Category Archives: Oak Leaves

Bird with Berries, Curvie Cuts, Felt Work, Oak Leaves, Textile Artist Stitch Club

New Window

April 8, 2021 admin

Hello,
I hope that the weather is treating everyone well. We are really starting to feel springs warmth at this point and the plants are responding well.

The week end before the holiday, I took an on line class with Amanda McCarvour called Dots, Lines and Squiggles. It was a great experience. She uses lots of wash-away in her process and we did too. She has expanded the thread painting part of the process that I learned from her a few years ago, to include roving as apart of the process.

She showed us how to build various forms successfully from flat patterns and how to make enough crossings of the machine drawn lines to make sure the work held together when the wash-away was removed. I did not use enough contrast in my roving and thread to allow one to really see with this first piece. ( the orange one at the top) On day two we worked with adding more materials to the roving. The Ginko leaf has the plastic mess from a orange bag trapped between my thread lines. The Amanda show us how to create a three dimensional effect and the Dogwood blossom is my attempt at that.
I really enjoyed the class.

The other big thing in my life is a new back door and the replacement of the bay window in my studio. I spent most of my time clearing away my supplies and materials in the studio to prepare for that this week. This is a shot of how the inside looks this morning before they begin work.

This shot is of the old window. You can see the rotting wood at the bottom. It sure let the cold wind in this winter.

Yesterday they installed a new back door. I like the color and now we will work on the new steps and surrounding area.

Today they are working on the window. I will post a shot of the new window next week.

Progress Report: Oak Leaves- Curvy cut. This work is 39.5″ X 30″. I did the curvy cuts to mix the two small units of fabric for the base of this piece. Then I cut big oak leaves from purple silk and silver organza. I pinned them in place and did the vanes in the leaves. I then did Zig-zag around the edges to finish of the leaves.

Bird and Berries This work is 12″ X 12′. I had felted the background earlier this season and done the thread painted bird. I added the beading and finished the work this week when I could not work in the studio.

Time Off This work is 11″X 11″. It too is a work that has been setting waiting for finishing.

I enjoy handwork.

Crows I drew a new crow for this project crow project last week. I have some ideas about how to add it to the others and finish this work.

Coral Reef I finished the beading of the left hand corner on Tuesday. This project is from Textile Asrtist Stitch Club assignment from six weeks ago. I am glad I have worked so carefully on this project to finish it. My intent is to add a back and facing to finish it this week.

Daily Practice I Put in the time on this every day and it grows slowly.

There will not be any Childhood Memories this week because I can not work on the sewing machine to do the installation of the memory. So there will be two stories and art works next week.

Pleas take care of yourself and stay safe,

Carol

Acanthite, Caramelized, New Iris, Oak Leaves, Out of the Dark, Out the Window, Pomegranate, Red Nebula, Yellowstone

Realisations

November 20, 2014 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

I feel so Positive when I think about my work. I did a solo trunk show yesterday for the North Syracuse Art Guild titled

Out the Window 16.5" X 21.5" $125.00 — Out the Window
16.5″ X 21.5″
$125.00

” Your Art /My Art”. In that lecture/ trunks show, I compared my work to the many styles and types of work that the members use. In doing so I really realized how much I draw from the other art categories to get my ideas across. I draw directly on the fabric with pencils, crayons and markers. I use my machine as a drawing tool too. I Paint with acrylic,water color and dye on the surface when I need to create a special effect. I print on the surface using silk screens, stamping and stencils to get images I want on the work. I use some weaving techniques like felting, silk papers and frapping. I often use collage techniques to build up my surfaces with

Red Nebula 18" X 24" — Red Nebula
18″ X 24″

textures and transparencies and different already textured fabrics like velvet and satins. I even embellish with old jewelry on occasion. I am thankful that I get to use from all the different art areas to full fill my creative drive. I realized too that I have been using my experiences and interests to fuel my work for most of my life. Doing a presentation like this is a good way to reflect and re evaluate oneself.

I now have the monster job of returning all the work back into the category packs that I store them in. I feel so very thankful that I am working in so many ways to fulfill my creative ideas.

Acanthite: Foundations XXIV 18" X 23" $ 150.00 — Acanthite: Foundations XXIV
18″ X 23″
$ 150.00

Progress Report: Acanthite :Foundation 24 This quilt is went together very quickly for me. This stone added some problems as some of the areas where a sold white. I wanted to be sure to use velvet and now whale corduroy on this work to show the wonderful textures they add to the surface. There were also lots of cracks on the surface that added interest to this one.

This shot also shows some of the chenille yarn( dark green) and some silk paper( blue- near the top).

Broadcasting I am enjoying doing the hand work on this piece. Most of the saxaphone pads are stitched down now and I am adding beads and french knots to the surface. I have added some reflective quilting to the surface too. This work is going along well at the moment with each actions leading to the next.

Yellowstone The ease that Broadcasting is a great contrast with my slow process on this work. I think I finally have the map portions the correct size and location. I will do the paint step for that and then I will move forward. I also realized that the piece is too pale. Yellowstone has lots of forest and I want to project that feel too so I pulled out dark green organza ( pinned to the left) and adding that will help me go forward I hope.

The Blues This work just needs time as the hand work is a slow thing. I am playing with three of different types of stitches- the chain stitch, the blanket stitch and the fly stitch. I am varying the size of the stitches to add interest.

Caramelized This is a new work that is still in the shifting and pinning stage. I melted the Tyvec that I painted in the fall colors last week, with the iron between sheets of parchment paper. The melt results are so much fun because they are uncontrollable. Mixing them with silk paper makes me think of carmel and melting butter. That is were the title came from. I am enjoying the play.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Oak Leaves, On the Raod to Dry Falls, Truquoise Street Studio

Open Studio November 21 , 2013

November 21, 2013 admin

Hi ,

Welcome to all the new followers that have signed up this week. 32 new folks were added to the subscription list and I am quite flattered.

This is a shot of the Turquoise Street Studio wall with work by Beth Houston Barholdt and Barbara Vural. They are having an open studio this eve as a part of Third Thursday. I was asked to join them and I have work for sale as well. I know I should have posted this bit of news last week- but I did not think of it. I will try to keep my eye on that ball in the furture. So as that bit of news suggests I have been busy getting ready for that event. Tagging, matting and framing of little works really take a lot longer than their size suggests.

On Tuesday, I went along with the other gals who are part of FAB- our mini group, to see the Quilts= Art= Quits at the Schweinfurth Art Center. We spent two hours looking and talking about the work shown there. It is always so inspiring. Then on the way home we stopped at Patchwork Plus and did a little shopping. Nancy and Victoria both purchased material, while Patti and I purchased other things. We had a good full day and I went home with my mind spinning in many directions.

I started working on Christmas Cards this week too. I stitched down green silk scraps from the Oak Leaves project on top of green triangles. Then I added a star and squeezie paint balls to the trees. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Progress Report: Oak Leaves This quilt is complete now. I had shown it to the gals in FAB at the last meeting and they suggested that I add something to the bottom left hand side. This work hung on the design wall all week and finally yesterday morning it hit me that what it needed was a little bit of suggested green leaf fromation from another branch. So I added it. I really like how the silk leaves are fraying with time on this piece. That added texture plus the wonderful shadows created by the overlapping leaves, especially were they cross the frapped branches, are enjoyable to me. I have never used silk in this fashion before and think there is more exploration for me in that direction. I do not have any more silk at the moment so it will have to stay at the dream/ imagination stage for now.

On the Raod To Dry Falls 29" X 39.5" $290.00 — On the Raod To Dry Falls
29″ X 39.5″
$290.00

On The Road to Dry Falls This is the lost top that I mentioned last week. I had started it at QBL. I used some very old material here- the yellow, orange and white in the center and left sections- and some more recently altered stuff. The cream and green at the top on the right and lower left is from the discharged play day I did with Marty last spring. I also used some of the silk paper on this work. I am enjoying the process of free motion attachment of yarn( the white lines) as well as the sewing/quilting lines for texture. I am getting better at stretching the silk out to create more of a web like effect too.

This quilt also has some hand painted fabric in it. Well that many not exactly be hand painted as this light sections is really a wipe up cloth- but I do not know how else to describe it. Nothing is trash to me I guess.

Daily’s The Daily’s continue to be joy for me. This week’s collection seems to be a mixture of crazy and control…. I am not even going to guess what that says about my mind. There are only a few more prepared blocks using the black circles and red squares….. So there will be a change in something by next week.

Keep Creating

Carol

Blue Yonder, Daily's, Diva Meetings, Oak Leaves, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

November 7, 2013

November 7, 2013 admin 2 Comments

Hello,

The weather is still somewhat mild here. I find because I am working on the quilt with the oak leaves on it I am looking more at other oak trees too. This one is in the Oak Wood Cemetery were I walk some days. I Have noticed how different trees have differnt colorations. This old one is a deep red. The one along the drive is primary yellow- but that is only at the bottom, now as the top has turned brown. I have also observed that there are many different shapes to the leaves. I know that has to do with species differences. Some leaves are very sharply pointed like the one in my yard and some are all curves ends. I picked up one in the parking lot in Ithaca yesterday and not only were the ends of the leaves very curved the leaf had a really deep dip, almost to the spine, after the first vain from the base of the leaf. Mother Nature loves variation on a theme. I may have to get a tree book and do some serious study.

This week was the first full week of November and so I had my group meetings on Tue. Both were very exciting. The QUEGs group had severl members who had be to the big quilt show in Houston and they had lots of wonderful pictures and gadets to share. The Diva’s were inspirational too. Everyone seems to be so energized with lots to share. Ruth is working on a project using African simbiles as the bases for the block. This one sure is bold. She had also created a wonderful study using her style of expertly mixing batikand hand dyed fabrics. Cindy shared her amazing prints. She did them with the big Gelly Plate. She is now going back into the work and adding machine stitching in top. They are the faint red lines crossing the yellow in this photo. The work is very elegant. Donna was kind enough to bring her Alchemist Mask. I love masks and this one is a great one. She built it over the old store mannequin she has in her studio. The face is nobel. I like the life size doll eyes she put in the face too. They add so much in the way of focus. Alice is working on a Human Angles series and this is one of them. I am showing this image because she has a unique style of working were she paints the image she wants on the back of her cloth. Then she turn it over and lays a piece of black fabric on top. With the two layers together she flips the work to the back and sews around the image she has painted. So this picture is from the back. She then trims the black off the front along her seam lines and her images are outlined in black- her signature style. It is very cool I think.

This work with four figures is by Cheri. I especially like the unfinished edge she used here. They are a wonderful and inspiring group of gals who seem to be all working away in their own direction.

Progress Report: Blue Yonder This quilt is ready for quilting now. I have done my “stitch in the ditch” step after basting. Doing that makes the work stable for all the crazy directions I always seem to want to go. I have not decided what that free motion quilting will be yet.

Oak Leaves This is a close up of the project. I am having lots of fun making more and more leaves. I just love how the unattached body of the leaves casts such wonderful shadows on the quilt. They also flutter a bit when there is a breeze, like when I come in the studio door. There is a lot of texture here and I love that.

Daily’s The Daily’s are coming along. I now have a full cigar box of the little fellows and they are starting to look really impressive when on puts them all out. I still have ideas of layouts for the parts and shape and color changes I want to try- so I will keep the practice up. I also added a silly rule- no new purchases for this project. I am almost out of red embroidery thread so I will have to switch to crochet thread- I have several huge balls of that. I am sure that will change the character of the stitches. But that is part of the experiment.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Oak Leaves, Rounds

Halloween Oct 31, 2013

October 31, 2013 admin

Hello,

I have spent a lot of time this week preparing for Halloween and all the joys there of. This first shot is of my grandson in his black crushed velvet cape that has a red lining of the same material. Very dramatic to my eye and worm as well. I did a second costume for the 10 year old grandson too, but as I have not seen him dressed in it, so I do not have a photo to share. Let’s just say it is a very elaborate pirate costume, from a video game. All the fun of seeing how kids portray themselves will come this eve and I do so enjoy them when they appear at my door. It is good to try on different persona every now and then.

Because I spent so much time creating costumes I did not get a lot of quilt work done this week. Progress Report: Rounds

I am working on the quilting step of this work now. I decided to emphasize the stamped circles and quilted around them all first. I also filled in the rest of a circle if it was cut off in the stripping process. Now the quilting is reflective of those first actions. All the curves means I am moving very slowly because there is so much turning of the whole quilt as I stitch along. I like the rail drops on a pool like images I am creating using this technique.

Oak Leaves This work got some attention this week too. I made a bunch more leaves and trimed them out for application to the surface. The leaves are made of various shades of green Dupioni silk that is backed with green cotton. I draw the vanes out in thread and then free hand cut the leave shapes, all the time referring to the actual leaves that I picked up last week. I will pin them on the quilt and hand stitch them down this week. I seem to have lots more hand work than usual at the moment, but I enjoy that too.

Blue Yonder

This work is fully assembled now. I enjoyed the process and it did seem to change under my fingers as I worked on it. I have created a back and will do the assemble process soon. I am trying to clear things up from the pin wall so I can start on a new series of rock pieces.

Daily’s

The Daily’s changed this week. I did black circles and red rectangles this time. I also watched a video on embroidery stitches on Wed and have a whole head full of stitches to try. It is fun and a challenge- that is what I wanted so I feel very good about the process.

I hope you enjoy all the fun little visitors this evening.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Oak Leaves

Fall Color Oct 24, 2013

October 24, 2013 admin

Hello,

As this picture tells the color is still high here. I just keep enjoying it as I know a hard fall rain will rip the leaves away from the trees and expose the branches. I know that the world around me will open to much wider vistas whtn that happens, but I will miss the color.

I have put most of my efforts this week into the production of a Halloween costume for my grandson. It is some pirate character from a video game. There is not any commerical pattern of course. It has lots of layers-four- and lots of strage bits of leather harnesses and straps plus brass studs and rings. I even got to make some skull embellishments out of paper clay yesterday to make it more complete. I will let them dry one more day before I paint them and add that the surface. I guess he knows I am always up for a challenge. Progress Report: Oak Leaves It is hard for me to believe I started this in July at QBL. But with all the time I have spent of late looking at leaves it sure seems approiate. I have stitched down all the leaves I created last summer to the branch. I feel it looks a bit skimpy now so I will make more as I still have the bonded silk that I made the first ones from. On my walk today, I picked up four new leaves to use at patterns for the new creations. I felt a little sad as there were so many beautiful colored leaves and the oak ones are just brown. I still do love the shapes of them though. It also added a lot more quilting this week to this quilt.

Blue Horizons I started this work a few weeks ago. I spent a little time assembling this top on Sunday. It is coming along and I will soon have it completed.

Daily’s I am dutifully working away on my Daily’s. I did the fusing step on a new batch this week and tried a little twist. One of the new blocks is unique in the shapes. I hope that viewers can spot it. All the ones for the next few weeks will feature this change. I am having fun and that is the goal.

Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

Blooming Bacteria, Daily's, Gray Wall, Oak Leaves

Thursday October 17, 2013

October 17, 2013 admin

Hello,

Fall is in about in all its colorful beauty here in central New York. The yellow leaves have forsaken the trees to lay down a carpet of gold in many locations. That is not to say that all the leaves have fallen yet- there are still lots in the trees, but I so love to walk in the crunch that they provide this time of year. I just go a little crazy with my camera and shoot lots of pictures.

I have been busy with lots of play dates and a workshop this week. The workshop was last Friday eve and it was on curved piecing. I was trying to learn how to make very skinny lines with the cruves and I think I am getting closer to what I intended. I mostly selected colors for this experiment that are not my usual pallet. I go for the second class with Ruth White on Friday this week. It is about how to create wholes. I have done some of that on my own, but it is always valuable to get instructions I think.

I spent a play day with Susan on Monday and I played with my Gelli plate the whole time. It was great fun. Susan was experimenting with a new technique for creating stencils. Sadly she was not very successful and discovered mostly what did not work. Her work is on the top shelf and mine is the stuff on the bottom. We did enjoy making our commitment lists for the winter as she has departed for the south now and I will not see her for six mouths. I now have a mini goal to work for and she does as well.

I spend yesterday playing with Liz and Angela. The day was a handwork day and it was great too. Angela is the queen of stitches in my world. Both Liz and I looked at tons of books on the topic too. I have two luscious videos and several books to study now too. It is wonderful to have friends that are so very sharing. Liz did not even get her needles out, but Angela and I both did. She worked on her on going Tapa cloth Hawaiian embroidery block quilt. It is going to be a real stunner when she is done I am sure. Liz drew stitch pattern ideas in her journal. Angela taught us some new hand stitches and I now know the difference between a steam stitch and an outline stitch. ( that has to do with the side of the line that the thread endes up lying on.) She also taught us how to do a Colonel Knot. I worked on my Blooming Bacteria quilt. I also picked up my new thermo fax screens. I need to do the taping of the edges now and then find some time to start to print them. I am excited about that, but it willl need to stay on the back burner until later this fall.

Progress Report: Gray Wall I am very pleased with out

Gray Wall 38" X 36" $700.00 — Gray Wall
38″ X 36″
$700.00

this rock quilt has turned out. I love all the texture and the mix of fabric types that it contains. It really flows for me the way I remember the wall being. I enjoy the raw edges and all the free motion stitch work that is part of this quilt. The paint work adds to the lichen feel of the rock face for me as well.

Susan really helped me with the finishing of this work. Or it would be better to say she encouraged me to leave the raw edges and the exposed back of this work. There is no hiding of my processes in this piece.

Oak Leaves I have been doing handwork on this piece too. The limb is almost all stitched to the surface. I can see that I need to add more machine quilting to make it more stable now that the branch has added so much weight to the quilt. It is a learning process when one is trying new stuff.

Blooming Bacteria This quilt has been setting and waiting for attention for a while.(see Aug 16, 2013) I somehow lost most of the crouched circles I had created for it. I put them some place so safe that I cannot find them at all and that is frustrating. I have done a lot of cleaning in my search and the only conclusion I can come to now is that I mistakenly tossed them out. I took it to the handworks play day yesterday and added some of the circles that I had and started creating more. It will be a long process before this quilt is done.

Daily’s I am doing my Daily’s as I am now calling my hand work square projects. They are still fun and with the new stitches that Angela taught me I still can see more ways to play with the idea.

I hope everyone is enjoying the colors fall as much as I am.

Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

Oak Leaves, On the Road to Dry Falls

September 12, 2013 Fall Rains

September 12, 2013 admin

Hello, Today in my part of the world it is raining again. We need the water, but I am tired of the gloom that the gray skies seem to bring along too. It makes me want to take a nap. This photo is one I took on my way home on Tuesday after taking down the “Sticks and Stones” show. As you can see from the image it was gray that day too.

Progress Report: Pumpkin Lichens
I am not showing this work this week because I had a bit of a disaster with it . I though I had trimmed it all up and I was adding the sleeve when I realized that one side was a good inch longer than the other….. I have not done all the deconstruction that needs to happen before I can correct that mistake yet, but I will do so and show that next week.

On the Road to Dry Falls I made progress on this work this week. I am doing more of the tron and free motion stitch down work on this surface. I used this technique with the fused silk, some taffeta and some nylon netting. I like how it allowed for a feeling of shadow and texture.

Oak Leaves
I started this at Quilting by the Lake. The leaves are free floating and made with a top layer of silk and a bottom of cotton. I have been looking at it in this state for a few weeks now and it finally came to me that It needed a three dimensional limb too. So I pulled out some roving and frapped it with a dark patterned fabric. In this closeup you can see how the fabric is wrapping around and creating a new texture. There is a little of the roving showing at the bottom of this shot.

This second shot is of the full limb as it is now. I need to create a background and stitch the limb to it before I add the leaves.

I though I might add fused silk clouds to this work as well. I will at least create some clouds for myself in the fused silk workshop that I am teaching on Friday.

New Work
I am doing pure explorations with this new piece. I took a class with Valerie Goodwin at QBL in 2012 and she suggested we use all the different way we knew to attach fabric to the surface to add texture. I had not really applied this idea before but when I came across my class notes I though I would give it a try. So with this small piece I have used flip piecing, raw edge and hand stitching. The next process is to add paint….. I am having fun as I am not at all sure what I am doing and the class notes are not as complete as I had though. A year plus is a long time and one does forget details.

I hope fall is sending you visual joy and creative time.

Hugs

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Oak Leaves

New Window

Realisations

Open Studio November 21 , 2013

November 7, 2013

Halloween Oct 31, 2013

Fall Color Oct 24, 2013

Thursday October 17, 2013

September 12, 2013 Fall Rains

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer