Adventure Challenge 2013, Before the Bud, DMC Dawn, Golden Rain, Machine Drawing

April 25, 2013 Spring Memories

Hello friends,

When violets appear I know spring is really here.  My mother always put violets on my Birthday Cake when I was growing up.  I celebrated this week.

Here is the same branch as last week.   The leaves are two and three times as big as before.   Mother Nature sure moves things along this time of year.

This week has been a very full one.  I started out by going to the opening of the Recycle Show at the Art Center in Rome NY last Thursday evening.  I am so delighted to report that my friend Barbara won “Best of Show” for her piece.  She even mentioned me when she accepted the award as I had contributed some of the stuff she included.  Our mutual interest in Rust helps.   Last Friday I went off to the Turquoise Street Studio and played along with the gals.  Both are pushing them selves for new work for two different shows that are coming along in the next few weeks.  Beth was finishing up work and Barbara was starting a new work.  They both work from personal Photo graphics, starting by  first drawing in Charcoal and then adding the color on top.   I printed some of my insects stencils in preparation for the workshop I will be directing  on Friday.   I like to do all the processes again before I teach them.  I learned that I want to encourage my students tomorrow- to work toward openings that are under three inches wide.  The back  wings of the crickets were challenging to fill with the oil sticks and I do want the students to be successful without difficulty.

Rain Run
21 ” X 31″

Progress Report: Rain Run ( formerly Golden Rain)   I changed the title of this work because as I stitched the wrapped pipe cleaners to the surface, I felt that the idea of rain running down the window was not  represented with the title of golden rain.     I like the way the “drops” like they are moving.  But it is really hard to keep this quilt flat as the wire has a memory and every time you lift or shift the surface it does not go back to flat without pressure.   The copper ribbon really reflects the light like the setting sun was doing on the window the day I noticed how rain ran down the glass.   It is a great memory and I am glad to have captured it with this work.

Before The Buds     This quilt has gone through some major changes sense last week.  First of all I made a stencil with this quilt in mind.   I drew it on the back of a piece of handy cardboard as I was not in the studio.

I did the drawing with a marker and kept the positive of the cut as well as the portion I used.  My thinking was that I could use it for a stencil too and just add the growth around it.  I stenciled five trees on the surface  of the quilt .  Then I got our some “Solvy” a corn starch material that is a water soluble stabilizer, and drew a tree with a permanent marker on the Solvy.  Then I  drew the tree with the sewing machine and lots of thread.   When I was happy with the appearance a I washed out the stabilizer and had my  thread tree.    I will use the  machine on free motion to attach the tread tree to the surface.  I did the the majority of the drawing on the stabilizer because all this thread work on the surface of the quilt would cause a lot of distortion of the fabric.  This way I can quilt and add the tree to the surface and stand a chance of the final product being flat.     I have not done any of this “drawing” in a long time and it felt good to use this technique again.   I am sorry that the shadow makes the picture look a bit fuzzy, but feel it will look fine on the quilt.

 

Brass Bits

  I have been working away on the hand appliqueing of the brass units on this quilt for several weeks.  I feel that part of the process is now complete.  So I trimmed it and placed it on a backing fabric.  The yarn is pinned on the surface and that will get machine stitched down and become a part of the quilting on this work.  I will have to see how much additional quilting the piece needs to be stable after that point.   It was a personal challenge to add all of the brass pieces that Sharron sent me on the surface of this quilt.  I enjoyed another chance to do some fancy hand stitches on a piece as well.

DMC Challenge – Dawn’s fabric.    This was only a bunch of triangles pinned to the wall last week.  I decided that I could use the challenge fabric with it and make the idea work.  It is OK and because the challenge is meant to be an exercise as much as anything I am satisfied with it.  After talking with Marty about the challenge we agreed not to complete the projects before we got together.  It makes transport in the suit case a lot easier as I will be flying out to meet them.    Now I need to go back and see if I can save the other two parts of this challenge.

New Work    I am auditioning these fabric pieces for the possible next  Egyptian quilt.  At the moment I think it needs a new ” star” stencil fabric to do the trick.  So I will think on that and keep you posted as to the dynamics.     I guess all this prep for the stencil class is really pushing me forward.

Keep Creating Friends

Hugs

Carol

 

About To Bud, Golden Rain, Natural Elements, Slicing Through, Trees

April18, 2013 Natural Changes

Dear Friends,

It really feels like spring today.  This was the third day this week when I ate my lunch out on the patio  and enjoyed the out of doors.  One of my favorite sketchbook assignments that I did with my eight graders was what I called ” Noting Natural Changes”  and I started it this week with the drawing on the left.  I when out into the sun shine and selected a branch and tried to draw it life sized in my sketch book this morning.  I will follow up next week and draw the same branch- again life sized  and in so doing note the changes a week makes for growth at this time of year.   My students always were suprised by the change a week can make at this time of year and I feel like paying attention to that myself.      This week has been as busy as they all seem to be.  I went off to visit with my friend Ethel again yesterday and we had great fun making silk paper.  Silk paper is created from silk threads that have not been spun.  They come in great long hanks that one gently pulls apart and lays down on nylon netting.  Three  layers of thread in alternating directions  is the usual lay out. then a second piece of nylon netting is placed on top.  The whole thing is gently soaked with water and then a mixture of fabric medium and water is applied to first one side and then the other side  of the sandwich.   After the sandwich is all dry  the nylon netting is carefully pealed from both sides and ironed.  The top image shows the pre-dyed silk drying on the line and it is still encased in the nylon netting.  Pictured on the left are two others we did in the morning with the netting removed.  The blue and purple piece is made of what are called silk hankies- a group of squared off silk layers that can be pulled apart as apposed to a hank of silk.   We dyed both of these two pieces before we added the water and fabric medium to them.   We had such a good time that we are going to play at this another day next mouth.  I already have an idea of things I want to try next time.

Progress Report:  Spot On

Spot On
22″ X 34.5″

 

This quilt is done now.  It is one more of my piece that grew out of  my ” Use the old materials” push.  The marbleized fabric in the upper left and the center bottom are both old materials.   The light blue with the natural shapes in purple and white near the center left are from an experiment that I tried last fall.  I was attempting to do shobori with paint instead of dye.  This piece is the most successful section.    The tyvek is painted on both sides and I did  that last winter when I first started going to the Turquoise Studio.   The pink color  is painted on the back side of the tyvek.   I have used tyvek several times before and not been to  happy with the results.  But this time I quilted it before I applied the heat.  I also waited until I could go out of doors and I wore my respirator while I did this process.   I like how the heat gun distressed the tyvek and  how much the stitching controlled the distorting too.

Golden Rain.    This quilt is all quilted now and ready for the embellishment.  That is the part that will add the rain running down the surface.    I wrapped gold pipe cleaners with two different yards.

They will become the rain when I hand stitch them to the surface.   I still need to tack the facings on both the left and right sides as well.  The copper ribbon really shows up the quilting patterns and adds to the flow motion down the quilt that I was looking for.

Slicing Through:   This quilt is moving along although very slowly.  After Sue Ellen’s tutorial on how to make those little cuts and sew them in I feel I am successful with that part of the process.   Now to work out the design part.    This work has gotten away from me as far as size is concerned- the rule says 18″ X 24″- and this is bigger than that already….. I am not sure how to go forward, so it is fermenting under white paper and two other starts, on the pin wall.

About to Bud:   This piece is basted and ready for quilting.   It too has some marbleized fabric in it, ( Use the Old Materials)although this is a newer experiment then  Spot On.   It also has some of my foam stamp work in the dark turquoise fabric.    The off rounded long forms are from a commercial stamp and come from my play day where I was trying to use every stencil I had in my note book that I had never tried before.     After letting this work hang on the wall over night I decided it needed  to have a machine drawn/quilted bare tree added on top of it.   I will do some sketches before I stat that part of the project.

Silver Slivers:  I have had these silk triangles for several years. ( More Use the Old Material )  On Monday when it was so rainy and gray I pulled them out and added the gray to them at the end of the day.   Now there irregular shapes means that I can not keep the full silk shapes and make traditional connections.  So the following morning I though I might insert silver slivers between the units and in so doing  sort of square them up.      If and how that works remains to be seen,but I do like a challenge and this is a good one.    It may also help when it comes to doing Dawn’s fabric form the DMC   challenge because the colors are the same.

New Work:     This one remains to be named and completed. True to my solution when I am frustrated I start something new-  all this wonderful hand dyed/ printing fabric  in a discarded pile on the cutting table …. put it together.    Only time will tell if it becomes anything.  I go off on these little seaming sprints some times- knowing that it can always  become a part of a Scarp Happy if nothing else….   But is spring and anything is possible.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

 

 

Adventure Challenge 2013, Scrap Happy Quilts

April 11, 2013 Going Green

Hello friends,

Spring is coming to our part of the world as I see more and more green.  Even this bit of stain glass green caught my eye yesterday and I have looked at this many times and not really seen it.   I like all the patterns created from the siding on the opposite wall as it sifts through the glass.   Green is one of the colors that scientists tell us the human eye see more variations on than any other color.   It sure seems that landscapes have lots and lots of greens in them and why I think I noticed the small flecks of green on a bush across the street yesterday when I went out for the mail.  The grass seems a bit greener this morning  too even though it is gray and raining here today.    Green was my mothers favorite color and she wore lots of it.  There was even an apple green couch and a green plastic covered rocking chair in the living room in one of the first houses I remember.  It is a color that I do not seem to have a lot of in my stash.  But as I kid I remember being a bit frustrated by the limit of greens in the crayon box.   I am just glad that Green is starting to fill up my world again.

I helped my friend Nancy this week work on the quilting of her new quilt.  She is new to quilting and did not come to the quilting through traditional paths- but jumped in with both feet  staring with a animal applique quilt for her grandson several years ago.  This time she put her unique point of view into a work using channel and flannel.   It makes for unique challenges and I love working with her on it. ( the green stain glass is behind her)

This week  I went off to the Turquoise Street Studio and worked with the pastel gals too.( look at all the greens in Pat’s pastel box).   They were all getting busy for a workshop this week  and having lots of fun.   Beth and Pat both did  finish up work on old projects and color exercises.  Barbara on the other hand was making what she called “Skins” of various mediums and color on wax paper that she could later peal off and apply to paintings.   I did hand work on my Brass Bits piece.    I am  using decorative stitches  to apply the brass bits that Sharron sent me last fall.  The top of this image shows a bit of copper knitting that is used to keep slugs off of plants.   Texture is my thing.

Progress Report:  Cracked Up  I did free motion quilting on this work this week.  It was enjoyable to let the patterns on the printed fabric be my starting place for this piece.   The piece  has its facing’s machine sewn on and I will get the hand work done soon.Slicing Through : This work got attention this week too.  There is that green again, but this is Marty’s blue challenge fabrics with my solid green added.   I am still a little shaky about were this is going.  Sometimes the materials seem to be telling me what to do and I tend to follow the muse when that happens.  Usually that is not a problem- but in this case the challenge has a size limit and I am well beyond that already.   I see challenges as places to really grow in new directions so I am going to go with this and see were it leads me.

Untitled  This work is  still   in flux.   I have done all the piecing and I am OK with that part of it- but some how it is not satisfying-right -or something….   I am discontented.    I have pinned various metallic ribbons, wrapped pip cleaners and such on the surface  to see it that is what it needs, but still I do not feel like I have the answer.   It may just need to be folded up and put away a while – like the Purple Trees work from March 14.   It’s not a creative block-  it more discontent……I will not let this stop me- time will help.

Auditions   These  colors all work together and I have pinned them up to look at and think about them  for a new top.  I am  very comfortable with blues and they may help me move forward with the” problem children”  that I just mentioned.

Scrap Happy I am working away on this project too.  I want it done by Monday when the woman for the Prevention Network comes to pick up a quilt for the spring auction.  I always like to have two works done so she has a choice.  This shot shows two rows that have been sewn together through the batting and the backing in the flip quilting method.   The blocks are roman strip with centers of red and blue star prints.  The two side bars of the block are made up of scrap pieces- that is were my name for the work comes from.    I find these quilts are what I call ” no  brainers” as I have made so many that I do not need to think much about the process to complete the task.

Be on the  look out  for Spring.

And Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

Adventure Challenge 2013, Slicing Through

April 4, 2013 Blue Sky

Hello Friends,

 I hope blue sky and sunny days are filling your lives this week.  I will admit that it has been so gray and cold that I am really enjoying the beauty of this sun filled day here.   The sky so attracts my eye that the old song about Blue sky Smiling at me keeps running through my head.   There was a play day for the Quilt Exploration Group last week.  Angela shared Jane Dunnawald’s interfacing and paint altering silk screen work this time.  She is explaining the process here and she has made three pulls through the screen.  You can see all the  dye colors she has mixed for us to use in the cups to the left in the first photo.  This second photo is of Linda doing a yellow and green bit of printing using the process.   We all enjoyed the day and went home with fabric to batch.  Then at the group meeting on Tuesday we shared our work.  This shot is of Linda’s other color piece.  Sue Ellen did not go to the workshop, but she had been busy working away on her fish series and shard them.   She had several others and folks suggested she will soon have enough variations to do a book.    Barb had a fine piece that she shared as well.   She  had modified an antique  print panel of three figures buy cutting them out, moving them and applying to her own idea of a better background.    She plans  to embellish it with beads and hand work before it is done. It sure has a lot of movement and grace  to my eye.   I will be playing the leadership roll at the next play date for this group and I will be teaching stenciling with oil sticks.   So in my typical over do act, I have been cutting  bug stencils.   I will print out a few before the workshop.

Forest Pookas
25″ X 37″

Progress Report : Field Pooka
 This quilt is complete now.    I change the name from Forest Pooka  to Field Pooka because of the colors.  I though this quilt was far to light to be a forest piece.   It has lots of material that I have altered in it.  The brown on brown sections are a graffiti stencil that I printed last fall and the light almost white areas are a silk screen dye printed fabric that I did several years ago.  It was not real successful as the dye was too old so it came out very light.  But it works here as almost a texture.  The biggest  blue and green panels are from an even older class and are painted  canvas.   The piece  of white and turquoise in the bottom right is one of the pieces I did in the winter when I was in the print with all the plates you have created but never used -frenzies.    This close up shows the quilting that includes machine drawn Pookas  and the brown and  stencil work too.   I really am quite pleased with how this piece turned out and I well may do so forest Pooka in the future.

Blue Bugs
18″ X 24″

Blue Bugs        This quilt is done now. It  my be what has lead to all the bug work as there are bug stencils on it.  I felt it needed an additional  bug so I made the dragonfly.   But when I went to try out that stencil I discovered that the body and antenna were too slender to allow for the stamping ink applicator I was using to get to the color on the fabric.  So I used a dye pen instead on the dragon fly.   The   detail also shows another  one of those pieces of fabric from the print frenzy adventure.

The purple loops fabric and the little bit of spiral and turquoise on the top are both form that day.   The bottom edge of the photos also shows a bit of fabric that I had added paper to and them painted over with interference paint.   I am using all that exploration stuff in my work and I feel good about that.  

Slicing Through– working title.   I a few weeks ago  I  said I was unhappy with the work on Purple Trees( March 4) and so I put it aside.   This new project  is one of the other fabric groups from that challenge.  I am still struggling with the slender cut- but Sue Ellen did a little tutorial at the QEG”s meeting and I think I have it now.  I will explore that as soon as I get some time in the studio again.   Anyway this is a start on a new top for that challenge.

Cracked Up     This new  top is all based and ready for quilting.  Again I am using altered fabrics together with some commercial ones. The marbleized fabric is mine as is the salmon colored stuff with the ink on it.  The magenta fabric has decolorant  designs on it that I did two mouths ago.

No Title This is the very beginning of a new work.  The textured gold fabric has been kicking around the to do containers sense fall and I decided that if I at least pinned it to the wall and cut a few bits that I would get some attention.

I hope your days are sunny and full of creative efforts.

Hugs

Carol

Baby Quilts, Blue Bugs, Goddess Series, Shaving Cream Printing, Stencels, Three Pooka

March 28, 2013 Daffodils

Hello,

The flowers really seem to brighten my days  so I am sharing them with you too. Daffodil’s   really are so bright!  The sun shine we have been enjoying the last few days really pulls my spirits up.  The buds on the trees are starting to get really fat too so I am sure the young leaves will pop out in the near future.    This last week has been as full as they all seam to be for me.  Friday I went to the Turquoise Studio- that seems to have become a bit of a habit that I do enjoy.  I shaving cream printed a second layer on some of the work from earlier in the  week.  Every thing is all pressed and sorted in my “starter basket” now- ready to server as a jumping off point for a new quilt.   The same problem is still a part of me- more ideas then time.  But I will keep trying to master that.   Both Pat and Beth were at the studio  this week.  They are both working on pastels for a show that is coming at the beginning of next mouth.  Beth was working on her project upside down so she could really see the colors and shapes she needed to add to her work- that is why she ended up on the floor.

Progress Report:  Baby Quilt  This work is also coming along nicely.   I have not done a baby quilt in such a long time I sort of got carried away with the creatures.  I think it will fit the jungle theme of the nursery.    I enjoyed doing all the zig zag work even though it is very slow.   I did the  machine binding step yesterday and it will take about an hour plus  to do all the hand work to attach it to the back.  Then only the sleeve will remain and the off to wrapping and a new home.

West Window Quilt  This quilt is all done now.    I enjoy using up some of  the extra blocks that remain from Scrap Happy quilts in these projects.  Matching color is not an issue for me either so when I start the next one I will only keep the blocks and strips as unifying factors.    One down and three to go and this project will be complete.

Blue Bugs  This project is the result of two playful experiments.   I had read about putting paper on fabric with matt medium.  So I did that with a torn  dictionary page.  The text was too strong so I painted color on top to obscure the words.   The second experiment was the blue  turquoise and purple fabric- that has the bugs on it. (  More about that step later.)  That fabric was created from whipping up after other work and then scrunching the fabric  into a cup were I poured  a mixture of turquoise and water on top of the fabric and  into the cup.   That is why there are darks and lights in it.  Both fabrics have been shuffling from one pile to another for weeks when they ended up one on top of another.  They looked like they could work together so I started pulling fabric to go with them.  I ended up  seeing that it need  more light and my eye fell on some of the stamp printed fabric from earlier this year, so it got put into the mix as well.   When I started putting the bindings on I realized that the two big units needed some embellishing.  The work hung on the wall for several days until I was tiding up and one of my stencil notebooks fell out on the floor.  The book was open to the insect.   Problem solved!   I got excited by the insect stencil and drew two more- both too large to use here.   They will appear in another work.

Three Pooka   This is the last work played with this week.  It grew out of that  Starter Basket that I mentioned before.  I had spilled it and was putting things back. I selected figures for  this piece first.  I stenciled them about four years ago.  I had been to a Donna’s Creativity Retreat  and I was experimenting.   All the others that I had created had long gone into pieces.  These three were weak by comparison until I got out the squeezie paint and added hand drawing detail to them.   The canvas- the two big blue green rectangles,  are also very old-from a class I took with Elizabeth Bush  over ten years ago.  They seemed to go together too- so I was off and running in a new direction.  It is spray basted and all ready for quilting.  I will start with stitch in the ditch and then do free motion around the pooka’s.  The  last bit of quilting will be to “draw” pooka in the canvas areas in thread.

I hope spring is filling everyone’s heart.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

Baby Quilts, Far Horizons, Landscapes

March 21, 2013 Shaving Cream Printing

Dear Readers,

We may have passes the Vernal Equinox yesterday and the days may include more sunlight , but here in up state New York it is still very cold.   I will really bundle up when I go for my walk today as it is still only 20 degrees in the sun shine.  I have been staying indoors a lot and working in the studio although I do not have a lot of completed work to show.  I have been playing with my thermofax screens.  Again my connections with other quilts- specially members of QuEG’s has born fruit.   At the March meeting Angela talked about using shaving cream as a carrier for ink with her screens.  I have been playing with that too.  What fun! I spent two days this week playing with this idea.  One day was with my friend Ethel.

Pictured here are the tools, a plastic containor, spoons, the screen and fabric.The second shot shows the shaving cream( I got it at the dollar store) mixed up in smaller containers. The mixture is them spread on the top of the screen and using the edge of credit card one draws ink mixed in the shaving cream across the screen forcing the ink and shaving cream through the screen.  

This shot shows the images printed on the fabric.  It drys so fast that one can print a second color on top with out much time passing.  Ethel and I tried also mixing dye with shaving cream and printing it too.  It seemed to work as well,  but the dye caused the shaving cream to break down quickly and them it runs and bleeds.     That fabric is still batching so I do not have a shot of it yet as I have not washed it out.

 

Progress Report: Speculations on Value   I have now finished this quilt.  I really did enjoy the  Mac Tavishim quilting patterns and went back and fixed the messy ones from last week.  I am sure I will use this style again on a future work.

Speculations on Value
19″ X 42″

This close up also shows some old silk screen work on the white area pictured here.

 

 

 

Window Work   I also put together this simple quilt to serve as a window cover in the west window of our bed room. It is made from navy blue fabric and leftovers from a “Scrap Happy” project from the fall.   This is ready for quilting now and  I will add those things plus a sleeve.  Then it will go up in the bed room.  I need to replace the cover on the east window too so that will be a second piece  using even more of the leftovers.

 

 

Baby Quilt   I am making this quit for the  first grandchild of  one of my good friends, Beth.  The nursery  theme is the jungle so that is how I got started.   I have cut and pinned the giraffe, elephant,zebra and lion.  The  Kola, gazelle ,monkey and at the bottom, lizard remain in the paper pattern stage.   I am a bit frustrated as the big sewing machine is not working correctly, but I will pull out the trusted Bernina 1008 and do the zig -zag applique when all the parts are cut.

 

Far  Horizons  This work is coming  along.  I am only showing a close up this week as it does not look much different than last.  I have been doing all the quilting from the back side because I am using very heavy silk thread and do not have any needles for the machine with big enough eyes to do the job any other way.    The thread was a gift from my friend Judy.  Her grandfather was a tailor in NYC  years ago and it was left over from his shop. I have had it for several years and I am delighted to finally be using this wonderful thread.

I am hoping for some warmer weather  by next week.

Keep Creating

Carol

Adventure Challenge 2013, Far Horizons, Felt Work, Landscapes, Purple Trees, Stump Men

March 14, 2013 Day Light Savings Time

5 Comments

Hello,

As I set here at the computer I feel like I am running behind.  The clock has been set forward for Day Light Savings Time, but my body is not making the adjustment.  I wake up, and can not believe that it is so late.   And that in turn makes me feel like I am behind all day long.   I am sure that the fact that my husband is on spring break and we are not setting the alarm also adds  to my slow adjustment.  Mother Nature is not helping either.  I am rearing to go when  it is sunny and nice-  It got up to60 degrees one day, but days like today when the snow is flying again make me want to stay in the winter cocoon -I call bed.  I the fact that I forgot  my camera,  and left projects behind twice this week also add to my feeling of out of balance.   Hopefully I will adjust soon and get into “normal” rhythm with the universe and myself.

Progress Report: Speculations on Value  I have spent most of my efforts this week working on this piece.  It is nearly complete and the two long light blue strips are facings that need to be flipped to the back and stitched down.  The fabrics in this quilt have been piled up together for a long time and it felt good to finally assemble them.   I tried a new quilting pattern on this work too.   Sue Ellen introduced the QuEGs group to a pattern  she called Mac Tavishim quilting  at the February meeting.  In looking over my notes I saw the drawing and thought this would be a good time to try it.    The stitching pattern means one starts and curves out to a comfortable point and then returns in a somewhat reflective pattern to the starting point, to then one  swings out again to the opposite end again.   This process is repeated as many times as you feel comfortable or until the space is full, then you start a second.   As this example shows I need to keep practicing, but I do like the process and think I can really use it in the future.

Far  Horizons   This very simple at this point.  I cut the original curved horizontal piece into three sections, shuffled and flipped one unit, then re- assembled the group.  Now I will begin to add lines and stitches as well as small objects on to the surface as embellishment.   It will be a textural play surface for ” add-ons ” and more hand  stitch explorations.

Purple Trees:  This work continues to move along very slowly.  I like how the trees are shaping up.  The new problem is how to bring the three units plus their grounds together into a final grouping.  I am inching forward as I do not know  what I am doing when it comes to how to assemble this work.

  South West Voices:  This work got buried in the fall in one of my cleaning frenzies.  It just surfaced again this week and I am now quilting away on it.  The quilting here is zig-zag and  some what reflective of the patterns in the multi colored fabric.

Stump Men:  I just keep working on the felting of this project.  This shot is of one of the roots.  I think I am nearing the completion of this project and now need to do lots of looking and thinking about what touches it needs to be complete.

I am looking forward to true spring and not needing gloves and boots when I go for my walks.   Those types of walks are always inspiring to me.

Keep Creating

Carol

Adventure Challenge 2013, Far Horizons, Landscapes, Purple Trees, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts

March 7, 2013 Meetings

Hello Friends,

This week has been a very busy one for me.  I  have had an event of some sort every day this last week.   That started out with QuEG’s play day were we all worked with Gelli plates.. ( From Gelli Arts)The smiles should indicate how much we all enjoyed the process.     We worked and printed only on paper  because we did not know what we were doing.  The paint was flying onto the surfaces as we all explored the mixing and mark making fun of working this way.   Linda explored with Saren Wrap and got some wonderful results that I want to try.I really liked working with the styrofoam plates and printing on top of collaged papers.   I can see the potential for use on fabric  as well.  We all went home with stacks of paper with a wide variety of images on them.  There is lots more exploitation necessary I think.   Then I went off to Ethel’s and we did more discharge work and wax painting with her new jaunting tool.( at the bottom of the photo)   On Friday I went off to the Turquoise Street Studio again and did even  more stamping.     My goal is to print with all the stamps I have created.  I worked all day and I still have a bag full.  I am sorting and tossing out some that are weak as I go along.   I will need to spend another day at that at least- but I think I will not work on that when I go the next time.   I want to do more Gelli play first.

Progress Report : Tropical Day Dreaming 

Tropical Day Dreaming
19″ X 27.5″

 


 I had a lot of fun laying out and assembling this bright quilt.    This project uses the gessoed fabric like  Gearing Up, except this time I made it all.  The gesso is painted on turquoise felt with  two different  stencil patterns.  I used the textured gesso on plain white fabric- again with a stencil and then painted the fabric with turquoise and blue paint.  The textured gesso can be seen in the close up.  I free motion quilted a tile pattern all over this quilt.    I do not recommend the texture gesso however as the machine does not like stitching through it.  I even tried a leather needle, but the thread kept breaking .

Another Choice  

I challenged myself to use paper applique on this top.    I had done some wax resist on paper and then dyed  it. ( the white lines in loops were the wax and the blue is the dye.)  I found I could not use the paper as I intended   because it would not stick to any thing with the wax finish so it was shuffled around for at least four years.

Another Choice
24″ X 37″

When I was looking for paper to use with the Gelli printing  it came to the top again.  So I decided to use it.  First I cut the wax covered  paper into triangles.  Then I zig-zagged them down to blue felt.  I played with several  layout  locations, never really finding anything I was happy with.   Finally  on Sat I saw the cut away triangles from my last paper quilt and  added them to the mix.  I was satisfied.   The size if the quilt holds the many parts and I am very pleased with the results.

Purple Trees This project continues to move forward ever so slowly.    I would enjoy a row of days without any commitments- then I think it would come thought.  But I do not see that in the near future so I will just have to limp along on this project.

 Experiment: Far Horizons. This is an experiment as the heading suggests.  I am still working with the wiggle cutting and trying to get it to lie flat.   Now that I am at this point I want to make several vertical cuts and then rearrange the parts.   I am not at all sure how this will work, but  I saw a quilt that I think was created this way and I wanted to play with the idea.

  Scrap  Happy .   I am still working away on the scrap happy quilt.  This first shot show two rows that are ready to be sewn.  The second show shows the same area open up.I only have three more ten block rows to add and the top will be assembled.  After that point it usually takes me about four more hours to complete the quilt.

New Top  This top is my newest beginning.  No name yet but I am working on it.  The commercial fabric with the strong strip pattern is the unifying part of this one.  I silk screened the pale blue pattern on the white fabric with dye.  I like the pattern but was disappointed by how pale  the color turned out to be.  I will screen some more fabric in a darker color in the future.

 Color Challenge   These fabrics will be the start of a new piece this week.  I was reading an old article on color and one of the things the author was pushing was using analogous colors and then adding the compliment for punch.  I realized that I had never  consciously tried this color combination.   I may still add some neutral to this mix, but for the most part this will be the color combo I think.

I  am happily playing in the studio as much as I can  and  I hope the same for you.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

Adventure Challenge 2013, Hand Bags, Purple Trees, Truquoise Street Studio

Feb 28, 2013 Time is flying

Hello,

I can not believe that this is the end of February already.  It seems like we just celebrated New Years a day or two ago.  I am busy as everyone else seems to be.   This week  has been one with lots of  travel in it.     I went off to the Turquoise Street studio on Friday last week and spent my time playing with decolorant.  It was especially cool as the stuff I used not only took the color out of the fabric, but added a new color in its place.  This first shot is Barbara applying the decolorant to a foam block.   I enjoyed the exploration of the process and did it again with Ethel on Wed.   One of the nice benefits is I am using lots of foam stamps that I had created but never touched before.  There is also the fringe benefit of when someone else uses the stamps they sometimes put things together in a fashion that I had not considered.  Its a great learning experience for me too.   Beth and Pat were there too all working at pastels.  We all seem to benefit from working in parallel.  It was a fun day.

Growing Up
26″ X 33″

Progress Report   Growing Up
  I really enjoyed working on this project.  There was  lots of shifting of the horizontal lines as I went along and I think that I will try to change that in the furture by doing more basting.    It was so much fun doing the pod shapes of the plants that I really did not notice the shifting until I looked at the work again at the end.  So that too is something I need to work on- more looking!

Gearing Up  

Gearing Up
24.5″ X 28″

  When ever someone gives me an interesting object or thing I usually hold it for a while and then most times it becomes a part of a work of my art.  This quilt is an exception.  Barbara used the gear stencil on felt on one of the first play days.  She then painted the gesso red.    She did use some of the stuff that she painted, but this red felt did not get used and she passed it on to me- that become the jumping off point for this quilt.  These little adventures often lead me in directions that I might not have gone under my own direction.  After Barbara’s gift   I made some gear gesso fabric on canvas so I added it to this quilt as well.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blue Fuse    This project is nearly completed.  This is another  project that I would not have started except for the influence of a friend.  Ethel and I painted fusible web in January and I started this project because of that event.  My friends sure help me explore- and I am grateful.    I decided to add different sized boarders on it to help with the balance of the piece.  I added a solid back and the quilting that is only on that boarder area is all the work that will go all the way through the piece.   I enjoyed the  process even though I do not think this is what most folks do with painted fusible web.

Tropical Day Dreaming
This quilt has some gesso stencil work on it too.  The white on the turquoise is gesso and  the multi colored areas are as well.  It has been so very cold and snowy that I have wanted to be in a warm place- so playing with these colors helps.   I have started quilting this in a pebble type of pattern with nylon threads.

 

 

Purple Trees        I am still struggling with this project.  I do feel like I am getting better at the control of the work however.    The learning curve on this one is real slow for me.  I am glad I have the time to work through this problem.

 

 

Blue, Blue, Blue

This top went together rather quickly in two days.  I wanted to feature the square that is pinned to the top and I have an idea of how to do just that.  It is dyed paper with a wax resits on top.  That makes it very stiff and I can not add to the surface with additional drawing and it will not stick to other  papers.     Sewing is the only answer.   Now I need to find the time to work at  it.

Stump Men felt project.   I am still working away on this project.  The faces are becoming more distinct with the continued felting I think.   I may need a bit of feed from my peers as I am reaching the point where I can not really see what to do next.   

Hand Bag   Anne gave me two hand woven belts from Pure at the last DIVA meeting.  I decided to use one as a handle for a bag and this project is the result.   I seem to always need a new bag and this will do the trick for a while.

 

I hope that spring will soon be greeting us with flowers and showers.

Keep Creating

Carol

Purple Trees, Scrap Happy Quilts, Truquoise Street Studio

Feb. 21, 2013 Longer Days

Hello,

I really fell we are moving out of the depths of winter as the days grow longer.  I was awakened this morning and the golden pink light of dawn was spreading across the quilt.  I

Beth

wear glasses and so when I looked at the window to see the sky I not only saw the beautiful color, but also the fuzzy dark  lines of the maple branches against that sky.   It is oh so wonderful to wake up in light again.  I watched the color of the sky change from that golden pink to pure gold and then lighten to a lemon hue to pale blue before I moved from the soft warmth of the bed clothes.  The sky has changed over the course of the day and now is a velvet gray with snow falling again.  I still feel pleasantly pleased when I think of the color of the dawn of today and know there will be more coming.

Pat,with Barbara in the background

This week I went to the Turquoise Street Studio on Friday and played with my pals.  The others all worked in pastels, but they include me any way.  I really like the atmosphere and I do get work done.   I am still playing with gesso on fabric, felt and cardboard this time.   I was  thinking that I could add the felt or cardboard on top of the Gear shift quilt in a fashion similar to what Barbara was doing with her paintings- but that did not work.    I will use them on cards or something else.   I never feel anything is a loss when one is exploring and playing with ideas.     I also put in a little time creating some small works for the Six By Six project.  That is a show where you make small works that are all six inches square and sell for $20.00 each.     I did a little fusing for this project- something that I have not been doing much of lately.  It is a great way to explore and use little bits of fabric as well as  little bits of time.

Progress Report: Gear Shift
 I am in the middle of quilting this piece now.  I left the circles that I am using as templates pinned to the surface to show how I do them.   For smaller circles and little shapes I cut the shape into a old photo- that way I can see exactly where the stitches are going.  For the bigger shapes I cut the circle and pin it so I can see the area around the out side of the shape.  I use this same method for any irregular shape I am quilting.

Growing Up
 I was feeling the gray snowy effects of winter the day I started this work.  I am quilting it using the growth lines as my starting points and filling the surface with the nobs of new growth at the end of the lines.  I am sure I will finish this quilt this week.

Blue Fuse
 This is a detail of more of the hand work I am doing on this top.  I am trying new stitches and keeping the color limited on this one.

Purple Trees 

I am still struggling with this work.   This shot is what I greeted me on the pin wall this morning.  The last work or yesterday.  I really only like the tree on the far right and feel that I may abandon the other two and start for that point.     I think it is important to show my failures as well as my successes because they happen to everyone.

The Tide Is In
This is a top that  I came out of my frustration with the tree  work. I often play when things are not going well.   I also wanted to use some of the felt gessoed fabric and the some that I had painted on Friday at the studio.  

Scrap Happy  Project

This is the sot of the blocks for the Scrap Happy Quilt I am working on for the TV Auction our local Public station does every spring.   The big colored areas show the center of the roman strip of the block.  There will be two different row patterns using an alternating lay out.   So there is not top of bottom to this quilt I will turn the second row in the opposite direction when I put them together.  I do enjoy making these quilts.

Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

PS –  sorry- I though I pushed the publish button on Thur and only when I checked today did I catch my mistake.   I will try to stay on top of things.

 

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer