Category Archives: Pixies Group

100 day Challenge, Envision, Meandering Mind- Examine, Pixies Group, Presume, Textile Artist Stitch Club, Understanding Orange

Now February

February 2, 2023 admin

Hello,

I am surprised that we are now in February. January flew by in my eyes. I came across a quote by Salvador Dali this week and it is haunting me.

Mistakes are almost always of a scared nature.

They sure do seem to stretch us and make us rethink what we are doing and how things are going. I, like most folks, have made some “duzzies”. My Father always called them learning opportunities and I guess looking at the quote in that light they are scared if you use them that way. I sure know they have lead me down so strange pathways I am sure I would not have explored with out the errors. Like the time I accidently cut a whole in a finished work. It resulted in a whole series were I did wholes on purpose and I learned a lot. It is something I am now rethinking. Perhaps there may be some more wholly quilts in my future.

I continue to work away on the 100 day challenge for SAQA. I was sick for three days so I am a little behind but working to catch up. I cut a Rooster as my next image for another Chinese Zodiac symbol.

I did the printing the same as before with the new images on the left and the over printing on the right.

Next I cut a Tiger.

I mixed and orange just for the tiger here. But it reads as red.

The last thing I cut was an Ox for the series. I plan to print it later today and cut another creature for the group too. That will make me caught up I think.

The pixies did meet this week and that is always an up lifting thing.

Progress Report: Presume All the machine quilting is done on this now and I am ready to square and add a binding. It will be done in the next day or two. I learned that doing reflective quilting creates bubbles in the surface of the quilt if you do not alternate the directions of the path ways with each trip around. The pressing that out is not fun.

Envision I finished the hand work on this on Tue and started the free motion machine work yesterday.

Understanding Orange I am almost done building units for this top. I am still shuffling them around and will soon begin to assemble the units.

Textile Artists Stitch workshop I stared this project in the free workshop a few weeks ago. I am working slowly away on it and like the addition of some solids in it.

Stay safe and Keep Creating

Carol

100 day Challenge, Blue Horizons, Briar Patch, Creative Assistants, Crow Calls, Envision, Forest Flock, Meandering Mind- Examine, Pixies Group, Presume, Thread Painting, Understanding Orange, Wool Rounds

Opening +

January 26, 2023 admin

Hello,

The opening on Sunday was the big event of the week for me. I was happily pleased by all the folks who came to support me. Two of the gals in this photo came from over from an hour away and that was a big surprise.

My daughter and youngest grandson came as well . He is over six feet and makes me look really like a small grandmother.

With this show I tried to show old work and new as well as show all the different techniques I use. This work in the show is my first Fire piece and it was done about 25 years ago.

I put this work in the show to show off my applique skills and my handwork.

Granite Grannies is and example of a work that is both painted and dyed. I did free motion drawing to out line the faces.

Calling Crows is a work that won Judges Choice at the Adirondack Quilts Show a few years ago. I did it after being awakened by crows at 4:00 in the morning when I was staying in Auburn.

This work is called Forest Flock. I machine drew all the little birds and then appliqued them to the background. The dark tree is made from an old black skirt that I felted.

Briar Patch is a work that came about because I was playing with metallic threads and they suggested shinny berries to me.

Lastly I included the last three studies I did this fall as a part of the Explorations series. I am in a new phase of this same self challenge now.

There were more works in the show , but I did not include them all. The pictures show of the show were taken by my daughter, Wendy.

There was a Pixie Meeting this week and we shared lots of ideas. I am continuing to work away on the 100 Day SAQA challenge. Friday I printed these images . The images on the bottom are new and the ones on the top are the new blocks over an existing image.

I printed new images on Saturday.

I did a Rabbit to celebrate the Chinese New year of the Rabbit

Tue I printed the new images

Wed I cut these new images. I decided to do a Rat as the Chinese symbol because that is my year.

Today is the twelfth day and an even one so I printed . One the left are the prints them selves and on the right are them used on top of another printed image. I am having fun and learning things so I feel good about this project.

Progress Report: Blue Horizons This work is 34.5 ” X 38″. I enjoyed doing the handwork on this piece and finished it on Tue.

The free motion process is also fun for me. I have fun dreaming up images to machine draw.

Presume I am still in the hand work stage here. I am out lining the metallic’s like I did on Forbidden Fruit.

Envision I finished putting together the top for this work on Monday. Then yesterday after pin basting it I did some stitch in the ditch work to stabilize it so I can do the hand work here. I am just thinking about the the pattern the hand work will take at this point.

Understanding Orange I have just begun this top. It is number 5 in the Monochromatic Studies of the Meandering Mind series. I will start using purples when this one is done.

Creative Assistants I finished off 22 more of these little guys this week. This is the most recent bunch ready for the paint and pin backs. I hope to do a few more faces and add bodies before I complete the batch.

I hope that my readers are stay safe and enjoying the season.

Keep Creating

Carol

100 Day Challenge, Blue Horizons, Creative Assistants, Envision, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Fiber Artist Stitch Club, Meandering Mind- Examine, Pixies Group, SAQA, Sisterhood of the Scissors

Hanging Solo Show

January 19, 2023 admin

Hello,

My big event for this last week was the hanging of my solo show. There was lots of prep work and I am glad to have had that done a head of time. I had lots of great helpers – thank goodness. It still took quite a while to do the job as the group had never hung a quilt show before. Now I am looking forward to the opening on Sunday.

The new Textile Artist Stitch Workshop is going on this week and I have been following along. We painted fabric and then cut the work up and put it together in a new fashion. I am only just starting to add stitch work to the surface of it.

The SAQA 100 Day Challenge started on Sunday. That challenge is to do art work every day for 100 days. Last year I did the black and white figures that resulted in the two quilts Action and Athletes. Both of those quilts won prizes in different shows. My self challenge within the 100 Days is to cut four stencils/ stamps on the odd days of the months and to print them on the even days for 50 days. I want the prints to be interactive. At the end of the 50 days I will use the fabric as the start of new work. I have learned some things about this project already and so it is morphing a bit- but that is what learning will do for one.

Today is a cutting day and I will make new stencils/stamps later today.

The piece on the far right is the only one that I printed a new stamp on top a a piece from the first printing. I need a stronger contrast in color for it to be really effective.

The Sisterhood of the Scissors had a Zoom meeting on Tue and it was fun to talk with those gals. Yesterday was the FAD meeting and we had a good time too. Patti showed off the new handknitted sweater new had just finished. It looks warm to me.

The pixies topped off my meetings this week. Robert is doing some real fun graphics and we had fun talking about them.

Progress Report: Blue on Horizons Do to all the other events this week, I did not have a lot of undirected time in the studio. I am nearing the end of the quilting on this work. The mix of hand and machine quilting is fun for me.

Creative Assistants All the Creative Assistants with faces also got arms and backs this week. Now I need to make more stuffing and work toward the next step with them.

Envision I am building units for project. There is till shuffling going on here. Hopefully the top will be done by the end of the week.

I hope that everyone is staying healthy and enjoying the new year.

Carol

Creative Assistants, Envision, Forbidden Fruit, Hand work, Pixies Group, Presume

Pushing Forward

January 12, 2023 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

All my efforts at the moment are to prepare for my solo show that gets hung on Sat. This is a shot of the post card. I addressed and mailed out 30 on Monday. I am excited even though it seems to have taken over my life of late. I have 18 pieces that I have prepared labels and polls for at this point. I will spend most of Friday doing one last press of them so they hang as flat as I can make them. I have a nice mix of new things that have never been shown any were and a bit of a review of older work. I will polish up the artist statement and be all set I think. I also pulled work for the Cabin Fever Quilt show at the Betts Library that opens in early Feb. I only have three pieces in that show and I have very little work to do except turn in my art for that show. Koi Joy( at the right) is one of my entries for that one.

The Pixies were the only group that I meant with this week so there was not a lot of outside in put. I am glad however as I had plenty to keep me busy.

Progress Report: Forbiddin Fruit This work is 35.5″ X 55.5 “. It is the first in the mono chromatic works although it is also my entry for the Red competition for Quilt Surface Design Isolation that is due at the end of the month. I did a lot more hand work on this then I intended at the beginning, but the work called for it so I pushed forward.

Blue Horizon This is the second in the mono chromatic series that is a sub set of the Meandering Mind series that I started in the Creative Strength Training class. I am doing free motion work and hand work on this piece too .

Presume The green work in the mono chromatic series is all assembled now and pin based. I am learning a lot about color with these challenges.

Envision I started working away on this piece on Tue. Still playing with curves and the mono chromatic thing and having fun.

Creative Assistants I pushed myself to get hair- my third step in the construction of the tribe done this week. Each of these bags holds about 35 bodies so I have lots of faces to do now.

Handwork Its time for the Rochester 6X6 show stuff so most of my efforts in the hand department are going in that direction at the moment. Two are done and two to square and bind.

Finish up I added the binding to this work so it is done now and I can go on to other things.

Drawing I enjoyed the on line drawing class this week. This is my response to the Bird- House” challenge.

Keep Creating

Carol

100 day Challenge, Annalise, Blue Horizons, Creative Assistants, Creative Strength Training, Meandering Mind- Examine, Pixies Group, SAQA, Scrap Happy Quilts, Sisterhood of the Scissors, Textile Artist Stitch Club

End of 2022 Reflections

December 30, 2022 admin

Hello,

It has been a full year for me. I started the year by doing the Quilt Surface Design 100 Day challenge. That resulted in the two black and white figurative quilts that both won awards. One at the Associated Artist Show and the second is still hanging as a part of the Quilt=Art=Quilts show at the Schweinfurth until Jan 8. I plan to do that challenge again this year and do it as printing. I did a lot of hand work this year response to the Fiber Artist Stitch Club’s mini lessons. I was distressed by the wild fires in the west and did two different wild fire quilts this year. I started Creative Strength Training in March and that proved to add lots of meetings and challenges to my creative life too. I was glad to be a part of that. We have our final meeting on the year on Sat.

I continued my weekly meeting with the Pixies. We discovered at our meeting on Wed that we have been getting together virtually sense Aug of 2020. I completed my Childhood Memories series this year. That was a prompt from Susan.

Happily Quilting by The Lake returned in the summer. I had two great classes and I am glad to say it will meet again in July of 2023, but in a new location.

The Sisterhood of the Scissors had their retreat in the fall and I made three new tops in those five days. I finished the last one this week. I had a fine year and I resolve to pass forward some of my materials and to be a bit more selective in what groups I join this year so I can spend more time in the studio.

Progress Report: Analise This work is 30″ X 31″. I did the top at the Sisterhood retreat and only finished the hand work on it this week. I really liked playing with the complementary colors and that sparked the monochromatic series that I am in the middle of now.

Michell’s Project This little project is 26″ X26″ and is a commission for my friend Michele. It is going to be framed so it is not a traditional quilting job. It is made from the neckerchiefs that her dog wore when he was alive. A memorial project of sorts.

Forbidden Fruit This is the first in the Monochromatic Series. That is a sub set of the Meandering Mind series. One thing leads to another in my processes I guess. I started the quilting this week. I am doing all the hand work at this point and extending the curves to see how they can interconnect and pull the work together.

Blue Horizons This is the second in the Monochromatic Series. I finished assembling the top yesterday.

New Work In keeping with the series I pulled all my greens yesterday. I hope to begin today on this one.

Creative Assistants I wrote last week that I will make this my last tribe of Creative Assistants. It will be a big one as this is the pile of started body bases and I plan to make them all before I stop building.

Scrap Assembly I continue to strip together my scraps for my scarp happy quilts. The baskets does not seem to diminish very fast even though I try to put in and hour at that task every day. I gave myself a break yesterday and cut the 2.5″ strips I use in the quilts for about half an hour and put a few together.

Do stay safe and keep Creating throughout 2023!

Carol

Annalise, Blue Monday, Creative Strength Training, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Finger Lakes Fiber Artist Group, Meandering Mind- Examine, Pixies Group, Sea Dreams

Dec 16, 2022

December 16, 2022 admin

Hello,

I am deep into the holiday season now. I have packages under the tree and dates almost every day with various friends and groups. Saturday was the Finger Lakes Fiber Artists group meeting. There were only nine of us but we had a good time. Pat Pauly showed us her newest Creations.

Maureen is doing lots of printing.

Joyce has finished up her forest doll series. Cute solution.

Ann is having fun mixing charts with this work.

Susan took a drawing class and shared her work too.

The last Creative Strength Slow Stitch group meeting was this week too. I will miss those gals. I enjoyed our little challenges. This is my last 6″ challenge. I have set ups to do two more to fill the book. There was also a FAD meeting and Pixies too. Mix all that in with a few parties and such and that has been my life of late. I do enjoy all the movement of the season.

Progress Report: Explore This work is 32″ X 37″ and the second in the complementarity/tint and shade self challenge.

I am enjoying mixing machine and hand work with this group.

Sea Dreams I have been working hard on this one this week and now need to add eyes to the fish and do the binding. I am sure I will finish it quickly. Working with the taffeta has added to my holiday spirit too.

Forbidden Fruit I seem to be moving very slowly with this project. there are lots of decisions to be made along the way here.

Blue Monday Finished this hand work piece this yesterday. I did take three Witches off to the framer yesterday too. It will be a Christmas gift for my husband as he likes Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”

Stay safe and enjoy the season.

Keep Creating

Carol

Creative Strength Training, Curvie Cuts, Deconstruction, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Frenzy, Koi in the Kelp, Lap Quilts, Maneuver Series, Pixies Group, Three Witches

Forward

October 14, 2022 admin

Hello,

Fall is all around now. I did not spend as much time in the garden this fall as in the past and my Hosta went to seed. I have never seen them before and love the black feather like seeds. I wonder if I will get any germination.

The reception for the show at May Memorial was Sunday and I enjoyed talking with folks. The Creative Strength Training group meant yesterday as did the Pixies. I also had a FAD group meeting scheduled, but sense Eric was ill, we canceled that one. He is fine today.

Progress Report- Lap 5 This work is 37″X52″ . I created the patterned pieces. I shipped two lap quilts off to my step mother and aunt this week too.

Frenzy( rework) It is 35″w X 33″ t. After Talking with Jane Donwald about this work I decide to alter the background. The fish were lost in the first one. This solution although much smaller is so much stronger. I need to go back in now and reconnect the eyes on some of the fish .

Koi in the Kelp I am now doing hand work on this piece. I am adding eyes and sequins as scales to add texture to the bodies.

Three Witches I need to now fill in the rest of the wraps for the witches and build up some areas of darkness.

Maneuver Series – Deconstruction I received so much positive feed about the first three works that I decided to alter the challenge and try it again. I am going to only use the complementary colors, but use tints and shades of them in this series of three. All the white that is showing from the pin wall will disappear under color.

New Fish I have pulled more metallic fabrics for another Koi piece. So I made a curve cut background and I will make the fish to go on top. Having learned the lesson about contrast the metallics are all darker.

Mask With October I think of mask and have always enjoyed making and putting on costumes. This month the theme for Creative Strength Training is form, and I though I could create a mask to fit that category. I am having fun,

I am going on a trip and will be away for two weeks so there will not be any posts until Nov 3. Please enjoy Halloween and stay safe

Carol

Blue Water, Consider, Contemplating, Coy Pond, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Hand Out, Koi in the Kelp, Pixies Group, Pondering, Three Witches, Wall of Fire

Hurricane Ian

September 30, 2022 admin

Hello,

The hurricanes that have hit the country the last few weeks have raised my concern for my fellow Americans. So many of my friends live there and there is family too. It is hard to face such destruction from nature . The water and wind sure makes one humble. I did talk yesterday with the Pixies who live in Gulfport Florida. Robert was staying in the area and the other two had both evacuated. My sincere wished go out to all who suffered any loss and I hope you are all back to balance as fast as possible.

For me here in central New York, I am still feeling very positive as I received my award from the Art show on Sunday. I was delighted by the support I received from my quilting friends too.

The Schweinfurth asked that artists contribute a small work to be raffled to help support the institution, so I started a new piece called “A Little Action.” I now remember why I only did one work a day and it is a bit tedious.

FAD meant at Nancy’s on Wed. It was good to see all of them and Nancy shared her wonderful new piece. I think it looks great!

Progress Report: Wall of Fire I built up the fire portion of this work this week. I think I am nearing completion.

Lap 4 This work is all ready to be quilting now. I am always surprised at how fast the pin basting goes.

Lap 5 I had extra time in the studio on Monday so I started a new lap quilt.

Hand out This work is done now. I will give Ginny first choice on the one of the four that she wants sense she gave me the wool coverlet that the hand units were cut from.

Consider I finished the hand work on this piece this week. Now all three works are complete.

The other two works in the series are

Contemplate

.and Consider. They are all the same size and use complementary colors. I am going to put them in the Associated Artist show at May Memorial for the month of Oct.

Blue Water I have now placed and zig- zagged down the top half of all of the fish in this work. It is building nicely I think.

Koi in the Kelp After consulting with Jane Durawall, I changed the orientation of this piece and added kelp. I like the feel of the action much more and the extra layers of depth it now has too.

Rework -Coy Pond Again after feeling a bit unhappy with this work I got some critique from Jane. She had several suggestion that I liked and I finally decided to cut away the brown background and mount the whole interlocking fish unit on a new background of blue and yellow. I am about half way done cutting away the background now and think it will be a lot stronger when it is complete.

Three Witches I had to wait on a friend in the parking lot while she had an in office procedure done today. So I worked on the right side of the face this morning. I think it beginning to feel solid.

New Handwork for Slow Stitch I finished this work early in the week .

Then I had an idea for a second textural piece so I did this work this week too. Texture is my real love so I guess this is natural for me.

Handwork This work is part of the leftover fused fabric pieces that I started a few weeks ago. Sense I finished the “hand series”, I pulled up this work and started it late last evening.

Again my thoughts are for the Hurricane victims.

Carol

Coy Fish, Creative Strength Training, Diva Meetings, Fire Wall, Fish, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Three Witches

Rainy Days

September 8, 2022 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

We are enjoying a series of rainy days here in central New York. I am thankful as so may are in drought or in flooding conditions. Here it is just gentle and soaking into the ground for the most part. I like to walk in the rain too so I am taking advantage of it.

It’s the beginning of the month and I had several meetings. The Creatinve Strength Training group meant. The element of emphasis this month is Texture- my favorite so I will enjoy this one. The Pixies meant and Quilt Divas too.

Barb had a great little quilt based on a Slot Canyon that I really liked.

And Terri shared her news work too.

Progress Report: Coy Fish This work is 34.5 ” X 35.5″. I like how this project came out. I still have not come across my inspiration work, but that is not necessary now.

I really like the fish forms and playing with them is fun for me.

The second piece with more Coy fish I have set aside as I am feeling it is too busy. I am thinking on it now.

Reaching This work is 15.5″ X 26″. The color here as well as the textures are what I really enjoy about this piece.

Hand Out I am still building on this piece. I want more hand work here than on Reaching. I do like the complexity that the spider webs add too.

Lap quilt 2 With this quilt I am again using up Sue Elle’s blocks.

There is still lots of quilting to do on this one.

Lap Quilt 3 This is just the start of another lap work.

Three Witches I am enjoying doing the hand work on these interesting faces.

Feather Dancer I uncovered this work while looking for another project . There is so little left to stitch that I decided to complete it. Getting closer every day.

Fire Wall With new fires in the west I felt I needed to create a new fire piece. I got the base fabric from a fellow quilter at QBL this summer. These layered quilts always take lots of time to build up to the level I feel is complete.

Ponder I am done with the hand work on this piece now and only have the hand work to do on the last one in the tryptic to complete the series.

I hope the fall is developing nicely for you.

Keep Creating

Carol

Drawing, Hand Out, Hand work, Pixies Group, Reaching, Sisterhood of the Scissors, Three Witches

Beginning of Fall

September 1, 2022 admin

Hello,

It is September and I see that as the start of fall after so many years of beginning the school year at this time. This milkweed seems to be agreeing with me as it has started to change its summer color for the fade of fall. The seed pods look good.

I had a mixed week with only the Pixie meeting this week, and a Dentist an Dr appointments.

The big event was a field trip with the Sisterhood of the Scissors yesterday. We me meant at the Memorial Art Gallery on the University of Rochester Campus. The show was Ubuhale, and it was of seed bead work from seven women from an area in South Africa. The works were all large mostly 8 Ft by 10 ft and all done with beads. By the end of the show one could easily identify the work of each artist.

This gal did not mix her bead colors much, but I love the effects she got.

This woman liked trees and even in her work with the cattle she had a tree as part of the composition.

All the works took about a year to produce and they were specular!

We all went away happily inspired.

Progress Report: Coy Fish I finished the binding on this work yesterday evening and I am now ready to begin the hand detailing. I did the applique with a metallic thread and a gold colored thread both fed through a big eyed needle.

Frenzy I have built all the fish I want to use on this piece. But in taking this photo I realize they really do not work for what I wanted to say. Back to the drawing board…

Reaching I added the spider web and have started on the leaf forms here.