Category Archives: Hand work

Collage, Double Joy, Felt Work, Glyph IV with Beads, Hand work, High Priestess, JOY II, Plantine

Camouflage

January 25, 2018 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

I am enjoying the sun of this January day and the rich smell of these blossoms that were a gift from Judy. As I was looking at my grandson’s camouflage pants the other day I was wondering if the goal of was to mislead or conceal. Here in central NY in doors in the winter the patterns doen’t do either job- but out in the woods in the summer they must do a bit of both. Many animals and plants use camouflage to trap and stalk their pray as well as hide from predators. I know my grandson purchased the pants so he could lie in wait with his camera to take photos so I guess his goal was to conceal. It is not a fashion statement in his case so I guess that means his major intent is not to mislead his peers- just the animals. A strange bit of both in the end.

Progress Report: Aces and Spaces This work is 37.5” w X 27” t. It is built from the cutaways of ACE plus a few transparent fabrics. I did free motion quilting in the patters of aces- mostly using the ace of spades for my pattern as that is the one most folks think of when they picture aces in their heads. I enjoyed playing with this project.

Collage 2 The Song Bird I am staying true to my goal of trying to do a collage every week. This is my second piece. I was listening to a recording where there were bird calls as a part of the intro and this work came form that joyful sound.

Ribwort Plantain This work is 14”w X 18” l. I used felting for the background and did the Plantain on wash away before I applied it to the surface. The heads are made from yarn and the steams are robin. The leaves are fabric with sewn lines on top for the vain patterns. A fabric boarder was added before binding.

Hand work This daily practice is moving along nicely. I am trying to limit the number of types of stitches I use here so it holds together and one can see how different yarns look with the same stitches.

Joy II As the shot shows I finished the building of the second base for the joy cut. I tried several backgrounds before settling on this one and then tried several layouts too. I finally decided that I liked the diagonal layout with the words not being read from the same direction. This work is ready for stitching now.

Double Joy With this project it take a lot of trial and error before I settle on the background and placement of the parts for the work. This time the two tops of the words are pointed toward one another. The centers are not even pinned in at this point as I need to make a curvy cut to unite the yellow unit to the orange one.

Glyph IV The beads just keep being added to the work. I am inching up the right side of the O now.

Ice The stones are all stitched down to the stream bed now. I plan to go back and do a bit more to anker them and start to build a water flow pattern across the surface. This is the photo I am working from. I did a little test piece to see if I could get the line effect with my stitching for the ice that will go on top of the rocks. The best one was when I zig-zagged and appliqued down a bit of cording.

Wool 1 I felted down some roving to begin a new work based on a part of a photo I took last fall. I only did the hand “basting” part so the roving would stay put before I get out the machine to do the final work here.

Wool 2 This is a second piece of wool with the same treatment as the first.

6X6 The call came out for the next 6X6 works for the Rochester Contemporary Art Center show and so I responded. I have been a part of this for the last six years I think. They are all done now and I will mail them off next week.

High Priestess Card Susan has suggested that we try to do the Major Arcana for our Tarot cards so this is the third in the series. I am enjoying doing these collages.

I hope everyone is warm and working at there creative activates

Carol

Collage, Glyph IV with Beads, Glyph Series, Hand work, JOT I, JOY II, Magic, Plantine

Magic

January 18, 2018 admin

Hello-

We are deep in winter now so the sight of my Christmas Cactus blooming is a nice bright sight. I have had a good week. I went to the opening of the New Members Show at the Manlius Library on Sunday. There are six of us who are showing about six pieces apiece. It was great fun to talk with the other artists and the public too. I had great support from several of my friends and that added to my positive feelings. Before the day was over, much to my delight, I sold two of my works. Fox Tails and White Iris both have new homes now. It is a great feeling of confirmation when a stranger likes your work.

Progress Report: Joy I This work is 24”w X 23” l. It is also a rework. The curvy cut quilt was made in 2012 and was set to be donated to the Helping Hounds shelter. But I pulled it aside and added the JOY graffiti on top instead. This second shot shows the word pattern in paper. The blue was cut following this pattern then stitched down on top. I am exploring the use of my stylized lettering with this work. This last shot is of the “O” in the center of the word.

Glyph IV This shot is of the lower right side of the “O” in the Owl Glyph quilt series. This work is number 4 as the number indicates. I am glad to be working on the biggest letter in the grouping now.

New Ice The work goes slowly forward on this piece. I am rough cutting out the stones now. The upper right corner is my test run of various fabrics for the ice overlay part of this work.

Plantain Selling Fox Tails got me going on doing another wash out plant piece. I did the machine drawing on the wash away just as Amanda taught us in Oct. Then I pinned the work to the Styrofoam and washed away the “plastic”. The dry work is now ready to be stitched down to the felted background.

6X6 The call for six by six came this week so I pulled some pieces to work on. It was so easy to excess them now that the studio is in order.

Collage 1 One of my resolutions when I was cleaning was that I would do a collage every week too. This work is 8.5” X 11” a size that I think I can work with easily. I did find someone to pass a lot of the paper stash on to so I will use making the collages as a way to sort and share the materials as the year goes forward and I make pieces..

Joy II This is the base for my next JOY quilt. I pieced it and then added a bit of inner facing to the back to stabilize it. The same pattern is used as in JOY I . Because I am working from the backthe word is turned upside down for marking the edge and then it will be cut out. The result will be a positive and negative from this same fabric. The interfacing will cut down on the distortion when I stitch it down to the contrasting base.

Hand work I am doing my daily studies of stitches on this work. It is beginning to feel very solid to me.

Magic Card This card represents how I feel about myself and my fellow artists. We all are really Magicians. In our processes of taking raw materials- with paint, clay, pencils and fibers we work magic with them. Just looking at the elements, one never knows what they could and do or become in artistic hands . With sparks of creativity and the magic of our hands, we bring into the world things that without us would not exist. That is true Magic.

Keep Creating

Carol

Consider, Don't Know, Hand work, Name Game, Patti, Red Nebula

Progress

January 11, 2018 admin

Hello-

Winter is still a part of central New York, but today it is melting and that is a good reprieve from our cold and snow.

I continue to clean and purge. This is day 13 of that process. I did make a run to school with the back end of my station wagon full this morning, where I passed the stuff off to a fellow art teacher. Doing that run did clear up some floor space. I can see the end of the process now.

I just need to do a bit more sorting before I put stuff back on the shelves. I do feel lighter and I am growing anxious to start some new work.

I did a few other things this week. On Sunday I volunteered at the Schweinfurt Art Center for the final day of the Quilts= Art= Quilts show. This piecer is one I was really taken by. I had a chance to visit one more time with the work I really loved and think again about the processes other folks are exploring.

I also visited Sharon in her studio this week. We had a good time talking about what she is doing now that she has finished her graduate work. This piece on the wall is one of the items she is pursuing.

This work- Red Nebula, is one of the works I am donating to the Jazz of Central New York Auction. Name Game # 3 –Patti, is the second. I always feel good about passing my art forward as the process is the important part for me and selling is not my main goal. I like what this organization promotes and does to keep Jazz alive.

Progress Report: Glyph IV I keep beading away on this project. This tail of the L got completed this week.

Hand work I continue to do my evening work too. This project is coming along.

New work I have been doing some drawing in preparation for the next work. The new word is JOY. I also experimented with JIG- but I like the Joy a lot better.

Tarot- Don’t Know As I was feeling a bit starved for some creative work that was not related to the cleaning- I did two cards this week. This card also reflects how much I feel I am being left behind in this ever changing world- especially with technology issues .

Consider This concept is really on the top of my mind as I look at all the stuff I have saved and collected. I have spent a lot of time considering whether I will ever take the time to use and or look at some of the stuff. It is difficult for me to let go of all the slides I have taken and collected even tough I do not have a working projector any more so getting rid of them should be easy.

Carol

ACE, Aces and Spaces, Hand work, Inspire

Clean Out

January 5, 2018 admin

Hello-

Many times as the new year approaches one tends to do an evaluation of the past. I did too and as I worked toward finishing up projects last Friday I was frustrated by the fact that I could not find my webbing. Now I knew I had a two rolls of the stuff and that they where about 24” across. After searching the closet moving and shuffling things for about twenty min. I sat down and had a little talk with myself. I could not remember when was the last time I had cleaned the space and sense I could not find what I knew I really had- perhaps a clean out was in order. So I started pulling stuff out of the closet , sorting as I went. The stacks kept growing and still no webbing. By this time I had all of the stuff out of the west end of the closet and had three bags full of items to pass on to Maggie. ( She is an art teacher who loves odd stuff and uses it with her students.) I had also come to the realization that I was not going to be doing metal jewelry anymore so all those tools could go too. ( They went off to Nick’s girl friend.) Hurray, more space for what I really love. I started to put stuff back into the closet. I finally found the webbing at the end of the day on Sat at 4 in the afternoon. By that time I had committed myself to doing the whole studio. Well here it is Friday and I have put three to six hours in this cleaning project every day. I am still working on the west end of the studio, but the closet is clean. Two trash bags full of useless stuff went out to the garbage men last night too. Now I am working on the book shelves. I eliminated a box of books this morning. Again, they were on a doll making- a topic I have not done any thinking about for several years. I took time off from the cleaning to judge the Scholastic Art Awards on Tue so I really can only say I have been working for six days. Looking at and thinking about every box, book and collection of stuff takes time. This process is like making a quit with 1,000 pieces- The whole thing is over whelming- but doing one little thing at a time will get the job done.

Progress Report:ACE

This work is 40.5”w X 34”l. I am happy with this work as it is such a different approach from the others in the glyph series. I pieced the fabric that I cut the word form this time.Useing this prcess this makes the word less important. That plus the fact that I did not place any of the words write side up makes one look at the shapes.

Aces and Spaces I started a new piece using the cut-aways from ACE for my next project. It is a challenge to play just with the shapes. I know they relate to one another. I am free motion quilting them down.

New Work This is just the start of a new ice and water piece from a photo that I took last spring. I am building the rocks in the bottom of the stream now and I plan to build the ice over the top.

Hand Work The hand work project goes forward. I like playing with stitches. And as my cleaning had revealed- I have lots of books on that topic to get inspiration from.

Found work I found this folded up in the closet. Now I need to decide if I want to finish it or not.

Tarot Inspire

I hope the new year inspires everyone.

Keep Creating

Carol

ACE, Aces and Spaces, Hand work, Series, Work of Art

End of Year

December 28, 2017 admin

Hello,

As one faces the end of the year it is a time to reflect and take stalk. On the sad side, one of my quilt buddies, Sally Nadelman passed away this year. She was a dear friend who enriched my life with her encouragement and the wonderful glass bead work that she did. I did not do so many quilt works this year as in the past, but I still think that 53 completed quilts for one year is not a bad thing. I have not done so well on the distribution of my works as I should so that will become a goal for next year. I participated in 9 quilt shows and was the director for one on them. I already know that two of the shows I normally am a part of will not happen in 2018 so that number will be down next year. I did one Trunk show were I showed 30 works – old and new. In doing that I got a good review of how I tend to work and saw some of my personal choice and behavior patterns. I used up 35 spools of thread this year and I am sure I did not replace them all so that stock pile is down. I did not purchase much fabric this year, but I sure dyed a lot. I used it too and that was a good source of pleasure for me. I look forward to meeting with Liz on Mondays again when the season allows and doing more of that. I feel that not a lot will change in 2018 but I hope to pay more attention to details and make better and more creative work.

Progress Report: Tribute- Spring This work is 20”w X 30”l. It is my last quilt made with Ethel leftovers. She cut the linoleum block of the tree and did the insect stenciling. I still have lots of her fabric and the scrap box with her remainders still has bits in it. But for the most part the work in the future work will be all mine. I enjoyed doing the free motion work to extend the trees in this piece.

ACE I am having fun with this project too now that I have all the units fused and zig-zagged down. I have even started the quilting on this project.

Aces and Spaces This top is created from all of the “cut aways” or negative spaces from the units of ACE. There are a few additional fabrics too as I can never leave things alone, but it mostly leftovers.

Handwork- orange My evening TV projects is moving forward. I still do not have a plan but I keep building.

Cards Celebrate is the first card I did this week. It is a reflection of the time. Good bye to 2017…….

As the year dies one is aware of the passage of time and this card is part of the reflection of a life well lived. I hope that all my friends can say their lives are works of art that they are happy with too.

Happy New Year

Carol

Buggy, Confussed, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Felt Work, Glyph IV with Beads, Glyph Series, Label Blocks, Pealing Oranges, Pond Water, Quartered Glyph, Raw Edge Applique, Tossed Salad

Fall Events

October 12, 2017 admin

Hello,

This week was full of events. Last weekend I went off to the Tompkins Quilt guild show. Cheri won a ribbon there. So too did my friend Pat. But this red work is not the one she won a ribbon on.

Regina and I enjoyed viewing the show and talking about what we saw. My shots of Regina’s quilts are not good enough to share.

I went off to the Schweinfurt with Marty and we vied the Geologic Landscapes show on Wed.. This wall piece is of the watershed of the lake. The white lines are of the creeks and streams that feed into the lake and the white area near the top is the lake. The outline of the shape is of the highest elevations around the lake area. I loved this concept as I have always liked topographical maps.

Then this morning was the FAB meeting. Both Judy and Nancy are working on different variations of Disappearing Four Patch. Judy’s is the one in dark blues and whites. Nancy’s is the one with the greens in it. It is great how unique they both are.

Patty has finished her extruded cotton thread knitted shawl. I think it is great!

Progress Report: Buggy This work is 40” w X 49.5” l. The bugs are oil stitch on fabric using my own designed and cut stencils. The gray and light green panels are made from stamps I cut in Pat Pauly’s class at QBL two summers ago. I dyed the dark green and the fabric with the turquoise and white in it too. Liz had challenged me to use some of the stuff we have been creating and this one fills the bill. The reflective quilting looks like bug trails one of my friends said. These big black insects are based on cockroaches. The blue green insects are also beetles.

Quartered Glyph This work is 44” w X 48” l. I used a smaller version of the Owl Glyph pattern that I created to do this work. The quilting is strait line starting from the center and working out using variegated thread. The shapes of the glyph are raw edged appliqued.

Glyph IV I just keep beading away on this project. I like the effect, but progress is slow.

Tossed Salad This quilt is made from all the cut away parts of Quartered Glyph. I am machine stitching down the parts in the raw applique style here. I have added the back and batting too so this time I am quilting at the same time as I put the parts on. I do not know if I will have to add additional machine lines until I am done with this step.

Pealing Oranges This quilt is still growing. I made a smaller Owl Glyph pattern and used a beautiful piece of orange fabric from Regina to place that pattern on. It is being mixed with some of the other cut away fabrics from various other Glyph projects. This is an early step in the process.

Wool Work I have started doing free motion machine drawing on this felted work. I am also tacking down bits of fabric and yarn with the machine stitches.

Card Confused I build this card from multiple copies of the same image trying to mix and confuse the eve. All the cutting and pasting made it warp a bit but I think the confusion is there. I sure feel that way about the world at large at the moment.

Pond Water I am now hand quilting on this project. The horizontal quilt lines are meant to give the impression of water patterns as well as hold it all together.

Label Quilt This work is 95” X 95”. I am now done with this weekly project. It has been an enjoyable and calming evening daily work. It took me a week to finish each of the 144 squares. I am now trying to decide what the next daily practice project will be.

Keep Creating.

Carol

Buggy, Diva Meetings, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Glyph IV with Beads, Label Blocks, Make Belive, Pond Water, Quartered Glyph, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Water Main Break

October 5, 2017 admin

Hello,

One of the big excitements for this week was a water main break on Sunday morning. I was washing up after making muffins and suddenly no water came out of the tap. I looked out the kitchen window to see the road full of muddy water. I went out doors and discovered the gal across the street had just called the water department. The water was bubbling up and running down the street- it overwhelmed the street drains and ran all the way down to the park – four blocks away. The water was so powerful it cracked and threw up the street. The men came in about 20 min and turned off the water. A little later they were followed by a repair crew who started about 9. First they broke up the tar via and cleared away all the mud and stone to expose the pipe so they could replace it. The whole was about 8 feet deep and 10 feet wide. It was huge. They cut away the broken area of the pipe and then put in a new section. It was about 3:30 by that time. Then they began to fill in the whole with loads of stone. It took four trips with dump trucks full to do that job. Lastly after 9 in the evening they patched over the filled opening with tar via. There was lots of mud on the street and the street sweeper made five runs up and down the road to get it up on Monday – but it is still dusty here.

This shot of a side walk that got flooded and is still muddy this morning when I walked. The street sweeper could not get to that space. It was quite and adventure.

FAB meant here last week too. Marty came as she is in town. She brought her newest little project.

Patty had just finished a new scarf that she shared with us. I think it is grand- only knit and pearl she tells us. Judy brought one of her Disappearing Four Patch blocks that she started up at camp when we were there. It was a good meeting and we all had fun.

The first Tuesday of the month came this week so I had QuEG’s and Diva meetings too.

Angela is taking an on line class in felting and having a grand time. She showed us about ten pieces she had done already. These two show different wools on the left and adding different silks on top of the second one.Linda is finishing up this “ Almost Black and White “ top. Sally is working away on Christmas gifts and this bag she made was full of them- hand bags, soft toy bags and such. She dose great work.Corrine had this wonderful bracelet to share. She made it from and exchange she did at a conference where she traded a great luggage tag for the charms.

Before I went to the Diva meeting, I stopped and had a little private visit to the Rock Garden Show in Homer. Cheri and Terri- the gallery guru show me through. They both had work there of course. Cheri’s was one she started in the class she and I were in with Kerr at QBL. Terri’s work is much larger and full of texture. It is a great little show with nine artists and wonderful work. This work is Cheri’s too.

The Diva’s were hopping as well. Lori had this wonderful little bag to share with us. She did it for her entry for the Embroidery Guild of American 2017 challenge. She got feed back on several other stamped and hand dyed projects that she is working on.

Alice has almost completed her Mary Colter quilt for the Woman Museum. It looks great.

Liesa has completed her quilt for the “Threads of Change Show”. Let Us Stay-is wonderful commentary I think.

Regina wowed us again with all her indigo dyeing. She is creating up a storm of beautiful work.

Anne has finished “ Blind In justice” her work on the American’s with Disabilities Act. All those brail dots are three dimensional.

Ruth’s wave is moving along as she wants it finished for the quilt show this week end. It was a powerful meeting and I enjoyed my self . Came home all hipped up again.

The other thing I tried this week was dyeing with wall nuts. It is great fun and I got some real nice browns.

Progress report: Buggy I am to the reflective quilting stage on this project. I added two more oil stick stenciled insects to it this week too.

Glyph IV I just keep putting in my hour a day on this project. It is moving forward.

Quartered Glyph I started this one up at camp. I am ready to start assembling the four units now that I have trimmed away the second layer. The Cut aways are so beautiful that I may need to do another work using these shapes and pieces.

Pond Water This project has become my short term evening project. I am hand quilting it so this is a good replacement for the time being. I do have a new nightly project in mind however.

Card Make Believe This is my newest card. I am so distressed by the shooting in Los Valgus that I want to escape into make believe. Thank goodness I have art as a way of getting away into my own world .

Label Block quilt. All the blocks are assembled now. I will stitch in the ditch quilt it and finish the job.

Keep Creating

Carol

Activities, Creative Assistants, Ethel's Nine Patch, Glyph I, Glyph II, Glyph Series, Label Blocks, Label Cards, Pond Water

Two Trips

August 24, 2017 admin

Hello,

The past two weeks have been ones of travel for me. Last week at this time I was on my way to the the Dairy Barn in Athens Ohio. Liz and I were visiting Quilt National. They have changed the entrance and it looks great. No photos are allowed in this show, but my memories are rich. I was epically taken by Natalya Aiken’s Iron Spine work and then saw that she was the feathered artist in the QSDA magazine that came this week. I also like Colleen Anbaugh’s Hot Sugar Cell piece. Lots of glitz and Liz said it was like my work in some ways. Liz and I were both excited by the many techniques we had just explored in Kerr’s class at QBL two weeks before and noticed several of them in the quilts on display at this show. This fact will pushed me to do more exploration. The next day we drove north to Zanesville to check out their museum and see another quilt show. Liz has been in class with this woman at Nancy Crow’s barn. We both noted Nancy’s influence here. The museum was a bit of a work it’s self and I took lots of inspirational pictures of the stairs and shadows.I can see works coming from these images.

Then yesterday Eric and I went for a road trip to Corning New York to the glass museum there. We watched five demonstrations and learned a lot. The artists made it look easy, but I know from my one experience blowing glass it is far from simple. I also enjoyed the Tiffany exhibit. Mosaics are always fascinating and these were amazing. This clock really blew me away. Tiffany’s many recipes for the colors of glass were a real game changer for his work as well as the glass industry. It was a great day.

Progress Report: Glyph I This work is 26.5” w X 41”l. I started the series in Cynthia Corbin’s class at QBL this summer. The Glyph is based on the word OWL. I used simple outline quilting because the shapes and the colors in the fabrics( by Judy Roberts) did so much of the work for this piece.

Glyph II This is the second in the series. I have pin based it down and I am now zig zag appliqueing down the glyph. I will make a second run around the out sides with more zig zag to make it smooth and solid.

Glyph IV The bead work goes on for this project. I am stitching it down with beading thread and back stitching every fifth bead to make a strong connection.

Pond Water This work continues to get attention . I did bead work here this week too.

Ethel’s Scarp Happy I finished the assembly added the boarder and binding on this piece this week. I only need to do the diagonal quilting and the project will be complete

Creative Assistants As fall approaches I start thinking about doing these little guys. I pulled out the box of trims that Debbie sent me this summer and added a row of trim to 100 bodies. The last eve I did four faces. One small step.

Cards Ever sense I visited Susan in March I have been participating in a weekly collage card creating challenge with several other artists. It began loosely based on Tarot cards but with time we have pulled away from that. This is my card for this week titled Activities and the accompanying text.

Activities: 
 Over the course of a day we demand many little task of our selves-One walks, 
talks , comb hair, opens doors, turns on and off lights, reads, checks the 
weather, brushes teeth,  drinks tea, washes hands, sets, collects and opens 
mail, takes pills, writes, climbs stairs, prepares and eats food, ties shoes, 
uses zippers and buttons, looks at the sky, does dishes, changes cloths, checks  
e-mail, and creates something.  It's a complex life.

Label Blocks I finished these two blocks this week. I only have four more to finish and the job will be done. I need to start to think about another hand weekly project.

Keep Creating

Carol

Glyph IV with Beads, Glyph Series, Hand work, Label Blocks, Pond Water, Series

Tree Work

August 10, 2017 admin

Hello,

I am feeling a bit sad today as the tree men came today to do some necessary tree trimming and removal. As this shot shows the oak was rubbing on the roof as was the white pine. I love trees and have done many works celebrating them so having two cut to the ground is the source of my distress. One, the ash in front of my studio window was suffering the effects of the ash bore beetle. I did do a drawing of a short branch. The second was a Maple that was greatly distorted because it was growing in the shadow of a second tree. There is a lot more light in the yard and house now. The roof will be better for the cutting, one can see the street signs again and walk the sidewalk without ducking. All this is positive and I will concentrate on those positive things. One can always plant more trees. And there are always more quilts to build using trees as there themes.

As if a week of dyeing with Kerr was not enough, Liz and I did dye on Monday. This is a sot of the dyes we have to choose from on the work table. What fun.Some of the altered fabric on the line.

I received a wonderful gift this week too. My friend Marilyn stopped with a bag full of trims and linens from her Mom’s attic. She said I knew you could and would make something wonderful out of some of this. What a fine vote of confidence. I can see several things I want to work with already.

Progress Report: Owl I am to the quilting step of this work. But I have also decided I like it with a vertical layout better then the horizontal way I had it laid out.

That means I will need to change the title as one can not “read” owl with this change in orientation. But it is still a work in progress so things could still change.

Pond Water I am still adding hand work to this piece. The end is in sight however.

Glyph IV I am quilting the background of this piece now. I want to bead the actual Glyph now that I have removed the interfacing I put in last week. I did some stabilizing quilting every 2.5” out from the center in both directions. Those quilting lines will stabilize the piece.

Label Blocks I finished up two more blocks this week. The pile of black squares is getting smaller.

Enjoy the trees in your life and

Keep Quilting

Carol

Along the Shore, Button Weed, Felt Work, Flag Challenge, Label Blocks, Little Jellyfish, Monkey Business, Play Time, Pond Water, Rainbow Tree, Soeing Jacks

Travel plus

June 8, 2017 admin 2 Comments

Hello,

We hit the open road to test out Eric’s new car. It was fun but we spent a lot of time in the rain. We went to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Coppers Town first. Then on the Norman Rockwell museum. We saw Edith Wharton’s newly restored gardens were a sculpture show was going on. The sculpture was mixed among the woodland paths too. We did the Emily Dickinson home and then moved on to Shaker Village in Canterbury. I really liked all the wonderful innovative machinery there. These machines were in the wash house. We made it all the way to the Maine coast before we headed back west. This model boat was in an old boat house that was converted into restraint where we had dinner. We stopped in the Adirondacks for the night and then went to the Adirondack Experience museum and had a good time looking at the treasures there. The travel was great but as always I am glad to be home with many great memories, lot of photos and the ideas are flying in my head.

Tue as the the QuEG’s meeting so I got even more stimulation. Corrine has been doing a lot of beading and the results are beautiful.

Linda C showed us this beautiful top. There is a lot of hand work on it.

Liz is finding lots of UFO’s as she dose some spring cleaning. She shared three. I look forward to seeing the finished work too.

Linda H shared this hand printed fabric that she has started doing hand work on. We all had stories and lots to share. It was a good time.

I have such great friends . Yesterday I got a treasure box from Debbie. I love all these little bits of trim and ribbon. She knows me too well. They will all go into the next batch of Creative Assistants that I will begin as soon as QBL is over this year.

Progress Report White Iris This work is 15”w X 19”h. The white blossoms where originally created for the 9 Blue Iris quilt that I showed in the last post. But they were too pale and faded into the background.

So I did a felted and fabric wall and used the flowers on top. I do like the shape of iris and hope to do some more of them.

Button Weed I did a little rework on this piece. It needed a center of interest so I added a dragonfly. The body is three cords twisted together and then zig -zagged over with a satin embroidery thread. The wings are a florist’s ribbon.

Pods These are the last two pods. I have 36 of them and I have had a good time. I also have all my little Christmas Favors done for this year.

Prayer Flag Pins I made these after reading the June/July issue of “Quilting Arts Magazine”. The article made it seem so simple and it really was. This shot makes them about life size on my computer. I will make a lot of these little guys as they are fun too.

Spring Jacks When I make felted backs I try to do more then one at a time. I did three when had the felter out and this one is going to be my support for the third Jack In the Pulpit project.

Rainbow Tree This is the third of the felted pieces. I am having fun using my many clear beads to embellish this work.

Pond Water

This project is also done with a lot of hand work so it usually does not get much attention. I did add the gold units and a lot of stitching this week because I got a head on my Label Block project while traveling.

Jellyfish I continue to struggle with this work. But I keep at it. I sliced the top layer of the organza and did hand work on top of that. I like the texture and will continue to work on all the Jellies in this fashion.

Green Dragon This work is all assembled and I have done the stitch in the ditch step on it. Now to move to the dragon quilting.

Flags- Play Time I worked on the flag project from my trip to Florida this week too. I only have two more images to alter. I used oil paint sticks to add color to the works this week.

Flag- Monkey Business With this flag I used a paint marker to do the lettering.

Flag –Along the Shore With this piece I used the oil sticks for the water. The lettering was done with markers.

Label Blocks #123, #124, #125, #126 This was the only hand work I took on the trip so every night I worked away on these blocks. The pile is getting smaller.

Keep being Creative

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Hand work

Camouflage

Magic

Progress

Clean Out

End of Year

Fall Events

Water Main Break

Two Trips

Tree Work

Travel plus

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer