Feb 14, 2013 Valentines’s Day

Hello Friends,

Happy Valentines Day to you.   I  hope the day brings you joy.   In elementary school the day was always full of tension.   I always love the decorating the shoe box with red and white.  I liked punching out the cards and- my favorite part of inserting the heart shaped suckers, but I  did not enjoy  the actual party at school because it always seemed to bring disappointment of a sorts-  Anti climatic I guess.   Now days I indulge myself and make cards to send to my girl friends and I am getting to do the part I always liked the most any way.    I made about 30 of these hand drawn and painted hearts in various colors from orange to turquoise.   This is  the only one I did not mail.   I enjoyed the process the part that is most important to me anyway.

This week has been full and enjoyable.   I went off last Friday to play in the Turquoise Street Studio again.  Beth played with pastels and paint in this work.  She also flattered me a bit by using the graffiti stencil of her name at the bottom.    Barb played with paint and is working away on her project  the recycle show in two mouths.  I continues to work with paint on fabric.  This shot shows my Pomegranate  stencil work.  I still do not have a clue as to how or what this will become- but I like to have lots of raw material about so when an idea strike I am ready.   I think this play day has become a weekly event for a while as I am already set to go again tomorrow.    It is good to work with folks around you even if we are not all working on the same thing. Barbara and I went to Rome along with another artist friend on Monday with work for the figures show.   She did really well in that show last year and I did too.  It is important to have your work out in the world  I think.

Stamping Out
27″ X 28″

Progress Report-  Stamping Out
This quilt is complete now.  I had fun with the quilting as I tried to keep the stitch pattern in irregular square like shapes like the actual area around the stamps.  The cream silk is a bit  wavy and I think the next time I use silk I will back it to avoid this problem.

 

Blue Fuse          I am glad to have this little bit of hand work to play with  as I just got a new book-” Free-Form Embroidery ”    by Judith Baker Montano.   Her work is directed toward landscape.  I just love how she uses the stitches and I am playing with learning them on this piece.  The chance bits of colored fuse makes the process less intimidating too. I know a few but even the simple blanket stitch can be treated with irregularity according to Ms Montano and  I am loving it.

 

  Evening   Trees   This is the DMC Challenge project so far.   This is only a working title as calling it DMC sounds silly even to me.  I am still struggling with the slender inserts.  I like the process and feel I will get the hang of it the more I do it.  I am not happy with this composition so you can be sure that will change before it is done.

   Summer Festival     This is my newest play quilt.  It all started with the big print  fabric.  I have carried it around for about a year.    I needed a shot of sun shine during those snowy gray dark  days last week.    This fabric did the job- I find it so light and cheerful.    I still have quite a large chunk of the print so I think there will be a couple of more quilts that start with the fabric too.

Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

 

 

Feb 7, 2013 Winter Work

Hello Readers,

It is full winter here in up state New York.  Lots of snow all around and cold to keep one inside and working in the studio.  We are set to get a big snow storm tomorrow so I look forward to even more  Occupassion- Linda Twichell’s new word for the work and play approach that I feel when I am in the studio. (One cans see she put occupation and passion together to get this new word)

I went to my creative quilting meetings on Tuesday this week.  I enjoyed talking and seeing what my peers have been doing too.  Alice has been working with some fantastic Zebra fabric that a friend had passed to her.  I enjoy her playful style.  Cheri had some wonderful canvas work that she has been doing too.  I am only sorry that I shot this image from the side and not strait on.  This quilt was created after her trip to Ireland and is of a  area where Fairies gather.    I enjoy this group as much for there support as for their diversity.  One gal is making a fabric book for her grand daughter.  She does an excellent job printing on fabric I think.  Then my camera battery died so I do not have any more photos of the many other exciting projects shown.   I should know to carry the spare battery  with me, I guess that this is the lesson.

 

 

Progress  Report:  Rusty Words 

Rusty Words
22.5 “X 44”


This piece was to be one of my two allowed entries for the Text Message contest- but it is too slender.    I though I had allowed enough for trimming- but I guess not.  I stamped letters on interfacing ( the white)in three colors so the words are really lost.  I like the final effect even though it will not fit the show.

 

 

Madam Peli
21″ X 30″

Madam Peli     is the volcano fire goddess of the Hawaiian Islands.   I really had fun doing this quilt even though I did not get it finished in time for the goddess show.  I am still playing with the wavy edges on my work.   That plus the color really made me think of magna flowing up from the earths core- therefore I just pushed the idea to get my goddess feel by adding the organza arms and  hands.   I used a bit of the painted wonder under on this work as well to show how it looks and to give a feeling of the transparency of fire sometimes. The organza hands and arms sort of give the feel of spirits or steam in the volcano itself.   I used copper metallic thread here  to promote the fire feel.

Soy Wax Project          Last week I had not washed the water solvable thread out of this fabric.  Now that step is done and the soy wax was washed out with hot water and them ironed.  I really like how this looks.  Although I am eager to use it I will wait to start until I have shown it to my friend Ethel before I cut it up.   Mean while I have done a few sketches in the sketch book of   ideas for the sewing step for  a second or third project using this technique.

  DMC Challenge- Purple Tree         After finishing up Twilight Trees last week I was ready to begin the DMC challenge.  I started with the three fabrics I had selected because if it turns out too disastrous I could always pitch it and start again.  I have a full yard of my own colors  and only  a half of the other two gals stuff.      Shifting to this more complex tree has proven to be more difficult than I expected.  Getting the slender strips is not the problem- it is getting the cuts to fit together in the way I think they should that is proving to be the problem.  I feel I am really growing from this project.   I m glad I have not put off starting and that I have a long time before the final is due.

 

Tsunami Wash Up
18″ X 24″

Tsunami Wash Up      This  project got framed yesterday.  I wanted  to finish this because I was having a little show for one my friends who had had given me many little plastic items that  I used in this project.   The red is from one of the plastic bags that our news paper comes in.  The big yellow  pieces are cut from a plastic bottle.

New  Project – Stamped Out    I started this project because I trying to add paper into my tops for additional texture.  I captured stamps between two sheets of nylon net.  Then I added additional stamps on top of the captured ones and put all of them on a blue fabric.     I put it all together in my usual manner and I am ready to assemble the units.  They may get shuffled before I do the final.  It has proven to be a fun bit of assembly for me.

 

  Wonder Under- second application.  I am still still fascinated by the wonder under that I painted last week.  So when I realized that I had finished with the Tsunami Wash Up work and that was the only hand work I had going- I though I would  use this.  I will just embellish with stitches on the fabric that had the Wonder Under ironed to it.  In looking at the fabric I think I will add beads to the surface as well.

 

 Auction Piece   SAQA has a 12″ square block auction every year to raise funds for on going projects.  When I read about the call for entries I decided to start my work  for this year.    I spent some time looking through my stash and found some small printed fabrics  and decided to use them as my starting off place.  By the end of the afternoon I had a piece I was happy with and so I put the little top together.  I know it is not due until April- but I always liek to have things done ahead of time.

I am really into Occupassion at the moment.  I hope winter is doing that for you as well.

Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

January 31,2013 Opening

Hello Friends,

  Here in central New York the wind is blowing up a storm as a cold front from the north hits a worm front form the south.   Trees are bending and swaying and  some tree limbs have blown down.  The snow has been blown  horizontally  off and on this afternoon.  I am glad to be inside working in my studio today!

The Opening was Sunday afternoon and it went well.  I was delighted by the many friends that appeared from all parts of my life.  My daughter and grandson appeared early in the afternoon and my husband along with several of the folks that he works with near the end of the event.  My friends from school, from Social Art and fellow quilters also showed up to support me and enjoy the wonderful banquet that the director provided.   I was delighted to discover that I have now sold two of my works, the second being the Kachina Sun quilt that was on the post card.    It can be very affirming for an artist like my self to sell a work to a total stranger.

I think that Spider Woman’s Spires looks really strong on the brick wall  background too.

 

 

 

The placement of Motherhood Maze so it is seen from the doorway as you enter the dinning area makes it one of the first works you see.  I think I talked about it more as an individual piece then any of the others.  I am still flying high from the experience.

 

Progress Report:   Play Day
Barbara invited me to the Turquoise Studio to have a play day on Thur last week.  We were working with gesso- stenciling and stamping with it .  I put on it on fabric and felt and Barbara mostly applied it to stretched canvas.  After the gesso was dry in the afternoon we painted the surfaces.  The gesso resisted the paint a bit and that changed the color as well as the texture.   I was so excited by the results that I created a top with some of the altered fabric already.

 

 

I am calling this Eventide.   I used all of one  of the  turquoise felt pieces in this as well as a second painted piece.   The white is the pure gesso.  The turquoise felt has been painted with purple and blue acrylic paint.

 

Pepe’   I started this quilt  before the show but did not get it finished.  It too is a goddess quilt as Pepe’ is  the Hawaiian goddess of the vocano.  I have started  the quilting with a copper metallic thread in a swirling pattern.   But the thread kept breaking so I put the thread  on the bobbin and I have been quilting from the back side.  It is just a little scary to do it this way but the braking is not happening now.   The ghost like color changes shown  here in this close up come from using painted fusible web that I painted orange and brown.   I keep learning new tricks along the way and that is exciting for me.     

   Painted Fusible Web     I went off to my friend Ethel and had a second play day this week.   She and I painted the fusible web.  I did blue, orange and yellow, black and a pink gold  pieces.  I do not know where I will use most of this but  it did the trick for the Pepe piece.   I sure had fun and one can never have too many tools in the creative tool box.

 

Soy Wax Resist     This was another thing Ethel and I played with.   We had both read  about this technique in the February/March  issue of Quilting Arts Magazine- issue 61.  The article is by Susan Purney Mark.  We followed the instructions  and did the sewing  step first .  Then we painted with soy wax on the mountains and tried not to get the wax in the valleys were the tread was.  The next step was to paint in the dye in thous valleys.  It is batching now so the final images will not appear until next week. This second shot   shows how the dye penetrates to through   the  batting to the back.  The dye will all wash away as the batting is synthetic and the dye will not adhere. The same batting can be reused for a second try of this method.  Ethel and I plan to do just that.

Tsunami Wash Up    I have been hand stitching down mostly plastic  objects like the ones I have seen in photos of the plastics that have been washing ashore on the west cost do to the Tsunami last year.   We are really polluting our environment and events like this really play that up. We have too much plastic in our lives. It does not break down into reusable materials like natural objects.  So were does it go?  Sure it gets broken and ground into smaller and smaller bits.  Sometimes birds and fish eat it.  What are the effects on those creatures?  Do we end up with it in ourselves when we eat sea food?  How dangerous  is that?   What are the long term effects?   I do not have any answers, just lots of questions.

Keep Creating

Carol

January 24, 2013 The show- Goddesses:Text to Textiles

Hello-

The show is all hung.  I will admit that I am very pleased with how the thing looks.  As the creator of this work, I had never viewed  as a group.  I do not have a big enough space to even spread it all out in one room.  I was quite surprised by the fact that Lauren insisted we hang them all, and by how well they all worked together.  This shot at the top is of three of the quilts and three of Lauren’s baskets below.   It was a fun experience doing the work with her too as she was so very excited by my pieces.  She had asked me to do the show after seeing only one piece of my work.  This third shot with the pink wall behind it is in the bar room of the  resterant. She also has pointed me in several other directions for places to contact about future shows too.  It was a very up lifting day for me.   These photos do not show all the work I will add more next week.   I now look forward to the opening on Sunday.

Progress Report:Spiraling Out

Spiraling Out
43 ” X 55″

   This quilt is finished now.  I added a lot more quilting to the surface this week and I like how that pulls it together.   This work was  created do primary because of the silk screen material that I had purchased from randy Kennan this summer.    I really liked the action in the fabric  and tried to repeat some of the patterns in the quilting patterns I added.   The close up shows the decomposing screen and some of the needle work.     It was a fun project.

   

Twilight Trees    I have really enjoyed doing these twisted tree forms.  I am enjoying  the movement using curves has added to my quilt work.

Twilight Trees
21″ X 22″

I liked the new skill I am building and feel now that I am ready to tackle the DMC Challenge that they were meant to be a prelude for.  I sure hope that my vision can be full filled- but that remains to be seen.     Tree Men     I have been playing with the felt work tree too.  This shot is a partial of  two of the faces.   Thus  far I have done all the work by hand and so the green tool to the lift side is in the photo.   I have rediscovered that the black wool felted skirt that is the dark background unit is difficult to felt to.  I am glad that I need to soften the intensity of the dark so I am going to really build up the other grays and browns on top of it.  That will help unify the work too I hope.

Pele    I spent time this week getting this top to be flat.   I cut and stitched away several wedges of fabric for this purpose.  There is still a lot for me to learn about the curved cutting process like do not make the action too sharp.   Anyway it is flat now.  This shot shows the arms of the fire goddess drawn in thread  on organza.  I will trim away the the outside portion before I attach it to the top.   I am still considering if I want to add some more color to the arms before I do that step too.   I  do want the arms to appear as a spirit like presence on the surface.

Play Day Printing I spent  Friday last week printing with my Styrofoam stamps.   The Styrofoam is the thick sponge like  type  that comes packed around big items like printers or computer screens.  One draws into them with a welding iron in a well ventilated location.  I cut mine last summer out doors  The teacher who taught me  how to do use this technique was teaching a second class on the same day and I was tempted to take it a second time, but decided instead to just play by my self with what I remembered.   I think I got more accomplished too because I did not have to pack up my materials and  spend travel time to get to the workshop. This top one shows two fabrics printed with fabric paint on  commercial textured fabrics.  This shot shows more turquoise fabric with a Styrofoam  leaf stamp print and on the gray a stamp made from some plastic floor matting.  The white is a mixture and I like this piece of fabric the most.    This last piece is the white again with the last Styrofoam stamp  of the figures dancing.    I cut one set on one side of the foam an the other set on the back.    I had a good time and although I have no plan for there use at the moment, I am confident they will all go into work in the future.

I hope winter is treating everyone well.

Keep Creating

Carol

January 17, 2013 Preparing Solo Show

Hello,

I am all excited about the fast approach of my one woman show.   I addressed and sent post cards on Monday.    Hanging day is the 20th and I am busy doing all the little things that go along with that job.  I did my labels this morning.   A quick check of the location yesterday revealed the fact that I need to make new hanging rods as the ones I have are too large to fit with the gallery hanging system used at Sparky Town.  I got the lumber and I plan to cut  and drill the wholes in it tomorrow.   All the work is done now that I have finished the Diana piece.  I will have 15 pieces ready to display, but I do not think they will all fit.   But I always feel more comfortable bringing things home than not having enough.    This also gives the curator some choices.

Diana
16.5″ X 29.5″

Progress Report:  Diana    I am pleased with how this quilt finally came together.   I got to use some  fabric I had done a bit of dye painting.  I then used acrylic gold paint on a spiral stencil  on top.  This fabric  was created about three years ago and it was just the thing for this piece I think.   The owls were fun to free motion quilt around.  I like this stamp and I am sure I will use it again on more fabric in the future.  The  Drawing of the head on the other hand is a one time thing.   It was drawn with a sharpie pen and colored pencils were used as well.   The two other attempts of this face are already cut up and disposed of so no one will ever be tempted to “save ” them.

Spiraling Out
I am still working on the hand step of the facing of this work.  it will be finished this week.  I am sure that after the show is hung I will feel more at ease to do  other things.I did spend a couple of hours adding more quilting to this work this week as well.  

Rusty Text    I have started quilting on this work- all in the ditch  so far.     I am thinking that I will use the green liner units as my starting place for the real quilting action .  That will provide a lot of directional movement I hope.

Twilight Trees      I have really enjoyed working on this top this week.   I am feeling much more confident about the inserting of slender strips of fabric after this  project.    It is  pin basted  and  some quilting is already done to the edges of  the trunks.   I am not sure what to do next so I am just looking at it every morning when I first come into the studio.   It needs to set in the subconscious until it is ready for quilting.

Peli    I know that the goddess quilts are all done – but the ideas are still running around in my head.  Cali is the Hawaiian goddess of fire and this top has that feel for me.  I am not done with the curve cutting thing yet either I guess.  I have learned a lot on this one too- like do not make too sharp of a curve.  It is still not at all flat and I will need to do some additional cuts to remove the bubbles- but that is part of the learning I think.

My wish is for everyone to be as happy and busy as I am in winter. Keep creating

Carol

January 10, 2013 Winter Work

Hello,

Angela with printing stuff

I always love this time of year after all the wonderful joys of the holidays have become good memories and things seem to slow down and commitments diminish and I can really get some work done.  That does not mean I am not busy- it just changes and I find I am more focused on what I want to accomplish.  I started on that path with a play day with  four friends.

Liz

We  ( the QuEG’s – Quilt Exploration Group) got together in Angela’s  new big studio and played.  It was so much fun that we decided to repeat the play part for the next few mouths doing different projects each time.   We will all be “teaching” a technique or leading in the exploration of a new material for the up coming days.

Corinne, Liz and Angela showing a sample for the future
Corinne and Sally

I enjoyed the silk screen printing with dye that we did in the morning and got some nice images.  They are true to the color expected because Angela mixed up the dye that day.   I do not have any idea where I will use these fabrics.  I do know that I will eventually use them.

After lunch we made cards for a fellow creative friend who had fallen over the holidays and could not join the party.

The whole day was great fun and really got me going for this week.

Progress Report: Spiraling Out   I am still quilting  on this project.  I have not done anything this large in a while and I had forgotten how very long the process can take.   This shot is of the quilt under the needle at the top.  It is fun to do the free motion  work again.
 Paper Quilt   I am enjoying working on this project.   I edged the openings  and edges with a  zig -zag stitch and knobby yarns.  I keep trying different solutions to filling the wholes and different arrangements for the four units.   This sort of play takes me much longer than I expect.

Wrapped wire insert
Hand made lace insert

I did eliminate on of  my attempts for filler so I feel like I am making some progress.

Lines in Fabric     This is an exploration project.  I talked last week about doing the DMC Quilt challenge.  This shots shows I am still working – but the progress is slow.  Marty  told me  that  I needed to press each seam toward the outside ,cut the “line” fabric and  then sew the next piece on.  That way I can get narrower lines – and that is my goal. I have really not had an opportunity to do that yet.  I will get to it I am sure.

   Diana  I am pleased with how this top came together  yesterday afternoon.  I  added the gold embellishment to the fabric in a class two summers ago.   It is the just the right touch of elegance for this work.     This will be my last quilt for the Goddess Show.  I plan to start the quilting tomorrow.   I have got to get busy with the labels for that show next.

  Rusty Text    This is really a working title for this top.  I needed to do a little creative work that did not include any pressure.    It is also another  bit of play with the Text stuff for  a possible entry into that competition.   I printed letters on inner facing and mixed that texture with silk.  The silk was also printed on in the green stripes.   When I showed it to Marty on Tue she was quit supportive about the work.  I am still not sure about the direction  I want to go with the quilting of this work, but there is not real  pressure here as I have a mouth before it is due.

Enjoy the wonders of winter.

Keep Crating

Carol

 

 

Thur Jan 4 New Year

Hello Everyone,

I hope you  have all had long enough to relax a bit for the hassles of the holidays.  I spent today at the Schweinfurth Art Center viewing the Quilts=Art=Quilts show with a friend.   I always find it so very inspirational.  Fibers can be used in so many ways to express so many ideas!    I got excited all over again about embellishing and piecing and color!   It is good to be stimulated in the beginning of winter.  For us that means lots of snow and shoveling as well as ice cycles.  I took this shot out the bathroom window of the light on the deck last eve.  I like how the light reflects off the ice.  Winter brings a new appreciation for limited color to me.   It is a good thing for me to consider as I have a challenge to work on that uses a very limited pallet using  light, med and dark tones of three colors.  It is the DMC challenge for this year.   That means we all selected a color and purchased the three tons of each of the colors and then gave the other participants  our selections.  The size this year for the three works is 18″X 24″ and one color from the other two pallets , needs to be used in each work.  There are no other rules….sounds like lots of room for variation to me.    I selected purple and my fabric are at the top.  Marty selected blue and her choices are to the left middle.  Dawn chose  black and her fabrics are on the bottom of the right.    I am a bit surprised at how well the three go together too.  I think my work with Leslie’s Riley’ s ” Artist Success Class” – Composition and You  will prove to be helpful here.      I have also decided to impose a little challenge of my own on the first quilt at least.  I want to further my ability to insert slender bits of fabric into my work and this first quilt will use that method.     So yesterday I started practicing with some blue fabric and this is the result.  I think I will play just a bit more before I start on the challenge fabric as we purchased it in Washington state last Sept and I can not run out and get more if it is a total flop.

Jots and Joints
22″ X 34″

Progress Report: Jots and Joints
This quilt is now completed and it is the first one for 2013.    I really was working to show the free form cutting in this work and I feel I was successful in that respect the curving edges work well here too.   I am also having fun mixing my hand painted fabrics with stock fabrics. This close up shows the raw silk in the left hand corner and some of the silk screen image.  I sketched them after looking at a circuit board from a calculator.  The drawing was done from memory several day later, so it is really my own invention.

In looking at the photo here I am concerned with the high number of wrinkles present.  Perhaps more quilting is in order.  I will need to do a bit of study over the next few days.

 

Spiraling Out   This quilt top is about half quilted.  It grew a lot as I worked on it.  The whole project started with some discharged fabric that I purchased form my friend Randy Kennan last summer at the  Quilting By the Lake Conference.   I had done just had my first experience with this type of print dyeing in my class with Judy Langille.  I was/am fascinated by the effect one gets as one does not have a lot of control as to how the color will disperse .   I am free motion quilting on the surface and doing a bit of zig-zag  couching along the way to push the spiraling feel of the top.   I feel I am nearing the middle point of the quilting work on this piece.   

Diana   This  drawing on old silk is the start of my next and probably final goddess quilt for my show this mouth.   I did the drawing three times before I got what I wanted on the fabric and all three were “traced”  from a  drawing that I did to begin with.  The drawing was done from a ancient Greek coin.  My Grandfather Howard found the coin while he was in Greece in WWII.  My mother made the coin into a pendant by adding a silver band around the out side and creating a bail that holds a diamond from my great aunt May’s engagement ring.    On the back of the coin is an owl that I used to create this foam stamp.  It will also be a part of the  quilt The owl is Diana’s creature and that is why it is on the back side.

Letters
This last image is also a start that I made this week.  I stenciled the rust and brown letter shapes onto white inner facing and plan to pair  it with some orange silk that has green lines on the surface.  I got the silk scarp from my friend Jean Riley before she moved to PA four years ago.  It is not something she had silk screened, but something that  had  been in a bag full of silk that she was given.  We quilters are  frugal and sharing bunch.   I want to create a second entry for the Text Challenge with these  fabrics.

Lastly as to my 30 day challenge- I am going to stay away from sugar for my first challenge.  I realized on Friday last week that there was far too much candy,cookies and sugar around this season- so I passed most of it off to the teen ages and made that my challenge.  It has been an eye opener- I did not realize that I had developed a craving for it, but I have.  So this will be a good test.

Keep Creating ,

Carol

 

Thur Dec. 27 Between the Holidays

Hello-

We are now in the space between the gift rush and celebration of  Christmas and the celebrations of new beginnings that come with New Years day.  I happen to be in the middle of a big snow storm too and that does give one pause as travel is not really a good idea at this point.  I fortunately do not have to leave the house except to shovel the walk so the post man can get to the mail box.  I will venture out and walk up the street to check on the 95 year old- Fred, but mostly I am staying put.       This week is the time I try to evaluate and be realistic.  To finish up the started projects  and to discard the unsuccessful things, and be honest about what seems to slip to the bottom of consideration and toss out the things I really will never go back and finish.   If I do have anything in the way of resolutions there are two.  This one about being realistic and the second is to try the 30 day exercise that I have been hearing about.  That proposition is to take a small thing that you have wanted to do like become a better  drawer, learn to use  my Print Shop Pro program, or do more collage  journaling, and commit to yourself to doing that idea for 30 days.  Then you reevaluate.  You can then choose your next action on this idea.  This sounds very doable to me.  I will make my decision by next Tue.

Out of the Dark
16.5″ X 25″

Progress Report: Out  of the Dark

 This quilt is a new work for the goddess show that I will be doing in Jan.  I actually did the first piece of this in Aug with Susan.  That section is the middle sized goddess that I drew in pencil and we made a photo transfer onto fabric.  The other drawn images are done in permanent ink.

I did the ink drawings from the images in “The Language of the Goddess ” book by Marija Gimbutas.   I really enjoyed working on silk for this project.

Painted Sands   This is another of the wiggle series and I am enjoying the freedom

Painted Sands
25.5″ X 26″

of this process.  The big painted units I did last summer.  There is also some text on thous areas from a stencil that I created.

The crisp gold line here is the stencil.  It is a part of my graffiti series were I was using my name as the element of the stenciling.

Tree Men

This is one of the old projects that I have pulled out to work on.   After trying out four different arrangement for the units I think this is the strongest one and now I need to decide what the next step will be.  It is hanging from the bookshelf in the direct sight line from my sewing machine.  I think this will help me look and think about the process more.  I do not hold any illusions though- it has been 5 years sense I started this so going forward may be slow.

 

 

Written Words  This quilt is again one where I am using the graffiti stencil.  It is

Shot of blue and green quilt with letter stencil in blue/purple. It is free motion quilted with the word Carol in many overlapping directions.

a bit easier to see as this time the letters are stenciled in a blue purple paint.  I quilted my name in free motion work in all directions to hold this quilt sandwich together. There are blue facings on the top and bottom  that I will pull to the back and stitch down to create a knife edge.

Jots and Joints   This is a new quilt top that I started this week as I wanted to use several of the painted fabrics I had created in my class this summer.  In class I   created the stencil- the line with a dot at both ends show here in dark green.   I am still playing with scraps from the silk scarp bag with this top. The light blue/white is  a course weave silk fabric.

 

I hope you are all enjoying the season.  I will post my 30 day effort  resolution along with my work next week.

 

Keep Crating

Carol

 

 

 

 

 

Thur Dec 20- Solstices computer failure……

Hello ,

Happy Solstices! I am looking forward to the days getting longer – even if it is cold.   I am not a fan of the long nights even though I do enjoy setting by a fire.   I just hate to find crows flying to roost in the  darkening   4 o’clock sky.

Sorry to have dropped on the map so abruptly.  The computer  crashed.  We took it off to Best Bye and they had to send it out to have the Mother Board replaced.   When it came back the machine crashed again while they were running a diagnostic check.  Off the machine went again for 10 days.   Needless to say I learned how much I depend on the silly thing and short cuts as I could not excess this sight for the whole time.  The second computer that I did have access too did not have Photos Shop either so I could not do photos even if I could have gotten to it.  I will try  to up date without being  overwhelming.

Progress Report:  Exploration 3

Exploration 3
22″ X 24.5″

I really enjoyed working away on this quilt with the free form cutting and the irregular edges.  It is both freeing and a bit worrisome as I give up control and the reliance on the ruler for strait lines.   I do really enjoy the feeling of flow however and feel there is a lot more room for exploration here.

 

 

Thunder Boomer   I started this work  because I was nervous about the wiggle cut things I was trying .  I needed  to work on something

Thunder Boomers
19.5″ X 26″

that I felt comfortable with.  I did challenge myself by using silk as a part of this work.  The silk was a way of expressing how the air feels all electric when a storm is going on.

I enjoyed doing the machine drawing here as well.   This was a good confidence builder for me at that time.

 

Pillows    I did two pillows to accompany the quilt I did for the bride last mouth.   They came out looking good and I think they will enhance the  bed when they are placed on top of the quilt.

  Abame – Sisters Quilt  This little quilt is the next in the wiggle series.  I call it a sister quilt because a second quilt grew out of this work as well.  I made too much material and found it worked better as a separate unit.  I am almost done with the stitching of the face panels.

Sunmi Wash Up
This  top is mostly done by hand.  I have been seeing lots of images of the large amounts of plastic washing up on the west cost.  The piles I find distressing so I thought I might do a bit of a “junk ” collection piece to highlight this idea.

  Out of the Dark    This top is my next work for the solo show that I will be doing in late Jan.  I have always  been fascinated by stories of the gods and goddess of the past as well as all the little stone figures of women that have been uncovered.  Joseph Campbell’s books have also influenced me.  I was delighted when he came and spook at Ball State.  

Letters This is just the working title of this piece that I just started.   There is a challenge to do a quilt using text and this is my first attempt at that idea.  I feel this does not say exactly what I had in mind- but I like the way it is coming together so I think I will finish it none the less.

Out of Control This too is a working title.  I am so upset by the shooting in the elementary school this last week.  I used some discharged fabric to start this quilt because one has so little control with that process and league of control is how I feel  in relationship to this tragedy.   I tried to show the chaos I felt with this piece.   It does not give that feel yet –  I think that the quilting I plan to use with help with this.

Discharging
I did a little hand writing with dish washer soap to discharge  the surface of this black fabric.  This is another go at the text thing.  I put the dishwasher soap in the mustard container to do the writhing and it worked well.  The fabric is in the washer at the moment .   Even if I do not use this in the Text Challenge, it was a fun thing to try

 

 

I enjoy preparing  for the up coming celebrations so that is where my energy will be going for the next few day.  May the wonders of the season ans the joys of your life fill you in the up coming holidays.

Keep Crating

Carol

 

Thursday Nov 15, 2012 Textures

Hello Friends,

I hope the weather has been treating you well.  It is crisp and cold here today but I still enjoyed my walk in the sun shine.  When I was taking my photos for this post I noticed that my Christmas  Cactus is blooming already.  Such a nice flash of color for the eye.

In the Quilt Exploratoin  Design Group we are working on composition.  This mouth the emphasis is Texture- one of my favorite interests.   It goes hand in hand with color most of the time in my eyes.    I this emphasis has made me more aware of the textures around me than normal.  I took  30 photos  of textures while I was in Indiana last week.  I arrived home on Monday and  and now look forward to using the images in some future work.  I am busy getting ready for the one and only craft fair that I participated in now.  It is only 15 days off so I am pushing myself to finish off some little works.   The  small 5″ X 7″ pieces need  that final visual check before  I  matt them.  I will post a few next week.

Jubilee
20″ X 22″

Progress Report:  Jubilee  I really enjoyed working on this quilt.  I am having a lot of fun exploring the use of curved lines in my work.  That seems to add a bit of fun to what I am doing. I though I had finished it when I took the work to the Quilt Diva’s meeting last Tue evening, but the gals pushed me to do some changes as far as the technical aspects of the work.  This had mostly to do with the flatness of the edges.  After their instructions I took out my old work and re did the facings.  It is much improved with the seam of the top and the facing just at the edge as apposed to the turn over of the top to the back as I had it before.  I enjoyed creating  quilting  to extend the curves of the piecing  too.   This quilt also got away from me as far as size is concerned.  I intended for it to be a bit narrower- but liked the look at this width that I kept it that way.   I still have lots of the wiggly units remaining and  I intend to keep playing with different color combinations  using them. 

Exploration 3
This is an example of the further use of the curved inserts.  I showed this work last week in the piecing stages.   The orange and apple green print around the edge is the backing fabric.  I really enjoy how the colors of the big units can totally change the feel of the work.    I am quilting it now.  I think I will keep the irregular bottom edge in some fashion.   I am anxious to create a new one in this series as well.

Until next time- Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer