Category Archives: Mayan- Eagle priest

Childhood Memories, Hand work, Lines of Inquire, Mayan- Eagle priest, Mayan- Vulture Priest, Scrap Happy Quilts, Series, Squares a Dancing

Quiet week

Hello,
I hope folks are staying safe and enjoying summer. The Mulberry tree we walk under is nearing its end of the fruit baring time.  On the other hand, the wild raspberry patch is just getting started, so I enjoy a little treat on my way home.

The Textile Artists Stitch Club teacher for this week is Sue Stone. We are to weave a base out of fabric strips and stitch over it. To help with the stitching, it is suggested that one draw the image on tissue paper and then stitch thought it. I have only just started that second step. I like that idea however.
Liz and I over dyed this week. I pulled out some fabrics that were dyed before, but were not real successful. It was quite hot and the photo shows how the heat effected me. I really look wilted. The process was done in the Shobori style, were one warps the fabric around a poll and does immersion dyeing. I really like the effects as the colors are so very rich. We are going to do some more of that next week too. It is fun and there is lots of surprise in the process as one does not always have control of how the dye will work.

 

 

 

Progress Report: Eagle Priest- Mayan Series #3 This work is 21″ X 23″. It is the third one in the series. I learn something with each project.

 

 

 

 

I like the headdress and face area of this work. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vulture Priest- Mayan series # 4 This work is all fused down now and I am starting to do the out line stitching. Some parts are three layers thick and hard to pass the needle through.

 

 

 

 

Squares a Dancing I just keep making one and a little more every evening. I have 56 squares now.

 

 

 

 

 

Layers I pulled this out of the pile after not looking at it for a week. I immediately saw what it needed  and made additions. Now I am ready to square it up and finish the project. It is great what time can do to help clear ones  vision.

Lines of Inquire This piece us all quilted in the ditch. I am now outlining the metallic inserts in gold thread. I will make passes around each one until I have quilted the work.

 

 

New Scrap Happy I cut centers in four colors and added the sides to them. Now they are all cut into squares and I can begin assembling the top.  Yes, they are Minions

Childhood Memories- Playground
Our playground in the fifth grade was a different scene from the fourth. We had big long jump ropes and could play group games with them. The girls took turns jumping and twirling. We played a lot of Aces- a game were one ran into the twirling rope and jumped once , then exited. The next person in line was to let the rope pass once and enter, then do the same single jump. After all the girls playing had jumped the single jump, one repeated running into the rope, but jumped twice. If someone missed by jumping on the rope or not entering on time, they replaced one of the twirlers and the game when back to Aces or one again. There were lots of rhyming songs that we jumped to as well- like Johnny Over the Ocean, Sampson and Delila, Blondie and Dagwood and one that we had to modify to use. It was Little Robin Red Breast. In that rhyme the last line ends in “poop”. We got around saying that by clapping when we got to that word. We played Double Dutch where two ropes were set in action going in the opposite directions. Lana Turner was the queen of that game until she broke her leg falling off a fence. We all admired the cast and were impressed by her painted toe nails when she came back to school. She said it itched and the crutches hurt her arm pits. She finally let folks sign the cast, but I was not one who signed. In the sixth grade I got a Pogo Stick for Christmas. By spring I was very good at its use and could cover lots of ground with it. I had no trouble pogoing to and from school. I even got so I could do jump rope rhymes too. I let lots of other kids try using it. It does take skill and I remained the champion of that event. In that year my best friend became Evelyn Stouton. I walked to her house after school many times. She had three sisters and she was the third girl in the family. She got mostly “hand me down” clothing and she did not like that much. But her older sisters also made her more sophisticated. Her room, in the attic was our hang out spot. Her bed was in a little cubby with a small window at the end. It was fun to lye there and watch people walk by. Her family moved over the summer and I was quite disappointed in the fall.
> My parents took me to the dentist as my teeth were a little out of alignment. After a discussion it was decided that the Dentist would try a new experimental technique to fix the problem. So one morning I went to the Dentist office at 8:00 instead of school. The dentist put bands on back teeth and wires on springs were attached to the bands
that would force my teeth forward. When I was done I walked the five blocks to school and joined my class. We had Chow main for lunch that day. I took one bite and suddenly my mouth was full of springs and wires as well as food. I went to Miss Herd and she told me to run back to the dentist as she knew he played Golf on Wednesday afternoons. I did run and barely made it to the office in time as he was in his car and the nurse had to flag him down. The dentist took all the wires and connections out and made a cast of my teeth. A few weeks later I got two retainers, one for the top and one for the bottom. I wore the bottom for about 9 months and the top for about a year. My bottom teeth are still a little crowded and crooked in the front.

Enjoy the holiday and Stay Safe

Carol

Childhood Memories, Mayan- Eagle priest, Mayan- Vulture Priest, Mouths, SAQA Blocks, Scrap Happy Quilts, Textile Artist Stitch Club, Uncategorized

Beginning Summer

Hello,
I hope everyone is staying safe and doing well.     Summer Solstice was last Saturday and  now the day light is shortening every day.   I continue to walk and enjoy the summer season as it is a visual feast. There is a Mulberry tree that we walk under every day and it is loaded with berries now. I sure enjoy the  few  seedy fruits  I pick every day.   It reminds me of my childhood.   My garden is also hostessing flowers from Grandmother Butterworths ‘s garden. They always make me think lovingly of her and their bright  color is a joy to the eye.

 

 

 

 

The Textile Artist Stitch Club had a new assignment this week. Emily Tulli demonstrated how to do a mouth. We are to do three different ones and this is my work at the half way point. I still need to add a second shade of gray and then white for the highlights.

Progress Report: Square’s a Dancing I worked hard on this project this week and finished two groups of seven. I also cut up another pair of Eric’s pants to use as bases and that is why there is a color change.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scrap Happy I have now made rows of leftover squares for a new quilt. Nothing goes to waste in my world .

 

 

 

 

 

Eagle Priest- Mayan Series I finished the quilting of this piece this week and only need to finish off the little quilt with binding and a sleeve .

 

 

Vulture Priest- Mayan Series I drew out the next piece for this series and I am in the middle of cutting the pieces to applique to created the image. It will be ready for work when the Eagle Priest is done.

 

 

 

New Work I am working away on this new piece.   The insertion of the metallic pieces is a fun process. As I have no clear vision as to where I am going- the work is slow.

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- 5 th Grade

My teacher is fifth grade was Miss Herd. She had a reputation for being very strict and I guess she was. But she was also very fair. We had lots of routines in her class. After the pledge we had reading followed by Arithmetic. I remember lots of review on Division at the beginning of the year and then team games of all math techniques. At noon we walked done the hall to the far stairs and had a moment of “silent reflection” before we went down to the lunchroom in the basement. After lunch Miss Herd read aloud to us. I remember one book about a little southern girl and learning about her life during the Civil War.   I found it fascinating.   This class room had a little library like the fourth grade. I found and enjoyed all the Raggedy Ann and Andy books there. It was also the beginning of the TAB and Arrow book clubs for me. One could purchase books for .25 to .35 cents. My parents allowed me to purchase one or two every time there was an order. I did not read any of them until years later, but I sure enjoyed filling my book shelf with them. My reading was very poor and one of the things my parents attempted to do to help was have my eyes tested. I got some very stylish tear drop glasses that I wore for about a year. Mrs Fister   the high School art teacher, came for a special art lesson  in late November. It was about Alexander Calder. Then each member of the class each built a Christmas mobile out of an opened wire coat hanger. I made Christmas trees in the form of cones and added a few round candies for balls. The mobiles hung in the hall until  we left for the holidays. I love the history lessons   we had that year and did a special project for westward expansion. We had a puzzle map of the United States at home and under the states was a map that showed all the areas that were added as the country grew.   So I used the Opaque Projector to cast the map on a big piece of white paper and traced it out. I painted and labeled all the areas from the original thirteen colonies to the addition of the California territory. I painted the areas different colors and added the rivers and  mountains and also   labeled everything.    It hung in the front of the room for a long time and I was quite proud. Fifth grade was when we were introduced to instrumental music. I wanted to join the band, so Mom got me Grandfather Howard’s old silver clarinet. He also had a C saxophone, but the band leader, Mr Cox discouraged that choice. Playing the clarinet continued to be an important part of my life until the end of high school. Near the end of the year I volunteered to join the Safety Patrol and become a crossing guard. The main qualification, after volunteering and being at least in fifth grade, was to have perfect attendance. I did. As a fifth grader, I worked with a sixth grader for the last month of the year and became a full guard in the fall when I was in the sixth grade. We all had white adjustable belts and little silver badges. I had to leave the class a little before the end of the day to go to my post. I was assigned to the north end of Adams street across from the High School. I had that same post in sixth grade. We looked carefully and then went into the middle of the street and held our arms out so the younger kids could cross safely. I got to know many of the younger children who lived in that quadrant of the city. Sixth grade guard duty included flag duty. At the end of the day I was assigned to help take the flag down and fold it before taking it to the principals office for storage over night. At the end of sixth grade, I in tern, help teach a fifth grader to take my place on the squad.   I was very proud of my first job and took my responsibility very seriously.

Take good care of yourself.

 

Carol

Childhood Memories, Mayan -Leopard Priest, Mayan- Eagle priest, Pine Tree, Scrap Happy Quilts, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Advancing

Hello,
I hope everyone is doing well as we emerge from our cocoons of isolation. Please stay safe in all your activities.   On my daily walk of about two miles in our city I pass by  the homes of six seniors who’s high school years were cut short by the epidemic.    I am glad to see the signs on their lawns.  But  my heart goes out to them as I recall all the joys of dances,  ball games, honors, meetings  and hanging out, that were a part of my last semester of high school.    Even visiting colleges is done virtually for them.    For a person who is a tactical and visual I am  this sure would have stunted my senior year.

I continue to work and I attended another Zoom meeting  Of FAB this week.    Liz and I dyed again  this week too. We are both doing a lot of over dyeing this season.

 

 

 

 

I completed the work from last week and my class with Merrill Comeau on Saturday.    I really enjoyed building up all the layers with lots of stitches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then   I finished my   new assignment for Textile Artist Stitch Club for this week.   The lesson was from Susie Vickery and we were using plastic bags in combination with embroiders thread  to do the stitch work. I like the effect and will keep an eye out for more different colored bags to recycle into my work.

 

The plastic has a lot of shine and one needs to think about the printing on the surface when cutting the strips.  But I feel that adds interest.

 

 

 

Progress Report: Mayan Series- Jaguar Priest This work is nearly complete. I did a lot of quilting around the figure this week. It still needs a sleeve for hanging and a label. This is the second in the series. I really like the head of the Jaguar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mayan Series- Eagle Priest This is the third piece in this series. It took a long time to cut out the shapes and fuse them down, but well worth the effort. I am now ready to start outlining the shapes and adding details.

 

 

 

Layers This work is still building. The maze portions take a long time to cut and add to the surface.

 

 

 

 

SAQA 100 days I will keep working with this theme but I think I will go beyond the 100 so I need to think of a new title.

 

 

I really enjoy the hand work  and doing variations  on radial designs is something that I find very calming.

 

 

 

 

 

Scrap  Happy  I finished three scrap backs for these projects this week. I have only three rows of Garden Path stitch down to the base . It will just take effort to finish now.

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories – Allowance

On Sunday morning before we went to church we got our allowance. It was sixty cents. To earn that full amount one had to have done all his or her  chores. I don’t remember all Gene had to do, but we did share  the drying dishes duty. It was a case of alternating days with the two of us working on Sunday. The other chores were to clean one’s room, a job also done on Saturdays before we went out doors to play. One job that I did alone was to empty the washing machine and hang the wet clothes on the line before I went to school on Thursday. I also had to take it down when I got home. I remember taking it off the line when it was frozen sometimes. I  forgot on a few occasions and had to do that job in the dark. I also had to collect and empty the waste baskets every Tuesday evening because the garbage men came on Wed. The  last chore for the week was to polish my shoes. Dad had grown up poor and went barefoot a lot. He only wore shoes to school and church and they were hand me downs many times.   A a result,  we always had three pairs. A daily pair for school and such. A pair that were play shoes, that were old schools shoes or tennis shoes. The last pair were Sunday shoes. I remember his teaching me to polish my Saddle shoes. First one took the laces out. The dark section was polished with a  wax polish. One did one shoe while the first dried so one could buff the dark section and move on.  .When both shoes were done  with that  first step,  then one applied the white with a dauber from the bottle of liquid polish. When they were dry one had to buff the whites to make them shine as they dried with a chalky appearance. The last step was to put the laces back in the shoes. When Sunday saddle shoes became school shoes, the polishing still  had to be done on them too. I liked it a lot better when I got a pair of cordovan Loafers as they were only one color. I was also allowed to add pennies when they became school shoes. We wore shoes all the time. No bare feet in our lives. If Dad saw you with out shoes he would say” Put your shoes on Lizzy, don’t you know your in the city.” The allowance was divided three ways. Ten cents went to the collection plate in Sunday school. Then a quarter went into the Skippy Peanut Butter jar that each of us had that was our savings.   Mom had painted our names on the lids with finger nail polish.    Birthday money and tooth fairy money went into the savings jars too. The money was collected  until we had enough to by a savings bond, that would mature to a full $25.00 in seven years. I remember thinking that seemed like a long time to me. Some times we got savings bonds from our McElhinney grandparents for Birthdays. The last twenty five cents came to us in nickels and dimes with the words” Don’t spend it all at once” as part of it. I put mine in the jewelry box. That spending money was to go for things like dues for Brownies and treats. We were allowed to take loans from Dad if we were away from home and saw something we could not live with out. But it always had to be paid back when we got home. We got lunch Money on Mondays too as well as milk money and that was extra and had to all go to the school. Gene pushed for a raise in third grade. With his arguments the allowance went up twenty five cents for both of us. I recall thinking it was a bit unfair as I had live on the old amount until I was in 5 th grade. Gene was always more concerned about money then I was and he still is.  Dad continued our money education as we got older, but I will cover that later.  It was a good enough system that I did learn the value of saving and thinking about how I wanted to spend my money.

Keep Creating

Carol