Category Archives: Crow Calls

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 +

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, Crow Calls, Curvie Cuts, Daily Practice, Drawing, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Poppy Field

Sumer Time

Hello,
It has been a somewhat quiet week here. I only had one Zoom meeting and with the Pixies. We always enjoy sharing our work and catching up. Susan , who edits my Childhood postings is having trouble with her sending email. We had a power outage and I lost my copy of Childhood too so it looks like there will be no posting of that this week. Hopefully things will be back to normal next week.
This beautiful orange Peony was on  Liz’s table.  I had to touch it to assure myself it was not silk.    I had lunch with Liz and Joyce and that was enjoyable too.

Progress Report Horsetails – reworked. This project is 30.5″ w X 40.5″ l. After showing it to the FAB group last week and getting some constructive feed back, I reworked it. This is much stronger. Sometimes we don’t hit the mark on the first or even second try.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt # 13 This work is 39″ w X 53″ l. I used a lot of my altered fabrics on this one. There are enamels of printed stencils and hand dyed fabrics here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lap # 12 This work is all pin basted and ready for quilting. Again I am playing with my altered fabrics.

 

 

 

 

Lap # 14 I am still in the assemble process on this one. I sure like working in this smaller format.

 

 

 

 

 

Green Base This base unit is all stitch in the ditch quilted at this point. I am trying to do some leaves were I do the cut away technique on them. Again I do not know what I am doing as this is new to me- so it is mostly a case of trial and error.

 

 

 

 

 

Crow Calling is all pin based now too. I am ready to do the stitch in the ditch step and then do some free motion drawing to add interest.

 

 

 

 

Daily Project I finished the long strip and have moved onto a new bit of fabric.

 

 

 

Dark Side of the Moon I am hand quilting around the woven images of the flowers on this project.   Then I am outlining some of the petals.

 

Poppy Fields     This week I built some new poppies to add to the field.   But apone putting them on the work I discovered that they are too orange and do not give the effect I want.  So I will scarp these and try again with a mix of the orange wool and the red  to make the new blossoms

100 Days Project Quilt Surface Design Association put out a calling to do a bit of work every day for 100 days. This is there second run of this challenge.  I missed the first. I decided to do 4.5″ X 6.5″ blocks in black and white. I recall an image in he Saturday Evening Post from my childhood were the photographer had reduced his images of people to black and white and then put lots of them together to create an image. My memory is foggy- but it has stuck with me somehow and so I though this would be a great opportunity to try something similar. I am using figures from the sports pages and some of my figures are based on dancers. My friend Noel suggested them after I told her what I was doing. In the 10 days of the process I have made some discoveries. I have learned that I want to cut the black fabric for my pieces and I want do the stitch outline in black too. The thing I discovered yesterday was I want to make all my figures big enough that the extend off the frame at least once in each case. I am still playing with possibilities here.

Drawings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep Creating

Carol

Birds, Creative Assistants, Crow Calls, Daily Practice, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Feed you soul, Felt Work, FOX, Label Cards, Sisterhood of the Scissors, Thousand words, Wildfire, Word Forms

Good News

Calling Crows 49″wX 34″h

Hello,

This work is in the Quilts unlimited Show in Old Forge NY.  I got a letter in the mail this week that told me this work won a Judges Choice award.   I am delighted.

Other events happened this week as well.   Tanya came to visit and we talked of dyeing.  She is working with silk and experimentally dyeing with different materials.   I love the colors she   The big event was yesterday and it was my first meeting with the Sisterhood of the  Scissors.  It was a play day at Regina’s house.    Everyone just did their own thing. 

 

 

 

 

Wendy spent her time at the meeting working on shome stitchery.  Several gals worked on their weaving.

They both had handmade looms.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

one can see the image of her dog under this weaving.   It will be great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regina is mixing her indigo dyed doily and a rust dyed one.I dyed with shaving cream and put a few items into Regina’s Dye pot.  We had a good time and d to the next meeting.

 

Progress Report:   FOX  This work is 25.5” w X 4hhh.   I am finally finished with this work.    I used some of my hand dyed.

IMG_2051The modeled orange red here is that fabric.   The background with the greens is one of the fabrics I inherited from Ethel.   Her influence just keeps going in my life.IMG_2052

Wildfire-  I am now done with the free motion quilting on this piece.  It sure seems to give the work more of a flow  pattern across the surface.

IMG_2046Friends   I am done with the hand applique  and directive stitch work on this piece now.    The glasses are from my friend Mary and the copper belt buckle is  from my mom.   I now need  to purchase some additional stretcher bars as I did not mark the outer edge of the size and I filled the space allotted.    So I will purchase some 16” bars and finish this work.The wool is from Tanya and  the leaves from  Pam.   I got the buttons from a big tin from my friend Sally.    Folks are so very generous.

 

 

 

 

 

Daily Practice  IMG_2045  All  the fabric pieces are attached now and I am working on stitching to pull them together.

IMG_2054Felting    I went a little crazy when I got the felting machine out and did four bases.IMG_2056    IMG_2057Then I ordered more roving as I did not have as much blue as I wanted.IMG_2058

Birds   The felting lead me to do some machine drawing and the Blue Jay and the Killdeer are the result.   I will build a few more birds to

apply to the backgrounds.

 

 

 

 

 

New  Work   I started a new background using lots of my hand dyed stuff .

Creative Assistants    I watched a little football this week and built a few faces along the way.

IMG_2064Label Cards Thousand Words    I think this is a true and powerful statement. IMG_2066Feed Your Soul    For each and everyone of us that idea is unique.   Color, texture and exercise are some of the things that feed my soul- but I am sure that is not true of everyone.

Keep Creating

Carol

Crow Calls, Label Blocks, Pods, Samurai Romance, Truquoise Street Studio

New Growth

tree blossomsHello-

Spring is fast upon us here in central  New York.  From the blooming of the trees to the  lots of green sprouts across the ground it is here.  Not having to always load up with hats and gloves is a very freeing feeling. Regina's Wine   I went off to visit with Regina this week.  She did this wonderful piece with a snow dyed background and  then she hand painted the grapes and leaves on top.  It will be wonderful when she is done.    She also showed off her  machine work.Machine drawing The more I learn about this process the more I respect the gals who do it.  There is or can be lots of computer programing in the process as well as all thread and color selection that goes on.   It looks to take a lot of skill to me. IMG_7928  We also did silk paper and  had a long and good day.

 

Nancy ans JudyThen I help Judy and Nancy work on the basing of Nancy’s  Blue Bird quilt.      There are lots of hours of machine drawing left on this project and I am certain that the end result will be a beauty.

I spent Thursday afternoon in the Turquoise Street Studio with Beth and Barbara. IMG_7934   They are both working on there entries for the St David’s Show next in two weeks.IMG_7936I did hand work all afternoon and enjoyed the conversation.

 

Samurai RomanaceProgress Report:   Samurai Romance    This work is 18.5 “ X 37.5 “.

I did four different techniques for adding textures to the surface for this work.    I really like using foil and will try to keep that in mind as I go forward with new works.IMG_7918Foil can be added to paper, wool and interfacing.    I have only applied it to fabric in the past.   IMG_7920 With each project I seem to be doing more and more free motion work too.  It is also a powerful tool to use the machine as a drawing tool.

 

PodsPods    I was doing some sorting and found some unique and beautiful buttons in my stash.  They come in packs of five- but I am still going to use them as part of the embellishment of these pods.    I cut quite a few more this week but there is still the fabric that I created in all four colors left so there will be lots of these to pass to folks at Christmas time as well as plenty to keep for myself.

Guatemalan TopIMG_7887.jpg    This top  is all done now.   I will be sure to wear it at QBL this summer so show off how to use some of the great needle work.

 

IMG_7911I think Pricilla will be glad to see how I used the embroidery I purchased from her too.

Crow CallsCrow Calls  I am working away on this project.    I am adding the crow in flight to it now as the trees are mostly full of birds.  I am almost out of the suede too so when that is all gone I will stop.

Iced LeavesIced Leaves I am making slow progress on this work.   I have cut and embossed some of the copper leaves I want to use.IMG_7922  I have also started to stitch down some of the fabric leaves too.  I will admit now that it is spring I do not seem to have the drive to work on this I had earlier in the year.

Tan RockTan Rock   This  background is all done now.  I have done some research and some drawings  trying to decide what plant life I want to add on top.  I am still in this part of the design stage.

Red Rock The same can be said for this red rock face.  red Rocks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Label Block #117Label Block # 117    The stitching keeps going forward on this project.  I did a lot of hand work on the pods so not as much extra time was put into this  project this week.  I still meant my goal of completing one more block.

 

Keep Creating
CarolIMG_7938.jpg

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

Spring

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.

IMG_7796Liz finished this beauty using all Kay Facet’s fabrics.    She and  Sue Ellen both had work for the  group challenge for the guild.

Liz  This is Liz’s finished star challenge piece.  It looks good I think.   Sue Ellen’s star  is   a good one as well.IMG_7797  The use of the light blue fabric and the size were the other two limitations to the challenge.     Angela's 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.

 

 

Lor'sThe Divas also meant on Tue eve.  with more exciting stuff.  This is Lori’s completed tundra piece from her trip to Alaska.IMG_7802Maureen 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.  IMG_7806

Donna's BatherShe is also working away on some figures in paper clay.   These bathing beauties are fun I think.

IMG_7811Regina is doing lots of handwork  on her shobori  pieces from last month.  She is also exploring with rust dyeing.   IMG_7813

 

 

Liesa workLliesa  shared her memory scrolls from her semester in Japan.  They are so wonderful.  IMG_7824All created while she was there with her husband and made from fabric she got at the temple sales that she attended.

 

FiguresThere are four scrolls and each one is full of beautiful appliqued works all with memories and stories too.  IMG_7823   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.

 

scrolls

 

 

 

Summer Medow

 

 

 

 

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.IMG_7836IMG_7837  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 33" X 430.5"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

IMG_7850This 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.   IMG_7849  This is my solution.

Crow Calls 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 RomanceIMG_7834  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.

Samuair Romance     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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RoosterBanner –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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_7843.jpgBanner- 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  IceIMG_7830I 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.

 

 

scarvesNew Scarves       Chris  asked for more scarves so I got busy and did these two this week.  IMG_7856  I am always surprised by the bits of stuff that seem to pile up and work in these projects.

 

Pod 6IMG_7858  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 114Label 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.