Daily's, Diva Meetings, Foundations XVII Granite, Foundations XVII Obsidian, Foundations XVIII Rusty, New Iris

National Choclate Chip Day May 8, 2014

May 8, 2014 admin

Hello,

I hope everyone is enjoying a choclate chip cookie today. What a wonderfully silly thing to make a national day. Not sure of the origian of this idea, but I am sure the cooks approve. As do those of us who will eat a cookie for any reason.

This week contained the first Tuesday of the mouth so I had meetings. The QuEG’s meeting was great with lots of show and tell. Sue Ellen showed us this wonderful book/ album/portfolio of all of the fish quilts she has done this year. What a great way to present your work. Corrinie is not beading on this wall piece. I sure love the semenate. Linda and I showed the fabrics we had created in the soy dyeing class from last month.

Then it was off to the Diva meeting on Tuesday evening. Anne and Ruth had both taken a workshop with Gwen Marsdon. This first one is Anne’s take on the processes. I like how crisp and clean Anne’s work always is. She limits her color and uses it so very well- something that I could afford to learn a little be more of.

Ruth chose to try all the techniques and plans to assemble them into a sampler type thing when she is done. As is usually true in a class each person puts their own stamp on the final outcome. They both had a good time too.

Spring seems to bring a lot of workshops to all of us as Donna took one as well on Encostics. She came away with three wonderful images and I found it difficult choosing the one I liked best to show here.

Liese continues to wow us with her wonderful little dioramas. This one she finished up on Earth Day (April 22) and it is her statement about all the pollution in our Oceans. I really enjoy her little people- they are so very animated and full of life. She told us this work was the center piece for the dinner table on Earth day too.

This meeting marked my fifth anniversay with this very diverse group of gals. I so enjoy them and I drive home with my mind spinning with new ideas and inspirations every time.

Foundations XVII Obsidian 34" X 33.5 $400.00 — Foundations XVII Obsidian
34″ X 33.5
$400.00

Progress Report: Foundations XVII Obsidian This quilt has many different fabrics in it. I used some denim from my husbands pants in one area. There is velvet, silk, cotton, taffata and nylon fabric here too. I made my choices based on the colors that I saw in the rock ( there are lots of reflections due to the nature of the stone) – it did not matter what type of material it was. The process also involved some fibers that I purchased years ago without any knowledge of the content or type. I was delighted by the color then and I still am. I am glad to finally find a home for some of them. There is some aposistory fabrics in this too. the textured gray black show here was on the piano seat Mom covered when I was in Jr high. I m glad to find a home for it too.

Foundations XVIII - Rust 26" X 42" $385.00 — Foundations XVIII – Rust
26″ X 42″
$385.00

Foundations XVIII – Rusty This quilt has lots of old fabric that was intended to become clothing. The rust colored wool was purchased for an a-line skirt. I am still struggling with the irregular shape and the high point at the top of this quilt is still a problem here. I though I had it sloved, but that proved not to be the case. I plan to add some stays in to that section today. I am not surprised as there are always new problems with unexplored territioy. This first close up shows some fabric that I rust dyed. I did break a needle when I tried to free motion through the three layers of the rust dyed fabric. I do not know why, but I fear that even though I did wash it when I finished the fabric there still could contain a bit of residue . Again I used lots of different fabrics on this piece. Wool, velvet, cotton and the back side of taffata can be seen here. I am enjoying the process.

Maya’s Tee Shirt Quilt I finished this quilt this week too. It took me four hours to do the hand stitching on the binding of this project. It is a queen sized quilt. The free motion work on the blocks was the most enjoyable part for me.

New Iris’s This top is now ready for the quilting step. It is a little too much like a very nice background at this point so I will need to think carefully about how to go forward on this project.

Foundations XIX – This is the new pinned up section for the next work. I love the wonderful moss green fabric that Noel gave me a few weeks ago. This mossy stone is the outgrowth of that feeling. I feel the striped fabric that is the base for this one is still too strong so I will keep building on top of it.

Daily’s My storage box for these little exercises is almost too full so I think I will end this series soon. I want to move on to another idea as well.

Keep Creating.

Carol

PS I am off to spend a week in Paris so there will be no post next week. Look for lots of pictures the following week.

Daily's, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Foundation XV New Direction, Foundations Series, Foundations XVII Granite, Foundations XVII Obsidian, Maya's Tee Shirt Quilt

May Day, May 1 2014

May 1, 2014 admin

Hello,

Happy May Day to you. For me May Day brings up memories of making paper tube baskets that we filled with wild flowers and perhaps a bit of candy. Then we hung them on the door knobs of neihbors homes. That was when I lived in a small town in Iowa and I am not sure if that practice still goes on today.

I went to a FAB meeting last week. Patti is being very propductive and had a wonderful rust colored ribbon knitted project she was working on as well as having completed this wonderful shaw on her loom.

We also looked at and talked about Victoria’s silver leaf quilt that was pinned to her studio wall. She is setting quite a challenge for herself with this project I think. But it will be wonderful when she is done I am sure.

Then I went to Angela’s where she and Linda were playing with soy wax for a second time. Linda spent the whole time doing the waxing step, but Angela did apply dye while I was there. She had dyed several things earlier that day and then added more soy wax and black dye over the blue to what she is doing here. I can hardly wait until next week to see the results of their work at the QuEGs meeting. There will be another soy wax day I am sure so perhaps I will get in on that one.

Progress Report: Foundations XV- New Directions This quilt is the first of the irregular shaped quilts that I have finished. I think I mentioned last week

Foundations XV New Directions 27"X 44" $360.00 — Foundations XV New Directions
27″X 44″
$360.00

that there were problems with getting it to remain flat. The paint I add to the back to stabilise that some what. But I feel the there is still is a bit of a problem. I plan to take it to the art quilt meetings next week and get some help with that. I really enjoyed all all the color and the the many textures that ended up in this quilt. I find myself looking and looking again at it on my wall. I used a varigated thread on this work too and that adds an additional interest to the surface of the piece.

Foundations XVI Granite 19" X 29" $195.00 — Foundations XVI Granite
19″ X 29″
$195.00

Foundations XVI- Granite I also finished off this work this week too. It was too far along to adapt to the off square format, but I usually think of granite in a square shape any way. Even tumbe stones are a slab most of the time. I do not think I have ever seen Granite when in was not”dressed” in some way or another. There are lots of colors in granite and I tried to show that with this project. I used mostly silks, velvets and satians along with the a few cottons in this project. Again I used lots of varigated threads here as well. I also used some of the silk paper with this piece.

Foundations XVII- Obsidian

I am only showing a close up of Obsidian as it is so close to being completed that the full thing will be available next week. I was working on so many pieces in the Foundations series at one time that I got mixed up about the number system. This really is the 17 in the series and not Granite as it says in the Categories. I will have to wait until I have another lesion from the computer specialist before I can correct that mistake.

Maya’s Tee Shirt Quilt I am to what I consider the fun part of this quilt now. I did stitch in the ditch between all the tee shirt sections. Now I am doing free motion around the images. This one is in the center of the quilt and I will work out from there until they are all completed. I only did the free motion work on two more before I ran out of time yesterday.

Necklace III I am still playing in this format. I love making the flower format. This one also has unique metal connections on the ends( the black units) They are old belt connections from Grandmother Ruth’s sewing box. I think they add a bit of glamer to the work.

New Work In and effort to push myself beyond the necklaces I created a new work that needs a lot of hand embellishing on it. I went to my texture box and found the silver fabric already backed with wonder under and added it to the surface of some of the watermarked satin I had pulled up to make flowers. Then I found the ground cloth with lumier paint on it and added that to the surface as well. I just kept adding until I felt that I could only finish it with hand work….. but I have not started that yet my attempt to fool myself did not work. At least not yet.

New Iris Work

This also came out of the idea box and I started it because I was in the studio at the end of the day and the pin wall was empty. The Iris fabric was already cut so it was just a matter of pinning up what I had already done.

Daily’s More of similar works as last week. I plan to work ahead this week as I am preparing for a week trip to Paris o n May 14th. I do not think I want to take this project with me, so that is my solution.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Fabric Flowers, Foundation XV New Direction, Foundations XVII Granite, Mia's Tee shirt quilt, Uncategorized

Birthday April 24, 2014

April 24, 2014 admin

Hello,

Today is my birthday and this wonderful hand made card arrived from my great friend Barbara with birthday wishes in it.. The card sure makes me feel loved- and it delights my eye too.

Spring is finally a part of central New York. I was awakened by a bird singing at 4:10 this morning- but I am not complaining- Just surprised to hear him singing up the sun so early. There are so many tints and shades of green that it dassel the eye now. Things here are changing so very fast. It was raining yesterday and so I did not walk out doors. But when I went today I could see changes in the buds of many of the plants that I had looked at just two days before. One can almost see the plants growing. I love it!

I am still making fabric flowers from Noel’s workshop last week. It is just so much fun to use those little scarps of silk in such beautiful ways that I can’t seem to stop. The “What If Factor ” is kicking in too and I think my work tray has as many new flowers on it as these two necklaces put together. Now I am also trying Yoyo flowers- like Cheri did and I can’t think why wide silk ribbons would not work too, as well as the silky hem tape I seems to have lots of ….. Oh the mind- it just keeps pumping out possibilites.

Progress Report: Foundation XV New Direction I am nearly finished with this project. I like all the colors I have be able to use here and feel that I have added a lot of machine work to the surface. By making this one irregular in shape I have created a new problem for myself- it does not hang flat at the end of some of the horizional extensions. That is why I am not showing a full shot this week. I will work on this problem and get back to you.

Foundation XVI Granite

This one is almost done too and because it is a rectangle it does not have the hanging problem of New Directions. I am still in the” look and see” stage with this one so that is why there is not a full shot of it either. ( If you want a good idea of that look at last week) I am very happy with the flow lines of the free motion work however.

Foundation XVII Obsidian I have wanted to do a piece that is all shades of black and gray so I started this last week. I like the rock Obsidian and how it seems to have such strong angles in the surfaces that I used it as my inspiration for this project. It is the second irregular shaped one. And lest anyone start to believe I just know how I want things to be placed, I shot this photo the first day I worked on pinning things up. I thought it was too busy the next morning so I took half the stuff off and started a second time. ( And yes, it us inverted too) I have used many different fabrics here. Everything from corduroy and cotton to velvet and silks to get the various tones of black. I enjoy how the color changes bepending on what it is next to. I am enjoying the free motion work now too.

Foundations XVIII-New Work When I went to play with Noel last week she gave me a box full of wonderful earth toned fabric. I am using it as my jumping off point for this next Foundations work. The big piece of rusty wool is so very rich that I am enjoying working with it.

Daily’s I am still working away on the Daily’s and they continue to be a calming enjoyment. So here is the showing for this week.

I hope that spring is dancing at everyone ‘s door and bringing lots of new visuals to everyone too.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Foundation XV New Direction, Mia's Tee shirt quilt, Trees, Wind Fall

Flowers April 17, 2014

April 17, 2014 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

Spring is teasing us here in central New York. It was so very nice and warm for three days and then we had a cold day that ended in a snowstorm. I am waiting for my spring flowers to appear. The day that it snowed I took matters into my own hands and spent the day with Noel in her studio along with several others and we made our own flowers. (look back two weeks to see Noel and Victoria’s first ones) It always amazes me how we human beings fliter and apply our own tastes to the same processes. These red, pink and purple blossems are Cheri’s and the black, tan and white ones are Noel’s. We all took the same basic materials and techhniques but treated them with our own unique “stamp”. Noel showed us how to create several types of flowers and then turned us loose. Victoria, like Noel had made flowers before, she cheerfully tried a complex rose type flower where each petal is made indavigaly. I can hardly wait to see how everyone finishes her necklace. I was so excited by the processes that I kept making more flowers for the next two evenings. I am sure I will have two or three necklaces even if I stopped with what I have. I did take the time to lay out one possible combination. It needs small additions like beads and buttons. I just keep thinking of more ways to play with these ideas. And recalling things I did not try yet like yoyo flowers that Cherri did. It sure was a wonderful way to combat the snow falling outside that day!

Progress Report: Foundations XV –New Direction I am still struggling with this project. I have added to the sides to pull away from the square format. Then this morning when I hung it on the wall- “What If” – hit and I turned it 45 degrees to the right and I liked it better- and even more so when I added to the those two sides as well. I try to always be open to what is happening while I am designing and wonderful things can happen. I will push myself to do the remaining work on this one over the next few days.

New Work I am still playing with this newest member of the Foundation series. This one does not seem to know what way is up yet either- but I am enjoying the process. I do think I will leaves this one in a basic square format even though I am trying to go beyond that idea. It is holding it’s own without that challenge.

Grove I am making progress here too. All the trees now have their horizontal branches. I have them all connected to one another but I feel that it is almost too much to take in visually. The blue below the trees is too busy as well, so I plan to remove it and try again. I just don’t know what will work until I try it sometimes.

Mia’s Quilt These green and blue pieces are my prepations for the back of Mia’s Tee shirt quilt. I am building the units and when they are big enough I will assemble them into the big back. It is a fun process from my point of view.

Daily’s I am finding time to do my Daily’s too. They are starting to really pile up.

Think Spring and Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Electric, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Out the Window, Stencels, Trees

Spring Warmth April 10, 2014

April 11, 2014 admin

Hello,

Spring is really here! I went for my walk today with out a coat. I even ate my lunch on the patio today. It was around seventy and the sun was shinning. It made me feel glorious.

I had a busy week end as I took at three day workshop with Carol Soderlund( www.carolsoderlund.com) called Waxing Eloquent. It was about how to use soy wax and build up layers of dye on fabric to create great depth. We had a grand time and the three days flew by. In this first shot the teacher is holding my experimental piece. I had tried this before several years ago and I am more excited about it on this second attempt. I sewed the prepared fabric with to two layers of batting and normal thread on the top and a wash away( water soluble ) thread in the bobbin. Then I painted the soy wax on the “mountains” of the project and painted the dye in the valley’s. ( the work is at that stage in this first photo.) We all brought along a big supply of tools to apply the soy wax to the fabric. I enjoyed the old calulator plastic and the empty spool a lot. After the wax was dry we applied the dye to the fabric . This shot is of Linda who was setting across the table from me. We worked all afternoon at adding wax and color to the pieces we had started. This shot is of my pin wall in the middle of the afternoon. By the end of that first day the floor of the room looked like a magic carpet shop where the pieces “batched” all night long. We then added more soy wax to the surface. Things were really getting lucious at this point. This piece is by a new friend, Peg. The big circles in the wax were created with a sponge that had a hole cut in the middle. To fully use the dye, Carol had us layer the fabric in two and three stacks. I folded over several of my pieces and so I had softer second pieces and there was much less dye to mop up when the pieces were picked up off the plastic sheets.

There is a little problem with the water soluable thread- the dye also causes the thread to disolve. So before I put on the second layer of wax I had to cover the valley area of the surface to keep the white.

There are several ways to remove the soy wax from the fabrics. One is to iron the fabric between two pieces of newspaper and this should always be done first. This process was done with my work and then it was placed in a boiling kettle of water. All the milky color is the soy wax in the pot rising to the top. The water is then carefully poured out of the pot and the fabric is ready for a hot was in the machine. It is OK to pore the water soy mixture down the drain because the soy wax is a natural product and will bio degrade. I was surprised by the color change. This photo shows some fabric( at the top that did not have the color washed out and the thread is still attached) and the bottom is the final color of the washed and ironed fabric. The green color came from the blue dye added over the yellow dye of the day before. It will still be a fun piece to do hand stitching work on top of.

This shot shows several of the fabrics that I washed out at home on Monday.

Then on Wed I went off to visit my friend Ethel and we did more soy wax work. She has a wonderful electric Jaunting tool and I used it on just about all the pieces I worked on yesterday. I wrote several bits of poetry as well as drew with the tool. Great fun! They are still batching and will be on the blog next week. Ethel is working on a wonderful piece on her pin wall. It is about 50″ wide and 60″ long at this point. I love the intense colors she is playing with here.

Then the FAB group meant at my house this morning. Patti is doing this wonderful portrait of her mom. She is still in the building stage without any of the pieces stitched down, but I am impressed. She told us she is using the front and back of some of her fabric to get the tones and shades to match her photo.

Then we did a little work with the silk screen so the gals could get the hang of using acrylic that was thinned with GAC 900. ( a Golden product especially made for use with fabric.) It was also a chance to play with a deconstruced screen as I had used Elmer’ s school jell on the screen to create a pattern. These are Nancy’s prints. I will continue to print with the screen until the image is mostly gone and I can show the others the effect at our next meeting.

Electric 19.5 " X 31.5" $215.00 — Electric
19.5 ” X 31.5″
$215.00

Progress Report: Electric I finished this quilt last evening. All the stopping, changing direction and starting sewing quilting patters made this project take a lot longer to quilt then I expected. I used the images I had created with the silkscreen print as my inspiration. I started quilting around them first to get a feel for the shapes. After I had done this it was a bit easier to create similar shapes on my own in the other areas of the quilt. The fact that my machine as a needle down position for the stop helped with this process. But there still is a lot of quilt were the printed images is not avaiable for a guide.

Out the Window This is my solution to

Out the Window 16.5" X 21.5" $125.00 — Out the Window
16.5″ X 21.5″
$125.00

the quilt that I cut in half two weeks ago. Last week I had decided to add the tree and I tried it in several locations before I decided on this final resting place. After I had stitched the wool tree to the quilt I loaded my bobbin with black embrodery thread, and drew in smaller branches from the back. The whole picture makes me think of looking out my friends window in Brookline where the next building was so close there was hardly any space between the two. But a young tree had grown up there anyway. The nine patch from the origional quilt looks like a near by window too, so it adds to that feel.

Foundations XV- New Directions I have been struggeling with this work for a while. When I took it to the Diva meeting last week Alice asked ” Why are you keeping these Foundations pieces square?” After considering that idea I have decided to try to alter the shape. Hense the new name on the end. Here is the process I am now trying to see if I can grow from an existing rectangle format.

First I add some additional Buckram in the shape I think I want to add. (I put the brown fabric behind so to allow the Buckram to show up.) Then I build up the fabrics on top being sure some crosses over the original surface and i sew it down as I normally do. I like the fact that this method allows me to change my mind a lot as I work. I already know I want to change the left hand side and the top edge. I will know better what the piece needs as I look at the progress.

Grove I did not do a lot of work on this project this week. There has been too many other things demanding my time. But one more unit was completed. It is also at the back of the stack of work pinned to the pin wall so I run out of time before I unearth it many a day. I only have one more tree to create here before I need to move onto the next step

New Work

I have pinned the fabric to the buckram for this new work. I have the detail to show that when I begin the stitching down of the piece I start near the center and do not totally finish even that area until later. That allows the work to change as I progress through the work. I had cut the buckram before I decided to try the new shape, so I will at least start out with is as it is and let the piece grow with the work.

Daily’s I seem to be doing more stitch work with the Daily’s as time goes along. It is still enjoyable and something that I look forward to every evening.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Diva Meetings, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Green Grow the Grasses, Grove, Hand work, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Smoke

Spring! April 3, 2014

April 3, 2014 admin

Hello-

Spring is finally showing it’s self her in central New York. Three days in a row of blue sky and sun shine! Tue and I spotted this garden full of spring flowers and it made me smile every time I thought of it all day long. Hurry for the new season! This week has been so very full of stimulation I, hardly know were to start. At the FAB meeting Patti showed us two scarves she had knitted to send off to be given to runners at the end of the Boston Marathon this year. They both were so very soft that I am sure they will be welcome gifts. Victoria had been to a little workshop that Noel is giving. They are playing off the ideas of the necklaces that Mackenzie- Childs sells. The catalogue in the background was the inspiration, and Victoria really put her own spin on it I think. The when I went to the Diva meeting last evening I found that Noel was the gal who is leading this play. She is giving up her rented studio and cleaning as well as trying to create a new workshop for herself. Everyone in both groups loves the idea, myself included so she has agreed to open her space and try a variation with several more of us. I am looking forward to that play day.

The QuEG’s meeting was in morning on Tuesday and there was lots of inspiration there too. We got to meet in Sue Ellen’s studio, always an inspiration place all by its self. She ” wowed” us with six new works! Like all of us she has lots of fabric and these two pieces were created from her first dyeing experience over 15 years ago. She says she did them to try out different quilting patters on similar tops. I think she proved her point.

Then there is the wonderful on going work by Sally. She does such amazing stuff with her embrodery machine. The birds just blew me away all by them selves. Then all the unique nine patch blocks on top were just wonderful too. In addition to that she had a pack of about a dozen 6″ cards that used smaller images. Each card was different and where she used varigated gray black and white thread for this card, many of the cards used different threads for different sections. She pushed the idea further water color pencils to add more color to these small wonders. She gets sure gets miles of usage out of her machine.

Liz is playing with retro fabrics and antique blocks that are six inches on a side. The fabrics and patters sure play together well and are a delight to look at. The small size means it is not overwhelming- but it will sure take a lot of blocks to finish the piece.

Barb is working on this colorful work for her grandson. The dark blue is denim- just the wright thing for a young boy. She is just starting to quilt in the areas around the zig-zag lines- the white is chalk that will disappear when that job is done.

Then there was the Diva meeting on Tuesday evening to add further delight to the eye.

Anne is pushing forward trying unique quilting patters with the works she showed last month. I really like how the horizotal varigated thread seems to disappear in places on this work. Class projects are great places to play with new ideas and explore.

Alice had yet another new wall book to share with us. This one is called We Love the Water. The bid bird is one she hand painted on black fabric. The loon and flying Canada Goose are both from commercial fabrics. I find the way she mixes thous two ideas amazing. Most of the time putting these two things together just does not quite meet the mark- but she does it flawlessly.

Noel is working with thin strips now. All the brown units that are cut on the biases sure add to the challenge here. I like the limited values that she uses here.

She also had a second larger top in this same vain with kits in some of the diamond shapes.

Cheri finished the wonderful work she shared with two mouths ago. She has added a lot of hand work to her canvas painted quilt Fiddle Heads. I really like this work!

The last of the three Scarp Happy quilts was picked up on Friday. It went to the local Public Television Station for their spring auction. I also gave them a small wall quilt. I have done this for years as I so believe in public broadcasting.

Progress Report: Green Grow the Grasses This pale spring quilt is now complete.

Green Grow the Grasses 23" X 32" $260.00 — Green Grow the Grasses
23″ X 32″
$260.00

It too makes me smile as I recall the joy of creating the stamped areas as well as all the free motion flower and leaf forms I put on the surface of this one.

I really feel the sewing machine has become a drawing tool for me. That has only come with years of doing the process, but I want to encourage everyone to keep doing it until it is a natural act for you too.

Smoke

This work was also completed this week. More than once I thought that I was done, and I would hang the work on the pin wall at the end of the day. Then when I would look at it with fresh eyes in the morning I would see easly what else was needed- more hand work for the most part. I had never quilted through silk before I tried this project and learned a lot doing so. I really like how the needle glides through the surface of the project.

I cut up an silk scarf that I had created years ago and was not what I would call a success. All the dark and gray areas are a part of that project. I like the result here.

Grove I am still working on the insertion process. I only have one more tree to add the branches to and then I will start the stumps and setting. I may shuffle the parts I have created too. But I make those visual decisions by looking at the subject.

New Work This is the top half of the work I was considering cutting apart last week. It was not working as it was so I cut it. The black tree is just pinned in place. I did try several other placements before I settled on this one. Again the visual decisions was made visually. I have quilted in the ditch the background sections of this work and plan to free motion in the tree with additional limbs as needed.

Daily‘s I am working away on the these little fellows. I discovered one of the black circle and units from last month in the bottom of the tin where I keep the prepared squares. So I finished it too.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Electric, Green Grow the Grasses, Scrap Happy, Scrap Happy Quilts, Smoke

Knowing when to stop. March 27, 2014

March 27, 2014 admin

Hello,

One problem I often face when I paint is not knowing when to stop work on a painting. So I often go too far and add that extra tree or bit of red and then ruining a work because I am not be able to repair the problem…… I usually do not face that with my fiber work because I can pin things up and nothing is permanente until I make the final decision ans sew then down. This week I seem to be filled with lots of doubt about this completion “thing”. I can not seem to decide if I am finished with either of the two Foundations pieces that I am currently working on. So I pinned then backward to the wall and have not looked at the surface for several days. I hope when I face them with fresh eyes early next week the absence will help me make the decision about rather to go forward or stop. There is one other little quirk in my mental state as I discovered a work I had folded up last fall with a similar problem. (This blue and purple work) Now it is easy to see that the there are really two haves to this work and they do not go together. So I think I will slice then apart and try to solve each half independently of the other. After I slice them in two I will be able to work with each half to see if I can save all or any portion of the work. I may still need to rotate the sections but as seperate units I think my chances of success are much better.

Progress Report: Scarp Happy I have been working on this bed quilt for a few weeks. It is done and has gone from my life. The woman from Prevention Net Work came yesterday and picked it up for their Spring Fund Raiser. This organization works to keep teen off drugs by providing alternate activites for them to work on. My grandson worked on a play with/for this organization a few years ago. I am glad to support groups that deal with teens.

Scrap Happy I also passed this quilt to a second auction. This Scarp Happy has a diagonal block lay out. It is going to the Meals on Wheels of North Syracuse for there benefit. I was assured that it will sell well and add to their coffers. Again I am happy to support this organization.

Electric This top really went together quickly when I finally got to it this week. I am now in the process of adding the quilting. I am using the silk screen printed fabric that I made as the inspiration for that quilting. It is fun- but very slow as I have to stop so often and change the direction of the stitches at sharp angles. No stitching line thus far is longer than an inch and a half and most are under a half an inch.

It is quite a slow process.

Green Grow the Grasses I am having a good time doing the free motion drawing of the flowers on this quilt. Some of the machine drawing is just on top of the print on the fabric and some is just my own creation. I have also added some leaves to the surface to add interest and varity.

Smoke I am still working away on this piece. Every time I think I am done with it I pin it on the wall at the end of the day and then look at it first thing in the morning before I turn the lights on. That is when I can see what the quilt needs and thus far that has been more hand quilting. One cannot rush the process.

New Work Then of course when I do not know what else to do I start a new piece. Seriously, I was not done exploring the slender inserts idea and this thing popped into my head just as I awoke the on Tueseday morning. So I am off and running with a new thing.

Daily’s These little works seem to be one of the constants in my life at the moment. Thank goodness for routine.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Green Grow the Grasses, Striking Gold

Vernal Equinox March 20, 2014

March 20, 2014 admin

Hello,

Here we are at the first day of spring according to the calender. It is also

Striking Gold 17.25" X 25.75" $160.00 — Striking Gold
17.25″ X 25.75″
$160.00

the time when light and dark are at equal lengths for our part of the world. I always enjoy watching the world awaken from winters grip and the surge of life as it goes into high. I will be watching for little shoots of green this week and hoping there is no more deep cold to cut off the new growth.

Progress Report :Striking Gold I am done with this piece. I am excited as this time I have tried a combination of hand work and lots of free motion along with the direct applique technique of the foundations series without the buckram. I used one solid piece of fabric ( the gold printed material) for the base with two layers of felt behind it instead of batting and then used the same techniques. I was not sure that I could do all the free motions work with out the strong base of the buckram for this process. But it worked. I used nylon netting and ground cloth on the surface as well as bits of fabric . I did some bobbin work on this piece too( the zig zag across the painted ground cloth shown here). I tried several types of hand stitching on this piece too. French knots, stippel stitches and some X’s to hold down some of the yarn that was applied to the surface. I feel like I have expanded my choices when it comes to adding textures to the surface of my work and that is one of my main goals.

Green Grow the Grasses It was fun to work on this pale quilt this week. The soft colors seems so in tuned with my spring cold. I have done some of the free motion work in the green grass sections and a few of the little flowers. I am not sure how I will quilt the rest of the project.

Smoke I am doing hand quilting on this project. I decided to follow the black and gray painted lines on the silk fabrics as my inspirations for those stitching lines. I think it will need some machine work as well – but I will not really know the answer to that before I finish the hand work.

New Work As always I am thinking a head so I pulled out a new batch of fabrics for possible use with my next top. I am sure I will not use all of these on this work as I plan to work small- but it is always easier to eliminate than to not have enough.

Daily’s The Daily’s just keep coming. I have only four more blocks with the black circle and two red rectangles to complete. Then I will need to dream up a new layout challenge for myself. Look for that next week.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Foundations XI- Stream Bed, Machine Drawing, Smoke, Striking Gold

Changing Spring Weather March 13, 2014

March 13, 2014 admin

Hello,

The Weather is full of spring surprises. Tue is it was sunny and 54 degrees here. I enjoyed my walk noting all the bare ground and seeing may birds. Wednesday morning it stared raining early and continued until about 8 am and then started snowing. By 3 in the afternoon I only did a shot walk as the snow on top of ice was a foot deep, slippery and the slogging was difficult. Today it is beautiful with full sun and blue sky’s- but a chilly 16 degrees with wind. Tomorrow it is set to be 43. All this snow and cold will soon be a memory as we all enjoy the wonderful changes spring brings.

Progress Report:Foundations XI -Rust and Rifts

Foundations XI Rust and Rifts 30" X 38" $400.00 — Foundations XI
Rust and Rifts
30″ X 38″
$400.00

I continue to truly enjoy this collage like process of assembling works. The chance to use so many fabrics combined with how one can twist and turn those fabrics as one works with them is so much fun. I like too the fact that I can just keep building on top of each section until I get the effect I want. This means that I can use yarns and threads to produce different types of lines across the surface. The free motion work adds so much freedom and direction to the surface.

This shots shows rusty velvet and the back side of one of the rusty colored fabrics. This second close up shows the several of the threads that I used on this piece as well as the tucked and folded fabric.

In this third close shot you can see the silk paper the frayed out heavy fabrics and threads that are attached.

Green Nebula. I finally got this felted piece framed. I think that is the best solution for felted works. I think I will work a bit smaller on the next one as so much of it is lost in the framing process. I did enjoy adding all the bead work to represent planets and stars among the green gasses.

The sequins on this piece are antique ones from my Aunt May’s sewing box. They are of a material that is not fractured or as highly reflective as most of the sequins that one can purchase today. I learned a little bit more about photography with this project. Both

closeups have flash reflections in the form of lines near the center and the full sized shot has a shadow across the glass. It seems there is always more to learn.

Foundations XI – Stream Bed I am doing the fun stage of this project now. I love the free motion work that all of the works in this series require. I like how the project leads me forward and how much time it takes, because the time means I put it up and look at the work in progress a lot. I am not real happy with the piece at the moment. I see that it is too dark- and the one tan area is far too square. All these problems can be changes and that is exciting to me.

Smoke This quilt sort of got away from me as I worked on it. I did not intend for it to become so large, but the gray silk units seemed to call for that action. I did fuse inner facing to the back of those same units as they were far too flexible and wandered around a bit with the seaming. I am now in the process of doing hand stitching on this one. In my typical style I am letting the surface tell me what to do next.

Striking Gold I am having lot of fun working on this piece. The base is one solid piece of fabric and then I added Lumier painted torn grown cloth on top. There is also a bit of orange nylon netting on the surface as well as fabric bits. I then did some hand work with some Taylor’s thread that my friend Judy had given me several years ago. I also have added some free motion bobbin work to the surface. (The zig –zag lines) I am enjoying working away on this project.

New Work All the snow covering the ground has brought my desire to work with spring colors back to the surface. Just pinning these up yesterday in the snow storm was cheering. I am going to really emphasis the green this time in the form of long lines to represent grass coming up.

Daily’s I think these little Daily’s are the reason I am doing so much more hand work then I have been doing past years. I just seem to get going on the square and the thing is done. So picking up another project is a very easy and natural progression.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Diva Meetings, Foundations XIII Mapping

March 6, 2014

March 6, 2014 admin

Hello,

Well March did come in like a lion here, but the days are longer and Day Light Saving Time will begin here this week end, another sign of spring. This week was the first in the mouth so I had two of my group meetings on Tue. Quilt Exploration Group meant and we all had lots to share. Sally’s pocket bag says it for those of us who quilt- and we eve make our own scraps when necessary. She sure is exploiting her embroidery machine.

Barb added a note of warmth with this sun flower wall quilt. I really like her background quilting that uses the floral print on the back as a guide for creating the flower patterns.

Angela decided to take advantage of our snow pack to do some snow dyeing. The colors are so very vivid and rich. She also did an excellent job creating a family memory quilt for her sister in law using many old bits and doing several transfers onto silk from paper labels. Three generations of family memories are displayed here.

Corinne has been working with metal and she has created these five pieces of jewelry . The broken unit shown here is yet to be fired. Sue Ellen is doing free motion drawing to fight off the winter blues. She has created four small quilts using winter trees as her theme. She hand dyed the back grounds last summer. There is lots of creative action going on in this group of gals.

Then I went off to the Diva meeting . They too displayed lots of diverse creative activity. Sandi started us off with a small demonstration on the rug hooking process she is doing to create her little wool pile creations . She uses felted wool garments, yarns and roving in her process. They all work together to create wonderful patterns and images. Liese has finished her accordian book. There were no instructions for this one and she says it was quite a challenge. She is going back to soft sculpture for a while.

Cindy is getting ready for a solo show and she put on one for us first. She used black velvet on this work. The texture is wonderful. What an inspiration. I will consider using velvet in my work in the furture too. I love her strong graphic style. Her edges are so crisp and strait. I love her use of line too- it really leads the eye around and through her work.

Progress Report: Foundations XIII-Mapping I streatched this

Foundations XIII Mapping 18" X 24" $150.00 — Foundations XIII Mapping
18″ X 24″
$150.00

piece on stretcher bars. I like the way the treads still escape off the edge as they do on the bigger pieces. I am really developing this collage like fabric style and enjoying the process. The new material in this creation is paper in for form of a torn up map of Canada. It was about the second layer I put down on the wool that served as my base for this project. Then I went on to use the usual materials that I have been adding- the fabrics, organza, silk papers, yarns

and ribbons. I did more hand work on this piece than I have been doing in the past too. I did that because I was working on the wool and I though it added to the staybality of the process a bit. I was worried about ding free motion on top of hand work,but that proved to be an unnessary thing. I was conderned about the text on the map as well, but again that proved to be an unnessary thing as it blended into the final work quite nicely I think.

Lighting I am very unhappy with how this top turned out. All the slicing and inserting of the green strips has caused a lot of warping of the surface. I need technical advice before I put any more time into this work. At the moment I am not sure it can be saved. One does not grow unless one takes chances and fails every now and again.

New Work I have pinned up the fabric for my next start. This will force me forward I think as I will be using silks and organza’s along with cottons.

Capture Scarves I have finished ten new neck scarves. I always enjoy creating these colorful additions. I really like how the color one chooses to wear under them can be a contrast or if the color is the same as the nylon netting the objects appear to float on the wearer. The effect can be very dramatic and always invites curiosity from viewers. It sure makes for fun conversations at times too.

Daily’s I keep my hand work up with the Daily’s. The collection is getting large now, but I still find it fun.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

National Choclate Chip Day May 8, 2014

May Day, May 1 2014

Birthday April 24, 2014

Flowers April 17, 2014

Spring Warmth April 10, 2014

Spring! April 3, 2014

Knowing when to stop. March 27, 2014

Vernal Equinox March 20, 2014

Changing Spring Weather March 13, 2014

March 6, 2014

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer