Hello Friends,

Summer is really upon us, although it has been very rainy and cool here in the north east.  I can not believe that Summer Solstice  is tomorrow.  Time is flying before me.  I have been busy with events almost every day for the  last two weeks,  so time really moves in my point of view.

I started out with the hanging of my solo show at the Maxwell library.  There are 17 piece in that show titled “Earth Tones” , many have

never been seen before in public with a few works from the “Goddess” show as well.   The work spans over four years and it was a good chance for me to reflect on how much I like and use browns and golds.   This show also shows examples of the wide variety of techniques I use in my work. ” Know Now” for example has copper and leather added to the surface with some dish washer soap discharged work in the black areas of the top.   “Rusty Rings” on the other hand,  is a rust dyed silk with embroidery on it.

I also added dark fabric below the white silk to make “shadow” circles appear in the quilt.

“Collapse ” is from the Warped Work series and is one quilt on top of another with snaps to allow for a warped surface of the top quilt.  I did five works in this fashion to explore folds and shadows with my work.   I enjoyed this series, but no one seemed to understand what I was doing so I stopped working in this direction.  I may yet go back and do further exploration with this idea later.

“Mummy Cave Ruins” ( see last May 31 posting) along with  Ancient Voices and Rain Run were also a part of this show.  Putting up this show was fun, but it took me a long time to do the job.  I will be taking it down in a week.

The day after that was a Play Group event were we all played with stamping.    This picture is of cut eraser stamps that I taught.   The stamped image to the left shows how one can make a really big image by making one of your elements warp around the four sides of the eraser, so it flows together( the white line from all four images.)  This shot is of Linda’s exploration page from her eraser  cuttings.     Then I showed everyone how to use ” fun foam” to make stamps and apply the images to clear plastic so you can easily see were you are placing the stamp.   Liz made some fanciful shapes and she used a whole punch to add detail to her work as well.   Then Corinne demonstrated how to cut  on a circular form with linoleum cutters.   The shape does seem to effect the style and way one thinks about the images.    I cut two and stamped them both.   It was quit enjoyable.  I think I will use the  stamp, printed in blue here,  on my Fossil quilt as it resembles a Trilobite.

The next event in my life was a trip to  Rochester to the Genesee Vally Quilt Show.  There are 600 members in that quilt group and the show was very enjoyable.  While there  I participated in  my second Iron Quilter event.  There were 19 quilters and in 3 1/2 hours we all produced a quilt that was at least 24 inches on a side.  The topic, told to us at  the start, was  “Vanishing Act”.   We all rushed to the table of fabric provided and pulled stuff from the collection.   I started pawing with no idea at all about how to show this concept.  But I came across someone’s discarded block with two small elephants printed on it  and I had my brain storm.  I was off and running then.     This first shot is of the work at noon when then made us all stop for  lunch.  At this point I had fabric ironed and pinned to the surface, but no stitches yet.   Back form Lunch and two hours later and we all had a piece done.    I was exhausted as were most of my peers.

The “Vanishing Color” ( center quilt here) won second place.

I neglected to take a photo of the winner.

My quilt titled  “Vanishing Environments”  is OK for a work with limited time.  I learned that I can really re-lie on my machine drawing skills to pull me through when time is  short.    When asked if I would do it again- sure I would.  It is fun to stretch every now and then.

I have lots more to talk about, but find I am getting tired, so look  for an extra post in the next day or two.

Keep Creating

Carol

To Be Continued

Dear Friends,

I am still walking in the mornings and this week it really payed off.   I live a  few blocks from an undeveloped portion of the Syracuse University campus and on Tuesday I decided to walk through that part of my world as I wanted to see if  there were any wild flowers blooming.  I spotted this young deer instead.  It looked me over very carefully and then turned his white tale toward me a bounded away.      It was a great experience.

This week has been a full one as they all seem to be at this time of year.  I went to a Fiber Show Opening at the Schweinfurth on Sat evening.  My friend Angela had a whole little gallery fullof her work as a suplementry part of this great show.   I am so proud of her and all her wonderful felted Hawaiian Petroglyphs.   She told me that by the end of the evening she had been asked to be a part of an upcoming article in “Fibers Today”.     I am so happy for her and look forward to seeing her in print.   A second pal had participated in some wild knitting for this show too.  Barbara did a cover for the sign in front of the Art Center and she posed for me  in front of her work.   She told me she had to draw each letter out life sized and then work each row to match the pattern to make it work.   Trees and sign posts were also covered with colorful yarn additions.  What a fun challenge.  There were lots of folks at the opening that I knew and it was good to see all of them as well.   The Art Center is a fine source of creative inspiration and I am always glad when ever I go through it’s doors.

Progress Report: Mummy Cave Ruins    I really had a good time working on this quilt.  The memories of the trip to Canyon de Chelly are very vivid and every time I create a project related to that experience I feel wonderful.  I did add the silk paper I had created with Ethel on Wed last week.  It is the reflective stuff  on the left hand side.  I added the painted inner facing on the top of the canyon section too.   I liked doing all the free motion drawing around the figures and creating the texture in the rock faces as well.         I used water solvable crayons and colored pencils on this work too.   All the work on this piece pushed me to work on the second canyon piece I had started.

Canyon Stains
   I have only just stared building more color on the top of the painted image here, but again I am enjoying the process.    I am off to visit the west again next week and I know the landscape will capture me again- but southern Idaho is quite different then the canyon lands of Arizona and New Mexico so I want the images of that experience far enough along before I go.  I am sure the experience will create new images for new directions.

Red Nebula   I continue to add beads and hand stitching to the surface of this work.   I think it needs a bit more dark fiber felted into the composition to make it flow a bit more.   The beading also needs more intensity in the “center” of the nebula to feel completed to me.  Taking pictures and looking at the images on a smaller scale really does help one see the design problems that get lost in life sized work.  At least that is true for me.

Fossil Bed   I mentioned before that I am off to Idaho and a part of that will be a geology lecture.  So I have fossils and land formations on my mind.  This piece is a result of that mind set I think.   I am still struggling with the light/medium/dark thing and this top is a part of that.  I now feel the medium colored fabric  is too light and gets lost, but it may still work as a back drop for the fossil stencils I want to add on top.   I  have three more stamps and stencils to use on this top.  I plan to make them in various tone and shades of the brown and golds.   The vision is not real clear at this point.

Struts and Gurders
This top is also a part of my efforts to control/plan consciously the lay out of light/medium/dark.   I am so filled with self doubt that I do not know how I feel or were I am going with this piece.  When I looked at it this morning I felt I had tried to do make it all too busy and that the orientation was wrong.  I designed it in a vertical format so if you want an idea of that turn your head to the right shoulder and look at the work.     I do not know what or were to go with this piece- so I will  keep it folded up and take it to the QuEG’s and Diva meetings next week and get some feed from some other artists.   Growth in a new style/direction is difficult!

   New work:    Block Varieations
I had started this last week and the old photo form last week  shows the work with the parts pinned up but unassembled.  Now each block is put together and that makes them easy to move about.  This was the start of the light/medium/dark work and it is not very far along from before.  I have really only changed the orientation of this work and decided it needs  four more small blocks so I can play with a different placements of  the light/medium/ dark parts in those new blocks. I can say that  I was so frustrated that I buried it  under white paper for the week and only pulled it out today.  I did my typical thing  when I am frustrated and started new stuff.   I see now all I have  really done is  compound the problem  buy creating three light/medium/dark challenges to deal with now instead of one…..   I guess we all play games with ourselves.

Keep Creating

Carol

PS.   Please remember that I will be leaving on June 5 and be  away until June 16.  So there will be three week with out a  post.

Hello,

As the drawing shows the leaves are really showing themselves now.  I am surprised and delighted by the changes that are occurring around me.  One day you can see into the neighbors back yard the next it is screened from view with tiny little leaves that will only thicken.    Its so wonderful to behold.

This week has been as full as they all seem to be.  I taught the stencil workshop last week and it went well. This photo is of Linda, Angela, Corinne and Liz looking at books for ideas for their personal stencils.    I provided everyone with a stencil of their name in a graffiti type layout.  I did this so they could all have something to work with at the beginning.  That meant that I could  give the instruction on how to use the oil stick at the start and then  everyone could work at their own pace.  The second  shot is of Linda’s stencil with several colors of oil stick and lots of over lap.   They quickly went on to creating their own stencils and working with them.   This photo is of Angela’s stencils.  The orange one in the upper right   is of a Hawaiian  petroglyph.   The blue is painters tape that we used to keep the stencil in place while we used them.

The other big event for me this week was hanging the Diva Quilt Show at  Kendell in Ithaca.   This shot shows Sandi Holland adjusting a piece.  There are 41 pieces in this show representing 13 different artists.  It is a visual feast.  There is so much variety in technique and color that I am always amazed at how well they all work together.  It is a real group effort to put up the show too  and I am very thankful for  all the help.  This last shot is of Liese and Sally as they add the tags and check on final details.Progress Report:   The Lost Buckle  This quilt has gone through some major changes sense the last time I posted it.  ( Check  April 4th).  It was called Cracked Up  and when I was all done with the facings and such it did not appeal to me.  I let the work hang  on the pin wall and decided that the square format was part of the problem. So I tried various ups and downs and blocks of portions of the surface and then cut away a strip.  This shot shows the cut.   I bound the sides and changed the big section.  It needed a focus point so I added an old shoe buckle – one remaining form a set that was lost by Aunt

May at a dance in the 40’s.    It was such a treasured item that it was  in the jewelry  box I inherited form my grandmother years later.   I feel this is a good way to honer that value.      The remaining portion of the quilt was on its way to the trash when  the dentist made a comment about how important smiles were to his business.   So I used the remainder  to make a banner for his office.  He will get in in a few weeks when I go again.

Before the Buds   I am making progress on this piece although the strong desire that prompted this work a few weeks back  ago when I could hardly wait for buds to open is now a reality.   I am machine drawing the thread tree down and adding branches as I go.  It is fun and I like how it is coming along.

DMC Marty’s Challenge- Slender Cuts    This is the second of the mono chromatic color challenge fabric unit works.  I enjoyed the personal part of the challenge were I was trying to learn how to do the slender cuts.  I feel confident with there use now.    There is also more exploitation possible with this technique.  With the three works in this challenge I learned that I like to have  more color in my work and that light, medium and dark still need a punch to work for my eye.  As  Dad always use to say” You learn something form every experience- Even if you only learn what you do not like!”

Thoth:  I cut this stencil at the workshop last Friday.   This is one of the prints I made .    I did three.  the best  will be a part of the new Egyptian  quilt I had pinned to the wall last week.

I hope spring is  filling your heart with joy and delight and that the creative juices are flowing for you too.

Keep Crating

Carol

PS- Sorry this got a late post.  I always re read the post after a few hours and then publish it.  I went off to dinner with the gals and there were two who were home from a trip.  We talked late and I simply forgot to sit down at the computer when I got home  hit the Publish button.