I have been a little under the weather this week. I have taken lots of naps and consumed a lot of water. This slowdown has helped me focus a little and think about where I am and where I want to go . I have lots of friends and I have the freedom to explore. It’s a wonderful time for me and for that I am truly Thankful.
Yesterday, I went to Nancy’s house and we spent a fun morning painting sky for one of her quilts. At the end of the time we decided that we needed to revisit this activity and so we will alter this work and try again early next week.
Progress Report: Necklace
This is the last of the necklaces that I have created flowers for. I put away the materials and will try to wear them this year. It has been fun and I may use some of the techniques to add additional textures to some quilts in the future. One can never have too many tool in the toolbox of processes.
Harmony I am filling in the symbol of Harmony with the chain stitch on the surface of this quilt. The process of doing this hand work is very calming and good for a person like me who is not in top form. It is also filling in the time that I had been doing the hand work on my Daily News project.
Chrysanthemum
I have now finished assembling this top. I think that this time I got a little carried away with the strange angles . It is not at all flat at this point and I hope that I can press it into that condition. I may have to open some seams and add or subtract to do that process. I am not convinced that this is the up position for this work either. I will do the look for a flat surface and rotate thing for a while before I go forward to the quilting step.
I want to tell my readers in advance that I will be away next week and there will be no post. I will be back and the next entry will be Oct 2.
When one needs ideas for solutions or inspiration I believe one has some choices. I was struggling with part of the Stone Church project. There is a old cemetery that is a part of that area and I wanted to include it in my piece. But I was having trouble so I took a walk in the near by cemetery to refresh my mind. I was surprised by the presence of the deer. There were two actually and the cemetery is surrounded by city on all four sides. Looking at how compact these stones and how much they overlapped has helped me formulate a solution to the work I must do on the project.
Sometimes the ideas are as much about paying attention as anything else. There was a FAB meeting at my house this week. Folks showed their work and Victoria is moving along nicely with this quilt. She got inspired by Ginny’s silks that she had purchased a few weeks ago. They are shown here in the orange and gray strip. ( I got inspired by that same orange silk) I think the shadow of the leaf looks wonderful too. She also showed a top that she had assembled for a bed quilt that she is making for her new house. I am so impressed by the large number of prints she uses and the colors. I would not have put that strong orange with the turquoise myself- but I love the combination. So by paying attention to this little surprise I now have a jumping off color combination to try in the future. The real trick here is to note the surprises and in my case write them down. I do that in my idea journal and it helps me when I need to get going with a new piece.
Progress Report:
Foundations XXI Elsies Stone – Cape Cod Rock 43″ X 44″ $595.00
Foundations XXI Elsie’s Stone- Cape Cod Rock The Road Less Traveled
I am finally done with this project. I love all the texture on the surface of this wonderful stone. I am very grateful that Elsie gave me this parting gift. The many fascists of its surface with the limited colors make it fascinating to me. I think I could revisit this rock and work from a different side too.
I used yarn , nylon netting and lots of torn fabric bits to produce the colors and textures. There is also my favorite silk paper at work on this piece.
The Road Less Traveled 35″ X 45″ $535.00
The Road Less Traveled
I started this quilt in Rosalie Daces Color class at QBL. I have finally completed the process. I used many of the techniques she taught us. I did insert slender curved lines into sections. I let colors “bleed” or flow across seam lines to make connections. I used raw edges to add texture and I hand embroidered across parts of the surface to draw sections together. Even using all thoughts techniques I did not use all the techniques that she taught us. As a teacher she has a lot to share and she does so very willingly.
I enjoyed using these
earthtones and I will continue to pursue the techniques she taught. I am still not happy with size of my slender inerts- so there is work to do there.
Stone Church
I already mentioned the bit with the cemetary so I will not cover that again. I added lots of machine lines on the roads as they were gravel and I remember how there seemed to be lots of “tracks” of the tries on them. I remember too that Grandmother Ester liked to drive down the middle and only pulled the turquoise ford over when she could see a car coming toward her.
Harmony I am done with the assembly of the form of this quilt. I decided to use the character that
represents Harmony for the central focus and so far I have just quilted around that shape to create the quilting pattern. I want to fill in the character with black hand stitches/ patterns so it stand out. But I have not come up with the correct stitch to do that job yet. So I keep looking in books and paying attention to the world around me and hope that I will find inspiration. Until then the project will just hang in the studio awaiting the correct solution.
New Work In Valeri’s Goodwins class she had a do a fabric ” sketches” of 4″ X 6″ before we started work. So in keeping with using the best the teachers have to offer I made the sketch first. This is the one I selected as my jumping off place. I wanted to use the big printed flower I created a few weeks ago as a big part of this work. Now I am in the process of pinning up parts that I think will work to do the job. I have split the two flowers apart and added parts of a third to the design. Very few parts are connected or solid in its position at this point . This is fun but scary part of the process- but I need the challenge.
Daily News This project is finally complete. I have now sewn all the blocks closed and will continue to play with placement for as long as the process interests me. This will be the last post where the project will appear because at this point all the finished units have been appeared at least twice and some more times then that. I have enjoyed doing a daily sewing pieces and it is very true that the whole is made of of lots of little parts. If I had started out with the intention of making 180 hand embroidered blocks I do not think I would have done it. But by making small manageable units- it as a doable task. I have been encouraged by Susan to submit this idea as an airticle for Quilting Arts so that is my next project.
The last fling of summer is over and the kids are all back in school. I find that this time offers me a great time to reorganize as I prepare for the fall and up coming winter. I need to sort a bit as I put away the shorts and summer tees. It is also a good time for me to look critically at what I really use. Like that wonderful divided basket that I thought I would use to carry dinner things to the patio that I never even pulled out of the cupboard this summer. The back end of my station wagon is full of items like that- all perfect ally good, but not necessary to my life that I am now passing along. It is very easy to pile up too much stuff- so now I feel a bit lighter and look forward to doing a bit of wall painting next week.
I hung a solo show at Man in the Moon Gallery in Kings Ferry on Friday last week. There are about a dozen works in this show all featuring the golds, oranges and browns of fall. I had a good time preparing and hanging the show.
Tuesday this week was the first Tuesday of the month and so I had meetings. The QuEG’s had wonderful things to share.
Angela is creating a wonderful hand embroidered baby quilt for her first grand child. The theme is Australian birds and animals. The Kookaburra is one of them. She is doing a beautiful job .
Barb is creating family history works with bits of hand work from her relatives.
Linda is quilting away on a very colorful lap quilt to keep her knees comfortable this winter. I think these colors will keep summer memories worm too.
Liz kindly modeled my latest fabric flower necklace at the meeting. I thank her for that. I only have one more to complete.
She also has been taking a
watercolor class and did some wonderful work in that area as well.
Then in the evening, I went off to the Diva meeting. This time of year seems to make many quilters want to dye. Both Sally and Ruth put in time on that topic this month. They both show their individuality even in their dying colors and techniques. I love that. Sally is also putting together a small accordion book to send to Elsie who has moved away. Everyone is adding a small 4″ X 6″ page to the work. The wood cut is by Liese and the Fimo bird is by Donna. The book will be sent to her when it is complete. It is so very thoughtful of Sally to come up with this idea.
Liese is working on wonderful project using Valerie Goodwin’s book, Art Quilt Maps her jumping off point. This is her start of her work displaying her favorite place in the whole world. This is just an early stage she says and she has yet to add houses and churches and trees to the work. I find it fascinating and look forward to seeing how it grows and changes with her efforts.
Anne is working on several things. One is a block exchange that she is creating wonderful reverse applique leave blocks for. I like the fact that she has pieced the fabric for the appliqued units she is using to create her leaves. They will all be unique that way.
Susan made us all laugh with her big head parrot choris. She made the removable paper mache’ heads over little soft bodied little creatures that she had picked up at garage sales for about ten cents a piece. What fun.
Noel does wonderful work with silk and this is a close up of some of her style. She too dyes many of her fabrics to get the tones and shades she wants. They are just luscious and I can hardly keep my fingers off of them. She really is a master of curved piecing.
I feel so very fortunate to be a part of such strong artistic groups of women.
Progress Report: The Road Less Traveled I am still doing the hand and machine work on this piece. I am doing lots of fly stitch as well as chain and ladder stitches on this one.
Stone Church This work has not appeared in a while. I did not know what I wanted to do with it. Like Liesi it is based on a memory of a location. I was stuck so I looked again in Valerie Goodwin’s book and decided to push forward. I painted the church on the organza and and then I carefully placed dark fabrics behind the opening in the decaying structure. It is getting there but the concept is not quite in place yet. Some work just takes lots of time.
New Work This is a close up of the quilt using the orange kimono fabric I purchased a few weeks ago. I am almost ready to start quilting it. I thought I knew what I wanted to do and had picked out some wonderful Chinese Characters to use as my pattern – then I realized – this is Japanese material- not Chinese. I will keep thinking.
Daily News I am still working on finishing the blocks for this project. But I can see the end of the process now. I am still adding/ subtracting and altering the units daily and that is why there is so much size in the photos. I do not always stand at the same distance from one day to the next.
Today on my walk I was struck by the effects of sunshine and light. It was not sunny today by I noticed how bright the Black Eyed Susan’s were at the entrance to the condo complex down the road where there is full sun shine. By contrast the there is so much shade in my yard that there are mushrooms growing along the drive on the north side of my house. Granted they are quite small- only a out the size of a young child’s finger tip- but growing there none the less. Sunshine never falls on this area of my yard, but Nature still finds a way to put life into the space. I am so lucky to live in such an abundant part of the world. To add to the abundance of my visual world there is an abundance of activities going on too.
Last week I spent three days exploring with Cheri and Terney printing techniques. We started out intending to do wood cuts and we all did one, but soon found out that although the look is wonderful, the process does not allow for much cross grain cutting. I think now that our tools needed a bit of sharpening because we all became quite tired of all the effort necessary to do the work. Cherri was the most successful and her’s are the two round ones on the pin wall. Treney had never done Gelli prints before and the other prints on the pin wall are her works in that area. I decided to make foam prints and got going creating graffiti stamps of everyone’s name. I wrote the names out with a paint brush so I would have a flowing design and then did a second copy on the paper side of the sticky fun foam. I then carefully cut out the graffiti with an exacto knife so I would have a positive and a negative copy of the works. This picture shows Cherri’s name. The black is the foam and it appears backward so when it is printed it will be forward. The red graffiti of her name is a back view and it still has the paper on it. Tierney printed her name on the Gelli plate fabric she created the first day. I have not cut out my name yet because I made it too big for any of the clear plastic that I mount these on. I will have to save my take home container from Wegman’s salad to accommodate them. We had a good time working talking and laughing. It is always more fun to explore with other folks.
I made one last stamp on Friday and printed it when I got home. Last week when FAB went to Genny’s she had a wonderful kimona on the wall and I could not get the flower image out of my head. So I designed and created my own curcumthum. I made one fourth of the blossom and then rotated it as I printed. I did a second color on top just off center a little. I look forward now to using that fabric in the near furture. I found out that I really like the flexibility and speed of foam stamping too.
Then on Tue this week I went to the Kuhlman Foundation opening at Cornell University. Seven scholarships are given to students with a theme that they need to interpert. This year the theme was Layers of Leather. The approaches were all different and the students were there to explain their work. It was a fascinating event.
Then there were also some interesting things going on in a hall display as well. The second mini show was of wearable art that was all lazer cut polor fleece. Valerie Goodwin my teacher at QBL had talked about this process in my class and I was delighted to see a second example of the process.
Progress Report: Elsie’s Stone I am still working away on this Foundations piece. I am having a good time working with the close values in this stone as well as playing with the strong textures. Once I heard that one should make art to be seen on two levels- from a distance and then drawing the viewer in to take a second look. I think this series does a good job doing just that.
Necklace# 7 I still seem to find the necklace process that Noel started in me a few month ago working for me. I think I am nearing the end of the necklace obsession though. I think I may apply this idea to a quilt top in the furture. I do have two necklaces that are started so I will finish then an then go forward with that idea.
New Work I pulled out fabrics that I though I might use in a new project starting with one of the silks( the orange, white and black print) that I had purchased from Ginny last week. I think I will add some more browns to the mix and then begin to build the work.
Daily News This project was at a stand still until the velcro arrived. It is moving forward now and although I only seem to get five blocks done a day I am making progress.
I hope all enjoy the Labor Day holiday week end in their own fashion.
As fall approaches I feel the need to “tidy the nest” a bit. As a result of that feeling, I have been sorting out old works and finding new homes for them. So I took along this quilt when I went to the Dentist and it is now hanging in his office. It took a min. before he saw the tooth brushes. He was delighted and so was I as the work was only setting in a dark closet before and I think art should be out in the world. I feel so fortunate that I can share in this fashion.
This week the FAB group went on a field trip too. We visited the home studio of Ginny Spina to see her silk /Komona collection. It was wonderful. Her home is beautiful and so are her gardens. She sells on etsy at www.silkhouse.etsy.com. We got to see and handle the silk. Nancy even tried on one of the Kimono’s that had arrived in the mail that morning. Victoria and I both purchased some of her scarps and now I have a new pile of fabrics and the ideas are flowing. Nancy purchased on of Ginny’s scarves and her custom designed pins that day as well. We all had lots of fun and made new connections.
Progress Report: Ju Ju June
Ju Ju June !8″ X 30″ $190.00
As I predicted this quilt is now complete. There is lots of experimentation in this piece. This is my first attempt at using only canvas as the fabric base. I also had full control of the colors and patters on that base and although I really enjoyed that aspect I do not feel like I explored it fully. So I need to keep putting myself in that position and dealing with that challenge. I also feel I need to do a similar project again because the process is still very much a mimic of Katie Pasquini’s process. I did enjoy mixing the metal with the gathered ribbon “flower” shapes and the beads.
Rafter Room This quilt is now hanging over the door to the rafter room were it will remain for it’s life time. Because it is summer I am not aware of how many drafts it is stopping, but I imagine it will do the job in the fall and winter. I really enjoyed doing the free motion work on this project. It was not only fun to trace the shapes printed on the mud cloth it was fun to extend them out into the blank areas. Then I went forward to drawing and filling in the blank areas as well. I think that I will look at pattern with a little bit of a different eye- and notice more details as a result of this project.
I got to use up the end of one of the fabrics that I had created in Judy Langele’s class at QBL 2 three years ago too.( It is the bottom of this work with the blue gears and dark violet in it)
The Road Less Traveled I am still doing the free motion work on this piece. I am trying to sort of soften the hard seam lines with the machine work. I will add hand work as well.
Foundations XXI- Elise’s Rock/ A Cape Cod Stone This is a rock that Elsie Dents gave me. She has moved to Pennsylvania and we will miss her strong graphic bird based work in the DIVA group. She was cleaning and found this stone that she had collected on the beach at Cape Cod and thought of me. So she brought to me at the last meeting that she attended. I like the strong lines across the stained quarts so I am using it as my jumping off point for the next Foundations work. I am still working with the out side shape of this quilt part as well as the light and dark on the surface.
Daily News The news goes on and on. I am enjoying the playing part of the process now. I thank Barb every time I finish a block because her way of completing the process is so much faster than mine.
I have been on the go a lot of late and this morning I was feeling a bit out of balance. There were lots of tasks I need to do, but I decided to treat myself to a walk. When I go I do not take my phone or any electric devices to distract me. I use the time to pay attentions to the physical world I live in. I noted the sunshine, the many bird songs, and found the visual surprise of that the Popular tree is already shedding golden leaves. As I walked along the street I noticed that the fallen maple seeds looked like the birds in flight. I felt thankful that my legs were still able to carry me along at the pace that I wanted and returned home with a hand full of weed pods to draw later and a positive feeling of confidence about taking on all the little tasks that I needed to do. I also realized how much I need that bit of physical exercise for balance in my life.
The Diva’s had a play day last week and there was a lot going on. Cheri was marbleizing in one section of the room. I was do that as well although I was using a different method.
My work was pale because I was using ink on water and Cheri was using paint on a gel base.
There was lots of laughter, talk and sharing of ideas. Sally, Ruth and Susan did consolations as well. Everyone got a lot done and we all went happy home having made progress at our various projects. Unstructured days of work with fellow artists is a wonderful thing.
There was also a FAB meeting this week. Again lots of sharing and words of encouragement. Victoria shared the top she started in Rosalie’s class with us. The colors are based on a photo close up of a tulip. One of our challenges was to work with a color that we did not normally use. She chose the bright pink.
Progress Report: Ju Ju June I am to the quilting stage on this work. The free motion step is fun and enjoyable for me. I will finish the quilting and do the binding this week and then post the final next time.
Rafter Room Project This project too is left over from before QBL. It is to be a cover over the door to the rafter room from the bed room. I think it will stop the draft that I feel in the winter. Again I am to the fun part of drawing in the images in free motion. I like that fact that I not only get to complete the figures that I cut up from the mud cloth, but I also get create some new ones to fill the spaces between the printed fabric. This example shows the outlining and the filling in of those drawings on the surface. I am about two thirds done at this time.
The Road Less Traveled I have now completed the assembly of my top from Rosalie’s color class. The color that I seldom use is the green brown color in this quilt. It is a good challenge I think and it did make me streach- one of my personal goals for this class. I am almost ready to start adding hand work and machine drawing on the surface of this piece.
Daily News
This project continue to move forward. I ran out of velco for the connections so I am at a bit of a stand still. I have ordered more and now I just wait for it’s arrival.
Please send a comment and let me know what you think about what I am doing.
Summer is marching forward at an alarming pace. I am still feeling the effects of Quilting by the Lake as my buddies share their work from the classes they took.
This shot is of Linda’s project from Rosalie Dace’s class using Kandinski as inspiration. Liz was in that class too. They sure both have different works from the same workshop. Liz also did a hand works class . I really like her pieces from that as well. they were not the only ones who took classes.
Linda and Sally were both in Valerie Goodwins class the first week. One of the projects form that class was to make a sampler of the types of effects on could add to the surface to alter the look. This is Sally solution. They are both working on bigger works using some of these techniques now. Sue Ellen took a painting class where they learned how to create different effects with paint on fabric. These arr just a few of her many examples. They were wonderful.
Barbara is taking a class on line and she is learning how to cut through many layers of cloth to create a different type of effect. This work is in progress. She created the color change in the center section with extensive thread work and a little paint.
Lynn has finished a long time needlepoint piece. She says it has been so long in the making that she is not sure when she started- but it has been at least 10 years.
Corrine got a new stump doll for her home in Arizona.
Susan told us about her teaching and showed us her sampler of garlic paintings in this accordion book that she uses for presentation.
Liesa has been having lots of company this summer. She still managed to produce this great work about her concern for the melting ice poles.
She feels it is not menacing enough to produce the effect she is looking for.
I spent two days with Susan playing in her studio this week. One day was with her friend Linda. They played with Gelli plates. I worked on college and did cards. I was down to only two in my box. The second day I was with Susan, I experimented with writing tools on fabric and wrote quotations and drew pictures.
Progress report: Rafter Room This work is now ready to quilt. I have been making big pieced backs for years. At QBL , when Rosalie Dace was giving instructions about way to finish quilts she said,” Make the back interesting and relate it to the front with leftover pieces or similar colors. ” This is my back for the Rafter Room piece. It is nice to hear one’s ideas confirmed every once in a while.
Daily News Daily News is still a work in progress. I have about sixty of the units that still need backings. It takes about half and hour to add the velco to a square, stitch that to the finished front square, trim and then flip the unit right side out- then to finally stitch it closed to complete the process.
I took Daily News in its present state to the meetings I had this week and told the gals my story about the process. I then let them add the blocks for that day. It was fun and I got a lot of good feedback from that action.
The last imagewith the two squares on point were added by Liz when I showed the work at QuEGs. The velcor works on an angle and that adds a whole new way to go with the process. Friends sure can add to the wonder of each experience we have.
Let me know what you think of my blog by writing a comment.
QBL for this year is again complete. As usual I had a wonderful and creative experience. It all got started three weeks ago now when we started setting up the show for another year. I always find it a bit surprising how we can transform the gym into a study of color and pattern in the course of two days.
Emely, Rosalie and Marty
Then on Sunday we all begin with a banquet and get to see the old friends that help pull us back year after year. Classes begin on Monday morning and then we start our real growing, stretching and learning. I took classes this year from two fine teachers. Week one was a Color class with Rosalie Dace and week two I worked with Valerie Goodwin- Exploring Design Principles.
We started with two days of design exercise. This shot is of a technique that Rosalie taught us to achieve thin lines of color in one’s work. The picture is of some thin lines by Sally Abrams using the technique. We started our final project on Wed. I challenged myself to work with Orange and Purples and pinned all of this up on Wed eve before I left the class. I decided it was too much to work with all of these colors and pulled back and limited myself to mostly the purples with oranges accents. Then I applied what we had been taught about value and selected some Fuchsia of the same value as the orange to partner with it. I went to my usual building technique and started to layout my new project. I did insert some slender lines, but mine are not as good as what Sally demonstrated from what Rosalie taught us.
There were events to supplement our classes every night. Monday evening after show and tell we left the audtorium to find a double rainbow in the western sky. The second bow is very pale and to the right , but it is there. Then on Tue evening before the Mini Mall there was a third rainbow in the evening sky. What a great time to be studying and thinking about color.
I did pass out my little Creative Assistants again this year. Not only was I rewarded by lots of hugs and smiles for the little fellows, Rosalie surprised me with a little doll of a similar nature from South Africa. I feel so honored by this gift as I know she has limited space in her suitcase because she comes to the states to teach for six mouth stretches.
Along with all the planned stimulation there are also lots of sharing of ideas and discussions going on about all sorts of other ideas at meals and in dorm rooms. The atmosphere is super charged with ideas.
Then we start week two. I was in class with Valerie Goodwin and we started with design exercises using the seven design elements in paper. This first one is Rythem
Then Pattern.
This third one is Movement
We then posted the results in the hall under the correct titles and talked about them.
Contrast
Emphasis
Then we followed up the paper exercises with fabric ones using her techniques for building up the surface.
Balance
Unity
She further challenged us with two word contrasts as our final project. For that she added a twist, because not only did we choose a two word combo, but she then gave us all a second two work combo that she felt we needed. Then it got real quiet as we tackled our individual challenges. Mine
words were Transition/Culminaton and Expansion and Contraction. QBL is so full of helpful folks and it happens everywhere.
This shot is of two of my classmates Robin and Chris, talking possible solutions.
Randy is another long time friend that was in my class and she was just across the table
from me. It was wonderful to watch how she worked on the problems.
Of course I visited my friends and did all the other activites of QBL the second week as well. I enjoyed Valerie’s talk at the Schhweinfurth Art Center too.
This photo is of Donna Lamb the director of QBL and the Art Center talking with Elizabeth Busch at that event.
I visited friends in other classes and looked at what they were doing on Walk About Day.
It is always fun to see what is happening outside one’s own classroom.
Ethel with work from Rosalie Dace’s week two class.
The last evening of QBL we have class show and tell where folks show off the last days of work . This shot is of Barbara with her friend Kitsy,
in the bathroom where she changed into the dress she had created, fitted and put together in Studio Class. She looked great at show ans tell.
Then there was the final event- teacher apron auction to raise funds for the QBL scholarships for next year.
Dorothy Caldwell
Elizabeth Busch
Victoria Findlay Wolfe
Valerie Goodwin
Philippa Naylor
It was a wonderful two weeks and am so delighted that I can attend. I always get so much out of going to this conference. For years it was the only contact I had with other quilters from one year to the next and it served me well. I would encourage anyone who is at all interested in this art form to attend this next year.
This week I seem to be very aware of light. It all started on Thur eve when I went to dinner with my fellow artists Barbara. We sat outdoors as the evening was perfect. With awe< Barbara said “We have reached the Golden Light time of day.” Then she took this photo of me to prove her point. I so agree – I look like I am painted in gold. I was reminded the next evening of the power of light when I sat and watched fireworks exploding above my head for the fourth of July. The following evening I watched Mother Nature’s own firework display as the lighting bugs put on a show for us. The quarter moon moved across the sky and presented us with reflective light that night too. If that was not enough of a study in dark/light contrast, I saw one more example of the power of light and dark when we experienced a powerful thunderstorm with many streaks of light crossing the dark sky, on Tuesday. We need light to
Dusty Trails 22″ X 29″ $225.00
see color. I think I was taking it for granted and not really paying attention. But, this week I was reminded how many forms nature can present that wonderfully powerful tool to us.
Progress Report: Dusty Trails I have enjoyed working on this project. While I was doing the quilting I realized that almost every technique that I do to alter the surface of my work was represented here. There is liquid dishwasher soap drawing in line work on the dark browns. There is hand carved stamp work in the copper colored paint on the dark brown shown here too. I have an example of silk screen printing in the cream and brown section. The blue is hand painted inner facing and the skinny strip at the top of the first closeup and the thin strip at the bottom of the second one show, soy wax batik work. I do enjoy altering the surface of the fabric as well as embellishing the surface of my work.
Regina’s Lace This is a “saved work” for me. I did all the piecing of the white, purple and turquoise over a year ago. I did not feel it worked as a top that I wanted to put any more time into, so I had set it aside and it became buried in a stack of other pieces. I had even moved it to the scarpe bag to be cut into strips and turned into a part of a Scrap Happy project. But while looking for a place to use some wonderful lace pieces Regina had cut from old samples and then given to me. I came across the back ground piece and the two seemed to work together very well. I am now have a good time doing free motion flowers in the quilting part of this project.
Rafter Room I have an opening into a rafter room just off my bedroom and it needs a new cover so I started this project. When I begin a project I select the fabrics first. Then I choose one to be the feature. In this case that is the bold black and white print. I cut as many images as I could out of that fabric and loosely pinned them where I thought they might go in the composition. The measuring tape is pinned along the top and side to help me keep the size in mind as I am working. In this case I added the purples to the starter pieces to square them off as my beginning step of assembly. Then I add strips of fabric to the blocks along one side or another building my blocks. I try to work across the entire surface so I am looking and checking the color balancing as I go along. I continue to add and build the sections getting bigger and bigger with each addition as I fill in the blank spaces. This process means getting up after each seam, walking to the ironing surface , pressing and then pinning the pieces back on the pin wall. I then step back and check how the top is coming together. The pieces start to connect to one another and grow larger as the process continues . I just keep repeating the process until the top comes to completion. This process works for me and I enjoy doing it. It took me about three and a half hours to put this 24″X 60″ top together.
Old Sandstone Church I will be starting Quilting By The Lake ( QBL) on Sunday , and I am excited about that. I will have a class with Valerie Goodwin during week two. I enjoyed working with her before two years ago and think this class on Color will benefit me as well. I pulled out her new book “Art Quilt Maps” and worked through her recommended steps this week to start this piece. I only have two of the techniques she suggests here. I have a sketched out the building that will be the next step of the process. I will not get this completed until after QBL- but I am glad to have done a refresher before the class so I will get the most out of the experience.
Daily News I am still working away on turning and stitching shut the Daily’s for this piece. It is fun to change the work every morning with the squares that I have completed the evening before.
As we head for the 4 of July celebrations I have been thinking about seeing. I read “We don’t see what we see. We see what we want to see.” by ALan Fletcher. My first response to this was surprize. But as I though about it I agreed. I then though- Oh this is not so true of artists- we pay more attention to what we see. Then to test myself I tried to visualize my walking shoes that I wear almost daily and recall how many holes were there for laces. Five I though with confince…. but when I checked there are six, although I only have my laces in five of the holes. So I drew them as my drawing exercise this morning. This will help me really “see” them I though. And that is true, I really did see them, but in the looking at the shoes I shut out all the things around the shoes. I would be quickly overwhelmed by the visuals if I did not do that editing and selecting of things in my world. In the end I have to agree with Mr Fletcher- we all are confinded by our choices of “what we want to see”.
This week was the first Tuesday of the month of July so I went to meetings. QuEGS meant and we all had lots to share. Liz is making progress on her memory quilt for her friend. All the blocks are made now and she will begin the final assembly soon.
Linda C. showed us her crazy quilt and amazed us by flipping up the work to show the paper and that showed the planning pages she had under the sewn squares. Several of us admitted we would not have planned out as much as she did, but would have let the process tell us what to do next. We all have different procedures we follow as we work. This work will be a stunner when it is complete. The good thing about seeing the processes of others does help us all of us to think more carefully about our own work and consider if we can improve by following the the examples around us.
Angela is still being influnced by her tip to Hawaii. She showed us several beautiful silk painted flower pictures this week.
Then I was off to my DIVA meeting. Cheri shared her “Miss Liberty” wall piece and her new lady lizard( in the for ground) She mixes fabric and yarn in her sculptures and I think that is a great idea.
Alice had her fabric books to show us. They are so delightful. I enjoy how she mixes commercial fabric images- the water lily- with her own hand painted materials- the turtle.
Ruth assembeled all the units she had created in the class she took last month. They do make a pleasing little collection I think. And what a great visual review of techniques to have on the studio wall so one does not forget about them.
Progress Report: NewIris I am happy to say this work is now complete. I took it to both meetings on Tue and asked for ideas on the beards for the iris. I had thought that purple was the color to use, but the others felt yellow or white would be better.
New Iris 28″ X 22.5″
I tried both colors before I settled on the yellow. The yellow sure does pop forward on the purple flowers and draw the eye. That is what contrasting colors are suppose to do, but I do not think of it most of the time while I am working.
I like the depth this quilt has – all the applique on top of what I once thought was a completed work, helps that idea. I will try to keep this more in mind in the furture too.
East Window This work is done now . I made this quilt to put over the window in the east bedroom in the winter. I used a special batting that has a foil liner in the center to reflect heat into the room and cold out. There is not a lot of quilting on this work. I only stitched in the seam lines( in the ditch) to connect the top and back. I would have done a lot more machine drawing on the surface if it was not for window use.
Baby Quilt This one got completed this week as well. I was surprised when I finished putting the last hem stitches in last even and realized I had finished off three this week. The bad news is I have no new beginnings.
I try to be practical with baby quilts and make them so they can be easily washed. I also add a sleeve so they can hang on the wall if the parents choose. This is the second child for this family so there are two bears, one for each child. The bigger one is helping the smaller bear and that is my way of saying that they should care for one another and the older one is a part of the process.
I like the simple outline applique technique that is easy to use with this style of quilting. It goes quickly when the layout of the parts is done. One only needs to think about the layers of the pieces so there are as few starts and stops as possible. Here I did the mane first, then the ear, then the body, and last I added the reins and the eye details.
Daily News I can now see that it will take a lot of time to finish this piece. It takes a seven min. to machine add the velcro spot, and stitch around the two units , leaving an opening. When I set down to do the hand work I trim the corners and turn the block right side out, before stitching it closed. I get between four and five of them done in an hour. I know I am working as fast as I feel comfortable with– but the process of finishing up seems a long way off at this point.
Please leave me a comet in the area provided at the bottom. I would love to hear your thoughts.
I am and where I want to go . I have lots of friends and I have the freedom to explore. It’s a wonderful time for me and for that I am truly Thankful.
Progress Report: Necklace 
I am filling in the symbol of Harmony with the chain stitch on the surface of this quilt. The process of doing this hand work is very calming and good for a person like me who is not in top form. It is also filling in the time that I had been doing the hand work on my Daily News project.
Chrysanthemum
