Category Archives: Mayan- Turtle Dancer

Childhood Memories, Crows, Drawing, Mayan- Turtle Dancer, NEW, Pixies Group, Series, Squares a Dancing

Equinox

Hello,

I hope that the equinox was noted by folks this week. I sure am seeing evidence of the shorter day light. For a  few days every year  the sun lines up directly with my east facing door to the studio.  Those days  are now past and the sun is rising and setting at  about 7.
This week the Textile Artist Stitch Club teacher Carissa Caiksen, suggested and then showed us how to add found objects to the surface of our stuff shapes. I added some rusted washers and nuts that I had collected.

I added stitches to the surface of the shapes   as she suggested as well.

This was a fun challenge I think.

 

 

 

 

 

The Pixies had there third online meeting this week. We are getting better and better at working through the connections. There are two challenges this time. One was to do a group drawing that we can connect together into one image. I did my hand and I have sent it off to be married with the others. Can’t wait to see how this project goes. The second was more explorations with Crows. I did this little 12″ X 12″ piece this time. The crows are drawn in crayon on interfacing that I got two years ago in Mexico when I was visiting Susan. The wax in the crayons does make the crows shinny and it also makes it a bit difficult to free motion stitch over.
I did Dye with Liz again this week.

Progress Report: Green on Green This work s 32.5″ X 47.5″. It is all stitch in the ditch quilting. This work will also go to the nursing home for folks confined to wheel chairs.

 

 

This project has lots of hand dyed and hand manipulated fabrics too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turtle Dancer I am doing the outline and applique stitching on this work now. I can see the end of that process and I will move onto the quilting. I drew a new subject this week as well.

 

 

Sweet Peas I started this work when I was in Mexico   visiting with Susan. It finally made it to the top of the pile so I free motion quilted it this week. I will add facings and finish it.

 

 

 

 

New Work I spent and afternoon making silk paper this week. My main goal was to make material for the fire project that is on my mind. I also made these clouds to use in my next crow pieces as well. Yesterday I cut stencils of 8 crow forms to use with the clouds.

 

 

 

 

 

Squares a Dancing The collection of squares grew by seven more this week. I now have 175 and I am working on the next batch.

 

 

New Top   I pulled out these fabrics and I am considering using them together for my next top.  I always like to have something in the background waiting my attention

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories: Farm Yard continued
A little ways from the sheep shed on the southwest side of the barn yard was the Machine Shed. It was a corrugated metal shed that was open on the north side. The tractor- “Big Red”, the disk, the cultivator, the seeder, the mower, the plow, several hay wagons and various other big tools and wagons lived in that space. On the back wall were the old harness sets. Grandfather loved horses and I do remember the last team. They were both white and called Sugar and Salt. Dad use to tell stories about how he and Grandpa would go to the Chicago Stock yards and get wild horses that were brought in from the western plains by train. Grandfather had a good eye for selecting two horses that were similar in size and color to make good looking teams. They would then purchase the horses and bring them back to the farm. It was Dad’s job to break them to ride, harness and pull the farm machinery. When he was growing up there were always four teams on the farm. One older and more experienced team, two in training and a third that was “ green”. Grandfather would sell the oldest team when he was ready to go again to Chicago and get a new team. Horses usually live twenty to thirty years, so it was a good system to make additional money.
There was a narrow lane that lead to a field between the machine shed and the hog house, the next building on the south side of the farm yard. The hog house was a long one story red building with windows and a cement floor. As kids we did not go in there much as hog are unpredictable and dangerous however, I do recall one visit just after piglets were born. They were cute and squealed a lot.  At the eastern end of the hog house was a red stock loading ramp. Using fences and gates, Grandpa could load all his animals into trucks with that ramp. East and north of the hog house was the mud lot. This area connected four barns, was in constant use and was always muddy. The windmill with a connecting stock tank to hold the water that the wind driven pump brought up form the well, was next to the gate on the west side. It was the main gate from the farm yard and it was metal and always closed unless in use. There was a cement pad there that extended along the big barn to help machinery make the transition from the dry are to the muddy lot. In the south east corner of the mud lot was the big gray barn. Dad told me that was were they used to house the horses in the lower level.  I only remember the barn being used to store hay. The loft was a great place to play in the mornings, but often became too hot in the afternoons. The cats liked to have their kittens there and on occasion we found them.  In the center of the mud lot was the corn crib. Having it here meant it was easy to shovel out the corn for the animals. There was also a metal silo behind the crib.  At the back of the mud lot was a gate that went to the big meadow pasture with the creek. On the south west corner of the mud lot was the big red main barn. It had big sliding doors on the west and east sides so you could drive through it. In the front and to the left was the corn cob elevator. That piece of machinery also was used to raise bales of hay to the lofts. It was on wheels and could easily be moved. In the back of the barn, on both sides of the pull through, were “ tight rooms”. One was used for oats and the other for shelled corn. Gene and I loved to enter and climb to the tops of the grain piles and slide down.

Keep Creating  and stay safe

Carol

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Mayan - Monkey Dancer, Mayan- Turtle Dancer, Squares a Dancing, Textile Artist Stitch Club, Thoth

Smoky Fall

Hello,
It is a gray and cloudy day here with the smoke from western fires mixed in our air.     I am not complaining – I am just surprised at how far the smoke has traveled.    My sympathy goes out to the folks in the fire area .    The  burning   wildfires continue to bather me.   I want to make a third quilt noting these destructive events .     I tried to dye, reds, oranges, yellows and blacks  last Friday with that in mind. I was not successful! I am not sure exactly why, but Liz did mix lots of new dye last time. Hopefully tomorrow when we dye again I will get what I want and can start the work.

 

 

 

 

Textile Artists Stitch Club started a new assignment on Saturday with Clarissa Calksen. She showed us how she creates potatoes and puffs and how she suggests we assemble them. I am still building my forms and I have yet to embellish them. I seem to be working slowly on this new project, but I really like the challenge.

The Pixies had a meeting this week and we are going to continue to work with crows. My flags were a success.
FAB also had a Zoom meeting and it was stimulating.

Progress Report: Monkey Dancer- Mayan Series This piece is 21.5″ X 23.5″. This series continues to fascinate me

Golden Garden    This work is 38″ X 49″.       It is made completely from fabrics   I have altered in some way.   Some I did with Liz an some in the QBL class in the summer of 2019.  There is silk folded dyeing, silk screen, direct painting and a bit of shobori in this one.

 

 

 

I am enjoying using my fabrics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turtle Dancer- Mayan Series I finished cutting and placing all the parts for this work yesterday. Now I need to begin the outlining in black.

 

 

 

 

Green on Green I finished assembling  and quilting on this work  this week . I am ready to do the hand work of stitching down the binding now.

 

Squares a Dancing. I finished seven more of these fellows this week I now have 168 done. I also cut into 5 inch squares the last pair of Eric’s pants.   With these last squares, I   thinks I am nearing the end of this project.

 

 

Wool Rug     The work is 29″ X 36″ . This project is now on the floor in the entry to the studio.   It is made from wool scraps form shirts and extra’s from a jacket.    Lots of fun.

 

 

 

 

 

Thoth  Pillow       I finished this pillow this week too.  I like to make a form and stuff it with the extra batting that I cut away from projects.   That is what this one is full of.   I made the stencil  of Thoth  for a quilt that I did for my husbands  office   years ago.   The quilt is hanging in the living room now.

 

 

Childhood Memories: Grandpa Merritt’s Domain

    Grandfather Merritt was a farmer who used diversity to make himself successful.    He was a short  round man, who wore a straw hat in summer and a felt hat in winter.  The only time one did not see him in a hat was indoors or on Sundays at church.   He had the perfect farmer  tan.   For work days he wore a blue shirt and blue and white striped  Oshkosh Bygosh bib overalls.   Sunday was a brown suit, white shirt and tie.      We went to church on Sunday morning and came home for  lunch and a quiet afternoon, that often included a nap with an occasional Bible story  from   Grandmother’s  Bible story book for  Children. The “Blue laws”meant that nothing was open any way.  We then went back  to Church for the evening service .   Grandpa raised a variety of live stock and the land beyond the door yard, with the exception of the chicken yard was his kingdom.    He did visit the chicken yard when, he cleaned the manure  out  of the chicken house and when he chopped off the heads of chickens for our chicken  dinners .      The barn  yard surrounded the house on three sides and the  forth side was the road.   Next to the house on the south was the two bay garage.    A turquoise blue ford occupied the first bay and Grandpa’s green ford pickup occupied the other.  There were windows along the back of the garage with a work bench under them. There was also a set of stairs that lead up to the top of the garage were lumber was stored.   Farmers have to be able to repair machinery so he often had odd stuff on that work bench.   Grandfather used lots of bailing wire to “fix” stuff too.

    Beyond the garage and across a gated lane was the sheep shed and a small pasture. I remember one spring job for Dad and Grandpa, was to sheered the sheep. Gene and I had a job too and that, with the help of Snookie- a white maxed breed dog, was to separate the lambs and move them to the barn yard. Snookie could also cut out one ewe at a time and herd it into the pen for shearing. Dad and Grandpa would select a ewe and after turning it over would tuck it’s head  under and between their legs  to hold it still. They then would begin shearing  at the throat,   and cut the wool as close to the body as they could down to the flank of the ewe. They slowly turned the animal as they worked from top to bottom until they reached the other side. Keeping the fleece in one big piece was the goal. When they were done shearing they released the ewe into the farm  yard to find their lamb again. There was lots of bleating. Grandfather put a tight rubber band on all the lambs tails when they were born. That rubber band cut off the blood circulation and the tails would eventually fall off. This was done for sanitary reasons. As the shed and pasture emptied. Gene and I would collect all the lambs tails. After shearing 75 ewes, both Dad and Grandpa always had blisters at the end of the day even though they traded the electrical shears and hand powered ones back and forth. Snookie, Gene and I heard all the sheep back into their pasture and barn when the shearing was done. It was a full days job.

Stay safe

Keep Creating

Carol

 

Childhood Memories, Mayan - Monkey Dancer, Mayan- Turtle Dancer, Squares a Dancing, Textile Artist Stitch Club, Thread Painting

Lake Visit

 

Hello-
Summer is winding down and I see signs of fall around here. When we went for our second trip to Mill Site late last week, we saw many trees starting to color. The second Treadle Sewing machine went to a second family and they were very grateful. It is good to pass things forward. Judy has been working away on her piecing.
That is the part she enjoys the most and she had two projects. This one with little pink squares and a second in shades of blue. She and Nancy spent a peasant morning arranging the squares for that project.

Liz ans I dyed today. We had a good time as it has been a long times sense we did any of that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed my Textile Artists Stitch Class from last week with Anne Kelly. The project was a book of memorable experiences or trips. I did mine on the trip to Australia that I took with Wendy last Nov.
Page one is of a Pygmy Penguin. That was a cold and enjoyable evening.

 

 

The second is a Koala. We visited three parks were they were on display and we even got to hold one.

 

 


Then I could not forget to honor the dive day on the Great Barrier Reef. The water was so pleasant and the sights so wonderful.

 

The last page was my celebration of the ocean and the wonderful time we had.

 

 

 

Then this weeks Textile Artist Stitch Club teacher was Allish Henderson. She had a do a portrait collage on hand made paper and with free motion drawing. And easy thing for me with all my work for the childhood series.

 

 

 

Progress Report: Golden Earth I am done assembling this base. It has lots of my hand dyed fabric in it. Now I need to do the top work and finish it

 

 

 

 

Wool Birds I am almost done quilting on this project. It is fun and simple.

 

 

 

Monkey Dancer- Mayan Series Last evening I finished the outlining of appliqued parts of this work. I will start the quilting soon

 

 

Turtle Dancer- Mayan Series I have only drawn this work and need to enlarge it and start the pieces.

 

 

 

 

Laura’s Blue Birds I made these little Eastern Blue Birds for my friend Laura. She liked my Bee shirt and said she too had a short that needed spots covered. I will trim them up and send them in the next day or two.

 

 

 

Bunk Bed quilt 1 I am putting the boarders on this quilt now. It is a Christmas present so I have lots of time. I will make a second that is very slimier for the other bed. Then the twins will have a set.

Wool Rug This is a pure experiment. Liz got me started on it when she showed me the tool she had purchased to roll the fabric. I thought it looked remarkable like a belt buckle and went home and found one . The matched and I was off and running.

 

 

I followed the instruction and created a monster of a ball of the wool. Note the red buckle.

 

 

 

 

I started to assemble it yesterday. It is slow work and I had to improvise the ends as they were wadding up. Good thing this is not going out into the world.

 

 

 

 

Masks Eric wanted a new mask without a tie in the back so I tried a new design. I will make a few more as I fear that we will be wearing them a while.

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New Green    I started a new top using lots of the greens I had hand dyed.  It is very early in the process.

 

 

 

 

 

Squares a Dancing    I finished 21 squares in the last two weeks.  I am still enjoying the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood- McElhinny Farm Summer 3
Spending time on the farm meant Gene and I had to find or create our own fun. We spent a lot of time playing in the creek in the east meadow. I learn one summer about the effects of fertilizer runoff from the farms up stream, as that caused a algae bloom in the creek water way. Sure made for a sluggish flow. The only place in the creek that it did not grow was in the pools under the trees where the cattle often stood in the afternoons to cool off. Gene and I would waded in and used sticks to haul out big clumps of the green stuff. We piled it on the rocks on the shore where it looked like green and gray laundry drying there. I was always amazed at how small the piles had become when we went back to the creek a few days late and all the water had drained out.
On the farm north of Grandmother’s farm and across the gravel road lived the Cumming family. It consisted of three folks, Holt, Lillian and Sue. Some afternoons and after a call from Grandmother, Gene and I would walk up the road to join Sue in some play. They had an old plow horse that we would ride bare back. The horse was named Ginny. Sue would set in the front follow by myself and Gene was the last. When Ginny had enough of our foolishness she would run across the pasture and down a gully, quickly charging up the other side. We would all slide forward on the down plunge onto the horses neck and just a quickly, slide backward and off Ginny’s rump. Gene always landed on the bottom with Sue and myself on top him. Ginny would gallop away and that was the end of that game. On one trip down to the Cummings we spent the afternoon making sorghum. With the plants in old grain bags we beat the bags on the steps to remove the seed from the tops of the staffs. Then the seeds went into a hoper and were grown down a bit before they were cooked. We never got to taste the fruits of that afternoon, but we still had a good time. There was yet another farm with kids farther north of the Cummings. Buddy was the oldest in that bunch and he was a year older then Sue. Sometimes we were all together and playing. One of our games that was strictly a farm kid game, was played only when the corn was tall, it was called “ Halls and Doors”. We would go out in the field and space our selves at the end of a row- a hall and then quickly run down between the rows all counting to ten as fast as we could. When one reached 10- we called “Doors!” and then everyone had to change rows and begin to count again. If one caught up to a fellow runner in the field and tagged them, the person tagged had to stop and count to twenty before they could move again while the rest of the folks went forward. The goal was to get to the end of the field first. This game has disappeared because the new improved corn plants can be plated much closer together and there are no more “Doors” wide enough to pass through in the fields. One time while we were in the south meadow of the Cummings farm we were all climbing trees. Buddy was showing off and making his sway back and forth. He lost his grip and fell to the ground braking his right arm. It was a very clean break and it looked like he had a second wrist. He yelled and cried all the way back to the house with the rest if use following. Lillian bundled him into the car and we all went home. Buddy proudly showed off his cast at church on Sunday the next time we saw him.

Enjoy fall and all it means to you.

Stay safe and be creative

Carol