Category Archives: JOY II

Collage, Diva Meetings, Double Joy, Glyph IV with Beads, Indian Pipe, Indian Pipe, JOY II, Orange Essence, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Spirit, Ths Sun

Snow days

IMG_0348  Hello

We continue to get snow here in New York.  The wind is not blowing however as the snow laden  windmill shows.   Its just the light fluffy  wet  lake effect stuff.   The snow is piling up however.  It was much nicer earlier this week and I went to the QuEGs and Diva meetings.IMG_0324   At QuEGs there were only three of us so we meant at Liz’s home and did a bit of Gelly Plate printing.      Liz says she will use some of hers to make Valentines. As a part of the season Judy Sent me a cheerful water color Valentine to celebrate too.

The Diva group  meeting   had lots of folks with lots to share.  Mary did this delightful piece of her grandson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regina  shared her new work where she used some of her hand dyed fabric. ( the orange)  I am glad she too is doing that with her stash.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alice is getting ready for her show at the Women’s Museum and this is her most recent work.

IMG_0332Noel made this pillow using her fabric form her Mothers old clothing.

Progress Report: Joy II This work is 34.5” w X 39.5” t.  I am so fortunate to have a group of folks to bounce ideas off of.  I took this work to the QuEG’s meeting and they gave me some valuable suggestions.  I went home and applied them and then took the work to the Diva meeting that eve.  The gals in that group pounced it completed.   IMG_0364This close up shows where I did some of the altering.  Before I reworked this area the orange in the letters and the orange in the background where too close to the same color.  I used a colored pencil to darken the background. IMG_0366  The high contrast is  what it needed.

Double Joy   This work is 28” w X 40.5”t.    I used the cutaways from  Joy II to create this work.  I  like the vertical movement of this piece.  IMG_0367I feel the color gets a bit washed out in the full photo.IMG_0368

IMG_0356New Work I seem to be in a rework mode at the moment so I redesigned the Joy to use as a radial design for the next piece in this series.

New ZAP This word also a rework and I am playing again with.    This is a close up of the word. IMG_0352The letters are cut from some hand dyed fabric I did at a QuEGs play day a few years ago.

Glyph  IV I keep beading away on this project.  This side of the O is almost complete.

 

Indian Pipe This felted project  is at the build stage.  I am struggling along with the  integration of  the plants into the setting.   I think I have just about completed the bracken on the forest floor.   Now to work on the pipes themselves.

Frozen  This work is also proving to be a bit of a challenge at the moment.   The organza ice is on now and I need to decide where to let the stones poke through so I can build the flow patterns  around them.  I am just unsure about how to start.

 Daily Practice-Orange Essence  I have decide this daily practice work is done.  I do not know how I want to finish the series so I am setting this work aside for now .  I will begin the next one this week.

Daily Practice  This is the second work in the series, it is base before any stitching has been applied.     Again I will try to limit the number of stitches I use on this work.

IMG_0361 Scarp Happy    When I do not know what I  want to do next I keep myself in the working mood by doing a project that requires little or no thinking on my part.  I am doing that with this project as I have done many  of these scrap happys.  I pulled out the box of left over  blocks from previous  Scrap Happys and started  a new project.   I know I can always find a home for these quilts.

Collage    This is collage #5.  I am please I have kept up  this series and feel I have a routine now.   I know this   summy work is in response to the snow and cold too.   The environment really does affect my work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susan challenged me to do a collage where I used the sewing machine and this project is the result.

 

 

 

Tarot- The SunIMG_0341  I did this tarot card the same day I did the  collage.

Spirit   This piece was also an avoidance project.  But I feel staying in the working spirit  helps me move forward.

Happy Valentines day and Keep Creating

Carol

Double Joy, Emperor, Glyph I, Glyph IV with Beads, Hand Bags, Hand work, Intensity, JOY II, Mystory

Winter Color

 

 

Hello,

I went off to Ithaca this morning to help take down the Threads of Change show that has been up sense Dec 1.   It was a great show and  was well received.    The quilt “Glyph I “ was in it  as well as this quilt by Anne.  “ This is what Social Change Looks Like”  and it is one of my favorites from this social change show.IMG_0299

On my return drive I was struck by the colors of winter.  BM13-snow-tree   There are  lots of blacks, grays,  whites and browns  in the winter landscape.  Many tans and gold’s as well plus  the  occasional dark green of evergreen trees.   Mother natures limited pallet was  beautifully contrasted by the intense  blue of the sky.    It was a beautiful drive.

IMG_0279Progress Report:   Handbag  This is my newest Handbag with my thanks to Regina as she provided me with the fabric.  I noticed that the old one was getting tread bare so I made this replacement.  This one is large enough to hold a tablet.

Joy II    I am doing the reflective quilting on this project now.   I have not decided if I will quilt the words yet but that will be the next decision.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Double Joy  I am to the quilting stage with this work as well, with the same questions about  this quilt as with  the letters  of Joy II.  Sometimes I just need to live with the work a while before I know what to do.

 

 

 

Collage- Destiny    I am stay true to my vow to do a collage a week.   The  browns of the season seem to be invading here as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gold Play  I got carried away as usual and this second smaller collage was produced this week.   I talked with Susan and she suggested that I try to keep the size format the same for all the weekly pieces so I will do that in the future.     Like most of my work I do not see the total vision at the beginning of a series.

  Wool 1 IMG_0308  This project is all felted down now.   I am not sure where it is headed, but I like this start.

Wool 2   This work however has a strong destination.   The colors suggest a forest floor to me so I am running with that idea.  The bracken is  about half way free motion stitched down.     Then I got all excited by the idea of doing Indian Pipe as the feather plant so I did a little test this week.     This is one possibleIMG_0315solution.  I zigzagged over pipe cleaners that are wrapped with the cut away organza from the Ice project with flower heads made with bits of ribbon.    I have two other possible ideas for the pipes and I will try them both before I  make the final decision as to what I want to use.

 IMG_0300Ice   I have started layering the organza on top of the stream bed.  The zigzag   appliqued cording does indeed look like the line patterns on the surface of the ice so I will move forward on this project this week too.

Glyph IV     I keep inching along on the beading step for this work.  As one can see, I am a little beyond the half way point on the right side of the O now.

IMG_0321Handwork     I continue to do my daily practice with hand work.   I intended to be done with this panel  at the end of Jan.  But I am not through yet so I will keep working until the pieces is finished.  I can alter my goal.   I am the director and I make the rules so I can change  or break them as I see fit.

Crochet   As this photo shows I think I have mastered the shell stitch with my crocket hook.  In doing this  weekly blog I also take a good look at what I am doing and I feel that I may take all the work out and start for a third time as  I think this is a bit narrow for an afghan.

Card- The Emperor  IMG_0291   In an effort to unify the Tarot challenge that this card is suppose to be a part of- it was suggested that all the folks work on the major arcanna at the same time.  That is the starting point for this card.  I do not feel to connected to the concept of Emperor so I played with the idea of how the   fist  Roman emperors came the ranks of soldiers who had good   leadership skills.

Dizzying Intensity  As I sifted through my collection of paper images that I had collected for collage I did more than one work.    I was having too much fun playing with the paper and the images and this card came out of the play.  I can’t really say it is part of the Tarot series- the only thing that links it to that idea is the size.

Mystery  Solved

This work too is only part of the series do to size.     Sometimes I just cannot help myself.     And  as to what the mystery is – that is up to the viewer……..

Keep Creating

Carol

Collage, Double Joy, Felt Work, Glyph IV with Beads, Hand work, High Priestess, JOY II, Plantine

Camouflage

1 Comment

 

IMG_0277 Hello,

I am enjoying the sun of this January day and the rich smell of these blossoms that were a gift from Judy.      As I was looking at my grandson’s camouflage pants the other day I was wondering if the goal of was to mislead or conceal.  Here in central NY in doors in the winter the patterns  doen’t do either job- but out in the woods in the summer they must do a bit of both.   Many animals and plants use camouflage to trap and stalk their pray as well as hide from predators.   I know my grandson purchased  the pants  so he could lie in wait with his camera to take photos so I guess his goal was to conceal.     It is not a fashion statement in his case so I guess that means his major intent is  not to mislead his peers- just the animals.   A strange bit of both in the end.

Progress Report: Aces and Spaces   This work is 37.5” w X 27” t.     It is built from the cutaways  of ACE plus a few transparent fabrics.   IMG_0257I did free motion quilting in the patters of aces- mostly using the ace of spades  for my pattern as that is the one most folks think of when they picture aces  in their heads. IMG_0259I enjoyed playing with this project.

Collage 2 The Song Bird    I am staying true to my goal of trying to do a collage every week.  This is my second piece.  I was listening to a recording where there were bird calls as a part of the intro and this work came form that joyful sound.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ribwort Plantain   This work is 14”w X 18” l.   I used felting for the background and did the Plantain on wash away  before I applied it to the surface. The heads are made from yarn and the steams are robin.  IMG_0264 The leaves are fabric with sewn lines on top for the vain patterns.   A fabric boarder was added before binding.

  Hand work   This daily practice is moving along nicely.   IMG_0253  I am trying to limit the number of types of stitches I  use here so it holds together and one can see how different yarns look with the same stitches.

Joy II   As the shot shows I finished the building of the second base for the joy cut.  I tried several backgrounds before settling on this one and then tried several layouts too.   I finally decided that I liked the diagonal layout with the words not being read from the same direction.  This work is ready for stitching now.

Double Joy    With this project  it take a lot of trial and error before I settle on the background and placement of the parts for the work.   This time the two tops of the words are pointed toward one another.  The centers are not even pinned in at this point as I need to make a curvy cut to unite the yellow unit to the orange one.

 Glyph IV   The beads just keep being added to the work.   I am inching up the right side of the O now.

Ice The stones are all  stitched down to the stream bed now.   I plan to go back and do a bit more to anker them and start to build a water flow pattern across the surface.     IMG_0271This is the photo  I am working from.   I did a little test piece to see if I could get the line effect with my stitching  for the ice that will go on top of the rocks.  IMG_0272The best one was when I zig-zagged  and appliqued down a bit of cording.

Wool 1 I felted down some roving to begin a new work based on a part of a photo I took last fall.  I only did the hand “basting” part so the roving would stay put before I get out the machine to do the final work here.

Wool 2 IMG_0248This is a second piece of wool with the same treatment as the first.

6X6 The call came out for the next 6X6 works for the Rochester Contemporary Art Center show  and so I responded.  I have been a part of this for the last six years I think.   They are all done now and I will mail them off next week.

 

High Priestess  Card  Susan has suggested that we try to do the Major Arcana for our Tarot cards so this is the  third in the series.   I am enjoying doing these collages.

I hope everyone is warm and working at  there creative activates

Carol

Collage, Glyph IV with Beads, Glyph Series, Hand work, JOT I, JOY II, Magic, Plantine

Magic

IMG_0183Hello-

We are deep in winter now so the sight of my Christmas Cactus  blooming is  a nice bright sight.  I have had a good week.    I went to the opening of the New Members Show at the Manlius Library on Sunday.   There are six of us who are showing about six pieces apiece.     It was great fun to talk with the other artists and the public too.  I had great support from several of my friends and that added to my positive feelings.    Before the day was over, much to my delight, I sold two of my works.    Fox Tails and White Iris both have new homes now.   It is a great feeling of confirmation when a stranger likes your work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Joy I   This work is 24”w  X 23” l.   It is also a rework.  The curvy cut quilt was made in 2012 and was set to be donated to the  Helping Hounds shelter.  But I pulled it aside and added the JOY  graffiti on top instead.   This   second shot shows the word pattern in paper.  The blue was cut following this pattern then stitched down on top.   IMG_0212 I am exploring the use of my stylized lettering with this work. IMG_0214This last shot is of the “O” in the center of the word.

Glyph IV   This shot is of the lower right side of the “O” in the Owl Glyph   quilt series.  This work is number 4 as the number indicates.   I am glad to be working on the biggest letter in the grouping now.

 

 

 

 

 

New Ice   The work goes slowly forward on  this piece.  I am rough cutting out the stones now.  The upper right corner is my  test run of various fabrics for the ice overlay  part of this work.

Plantain    Selling Fox Tails got me going on doing another wash out plant piece. IMG_0189   I did the machine drawing on the wash away just as Amanda taught us in Oct.  Then I pinned the work to the Styrofoam and washed  away the “plastic”.    The   dry work is now ready to be stitched down to the felted background.

6X6   The call for six by six came this week so I pulled some pieces to work on.  It was so easy to excess them now that the studio is in order.

Collage 1    One of my resolutions when I was cleaning was that I would do a collage every week too.    This work is 8.5” X 11” a size that I think I can work with easily.     I did find someone to pass a lot of the paper stash on to so I will use making the collages as a way to sort and share the materials as the year goes forward  and I make pieces..

IMG_0191  Joy  II   This is the base for my next JOY quilt.    I pieced it and then added a bit of inner  facing to the back to stabilize it.   The same pattern is used as in JOY I .    Because I am working from the backIMG_0197the word is turned upside down for  marking the edge and then it will be  cut out.   The result will be a positive and negative from this same fabric.  The interfacing will  cut down on the distortion  when I stitch it down to the contrasting base.

 

Hand work   I am doing my daily studies of stitches on this work.   It is beginning to feel very solid to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Magic Card  This card represents how I feel about myself and my fellow artists.  We all are really Magicians.  In our processes of taking raw materials- with  paint, clay, pencils and fibers we work magic with them.  Just looking at the elements, one never knows   what they could and do or  become  in artistic hands .   With sparks of creativity and the magic of  our hands, we bring into the world things that without us would not exist.   That is true Magic.

Keep Creating

Carol