Agate, Alpine Lake, Felt Work, Foundations Series, Foundations XXI Whipshock Hill, Foundations XXIII Water Marked Sandstone, Landscapes

Eliminiated

October 17, 2014 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

I want to talk about being eliminated from a judged show. I have entered three this fall and of the five quilts I entered and paid fees for, none was accepted for the shows. One never knows the” why “of such rejections. Even having been a” holder” for Scholastic art compactions and being in the same room as the Judges- I sometimes could not understand that “Why” question. Judges are people with tastes and biases of their own. One time I did hear one judge say” I never accept any art with a skelton in it.” Sense I as a teacher, had used a skelton from the science room as part of a still life with my own students, I felt that sure was an unfair feeling for a judge to carry. But they are people – not gods even though they are given lots of power. Perhaps the work did not go with the others selected. Or maybe the judge did not like the design or color combinations. The artist never knows those things. My Father often said” It’s not so much what happens to you, as what you THINK about what happens to you that makes the difference.” With that in mind, the whole experience becomes one of choice. I could be angry , hurt and sad by these developments, but I choose not be be. I still feel my work is good and I am proud of what I do. I

enjoy the process and that is the important part for me. It would be nice to have someone- a judge confirm my feelings- but that is not the case at this time. Lastly, I am the one who chooses to enter the competitions. I will let time heal over the feelings and try another competition that may fit what I do a little better next time.

I spent a couple of days working with Nancy on her sky again. She is becoming quite a good painter with a sponge. She built up more clouds and the work has some real depth now. I think that we are done with this step and the quilting will add even more demention to the final. I am so proud of all the chances she takes with her work.

Asurite Foundations XX 34" X 44" $1100.00 — Asurite Foundations XX
34″ X 44″
$1100.00

Progress Report: Asurite Foundation XX This quilt was finished in June, but I have not posted it because it was an entry for one of the shows I mentioned above . One of the limitations on entry to this show was that the work was not to be shown publicly before . This quilt was lots of fun to work on and I am quite happy with it even all these mouths later. I added lots of metallic fabric in this work as well as many silks and satins.

I used some fancy yarns and threads in this work as well. I find that when I pickup the actual rock that I used as inspiration- I see more possibilities for additional pieces . Only time will tell.

Whipshock Hill

Foundations XXI This is a second quilt that was part of the same entry mentioned above. I finished this work in June. It is based on a cut in the road along Route 279 nine miles west of bennington Vermont BO16-Whishock-cl3 . In actually it is about 500 yards long and a very humbling sight. I added lots of yarns and ribbons to the surface of the quilt as there were lots of little fractures and lines of thin deposited color changes in this rock face. There is also some silk paper in this work.

Alpine Lake

This is a new technique that I am developing that is a very college like approach to quilting. I am continuing to think more in the way of color for the solutions then the type of fabric I am using. I even used an old bit of a paper quilt that was the correct color and texture for the water in this work. I used some double knit on this one as well as silk, silk paper, organza and cotton fabrics. I even did a little free motion zig zag work to add more texture to the tree. I need more practice to get that under control.

Agate I am still adding hand work to this felted work to add texture to the surface. I may have given up doing Daily’s , but I still am doing lots of hand work.

WaterMarked Sandstone I started this new Foundations Piece earlier this week. This one is loosely based on an old black and white photographic of sandstone that has watermarke erosion on it. I know the typical colors of sandstone so I am trying to stay in that limited range with this first step. I really love the texture and I am having fun planning ways to show it in this work.

New work This is a pure play piece. I am not at all sure what I am doing and have no clear idea where I am going with this. The scarps had just been in the bottom of one of my baskets and I thought they looked good together…… Quilting, crumpling and following the directions of the work may or may not help this. But I am willing to give it a bit of time and freedom to see what happens. Giving myself permission to mess up is very freeing!

I like to hear feedback, post a comment.

Keep your eyes open to the wonders of the season.

Carol

Uncategorized

Out of Order

October 16, 2014 admin

Dear Readers,

I am unable to download images for some reason. I will get help and then post a late blog. Watch for developments.

Carol

Alpine Lake, Chrysamthemum, Diva Meetings, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Golden Weeds, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Fall Leaves

October 9, 2014 admin

Hello,

I so enjoy fall, not just the color- and this year it it wonderful, but one of the best things is the sound of walking through the fallen leaves. The crunch, the swish, the crackel, all those sounds and the earthy smell always seems to bring me warm feeling of golden days and slowing down. A heightened feel of awareness of the wonder of the world we live in. I love it.

These beautiful flowers are a gift from my friend Noel. They sure bring the colors and feel of the season into my dinning room.

This was meeting week for me. Tuesday QuEG’s meant at noon. Everyone had lots to share. This shot is of some electron microscope images that Linda thinks she may use as starting points for some work. All of these are various liquors.

Liz is just home from a two week trip to Ohio to Nancy Crow’s barn and a workshop in using Graffiti and Lettering. She had a pile of altered fabrics that she has created that will keep her busy working all winter on just this topic. This one is called “Art Boys”. It sounds like she had fun.

Barb continues to work on her crazy quilts. I really like the Victorian feel this one has. She will have some great family remembrances when she is done and what a great way to collect and display the little bits one seems to collect from family members- like pins and such.

Angela is busy dying again. I love how she uses her abilities to get such wonderful work. This work has several layers of dye on it. These scarves are for the hostesses who are doing a baby shower for her grandson later this fall. She is so wonderfully generous with her work.

Sally is back at her embroidery machine creating wonderful cards for Christmas and fun family gifts. This strawberry is her own design and a family gift. She always give the kids $ presented in a unique way. This year the cash is wrapped inside the layers of the toilet paper inside the berry. She also went so far as to machine embroider the family’s name on the first sheet of each roll. Too much!

Sue Ellen and Corrine are both doing finish up work. Something about fall I think, we want to tidy up a bit before the confinement of winter. Corrine had three wedge cut baby quilts that she was finishing.

Sue Ellen had three distinct, but traditional quilts she had finished and this wonderfully fun Sea Horse piece she created. Each panel in the horse body is a different print and they are all connected with metallic cord that has been zig zaged in place.

Then I went off to the Diva meeting. Cheri and several others of us had spent a few days felting last month. Using materials she produced at that time, Cheri has finished a felted vest for her grand daughter. She used one of her jelly roll slices to create a pin too- its on the right. What fun!

Marty went along with me to the meetings and she showed one of her wonderful Nebula quilts. Everyone is amazed, myself included, in all the bead work and her tiny button whole stitching. She told us she used over 400 beads on one of the nebula pieces. I enjoy how she uses hand dyed fabrics too. wonderful images.

Liesa is working on her Map quilt. All the trees and buildings are in place now. She says there will be more quilts like this one of different locations.

Anne had lots of work to show- four pieces I think. She is getting ready for the Ithaca Art Trail that happens this weekend and next. I like this little whimsical piece the most. So much freedom and action here.

Noel had a wonderful little work that again displayed her techinque. She makes all the blocks and then can try out several arrangements before she puts them together. I like this layout myself.

Susan is getting ready to fly south for the winter. She sold one of her unique little birds that she showed us at the last meeting. Because she wanted to commemorate that event she did these four little paintings of the birds saying good bye. They sure project the happy smiling feeling that Susan always brings to every situation.

Then there was a FAB meeting yesterday morning. Nancy is making great progress on her Flower Bed quilt. She uses big prints and strong colors so very well. This is about one fourth of the top. I can hardly wait to see the full effect.

Patti is doing beading. I love this wonderfully designed small bead- it is only about one fourth inch long( that is the grid of a cutting matt it is setting on) This is the first for a bracelet that will have at least eight unique beads similar to this one .

Chrysanthemum 39" X 48" $675.00 — Chrysanthemum
39″ X 48″
$675.00

Progress Report: Chrysanthemum I am very happy with this work. I used lots of the wonderful silk that I had pruchased from Ginny – most of the reds and purples are her fabrics- and I used the fabrics I had printed on as well. I am still playing with the off square cutting and piecing with this work. It creates challenges when one is quilting and putting sections together, but I am enjoying the process.

I had a good time with the free motion quilting on this work as too. I started with the center most blossom and sort of followed the shapes and forms of the flower to unite the layers of the work. This photos shows how I extended the quilt lines out to finish the petals were need be too. I did total free designing of the flowers in various sizes to fill in all the spaces that remained. I enjoyed this project, but I will admit that I will back my silks with interfacing the next time I use them so I do not get quite so much uncontrolled movement of the seam lines.

Golden Weeds This quilt is having a second life- a sort of face lift. I thought it was done three years ago- and it was OK- but when I was considering work for the Man In the Moon show and I had pulled it out- I thought this just is a good background. Then it hung on the wall for a few weeks. While on a walk, I was taken by the beauty of the Tessel weeds along the road side and thought they were strong enough to stand on top of the old work. First I machine drew in the heads and stems of the plants in a variegated thread. Then I looked for a stronger unit to place on top of that work to make it appear as though some of the plants were even closer to the viewer. I found this copper colored woven ribbon in my stash and felt it would do the job. By adding folded satin ribbon for stems the job was complete. The work is a lot stronger now and I just added a second label to give info about the additions and name change on the back.

Alpine Lake I started playing with the idea of creating a landscape of a mountain setting with a lake. It is all created on top of buckram- so it will not wrinkle up on me – in what I am starting to think of as my college style of construction. I am not gluing anything down, but building from the sky forward with the image. I attach all the parts with machine drawing that adds texture and detail to the work. It is a process that I am enjoying.

New Work blue This is just a background- done this time on purpose- that I want to play on top of. I have some vague ideas about where I am going, but I am still in the sketching stage.

New Work- wavy cuts This top is the same as the one above it. No plan other than to see if I could use wavy cuts in this piece. This too is pure experiment.

I am having a good fall and enjoying walking in the leaves, keeping my eyes open for ideas and just soaking in the sun shine.

Keep your curiosity alive.

Carol

Chrysanthemum, Hand work, Harmony, Sand Stone Church

Busy Two Weeks

October 2, 2014 admin

Hello,

It has been a very busy two weeks for me. I not only traveled to Ottawa for four days I took a felting workshop, spent a day with Ethel making silk paper and a day painting sky with Nancy. The world around here is starting to show its fall colors as well and the days have all been wonderfully comfortable. I spent the end of the first week doing a felting workshop. We played at all the techniques we knew with each one of the participants demonstrating her expertise in different areas. Victoria taught us about nano felting as she has been doing a bit of this with her niece. All of us come with a different design approach, so they all came out very unique. Cherri really liked this method of creating felt and she ended up doing at least three pieces in this style. I was told she is making a vest for her granddaughter with some of it. One of the gals did not do wet felting but started with wool that had been felted in the washing machine and needle felted little pins with this technique. By doing this method she had lots of control and created very detailed work. She was making pins and added beads and manipulated the felt as she worked to create various textures in her pieces. I really liked the way she manipulated little wisps of wool to add nice details like the soft line of green in the leaves of the red and gray green pin. The second day we did wet felted Jelly Rolls. Mostly we created flat disk like units – but Cherri also created some plant like forms with her green felted units. After lunch I tried making felted beads and had a good time with that too. I have no goal for their use and they may rattle around the studio for a long time before they find a home- But I sure enjoyed the process. One can also do three dementional felting using the dry method. This mushroom is a great example of that. I did a little seasonal piece using a wool base and dry felted roving into the surface were I wanted the different colors to remain. It was a fun time and I enjoyed it very much. I can certainly add this technique to my work.

Then I went on my travels to Canada. I love to travel and feel it is very invigorating. Travel can open ones eyes to look at ordinary thing and pay attention to the every day. I was especially taken by the wonderful gingerbread work on this house. I might have noticed it at home, but I probably would not have taken the time to look carefully at it or take a photo. The fact that it would not appear in my life again if I did not act then helped to sharpen my vision. We went to Ottawa with the intention of visiting the museums and did that. We visited all three of the major ones there. Our fiat stop was the museum of First Peoples. It is a wonderful mix of history and the current lives of the Native Americans of Canada. By building these mock up of Traditional Northwest Tribal buildings the museum presented the totem poles in their normal settings. Inside the houses were displays of artwork again showing historic works and contempary ones as well. I found the whole day very exciting and I am sure I will soon create a work using this influence.

The next day we went to the National Art Gallery of Canada. Again it was inspiring. I have always liked the work of the Canadian seven and it was great to see the work live.

Then on Friday we visited the Museum of Natural History. The building is beautiful although it looks like it was built in the early part of the last century with its stain glass and carved wood. Some of the displays show this same old flavor but most are very current. There are lots of interactive displays and each sections also had a play area for smaller children.

I spent yesterday working with Nancy painting a sky for her quilt. It was a beautiful day to paint out doors.

We had a good base to work on top of from the first attempt two weeks before. We agreed it needs one more day to get the finial effect she wants for this portion of her quilt.

Progress Report: Harmony

Harmony 24" X 42.5" $370.00 — Harmony
24″ X 42.5″
$370.00

This work displays the Japanise Character that stands for Harmony. That is where I got the title. The two orange silks are from Japan and I felt that this was a good way to celebrate that fact. I looked at many renditions of this character before I settled on this form. The black of the shape is all chain stitched in embroidery thread.

Sand Stone Church

I purchased Valerie Goodwin’s book “Art Quilt Maps” in the spring even before I took my second class with her this summer. I thought I should try to follow her instructions on how to build this type of map quilt and this project is the result. This work is based on childhood memories of a Sand Stone Church that was in the pasture next to the one my grandparents owned. My brother and I often played in the church and in the cemetery that was just up the hill from the old building. The church it’s self had no roof and the local natural stand stone was curmbeling away in some places so we felt safer in the cemetery- espiceally under the big old oak that stood in the corner. The branches were low and we could easily climb quite high in that tree. The second close up is an areal view of the gravel rural road that ran in front of my grandparents house and the farm yard around the house, plus the garage and barns.

Smoky Twilight I am enjoying using the many tints and shades of gray I have for this work. It is in the very early stages of assembly, but I think it is starting work.

Chrysanthemum I am to the free motion stitching/quilting part of this project. This work got away from me as far as size is concerned and grew quite a bit from my original plan, but that does happen from time to time. Again I am using some of Ginny’s silk in this project( the red show here)

Enjoy the colors of fall and keep your eyes open to the possibilities for ideas all around .

Hugs

Carol

Harmony

Slowing Down

September 18, 2014 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

I have been a little under the weather this week. I have taken lots of naps and consumed a lot of water. This slowdown has helped me focus a little and think about where I am and where I want to go . I have lots of friends and I have the freedom to explore. It’s a wonderful time for me and for that I am truly Thankful.

Yesterday, I went to Nancy’s house and we spent a fun morning painting sky for one of her quilts. At the end of the time we decided that we needed to revisit this activity and so we will alter this work and try again early next week.

Progress Report: Necklace

This is the last of the necklaces that I have created flowers for. I put away the materials and will try to wear them this year. It has been fun and I may use some of the techniques to add additional textures to some quilts in the future. One can never have too many tool in the toolbox of processes.

Harmony I am filling in the symbol of Harmony with the chain stitch on the surface of this quilt. The process of doing this hand work is very calming and good for a person like me who is not in top form. It is also filling in the time that I had been doing the hand work on my Daily News project.

Chrysanthemum

I have now finished assembling this top. I think that this time I got a little carried away with the strange angles . It is not at all flat at this point and I hope that I can press it into that condition. I may have to open some seams and add or subtract to do that process. I am not convinced that this is the up position for this work either. I will do the look for a flat surface and rotate thing for a while before I go forward to the quilting step.

I want to tell my readers in advance that I will be away next week and there will be no post. I will be back and the next entry will be Oct 2.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Foundation XX II - Elsie's Rock- Cape Cod Stone, Hand work, Harmony, The Road Less Traveled

Paying Attention

September 11, 2014 admin

Hello,

When one needs ideas for solutions or inspiration I believe one has some choices. I was struggling with part of the Stone Church project. There is a old cemetery that is a part of that area and I wanted to include it in my piece. But I was having trouble so I took a walk in the near by cemetery to refresh my mind. I was surprised by the presence of the deer. There were two actually and the cemetery is surrounded by city on all four sides. Looking at how compact these stones and how much they overlapped has helped me formulate a solution to the work I must do on the project.

Sometimes the ideas are as much about paying attention as anything else. There was a FAB meeting at my house this week. Folks showed their work and Victoria is moving along nicely with this quilt. She got inspired by Ginny’s silks that she had purchased a few weeks ago. They are shown here in the orange and gray strip. ( I got inspired by that same orange silk) I think the shadow of the leaf looks wonderful too. She also showed a top that she had assembled for a bed quilt that she is making for her new house. I am so impressed by the large number of prints she uses and the colors. I would not have put that strong orange with the turquoise myself- but I love the combination. So by paying attention to this little surprise I now have a jumping off color combination to try in the future. The real trick here is to note the surprises and in my case write them down. I do that in my idea journal and it helps me when I need to get going with a new piece.

Progress Report:

Foundations XXI Elsies Stone - Cape Cod Rock 43" X 44" $595.00 — Foundations XXI Elsies Stone – Cape Cod Rock
43″ X 44″
$595.00

Foundations XXI Elsie’s Stone- Cape Cod Rock The Road Less Traveled

I am finally done with this project. I love all the texture on the surface of this wonderful stone. I am very grateful that Elsie gave me this parting gift. The many fascists of its surface with the limited colors make it fascinating to me. I think I could revisit this rock and work from a different side too.

I used yarn , nylon netting and lots of torn fabric bits to produce the colors and textures. There is also my favorite silk paper at work on this piece.

The Road Less Traveled

I started this quilt in Rosalie Daces Color class at QBL. I have finally completed the process. I used many of the techniques she taught us. I did insert slender curved lines into sections. I let colors “bleed” or flow across seam lines to make connections. I used raw edges to add texture and I hand embroidered across parts of the surface to draw sections together. Even using all thoughts techniques I did not use all the techniques that she taught us. As a teacher she has a lot to share and she does so very willingly.

I enjoyed using these

earthtones and I will continue to pursue the techniques she taught. I am still not happy with size of my slender inerts- so there is work to do there.

Stone Church

I already mentioned the bit with the cemetary so I will not cover that again. I added lots of machine lines on the roads as they were gravel and I remember how there seemed to be lots of “tracks” of the tries on them. I remember too that Grandmother Ester liked to drive down the middle and only pulled the turquoise ford over when she could see a car coming toward her.

Harmony I am done with the assembly of the form of this quilt. I decided to use the character that

represents Harmony for the central focus and so far I have just quilted around that shape to create the quilting pattern. I want to fill in the character with black hand stitches/ patterns so it stand out. But I have not come up with the correct stitch to do that job yet. So I keep looking in books and paying attention to the world around me and hope that I will find inspiration. Until then the project will just hang in the studio awaiting the correct solution.

New Work In Valeri’s Goodwins class she had a do a fabric ” sketches” of 4″ X 6″ before we started work. So in keeping with using the best the teachers have to offer I made the sketch first. This is the one I selected as my jumping off place. I wanted to use the big printed flower I created a few weeks ago as a big part of this work. Now I am in the process of pinning up parts that I think will work to do the job. I have split the two flowers apart and added parts of a third to the design. Very few parts are connected or solid in its position at this point . This is fun but scary part of the process- but I need the challenge.

Daily News This project is finally complete. I have now sewn all the blocks closed and will continue to play with placement for as long as the process interests me. This will be the last post where the project will appear because at this point all the finished units have been appeared at least twice and some more times then that. I have enjoyed doing a daily sewing pieces and it is very true that the whole is made of of lots of little parts. If I had started out with the intention of making 180 hand embroidered blocks I do not think I would have done it. But by making small manageable units- it as a doable task. I have been encouraged by Susan to submit this idea as an airticle for Quilting Arts so that is my next project.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Diva Meetings, Fabric Flowers, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Stone Chruch, The Road Less Traveled

Making a bit of Order

September 4, 2014 admin

Hello,

The last fling of summer is over and the kids are all back in school. I find that this time offers me a great time to reorganize as I prepare for the fall and up coming winter. I need to sort a bit as I put away the shorts and summer tees. It is also a good time for me to look critically at what I really use. Like that wonderful divided basket that I thought I would use to carry dinner things to the patio that I never even pulled out of the cupboard this summer. The back end of my station wagon is full of items like that- all perfect ally good, but not necessary to my life that I am now passing along. It is very easy to pile up too much stuff- so now I feel a bit lighter and look forward to doing a bit of wall painting next week.

I hung a solo show at Man in the Moon Gallery in Kings Ferry on Friday last week. There are about a dozen works in this show all featuring the golds, oranges and browns of fall. I had a good time preparing and hanging the show.

Tuesday this week was the first Tuesday of the month and so I had meetings. The QuEG’s had wonderful things to share.

Angela is creating a wonderful hand embroidered baby quilt for her first grand child. The theme is Australian birds and animals. The Kookaburra is one of them. She is doing a beautiful job .

Barb is creating family history works with bits of hand work from her relatives.

Linda is quilting away on a very colorful lap quilt to keep her knees comfortable this winter. I think these colors will keep summer memories worm too.

Liz kindly modeled my latest fabric flower necklace at the meeting. I thank her for that. I only have one more to complete.

She also has been taking a

watercolor class and did some wonderful work in that area as well.

Then in the evening, I went off to the Diva meeting. This time of year seems to make many quilters want to dye. Both Sally and Ruth put in time on that topic this month. They both show their individuality even in their dying colors and techniques. I love that. Sally is also putting together a small accordion book to send to Elsie who has moved away. Everyone is adding a small 4″ X 6″ page to the work. The wood cut is by Liese and the Fimo bird is by Donna. The book will be sent to her when it is complete. It is so very thoughtful of Sally to come up with this idea.

Liese is working on wonderful project using Valerie Goodwin’s book, Art Quilt Maps her jumping off point. This is her start of her work displaying her favorite place in the whole world. This is just an early stage she says and she has yet to add houses and churches and trees to the work. I find it fascinating and look forward to seeing how it grows and changes with her efforts.

Anne is working on several things. One is a block exchange that she is creating wonderful reverse applique leave blocks for. I like the fact that she has pieced the fabric for the appliqued units she is using to create her leaves. They will all be unique that way.

Susan made us all laugh with her big head parrot choris. She made the removable paper mache’ heads over little soft bodied little creatures that she had picked up at garage sales for about ten cents a piece. What fun.

Noel does wonderful work with silk and this is a close up of some of her style. She too dyes many of her fabrics to get the tones and shades she wants. They are just luscious and I can hardly keep my fingers off of them. She really is a master of curved piecing.

I feel so very fortunate to be a part of such strong artistic groups of women.

Progress Report: The Road Less Traveled I am still doing the hand and machine work on this piece. I am doing lots of fly stitch as well as chain and ladder stitches on this one.

Stone Church This work has not appeared in a while. I did not know what I wanted to do with it. Like Liesi it is based on a memory of a location. I was stuck so I looked again in Valerie Goodwin’s book and decided to push forward. I painted the church on the organza and and then I carefully placed dark fabrics behind the opening in the decaying structure. It is getting there but the concept is not quite in place yet. Some work just takes lots of time.

New Work This is a close up of the quilt using the orange kimono fabric I purchased a few weeks ago. I am almost ready to start quilting it. I thought I knew what I wanted to do and had picked out some wonderful Chinese Characters to use as my pattern – then I realized – this is Japanese material- not Chinese. I will keep thinking.

Daily News I am still working on finishing the blocks for this project. But I can see the end of the process now. I am still adding/ subtracting and altering the units daily and that is why there is so much size in the photos. I do not always stand at the same distance from one day to the next.

Please write if you have any comments.

Keep Creating,

Carol

Daily's, Fabric Flowers, Foundation XX II - Elsie's Rock- Cape Cod Stone

Abundance August 28, 2014

August 28, 2014 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

Today on my walk I was struck by the effects of sunshine and light. It was not sunny today by I noticed how bright the Black Eyed Susan’s were at the entrance to the condo complex down the road where there is full sun shine. By contrast the there is so much shade in my yard that there are mushrooms growing along the drive on the north side of my house. Granted they are quite small- only a out the size of a young child’s finger tip- but growing there none the less. Sunshine never falls on this area of my yard, but Nature still finds a way to put life into the space. I am so lucky to live in such an abundant part of the world. To add to the abundance of my visual world there is an abundance of activities going on too.

Last week I spent three days exploring with Cheri and Terney printing techniques. We started out intending to do wood cuts and we all did one, but soon found out that although the look is wonderful, the process does not allow for much cross grain cutting. I think now that our tools needed a bit of sharpening because we all became quite tired of all the effort necessary to do the work. Cherri was the most successful and her’s are the two round ones on the pin wall. Treney had never done Gelli prints before and the other prints on the pin wall are her works in that area. I decided to make foam prints and got going creating graffiti stamps of everyone’s name. I wrote the names out with a paint brush so I would have a flowing design and then did a second copy on the paper side of the sticky fun foam. I then carefully cut out the graffiti with an exacto knife so I would have a positive and a negative copy of the works. This picture shows Cherri’s name. The black is the foam and it appears backward so when it is printed it will be forward. The red graffiti of her name is a back view and it still has the paper on it. Tierney printed her name on the Gelli plate fabric she created the first day. I have not cut out my name yet because I made it too big for any of the clear plastic that I mount these on. I will have to save my take home container from Wegman’s salad to accommodate them. We had a good time working talking and laughing. It is always more fun to explore with other folks.

I made one last stamp on Friday and printed it when I got home. Last week when FAB went to Genny’s she had a wonderful kimona on the wall and I could not get the flower image out of my head. So I designed and created my own curcumthum. I made one fourth of the blossom and then rotated it as I printed. I did a second color on top just off center a little. I look forward now to using that fabric in the near furture. I found out that I really like the flexibility and speed of foam stamping too.

Then on Tue this week I went to the Kuhlman Foundation opening at Cornell University. Seven scholarships are given to students with a theme that they need to interpert. This year the theme was Layers of Leather. The approaches were all different and the students were there to explain their work. It was a fascinating event.

Then there were also some interesting things going on in a hall display as well. The second mini show was of wearable art that was all lazer cut polor fleece. Valerie Goodwin my teacher at QBL had talked about this process in my class and I was delighted to see a second example of the process.

Progress Report: Elsie’s Stone I am still working away on this Foundations piece. I am having a good time working with the close values in this stone as well as playing with the strong textures. Once I heard that one should make art to be seen on two levels- from a distance and then drawing the viewer in to take a second look. I think this series does a good job doing just that.

Necklace# 7 I still seem to find the necklace process that Noel started in me a few month ago working for me. I think I am nearing the end of the necklace obsession though. I think I may apply this idea to a quilt top in the furture. I do have two necklaces that are started so I will finish then an then go forward with that idea.

New Work I pulled out fabrics that I though I might use in a new project starting with one of the silks( the orange, white and black print) that I had purchased from Ginny last week. I think I will add some more browns to the mix and then begin to build the work.

Daily News This project was at a stand still until the velcro arrived. It is moving forward now and although I only seem to get five blocks done a day I am making progress.

I hope all enjoy the Labor Day holiday week end in their own fashion.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Foundation XX II - Elsie's Rock- Cape Cod Stone, Ju Ju June, Rafter Room, The Road Less Traveled

Sharing August 21, 2014

August 21, 2014 admin 2 Comments

Good Habits 21" 32" — Good Habits
21″ 32″

Hello,

As fall approaches I feel the need to “tidy the nest” a bit. As a result of that feeling, I have been sorting out old works and finding new homes for them. So I took along this quilt when I went to the Dentist and it is now hanging in his office. It took a min. before he saw the tooth brushes. He was delighted and so was I as the work was only setting in a dark closet before and I think art should be out in the world. I feel so fortunate that I can share in this fashion.

This week the FAB group went on a field trip too. We visited the home studio of Ginny Spina to see her silk /Komona collection. It was wonderful. Her home is beautiful and so are her gardens. She sells on etsy at www.silkhouse.etsy.com. We got to see and handle the silk. Nancy even tried on one of the Kimono’s that had arrived in the mail that morning. Victoria and I both purchased some of her scarps and now I have a new pile of fabrics and the ideas are flowing. Nancy purchased on of Ginny’s scarves and her custom designed pins that day as well. We all had lots of fun and made new connections.

Progress Report: Ju Ju June

Ju Ju June !8" X 30" $190.oo — Ju Ju June
!8″ X 30″
$190.00

As I predicted this quilt is now complete. There is lots of experimentation in this piece. This is my first attempt at using only canvas as the fabric base. I also had full control of the colors and patters on that base and although I really enjoyed that aspect I do not feel like I explored it fully. So I need to keep putting myself in that position and dealing with that challenge. I also feel I need to do a similar project again because the process is still very much a mimic of Katie Pasquini’s process. I did enjoy mixing the metal with the gathered ribbon “flower” shapes and the beads.

Rafter Room This quilt is now hanging over the door to the rafter room were it will remain for it’s life time. Because it is summer I am not aware of how many drafts it is stopping, but I imagine it will do the job in the fall and winter. I really enjoyed doing the free motion work on this project. It was not only fun to trace the shapes printed on the mud cloth it was fun to extend them out into the blank areas. Then I went forward to drawing and filling in the blank areas as well. I think that I will look at pattern with a little bit of a different eye- and notice more details as a result of this project.

I got to use up the end of one of the fabrics that I had created in Judy Langele’s class at QBL 2 three years ago too.( It is the bottom of this work with the blue gears and dark violet in it)

The Road Less Traveled I am still doing the free motion work on this piece. I am trying to sort of soften the hard seam lines with the machine work. I will add hand work as well.

Foundations XXI- Elise’s Rock/ A Cape Cod Stone This is a rock that Elsie Dents gave me. She has moved to Pennsylvania and we will miss her strong graphic bird based work in the DIVA group. She was cleaning and found this stone that she had collected on the beach at Cape Cod and thought of me. So she brought to me at the last meeting that she attended. I like the strong lines across the stained quarts so I am using it as my jumping off point for the next Foundations work. I am still working with the out side shape of this quilt part as well as the light and dark on the surface.

Daily News The news goes on and on. I am enjoying the playing part of the process now. I thank Barb every time I finish a block because her way of completing the process is so much faster than mine.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Diva Meetings, Ju Ju June, Rafter Room Project, The Road Less Traveled

Back in Balance August 14, 2014

August 14, 2014 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

I have been on the go a lot of late and this morning I was feeling a bit out of balance. There were lots of tasks I need to do, but I decided to treat myself to a walk. When I go I do not take my phone or any electric devices to distract me. I use the time to pay attentions to the physical world I live in. I noted the sunshine, the many bird songs, and found the visual surprise of that the Popular tree is already shedding golden leaves. As I walked along the street I noticed that the fallen maple seeds looked like the birds in flight. I felt thankful that my legs were still able to carry me along at the pace that I wanted and returned home with a hand full of weed pods to draw later and a positive feeling of confidence about taking on all the little tasks that I needed to do. I also realized how much I need that bit of physical exercise for balance in my life.

The Diva’s had a play day last week and there was a lot going on. Cheri was marbleizing in one section of the room. I was do that as well although I was using a different method.

My work was pale because I was using ink on water and Cheri was using paint on a gel base.

There was lots of laughter, talk and sharing of ideas. Sally, Ruth and Susan did consolations as well. Everyone got a lot done and we all went happy home having made progress at our various projects. Unstructured days of work with fellow artists is a wonderful thing.

There was also a FAB meeting this week. Again lots of sharing and words of encouragement. Victoria shared the top she started in Rosalie’s class with us. The colors are based on a photo close up of a tulip. One of our challenges was to work with a color that we did not normally use. She chose the bright pink.

Progress Report: Ju Ju June I am to the quilting stage on this work. The free motion step is fun and enjoyable for me. I will finish the quilting and do the binding this week and then post the final next time.

Rafter Room Project This project too is left over from before QBL. It is to be a cover over the door to the rafter room from the bed room. I think it will stop the draft that I feel in the winter. Again I am to the fun part of drawing in the images in free motion. I like that fact that I not only get to complete the figures that I cut up from the mud cloth, but I also get create some new ones to fill the spaces between the printed fabric. This example shows the outlining and the filling in of those drawings on the surface. I am about two thirds done at this time.

The Road Less Traveled I have now completed the assembly of my top from Rosalie’s color class. The color that I seldom use is the green brown color in this quilt. It is a good challenge I think and it did make me streach- one of my personal goals for this class. I am almost ready to start adding hand work and machine drawing on the surface of this piece.

Daily News

This project continue to move forward. I ran out of velco for the connections so I am at a bit of a stand still. I have ordered more and now I just wait for it’s arrival.

Please send a comment and let me know what you think about what I am doing.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

Eliminiated

Out of Order

Fall Leaves

Busy Two Weeks

Slowing Down

Paying Attention

Making a bit of Order

Abundance August 28, 2014

Sharing August 21, 2014

Back in Balance August 14, 2014

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer