Category Archives: SAQA

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

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

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

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

100 Day Challenge, Action, Child Dancer, Childhood Memories, College Life, Drawing, Lap Quilts, People, Pixies Group, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Winter work

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Hello,

We are starting to thaw after the big snow storm we had last weekend.   Only the  meeting was the Pixies, so I got a lot done.

One of the things I did was  a Neurotrophic Drawing.  It is a style with a series of steps that allows one to relax.  I did enjoy it and will do it again some time.

There was an additional assignment from the Textile  Artist Stitch Club from Monique Day.   She instructed us on how to make a plastic sandwich and how to cut more sequins from our sheets.

This in my stitchery with one new sequin pinned on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Overwhelmed  This piece is 32″ w X 40″ l.   I cut up scraps, bits of trim, ribbon and yarn and scattered them across the base .  Then I layered nylon netting on top and stitched the sandwich together.  Last I added the figure that I cut from wool I had washed several times.

 

 

 

Lap Quilt #5  I used lots of fabrics that I had altered in this lap quilt.   I am enjoying the play making these projects  offer me.

 

 

 

 

Action  I am doing the hand work on the figures now. The progress is very slow, but very calming.

 

 

 

Child Dancer  This idea came from a Paul Klee painting that caught my eye as I was flipping through an Art History book looking for a Monet image.   I then had a dream about is so I though I would try to capture that feeling.    I zig-zagged over yarn to create the out lines.

 

 

I am still playing catch up with my Memories so there will be two this week as well.

College Life- Start of Spring Quarter 1967

Over the break between winter and spring quarter, I did a little connecting with my old high school world. I went to see Musical Moods, an event that I had participated in all three years in high school. After the performance I talked with Don Jones and friend Sara Loe. She had been my band partner and played next to me, and she was looking for a friend to double date with her. I agreed to go on a blind date to spend a day spelunking in central Indiana. I did have a good time and, since it was a rainy day, spending it under ground was a good choice. We were the only four folks in that cave that day and we just explored. There were places where we had to crawl on our stomachs and some very narrow ones where we went forward in a vertical position. We all were quite muddy when we emerged, and I was glad it was not my car that we were driving home. I also spent a day scuba diving during that vacation. I enjoyed getting together with those folks, and I even helped Mike and Phil teach several scuba lessons at the YMCA that spring.
My classes for spring quarter really focused on Art. I had realized in the middle of the winter term that I really was not a strong enough artist to make a living doing art, so I had accepted the idea that I would go into teaching. I had Ceramics, Design , and Introduction to Art Teaching that quarter. The other two classes I had were English and Swimming. They did keep me busy.
On Wednesday of the first week back, I went to the Artist Series on campus at Emens to see Generations with Hans Conried. My seat was 101 in row L, and I was very happy with my view. I had taken care of my own wishes and gotten my seat the first day they were available. Friday of that first week Eric and I had our first real date. We went along with Larry and Nancy, a girl he “kidnaped” by asking her at the last minute when she could not say “No,” to see A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. We all laughed a lot and enjoyed it. That is still one of my favorite movies. On Sunday of that same weekend Eric and I went to see the Ingmar Bergman film Virgin Spring at the Foreign Film weekly presentation. For me that film raised lots of questions as I identified closely with the main character. I was both excited and scared at how much I liked Eric, yet I was concerned at how quickly we had become exclusive.
We had lots of dates over the next few weeks. One Saturday we decided to go for a picnic at Dixon Mounds. Eric, Larry and I walked the trials and looked at the mounds and then tried to fly a kite that I had put in the trunk at the last minute. That was not very successful, but we did have a silly time. We also had my parents badminton set, and that was the start of an activity that we played for years. Larry started the fire and we all enjoyed his hotdogs, too. We had lots of “Coke dates” and talked a lot. On another Saturday I took Eric canoeing on the Mississinewa River. The water was high, and we worked really hard on our trip up river. We did not reach our goal, but the trip back down was fun. I remember coming home exhausted. Larry, Eric, and I took off on the Thursday just before Spring Break and drove to Indianapolis to check out the 500 time trials that afternoon.
Back in Muncie, Larry and Eric opted to stay at Barney’s and not go home for the spring break. Instead, they went to work for Manpower, a company that sent people out on hourly jobs. I know one of the days that week, they spent throwing rocks into the reservoir to rebuild the jetty near the harbor where the sailing club had its boats. I on the other hand went with my family on a trip south and east.

College Life- Spring Break Plus

The spring quarter break that year we went south to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Gene had a new pup tent that we tried out the first night we arrived. Sleeping on the ground in March was quite cold! We took the full day cave tour the next day. It sure was a different experience from the explorative spelunking I had done earlier that spring. The guide was very informative. There were beautifully lit wonderful flowing formations as well as lots of dry areas in the cave. We went for a ride on an underground river and had lunch in a huge open area where we sat at picnic tables and ate bag lunches. The guide asked us to all be quiet and he turned off the lights. It was so dark! I have never “seen” so much darkness. One felt like the only person in a colorless nothing until he turned the lights up slowly again.

That night I slept back in the car top carrier and was much more comfortable. We spent the next day hiking and enjoying the park. I liked the spring flowers and had my first real experience with Rhododendrons. I still love that plant. The next day we drive mostly east and ended up at Myrtle Beach. That was great fun as we had a section of the beach all to ourselves. Gene and I spent the day canoe surfing. We would paddle out and then turn the boat back toward the shore and wait for a big wave. Then we tried to ride the wave into the shore. We got dumped out many times but still had a fun day. I remember the full moon rising over the Atlantic ocean that night and how it looked behind the palm trees. It was glorious to fall asleep to the sound of those leaves clattering against one another and the sound of the water crashing against the shore. I remember seeing a sign for a Black Beach on our way to our camp ground and pressed Dad to go there the next day. When I told him I wanted to see the black sand, he sadly told me the beach was a part of segregation and it was for Black people. I was so very naive.

Then it was back to school and back to classes. One of my classes was Ceramics 1. It was all hand work and an introduction to mixing and making one’s own glazes. One thing we had to get going on at the beginning of the quarter was finding and working on a natural clay project. As it turned out, the college was building a new Science building just to the west of the art building where there was lots of exposed raw earth. So that is where I got my clay. It had been drying out during the break, and I came back to class to break it down, sift it, remoisten the powder, kneed it and began building work with that clay. Mine was a wonderful yellow clay and I built three coil pots with it. One pot blew up in the first firing , but the other two did not. Mom had the finished works around for years.

On Tuesday of the first week back from spring break the Sailing Club had a picnic and boat launch. I asked Eric to go along with me and he did. We all had fun putting the boats back in the water for the new season and many of us got wet feet. We ate hot dogs that we all roasted over the open fire and generally enjoyed ourselves. Then we played flag football. It was mostly a game of chase, but fun. I unexpectedly intercepted the football and got a bit terrorized when everyone suddenly turned in my direction to pull my flags. I had a new respect for actual football players after that event.

Stay safe and enjoy Valentines Day

Carol

100 day Challenge, 100 Day Challenge, Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, Diva Meetings, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group

Home again

Hello,
I hope August is full filling everyone’s expectations. I sure like the many flowers that are blooming this year.

 

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed my trip to Maine. Marty and I always have a good time together and this year was no different. We visited with Elizabeth Bush and she was busy making winter hats for children. We talked and ate well enjoying each others company.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our way home Marty and I stopped at the Fenimore Art Museum and spent a few hours in the Native American art display. This is my favorite mask this time. We really enjoyed the baskets as well.

 

 

 

 

 

I went along with Noel to the Diva meeting at Cheri’s this week and we had a lively discussion. This work is by Maureen. She dose beautiful hand dyeing with natural materials. I also made it to the Pixie Zoom meeting yesterday.

I am doing a bit of cleaning and passing forward this stack of lap sized quilts to folks who are confined to wheel chairs.

My being away means there is not a lot to share.

100 Day Project For this one I did make progress. There are two shots for two weeks. I am still two days behind, but they are cut and pinned just not sewn yet.

 

 

 

Lap # 15 I did the stitch in the ditch quilting on this work this week. I will move on later with t free motion trees to out line the ones I printed and add new ones in the big areas.

 

 

 

New Lap I just pulled and pinned up these to see if they work together for the next one. I also sorted out some old quilts to add to the quilts that I plan to pass to wheel chair folks. This is the stack

 

 

 

Daily Practice   I am enjoying doing hand work.  I find it very calming.

 

 

Childhood Memories- Adolescence – Fall Senior Year 1965

My Senior year was a full and active one. I continued to participate in Band, the Math Club and Choirs. I also added Orbal our literary magazine to my list of organizations along with Thespians.. There was also all the social stuff. It seemed like we talked a lot about values and how to have a better culture. Viet Nam was getting to be an issue in the news and that also entered into many conversations. One of my friends John Conley did join the army at the end of the senior year. He was the youngest in his family and although loved farming he knew that he would not inherit the family farm. He did go to Viet Nam. We corresponded then that stopped abruptly. I learned later that was because he died there. I had one short romance with Keith Johnson, a Jr in the band he played the saxophone. He was far to physical and “fast” for me at that time. I was not ready for the heavy necking that he wanted. But exploration was part of growing up.
I got my first real job in September. After securing my work permit I started in the Dinning Service at the Student Center on Campus. After two weeks of work I got my first pay check of $26.00. Only $21 after taxes. The job as mostly serving tables at banquets and then working in the dish room cleaning up afterwards. No orders, checks or tips. I quickly learned how to balance a tray of eight plates on my shoulder and get it safely down to the rest without a spill. I got good at that job and could work every evening if I had wanted. I also was quickly tapped to work in the Orrer Room for small intimint dinners of 12 and under. That seemed very easy after doing three tables of eight and ten in the big dinning room. I was a good way to meet kids outside my school environment. I really enjoyed one young man with red hair and frekels named Tom Sawyer. He was a real comic too. I got to serve the head table when our senator Birch Bye, was at one fund raiser there. Yes, I did break a few dishes( always in the clean up process) and my feet were sore when I got home many nights, but I really did enjoy the job. I held that job until I was a Jr in collage at Ball State when I exchanged that job for teaching assistant in the art department.
The classes kept me busy, what with English, Speech, Math, Physics, Economics and Civics. There was also the SAT test in the fall. In the spring I was inducted into the Honor Society. For my incitation presentation I did a demonstration on how one could turn numbers into cartoon characters. For example a 6 could easily become a horses head.
At Thanksgiving time we went home to Iowa as usual to the family feast and time with the cousins. The meal was much the quieter than in the past with out the McElhinney clan because Grandpa Merit was ill. No Oyster casserole that year. Grandpa had black lung from the grain dust, but we did not learn that until later. He had sold his prize heard of regerstered Black Angus and on the Friday after Thanksgiving men came and loaded them into trucks and drover away. I remember seeing Grandfather standing at the living room window with out making a sound while big tears ran down his face as he watched his dream drive away. My father pulled me away to let his father have the time to him self. When we went to Grandview at that time we made a plan to go to Texas and Big Bend National park at Christmas with all the families.

Stay safe

Carol

100 Day Challenge, Childhood Memories, Crow Calls, Curvie Cuts, Daily Practice, Drawing, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Poppy Fields

Summer

Hello,
   Happy summer everyone.   This week has been a busy one. I went off to Ithaca with Liz and Cheri to pick up my Phaff from its cleaning. We did a little shopping and took a load of fabrics and notions to Sew Green too. It feels good to pass things one no longer needs or will never use to someone else who just might do something wonderful with them. Liz and I got caught in a heavy rain storm after we dropped off Cheri and had to double back due to a wire across the highway. Then on Wed.   Liz and I dyed for the first time this season. It feels good to be back doing that  again.    I did meet with the Pixies this week too.   Only three of us, but still a good meeting.

 

Progress Report: Crows Calling   This work is 36″ w X 53.5″ l.   All the rectangles that are not drawn on are old silk kimonos from my friend  Noel.       I enjoyed quilting crows in flight as a part of the background for this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

100 Days  SAQA Challenge    I am still doing this challenge and now on day 24.

 

 

Lap # 12- Butterfly     I have now started to build the thread painting  that I want to overlay on this quilt top.   It is slow work as this shot shows all the thread painting I did in two hours.  I  used a full bobin to do just this  much of the job.

Lap # 14  This top is all assembled now.   I will move on this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green As this project progresses I realize that I need a better title as their is less and less green in the work  and no leavers are green.      I think I am nearly ready to stitch down all the cut leaves.

 

 

 

Poppy Field    I did get the french knot flowers add to the top section of the far field this week .   Not a lot of other work on this piece.   The orange flowers I made are too big to be a part of this one.

 

 


Dark side of the Moon    I have started to do reflective quilting  on this piece.  I still have some hand work to do inside some of the circular forms too.

 

Daily Practice     I have completed another of the daily practices pieces and started a new one last evening.     They are going well.

 

 

 

 

Drawing    I only completed two drawings  this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I got a little out of alignment  and the nose it far too long.

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- Jr Year Education

The Jorner  year   of high school was a one of challenge and change for me.   Ceicle and Mike had gone off to various collages. The gang added new kids from band and adolescence was a crazy mix of finding ones self and trying to figure out the opposite sex. I suffered with my academics a bit too. I had Mr Langdon for English and he was a very demanding teacher. I liked the massive amounts of reading we had to do as we did British and American   Literature. I recall reading Macbeth, Sartorius , Last of the Mohekens, Brave New World, The Scarlet Letter, The Good Earth and 1984.    The class discussions we informative and fun as well. We also did the poets e e cummings and Walt Whitman. For the poetry we had memorization and I can still recite “When Lilacs Last in the Door Yard Bloomed.” Dad also arranged for me to have a tutor for my spelling and she asked me to read The Bridge of San Lewis Ray. I did well with most of the other stuff and I still am glad for the exposure to the books. I ended my time with Mr Langdon with a C- the fist semester and a C the second.
Dad’s political connections allowed   me to be a Page at the Indiana state house for a day in Feb. I was excited and enjoyed the time.   The day was cold and the roads were icy and we arrived half an hour late to the CIrcle that the state house is on.  I remember running up the icy stairs and rushing into the building with no idea were I was to go.    Out of breath I asked the man in the front hall and he directed me.   In the page room after hanging my coat on a peg I took a deep breathe and started a wonderful day.  I got to put  bills out on the senators desks and run errands for them. The sessions seemed a bit disorganized to me as folks got up and talked to each other not paying any attention the speaker sometimes. I went to two committee meetings in the afternoon. One was on poverty and the second was on education. I almost missed being paged to do an errand at the education meeting as I was so engrossed in the topic.   It was a full day with lots of learning on my part.    Dad told me later that I really talked his ear off all the way home.
As to the social life it was full of teenage stress. Liking one person and not being liked in return and petty conflicts over boys. One boy, Bill Mohler, had a real crush on me and he was a sweet fellow. I went to a formal dance with him and he broth me a beautiful corsage. I even went on a date with him on a Sunday, went to church and spent the day with him and his family.   But there was not spark there.   Telling him I did not see him in the same romantic light  as she saw me was difficult.     Then after  my “friend “ Terry, stole Jim, a guy I was really attracted to,  away from me, before the romance even got started- I sort of swore off boys for a while. Bobby from last summer was still around and  I just could not figure him out either. So I work more along the line of ” friendships” with boys and nothing more for the rest of the year.

 

I will be away so there will not be a Blog next week.

Please stay safe

Carol

100 Day Challenge, Childhood Memories, Curvie Cuts, Daily Practice, Drawing, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Lap Quilts, Pixies Group

The Wild Around us

Hello,
It has been a busy week for me. The FAB group meant at Nancy Bailes home and had a good time. We got to see Nancy’s doll collection. She told us she always got one from a lady she admired when they went to Maine to visit. She also shared her beads work.

 

 

 

 

This is just one of the many bracelets that she has completed. There was a Pixie Zoom meeting too.

 

 

 

 

I also went to the Schweinfurth on Thur to see the Made in New York Show with Liz and Cheri. What a lot of wonderful inspiring work. This work is called Eclipse by my friend Julie G.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite piece from this show was Drawing II by Susan Byrnes. What a great use of automatic machine stitches. From across the room this looked like chalk on black paper.

 

 

 

We also went up stairs and enjoyed the Threads Across Time show of quilts by Sarah Bond. It was a good day.

 

 

 

 

 

But it was our walks that really provided me with the realization that Nature will find a way.    We often see deer in the wild area behind the SU student apartments.    One day we saw a hawk that was just setting on the ground with a lot of feathers all around him and that was followed by Monarchs visiting milkweed plants, and a baby rabbit that just avoided a mower.     All those creatures were in just one day.   Then last night we had racoons on our patio.     We live in the city and not the suburbs and if the creatures can make homes here they can live just about any were.

I seem to be in the middle of lots of work with out any completions at the moment.   Doing many projects at once is my way of allowing myself time to look at and think about what I want to accomplish with my work.  A way of slowing down of sorts.

Progress Report: Lap #14   I am still building quilts that I plan to pass forward.    There are lots of my hand dyed and painted fabrics in this one.

 

 

 

 

 

Lap # 12     I liked this base so much that I am going to turn it into a regular quilt by adding butterflies to the surface,  But I do not want to make them silid so I am going to try to find a way to use thread painting to do the job.  That is what the brown paper that I have pinned up is for.

 

 

Crow Callings    I have moved onto the quilting of the parts of this quilt.  This time I am doing wind lines and also including outlines of flying crows to add a little interest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green    I worked on the leaves  I want to applique to  this quilt  this week.   I will also need to create some additional size and colors to this work.

 

 

Dark Side of the Moon      I am still doing the hand quilting on this project.  I did start to do the machine work around the few finished circles however.

100 Days Challenge    This work is getting better and better.  I did decide to turn some of my images on there sides to add a bit more interest.

 

 

Daily Practice

 

 

 

 

 

Drawings    These are my drawing for this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a double dose of Childhood this week to to the technical difficulties of last week.

Childhood Memories-Summer 1963 Family trip
> Mom and Dad arrived in Grandview with the car top carrier with the canoe on top. They did spend a few days visiting. One sunny afternoon Dad ,along with Marce, Russell, Doug and Gene took a canoe trip down the Iowa river. I remember them launching at the river’s edge in Columbus Junction and then Mom, Grandfather Howard, Kelly and I went off to the island at the edge of the farm to watch then float BY. It was a calm and quiet enjoyable time, but we never saw them pass , and decided that they must have chosen a different branch of the river to go south. We found them at the exit point and helped them unload. Everyone was excited and a bit sun burnt.
> My family then went south to Hannibal Missouri, to see Tom Sawyer’s house and visit other historic stuff. We did see the fence that supposedly was the one painted by Tom’s friends. It had just been white washed as a part of some special summer celebration so it looked real good. The house was much smaller then I expected and packed full of stuff like a museum. I remember there were lots of old spoons and such, as well as a death mask of Mr Clements in one of the glass topped cabinets. Mom had to explain to me about that as I had never seen one before. We also did the tour of the cave used as the basis of Tom and Becky’s adventure with Indian Joe from “Tom Sawyer “. I was not very impressed and only remember the narrow passageway with sandstone walls. Not any big room and no formations that I recall. From there we went to St Louis to visit Dad’s brothers family. Uncle Leonard was working for General Electric at that time. We did go to the Zoo in St Louis. I liked all the animals. I remember seeing a Elephant performing show there. I was a bit stressed by the man putting his head under the elephants foot, but Dad assured me no harm was done. We had a good picnic with Mike and baby Tom in Uncle Leonard and Aunt Alieen’s back yard. Their house was a new one and they had the cleanest basement I ever saw. Gene and Mike rode the trike around and around the basement floor.
> We continued south and went to a camp ground. We put the Mimahuni in a lake. We went swimming too. Another day we did a bit of river fun with our canoe.. One day we went for a cave tour at Crystal cave. It was privately owned and our family were the only folks on the tour. We all carried lanterns for light. It was much more interesting then Tom Sawyer’s cave with lots of different formations. The guide was a some what tired young college kid who was doing this as his summer job. He did lots of good explanations and even broke off a small stalagmite and gave it to me. I still have it. Mom was sure that was not something he should have done, but she didn’t say anything to him. We then headed home and got ready for the new school year.

 

Childhood Memories Jr Year High School.
After the start of school our family took a canoe with the Yoyhauses. We put the two  canoes in the Mississinewa River about 10 miles outside of town and worked our way down the river. At one point the river was so wide and shallow that we had to get out and walk the boats forward. While we were doing so, a farmer on the left bank shot his shot gun over out heads and said” Get off my land!” In Indiana the water is public but the land under it belongs to the owner. We hurried forward and all pilled back into the boats as fast as we could. Further down the river in the afternoon near the end of the trip we had to go over a falls. We pulled into the shore and portaged the camping gear down to the bottom. Phillis, Mom, and I watched from the shore as Dad alone in our boat went over the falls successfully. Then Gene and Frank tried. Frank was not as skillful as Dad and they tipped over at the bottom. Frank panicked and began thrashing around as he could not swim. Gene just reached out and grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him to the side of the boat and started pushing everything to the shore. When they got out, Frank could not thank Gene enough for saving his life. Gene was just embarrassed. After reloading the canoes we just went a bit farther down the river to a camp sight and had a good evening. The rest of the trip was uneventful. I went to the Mississinewa many times with various friends and put the canoe in for afternoon trips. We always went up stream first when we were fresh and floated back to the bridge to get out. It was a pleasant way to quiet time with friends.
It seemed like I got a lot more social in my Jr year of high school. The Band continued to keep me busy , but I did lots of other stuff too. I went to the movies a lot more and seemed to still have one foot in my youth as went to see the Disney animated version of “Sward in the Stone” one afternoon and then “ Lord of the Flies” that night. I recall going to see “Cleopatra” too with Elizabeth Taylor. I suer was impressed with all the gold and the big sets in that one. Gene and I went to see “20,000 Thousand Leagues under the Sea” as he was now 13. In Sept a new TV hit show was “Bewitched” and I never missed that TV show. There were lots of plays too. We had season ticketed to the Ball State Drama department and I remember seeing “Come Blow your Horn”. I think that being a Thespian made view live drama in a different way. Having worked on sets and costumes I was more aware of how importantly they were to the story. One evening, Margaret and I went to see “Oklahoma” at a county high school. We also went to see “A Mouse that Roared” that spring.
Gene had a great adventure on April fools day. He had played a trick on Dad by subatuting salt for sugar in the sugar bowl the night before. Then at Breakfast he watch Dad put sugar in his coffee and sprinkle it on his grapefruit. When Dad calmly ate the third bight of grapefruit, Gene burst out “ Dad- You don’t have any taste buds at all!” Dad replied” April Fools to you!” I discovered you trick when I had coffee last night and put thing to write.”
That year I also had my first crush. I think that Ceicle really pushed that. Bobby Cornell was a part of the gang that I did stuff with and she tried to make the romance work. She even persuaded me to purchase matching shirts for the two of us for his birthday. His was too big so I took them back. One night we were out with Ceicle and Mike, Bobby got sick and threw up in the back of Ceicle’s Mustang Convertible. We quickly drove him home. Neither Mike nor Ceicle had the stomach to clean it up so I did. Not pleasant, but baby setting had prepared me for that job. One night when Bobby brought me home I was sure he was going to kiss me. The tension had been building up to this for some time. We were saying good night on the front poach when I saw thought the living room window my little brother, Gene, wiggling across the living room floor to spy on me. I grabbed Bobby hand and shook it telling him I had a great time and went inside leaving him on the porch. I really yelled at Gene in my disappointment. The romance fizzled and I never did get a kiss from Bobby although we did remain friends until he went off to college  were I lost track of him.

Stay safe and 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