All posts by admin

Before the Bud, Canyon De Chelly- Mummy Cave ruin, From the Pavement, Greek Butterflies, Landscapes, Machine Drawing, Mapping the Ruins, Natural Elements, Urbam Beauty

May 23 2013, Spring Walks

May 23, 2013 admin

Hello Friends,

I have been out doing my walking in the early morning to make sure I really follow through. It seems so easy to put it off and then get

involved in other things. So I was not walking in the afternoon at all. Much better to start the day with the walk and it will soon be hot in the afternoons as well. Anyway it has been a glorious feast for the nose of late. What with blooming Honeysuckle, Lilac and a beautiful Dog Wood to mention a few I have really enjoyed starting my days with a walk. I seem to be more aware of the world in the morning as well so I am very glad that I have made this switch.

Friday last week I went to the Turquoise Street Studio and meant with some of the gals from the painting class from the weekend before. Deb had gone back in and did additional work on this painting of limes. I really think it works. This picture is of a new painting Deb did based on the class work too. The class effected all of us. This next images is of Beth doing a value sketch in preparation for a new pastel. The teacher had suggested using a gray paper sketch book so one only needed to do the tonal work by drawing in black and white. Beth is doing just that. I did hand work as I seem to take longer to digest the Value idea into my work. Yesterday I went to Ethel’s house to spend a day playing with silk paper. This photo is of Ethel mixing dye in preparation to the silk. Pam was also there and she did some fine silk paper too It was great fun and I created four different new sheets to use. I went with an eye to make the paper for a specific task and the results were great.

The gold sheet and perhaps the cream one as well are destine for one of the canyon painted surfaces I painted last week. The blue and purple paper I created because I wanted to see if one could add bits of yarn to the surface too. I think it will work well in a meadow idea I have in my head. It is always so much fun to work with others I always feel like I get so much more from these events then I contribute to them.

Before the Bud 17" X 26" $110.00 — Before the Bud
17″ X 26″
$110.00

Progress Report: Before The Bud

This quilt is completed now. I really enjoyed doing all the free motion work here. The colors really work for me as well. With this quilt I am changing my policy a bit. I am adding the price of the work to the image. After reading a third article were a buyer stated that she did not like having to contact the artist to find out about the price of work I decided to include that info in the image. Selling my work in not my goal, but I need the space so I will gladly do so. Besides for me, the act of creating is the most important part of the process. The Problem solving if you will.

Excavating the Ruins 21.5" X 31" $168.00 — Excavating the Ruins
21.5″ X 31″
$168.00

Excavating the Ruins
I have enjoyed working on this project due to all the great textures. I really like all the wholes here and that contrast adds a lot of interest to my eye. The map in white organza is of one of the cliff dwellings in Canyon de Chelly National Monument. In looking over it I though it needed a little more punch so I added a little petroglyph form the canyon for further interest. I found this little figure very fascinating.

Greek Butterflies 17.5 " X 25" $ 105.00 — Greek Butterflies
17.5 ” X 25″
$ 105.00

Greek Butterflies
I am very happy with how this quilt finally resolved its self. The lesson on Value came to play here when I took a second look at the distribution of darks on the week end. I had to take out some of the piecing and insert some more dark near the bottom before I was happy with it. I also realized I need to add something to the light block in the center of the quilt. So I drew in a butterfly of my own using the photos as direction. I added color after I had out lined the image. I was concerned with how to quilt this work. I knew I wanted to out line the butterflies but had no idea beyond that. I toyed with the idea of making the rest of the quilting a reflective of that outline pattern, but was not sure. So I then it hung on the wall for several days before I saw a photo of moth trails in Pinterest. Then I knew that was what the quilting patterns should be. I find this quilt to be very up lifting and the quilting pattern adds to that idea in my mind.

Mummy Cave Ruins
This shot shows a possible layout for the additions that I am planning on adding to this painted top that I started last week. On the far left is some of the wonderful silk paper that I created yesterday. In my origional photo there is a wall of stone that is in the foreground and I wanted to capture that feeling to some what frame the ruins. Hanging on the right is some painted inner facing that I may add to make the rocks a bit more colorful. Again I have added the oil stick stencil drawings to this work surface. I need to do some free motion work on the parts I am sure of before I know what will go where and if the places where they are pinned at the moment is the final location for them. Make visual decisions – Visually.

Urban Beauty – From the Pavement I was doing hand work on this at the Turquoise Street Studio last week. I am enjoying building up textures on this surface. The base units are lutador that has been painted with Lumiar paints and the white is gesso. ( lutador is a type of spun ground cloth that can be found at some hardware stores this time of year) I then melted it a bit with the heat gun to melt and distort the surface. I have done free motion drawing and the hand stitching to add to the complexity of the surface. I am not sure of were the work is leading me so I hang it often an look at the progress to know what I want to do next. This makes the process very slow, but worth it I think.

New Work
This is an attempt at a new direction. Sense I seem to keep getting hit over the head with this Values idea( even read about it in a book this week) – I thought I better pay attention. So I designed a block ( Check the light blue section in the lower right) . I tried to keep light med and dark in the same area- and did three different size variations on the block – small ( lower write) a little bigger ( lower left- this one is also turned 45 degrees) and large( look at the turquoise section) This is all new territory for me when it comes to designing and I am not sure it will or does work at all. But I want to stay sharp and open to new “roads” so I will keep playing- the challenge is the thing.

Enjoy the wonders of the season.

Hugs

Carol

Canyon De Chelly- Mummy Cave ruin, Chanyon De Chelly- Desert Vanish, Landscapes, Mapping the Ruins

May 16, 2013 Painting

May 16, 2013 admin

Dear Friends,

I feel very light hearted today because I spent most of my morning out doors. I took a painting workshop this weekend along with all my pastel pals. We were all looking to stretch a bit. The workshop was taught by Patti Mollica and was called ” Painting- Fast and Loose.” This fist shot is over Barbara’ shoulder of the first assignment. We were working on showing lights, mediums, and darks, in our work. The teacher gave us all a few photos to work from.This second shot is of my pears. The second painting we tried. I am not real happy with it, but I think I got the concept. Then on the second day we did more painting and she was pushing the fast and loose working part. We did five paintings that day. The first in the morning to worm up and then one forty five minute one. Followed by a half hour one and last we did two fifteen min works. That sure put us into the fast and loose part. The pomegranate is my favorite. The whole thing was fun and got me going with the painting again. Hence my happy feeling as I painted out doors this morning. I raised the level of my plastic table by setting the legs on four up turned flower pots so I could stand up and work. I painted fabric as starts for two more works based on the trip last June to Canyon De Chelly Nation Monument. This first shot is of the White House Ruin. I have rough out the color bases and will add layers on top with pastels, crayons and fabric pieces. I want to show the Desert Varnish on the walls of the canyon in this one. The second one is also from a picture I took on that trip. It is of the Mummy Cave Ruin. This time I want to work on showing the depth of the rock pocket of the canyon wall and how much color there was in the stone. There is lots of work to do here, but I am excited about it.

Progress Report: Mapping the Ruins

The Canyon trip really was on my mind this week and this work also has the influence of that trip in it. This piece has a traditional pieced fabric base in pinks and white. I am sorry I did not take a photo of this step before I went forward. Then I pinned tyvek that had been painted on both side with acrylic paint to the surface. I quilted through all the layers in a pattern that I had made. The pattern for the quilting was based on a map of the ruins of one to the pueblos in the cliff face of Canyon De Chelly. I had drawn that map last year in July for the class I took with Valerie Goodwin at Quilting By the Lake. I did not use the map in the work because it made the work too busy for my final piece. ( Check last week for the shot of White Tower in the Kendall Show- it’s intended home) This morning I took the heat gun to the tyvek and melted away some of the surface. I love the wholes in the surface that add to the idea of decay and deterioration. My next step will be to add the map that I have created on two layers of organza on top of the quilt. I will be trimming it down and stitching this map on top of the fabric and the tyvek to add yet another layer of depth to the work. That is the plan at this time any way.

Greek Butterflies This is a new top that grew our of some very old material. I took a class six years ago were we learned how to transfer photographic images to fabric. I fist mixed the side of a shingled building ( the gray)with a wonderful butterfly image that I had taken when I went to Greece. I printed the image on fabric in class. Then the fabric just kept shuffling around from one pile to another. Thinking on the painting class were our teacher Patti Mollica, spent a whole day on Light-Medium-Dark, I though I would try to use that idea. I had a good time and found out what many quilters know about there stashes – we have lots of mediums and not many lights or darks. Now I need to move forward on this piece- like how to quilt it…..

I hope spring and all it’s joys are filling you with creative juices and thoughts.

Hugs

Carol

Nebula, Thoth

May 9, 2013 Enjoying the Spring

May 9, 2013 admin

Hello,

This is the fourth and final entry of the “Noting Natural Changes” assignment. I am amazed at how much the leaves have come out on all the trees this week . This branch is so full now that I hardly recognize it from the first one I drew on the 18 of April. There are even blooms of the lilac on the higher branches of this bush now. I love the fast daily changes that are every were. When I showed my “Before the Bud” quilt at the QEG’s meeting on Tuesday and I explained that I had started it because I was starved for leaves on the trees- I got a bit of a chuckle. How soon we forget.

The lecture and gallery guided tour of the Kendell Show was Tuesday too. It looks great.

The pale quilt on the left is all hand dyed silk and it is by Liese. The center one is beautifully pieced and quilted by Ruth White. The colors really make the eye dance. I look at this show and feel delighted by the wide variety of styles and techniques that the other artists in the group display. There is so much talent !

This work is called Hand Made and it is by Mary Diamond a very good quilting teacher. I really like all the tones and shades of color she used in this work.

This shot shows the work of three different quilters, Sally, Sharon and Cheri are represented here. Sally’s work ( far left) is a paper, fabric and paint quilt. Sharon’s work( middle) has raw edges on both sides of all of those vertical cuts. She makes her tops cuts through and washes them before she assembles the quilt. The two leaf works ( far right) were items that Cheri felt were unsuccessful until she cut freezer paper leaves and ironed them to the surface. She then added more paint over the whole thing. When she removed the freezer paper units she was happy with the work. There are so many varying ideas and techniques in this group it is almost too much some times.

Progress Report: Thoth I am still struggling with this work. I can not seem to get a layout pinned to the wall that works for me so I can even put two pieces together. I tried creating a new image of Thoth- and that does not seems to solve the problem either.The attempt in gold may give the image more a feel of “god “- but I think it may be too pale on the fabric…… I have covered it with white paper and moved on to other things and hope my sub conscious will keep working away on this and the solution will come to me.

Nebula – 1 Mean while I seem to be fascinated by Nebula of late. I have found lots of new images of the heavens in Pintrest and so many are wonderful Nebula that I just had to try to create some of my own. The back ground fabric is hand dyed material that I purchased at QBL. I felted green and gold wool on top to create the feel of the nebula. I will now go back into the surface with stitches and beads to fill it out and add more definition to the work.

Nebula 2 Being true to the way I work and having such a good time with the felting machine I started a second one as well. There was lots of warping of the fabric with the green nebula so I also tried felting the wool into some red paper like material that came wrapped around my valentine flowers. The felting part worked, but the red “paper” melted when I tried to iron it and that created a problem. After cleaning the iron and the non stick matt that I had wisely put on top before ironing- I put the whole thing on gray felt and ironed it down. I think the red “paper” made the nebula too sold and so I am going to felt more darks on top to make it feel more open. I also got a little carried away with the yarn on this second work so I plan to tone it down as well. The love the layering of the process as I feel I can always add to the surface.

Notebooks I use three ringed binders to keep my stamps and stencils organized. Pictured here are two three ring notebooks with quilted covers. In the front and under the notebooks are stencil and stamped fabrics that did not become parts of quilts, but are destine to become the next notebook cover. These two books are full and I am ready to create a new one so I pulled some altered fabrics and put them together. I keep the works inside the note books in the plastic page protectors that one can purchase at office supply stores. I did this to keep the like things together. I was surprised at how the gals in my stencil workshops over the last few weeks have responded. They thought this idea was a good one so I am passing it along. Making a soft cover out of leftovers is just my way of using things up.

I hope spring is adding life to your step and all is good in your world.

Keep Creating

Carol

Uncategorized

May 2, 2013 More Spring

May 3, 2013 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

As the drawing shows the leaves are really showing themselves now. I am surprised and delighted by the changes that are occurring around me. One day you can see into the neighbors back yard the next it is screened from view with tiny little leaves that will only thicken. Its so wonderful to behold.

This week has been as full as they all seem to be. I taught the stencil workshop last week and it went well. This photo is of Linda, Angela, Corinne and Liz looking at books for ideas for their personal stencils. I provided everyone with a stencil of their name in a graffiti type layout. I did this so they could all have something to work with at the beginning. That meant that I could give the instruction on how to use the oil stick at the start and then everyone could work at their own pace. The second shot is of Linda’s stencil with several colors of oil stick and lots of over lap. They quickly went on to creating their own stencils and working with them. This photo is of Angela’s stencils. The orange one in the upper right is of a Hawaiian petroglyph. The blue is painters tape that we used to keep the stencil in place while we used them.

The other big event for me this week was hanging the Diva Quilt Show at Kendell in Ithaca. This shot shows Sandi Holland adjusting a piece. There are 41 pieces in this show representing 13 different artists. It is a visual feast. There is so much variety in technique and color that I am always amazed at how well they all work together. It is a real group effort to put up the show too and I am very thankful for all the help. This last shot is of Liese and Sally as they add the tags and check on final details.Progress Report: The Lost Buckle This quilt has gone through some major changes sense the last time I posted it. ( Check April 4th). It was called Cracked Up and when I was all done with the facings and such it did not appeal to me. I let the work hang on the pin wall and decided that the square format was part of the problem. So I tried various ups and downs and blocks of portions of the surface and then cut away a strip. This shot shows the cut. I bound the sides and changed the big section. It needed a focus point so I added an old shoe buckle – one remaining form a set that was lost by Aunt

The Lost Buckel full — The Lost Buckle
19.5″ X 27″

May at a dance in the 40’s. It was such a treasured item that it was in the jewelry box I inherited form my grandmother years later. I feel this is a good way to honer that value. The remaining portion of the quilt was on its way to the trash when the dentist made a comment about how important smiles were to his business. So I used the remainder to make a banner for his office. He will get in in a few weeks when I go again.

Before the Buds I am making progress on this piece although the strong desire that prompted this work a few weeks back ago when I could hardly wait for buds to open is now a reality. I am machine drawing the thread tree down and adding branches as I go. It is fun and I like how it is coming along.

DMC Marty’s Challenge- Slender Cuts This is the second of the mono chromatic color challenge fabric unit works. I enjoyed the personal part of the challenge were I was trying to learn how to do the slender cuts. I feel confident with there use now. There is also more exploitation possible with this technique. With the three works in this challenge I learned that I like to have more color in my work and that light, medium and dark still need a punch to work for my eye. As Dad always use to say” You learn something form every experience- Even if you only learn what you do not like!”

Thoth: I cut this stencil at the workshop last Friday. This is one of the prints I made . I did three. the best will be a part of the new Egyptian quilt I had pinned to the wall last week.

I hope spring is filling your heart with joy and delight and that the creative juices are flowing for you too.

Keep Crating

Carol

PS- Sorry this got a late post. I always re read the post after a few hours and then publish it. I went off to dinner with the gals and there were two who were home from a trip. We talked late and I simply forgot to sit down at the computer when I got home hit the Publish button.

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

April 25, 2013 Spring Memories

April 25, 2013 admin

Hello friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brass Bits

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

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

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

Keep Creating Friends

Hugs

Carol

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

April18, 2013 Natural Changes

April 18, 2013 admin

Dear Friends,

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

Progress Report: Spot On

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep Creating

Carol

Adventure Challenge 2013, Scrap Happy Quilts

April 11, 2013 Going Green

April 11, 2013 admin

Hello friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be on the look out for Spring.

And Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

Adventure Challenge 2013, Slicing Through

April 4, 2013 Blue Sky

April 4, 2013 admin

Hello Friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hugs

Carol

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

March 28, 2013 Daffodils

March 28, 2013 admin

Hello,

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

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

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

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

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

I hope spring is filling everyone’s heart.

Keep Creating

Carol

Baby Quilts, Far Horizons, Landscapes

March 21, 2013 Shaving Cream Printing

March 21, 2013 admin

Dear Readers,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am hoping for some warmer weather by next week.

Keep Creating

Carol

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All posts by admin

May 23 2013, Spring Walks

May 16, 2013 Painting

May 9, 2013 Enjoying the Spring

May 2, 2013 More Spring

April 25, 2013 Spring Memories

April18, 2013 Natural Changes

April 11, 2013 Going Green

April 4, 2013 Blue Sky

March 28, 2013 Daffodils

March 21, 2013 Shaving Cream Printing

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer