As one faces the end of the year it is a time to reflect and take stalk. On the sad side, one of my quilt buddies, Sally Nadelman passed away this year. She was a dear friend who enriched my life with her encouragement and the wonderful glass bead work that she did. I did not do so many quilt works this year as in the past, but I still think that 53 completed quilts for one year is not a bad thing. I have not done so well on the distribution of my works as I should so that will become a goal for next year. I participated in 9 quilt shows and was the director for one on them. I already know that two of the shows I normally am a part of will not happen in 2018 so that number will be down next year. I did one Trunk show were I showed 30 works – old and new. In doing that I got a good review of how I tend to work and saw some of my personal choice and behavior patterns. I used up 35 spools of thread this year and I am sure I did not replace them all so that stock pile is down. I did not purchase much fabric this year, but I sure dyed a lot. I used it too and that was a good source of pleasure for me. I look forward to meeting with Liz on Mondays again when the season allows and doing more of that. I feel that not a lot will change in 2018 but I hope to pay more attention to details and make better and more creative work.
Progress Report: Tribute- Spring This work is 20”w X 30”l. It is my last quilt made with Ethel leftovers. She cut the linoleum block of the tree and did the insect stenciling. I still have lots of her fabric and the scrap box with her remainders still has bits in it. But for the most part the work in the future work will be all mine. I enjoyed doing the free motion work to extend the trees in this piece.
ACE I am having fun with this project too now that I have all the units fused and zig-zagged down. I have even started the quilting on this project.
Aces and Spaces This top is created from all of the “cut aways” or negative spaces from the units of ACE. There are a few additional fabrics too as I can never leave things alone, but it mostly leftovers.
Handwork- orange My evening TV projects is moving forward. I still do not have a plan but I keep building.
CardsCelebrate is the first card I did this week. It is a reflection of the time. Good bye to 2017…….
As the year dies one is aware of the passage of time and this card is part of the reflection of a life well lived. I hope that all my friends can say their lives are works of art that they are happy with too.
After introducing myself I described my working pattern as DDT.
Determine what you want to do
Do the work
Triumphantly celebrate the completion of the project
Sometimes deciding what I want to tackle is the hardest part of the whole process.
I divided my talk into five categories, because I discovered that I return again and again to many subjects.
1. Nature and Science. My mother was a science teacher and she had a profound influnce on what I became interested in too. The first quilt that I am showing is Totem Poll and I did it for my father as he did a lot of wok with the Native Americans in Alaska when I was growing up. This quilt show all four of the earth elements that they believe in. Air is represented by the Eagle at the top. The Wolf represents the land. The tribe celebrates two types of water-salt and fresh- thus the whale for salt water and the frog for fresh water. I did showed several other quilts that showed my use of animals as subjects for my work.
2 Water : The next displayed work was Ice. I seem to go back to this subject repeatedly and perhaps that is because of living here where ice and snow are so much a part of our lives- I don’t know, Spring Thaw was the next work on the wall. This work shows how I was starting to add different materials to my quilts. The opalescent color is created with the use of floral plastic.
This work was followed by Ice on Vincent a piece that I did just last year.
Next came Deep Stars I was a scuba diver and the ocean has always been fascinating to me. When I learned that along one of the hot water wholes in the Mariana Trench supported Fuchsia colored star fish , I just had to do a quilt to note that wonder.
Deep Jellies is also a study of the ocean and my love of texture. I hand dyed the lace and the jelly fish are spray painted for extra color.
Briar Patch is another example of my love of plants and texture.
Blooming Bacteria 24″ X 38″ $320.00
Blooming Bacteria After visiting a display of Elizabeth Bush’s work where she used the dyed slides of diseases to build her pieces I did a close up of dyed bacteria too.
When I saw a shot of bacteria, I remembered seeing pond water under a microscope in Mom’s Biology class and so I did this work- Pond Water.
3. Rocks Canyon’s Create Towers. I did this work after a trip down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon with my Dad. This trip resulted in 8 works based on that experience. My Grandfather was a rock hound as was Mon and so we where always picking up rocks and collecting them.
Canyon De Chelli was also the result of a trip. I went with two other quilters who are also crazy about rocks. I had to do this quilt because I was fascinated buy the fact that I saw three layers of man kind here. The Anasazi- a very old Native American culture was built into the canyon up high. Then the natives that had returned to the canyon and were living there when the Spaniards came-the lower bigger buildings. And to my eye the stain on the top rim of the canyon looked like the New York City sky line.
Whip Shock Hill. This work is a geogical sight that I visited with Marty on our way to Maine. The size and the up heavel f the rock I find amazing.
Asurite is based on a small stone that I have enlarged. I love building up and playing with the effects I can create with fabric.
Granite Grannies I see faces and bodies every where. This quilt shows the three ways I know of altering the surface of fabric. There is acrylic paint on the faces, the black and white, machine drawing to show the detail and it is dye painted from the back to get the blues. There were a dozen works in my “Spirits All Around Us” series.
Motherhood maze was done to show how sometimes being a parent can be. I used sculptures from Europe- The Veins of Walendorf to represent Eurasian and the fertile stage of motherhood. The Myna birth goddess to represent the beginning of life. And the African mother pole to show how we are tied to the little one for a while after birth.
Generation Whispers was a tribute to my family of women. I am the center with my mother and mother in law above me and all four grandmothers stitched in too. The my daughter with my grand daughter at the bottom.
4.ology is a mix of people and plants. It is also my first trip into felting as a way to build with fibers. There area over 90 faces in this work.
Blooming Branch I can always count on my love of plants to help me out when I need a subject for a new work. I have done lots of branches and this one has a sister work that is very like it as I had to build two limbs before I was happy and so I created a second background and completed it too.
Briar Patch is another study in plants and my love of texture. I added berries made from Angelina to this work too.
Grounded I enjoy stamping on fabric and this work shows lots of fall leaves that I stamped a few years ago.
Pomegranate II. As the title suggests there are several works with the pomegranate as the subject. This work along with the others is stenciled. I designed and cut the stencils myself and enjoyed toe process. I have several others subjects using stencils in my collection of work.
Tulip Bed. This work was my first attempt at an l regular edge. I also did this work as a challenge as my friend Barbara gave me the starter fabric that she has painted. I will give it to you if you promise to cut it up she said. And I did.
Five Jacks. I am now mixing felt with applique work to represent my plants. I am then stretching the works so they will be flat.
Call Crows. 49” 34” This work came about due to an experience too. I stared in the Hilton in Auburn one fall when I was at a workshop at the Schweinfurth. I along with my room mate was awakened at 4 in the morning by the calling of the crows outside our windows on the third floor. I just had to comate that event and this quilt does that.
5. Text We Can 72” X 74” This quilt is my declaration of intent to do what I can to help the endangered animals of our plant. I machine wrote the names of all the animals that were threated at that time. Five of them have been removed from the list and two have become existent.
Glyph II 31” X 36” This is the second graffiti based series. I love letter forms and I am playing with them at this point. There are nine quilts based on the word OWL in this series at this point.
Fractured Glyph 32” X 41 “ is another of the glyph series.
Label Quit. This is my third quilt that uses labels like a crazy quilt. The first one was done in 1985. It took me 144 weeks to do this one as I did one 8” block while watching the news each week.
I learned that I go back and revisit many of the same themes over and over in my work. These five areas are only a few of my interests.
Today is the darkest day of the year as the earth begins its tilt back toward the sun and the days begin to grow light a bit longer. This first day of winter is always a good sign for me. I love the light and know how important it is to the existence of life. It will be a month before the days have an hour more light time, but just the thought of more potential sunshine makes me feel good.
This week there was a FAB meeting at Judy’s home. She has decorated for the return of all of her children and grandkids. I am sure a good time will be had by all. Patti was the only one with work to share and her afghan is a gift that she will be passing off soon. I hope this season brings joy and delight to all my readers.
Progress Report: ZAP IT This work is 37.5”w X 55”l. It is a rework of an older piece that now has the words “Zap It” in purple appliqued on top of the old base. The new lettering was stitched down in silver thread in a big zig-zag pattern. I enjoyed the process.
ACE I created this new bit of graffiti form this week and it is now fused down to the base. I will begin to applique it down this week.
Ethel Scrap I keep working away on this project. It is more than half assembled now. It will be completed soon.
New WorkI pulled the wood cuts and stenciled pieces out this piece this week and and built the rectangles around them. It is now ready for the machine work. This work is my last tribute to Ethel as the block print and the stencil work is hers. I do enjoy finishing off her piece but it is bitter sweet.
Glyph IV the beading goes forward on this project.
Hand work I have started doing the hand work on this whole cloth project. I have no plan except to use the yarns and threads in the color pallet in various stitches. It is my news work project. The big brown circle is a ball of yarn that I am cotching- and it will become a line as I go forward.
Card- Tribute to Light The time of year and the natural environment pushed me to do this work.
As the wreath shows I am doing holiday work now. I had a great time creating this wreath and it is festive, but it is too thick to fit between the door and the storm door! I am so silly I did not even consider that possibility. It will have to hang inside some where.
I have been thinking a lot about rules and regulations lately. I think those thoughts are related to our recent snow, because two rules like alternate street side parking so the snowplows can do their work and clearing the sidewalks are two seasonal things that have come up. One tends to forget little items like those rules when there is not any snow. So some rules usefulness come and go. But rules in general are what makes for a smooth running society. One can be still be put into situations where they do not know what is expected of them and what to expect from others. But in general rules of self control and kindness usually are good ones to use to go forward even in unusual settings. Expecting everyone around you to follow the rules of the road sure make moving around a less hazardous activity. But to every rule there are times when one must respond to the environments of that time and place. One must be flexible and allow for changes and exceptions to rules at time too.
Progress Report: Christmas Banners My good friend Regina gave me some beautiful machine embroidered blocks last month. I had a good time putting them together in three small banners this week. My daughter saw them before they were assembled and she really liked them too and asked me for a set. So now that they in groups. I will pass one onto her and keep the smaller ones. I already have spaces on my walls for these two for this season.
ZAP This work is 37”w X 56”l. I enjoyed doing all the hand applique of the bubble “IT’S” on the top of the Zaps to break up the negative spaces here. The work is reflective quilted with the circles added as I went along.
Zap It This rework project is almost done. I decided that the quilt was ok- but nothing more then that. So I added the dark purple strips to spell out “Zap it” on top. Now I have stitched over the dark purple lines sense the rest of the work is quilted already. I am still toying with the idea of adding more stitched lines in purple on top. I think I need to set it aside for a while and then look again with fresh eyes in a week or two.
New workI pulled out the last pieces of work that I inherited from Ethel( the black stencil stuff and the tree) and found some fabric to work with those pieces. I will move onto it next.
Glyph IV I keep beading away on this project.
Card As the cards shows- rules are on my mind this week.
This week had been one filled with events. Last Friday was busy as I took down the Finger Lakes Fiber Artist show a May Memorial. Then I went off to Oswego State University to Sharon Souva’s Graduate show. It was wonderful. She did a deep exploration of four areas. She took a photo. This one is called” Yellow Strip” and is a shot of a part of the pavement. She wrote a poem about each subject.She then did a print of the subject. This was followed by a small rendering of the image in fabric before doing a full sized quilt on the topic. I enjoyed seeing the progression. Her other three topics where grass growing out of a crack in the cement sidewalk. This is the quilt.
A close up of a rock formation , this is also her quilt solution.
Lastly , a quilt of birch bark with with lichens growing on it. Her fabric interpretations are wonderful and inspiring. I am so proud of her and admire the effort it took to go to school and see it to the end.
Then this wonder woman was a part of the Plow Shears craft show and sale on Sat and Sunday. This is a shot of part of her booth showing some of her landscape fiber drawing sewing pieces.
On Sunday I went off to the Schweinfurth to the Finger Lakes Fiber Artist meeting. We talked about the Q=A= Q show that is up and enjoyed hearing other members favorites and the why of those feelings. At 2:00 we went up stairs to enjoy Bev’s trunk talk. She was very kind with her full explanations about how she got to where she is now as well as her current process.It was a good day.
Then on Tues I went off to QuEG’s and Diva meetings. The holidays are keeping folks busy so there was not much show and tell in either case. Regina had finished her hand work on her circles and squares piece. The base of this work is a piece of Shobori that she did. Ruth shared her cell work too.
Progress Report: Peeling Orange This work is 38” w X 41” l. It is the last work that I plant to use the Owl graffiti layout on. It is not the same pattern that I made in class. I took the idea and made it smaller to fit the orange hand dyed fabric that Regina gave to me. There are cut-aways from other works in the series in this piece too. I am now at the point where I did not care if the viewer knows or can find the the word in the work any more. I realized I have also become enchanted with the little tails that sometimes end up sticking out along the edge . I have cut them away many times- but decided I will keep some times on this work and some in the furture.
Zap It I am now doing the machine quilting and hand applique of the “It’s” on this quilt. It is moving along nicely.
Glyph IV
The beading goes forward on this piece. I was so busy this week I did not get my hour in every day. But I will keep aiming for that amount of time.
Zap It II In my preparation for my own trunk show I looked at all my old pieces. I ended up with a whole pile of not so strong work and was considering just passing it all off to other uses. Then I remembered Ethel telling me long ago that I made great backgrounds. So I though perhaps I could use some of those weaker pieces as a background for the letter form explorations. I liked one of my line drawings of “Zap It” – so I used that as the basis for the purple strips on the surface of this older work. The next challenge is how I want to stitch these lines down on the surface.
Ethel’ Scarp I am ready to put together the scrap quilt now. This is my back for this work . It is also made from scraps.
Label Card Flexibility When it came time to start a new card for this week I still had the “reuse” thoughts in my head so being flexible seemed like the way to go this time.
I am finding it a bit difficult getting back into the studio after the holidays. There is so much I want to do that is not art work related. I am hoping that will remedy its self with time.
I did do a big trunk show at the Schweinfurth Art Center on Sunday and that took a lot of preparation. I discovered some themes in my work that I had not noticed before and that is how I structured my talk. I talked about five of them- Animals, Water, Rocks, Plants and Text. I was epically flattered by the attendance of my friends from all parts of my life. I did have fun with it and enjoyed the support I got from everyone. In talking with folks afterward I came across another topic that I could do a whole different presentation on- my use of embellishments.
There was a FAB meeting yesterday and we got to look at Nancy’s newest work. She will be making “postcards” out of these images from the National Parks for a quilt. More evidence of being busy is the fact that I am still working on getting the fabric washed out from the play weekend at the Schweinfurth three weeks ago.
Progress Report: Fox Tails This work is 12” w X 12” t. I created the heads of the fox Tails in the Experimental Surfaces with Amanda McCarver . It was a great class and I learned a lot. The background rock wall is felted wool roving.
Peeling Orange I am to the point on this project where I am doing reflective quilting on this work. I have decided to leave the orange plain and not quilt in that area. I think the contrast will add interest.
Zap It As the photo shows I have made the “It’s” a part of this work. They are just pinned in place and subject to change, but one needs to start some where. I ended up making a second “It” stencil as I wanted a second size.I am planning to hand stitch down the circular “It” add ons after a bit of quilting by machine.
Creative Assistants I really am at the end of making these fellows. I know I was avoiding starting a new hand project and that is why I did them. But I need to straiten up and begin the project.
Card- Trust I usually trust that good things will happen to me and for the most part that has been a truth in my life. But the happening in the world at this time are throwing a lot of question into my mind on this subject.
I hope you enjoyed the holiday. Our family went off to the Turning Stone Casino for the big buffet. We all had a good time and over ate a bit I am sure. I really liked this ice sculpture turkey.
I went off to visit with Regina Tuesday and we had a good time talking and sharing ideas. We always get so excited that very little work gets done- the the ideas really flow. She kindly gave me a Christmas present in the form of a dozen Christmas blocks that I will enjoy putting together into a season piece. She does wonderful machine work. The more I know about that process the more I respect folks who do it. It requires a different set of skills than I possess.
I am working away preparing for a Trunk Show at the Schweinfurth Art Center on Sunday at 2:00. Going through old work is exciting and stressful. I am also seeing patterns in my subject choices and I will use that idea to pull the talk together. I did sort out a whole pile of stuff to pass on while I was pulling work for the talk. Now to organize it in a meaningful arrangement.
Progress Report: Peeling Orange I am now doing reflective quilting on this work and trying to decide what way is up. I finished all the satin stitch applique on Monday.
ZAP In this work the contrasting shapes are all appliqued down now. I decided it needs an “add on” so I made a new graffiti to add to it.
It I cut a stencil for the word ” it” as I thought I could add it to the ZAP work. I made a bunch yesterday and they are drying now. I hope to cut them out and add them too the Zap top. This is a true visual decision that can only be made visually.
Scarf I finished my new muffler last eve. Then as usual, I found the lost one this morning when I was looking for gloves. It is good to have a back up.
Glyph IV The beading goes on. I am working on the bottom of the” L” now.
Trickster Card I was thinking about how the Native Americans often use the coyote as a trickster in their stories. Folks really identify with a smaller clever animal in their fight for shrivel against powerful odds.
This week I went off to an open studio week end at the Schweinfurth. I worked in the wet studio with six other gals. The first image is of the screen work I did on Sat. I stared out doing Shobori with Liz. We did four colors- orange, yellow, green and purple. Everything worked well except the purple where I used a fabric that was only partly cotton and so it did not take the dye as well as I would have liked. I still have a lot of fabric that is batching so there will be more next week. Susan did some wonderful stuff as did Cheri. Maureen worked on sox and other linens she hopes to sell at the Plow Shears show in early Dec. Victoria did some nice work too. We all had fun and I came home exhausted.
Progress Report: Whirlwind This work is 30” w X 45” l. It took several tries to get the edges strait on this one. I really like all the movement in this work.
Ethel’s Scrap I continue to work away on this piece. I finished row 5 yesterday and there are only nine so I am more than half done with this step.
Zap I had to remove the first applique as it caused a lot of ripples. In doing the second two panels, I will add the inner facing and tear away before I stitch to begin with- that will make the piece flatter and go a bit faster too.
Peeling Orange I am zig-zagging the parts down on this one and thinking about how I want to quilt it as I go.
Glyph IVI have been gone so much this week that I have not done much work on this project. But I did put in a few hours and time is what it takes now.
Card: Celebrate As the holidays draw near I think about how important friends and family are to me and want to toast them with this card.
I have had a busy two weeks. It all started out with traveling and visiting museums . Marty and I visited six different ones on our trip to Maine and back. With shopping, a factory tour and visiting with friends it was all very exciting and stimulating- A very enjoyable experience. But before I went away there was a three day workshop with Amanda McCavour. She is an expert on the use of various water soluble materials. I learned a lot. She has a show of her life sized machine drawn rooms on display at the Schweinfurth that will run from now until the first week end in Jan. Most of the work we did in class was much smaller. This shot is of Cheri’s peacock feather. I experimented with creating Fox Tail for use in one of my felted pieces. Doing this workshop with fifteen others creative women made for lots of different and exciting applications to the use of this material.
The Quilts =Art= Quilts 2017 opened on Sat at the Schweinfurth too and so I went to the opening as I was already in the building. This work is by Elizabeth Bush. She won a Jurors Choice award as did my friend, Julia. This work by Emily was done by one of the other gals in Amanda’s class. She came all the way fro California to be at the opening and to take the class. It’s a strong show and I plan at least three more visits.
Then on Monday morning with the help of Cheri, Julia and Liz we hung a Finger Lakes Fiber Artist show at May Memorial Church 3800 Genesee St, in Syracuse. This shot is of a work by Sharon. These works show two quilts by Regina and a piece by Alice. There was a Meet the Artist event on Sunday and that went well. The contact at May was very pleased.
Marty and I visited the Sherborn Museum as one of our early stops on our trip to Maine. We were blown away by the work of Patty Yoder who did wonderful hooked wall pieces. She raised the sheep, sheared them, spun the wool and dyed it before she cut it into strips to create beautiful and playful wall pieces with it. This is a close up of the eye of the sheep in the first photo. There was lots of humor and fun in this delightful show and we enjoyed it very much.
Our next stop was the Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream factory. We took the tour and had ice cream Sundays for lunch that day. I Loved their motto” If it’s not fun- why do it?”
We went on to visit our friend Elizabeth. We enjoyed visiting her studio and talking about her work. This shot is of a colorful basket full of the hats she makes to give away at Christmas.
The next day we went on to Camden to visit with Barb and Steve. Barb took us to Rockland and the Farnsworth museum. We hurried through the Wythe art works as we had seen them before and went to a great show of wok by Marguerite Zorach. No photos where allowed, but take my word for it – the works was fabulous. The photos is of the black and white show, another temporary exhibit that was up in the museum. We also visited the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. The last museum we visited before we drove home was the Clark, where we saw the exhibit of Impressionist Line and listened to the lecture on that subject. I did not know that pastels were invented around the same time those artists were working. Degas and Mary Cassatt sure used that new material.
Tuesday was the first one of November so I had both the QuEG’s meeting and the Diva meeting. This quilt is by Liz and will be for sale at the Everson’s Christmas Tree event. Angela continues to work away at her on line felting class. I really like this piece. Sally is busy with Christmas gifts for her grand daughtersand Sue Ellen is having fun doing cats.
The Divas had a good meeting as well. Regina did a splendid job Finishing off her Garden Gate piece. I love how she combined a rubbing with a hand dyed to get this great look.Maureen is working with colored pencils and stitching on this piece. Most folks had work in various stages of completing in preparation for the Thread of Change Show at the Unitarian Church in Ithaca to open Dec 1.
The to round things out I had a FAB meeting yesterday. Judy is working away on her red sweater again now that it is cold. Nancy is making “post cards” to attach to her quilt. It has been a full two weeks.
Progress Report: Glyph IV Because I was away not a lot of progress has been made here. But I am working away to fill in the L with beads now.
Peeling Orange I have started zig –zagging down the shapes on this project. I am still thinking about how I want to quilt it.
Zap I did start to applique the shapes down – but had to remove all I had done as it puckered up. I purchased tear away and now I am ready to try again.
KnittingWinter cold has finally found us. I could not find my muffler, so I decided to knit one as I still have not focused on a evening hand project.
Felted work I made this rock face a while back and thought that I would use the Fox Tail from Amanda’s class on the surface. But I think they are too close in value to get the effect I am shooting for. So they will be a part of another project and I will work on a different idea for this piece.
Label Card “ Share the credit.” I have been thinking about how important it is to work together for a big goal and value all the different things one brings to projects. I was trying to express that with this card.
I am enjoying the peak of fall color here. The trees just seem to be burning with color. I was hard pressed to choose a photos to use this time.
This week was a busy one. There was a meeting of the Finger Lakes Fiber Artists on Sat. I collected the quilts for the show I will be hanging for the group on Monday.
Marcia shared the new SAQA magazine and her work on a new jacket. This is the small quilt Pat shared with us.
Maureen is busy doing Indigo dyeing for her class with Jane Dunwald. She is really mastering this technique. Liz shared her projects form her class at the Barn. She is learning Shibori. And I am of benefitting from this experience because we are doing more together.
Regina has been busy this month finishing things from her classes at QBL. The triangles are from her class with Rosalie Dace. The quilt at the top on the right is from Cynthia Corbin’s class. Noel is playing with different quilting and piecing techniques. It was a very stimulating meeting with a varied group of creative gals.
We also had a FAB meeting today. Judy was working on a baby quilt for her church. We had our own little quilting bee as we tied it off before the end of the meeting.
Progress Report:Glyph IV I am done with the beading on the W now. That letter is the center so I feel like I have made progress.
Peeling Orange I am to the point where I am zig –zagging down the parts of this piece. I will do all of this before I quilt it.
Spring Whirl Wind ( Renamed from Tossed Salad as the blue does not work for salad. ) I am doing the line green with free motion quilting on this project. I wanted to push the green back a bit.
New ScrapI started building new blocks and pinning up possible layouts for the sixth quilt built from Ethel’s scrap box. It may change as I have only made three rows of blocks and they are not connected.
Zap I have cut the dark purple in the ZAP pattern. I stitched the parts to the fabric and I even zig -zagged around the right one. But it pulled and puckered up the fabric so much that I took all that stitching out and now there is inner facing on the back. I will re do the zig zag before quilting.
Creative Assistants Another new batch of silly little fellows. I am working away during the football games.
Card- Some Days This card is to celebrate having a day without any event. Feeling a bit over done- I am going to plan some days like this in every week from now on.
I will be traveling next week so there will not be a post. I will write all about it Nov. 9 .