Category Archives: Natural Elements

Circle Challenge VI, Circle Challenge VII, Creative Assistants, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Fling, Label Blocks, Scrap Happy Quilts, Three Jacks

Working time

February 2, 2017 admin

Hello,

I feel good about the confines of winter as I seem to get a lot done. I am still feeling the energy of my show too. I will take it down tomorrow however. I have four works in the Cabin Fever Quilt show at Bette Branch Library here in town though. These four little works pictured here are my 6” X 6” pieces for the Rochester Art center. I mailed them off on Tuesday. They are all part of the felted work I was doing last week. I still have big chunks of the felting to use in the project when I get the final additional parts.

FAB meant this week and everyone had work to show and talk about. This is Patti’s new weaving project. The can at the bottom is full of her woof threads. Judy put aside her red sweater for the summer and has not pulled it out again. She is getting to the arm wholes near the top now.

Nancy got busy and finished off six new placemats for her home. They are spring like I think.

We had another snow storm last night so I am doing more snow dyeing. This is a shot of the top of the bucket shortly after I put the dye on top of the snow that is setting on top of the prepared fabric. Now to await the melting/dyeing.

Progress Report: Fling This work is 50” X 34”. It is based on a collage and has Ethel’s Marbleized fabric( the orange) and my hand dyed yellow and the light green and blue stuff. The quilting is done in two styles. For the orange and the white fabrics I followed the edges of the color changes. For the purples I did a pebble style.

Circle Challenge VI This work is 14” X 19” . It has a lot of movement in it. The quilting is reflective of the circles and done in quilting thread. I liked adding the beading at the end and I will do that again in number VII.

Circle Challenge VII I finished the quilting last eve. It is trimmed and ready for beads and facings so I will finish it quickly this week .

Three Jacks I put this work under glass this week- and that makes for awful reflections. Then before I sealed the back with brown paper I checked it and noticed that I had some how gotten a nail on the outside between the matt and the glass. So I will need to take it all apart and do it again before it is complete.

Scrap Happy I continue to work through Ethel’s scrap box. I need to complete a scrap happy quilt for the Prevention Network so I have been putting in an hour a day putting the scarps together. They are cheerful I think.

Scarf I have always enjoyed looking at a project and trying to figure out how it was done. So this week when I saw a wonderful image on Pinterest I thought- I will try to do something similar. First I pulled out a lot of green roving. After adding some leaves I cut from gold ribbon, I placed them on some wash away and drizzle some yarn on top of the whole thing. After placing a second bit of wash away on top to create a sandwich I started stitching everything together. This will take me a while to complete, but I am looking forward to this little challenge.

New Work I am all done with the assembly of the background for this project. But when I added the Tezel on top I did not quite work as I though it would. Then I looked at it in gray scale on my camera and realized the Tezel heads are too small and too close in value to the background. The opposite of what I did with the Jack in a Pulpit project. So I took the heads off and created new ones that are bigger and have a bit of orange in their color to create a contrast with the background. They work a lot better. Now I will need to create a new background for the first heads. I am going to test myself by creating it in the same size as the first and see if I can make it work with just a value changes.

Sharron’s Challenge Sharron and I purchased the same kimono( the stuff in the center) last year and have a challenge to created something with it. I pulled some fabrics that I think work well with this fabric and will start a project soon.

Creative Assistants I finished off a new batch of these little fellows this week. I need to really get going on them as I do not have much of a tribe yet this year. I want to be able to give them away at QBL this summer and not leave anyone out so I need to get going.

Label Block # 105 I think that I only need to do fifteen more and I will be done with this step of this project.

Keep Creating

Carol

Challenge III, Circle Challenge IV, Circle Challenge V, Circle Challenge VI, Five Jacks, Label Blocks, Three Jacks

Value

January 20, 2017 admin

Hello,

As the image shows I am still struggling with Value. Thus far in my own study I would say that value works best in strong contrast- or at least it is easier to see. Gradation limits the ability to see value, or perhaps that it is just more difficult to label. I can see that I really do not know what I am exploring. A good thing I think.

FAB meant this week. Patti was/in really into knitting hats this month. This red one is for a newborn and will go to the hospital.This second one if for a friend who is going to Washington on Sat.

Nancy is still working away on the Blue Bird quilt for her Mom. She had concerns about her boarders. The striped boarder will be followed by a cream one. It is good to have folks to explore ideas with.

Progress Report: Five Jacks This work is 20” X 31”. It is stretched on bars that my friend Tanya gave me. The final work is pleasant and I enjoyed doing the piece a lot. Applying the jacks this week was fun. I added color to the body of the jack with water color pencils that I then heat set. Because I knew I was going to stretch this work from the start, I also used paper as part of the material in the background. The dark brown jacks were all created with a wide statin stitch. Wools, velvets and a rust dyed green silk scarf were also used in this piece.

Three Jacks I finished the leaves on this work this week. The jacks in this piece are made from brown velvet.

Circle Challenge III This work is 16” X 19.5”. I only need to press and add the sleeve to this work and it will be complete. I like the horizontal hand work on this one. The beads add interest too I think.

Circle Challenge IV I am almost done with this piece too. I am back to quilting in the circular patterns in the background. I introduced a darker orange to the triangles as I needed a higher contrast.

Circle Challenge V I am changing things again with this work. Because I do not have any more of the light fabric that I used for the faced little circles, I tried using the dark orange that I used for triangles in number IV. I also dropped the triangles all together here. I am still machine appliqueing down the circles. The may move about yet.

Circle Challenge IV The same can be said for this layout. The tilt is the biggest change. Again most of the circles are free floating at this point.

Bird Block This is just a start for my entry for the SAQA auction. Not at all sure were I am going with this one.

New work 1 I pinned up this new blue work and have just started doing the free motion work. I am sure it will change with time.

New work 2 This piece like the other is small and in an early stage. I do enjoy this part of the process a lot. Its so fluid.

Red study I got a book for Christmas called Stitch, fiber Metal &Mixed Media by Alysn Midgelow-Marsden. This is one of her exercises using mostly felting on red velvet. I am so rusty with the falter I broke three needles and did not have any replacements so I had to stop and order some new ones. I do like who it is going however.

Label Block #103 And the bead goes on as they say. One more done and only seventeen remain.

Keep Creating

Carol

Challenge III, Circle Challenge IV, Five Jacks, Label Blocks, Name Game, Three Jacks, Wendy and Mark

Word of the year- Value

January 12, 2017 admin

Hello,

This is a shot of Caramelized from the Foundations show at May Memorial. The opening was Sunday and there were about 100 folks there. I was thrilled by the positive response. I even sold one of the works. It is a great space to show work as the walls are nice warm wood and the space is very large.

Rosalie Dace gave me this card of gray scale and pushed us to lay out our fabric for a project from light to dark to see the Values in class last summer. I feel I have not paid attention to this idea enough in my work so VALUE will be the word I concentrate on this year. I plan to make a poster with that word on it to hang above my pin wall to help me keep the idea front and center.

I also made a little promise to myself that every time it snowed more than an inch this winter I would do some snow dyeing. This is the first batch. I love the wild patterns and the color mixes. It snowed again this week and that next batch is reds and pinks. They are drying on the line now.

Progress Report: Wendy and Mark- Name Game This quilt is 50.5” X 45”. It is the main reason I am doing the word Value- because I feel this does not work as well as it might. The shapes are strong and I like how they play together- but there just does not seem to be the vibrancy that I was hoping for. One needs to expect that there will be second rate work sometimes. The important thing is to learn from the mistakes. It will be a fine lap quilt.

Circle Challenge II This little work is 16” X 19.5”. It flows well. I am enjoying the challenge of using machine and hand quilting together as well as the bead work.

The projects are small enough that I get to move onto the next idea quickly.

Circle Challenge III I really like the darks that are a part of this one. The addition of the triangles also makes this one more interesting I think. I am ready to add the hand stitching and feel that this time I will fall back to normal quilting thread.

Circle Challenge IV I did the circle on this base before I really did the hard looking at the Challenge III. It laques the power that the dark gives the work in the other piece. I will keep that in mind as I add the additional shapes to the surface.

Three Jacks These are my Jacks for this project. When I got them done and drew the leaves I realized they would cover too much of the background I had built and its power would be lost. So I created a simpler back ground for these Jacks. This is still not simple- but I think I can make it work for this project.

Five Jacks So Three Jacks became Five Jacks. The flowers are much smaller and they dance along the bottom edge of the rock face I had designed. It is ready to be stretched now.

Bird Square I started playing with the the few little birds leftover from a previous project. It is at an early stage and will change with development.

Label Block 102 I just keep at these little squares and they keep getting completed without much effort. I am starting to think about what will come next when this project is done in about 18 weeks.

Keep Creating

Carol

PS. One more shot from the show.

Bird Land, Diva Meetings, Fabric Collage Constructions, Fall Fires, Felt Work, Label Blocks, Natural Elements, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Deep in Fall

November 3, 2016 admin

Hello-

I am finding the fall color all around me now. And there is a lot on the ground. I raked big piles to the street yesterday. The leaf piles are deep . This week was the beginning of the month and so I had meetings with both QuEGs and Divas on Tuesday. Sally started us off with a warm and fuzzy baby quilt for her grand child. Linda showed

us the project she had completed from her class at QBL this summer. Liz was just home from Nancy Crow’s Barn and she had some great work to share too. She is mixing her drawing skills with her fabric work.

Sue Ellen is playing with line. It was a good meeting. The I went off to the Diva meeting in the evening. There again folks have been busy with projects and events.

Regina is doing great free motion machine drawing. I like her use of layers of fabric for this too. Anne and Ruth both took a Shobori class at the Schweinfurth and the results are wonderful. I look forward to seeing these wonderful fabrics in new works.

Maureen showed her finished Shobori quilt. She will be teaching these techniques in the spring.

Maureen also shared some antique quilt blocks she picked up on her trip to Maine. I really like the wonderful stitches.

Alice showed us the progress she is making on “The Bed” quilt. She had such a strong style!

Lliesa has finished her village piece. “The Tracks Divide Us” the title.

Progress Report: Bird Land This quilt is 50” lone and 49” wide. I started this quilt in Class with Rosalie Dace and the assignment was to choose a shape and repeat it against a patterned background. I also added to the challenge by using the negative space too. I did reflective quilting on this surface to fill it in.

Fall Fires This stretch work is 30” X 22”. This work is my second attempt to use my collage build up technique and try to pull away from the “rock” imagery that is where I usually go. I enjoyed mixing the wool, organza and silks to build up this work.

New work 1, 2, 3 When I finish a work I usually get going on a new piece. I have drawn out three new layouts for work that use the collage build up technique. This one had the felt base built in. With this one I a building up with bits and scraps of fabric fist. There is a third but it is just lines on the black wool.

Self Challenge I stated this self challenge this week too. I want to do seven little works that are all the same size using a strip section and a circle cut from that strip unit. I did not know how to cut away the circle and maintain the strip unit so I could rotate the circle and re insert it. But the folks at the Diva meeting gave me two possible ways to do that. I think I am ready to go forward now.

Label Blocks # 90 & 91 I continue to do the work. I am going to hunt up a stitch book this week to make some more exciting stitches though.

Keep Crating

Carol

Bird Land, Curvie Cuts, Fall Fires, Felt Work, Label Blocks, Leaving the Land, Natural Elements

Time

October 27, 2016 admin

Hello,

This week has been the usual one full of events and I did not get as much time in the studio as I usually do. That realization has made me think about how I am not guarding my time as I really should. I need to say “No Thank you” to protect that studio time. Not and easy task as I so enjoy the company of others. But as I grow older I realize there is not an infinite amount of time and one must choose how it is spent.

This shot is of Patti teaching Nancy how to use the loom. We all did a little weaving at the FAB meeting this week. It was fun and now I have a new “Mug Rug” as Patti calls it.

Progress Report: Leaving the Land This work is 20”l X 26” w, got it stretched this week. When I showed it to my friend Diane she said it looked like an air view of lakes and mountains. So I knew I was successful in what I was shooting for. I do enjoy working with the fleece and silk paper in combinations with yarns and threads to build up the surface. The surfaces become so very deep and rich.

Bird Land I am to the machine quilting stage with this work now. It is going smoothly and I am a little beyond half way done at this point. It is enjoyable.

Fall Fires This work is ready for stretching at this point. Hopfully the ripples will pull out when that is done. I had to make a run to the Art Store to purchase additional stretchers. I could have used what I had and lost a lot of the surface, but I decided that this piece deserved as much of the surface showing as possible. I have to keep telling myself I will not do this again and there fore it is worth the effort to do the job properly.

New Work The curvy cut work I started last week got some hand work attention this week. I pulled out all the fibers and threads that I thought might work on the surface and started working. The big size of this piece means I will be at it a long while.

Label Blocks # 88 and # 89 Two more done. This new effort to do two a week is good as I see the pile building.

Keep Creating

Carol

Bird Land, Curvie Cuts, Fall Fires, Label Blocks, Leaving the Land, Queen Anne's Lace

Fall Color

October 20, 2016 admin

Hello-

On my walks this week I have been enjoying the fall colors. There is such a wide range. I love the oranges and reds as they contrast with the greens, but the browns and rusts have a beauty of their own. I was stopped by the deep purple\ blue I found on the ground here. So many colors! There are also lots of mushrooms in various colors out now as well. I have taken a lot of photos of the trees and bark too. I am sure I will have a good supply to begin some new work with. So keep your eyes open and while you are enjoying the season and perhaps you too may become inspired to start a new project.

Progress Report: Ethel’s Nine Patch I

finished the double bed quilt this week. I sure enjoyed working on this project and thought of Ethel every step along the way. The back is all done in her black and white scraps too and the quilt is reversiable. I think this side will be the winter side.

Queen Anne’s Lace This quilt is

26” l X 18” wide. It is one of my works that is built on the curvy cut system. I quilted in lines of the wind with the same curvy feel.I enjoy the hand work that I put into the surface of this work.

Fall Fires I am still working away on this piece. I am just about ready to begin to build in the smoke around the flames. The bottom area is not done either.

Leaving the Land I put in time on this felt based work this week too. It is much closer to being complete then Fall Fires. There are only islands of spaces were I need to do the free motion work. The dark area on the far left about half way up is an example of a space where I need to add stitching.

Bird Land I have assembled the top for this work at this time. It sort of got out of my control as far as size is concerned. I do not usually work quite this big on art quilts. I will do a little drawing of possible free motion quilt patterns that have a bird motif this week before I begin that step.

Curvy Cut As I finished the last curvy cut piece, Queen Anne’s Lace, I thought I should begin a new work in that vain. Again I used Randy’s deconstructed screen printed fabric as my starting place. It is about 41” l X 37” w a little big for this type of project.( Is there a theme here?) I have pulled a pile of fibers and threads that I might use to embellish this project.

Label Blocks # 86 #87

I am working away on this project too. Only 69 more blocks to go.

Keep your eyes open in this time of wonderful fall color and enjoy creating

Carol

Deep Jellies, Felt Work, Garden Gate, Generational Whispers, Going Deep, Label Blocks, Natural Elements, Sweetheart Tree, Trees

Preparations

July 14, 2016 admin

Hello,

This week has been a quite one and most of my efforts have gone toward preparation for two weeks of Quilting By the Lake. That begins on Sunday. But I begin helping with the hanging of the quilt show on Friday. I will be taking a dyeing class the first week so I have spent a lot of time pulling things together for that and soda soaking fabric. I am looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones. There will be no blog post for the next two weeks do to my classes. The next post will be Aug 4.

Progress Report: Generational Whispers

I put in a lot of time on this piece this week. I started out by taking Gwen off and re drawing her. Then I put her on again. There are still some stitching wholes, but I will remove them with water.

The I went forward to add Wendy and Alexis. I am going to rework Alexis a bit so I will not show her at this time.

Garden Gate The quilting step is going along nicely now. he paper patters help me keep the size correct with this one. I can also add the design beyond the print on the fabric with the paper stencils. They are made of paper and getting rather shabby now. It is a good thing I only need to make two more copies of them before I begin the fill in quilting.

Sweetheart Tree This is the saved work I started altering last week. With the quilt work complete the piece got its blossoms. The plan it to add beads in the green and blue to the centers. That will add another texture and build a focal point in each flower.

Deep Jellies The hand quilting is going slowly forward on this piece. It has been too nice out doors in the evening to set inside and watch TV so I do not put much time in on it.

Going Deep This felted work in building nicely. It is the only one with a title too so that is why it is listed separately. This is still a very early stage.

Wool Work This piece is nearly complete. I have not formulated a title for it however. That will happen before I stretch it.

Wool work III . Again no title yet. This one is at the adding fabric on top stage. They are mostly just pined in place. The two greens hanging off the bottom are possibilities.

Wool work IV is still at step one without any fabric added at all.

Label Blocks #68 and #69 I tried to get a head on this project this week as I know I will not be around to do this type of hand work.

Keep Creating

Carol

Blue Iris, Felt Work, Generational Whispers, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing, Weeds

Openings

June 30, 2016 admin

Hello,

Summer is blooming all around my house. I love all the color that surrounds one this time of year.

Have you crossed over from the room to another and then stopped cold -not remember what you were in search of. It happens to me all the time and then I read that is a common thing. The scientist studying the brain have determined that this is part of a self protective alert system man kind has carried from his early development. Moving from the inside of a cave to the out side world meant that one had to clear the brain of all distractions to be aware of the new environment. The same is true of going from the protection of a forest out into a meadow. These clearing or emptying of mind the may have meant the difference between life and death to our ancestors. So the next time you forget why you went to the living room forgive your self and chalk it up to old mental protection processes.

Progress Report: No Clue This project is 50” l X 41.5” w. It fits in my three challenge too. Snow dyed and direct dye painted fabrics where used in this project. It was based on a collage and it has some of Ethel’s fabric in it. The quilting lines run parallel to the edges of the color changes in this work.

Generiational Whispers The faces are starting to be applied to the surface on this work. A few of the lines are new to the portraits but many are just drawn over the machine lines that were on the organza. This person is my grandmother Ruth.

Blue Iris I just used reflective quilting on this project. I have labels on the back noting what the oriental symbols mean. I am still quilting.

Weeds I am still working away on the flower heads on this project. There did not seem to be a lot of time for hand work this week. I am enjoying working on the discharged fabric that Randy made.

New work This top is almost complete now. The quilting pattern is the new part of this challenge. The big orange print is rayon that is backed with iron on inner facing so it will not stretch. It was a gift and was a pair of bib pants in its last life.

Wool projects I have started adding silk paper, yarn and fabrics to the surface of this project. This is my favorite part of the process. My friend Tanya gave me some of her unused stretcher bars last week so I put three sets of them together and started more wool projects. This is the early stage of one of them. I start out laying roving in patterns and then felt it down. The next step is the layering of more material on top to add the texture.

Found Project This project was in the bottom of a basket of UFO’s. I was frustrated with this project last fall. But looking at it with new eyes now -I see a direction to go with it.

Label Block #67 Another block done.

Keep Creating

Carol

Collage Based Work, Dappled Sunshine, Deep Jellies, Fabric Collage Constructions, Felt Work, Generational Whispers, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing

Summer has begun

June 23, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello-

I spent Monday, Summer Solstice, at Susan’s. The wonderful Fox Glove is from her garden. We were experimenting with adding color to fabric. Susan being more systematic did a lot of different studies. I did rubbings with chalk and paint. This example is of one of my early works. Susan’s daughter Rebecca worked up stairs and completed a quilt top. Then she tried another color combo of the same block and this little work is a corner example of that. I like how the high contrast creates a glow effect here. It was a good day and I enjoyed myself.

Progress Report: Dappled Sunshine This three challenge quilt is done now. It is 58” l X 45” w. I have not worked this big in a long time. There is pebble quilting in the orange areas and strait quilting in the tan and brown areas. I used some very old altered fabric like the cream with lines of paint at the top of this photo. The area under the brown strip is ice dyed from this spring. There is also some canvas in this and a print I did in paint using a doily as the resist.

Deep Jellies I have started doing hand quilting in the areas of solid blue in this quilt. I like the contrast. It will be a slow project too as there is lots of blue.

No Clue I keep trying this work with different orientations every time I work on it. The machine quilting is going forward and I have quilted about half of the pink areas at this point.

Blue Iris I have now completed the top assembly of this work. Ethel had collected all the fabric in one bag. I have put together all the squares and done the lay out. Now on to the quilting step. Great fun.

Generational Whispers I continue to work away on this project. I re drew Alexis’s head because it was too small. I decided I did not like my drawing of Gwen so I re did her too. I took this work with me on Monday and got some help from Susan about how to move forward on this challenge.

Wool work The base is mostly down on this work. I will start to add in fabric and yarn this week.

New work This work got buried under the other stuff this week and did not get any attention. That sort of thing happens when one has so many projects going on at the same time.

Label Block #66 I just keep plugging away on these.

Keep Creating

Carol

Collage Based Work, Dappled Sunshine, Deep Jellies, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Generational Whispers, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing, Scrap Happy Quilts, Weeds

Butterfly Days

June 16, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

These beautiful paper butterflies represent the happy feelings I feel for this time of year. Patti cut them with her press cutter on Wed when the FAB group meant. I have seen some live ones too, but I am not fast enough with my camera to capture any images. They seem to represent the slow easy time we seem to be in now. We had our last FAB meeting until Aug as we all agreed that travel and family will now fill our days for a while.

I have learned that when I am unsure of what I need/want to do next I tend to start a new project. The result of this is I have lots of new projects going on at the moment and only have a Scrap Happy quilt finished this week. That project too represents my feelings of unease, because scrap happy’s are also fill in projects. I have made 150 of these scrap quilts and they require no thinking on my part. But they do keep my hands busy and allow me to think through what is upsetting/ blocking me with other work.

Progress Report: Dappled Sunshine I finished the pebble quilting and the line quilting on this piece this morning. I am now ready to add the facings and finish this project. It will be done by next week.

Scarp Happy 150 I have no home in mind for this quilt, but I am sure it will go to a worthy cause.

new Scarp Happy When I put together the center blocks for the last scrap happy I also made extra blocks. Enough to make two more actually. This one got put into the row form this week.

Generational Whispers The grandmothers and great grandmothers got drawn on to organza this week. I know this was part of the stress I talked about as I do not feel very sure of myself when it come to do portatures. My machine drawings are human but not good likenesses of the folks they represent. I have decided to let that be that way as only a few people know the subjects any way. I will add a second layer of machine drawing when I attach them to the quilt surface.

Deep Jellies This work is also causing some stress for me. I love the colors and the textures of the jellyfish themselves. I am just unsure about the movement of the tentacles and how I want to quilt on this project. There are lots of little design decisions in this piece.

Weeds I am happily to the detail part of this project. I like doing the hand work that defines the weed heads. Three done and a dozen to go.

wool work This is the biggest machine felted work I have ever done and it too is very slow work. I finally got stretcher bars with out any canvas on them and that is what this work will be used on. I am not even done with the first layer, so there will be lots of color changes.

New top This in the newest piece that it based on a collage. It also has Ethel fabrics and some I have altered, so it fits my personal challenge. I think the the title will have something to do with angles or irregular cuts.

New Work My friend Tanya gave me the wonderful big orange print fabric I am using in this piece. It is in the real early stage.

Label Blocks #64 and #65 I did double duty on the blocks this week. It is so pleasant to set out doors after dinner and work in the evenings. I hope summer is bringing delight into your life too.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Natural Elements

Working time

Value

Word of the year- Value

Deep in Fall

Time

Fall Color

Preparations

Openings

Summer has begun

Butterfly Days

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer