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