Category Archives: Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Birds, Blossoming Branch, Crow Calls, Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, Pods, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Summer Meadow, Year Of the Rooster

Spring

April 7, 2017 admin

Hello-

It is starting to really feel like spring here in central New York. I see little bits of green on the tips of branches and shoots in the flower beds on my walks. This was the fist week of the month so I had meetings. The QuEG’s meeting was small but there was lots of work.

Liz finished this beauty using all Kay Facet’s fabrics. She and Sue Ellen both had work for the group challenge for the guild.

This is Liz’s finished star challenge piece. It looks good I think. Sue Ellen’s star is a good one as well. The use of the light blue fabric and the size were the other two limitations to the challenge. Angela is busy working on felting some of her patterns from her tip to Hawaii I think the limited pallet will server her well with this exploration.

The Divas also meant on Tue eve. with more exciting stuff. This is Lori’s completed tundra piece from her trip to Alaska.Maureen showed us lots of the new wonderful hand printed fabric that she is working on. Donna is proud of finally finishing her big king sized top. It is amazing as it is her first quilt.

She is also working away on some figures in paper clay. These bathing beauties are fun I think.

Regina is doing lots of handwork on her shobori pieces from last month. She is also exploring with rust dyeing.

Lliesa shared her memory scrolls from her semester in Japan. They are so wonderful. All created while she was there with her husband and made from fabric she got at the temple sales that she attended.

There are four scrolls and each one is full of beautiful appliqued works all with memories and stories too. She stitched the insect by hand here and told a story about the cricket pets one has in the small houses there. I just could not look enough at this piece of work.

Progress Report: Summer Meadow

This work is 15” X 21.5 “ in size. Sewing of the flowers was done from the back of the work with thick thread and cord in the bobbin. The dragon fly has wings cut from ribbon that was then free motion attached to the background. The body is made of bugle beads that I hand stitched to the surface.

Blooming Branch This work is 33” X 40.5”. It is the result of a challenge by my friend Sharron. We bot purchased some silk kimono fabric

This shot is a close up of that fabric. The challenge was to use it in a project to show at QBL in the summer of 2017. This is my solution.

Crow Calls I am adding the trees to the surface of the work now. It takes about 50 minuets to do each tree and the birds have not been started yet. I am enjoying it none the less.

Samurai Romance I finished the leaf panels this week . I am beginning to feel it is a bit over crowded and I still have one more technique to add to the surface.

I may do some editing before this is all done and I am happy now that I only pinned things in place as I went along.

Banner –Year of the Rooster This is one of my works that I started in Florida with Susan. The lettering on this one is stamped. The rooster is colored with crayon.

Banner- Birds This is my second banner this week. The texture is created by rubbing over a plastic doily with crayon. The text here is cut felt letters that were machine stitched down.

New IceI am just starting to free motion stitch down the parts of this work. The bright pink at the bottom, is the felt inside that I am building on.

New Scarves Chris asked for more scarves so I got busy and did these two this week. I am always surprised by the bits of stuff that seem to pile up and work in these projects.

Pod 6 I gave in and decided to create a few more pods. This one needs some weight/beads on the bottom and it will be complete.

Label Block # 114 I made it to the fabric store this week and got more black fabric for the last 25 blocks. Cutting them is the next step. Only 36 to go now.

Keep Creating

Carol

PS check out my tutorial on how to rust print.

Blossoming Branch, Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Xavier Wood Ice

March

March 9, 2017 admin 1 Comment

Hello-

The week has been a busy one as it was the first Tuesday of the month and I had QuEG’s and Diva meetings. This hand painted and printed fabric was created by Linda last fall before she fell and injured her shoulder. I like the three layers she built up. Angela is doing wonderful hand work of some Hawaiian flowers. She is exploring with paint too. It seems like we all keep playing with new ideas.

At the Diva meeting Regina shared her Butterfly piece and a second forest floor work.

Lori finished up this wonderful hand stitched piece this month too. She really likes to build lots and lots of layers of stitching. I love her final effect. It’s so rich.

Donna shared some of her Shobori work form Maureen’s class.

Ruth share this wonderful Guatemalan weaving.

I always get a bit lift form the meetings and go home inspired.

Progress Report: Xavier Wood Ice This work is 34” X 40”. It is based on one of my photographs from earlier this winter. I have been working on the quilting for the last few weeks as it is all done free motion and that takes a lot of energy so I can not work too long before I must stop. I used plastics, ribbon, yarns netting and hand dyed cheese cloth as parts of the texture for this piece. The snow has so many textures to do because some of it is melted and refrozen while other areas are melted and other areas are thin with think areas too . I have lots more photos and I am already thinking about how I want to show the leaves captured in the ice on the next one.

Blooming Branch This work has been the area where I have done the most concentration this week. I made two limbs for this piece. This is the second limb and I made it because I was worried that the first was too light. When I pinned up this second limb and I then took a shot of it in the gray scale I could see that the dark value was too close to the background and it got lost. Here is tha shot. So I returned to the light branch and pinned it up and took a gray scale photo of it. It looked like this So that’s the one I sewed down and I am using in this work.

I have started to add the stamens to some of the blossoms.

Second Branch The second branch is pinned to a lighter background and I am hoping that adding blossoms to it will push it back a bit and create more of the balance I am looking for. This Value thing is not easy for me.

Samurai Romance The gold panel on the left is mostly done. I am working on step two where I stenciled copper paint on felt that I had created. I am learning lots of new techniques with this project and that is what I wanted to do.

Summer Meadow I finished the bobbin cord application and did the painting on this work this week. I am now ready to build up more grass and flowers on top with machine drawing.

Re working I am building a forest on top of this piece. It was Ok- but did not excite me much. A great background as Ethel would have said. So here goes…….

Label Block # 110 I keep working away on this project.

I will be away for the next two weeks so there will not be any posts until Mach 30.

Enjoy the beginnings of spring.

Carol

Circle Challenge, Diva Meetings, Green Leaf scarf, Label Blocks, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Snow Dyeing, Teasil I, Teasil II, Three Jacks, Xavier Wood Ice

Winter

February 9, 2017 admin

Hello,

We are deep in the cold of winter here and that makes me stay in the studio and get a lot done. But I do have the meetings that come at the first of each month. QuEG’s meant. Liz is busy doing hand work on her project that she dyed last fall at the play/work retreat at the Schweinfurth. That is her work at the top.

Sue Ellen is busy too and she made this colorful quilt for the Linus Project. I always get a lot more out of the group meetings.

This time I showed them all the Circle Challenge pieces all together. That lead to a whole lot of playing with how they could or should be presented. I continued the whole idea when I got home.

There are just so many ways to go with them.

The Diva’s had a good time playing with them too. There was a lot going on at that meeting as well.

Alice has finished her Bed Quilt and she made prints of the finished work to give to all the folks in the family who owned the bed so they have the history. I think that is a good idea.

Liesa is building a wonderful book on stamps. She printed the stamps on fabric for this work and laments that she still has all the original stamps left.

Donna just returned from a 10 day retreat where she did a lot of Gelli printing and pastel work. Maureen is doing lots of work with indigo so she can do more teaching of the techniques. She shares her knowledge so very kindly.

Regina went off to the conference called “ Rocky Road to California” and took a class with the Tentmakers of Cairo. She keeps exploring new techniques.

Ruth is busy with her wonderful clam shells too. It was a good meeting and I came home with new ideas of things to do with my own work.

Progress report: Three Jacks This work is 28” X 40”. Because I had to take it apart to fix the nail at the bottom I took photos of the work without the glass. No problems with reflections that way. I also did a major cleaning of the glass- something that I had not thought of before either. The work is dramatic and I like it a lot.

The velvet jacks really convey the rich contrast of the two parts of the flower.

Snow Dying

It snowed this week and so I did a bit more snow dyeing. It is snowing today too so I will do an orange batch next.

Tease I I did the hand stitching on this work this week. It is almost ready to stretch.

Teasel II I pulled this fabric for the background of the green teasel heads I made the week before on Monday. Then I worked hard on getting that section done. I got all excited and even moved on to pinning the heads in place. They are not stitched down. No problem with contrast this time.

Leaf Scarf I did a lot of free motion work on this piece and determined yesterday that it was complete. It is based on a work I saw on Pintrest by Amanda McCarvour. I only work from what I remember not from any reading or recheck. So when I did look a second time yesterday, I was surprised by how different they were. I like the vanes of leaves mixed with the wool roving . The places where I tried to work in air collapsed so I think when I try it again I will put a layer of nylon net in the middle of the sandwich so there is a some stability to the whole thing. That and more stitching lines will do the trick I think. It will also help avoid the arching that happened with some of the gold leaves.

Xavier Wood Ice I have been taking a lot of photos on my walks of ice and now I am ready to begin a new ice work. This is the fabric lay out at about the middle of the process.

Pods I have assembled two of the pods from the felted pieces that I made. They are nor quite finished as I think I want to add some additional beads on the bottoms of them. But I am making progress. It is like the circle challenge in the way that I can think of more variations for each side as I go along. I will play until I tire of the process.

Scrap Happy I have been assembling the strips and cut pieces from Ethel’s scrap box for a few weeks. I cut them into five inch squares yesterday and made a block. It is 17” on a side. That is a little bigger then I usually use so I may need to make adjustments as I move forward.

Label Block # 106 I was in Jo Ann’s this week and I was tempted to purchase some additional embroidery thread- but I resisted. Then when I got home I did a little search and found a new bag full, so I am very happy I did not give into temptation. Only fourteen more blocks to build.

Keep Creating

Carol

Circle Challenge, Circle Challenge 2, Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Three Jacks, Wendy and Mark

New Beginnings

January 6, 2017 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

In the deep cold we are experiencing now, I think of the wonderful warmth of spring and the new beginnings that a new year makes on consider. New sketchbooks, new book keeping, and new calender’s are all part of the new start for 2017. I am working on choosing a new word for my focus this year too, but have not decided quite yet. Sue Ellen at the QuIG’s meeting was thinking of spring too with this new Hosta leaf pillow she shared. The machine work is wonderful. The Diva’s also meant this week. Because of the show that Donna is hosting for us there was lots of talk and work for that event. I served as transport for work for Noel and Sharon as both could not attend. Sharon kindly gave me a little gift in the form of one of the book marks that she makes for her booth. I like it. Regina has been doing a lot of indigo dyeing. ( look at that pile) Cheri had two new pieces for the show as well as to share. She also does such nice little surprises for the backs of her quilts that I am sharing one of those too.

Ruth got into a traveling trunk show for SAQA and she showed us the new wave she did just for that. I like the waves out to sea too. Then there is the wonderful foam under the wave. It is really a strong work I think.

Lliese had a wonderful piece to share with us as well. This piece is much bigger than she usually works.

I hung my Solo Show yesterday with the help of Steve and Lynne. Preparing for this was a good experience for me as I got to really look at the body of work. I have been on this earthy foundations work for about three years now. We hung 21 pieces and I took 24 home with me that we did not use. I like having a choice. It is a beautiful place to display and I enjoyed doing that step too because of the wonderful help.

Progress Report: Circle Challenge 1 I am pleased with how this turned out. All the parts seem to work together for me.

Circle Challenge 2 This second challenge has different colors in some of the strips and the rotation is different. Three additional colored circles remain but the parts of the solid yellow circle have been dropped and replaced with four triangles. I am ready to do the bead work now .

Name Game Wendy and Mark I am all done assembling the strips of this work now. I made the back the other day and I am now ready to add the batting and begin quilting it.

Three Jacks I have finished the background of this work. Then I did some research followed by some drawing. The paper patterns are enlargements of the sketch. I still have one more to do as you can easily see. I could not find the color fabric in my stash that I wanted to use so I had to purchase the green on Tues at Quilters Corner when I was there.

Bird Block I am playing with some leftover bird cuts from the Bird land quit here. It is always a little challenge to see if the remainders can become something on there own. I am thinking now that I will balance the birds with some free motion bushes based on this sketch book drawing. They have such a light feeling that I feel they can balance the heavy birds on the left.

Label Block # 101 I am working away on these little blocks. Only 19 more to build now.

Keep Creating

Carol

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

Diva Meetings, Ethel's Scarp Nine Patch, Label Blocks, Land Fall, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Water Run

First Week in October

October 6, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello-

It is the first full week of October and I went to my group meetings on Tuesday. At QuEG’s, Angela started us out with a baby quilt top she has finished for her yet to be born grand daughter. She is excited about it. She also showed us some of her work from an on line class she took. I really like the idea of making your sketch life sized before beginning work. A simple idea that had never occurred to me. I have always done a thumb nail sketch- but I can see value in doing it life sized. She also had her books from her class at QBL to share. It looks like she learned a lot and had a good time.

Linda shared her workings with her new felter. This is a great start and I think she will do more on it and do several other projects.

Linda also created this wonderful forest quilt. It has so much depth.

Sue Ellen is busy getting ready for Christmas at the shop so she was trying out new ideas and this tree was one of them. There were only five of us at the meeting, but we still managed to fill the two hours with sharing and talk.

Then it was off to the Diva meeting. Lliesa started us out with a new map quilt. Unlike her one from last year that was based on a real location, this one is all imagined. I like how it is growing.

Ruth is doing a series of works based on Dinosaur tracks. I like the way she is working . The irregular shapes really look like chunks of rock to me.

Lorrie made this little quilt for the sale at the quilt show next week end. It is a happy little thing.

Donna is doing rust dyeing now and has achieved some great effects. I always go home for the meetings with a real high on things to think about and try Like the rust dyeing……. It is great to meet with folks of a like mind.

Progress Report: Water Run This work is 24” X 20” wide. I sure enjoyed working away on this work. When I stretched it I really got going on the next ones too. I like doing the free motion work as the fibers sometimes move as I work.

That movement makes it feel more organic to me.

Land Fall This work was designed on a vertical layout, but is has turned to become a landscape type of work. I try to pay attention when the work directs me and go with that flow. It has about four hours of work in it so far. Slow but enjoyable for me.

Felting I am still adding roving and fabric to the surface of this work. I found some wonderful organza in one of my boxes when I was looking for something else. I know it will blend well in this work. No stitching yet. It is starting to look a bit like a flame to me.

Ethel’s Nine Patch This is the back of Ethel’s Nine patch. Again I am using her fabric and I though I would add some solids in primary colors to it- but I like the effect so I have just built it this way. There are lots of scraps left in the box, so I know there will be more work like this in my furture.

Queen Anne’s Lace

I am working on the hand stitching on this work. There are only two more flower heads to do and that step will be complete. My fried Tanya gave me some Eamu feathers a few weeks ago and I think I may use them in this work. The gray feather pinned to the center area is one of the feathers.

Bird Land This work is on the bottom of the stack so it does not get much attention. I did finish all the cutting of the birds this week though. Now to stitch things down.

Label Block # 83

I keep working away on these blocks and they keep getting completed. No rush and no pressure really is a nice thing.

Keep Creating

Carol

Briare Patch, Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, QBL- Quilting By the Lake, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

QBL 2016 Plus

August 4, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hell,

So much has happened in the last weeks it is hard to know where to start. Quilting by the lake was as wonderful as ever. I helped hang the quilt show for QBL on the Friday before. We started out with a empty gym and over the course of the day filled it with beautiful quilts. This shot is of a special exhibit is of work by Debbie Heaps. She did one of the little lectures about her work during week one where she explained her process and philosophy of quilting. It was great.

I had a class with Carol Southerlund called in the Thick of It. She is a strong teacher with lots to share. The first day she sent us out at noon to find images that we enjoyed. I got hooked on the patterns and shapes in car tail lights. These images turned into the inspiration for our foam stamps. We did them in both positive and negative.

This is a shot of my work space on the third day.

My good friend Regina was seated behind me.

There was lots of work going on . Carol showed us how she built her steamer to fix color in cloth on Thur eve.

She also showed us how to discharge fabric. This is a shot of part of the class wearing out masks. One can never be to careful when it comes to using chemicals in dyeing.

My friend Sharron worked in Independent Studio. This is her sixth summer of working on six Dear Jane Quilts. She is doing the triangle boarder blocks now and she assures me that they will all be done by next summer.

Friday Evenings at QBL is show an tell form the classes were students hold up There work and the teacher’s explain what they did.

Randy was in Valerie Goodwin’s class and did many little works.

There are two other parts to the final evening. There is a raffle and my friend Ethel Whittamore gave me one of her unfinished quilt to put into this project. I finished it and put it in the raffle as she requested. The money goes to the scholarship fund. Sally Davis won the quilt. She was an old friend of Ethel’s too so I am sure it went to a good home.

The teachers also altered bags that are then auctioned off to add more money to the scholarship fund.

It was a good week and I went home tired.

I unloaded my car with the dye stuff and packed it again for week two and my class on Pattern, Rhythem and Repetition with Rosalie Dace.

Like week one there were lectures. John Kubiniec talked on Monday and showed all the quilts that are in his new book Spin on Drunkards’s Path. The book came out this week too.

Nancy Bailes also did a talk for us. She will be teaching her

techniques next year. I am so happy for her.

Rosalie started us out with some paper work were we built our designs. She spent a lot of time talking about value and I think I have a better understanding of it now. This is a lay out on my desk of light , medium and dark values that is considered for my piece.

This shot is of my work space on day two.

Again Regina was seated behind me. This is an early shot of her first piece in Rosalie’s class.

I got involved with Graffiti again in this class and did my name in two colors on different backgrounds.

I then sliced them up and reassembled them in this pattern. It is all put together now and I am pondering how to quilt it.

At the end of class we had a short critique. John was in the class and this was his work for the week.

Regina and I also took down the part of the quilt show. That process always make me feel sad.

This is how it looked before we started. In the end it was just a gym again.

Week two ended with the same pattern as week one. Here is Debbie with her top and Jean Riley too.

Again the teachers did bags and made more money for the Scholarship fund.

Sat. morning I got up and went to Ithaca to take down the Diva 15 show. I had great help so it did not take long.

These are two of my woks that were in that show.

Briar Patch was in it too.

I feel I am still recovering but I did go to both the QuIG’s meeting and the Diva meeting on Tuesday.

Noel was in Rosalie’s Transparencies class the first week This is one of her works.

Lori started this work at QBL.

Liesa did this work for her living room wall.

Maureen is doing free motion machine work on her work now. It is fun.

Susan shared her Bronte sister dolls with us. The Diva group is so diverse that it is always exciting to see what folks are doing. I enjoy it very much.

Label Blocks #70 and 71 I did manage to keep at this project and made progress.

Keep Creating

Carol

Along the Shore, Blue Stone, Collage Based Work, Diva Meetings, Ice on Vincent, Label Blocks, Lion King- Cherrywood Challenge, Machine Drawing, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Wine and Cheese

May Days

May 5, 2016 admin

Hello,

This wonderful little blue flower filled in the neighbors front lawn and made me smile on my walk yesterday. They are so small only about a fourth on an inch across and so plentiful. I wore a smile for a long way down the street were it was refreshed several times as I came across several more mini fields of the little blue bundles.

I have had a full week with three days of Quilting Retreat at the Schweinfurth and the meetings of both QuIG’s and Divas. The retreat was great stimulation. It was good to see old friends and to see all that folks were doing. Norma was making hostess gifts. One of the five she did is in the background of this shot. Susan was quilting away at pieces that needed that to be completed. Great colors here.

Sally was piecing and assembling a one block wonder that was based on a fish print fabric. Watching her do the arranging of the blocks was wonderful because every time I looked up the work looked different.

Nancy G. did hand work on one of the row by row projects and this little quilt of NYC.

Linda L used the retreat to add boarders and based a big quilt of 110”x 110” that her sister had asked her to finish. She had to crawl around on the top of the tables to do all the basing in the center. The work is wonderfully complex and will look great on the bed when it is complete.

Victoria worked with the fabric she had created in Pat Paulie’s class in the fall. This shot is of one of the early layouts. She made lots of changes before the retreat was over. I love the bright colors.

Seated behind me was a gal named Janet W. She made her fist quilt at the retreat. I sure enjoyed working with her too. I think she is hooked.

Lots of wonderful things were going on at the QuIG’s meeting too. Both Linda and Angela were showing off pictures that are going to be inspirations for new work. Liz is still working away on the Splendid Simple Blocks project. Getting a new pattern every three of four days, is that is only a 8” block is very doable she says. She also is working away on big projects too. I just love this whole silk cloth work that she intends to start quilting soon.

Most of the Diva meeting went to talk about the up coming show that will open on June 3. Ruth did a great job with the post card.

Noel is doing service project quilts for the Tow Path guild. They are beautifully colored.

It is really great when folks bring works in progress. That is what Anne did. This is a Water quilt she shared with us . She asked for suggestions on how to quilt it. Now how she quilts chooses to do this will be interesting to see.

Lori also brought a project that is in an early stage. She has felted, fused and already added paint to the surface. All this before she begins to stitch on top. I am looking forward to watching it grow over time because I already love all the texture.

Progress Report: Ice on Vincent This quilt is in the stretching/flattening stage. I got help from Nancy Bales at the retreat on how to get it flat and now it is drying after a lot of steam ironing. Hopefully I will get a back on it this week.

Blue Stone I am still building up the surface with stitching on this work. I like this process,but it is very slow and tiring. Only about three more hours of work until I am done…… I think.

Along the Shore This is another of Ethel’s UFO’s I am completing. This is also my hand work project for the time being.

Wine and Cheese

I stared this project to relieve the pressure that all the free motion work on Ice and Blue Stone were creating in me this week. I did use a lot of the fabric that I had altered in this project. Most of the commercial orange is Ethel’s material.

Memory Map- Columbus Junction I did not do a lot of work on this project this week. I did add the spring flowers however. I like the Jack in the Pulpit the most. The Dutchman’s Britches are well shaped, but I wish they were a bit whiter. Perhaps I will add some paint to the surface.

Lion King –Cherrywood Challenge At the retreat I started this project. I had purchased the kit at the Chicago Quilt Festival when I was visiting with Sharron. First I did a little research and some drawing.

Then I stated building up the background. One of the limits on this challenge is to use only the Cherrywood fabrics. The pack was two shades of gold and dark brown fabric. Most of the piece is to be from these fabrics. The background is one of the gold’s. But it is not the full 20” that is required on a side, so I added the gray at the bottom.That is were I will put the masks when they are done. At the end of day one I did the loin’s body. I was tired and it was made backward. Fixing that was the first job of day two. I then made the main and stopped working on the project because I want to do the face with embroidery work. The whole thing is not due until July so I can take my time.

New Work Before I left home I had pulled out all my purples to do a new project using this collage as my starting point. It is early in the building of this work but I feel I am staying with the feel of it at this point.

Label Block # 50 I will take help were ever I can get it. The label at the top “ worker pant” is from my grandson.

Keep Creating

Carol

FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Foundations XII, Label Blocks, Out the Window, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

My Travels

April 14, 2016 admin

Hello,

It is really spring when the dandelions begin to bloom. I see more and more every day. I have enjoyed my last two weeks and my mind is full of all sorts of ideas and happy memories. On the Tuesday before I left I went to a FAB meeting at Judy’s house. Everyone was full of news and even though there were no new projects we had a good time. Then that same day I ran off to a QuIG’s meeting in Sue Ellen’s studio. Sue Ellen is still working on her tree theme series. I really like all the hand work she put into this work. Linda is experimenting with Yupo Paper and ink. She sure got some fine results. I think I purchased some of this stuff a while back, I wonder what I did with it. Sally took a class from Noel were she made this wonderful rose and then built a great evening bag with the knowledge. We had a good time.

Then on Wed. I flew off to Chicago to see my friend Sharron and go to the Quilt Festival. She picked me up and we drove around the city in her wonderful new 2015 Mustang. I was stopped cold when I opened the door and this logo appeared at my feet. Techknowledgy is every where. The Festival was wonderful. The quilts were amazing. Such strong use of color and texture as well as wonderful patterning and breath taking images. I do not feel like I can post any of them on this sight –just believe me. We did go to the dedication and delivery of Quilts of Valor. It was so moving I found myself with tears running down my cheeks. Later Sharron and I spent time at that booth working on blocks and we both finished six for some future Veteran’s quilt. We came home with tired feet and a pile of goodies. This is only my pile. Sharron had one as big. She has a wonderful studio with a full wall of fabric. Her own Quilt store I would say. She is still working away on her six “ Dear Jane “ quilts. She has all the centers doneand is a little beyond a third of the way around all six with the triangles in the boarders. I am sure she will finish this year and they will be amazing! Again I am not going to show them here as she has a show in mind that needs to keep the images off the net until they are shown there. Sharron also has a second passion and that is her Christmas Village. It is set up in a space that was once a dinning room. It is electrified and has a train that moves through the display. Most of the building have lights inside as well. I just kept looking and looking .She told me she has been collecting parts for over 30 years. I sure can believe that . What a delight for the kid in all of us.

On Monday I went to Ithaca and took down my solo show at the Briar Patch. The staff did not want to see it go, but all things must end . Anne has someone else lined up for the next two months now.

Progress Report: Ethel’s Quilt This quilt was designed cut and partially assembled by my quilting buddy Ethel Whittamore. She asked me to finish it and then pass it on to Quilting By The Lake for there raffle in July. The Raffle money goes to the scholarship fund for the classes at QBL the following summer. I did finish the assembly and started doing the hand quilting like Ethel always did on her quilts. But I was unsatisfied with my work so I sent it off to an Amish woman I know who does beautiful handwork. The results came back and I was delight and she got the cash for a new calf. I was so excited when it came home that I took it to a Diva meeting were Cheri asked if she could take it to be shown at the YMCA Central New York Quilt show April 8 /9. I said yes and now it it home with me in all its glory. I will enjoy it for a few months before it goes off to QBL and its new home.

Riverwood This work is 31” X 49”. It meets all three of my monthly challenges. The orange and yellow fabric is some I hand dyed in a class last fall. The silk and the browns are from Ethel’s stash. The design is based on a collage I created. There are always alterations when one goes

from 3” x5” to a larger from. I liked using a limited pallet working with a the bold print against a smaller scaled area. I am also enjoying using the faced shapes to add another detention to the surface.

Out My Window This quilt is 38” X 41”. I hand painted the big white sections. They are all views of things that I saw out different windows in my life time. This shot is of the barn yard I could see from my bed room in Iowa. All the dark purple blocks are machine drawn trees and most of the other areas are leaves or clouds.

New Work -Ice on Vincent As I mentioned before the quilt show was inspiring and so I started this work based on a photo I took earlier this spring of ice along Vincent St. It is a close up and I have already done some major altering of it as I have put down the fabrics.

New Work This is an early shot of the beginning of a new piece. I want to do another stretched work, so this piece is 26” X 50” . It is based on a shot I took in Washington State on a trip with Marty. I am doing it all in shades of blue instead of gray.

Label Blocks # 46 and # 47

Two weeks- two blocks. I did a lot of the work in the airport waiting for the plane. The beat goes on….

Keep Creating

Carol

Briar Patch, Diva Meetings, Foggy Dawn, Label Blocks, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Silver Growth, Trickle

Ice Cycles

March 3, 2016 admin

Hello,

Long ice cycles are one of the sure signs of spring to me. The weather keeps shifting from cold to warm here and that means melt and thaw and melt again.

I had lots of meetings this week. Sat was a meeting of the Mixed Group. It is always very stimulation and enjoyable to see the work of other artists and get their feed back on one’s own work. Tuesday the first of March so both QuIG’s and the Divas meant. Liz found a weekly offer by Moda on Their web sight were they publish two new blocks ever week. She has a note book already and four blocks are completed.

Corinne shared her print work from our last play day at Angle’s.

At the DIva meeting Kristen shared her shop entry for the “Row by Row “ show at

quilters corner. Donna shared her Bernie Sanders doll.

Noel showed off her piece for the “ 15” show that the Divas will have this summer. It was inspiration to see what everyone is doing. I am so very lucky to have such wonderfully creative friends.

Progress Report: Trickle This is the forth stretched quilt that I felted first. For this one I did not add any thing to the back of my woven wool fabric before I felted it. This meant that it all stretch at the same rate and so it ended up much flatter. Now I need to get the corners of the work to be smooth and flat. It seems there is always something to learn.

Foggy Dawn I have taken the advice of my fellow quilters from Tuesday’s meetings on how to quilt this work and did it all in swirling patterns. It is now ready for the facings.

Briar Patch I am having fun doing free motion raw edge applique of the leaves on this work. I will also do free motion to add the black berries .

Silver Growth I started this work because of the gift of a beautiful top that my friend Regina gave me. The deep purple with the silver work on it at the bottom. Now I need to figure out how to ingrate this work.

New Work I have enjoyed laying out the balance of this work. Now I am ready to begin the sewing step. I will fill in the white areas with narrow strips of fabric as I always do.

Scrap Happy I am to the step in this quilt where I have put the blocks in rows. I need to stop now and make a back for this project before I can go forward. It will make a good quilt to pass on.

Label Block # 42 I just keep working away on these little pieces.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

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Ice Cycles

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer