Hello-

Spring is finally showing it’s self her in central New York.     Three days in a row of  blue sky and sun shine!     Tue and I spotted this garden full of spring flowers and it made me smile  every time I thought of it all day long.   Hurry for the new season!    This week has been so very full of stimulation I, hardly know were to start.    At the FAB meeting  Patti showed us two scarves she had knitted to send off to be given to runners at the end of the Boston Marathon this year.   They both were so very soft that I am sure they will be welcome gifts.   Victoria had been to a little workshop that Noel is giving.  They are playing off the ideas of the necklaces that  Mackenzie- Childs  sells.    The catalogue  in the background was the inspiration, and Victoria really put her own spin on it I think.  The when I went to the Diva meeting last evening I found that Noel was the gal who is leading this play.  She is giving up her rented studio and cleaning as well as  trying to create a new workshop for herself.  Everyone in both groups loves the idea, myself included  so she has agreed to open her space and try  a variation  with several more of us.    I am looking forward to that play day.

The QuEG’s meeting was in morning on Tuesday and there was lots of inspiration there too.  We got to meet in Sue Ellen’s studio, always an inspiration place all by its self.      She ” wowed” us with  six new works!  Like all of us she has lots of fabric and these two pieces were created from her first dyeing experience over 15 years ago.   She says she did them to try out different quilting patters on similar tops.   I think she proved her point.

 

 

  Then there is the wonderful on going work by Sally.   She does such amazing  stuff with her embrodery machine.  The birds just blew me away all by them selves.   Then all the unique nine patch blocks on top were just wonderful too.    In addition to that  she had a pack of about a dozen 6″ cards that used smaller images.  Each  card was different and where she used  varigated gray black and white  thread for this card, many of the cards used different threads for different sections.  She pushed the idea further  water color pencils  to add more color to these small wonders.  She gets sure gets miles of usage out of her machine.

 

Liz is playing with retro fabrics and antique  blocks that are six inches on a side.   The fabrics and patters sure play together well and are a delight to look at.  The small size means it is not  overwhelming- but it will sure take a lot of blocks to finish the piece.

 

 

 

 

Barb is working on this colorful work for her grandson.  The dark blue is denim- just the wright thing for a  young  boy.   She is just starting to quilt in the areas around the zig-zag lines- the white is chalk that will disappear when that job is done.

Then there was the Diva meeting on Tuesday evening to add further delight to the eye.

Anne is pushing forward trying unique quilting patters with the works she showed last month.  I really like how the horizotal  varigated thread  seems  to disappear in places on this work.    Class projects are great places to play with new ideas and explore.

Alice had yet another new wall book to share with us.  This one is called We Love the Water.   The bid bird is one she hand painted on black fabric.  The loon and flying Canada Goose are both from commercial  fabrics.  I find the way she mixes thous two ideas amazing.  Most of the time putting these two things together just does not quite meet the mark- but she does it flawlessly. 

Noel is working with thin strips now.   All the brown units that are cut on the biases sure add to the challenge here.      I like the limited values that she uses here.

She also had a second larger top  in this same vain with kits in some of the diamond shapes.

 

 

 

Cheri finished the wonderful work she shared with two mouths ago.   She has added a lot of hand work to her canvas painted quilt Fiddle Heads.  I really like this work!

The  last of the three Scarp Happy quilts was picked up on Friday.  It went to the local Public Television Station for their  spring auction.    I also gave them a small wall quilt.  I have done this for years as I so believe in public broadcasting.

 Progress Report: Green Grow the Grasses This pale spring quilt is now complete.

It too makes me smile as I recall the  joy of creating the stamped areas as well as all the free motion flower and leaf forms I put on the surface of this one.

   

 

 

I really feel the sewing machine has become a drawing tool for me.  That has only come with years of doing the process, but I want to encourage everyone to keep doing it until it is a natural act for you too.

 

 

 

 Smoke

This work was also completed this week.    More than once I thought that I was done, and I would hang the work on the pin wall at the end of the day.  Then when I would look at it with fresh eyes in the morning I would see easly what  else was needed- more hand work for the most part.       I had never quilted through silk before I tried this project and learned a lot doing so.   I really like how the needle glides through the surface of the project.

 I cut up an  silk scarf that I had created years ago and was not what I would call a success.  All the dark and gray areas are a part of that project.   I like the result here.

 

Grove   I am still working on the insertion process.   I only have one more tree to add the branches to and then I will start the stumps and setting.     I may  shuffle  the parts I have created too.  But I make those visual decisions by looking at the subject.

  New Work    This is the top half of the work I was considering cutting apart last week.  It was not working as it was so I cut it.  The black tree is just pinned in place.   I did try several other placements before I settled on this one.  Again the visual decisions was made visually.    I have quilted in the ditch the background sections of this work and plan to free motion in the tree with additional limbs as needed. 

Daily‘s         I am working away on the  these little fellows.  I discovered one of the  black circle and  units from last month in the bottom of the tin where I keep the prepared squares.  So I finished it too.

Keep Creating

Carol