,

The trees are still bare, but the sun is shinning and I have spotted several Robins while I have been out of doors, and I even ate my lunch out side today. This shot not only shows the tree but is also shows an aspect of line. A line can change its thickness as well as it’s direction. The more I pay attention to lines the more I am aware of how vestal they are. Lines can be used to express a wide array of emotions. They can be sad, nervous , silly angry, graceful, calm, excited and dancing to name a few. Our culture uses them to communicate with words and images. They are every were when one starts to look for them.

I made Easter Cards one day this week. I took a heavy card stock and on top of that I placed ribbons, yarn and plastic twist. I kept the pallet limited to light spring like colors and then stitched in many directions across the surface to attached the materials. When I felt that the surface was strong enough I cut out the egg shapes. I added pipe cleaner ears and a pome-pome tail to create little rabbits. Then I glued them down to the cards were I had drawn some grass with a green marker. I did leave some of the eggs as just eggs and glued them into nests so I had two different cards. I had a good time and I hope my friends enjoyed my spring fling.

Progress Report: Whip Shock Hill II I am still working away on this piece. I like adding all the texture to the surface of the work. It makes for nice soft color changes is some areas. I am sure I will complete this piece this week.

Scrap Happy 6 &7 The only thing I needed to do to complete this quilt this week was add the binding. That takes me about an hour. This one has center blocks that are all in grays and black and whites, with a few center blocks that have browns in them.

I also completed Scarp Happy # 7. This one has deep red center blocks and gray center blocks. The scale of the prints is much smaller than # 6 so it is not nearly as busy.

Verna Equinox This is the newest piece using the Fabric Collage technique. I am trying to add lots of different fabric textures along with the wrinkle and wad stuff that I have been working on. This piece has cotton, valure, taffeta, silk, double knit, organza, grow grain ribbon, and wide whale corduroy in it. The fabrics alone are lots of textures. I hope I can make it work.

Name Game III – Patti This shot shows the first cut from the brown and gray fabric. The top image is the negative in brown and the bottom image is the positive in brown. I have been very careful in my documentation of this process this time and I will put up a tutorial of the process this next week. Hopefully I will be finished with the work too.

Ribbon Work I stared this new piece trying to play with the same ribbon application technique that was on a piece of red fabric that Susan gave me. The process is slow and I cannot seem to work with the closeness the example has– but I do like the effect. My ribbon is much wider then the example. I am still trying to stay true to my New Years resolution of not purchasing any thing new so I will continue to work with the ribbons I have here.

Flags: Heart of Gold I am continuing on the Susan’s Flag Challenge. This week I tackled the purple stencils. Susan did the rib cage that is on this work. I added more color with various fabric markers. The heart is a small bit of gold fabric that was remaindered from some other project as it was just pinned to the wall.

Flags: Relaxed Energy This is my purple stencil. I selected this pose from Susan’s book because I was surprised that many of the exercises that the physical therapist gave me for my back are also Yoga poses. I added a beautiful glittered nylon net that Susan had purchased in Mexico and given me as a part of this flag. I was also thinking about negative space when I made the stencil and when I cut away some of the netting.

Label Blocks 1 &2 I need to have a hand work project for my evenings. So I stated doing these label blocks again. I did my last label quilt in 1988. Some of the labels I am using are left overs form those works. But I will soon be using only current labels. They are much harder to find now because many labels are printed on the fabric as apposed to added units. If you have any you can send them my way.

Enjoy the days as they get longer and warmer.

Keep Creating ,

Carol

Flag Challenge, Lexi, Magic, Name Game, Spring Onion, Whip Shock Hill #2

Mud Puddle Luscious

March 26, 2015 admin

Hello,

My world is headed toward spring. I heard and then saw geese flying north yesterday on my walk. Today it is raining and I am reminded of a line from an e e cummings poem were he described spring rain as creating a world that is “ mud puddle luscious and the goat footed balloon man wanders far and wee” . I will not be walking today for that reason- too much mud in every direction. This week has been as full Saturday I went to a play day were all sorts of things were going on. Noel and I worked on making puppet heads out of paper Mache’. Some folks painted like Annie while others sew on quilt projects and dolls.

At noon we had a little show and tell were June showed off this fun doll. She was working on it the last time we got together. I like the use of the antique wood block as the front of the body. The hair is cool too.

This quilt is a group challenge project by the Modern Quilters. Each person go the same colors and the background fabric. They all made a row that they then assembled. Marie showed us what she has started last time too from the online class she is taking called 100 Sheets of Cheep Paper. This is one of the works she did.

The Social Art Club had a art show this week and the work was wonderful. This piece is a fiber work by Kathleen Simpson. I displayed my chickens as a part of the table decorations for that affair.

I gave two quilts to my local Public TV Station this morning. One was one of those Scrap Happy that I have been working on sense January and the second was Golden Weeds. I will be watching the auction and hoping to see the sales of both works.

This is also the time of year that

Quilt Surface Design Association calls for donations for their auction so I did a work for that too.

This work is a small 12″ X 12 “. Easy Flow is ready in the box for shipping and I will go to the post tomorrow and send it off.

Progress Report: Name Game II – Lexi, For this quilt I used my Grand Daughter’s nick name as my starting point. I used the same sew and cut method that I employed last week with Carol. The big change this time was that background fabric was a plaid taffeta and that added a different design problem. I did the quilting on the background just like before with silver thread. This time I also made the work bigger before I cut it into blocks. As a result I have squares that I did not use for this quilt so there may be a smaller one later. I want to try this type of construction one more time so I can try for a writing text instead of a printed letter form.

Whip Shock Hill II This work is to be a partner with the first Whip Shock Hill and is based on a second shot of the same rock face just further north. This images is a close up as I do not think the full work is very interesting at this point.

Susan’s Flag Challenge: Spring Onion Susan and I both have a dozen flags with the same images on them. How we choose to finish the works will be a fun comparison study when we get together again in June. There is crayon drawing on this work and some beads were added to represent soil under the plants. I learned that one can not add stamped letters over a seam and get a smooth image with this project. The word onion had to be stamped on a second cloth and added on top. Experimenting with new materials and methods is one of the goals of this challenge. The stamped letters on fabric is a new thing for me.

Flag Challenge- Magic This flag uses my stencil of hands . I added the crayon drawing of the swirls and stars then pressed the fabric. I then washed the whole thing in the blue. My test this time was done with magic marker.

New work This work is the next one in the fabric collage series . There is not a stitch on this one yet- just lots and lots of pins. It will morph and change as the stitching and addition of ribbon, yarn and paper goes forward. I look forward to working on this one.

Keep Creating

Carol

Canyon de Chilly, Carol, Flag Challenge, Hand work, Lexi, Memory Map Quilts, Nail Castings, Name Game Quilts, Whip Shock Hill #2

Warming up

March 19, 2015 admin

Hello,

We are starting to see the melting of the snow around here. It is beautiful in its own way. But it can become very dirty and discolored before its gone. With the longer days I find myself spending more time cleaning and sorting. I seem to have the clutter rule of “ One thing in one thing out” well under control in my closet and dresser drawers. But that is not the case in my studio. I have piles of stuff all around and I need to do some serious culling. I know that a clean and clear space helps one get going on the creative work and I do love to walk into that sort of setting. But I have been traveling and working with others so much of late, that I have let the materials pile as I rush from one play date to another. I have done a good job a voiding going out and spending money on new supplies and materials however. I have kept my spending sense January at less then $35. Not bad for two and a half month I think. But it is the gifting of stuff from those friends that is getting me into trouble. I did spent yesterday with my friend Ethel doing screen dye printing. It was great to play with the rich colors. Now I have all the rinsing and washing to do today. She also gave me a couple of yards of white duck…… I am hopeless!

I did work a little on the Challenge Project Susan and I started in Florida. I added a blue wash to this piece and think I have decided on the text that I want to add. I can already see that the word part of this challenge will be the most difficult for me. I plan to add some beads tomorrow when I go to see my friends at Turquoise Street studio.

Progress Report: Nail Castings This project started as a result of finding the white plastic units that hold nails in electronic nail guns. I was fascinated by the shapes of the things. I have enjoyed working away with thread out of Grandmother Ruth’s needle basket and exploring differenttypes of stitches.

Name Game 1-Carol Now I know I say that words are not my strong suit- but I do love the shapes of letters and the spaces around them. To build this top I first printed out my name in very large letters. 22″ tall and 22” wide in fact. Then I stitched around the letters and cut away the negative space. I stitched the negative spaces shapes to a second pieces of light blue that was also 22” X 22”. I found that the letters them selves created units of the turquoise that were too big. So I cut just inside the stitch lines and then added those new shapes to the negative space piece on the second fabric. Next I cut both pieces of fabric into 5.5” squares and began playing with the blocks. Some I turned side ways or even upside down, always paying attention to the relationships of one square to the ones next to it. This play part took me a long time and several days. When I was happy with it I sewed the blocks together. This is such a fun and challenging design project I started a second as soon as I had the top all assembled.

Name Game II – Lexi This second top went a lot faster as I knew were I thought I was going. I made this one more complex by using a plaid taffeta for the background fabric. I also made more blocks and will not use all of them in this project. I think this will create a stronger piece in the end. In this shot some of the blocks are sewn to one another.

Memory Map- Canyon de Chilly I added the Spider Women’s Towers to this project. I really enjoy working on these Memory Map projects, but they as all very slow in there development. The ruins are also attached now too.I am still trying to decide what other elements I want to add to the work.

Whip Shock Hill II I want to enter a show where one needs two quilts that relate to one another. I have been thinking about how much I enjoyed the work on Whip Shock Hill. The first project shows less then half of the hill so I though I would use this challenge to do the second half. This is just the roughed out

Whipshock Hill Foundations XXI 44" X 35" — Whipshock Hill Foundations XXI
44″ X 35″

stage. But I do not think I have shown this step before when it comes to these type of collage projects that I do. The base fabric is only pinned to the buckrum at this point and no stitching has been applied. This second shot is of the first piece.

I am keeping myself busy as the Spring season gets going.

Keep Creating,

Carol

Boiling Point, Carol, Fabric Collage Constructions, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Hand work, Nail Castings, Name Game, Owl

Florida Holiday

March 11, 2015 admin

Hello,

I am home from a week in Gulfport Florida. I really enjoyed the new sceanry . There was so much to look at my eyes could hardly take it all in! From the shore with lots of bird forms to the sky and the plant life- I was a shooting fool when it came to taking pictures. I just love how this split pine looks and I am sure it will turn up in some work at some time. Then there was all the art. We went to a show of work by Geoffrey Gorman. He builds wonderful found object sculptures of animals and birds that include wire and canvas that he has aged with rust. His work was wonderful.

Susan took me to an opening at the Florida CraftArt Gallery, where both Oiseau Sisters had pieces. This shot shows Susan with her birds. She and I played in the studio every day. I did Gelli prints with Lora on Tuesday. I used one as a base when we went to drawing on Wed eve. Susan and I designed and then started a flag project. We each made six stencils and printed two of each. These are my images. At the end of the week we traded one of each of our images for one of each of the other person’s works. Now we will both work on the flags as we see fit and when we meet again at the June Diva meeting we will compare how each of us has altered all the images. We designed it to be an open exploration project- trying new materials and techniques. It will be fun I think.

I worked away all week on this owl stitchery project. It is nearly complete now. I had intended to work on a piece that I brought form home, but I did not do a stitch on it. The first day Susan pulled out one of her bins of fabric and I got inspired. Something about some one else’s materials I suppose.

Tuesday was a FAB meeting and after a month of not seeing folks we had a lot to talk about. Nancy is making great progress on her bed quilt( this shot shows the center section folded up as it is all the stripes. ) Now she will build more images on top.

Progress Report: Boiling Point

Boiling Point 16" X 20" $225.00 — Boiling Point
16″ X 20″
$225.00

This project went together quickly just before I left. I am still using the fabric collage technique that I used with the Foundations Series, but it not based on any stone this time. I also did all the work on canvas this time and then stretched it around to the back of the stretcher bars before tacking. This first close up is near the center of the work. I used red, rust, gray and dark green velvet in this work as well as satin and silk fabrics. The more I play with the layering and folding of the various fabrics the more I enjoy the process. This second shot is near the middle on the right. A little copper paint adds fun.

Raw edges here add another texture to the mix,

Name Game 1- Carol I cut the work into 6″ square and then reassembled it. I am only going to show this close up this week because the only step that remains for completion is the facings and I will complete them for next week.

Owl I am showing the completed owl that I did in Florida as I am going to send it off to the framers this week and shooting through glass is as strong as a strait shot. I really enjoyed working on this. I tried lots of varieations on the fly stitch on this work. The vanes in the leaves are fly stitches all connected to one another. The tree bark is that same stitch on its side and interlocked with its neighbor. The wing tip is shown here and it is made from a pair of textured panty hose. The pin feathers on the chest are woven copper ribbon that has been tacked down with open fly stitches. The claws are made from fake leather that was frapped. The found objects that started this whole work are the chroched rings that are the whites of the eyes. The orange is a bit of bias tape and the black is a sequin held in place with a french knot. The beak is created from the same fake leather as the claws.

Memory Map- Canyon de Chelly I am still strugling with with were this project is going. But I feel closer then before. Adding Spider Women’s towers ( on the left) will help anchor the work I think.

Nail Castings

I am still fasinated by the shapes of these plastic parts. I enjoyed tacking them down with lots of different types of stitches. the shapes just tickled me.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Name Game

Spring

Mud Puddle Luscious

Warming up

Florida Holiday

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer