Category Archives: Mayan Series- Fire Dancer

3X3, Childhood Memories, Ethel Scarp #6, Fall Gathering, Mayan Series- Fire Dancer, Mayan- Water Dancer, Pixies Group, Squares a Dancing, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Thanksgiving

Hello,

It has been a turbulent year with lots of disasters from fire, flood, illness and death. I am thankful that there are so many wonderful willing souls in the world who are willing to go forward and help. They really make the world a better place. We all do the little things that we hope will make the world a better place too.
This week I took two works to the Everson for their Festival of Trees. My tree is part of a series I did years ago exploring how I could use “glitz” in my work.   In this case I added sequins to the tree and used a opalescent paint.
The flower basked is a stretched work that is a result of one of the challenges by Textile Artist Stitch Club.
This week the club’s teacher was Jennifer Collier. She taught us how to stitch with paper. I have admired her work in the past and enjoyed making these 3-D paper gloves. They are resting on top of my stitch sketchbook from the week before.
The Pixies were the only other group that meant this week. It is good to stay connected.

 

 

Progress Report: Burning This work is 41″ X 35″ and is all free motion quilted and appliqued. It is my tribute to the fire fighters of the west who bravely go on day after day fighting fires to save homes and landscapes.
I dyed  lots fabric for this piece and I made silk paper with this project in mind. I used organza and nylon netting as well to promote the feeling of fire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wake Up Call This quilt is 36″w X 41″ l. I made the stencils form Robert’s photos of crows in flight. Then I created the trees from a photo I took on my walk. The crows are made with silk and velvet. I enjoyed this project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall Gathering 3 X 3 Challenge This work is 40″ 40″. The Challenge was form the Sisterhood Of the Scissors. There was a size limitation and one had to use black and white somewhere in the work. I mixed two sizes of broken nine patch blocks plus some 3.5″ fillers to created 14″ squares that I then joined. This work lead to  another quilt as I though I should spark it up a bit with some metallic fabric. When I pinned the metallic triangles  on the surface they just faded into the background. They were too close in value.   The result is below as new work.

New Work This is the new base I built for the leftovers from Fall Gathering.   I hand painted and dyed all the fabrics in this base.

 

 

 

Ethel’s Scraps I built four square blacks with the patterned squares mixed with the solids and then when all the units were connected into blocks I made rows for the quilt top. This is the first one and I think I can make at least one more top from the remaining squares.

Squares A Dancing I finished doing the hand work last week and so I worked at various ways to connect them. Found some more of Eric’s cast offs and thought I would try them. I hope there is enough fabric.

Fire Dancer- Mayan Series I just keep stitching down the parts of this piece. I think it is moving along nicely.

 

 

 

 

Water Dancer- Mayan Series I enlarged my sketch this week and just started cutting out the solid fabrics for the parts of the piece. I hope to get to the stitching stage by next week.

Tyvec Painting     Enjoyed reading an article in Quilting Arts on the use of painted tyvec  to create leaves so I painted a postal envelope form my friend Sharron.  I will post the results of the process next time.

Childhood Memories- Dad

When we moved to Carroll Dad became the principal of a much bigger school than before. After he finished the building of the house, he didn’t have time to build any more furniture and his work with wood although an interest mostly died away. The new job demanded much more of his time. I found it a lot more exciting, as we went to football games, basketball games, baseball games as well as all the band and choral events. Most things took place in the gym that was attached to the high school.    I remember one time when Dad lets us go with him into the basement under the gym. It was full of old school furniture and in one corner there was a collection of old trophies gathering dust. One was almost as tall as I was. The three big trophy cases in the gym lobby were full and since the school was built in the 20’s some had been retired.
> One of his more enjoyable activities was supervision of the Foreign Exchange program. One year the school hosted a young man from Denmark named Hans. He lived with the Annaburgs ,who were our neighbors,so I had a little contact with him too. Early in his visit both families went to the Drive-In to see “The Ten Commandments”.   It was a  powerful movie.  At intermission we went to the refreshment stand. Hans was appalled when we ordered hot dogs and root beer. “How can you eat dogs and give beer to young children,” he asked? This was my first experience with the translation of the English language and how  our use of words works. With careful explanations Hans realized that it was not as bad as he first thought. I am sure that sort of thing happened to him many times over the course of his year in the States. The Annaburg family enjoyed their time with Hans so much that they went to Denmark and visited him and the country. They purchased some Danish furniture and had it shipped home in big wooden containers. Those big boxes became forts for us . The following year the exchange student was from  Austria. She did not adapt as well as Hans  had and was very home sick. She ended up going home at Christmas time.
> Dad did all the normal stuff a principal does, like budgets, schedules, student supervision  and he ran the  teacher’s meetings. Dad was again in charge of discipline. I recall him telling a story about one of his delinquent students who was skipping lots of school in the spring. Dad said “ Well he is learning something- even if it is   only how to avoid me… temporally.” He was also active out side of school. He was a member of the Iowa Teachers Association and went to their meetings and did some presenting there . He was active in the community as deacon in the First Presbyterian Church, a member of the Jaycees  and the Rotary Club. There were lots of nights when he was away. I remember hearing the garage door going up under my room when he got home after I was in bed.
> At the end of my sixth grade year there was a big change. Dad and Mom decided that he would resign as principal so he could finish his education. He spent that year in Iowa City doing his Doctoral  Dissertation and the last of his classes. It was a five and a half hour drive both ways from Carroll so he did not come home much. He did call every week end , though. Mom was a single parent that year and we all grew as a result.

Hope you are safe and had a quiet and safe holiday.

Carol

3X3, Childhood Memories, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Mayan Series- Fire Dancer, Pixies Group, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Sisterhood of the Scissors, Squares a Dancing, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Lots of Meetings

Hello

This week has been  a time for lots of meetings for me. I have found my walks to be a bit brisk as the temp has been low. We even have snow on the ground.    The high number of  Zoom meetings meant I d I did lots of handwork. There  was also the  second class from Textile Artist Stitch Club with Ali Ferguson. She gave us ideas on how to further embellish our pages and books.
The QuEGs meant and the population was low with only 4 of us. The FAD group was busy will all of us in attendance. I also did a class with Rosilie Dace on  Thur and enjoyed hearing her voice and found the lecture to be stimulating.   Then There was a meeting of the Sisterhood of the Scissors too.    I am pumped up by all the outside stimulation.

Progress Report: Mexican Blossoms I did the free motion work on this piece this week and added the sides It is the same size as the first one and I will pass them on as a set.10″ X 19″ in size.

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt      I finished this work this week.     It is 40″ w X 45″ L. I intend to take all of them to the Nursing home this next week .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Burning I did a lot of free motion work on this project his week. I am now ready to face it and do the pressing to make it flat. I am sure it will be done soon.

 

Kathy’s Quilt I have the key board all laid out and fused down. I will do the zig zag work on this and this section of the quilt will be complete. I did order photo transfer paper to do the posters for the shows she did this week and it will show up some time soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Squares a Dancing  This is the end of the squares plus the two extras. Now I need to plan the assembly of all of the units.

 

 

 

 

3 X 3 challenge This project is for the Sisterhood of the Scissors challenge. I made two sizes of broken nine patch blocks and joined them with additional fabric to create the finished 14″ blocks. I made and extra and so I could shuffle them in many configurations. This is the  row I was most pleased with.  Part of the challenge was to create units that could fit together in many ways and that proved to be the most difficult when I decided to unite my blocks.

Ethel Scrap Happy I am now adding solid blocks to the 5″ squares. I seem to be able to created about 70+ units and press them in an hour. I am on day nine of that process and it looks like there is just one  or two  more days worth of scrap blocks in the box. Then I will begin to add these units together  to make blocks of four units that I will use to create my rows for this quilt.

Black Rocks   This project is 20″ w X 15.5″ t.      It got a lot of attention due to all the meetings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fire Dancer-Mayan Series      I am working away on this project and I am as excited about it.    The hand work is slow and calming.

 

 

  Wake Up Call    I did the wind motion quilting on this piece this week and I have pinned the trees in place.  I want to cut the crows that will be in the trees and place them before I stitch  both the trees and the birds to the surface.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- Bikes and Such
Memory is a strange beast. It comes to the surface like bubbles rising from deep water and at other times is just flows out. I try to write down the little bits as they come to me and then organize them into units that belong together. This week I am writing about bits and pieces that don’t really hang together, but I know they all happened before I passed into seventh grade.
When one moves things get lost and left behind. Such was the case of my big red tricycle when we moved to Carroll. I had really out grow it by third grade, but I missed having wheels. I brought up the idea that I was older and bigger, so perhaps a bicycle was in order. Mom got Aunt Shirley old one for me. It was a big heavy washed out pale blue bike, with a big tank on the bar the swooped done to the peddles. I would grow to see that as “cool” when I was older – but not at this time. It seemed a disappointment. Mom assured me that she could remove the tank, add a new seat and give the whole thing a new coat of paint and she did. It got painted black with a long triangle on the front and back bumpers. There was also a gold strip on both sides. It was heavy for me and I did fall down and get many scraped knees but, I did learn how to ride on it with out any training wheels. Later we use close pins to add Gene’s old baseball cards to the cross pieces so they would flap against the spokes. They made a great sound. Gene had a red wagon and we tried to tie it to the back so I could pull him along. That was not a good idea and we had one spectacular crashed before we abandoned that idea. One could not turn or stop the wagon from the bike- something that was not good.
Gene and I also had roller skates with steel wheels that one clipped to  the toes of ones shoes.      Keeping track of key one skates used to tighten them to ones shoes was always a challenge. I remember that my saddle shoes worked best because they had such good solid soles. I we only skated on the long cement driveway.
Aunt Shirley, my Mom’s youngest sister, was a great one for providing me with fun. I remember her sending me a package that contained a small red painted wooden apple about the size of a plum. It could be twisted open and inside were three little wooden pink pigs. I still have it in my memory box in the attic. I also recall one day in summer when Aunt Shirley showed up at Grandmother Ruth’s house with her new sewing machine. It had lots of cool automatic stitches and we spent a lot of time trying them out. Then she pulled out a piece of apple green cotton fabric selected one of the stitches and stitched two rows of stitching on all four sided of the square of material. She did the same thing with a second pattern of a second color of thread. Then we fringed the edges by pulling out about an inch of thread on all sides to create a  fringed  table cloth. I smiled with the memory of helping make it every time I saw it for  many years  after that day. On special occasions I got to play with Aunt Shirley’s paper doll collection. It was very extensive with a few repeats and most of the figures were Ice Skaters.  I think that they came from ice cream containers.   The costumes were beautiful and to positions  of the skaters were so graceful. I don’t remember changes of clothing, but I do remember spending hours arranging finalizes after swirling them around the floor.

Keep Creating

Carol

3X3, Childhood Memories, Crows in the Morning, Diva Meetings, Mayan Series- Fire Dancer, Mayan- Rabbit Dancer, Pixies Group, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Series, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Leaves and Bare Trees

1 Comment

Hello,

We are in a time when the fall has  finally hit us.  For six days we had beautiful Indian Summer weather and it was glorious.  The sun was bright and the leaves were colorful although drifting down.  I worked in the yard   as did many others.  Then yesterday  it rained and today it is cold an gray as we return to real fall like weather.   The city has cleaned up most of the leaves  in the streets, so walking is back to being a silent  activity.    With most of the leaves gone one can see great distances again.  The bare trees  also  ravel lots of leave ball squirrel nests  as they too have prepared for the change of season.   I feel fortunate to live were the environment shows great change with the seasons. 

I had several ZOOM meetings this week.      This is my project for the Pixies using Roberts crows to make stencils and them applying them to the surface of fabric.   I plan to build up the surface more too.

There was also a DIVA meeting on Tuesday .  It is always so stimulating to talk to fellow  fiber Artists.        Then I topped off the week by going to the Quilts = Art = Quilts show at the Schweinfurth  Art Center  in Auburn.  Liz and I   wearing out masks meant  three other fellow Finger Lakes Fiber Artist there and it was delightful.     The show is amazing.     This work is by Candace Hackett Shively is called Unsafe, Unseen, Unheard 2018   is her response to the children that were separated from their parents at the boarder and are still in captivity, with no hope of being united with their parents.    What a shameful citation for our country! 

 

This piece is by Denise Labadie and is also in the show.  It is called  Bonamary Friday.  She hand painted all the rocks.

 

 

 

 

The Textile Artist Stitch Club also presented me with an new artist and challenge.   Ali Ferguson is the teacher and she walked us through how to make a seven signature book.   This is my cover.

 

 

 

Then she challenged us to  add stitch work inside.   Here is a start.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Rabbit Dancer  – Mayan Series   This quilt is 20″w X 25″ l.      I am excitedly looking forward to a show show of all of these works when the last one is done.

 

The rabbit head was especially fun to stitch.

 

 

 

Fire Dancer -Mayan Series   I am making great progress on cutting the parts for this next work in the series.   I am anxious to begin stitching on it too.

 

 

 

 

Squares A Dancing    Seven more completed and only two more weeks worht of  squares cut.   I need to start to think about how I want to assemble  the pieces of this work.

I now have 231 squares done.

 

 

 

 

Mexican Morning    I painted this in Mexico when I visited Susan in  January 2018.  I added color to the background this week and will begin to stitch it soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt  This work is all pin basted and ready for stitch in the ditch quilting soon.   I think its colorful pieces will cheer some wheel chair bound person.

Now I only have two more to build before I take them off the  nursing home.

 

 

 

3 X 3 Challenge    All the units plus on extra are pieced now.  I need to do the quilting and finish the units  next.   The squares are going to be 15″ square.

 

 

 

 

 

Burn   I  got going again on the free motion work on this piece.  I really love my new Phaff as it cuts the tread at the end of the stitching work and that really speeds me along.

 

Ethel Scrap work   When the Fall Retreat got cancelled I decided to put in and  hour everyday  assembling  the strips that Ethel had cut.   Tue was day 21 of that activity and Wed I would have started the retreat had it still be a reality.     Instead I started cutting 5″ squares from the assembled units.  The box is overflowing and I still have units to cut.  When they are all cut I  will begin to build blocks for  more then one quilt I  hope.

Black Rocks    I am doing handwork on this black project.   So far – so good.

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- The Nearby Wild
When I look back on those years in Carroll , I feel Gene and I were given great freedoms to explore beyond where Mom could keep an eye on us. We spent a lot of time building forts. One of the early ones was at the end of Adams street where the pavement ended in T to connect to a gravel road. Across the gravel road was a fenced farmers field. We built that first fort in the run off gully that was there by pilling limbs and brush against the fence to create a lean-to type of thing. Then we wove cat tails into the fencing to block off that side. It was a nice enclosed tunnel-like thing.
We also walked east up the gravel road, crossed the fence and walked across the farmers field to a raised portion of the land that was not cultivated. It was a big area that was where the farmer dumped debris. There were rocks from the plowing, and lots of old limbs and dead trees. There were live trees too, wild grasses and weeds and a rather steep but short gully. We called the area “ Dead Horse Canyon” even though the few bones that where there were from a cow. We were influenced by Cowboy shows and movies I’d guess. All the natural debris provided lots of building materials for forts and we usually had two or three going at the same time. We played lots of “Cowboy and Indian” out there. In the winter after a big snow storm we would walk out there too. The wind often blew the snow across the fields and piled it up in the gully. We would spend hours digging out forts and tunnels in the snow bank. Many was the time when we would stay a little too long and the walk home was very cold and uncomfortable with snow encrusted pants and coats. We went directly into the basement and shed our wet clothing, then run up stairs and quickly get into a hot bath to avoid frost bite.
If we walked farther to the east down the gravel road we would arrive at a new housing development. Most of the houses were going up at the north end of that area and we did not pay much attention to them at first . When other kids moved into the finished houses that story changed. For a few years we only went to the creek at the far east end of the area to fool around.  We caught frogs, and snakes along there. We would take them home to Mom who took them to school and put them in her classroom. At the far east end of the territory where another gravel road bridged the creek was a pond. Gene threw lots of rocks into that pond. It was fun to go under the bridge and yell as the cement tunnel distorted the sound. One winter after an especially long cold spell, Lee, Gene and I visited there. We ventured out on the ice as the pond was frozen solid. As kids we tried to break the ice by jumping on it. There was not even a crack. The Gene and Lee “dared” me to jump off the bridge and break the ice. I foolishly took the dare and on my way down after the jump – I thought to myself “ I’ll never do anything this stupid again!” I didn’t hit the ice square, so my feet flew out form under me and I hit hard on my behind. My heels did hurt a bit but not bad- and I did not crack the ice. We all realized how dangerous it was and didn’t tell anyone until much later. I was in my mid forties when I did tell Mom of my foolishness and she was appalled.    I never took any more dares either.

Stay safe, and create if you can

Carol

 

Childhood Memories, Curvie Cuts, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Fish Bones, Mayan Series- Fire Dancer, Mayan- Rabbit Dancer, Pixies Group, Scrap Happy Quilts, Squares a Dancing

Wild Temperatures

Hello,

This week has been one of wild temperature swings here. We where in the low 20 one day and had snow.    It was light and I liked how it stayed on the fallen leaves and pine needles.  Then the weather turned up and yesterday and today temperatures are set for nearly 70.       Our Indian Summer is set to last through Saturday. I sure enjoy it.
I spent a lot of time in Zoom meetings this week. There was a great meeting of Sisterhood of the Scissors. We are revising the 3X3 challenge of 2019. We were to make nine little quilts that could be put together or work independently.   I was the only person who followed through and did it last time.  I ended up uniting mine. I decided to challenge myself to doing this a second time. I will put that image in the Progress section.
The Pixies, FAB and QuEG’s meant too. I am bowed up by all the talk and support that they provide.

Progress Report:   Fish Bones  This quilt is 37″ X 29″.   I did free motion drawing for all the fish images on nylon netting that was trapped between two layers of wash away.

 

The curvy cut background adds a great feeling of movement I think.

 

 

 

Rabbit Dancer Mayan Series I finished the quilting of this work yesterday. I will add the binding and sleeve and it will be complete for next week.

Fire Dancer Mayan Series As I am nearly done with Rabbit Dancer I got busy and started the Fire Dancer this week.   I did the enlargement and the face base  is pinned in place at this point.

 

3 X 3 challenge II I built these nine patches and then realized that the smallest size of the units for the challenge is 12″ squares. These will only be 9″ when they are trimmed so I need to get creative and add to them to fit the challenge.

 

 

Ethel Scraps I keep adding the strips and leftovers together to created these big   unit pieces. I will cut them into 5″ squares today before I make any more units. I still do not see much of a dent in the box of per cut strips of Ethel’s that    I started with.  I am enjoying using them however.  I made a little personal rule to not begin assembling any blocks until I had made the 5″ squares for 21 days. Today is day 16 so I am getting close to moving onto the next step in this project.

Burn I got a little frustrated while I was working on this project because the machine kept freezing up on me while I was doing free motion work. I could sew for about a min and then it would stop and tell me to remove thread from under the bobbin. I did take the machine apart and use the bush in that area even though I could not see any threads. After the fifth time I just set the project aside and put the machine away. I will go to the Phaff dealer before I go forward with that machine. I got out the Bernia and have been using it for  work most of this week.

Squares A Dancing This is the latest group of seven. I only have enough squares for two full weeks at this point. I have 231 squares done. I may cheat a bit and cut some additional squares from some old jeans to make a third week for a total of 35 weeks. I will make decisions as I near the end.

 

 

Black Rocks I already mentioned all the Zoom time I had this  week. Well when the meetings are going on,  I stitch away .

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- Neighborhood Kids 2
Another Catholic family lived in the house just south of ours. I remember that they had a wonderful lilac hedge all around the back yard. It smelled heavenly in the spring. There were only two children in that family, Bill, who was older, and Jane who was a year younger then I.  Bill was a bit of a bully and I recall him throwing Walnuts at me in the fall. He was also the only person who teased me with a nickname. He called me “Carol Kay Cumber Cackle Hanney. ” Mom often said that she  gave  both Gene and I names that could not become nick names. Her name was Margaret and she got called Maggy, Peggy, Margo and even Liz. She did not like it at all. Bill’s nick name did not last too long as they moved away. Jane, Mickey and I often played in the Honeysuckle in the empty lot behind Jane’s house. The old bushes grew close together and arched creating a tunnel-like place that we could get into. One day Jane provided us with a thrill by bringing out one of her Dad’s Playboy Magazines. We felt safe viewing that under the bushes and got an eye full. One time I sort of stood up under there and disturbed a bees nest. I got 5 stings- two on my head and three on my hands before we got out from under the plants. Needless to say we did not go back there again. There was also a rusted swing set frame in the empty lot and we spent lots of time hanging upside down and swinging from our arms on it. There were lots of sticker bushes there as well , so we mostly had the lot to ourselves. I remember pulling those round stickers off my socks before I put them in the clothes hamper, because if one didn’t, they were still there when the socks came back from the laundry and much harder to remove.
Two older women lived in the house directly behind ours. They had a beautiful flower garden and a few vegetables.  A huge rhubarb plant was on the boarder between their house and ours. I had permission to pick and eat as much rhubarb as I wanted whenever I wanted. What a privilege. I did eat quite a bit. We would use the big leaves as hats and pretend to do fairy dances with them on. That part of eating the rhubarb  and dancing  disappeared as I grew older. but I still enjoy  raw  rhubarb  .
Behind the Lightning’s  house,  was a house with only one little girl in that family. Her father adored her. He took a pair of his wife’s cast off heels and cut them down to fit her feet. All the rest of us   girls envied her. We tried to trade some of our treasures for the shoes, but she was not having any of it. The next lot was also a basement home. A family with three little girls lived there. I got to babysit for them when I was in the sixth and seventh grades. I got an amazing 35 cents an  hour. They did not have a TV, but had a great radio instead. I would stay up after the girls were asleep and listen as I did not want to fall asleep on the job. I remember late one  night when I got a Spanish speaking station from Mexico. Dad explained about how radio signals could “ skip” so you could hear stations from far away, but he didn’t really think it was Mexico. I never heard it again even though I did try.

Keep Creating

Carol