All posts by admin

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly, Label Blocks

Entering Shows

September 29, 2016 admin

Hello,

This beautiful painting is by my friend Barbara. It plus two other paintings of hers are hanging in the Manlius library as a part of the Associated Artist Of Central New York show that is open now until Oct 15. I have two works in the show too. It is always exciting to see ones work on the wall among other pieces. In Aug I talked about rejection, so I felt I should talk a bit about entering shows too. It is worth the effort to put ones work out in public. There are all sorts of shows, some judged and some not. If you are entering be sure to read all the rules and follow them. I am in the process of hurrying toward a dead line and when I re read the rules I find that my images are not the correct pixel size to be a part of this one. I will see if I can resize them, but if that does not work I will not waste the judges time by putting work before them that that dose not qualify. One needs to work toward being successful and I feel showing ones work is a part of that process.

Progress Report: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly This work is 22” l X 15” w. It is one of the quieter pieces I have done. I did enjoy doing the thread painting on this the butterfly and I now have a new respect for all the shading work folks who do that thread painting work as it takes a lot of effort and skill to do that work well. It is very slow and difficult work. This little butterfly took me four and a half hours and it is small and far from perfect. Adding the commercial ivy leaves was a lot simpler. I do love the texture though.

Hand work This pieces has been at the bottom of the pile for a while. I did work on the Queen Ann’s lace section this week and only have a few more blossoms to finish that step.

Ethel’s Nine Patch I finished assembling the rows of this piece this week and the pile in the photographic is of the fabrics I am going to use for the back of this piece. Most of them are from Ethel’s collection too.

Felting- rust This piece is only about an hour old. I draw out the areas I want in different colors with Taylor’s chalk. Then felt roving, silk paper and yarn are placed over the wool and felted into place.

Felting-gray This piece is much further along then the first one. I am just about ready to start applying the fabric bits and doing some tread drawing on the surface of this piece.

New work This project has been on the wall for several weeks. I finally buckled down and created all the units for the bird cutaways so I can get going on this piece.

Label Block # 82 I am just a bit beyond the half way point in this project. Down hill from here.

Keep Creating

Carol

Along the Shore, Collage Based Work, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Generational Whispers, Small Cleft

A Bit about process

September 22, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello-

I am getting back into my usual grove this week. I went to a FAB meeting where Judy showed us more of the blocks she created after the Mill Sight weekend. I think the colors work well together well and it will result in a grand quilt. I have finished several pieces this week so it is time to begin new work. I though I might talk about one of my processes. First I select an image. This is a photo that I took in Washington state of a cut in the road. Then I make a little windows and run them around the photo to find an area I think is a good jumping off point. When I choose one and I then do a little sketch of it using dark, medium and light. At this point I need to decided on a size and select a fabric for a base. Because of the great amount of shrinkage and warping that occures with all the felting and the stitching I apply I make the background fabric 10 inches bigger then the final projected finished size. The next step is to lay out roving in the areas that are light med and dark and felt it down. I then build up the surface with yarn, silk paper and fabric strips.

Progress Report: Small Cleft This work is 24” long and 20” wide. It is based on a photo I took four years ago. I used the same process I described above for this work. I incorporated silk yarn in this work as well as silk paper. There is also some fabric bits and yarns here too.

Beach Front This quilt is another in the three challenges process. My hand dyed fabric is the white with colored spots and Ethel’s is the blue and dark batiks. It is based on a collage. The top half is quilted in parallel lines while the bottom section is done in a wavy pattern to suggest water.

Generational Whispers This work is 43” long and 38” high. I shows five generations of women in my family with my grand daughter at the center in the bottom. I did free motion drawing on organza to create the portraits and then sewed them to the background. The last step was to add the names of the women represented then quilt. There was not enough space below all the heads to add their dates of birth and death on the top so I have added a panel on the back with that information.

Butterfly I am just about done with the thread painting on this butterfly. The black sections on the body and the left wing remain. Then I will add it to the top and do the final quilting on that piece.

Ethel’s Nine Patch I am enjoying building these squares. I have completed 25 at this point. To make it a queen sized quilt it will take 43 blocks so I am a little beyond half way done at this point. Looking at the scrap box I know there will be a second one of these too.

Label Block # 81 I feel back into my old pattern and only finished on block this week. I have started making Creative Assistants in the evening so I did not put in any extra time on this project.

Keep Creating.

Carol

Along the Shore, Ethel's Scarp Nine Patch, Idaho, Label Blocks

Travel With Marty- To Lincoln Nebraska

September 15, 2016 admin 2 Comments

Hello-

I am home from a wonderful and stimulating trip from Spokane Washington to Lincoln Nebraska. We loaded a black rented jeep with 20 boxes of Marty’s books and our suit cases and we were off. First we went south along the mountains between Idaho and Montanta and enjoyed the landscape. Our fist goal was to see a falt in southern Idaho

where the land shifted fifteen feet in the 70s. The exposed slip is the white area in this photo. The drive to this location resulted in a flat tire. Thank goodness for the help of a Fireman from Texas who helped us put on the spare. But that meant taking the boxes of books out of the car so we could get to the spare and reloading them afterward. We drove to the next town and although it was Labor Day week end we found a tire dealership that was open. They agreed to patch the tire. So I unloaded the boxes again to get to the tire. After he patched it the tire bulged so we did not put it on the car. Loaded the books yet again and drove to Idaho Falls airport where the car rental company traded our Jeep for a bigger car. This picture is of Marty waiting outside the airport. The new one was white and had so much fancy stuff on it that we never figure them all out. There was so much space in this one that we did not even need to stack the boxes on top of one another. We could have slept flat on top of them if we had to- but that did not happen. Then on to Yellowstone. Lots of stops there with geysers and hot springs,museums and animals. We checked put the petrified tree and enjoyed the day until about two in the afternoon when it started to hail on us. We pulled off and waited for it to stop as the hail balls were the size of marbles. The storm lasted about half and hour and left the road covered with hail that made for slow slick driving. This picture

is a view out the windshield early on in the storm. We left the park and were told that the road we needed to use to get to our lodging was closed due to snow. So we stop and found another cabin to stay in. It stormed during the night but we got up to sunny skies and snow covered canyon walls on both sides of our resting place. We altered our plans again and opted to drive south and cross the Continental Divide at Dead Indian Pass as it was lower and less likely to be closed. It was a beautiful drive and we made lots of stops for pictures. We continued south in Wyoming .

Ate lunch along the Wind River and continued to enjoy the landscapes.

We went to Fossil Butte National Monument and enjoyed the wonderful museum there. Life sized alligator and turtles with the four foot shells were among the fossils as well as lots of leaves and ferns. We had crossed the Continental Divide seven times before we left the mountains. We drove across the southern portion of Wyoming and into Scott’s Bluff just at sun set. It is a good thing we got to see it that evening because when we got up in the morning there was so much fog one could hardly see across the four lane highway. It took the better part of two days to cross the Nebraska sand hills. We saw lots of wind mills, cattle and train cars loaded with coal.

We visited the Ashfall Fossil Beds. They were a wonder, with the remains of over one 50 rhinos, turtles, tortoises ,and Sand Hill Cranes. There were the skeletons of three types of houses- three toed and single hoofed ones. And species of saber toothed rabbit- something I had never heard of before. We left the fossils for Lincoln where we meant Rosalie.Friday was the last unloading of the boxes at the International Quilt Study Museum. A man came with a cart and did the job that time.

We enjoyed the museum. There was a great display of quilts from southern China. The silk made them very beautiful when they were mixed with gold couched embroidery thread. We took the tour of the Mountain Mist Collection too. We explored Lincoln on the week end and enjoyed the public art that is so much a part of the city. There are lots of beautiful brick houses too. We also went to the German Russian Immigrant museum on Sunday. It was great too.

On Monday we had a meeting with the director were she took Marty’s QBL quilt and showed us the storage and preservation parts of the museum. She spent a couple of hours talking with us and it was g good visit. We enjoyed out stay at the Rogers House Bed and Breakfast but we were all glad to be on our way home on Tues. morning.

Progress Report: Ethel’s Nine Patch I did do a bit of work before I left on Tues for the start of this trip. I had the strips put together from our weekend at Judy’s camp and I started cutting them into 5” squares and matching them with solids from my Ethel stash. The blocks are a nine patch and I may add sashing. That remains to be seen

Along the Shore I am doing the machine quilting on this one now.

Machine Painting I started working on the machine drawing on this butterfly yesterday. The printed butterfly is fused to organza with a paper backed fishable. Then it is hooped before I began the machine work. I would not trim the butterfly before I did the machine work next time. Even though it is fussed it is still fraying.

Label Blocks # 76,#77, #78, #79, #80 I took this project with me on the trip and found lots of little snippets of time to do hand work so I got five blocks done in two weeks.

Keep Creating

Carol

Deep Jellies, Ethel's Scarp Nine Patch, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Far Off Forests, Felt Work, Label Blocks, Tall Text, Text in Quilts

Summer’s Ending

August 25, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

As the nights get shorter and a few bits of color are starting to appear in trees one is reminded that summer is fast coming to an end. I went off to Mill Sight Lake along with other FAB gals for a weekend of talk and quilt work. We did swim in the lake too, but due to a much needed rain on Sunday we did not get any boat work in. We talked and discussed all sorts of things including the projects we where working on. Patti made Pillow cases and Judy and Nancy worked on Disappearing Squares- a block with lots of possibilities. The food was great and we had a good time.

Progress Report: Deep Jellies This work is 37” long and 41.5 “ wide. I did stay true to my vow to do hand work on it every day for and hour and it got done this week. I sure enjoy the mixing of the orange and blue. The dyed blue green lace and the deep blue ribbons represent the parts of the jellyfish that capture the food and pull it into the center so digestion can begin. I still find the idea that these colorful fellows live in total darkness.

Tall Text This quilt is 49” long and 32.5” wide. started this project in Rosalie Dace’s class at QBL. I did reflective quilting in the negative spaces around the text in this work. It has been a good week to finish things up as I prepare for my travels. I like to come back with a clean studio as I am sure I will get lots of new ideas on this trip.

Far Off Forests I am now done with the free motion work on this piece. I need to get new stretcher bars to finish it as the machine work has so distorted it that it will not stretch to fit the ones I have.

Ethel’s Scrap Nine Patch I inherited this box full of leftovers from Ethel. I took it on the camping weekend. I had one idea about how to use these colorful pieces but the other gals have convinced me to make a nine patch quilt with them.

This is a shot of all of the parts I put together over the weekend that I am now ready to cut into 5” squares and mix with solids for this project. I know I would not have done it in this fashion without the influence of the other gals.

Label Block # 75 I only got one block done this week. I have several near completion though so I will keep my numbers correct.

I will be traveling with Marty for the next few weeks so the next post will be Sept 15.

Happy Trails to you as well.

Carol

Collage Based Work, Deep Jellies, Far Off Forests, Felt Work, Going Deep, Ivy Wall, Label Blocks, Tall Text

Work Week

August 18, 2016 admin

Hello-

I saw this young fellow in the cematery on my walk this week. Later I watched in horror as he ran across Comstock Avenue dodging cars and into the woods behind Manley Field House. Good luck Bambi!

This week was one where I got a lot of studio time and although I have not finished much I feel good about what is going on. Uneventful weeks are good for reflection I find. In class with Rosalie Dace at QBL she stressed the importance of Values in our work. Now I have heard that many times but I just never really got the concept. One of my fellow class mates showed me how to see it more clearly and although I have not got the whole idea yet I am seeing what they both meant.

Here is a photo of a group of fabrics that I think work together. In color they seem to have a wide range of values. ( this is were my eye needs training) because when the same fabrics are viewed in black and white it is easy to see there is very little middle value in this collection. So now I need to go back in to the stash and fine a few more pieces in the middle range like the grayed oranges to have more values in this work.

It is good to always be growing.

Progress Report:Going Deep I added the backing to this work after I stretched it yesterday. I really enjoy the building up of the layers of these wool based projects. This is the first one where I do not have a canvas under the fiber piece and I think that allows for more a feeling of buoyancy. The thread build up on these works takes a lot more time then I think will when I start. But the final effect is well worth the efforts. Sometimes it only takes such a small bit of fabric or yarn to really add color to an area. It is like building a puzzle with flexible pieces.

Deep Jellies I am still doing the hand quilting on this project. I have been putting in an hour a day on that process- but it is a big quilt so I have about one third of it done now.

Tall Text I started this in Rosalie’s class. The top is all assembled now and I am in the quilting stage. I am doing reflective machine work around the cut up letter units with variegated thread. I think the textural interest will add a nice dimension to the work.

Ivy Wall This is an early stage for this work. The butterfly will all be done in thread painting with the machine. The image is mounted on organza with tear away stabilizer on the back. I did the brown leaves as a rubbing with pastels last summer. There is a little machine work at the bottom so I know this technique will work.

Far Off Forests- wool work From this corner one can see that it only takes a small scarp to build up an area with a different color.

New Project This is my current three challenge piece. It is all one unit now and I am pondering ways to quilt is as well as the way I want it oriented. This shot is exactly upside down from the original, But some how it works better for me.

Label Blocks #73 and #74

I am pushing my self to get a few blocks ahead as I know I am going away for a three weeks at the end of August.

Keep Creating

Carol

Deep Jellies, Going Deep, Label Blocks

Full Summer

August 11, 2016 admin

Hello,

Summer is proving to be hot and dry here in central New York. I am still washing out fabrics form Carol’s class at QBL. The top half of this photo is stuff from the class. The bight bottom half is what I did at the play day meeting of the Mixed group on Sat. We did discharge work and paint printing due to the water shortage. The day started out with Pat showing us the simple process of using watered down bleach to remove color. We watched and then went to work applying the knowledge.

This shot is of Anne and Anne working out in the sun.

The drying lines quickly filled with beautiful fabrics.

Not all of us worked out side.

Pricilla and I both work away in the barn with paint and acrylic ink. I did my printing with shaving cream and inks. I tried using shaving cream and water color too- but it ran when I heat set it as I sprits it with water. The yellow is ink and the red is water color and it ran. I was experimenting and when one does that there are no guarantees.

I was very successful with the other pieces however. The fabric was beautiful and we had fun.

Yesterday I went off to Susan’s and played. She was busy cutting stencils and working on a big layered project.

Sally was there as well doing paper clay figures. She is marring the paper lay with drift wood to create her figures.

Regina was doing hand work on her projects that are due for a show by the 29th. I did hand work on my Deep Jellies quilt. We talked and worked all day and everyone made progress on there various projects. It is good to work with others some times.

Progress Report: Deep Jellies I did a lot of quilting on this on Wed. and I tacked down the fuzzy orange around the big jelly fish. I made an assignment for myself to do and hour on this every day for the next few weeks.

Class project This project along with three others also need hand work attention so that is part of the reason I though I should start to dedicate an hour a day to hand work.

Felted Wool works I keep moving forward on these projects. The gold one is ready for stretching. This close up is just one small section of it.

Going Deep This blue wool one is almost done too. I discovered that it is longer then my stretchers so I will lose about six inches of it. Again I am learning. I do not know how much the wool with shrink when I do the machine work because this green one will not fit the stretchers already and I have just started the machine work on it.

New work This is my new three challenge piece. I have barely started it so there is not much to see yet. I do like using the collage as my starting place for work. Looking with more intensity seems to stretch me more then my typical approach of responding to what is on the pin wall all the time.

Label Block 72 And the beat goes on with this project.

Keep Creating

Carol

Briare Patch, Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, QBL- Quilting By the Lake, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

QBL 2016 Plus

August 4, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hell,

So much has happened in the last weeks it is hard to know where to start. Quilting by the lake was as wonderful as ever. I helped hang the quilt show for QBL on the Friday before. We started out with a empty gym and over the course of the day filled it with beautiful quilts. This shot is of a special exhibit is of work by Debbie Heaps. She did one of the little lectures about her work during week one where she explained her process and philosophy of quilting. It was great.

I had a class with Carol Southerlund called in the Thick of It. She is a strong teacher with lots to share. The first day she sent us out at noon to find images that we enjoyed. I got hooked on the patterns and shapes in car tail lights. These images turned into the inspiration for our foam stamps. We did them in both positive and negative.

This is a shot of my work space on the third day.

My good friend Regina was seated behind me.

There was lots of work going on . Carol showed us how she built her steamer to fix color in cloth on Thur eve.

She also showed us how to discharge fabric. This is a shot of part of the class wearing out masks. One can never be to careful when it comes to using chemicals in dyeing.

My friend Sharron worked in Independent Studio. This is her sixth summer of working on six Dear Jane Quilts. She is doing the triangle boarder blocks now and she assures me that they will all be done by next summer.

Friday Evenings at QBL is show an tell form the classes were students hold up There work and the teacher’s explain what they did.

Randy was in Valerie Goodwin’s class and did many little works.

There are two other parts to the final evening. There is a raffle and my friend Ethel Whittamore gave me one of her unfinished quilt to put into this project. I finished it and put it in the raffle as she requested. The money goes to the scholarship fund. Sally Davis won the quilt. She was an old friend of Ethel’s too so I am sure it went to a good home.

The teachers also altered bags that are then auctioned off to add more money to the scholarship fund.

It was a good week and I went home tired.

I unloaded my car with the dye stuff and packed it again for week two and my class on Pattern, Rhythem and Repetition with Rosalie Dace.

Like week one there were lectures. John Kubiniec talked on Monday and showed all the quilts that are in his new book Spin on Drunkards’s Path. The book came out this week too.

Nancy Bailes also did a talk for us. She will be teaching her

techniques next year. I am so happy for her.

Rosalie started us out with some paper work were we built our designs. She spent a lot of time talking about value and I think I have a better understanding of it now. This is a lay out on my desk of light , medium and dark values that is considered for my piece.

This shot is of my work space on day two.

Again Regina was seated behind me. This is an early shot of her first piece in Rosalie’s class.

I got involved with Graffiti again in this class and did my name in two colors on different backgrounds.

I then sliced them up and reassembled them in this pattern. It is all put together now and I am pondering how to quilt it.

At the end of class we had a short critique. John was in the class and this was his work for the week.

Regina and I also took down the part of the quilt show. That process always make me feel sad.

This is how it looked before we started. In the end it was just a gym again.

Week two ended with the same pattern as week one. Here is Debbie with her top and Jean Riley too.

Again the teachers did bags and made more money for the Scholarship fund.

Sat. morning I got up and went to Ithaca to take down the Diva 15 show. I had great help so it did not take long.

These are two of my woks that were in that show.

Briar Patch was in it too.

I feel I am still recovering but I did go to both the QuIG’s meeting and the Diva meeting on Tuesday.

Noel was in Rosalie’s Transparencies class the first week This is one of her works.

Lori started this work at QBL.

Liesa did this work for her living room wall.

Maureen is doing free motion machine work on her work now. It is fun.

Susan shared her Bronte sister dolls with us. The Diva group is so diverse that it is always exciting to see what folks are doing. I enjoy it very much.

Label Blocks #70 and 71 I did manage to keep at this project and made progress.

Keep Creating

Carol

Deep Jellies, Felt Work, Garden Gate, Generational Whispers, Going Deep, Label Blocks, Natural Elements, Sweetheart Tree, Trees

Preparations

July 14, 2016 admin

Hello,

This week has been a quite one and most of my efforts have gone toward preparation for two weeks of Quilting By the Lake. That begins on Sunday. But I begin helping with the hanging of the quilt show on Friday. I will be taking a dyeing class the first week so I have spent a lot of time pulling things together for that and soda soaking fabric. I am looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones. There will be no blog post for the next two weeks do to my classes. The next post will be Aug 4.

Progress Report: Generational Whispers

I put in a lot of time on this piece this week. I started out by taking Gwen off and re drawing her. Then I put her on again. There are still some stitching wholes, but I will remove them with water.

The I went forward to add Wendy and Alexis. I am going to rework Alexis a bit so I will not show her at this time.

Garden Gate The quilting step is going along nicely now. he paper patters help me keep the size correct with this one. I can also add the design beyond the print on the fabric with the paper stencils. They are made of paper and getting rather shabby now. It is a good thing I only need to make two more copies of them before I begin the fill in quilting.

Sweetheart Tree This is the saved work I started altering last week. With the quilt work complete the piece got its blossoms. The plan it to add beads in the green and blue to the centers. That will add another texture and build a focal point in each flower.

Deep Jellies The hand quilting is going slowly forward on this piece. It has been too nice out doors in the evening to set inside and watch TV so I do not put much time in on it.

Going Deep This felted work in building nicely. It is the only one with a title too so that is why it is listed separately. This is still a very early stage.

Wool Work This piece is nearly complete. I have not formulated a title for it however. That will happen before I stretch it.

Wool work III . Again no title yet. This one is at the adding fabric on top stage. They are mostly just pined in place. The two greens hanging off the bottom are possibilities.

Wool work IV is still at step one without any fabric added at all.

Label Blocks #68 and #69 I tried to get a head on this project this week as I know I will not be around to do this type of hand work.

Keep Creating

Carol

Diva Meetings, Felt Work, Garden Gate, Label Blocks

Diva 15 Show- plus

July 7, 2016 admin

Hello,

This week has been a full one starting with the opening of the Diva 15 Show. This work is Anne’s and it sure looked great on the gallery wall. I think the whole show was a wonder of our diversity and talent.

Sally’s piece just glowed on the wall with its bright colors. I enjoyed the large number of people who visited and talked with lots of them. There where fellow quilters of course and lots of younger folks too.

Maureen really showed off her shobori with this piece. The evening went quickly and I had a good time.

This is Alice’s entry for the 15 wall. It is one of the works that has sold already too. She also has a show at the Earlville Opera House this month. The 15 wall was a big draw as the display took the entire back wall of the space. Cindy’s little work was a real gem with all its machine worked movement.

I was espically taken by Noel’s piece because it grew out of a play day she and I had with Susan last summer.

Susan’s work looked good near the food table and I heard lots of positive things about it. I feel the opening was a success and the whole show is as well.

This is also the fist week of the month so, I had meetings. The QuIG’s had lots of nice work. Angela is making great progress with her felted pieces and Liz keeps putting out her little blocks every week too.

The Diva meeting is doing more critique work so not a lot of pieces were/are completed . Only Regina has a big display of her Black and White studies. The were based on paper sketches she did in a class. But all the fiber work she did in isolation. They were so strong and went she changed their orenatation there were big changes too. I find them dramatic and can hardly wait to see were she goes with these ideas.

Progress Report: Blue Iris This work is 39″ l X 34” w. It features the Sachiko panel of course. The Japanese characters are scattered around as I felt they went together. I ended up making a panel for the back with the translations on it. That seemed like the simplest way to transmit that information. This panel is Luck.

This panel is Good Health. This is another Ethel project as she had all of this fabric sorted into a little bag. The Sachiko was not even started so I feel this is more my work then many of the other projects of her that I have completed.

Garden Gate I am now ready to start the quilting on this project. I am using the orange print as the basis for the quilting patters. They are so complex that I drew them in paper and cut them out. I will now stitch around the paper patters in the non printed areas.

Generational Whispers I took this work to the Diva meeting and got some good direction from my fellow art quilters. I stitched down Mom and myself yesterday. I decided that Gwen who was the only person in profile did not work so I took her image off the surface and will re do her. Sometimes errors are made – “Rumpus” as Susan calls them.- They lead to growth.

Wool works There are no titles for these wool pieces yet. But this on is the oldest of the four and it has the most machine work on it. There is a lot of distortions of the wool as the machine work is added. All four of these works are based on rock structure photos. This one is from on of my visits with Marty. I am not staying with the colors of the rocks- but I am trying to keep with the dark and light patterns. I enjoy this step and I like how the threads, yarns and bits of fabric build up the surface. The first two are built on a tweed wool base. This piece has a great deal of silk fabric built up on top of it. Beth gave me a bag of silk scarves last fall and I finally got into it and I am having a good time using them.

This wool piece is done on a black felted wool skirt that I cut up. Building over the dark color sure makes the wool roving glow some how. This piece only has about and hour’s worth of work at the sewing machine in it at this point.

This wool piece has not had any sewing machine work done on it. The roving has only been punched into the skirt felt. This is an example of step one for all these wool projects. I have not worked much on this project as I usually run out of time before I get to it.

New Work I do not seem to do well when the pin wall is blank so I started another 3 Challenge piece. It is in the fabric/color selections stage. Here is the collage that is the inspiration.

Label Block # 68 Week another square.

Keep Creating

Carol

Blue Iris, Felt Work, Generational Whispers, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing, Weeds

Openings

June 30, 2016 admin

Hello,

Summer is blooming all around my house. I love all the color that surrounds one this time of year.

Have you crossed over from the room to another and then stopped cold -not remember what you were in search of. It happens to me all the time and then I read that is a common thing. The scientist studying the brain have determined that this is part of a self protective alert system man kind has carried from his early development. Moving from the inside of a cave to the out side world meant that one had to clear the brain of all distractions to be aware of the new environment. The same is true of going from the protection of a forest out into a meadow. These clearing or emptying of mind the may have meant the difference between life and death to our ancestors. So the next time you forget why you went to the living room forgive your self and chalk it up to old mental protection processes.

Progress Report: No Clue This project is 50” l X 41.5” w. It fits in my three challenge too. Snow dyed and direct dye painted fabrics where used in this project. It was based on a collage and it has some of Ethel’s fabric in it. The quilting lines run parallel to the edges of the color changes in this work.

Generiational Whispers The faces are starting to be applied to the surface on this work. A few of the lines are new to the portraits but many are just drawn over the machine lines that were on the organza. This person is my grandmother Ruth.

Blue Iris I just used reflective quilting on this project. I have labels on the back noting what the oriental symbols mean. I am still quilting.

Weeds I am still working away on the flower heads on this project. There did not seem to be a lot of time for hand work this week. I am enjoying working on the discharged fabric that Randy made.

New work This top is almost complete now. The quilting pattern is the new part of this challenge. The big orange print is rayon that is backed with iron on inner facing so it will not stretch. It was a gift and was a pair of bib pants in its last life.

Wool projects I have started adding silk paper, yarn and fabrics to the surface of this project. This is my favorite part of the process. My friend Tanya gave me some of her unused stretcher bars last week so I put three sets of them together and started more wool projects. This is the early stage of one of them. I start out laying roving in patterns and then felt it down. The next step is the layering of more material on top to add the texture.

Found Project This project was in the bottom of a basket of UFO’s. I was frustrated with this project last fall. But looking at it with new eyes now -I see a direction to go with it.

Label Block #67 Another block done.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

All posts by admin

Entering Shows

A Bit about process

Travel With Marty- To Lincoln Nebraska

Summer’s Ending

Work Week

Full Summer

QBL 2016 Plus

Preparations

Diva 15 Show- plus

Openings

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer