Category Archives: Forest Flock

Opening +

Hello,

  The opening on Sunday was the big event of the week for me.      I was happily pleased by all the folks who came to support me.    Two of the gals in this photo came from over from an hour away  and that was a big surprise.   

 

 

 

 

 

My daughter and youngest grandson came as well .   He is over six feet and makes me look really like a small grandmother.

 

 

With this show I tried to show old work and new as well as show all the different techniques I use. This work in the show is my first Fire piece and it was done about 25  years ago.

 

I put this work in the show to show off my applique skills and my handwork.

 

 

 

 

Granite Grannies is and example of a work that is both painted and dyed.  I did free motion drawing to out line the faces.

 

 Calling Crows is a work that won Judges Choice at the Adirondack Quilts Show a few years ago.   I did it after being awakened by crows at 4:00 in the morning when I was staying in Auburn.

  This work is called Forest Flock.  I machine drew all the little birds  and then appliqued them to the background.  The dark  tree is made from an old black skirt that I felted.

 

 

Briar Patch is a work that came about because I was playing with metallic threads and they suggested shinny berries to me.

 

 

 

Lastly I included the last three studies I did this fall as a part of the Explorations series.   I am in a new phase of this same self challenge now.

 

 

 

 

There were more works in the show , but I did not include them all.  The pictures show of the show were taken by my daughter, Wendy.

There was a Pixie Meeting this week and we shared lots of ideas.  I am continuing to work away on the 100 Day SAQA challenge. Friday I printed these images .   The images on the bottom  are new and the ones on the top are the new blocks over an existing image.

 

I printed new images on  Saturday.

 

 

 

 

I did a Rabbit to celebrate the Chinese New year of the Rabbit

 

 

 

Tue I printed the new images

 

 

 

 

 

Wed I cut these new images.   I decided to do  a Rat as the Chinese symbol because that is my year.

 

 

Today is the twelfth day and an even one so I printed .  One the left are the prints them selves and on the right are them used on top of  another printed image.    I am having fun and learning things so I feel good about this project.

Progress Report: Blue Horizons  This work is 34.5 ” X  38″. I enjoyed doing the handwork on this piece and finished it on Tue.

The   free motion process is also  fun for me.   I have fun dreaming up  images to machine draw.

 

 

 

 

Presume    I am still in the hand work stage here.  I am out lining the metallic’s  like I did on Forbidden Fruit.

 

Envision   I finished putting together the top for this work on Monday.  Then yesterday after pin basting it I did some stitch in the ditch work to stabilize it  so I can do the hand work here.   I am just thinking about the the pattern the hand work will take at this point.

 

 

Understanding Orange  I have just begun this top.  It is number 5 in the Monochromatic Studies of the Meandering Mind series.  I will start using purples when this one is done.

 

 

 

Creative Assistants   I finished off 22 more of these little guys this week.  This  is the most recent bunch ready for the paint and pin backs.   I hope to do a few more faces and add bodies before I complete the batch.

I hope that my readers are stay safe and enjoying the season.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

Upcycle

Hello,

It seems like this time of year one tends to do a bit of clean out and reevaluation.  I found lots of my friends using what they had to make new work this month.

I  spent my Saturday  last week working as a part of the Bed for Kids project here in town.  Sadly there are many children in our community who do not have beds.  So this group is working on bedding as a part of the goal to meet this need.  I started this quilt and the top is almost complete now.   It is made of a project that was passed to me.   Many other women worked on creating pillow cases.  Girl Scouts and a girls basketball team also showed up and created polar fleece no sew blankets.   It was a lively and fun project to be a part of.   I also contributed 13 quilts to this worthy project.

Both of the groups that I belong to meant on Tues.   At QuEG’s , Sue Ellen showed up this top that she created  as she tries to work down her stash.   IMG_2715Dori   is doing hand work on this witches hat to  use up some of her trims.    IMG_2716 Victoria is also using up available materials.  She is cutting up all her angora sweaters that have small wholes and making a throw with them.   Susan is  going through her scrap bag and building units with raw edge applique and embroidery.  She has also set the limit of using red and turquoise as her main colors  for this pursute.   I think limiting like that  can make one be very creative with other tools.   Liz continues to happily quilt away on her  school days piece.   IMG_2727  And Sally is making cards with one of her new sewing machine patterns.  She is also experimenting with water soluble colored pencils that she had on hand.   I like the directions she is exploring.

At Diva’s, Alice  shared her new  series.  She is experimenting with India ink painting on fabric.   To good effect I would say.    IMG_2736 Regina in her wonderful way completed  this indigo piece  this month.   She really challenges herself I think.   Both meetings were full of inspiring talk and interesting works.    I came home all fired up again.

 

Progress Report: Forest Flock    This quilt is 39” w X 35”l.    I have been enjoying doing the thread painting of birds for a while and this time I tried doing them for a quilt.   IMG_2765 It is a bit different type of approach for me but I like to mix my techniques.   IMG_2766  The more I play with this process the more I seem to enjoy it.   I keep learning little things with each attempt  too.   With  these birds, I  explored  not only using the the  two layers of wash away but  a layer of nylon netting in the middle.  I had noticed that   the  shapes I had created before could easily  be distorted in the pinning and drying stage.     The nylon net seemed to make the work more solid  and helps  to avoid that  distortion problem.    Now there may be a time when that is undesirable desirableIMG_2768 but now the  nylon netting   really helps maintain  the shapes  that I am building.

 

IMG_2744Sandpipers  The birds are attached to the shore now and I am doing some intense looking as I am not really happy with the appearance   of this composition.   It seems to need something in addition.  I will study it over the course of the next few weeks and hope that I can find a solution that I am happy with.

 

3X3   This is blao B-3.  The third block in row b.   I finished it for the most part and placed block C-3 next to it so I could make connections.IMG_2750  Pressing and  a little more work should do the trick.   The I went ahead and worked on block C-3.IMG_2752I have been putting in about an hour  every day on this project.  

Label Cards: Tied Up  This week I realized how I get myself in worry knots about nonsense.  Being away from the studio and  such  helped me get a better perspective.   I hope I can continue to recognize  the unimportant things and let them go.

Color Wonder In this gray time of year I am always surprised by a sudden splash of color.   I could not get the pink nose of  my a friends dog’s nose out of my mind so I made this card to remind myself to look  with care at the world around me.

Winter white

 

Hello,

We  are in the middle of a beautiful snow storm here.  I shot this image through one of the garage  windows.   I love the ice crystal patterns and how they  break up the view.

There was a Flinger Lakes Fiber Artist meeting this week.   This work by Pat  was one of the wonderful works we looked at and talked about.IMG_2584Pricilla brought all these  silk squares that she intends to use in a new jacket.

Liz shared this work that she machine quilted her self.  She and I dyed printed  the fabric in one of our grange dates  last summer.

IMG_2594Lori showed us this work  of hers  that was in the members show at the Schweinfurth.  The gold and black fabric  background  was a piece of fabric that she purchased from Pat last summer.

IMG_2591Noel took Pat’s Two by Two class and this is the result of that.  I like how Noel uses  diagonals in her work.

 

I find this work by Regina just fascinating.    I just keep looking and seeing new areas of interest with each study.

IMG_2593 Joyce   is working on book forms now and this is just one that she shared.

IMG_2592Marcia is playing with movement  in her work at the moment.     I think it is just great how much variety is going on in this group of talented women and I am so happy to be a small part of it.

 

The QuEG’s  also meant this week.   Liz showed off another of her works.   She is in the process of quilting this piece too.

 

 

Sue Ellen spent a little time playing this season and created this table runner.  Lots of bright color here.

 

Progress Report: Collection V   I keep working away on this project and I think I am nearing the end of itIMG_2602I am doing the line stitching now, usually a sign of the completion of the task.

Forest Flock I worked on the second set of birds this week and they are a little beyond half way done.   They need about three more shades of thread in blues and grays to be complete I think.

IMG_26073X3   I have now laid out all the panels  for this project.  I want to add some circles in transparent fabrics on top and then I will be ready to begin hand stitching on them.

Jacket  IMG_2610 I keep stitching away on this project but it is slow as it is the bottom of the stack and there is no time line for it.

There are no cards this week because I can not find the ones I did.  There were curling as they dried so I put them under something and cannot find them.    They will turn up and then be a bonus.

This is also the last entry for a few weeks as I am off to Oaxaca Mexico to visit with Susan.   The next post will be full of news of that trip I am sure.

Keep Creating

Carol