Category Archives: Finger Lakes Fiber Artists

Diva Meetings, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Label Blocks, QBL- Quilting By the Lake, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Quilting by the Lake 2017

August 4, 2017 admin

Hello,

I can not believe that this is how the gym at Onondaga Community Collage looked on Friday July 14 the day after my last post and the day we started preparing for Quilting by the Lake for this year. This post will be full of photos and snippets of what happened in those glorious days plus a bit of what has happened this week too.

So by the end of the day we had filled the gym with all the quilts that we had received at that time. It was not ready for guests as more work

came in on Saturday, but we did a lot.

I spent my Saturday helping my friend Sharron move into her dorm room and decorate for Christmas in July. We had fun, but more about that later.

There were four special shows within the quilt show at QBL this year. One was five Dear Jane Quilts by Sharron.

She talked about her journey with the development of this project one afternoon after class. I have watched her work away on the blocks doing all the color variations at the same time for each of the 350 blocks. It has taken her six plus years to complete this master body of work. It looks great. Marcia De Camp had a solo show as well. Non on my photos of that are strong enough to be included here, but believe me when I say it was powerful too.

The Finger Lakes Fiber Artists had a great display . These two works are from that section. The top Quilt is by Sharon Souva. The bottom one is by Cheri Sheridan.

This quilt is by Liz Anderson, she is also a part of the Finger Lakes Fiber Artist’s group. The little girl on the far right is Liz at the age of six.

Noel Keith also had a solo show and talk the second week . Some of her works have been included in the Quilts=Art=Quilts shows in the past. She works with silks that she has hand dyed herself and that adds a wonderful layer of excitement to her work.

Sister Sew and Sew made an appearance at the quilt show. She had lots of tips and bits of knowledge that she shared with us as well.

This shot is of Sister checking the length of this woman’s hem from the floor. An item that my Catholic friends assure me was common in their pasts.

My class week one was with Cynthia Corbin. I am going to post a few of the solutions that folks created in class.This is a shot of Annette’s project in the middle of the week. It changes as she assembled it. I really like the quiet colors.

This work is by Diane. Her first work with all solids she tells me. This shot is of my table partner Robin and her work as we did our Mimi talks about our work for the week on Friday afternoon.

We were Cynthia’s last topic class and so we gave her flowers as a thank you for her kind support and help.

Friday night at the end of the first week of QBL we have show and tell where each class with their teacher get up on the stage and show what they worked on. This is a shot of Alice with her project from Studio class.

One class- on the use of wedges- just moved there boards with their work into the auditorium and display them. Nice touch.

Another event at the end of the week is the action of TOTE Bags to raise money for the Scholarship Fund. This is Rosalie Dace with her “Chicken bag” .

Week two I had a class called “One Theme – Many Variations” with Kerr Garbowski.

We started each morning with some drawing. This shot is of Cherri doing a blind contour.of onions- her subject.

We worked with colored pencils, chalk and paint blocks too. This is Cherri’s experiment using those things on a silk screen. With each pass she added more color so the image changed with each print.

Lots of my friends where in this class and we all had great fun. We did lots of deconstructed screen work. Cris and Ann were in front of me. Both worked hard. Robin sat next to me again and did some strong work.

Gerri really did some big works with her little screens. I have been dyeing with Liz on most Mondays this summer and her big strong gestural work is so inspiriting. These two works from class confirm this feeling.

Angela was also in this class and she did this wonderful series using a glue line print of her husband’s saxophone keys. She too changed the background color with each pull.

These are some of my fabrics from class.

Quilters are a divers group. One of my friends, Emily has done a lot of beading in the form of bracelets this year. She shared them with us. They are wonderful!

Week II of QBL also brought our Christmas in July celebration.

We played games based on carols. We pulled poppers. We drank eggnog, we had a garb bag gift exchange and laughed a lot. Sharron dressed in red and was our master of ceremonies. It was great fun.

The second week ended with show and tell like the first. Debbie had completed this quilt.

This shot is of Linda with one of the works she did in class. And another class project.

The week ended with the tote auction and Cynthia’s tote sold for $1,350.00 – the highest price paid for any work that was going to the scholarship fund. Cynthia sweetened the pop of her tote by adding some of her own hand dyed materials to the collection. This is a shot of the bag after the sale. Nice way to close QBL for 2017.

Saturday I went downtown to the Art’s and Crafts fair where I saw several artists friends and watch the native American dancers. They really moved and I enjoyed all the action.

My daughter’s company had a booth there too and this shot is of her and several of her fellow workers. Wendy is the one in the middle.

I also had QuEG’s and Diva meetings this week. At QuEG’s we looked at many projects folks worked on at QBL.This is the piece that Linda was working on in Independent Studio.

This piece is what Liz worked on in Rosalie’s class week one at QBL.

This is another 3-D work by Sally. The whole section at the bottom is all made with thread- except the door. The light house had a lite in the top too. She does amazing work with her embroidery machine.This is another bit of jewelry by my quilting friend Corrine.

The Diva gals had lots of wonderful work too. Lori showed off her knitting with these hand warmers that she made on her curse to keep her hands warm. She also showed off her stitch work.

Sandy proudly displayed her work just home from a quilt show.

Noel showed off her newest work where she was mixing black and white with solid colors.

Sally displayed her second quilt showing off her morning walks. The quilt shows a map of the rout in red and the photos are some of the items she sees.

Ruth is actively working away on her dinosaur track quilt. These first layers are ready for the mud layer now.

Maureen is working away on layers of dye for her new projects. This is lovely.

Susan is still doing little units of work on Pellon. These are memory pieces of her experience in Mexico. As I have said many times I am so very fortunate to have so many stimulating and creative friends.

Progress Report: Owl project

The first week I took a class with Cynthia Corbin called The ABC’s of Composition. In this class we design blocks using letter forms as the basis of the blocks.This is the black fabric patters for my blocks. We then interpreted the patters in color and built the quilt around them. I stayed with this word all week and went from this first start to a “glyph” using the word owl.

I have always been fascinated by the positive and negative spaces in art and this project played into and developed several more pieces in this vain.

At this point I wondered about a size variation with the glyph. I did a shrink and an enlargement. I have not done any work with the smaller ones even though I have several ideas.

The larger one however has become two pinned works. Watch for upcoming developments.

Label Blocks More blocks is getting smaller and the end of this step is insight.

It has been a busy few weeks and my mind is full of ideas. Now I need to slow down and get some work done.

Keep Creating.

Carol

Creative Assistants, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Label Blocks, Nine Blue Iris's, Notebook Covers, Pods, Transparency work

Keeping Active

May 25, 2017 admin

Hello,

These beautiful Alliums where blooming in my friends garden and they just captured me when I drove up. There are constant changes as the weather grows warmer and the days are longer. One needs to pay attention to the catch those changes. Keep Your eyes open.

I had two meetings this week. The FAB group meant and it was an active meeting. Nancy is making great strides on her Mother’s quilt. I spent time helping her with the free motion work in the center section around the little sunflowers and the birds. She is does not have enough experience with free motion work to make it work flow for her yet. But time and work will solve that problem. Patti is taking painting classes in both acrylic and watercolor. I think that takes courage.

Judy is working away on her “Disappearing Nine Patch” and assembling it . She has plans for a second already

Marty was at the meeting too and she showed us the quilt she made for her great grandson.

I really like how the longitude lines curve just a bit to give the rounded feel to the piece.

The Finger Lakes Fiber Artists also meant this week. It is so stimulating and there is lots of interaction between the participants. This shot shows Regina and Sharon talking at lunch. ( the works on the floor are Sharon’s)

This is one of Pat ‘s rare small works – it’s about 16″ square. Her hand printed fabric really lends its self to a big format so this is a different challenge for her.

This is Julia’s piece in response to a collage that she did in David Horning’s class at QBL two summer’s ago.

This work is by Bev. I love how she breaks up a shape and re assembles it. The colors work well together too.

Then on Monday I went to Liz’s house we spent the day using thickened dye to alter the color of fabric. We both did about three pieces and will meet aging in a few weeks to do another batch. These are mine and I am most delighted by finally getting some pure white in the front piece.

Progress Report: Nine Blue Iris This work is 15” X 31” . Iris are one of my favorite flowers that bloom early in the spring. The old lace in the background here is from a pillow case that my Grandmother Ruth made . I am continuing to challenge myself to work with organza and build up layers of color. Flowers work especially well with this idea as they are so delicate.

Most of these flowers are three layers thick,

Pods I am continuing to build these little works. I only have enough altered felt to do two more and then I will move onto another project.

Jellyfish This project also is working with the layers of transparency. The colors do not come through as well as I had hoped. Not enough contrast here I think. But that is part of what I am learning about this material.

Notebook- Harlequin Paper

I made this book cover from the Harlequin paper I made last week. I fused down candy wrappers to black felt and then layered golden brown nylon netting on top. The work was then free motion quilted over the surface to hold it all together and give it a strong body. Making it into the note book jacket was the final step.

Creative Assistants I finished up another 30 of these little fellows this week. They will disappear that QBL as I give them away.

New Work

Liz challenged me when we were dyeing to create something with some of the fabric we have created together over this last year. I pulled all of these to do just that .

Label Block # 122 I keep working away on this project one little block at a time.

I will be away from home so there will not be any post for the next two weeks. I will have holiday ones to share when I get back.

Keep Creating

Carol

Birds, Creative Assistants, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Xavier Wood Ice

Winter Return

March 2, 2017 admin

Hello,

We are experiencing a snow storm today with cold blowing winds. It’s a bit of a shock after three days of wonderful warm temperatures near 60. I do like the soft effect the snow creates on the the landscape however. It is just early March so one should expect a bit more winter. I guess I will be doing another batch of snow dyeing today.

I had two meeting this week. The first was the Finger Lakes Fiber Artists meeting and they meant on Sat. Priscilla had been to Guatemala and she had purchased some wonderful embroidery works that she shared with us. Bev and Mary had nice works to share too. I always get some much out of meeting with fellow creative folks. They helped me see a change I needed to make with one of my works too. It was great.

The “Both Ends of the Rainbow” show was up in the main gallery at the Schweinfurth. I checked it out after the meeting. The kids and the adults had grand works. I was really taken by this altered book.

The FAB group was my second meeting this week. Patti is weaving away with embroidery floss on this project. I like the way she is mixing her threads to avoid sharp color changes that would create strips. Nancy also brought some color from south of the border as she in now home from her trip to Peru. This work is from the natives who live on Lake Titikata. Wonderful work with the chain stitch here. The natives are working for the tourist’s dollar and they are using much brighter colors then when I was in Peru 8 years ago.

Progress Report: Creative Assistants I am working away on my little pins now. This batch of 34 is now complete. Or it will be when the Squeezie Paint is dry tomorrow morning. I think I am done making these for this year. I have over a hundred to give away and that it enough.

Branch I am about half done with this second branch. It is built out of a tweed jacket sleeve that is then build up with layers of yarns on top to give it more texture and to add interest. The water soluble is trimmed away from most of the left side at this time. This close up shows a section that is almost done.

Blossoming Branch I am ready to add this first branch to the new background. I’ll add flowers too as it is suppose to be a Cherry Blossom branch. It almost appears too light so I may have to build up some darks in the limb as I put it on the surface.

Summer Meadow This is the first assignment from Layer, Paint, Stitch. I am now doing the bobbin grasses. That process means that the bobbin in this case is loaded with crochet thread – it is too thick to go through the machine needle and that is why it is in the bobbin. Then one sews from the back side and the thread is couched down on top. This little trick is wonderful and I can see many ways to use it in my work. Learning new tricks and techniques is why I do these type of exercises. Paint will be added to this surface later and the grasses will show up.

Samurai Romance I have now finished the first panel of this project( on the left). I couched by hand some think yarn and leather strips to the build up the vertical lines. The two brown patches on the right are now ready for step two of there alteration for the project from the Stitch, Fiber, Metal and Mixed Media book. They are small wet felted wool pads. There will be lots of texture on this piece.

Xavier Ice I just keep working on getting every thing free motion attached to the surface of this work. The build up is moving forward.

Birds I thought I might make some little birds from the leftovers of the Pods Project. These are Ok, But I think I can do better. So I will keep thinking and make a second run at this idea with some of the other leftover felted fabric I created.

Label Block 109 Another one down and only 11 to go now.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Finger Lakes Fiber Artists

Quilting by the Lake 2017

Keeping Active

Winter Return

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer