Category Archives: Hand work

Briar Patch, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Foggy Dawn, Label Blocks, Out the Window, Parts, Silver Growth

Purple Touches

March 11, 2016 admin

Hello,

It is really feeling like spring here and this wonderful shot of Nancy’s quilt in progress really expresses this feeling. I love all the flowers and the bright colors. She is amazing with her use of more and more pattern. This shot is only about one eights of her quilt. It was all we could show on the small space of my studio at the FAB meeting yesterday. Judy is working away on her sweater. She got some of the yarns from Patti . Judy is such a good knitter she does not even need a pattern to do all these fancy stitches. We had a good time yesterday.

I finished up my entry for the SAQA auction this week. I had a good time creating this little twelve inch square piece. I enjoy and support this organization.

Progress Report: Parts This work is finally complete. I sure enjoyed doing hand stitches all over the surface. I think I will give this work to the local camera shop were I purchased the camera that the parts are from. I got the new camera from them too when I dropped this one an broke it.

Foggy Dawn This work is the second half of older work. I took Corrine’s ‘s advice and did the quilting in a spiral patterns.

The glitter that is on this work was on the fabric when I purchased it. Lots of us like glitz.

Silver Growth I am almost finished with this project. I did all the free motion silver thread work earlier this week and I only need to add the facings now.

Briar Patch I am to the stage where I am adding the leaves and black berries to this quilt. I added most of the black berries first. I did not realize how many leaves I cut until I had them all pinned to the surface . It sure makes it pricklier at the moment.

Out the Window I was having so much fun with the turquoise and purple combination that I did a second quilt using this color combination. I lightened it up and did not go for much of the deep green of summer here. It is a lot closer to the colors of spring and windflowers and snow. Something that I saw on my walks this week.

Label Block #43 Slow and steady get’s the job done on this one.

Looking back over this blog I see lots of spring purple here. I sure am influenced by the season.

Keep Creating

Carol

#3, Briar Patch, Briare Patch, Circling Circles, Coastal Color, Felt Work, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing, Parts, Trickle

Creative Power

February 25, 2016 admin

Hello,

This photo is an example of the marks of wear and tear on the local pavement that winter seems to inflict. The pot wholes this year are big ones.

Why should we all use our creative power? Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compass ate , so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money . Brenda Upland

I find this quote a very powerful one and I really believe it to be true. Creating takes us out of ourselves in a way and makes one feel more alive. I know I lose track of time when I am working and I have heard others say similar things. When one is building something the mind will not allow you to consider destruction. What a different world we would be living in if everyone was creating!

FAB meant this week and we all enjoyed each others company. Patti showed off her die cutting press this time. She gave me these three little fabric birds. Judy was working on yet another sweater. This one is red with great patterns on it.

I finished my entries for the 6X6 show in Rochester and I mailed them out on Tuesday. I always have such fun doing these little works that the gallery sells for $20.00 each as there fund raiser every spring.

I tried ice dyeing with ice cubes out of the freezer this week. I had heard about this and it means one can work all year long. I will do my own comparison study.

Progress Report:Coastal Colors III This work is 20” X 16” .I am enjoying the building process that goeson with these pieces. In this case I felted to begin with and then I built up layers of yarn, silk paper ribbon and fabric bits on top. I added a layer of batting before I started the stitching on this one to help it stay flat before the stretching.

The stitching adds even more dimension to the surface. The work seems to grow under the needle as I work on it. I like the textures too.

Trickle This work is also a felt built up piece. It is only 12” X 12”. I used a heavy wool for the base of this one and built up the felting on top again. There is no extra batting in this work and I think that because of the heavy wool. It stretched out nice and flat. I plan to do two more using this technique and size. Then I want to experiment with cotton fabric for the base of the felting and see how much distortion I get using that fabric as my base.

Circling Circles I am to the quilting stage of this project. I have finished all the circle quilting and I am now working on the wavy part. It is a nice contrast to the open circles.

Parts I can see the end of this project now too. I have all of the camera parts stitched to the surface and I am now doing the embellishment part of this project.

New Work This is not really new work as it is the second half of a piece I cut up. I thought I had an idea for how to finish it. So after studying it for a while I started working by building up a bit of Angelina to use with it. The Angelina suggested black berries to me. My mind went off on that direction. I made some vines to put on top and then I would add the black berries…….. But it was too much of a good thing and so I have dropped this top back to the unfinished pile and started a new work.

Briare Patch This is the result. The vines are the arched units. They are stitched to wash away now. The new base is not completed yet and it is under the vine unit. I have learned to go with the flow of the work , so this will grow from the idea. Next week there will be more.

Label Block 41 One more block is complete and I am just pushing forward on this project.

Keep Creating

Carol

Circling Circles, Hand work, Label Blocks, Parts

Deep Winter

February 19, 2016 admin

Hello-

We are in the deep cold of winter here in central New York. Ice storms and then snow on top. I was fascinated by the ice marks on the tree yesterday when I went out for my walk. There was melting water running down the trunk under the ice too so it added to the textures. My aunt Aileen gave me a wonderful gift this week. She presented me with a quilt that my great Grandmother Todd had made for my grandmother Ester as a gift for the birth of her third child, Leonard McElhinney in 1928. I was so very surprised and honored by the gift. All the little hand stitches are wonderfully done. As a child I remember sleeping under quilts made by this great grand mother and how I felt like I was protected by a layer of armor that no dream monsters could penetrate.

Progress Report: Parts This work is getting a lot of attention at the moment. I have just about stitched down all the camera parts now and I am filling in all the hand stitches for interest.

Scrap Happy This work is ready for binding and the quilting now. Both of those steps take about an hour a piece on the machine. That work will get tackled this week. Then when the folks who want them for fundraisers come calling there will be at least two to choose from.

Circling Circles I did collages last week and so I was ready for a new project. This one fills all three on my monthly challenges. The red shobori is Ethel’s fabric. The blue with the purple print is some fabric I silk screened last year. I also used (the pink) some of the fabric I snow dyed in this one.

New Work I visited with my friend Beth this week and she was working in curvier cuts. So I got inspired and started one using that technique again too. I put a part of one of the bodices that Regina gave me in this one. I am having fun.

New Felted Work I have built up the base for another abstract work here. This time I did not back the wool that I felted into and although this is much heavier wool than I used before when I tried this technique, I do not seem to have and much warping as I had with the first ones. Doing the machine build up on top will be the real test.

Label Block 40 Hurray- this block makes me one third through this process.

Keep Creating

Carol

# 2, Coastal Color, Coping, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Label Blocks, Moon Fall, Parts

Winter workings

January 29, 2016 admin

Hello,

The week has been a full one with lots of activates. This work is by a high school student and a part of the Scholastic Art show now going on at Onondaga Community Collage. I was a judge a few weeks ago and I judged animation and film. I went to see the other works that made it into the show. There is lots of wonderful work, and it is well worth the effort to go and see it. The FAB group also meant this week

. Nancy has added two more boarders on her quilt. I love how she mixes so many different patterns in her work. She is also so very good at making all her points. A characteristic that I admire as I find that process so very frustrating. I like a challenge so much more than a repeat activity. So I decided to be a part of the Cancer Project. This is the cancer mask that I will be altering in the next weeks. I have not decided how or where I will go with this one yet, but I really think it is fascinating. Another thing I did this week was take four quilts off to be a part of the Cabin Fever Quilt show that hangs in Betts Branch Library for the month of February. I also hung a show of 15 pieces of my work at the Briar Patch in Ithaca New York yesterday. I am sorry that I did not take my camera so there are no pictures of that. Because of all of our snow and the wonderful stash of dye that I inherited from Ethel, I attempted some snow dyeing this week. I had to call on the knowledge of my friend Angela to get myself going on this project . The photo is a shot of the first batch under plastic starting to melt. I learned from this first one to cut way down on the amount of dye one adds to the snow as the navy blue took over and there is no yellow at all on the final piece. The process takes a long time- about 24 hours for all the snow to melt because I am doing it in the basement were the heat is low and I may be packing too much snow in the bucket. Anyway the second batch looks like the yellow and green will remain a part of the color. And I did not add any navy to it. Everything is washing out now with a third bucket starting to melt. Look for images next week. Another thing I started this week was my 6X6 entries. That is for the Rochester Art fundraiser. I decided to use this paper as the base for a paper quilts for this project.

Progress Report: Coastal Color I

I really enjoyed working on these felted base works. I ended up adding a fabric back and sleeve to this one to finish it. Thanks again to the gals in QuIGs for there suggestions on this project.Mixing the machine work and adding yarns and fabrics to the surface sure made the process a joy for me. I have one more in the grouping to complete; I am excited and I have not even started adding anything to the felted surface yet.

Coastal Color II This felted work is stretched over stretcher bars with a batting in between. Again the QuIGs were the source for this solution to the finishing problem. This solution creates quite a different feel for the finished work. But again I got to do the thing I love the most with the machine drawing and the fiber additions. I just love to build up the surface.

Moon Fall I have enjoyed working on this project as the world out side has become one of grays, white and black. No thread build up here but lots of fun free motion work. I used some of the same thick thread techniques that I developed with the leaf and Autumn quilts I did earlier this fall. I mostly followed an edge when I could to make the quilting patterns. I appliqued the moon on top without any quilting of its own so it would float above the surface a bit. It seems to do that to me.

Coping Quilting away on this work was a nice contrast to all the free motion work I was doing this week. All the quilting here is strait lines with stops and turns it it. I first made a series of rectangles in silver and purples threads. Then I used black to make more quilting that filled in the open ares and added a little interest to the surface. It does the job I think although I do not find it overly exciting in the end. I do like the colors and that is a good thing as I have the second half of the original to deal with next. This one does have quite a different feel I think. I need to look and think for a while on this one too.

New Work I am tying to mix some of my altered fabrics with commercial ones here. The some of commercial ones are Ethel’s and the flowers are from my friend Tanya.

Parts is Parts I continue to stitch down the camera parts onto the surface here. What with the finishing of the first three quilts this week, I have not done a lot of hand work on this project.

Label Block # 37 The labels got their share of hand work though. I am looking forward to my February closet clean out as I think I will be able to add some more labels to my collection when I do that project.

Keep Creating,

Carol

I could not resist adding one more Scholastic entry to this blog.

# 2, Coping, Label Blocks, Moon Fall, Parts, Scrap Happy Quilts

Snow Bound

January 21, 2016 admin 2 Comments

Hello,

I was snow bound for three days this week as we got hit by lake effect snows. I felt like hibernating- but spent time in the studio instead. The snow measured 18” on my deck and the shoveling was tiring even though it was light snow. There was just so much of it and along with the wind, being out doors was cold work.

Before the snow I spent a

day with QuIGs gals doing screen printing at Angela’s house. We had fun and I got a new batch of fabric to work with.

I was also invited to be a part of the Valentine sale and show at the Turquoise Street Gallery. That sale and show will be Feb 12 and 13 from 11:00 until 8 both days. I created a few little images in fabric with bead trims for that show. It was fun and it got me in the spirit of doing Valentine stuff. Liz had a really cute pin she had created last year that was a Valentine Cookie in felt. I was thinking about them and so I tried to create my own.

Here they are in a tin all set to be sent in a few weeks to my gal pals.

Progress Report: Moon Fall I am to the quilting stage now and enjoying the free motion part of the process. I decided to use three colors of thread. A variegated red to rust, a blue and a burgundy to outline the shapes of the dyed areas. I am about two thirds done with that now.

Parts I am stitching down the camera parts by hand. I am also embellishing them with hand stitches to add interest. The process is slow and I only add about two pieces and evening, but I am enjoying it.

Coping I pulled out this top that I had started last summer and did a second look at it. Then I decided to do the quilting in a block like fashion. I am trying not to be too pridctable with that step and so I over lapped the starting squares and now I am building in more lines and little squares to the surface.

Coastal Colors II I continue to build on the top of the wool work here. I just enjoy adding more texture to the surface. The colors become so much richer I think.

Scrap Happy I had a whole box full of left over squares form all the scrap happy quilts I have been making, so I put them together in random rows and I am now sewing/quilting those rows together. It will be a colorful one when it is done.

New Work I pulled out these pieces of fabric and I will start a new work using some of them. I have not chosen a focus fabric from this collection yet, but when I do I will know what the next steps will be.

Label Block # 36

I got a letter from Judy this week full of labels and I am thrilled. It is always good to have help form one’s friends.

Keep Creating

Carol

Forest Floor, Mill Site Melody, Rifts, Scrap Happy Quilts

Summer Actions

August 26, 2015 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

These beautiful Morning Glories are from Susan’s garden. I had an unexpected invite to go to Quilt National last week and that happened on Thursday and Friday. That was the reason there was no post. It was a glorious experience and I have a ton of new thoughts and ideas about work.

There were wonderful works by many folks I have seen before as well as lots of new comers. I purchased the book, and I treated myself to a poster with Elizabeth Bush’s quilt on it. It was a good experience.

I did not get busy and write on Wed before we departed because I went to Susan’s with Noel and we had a play day. We did a mimic of the work form David’s class and I have a lot more paper to play with now. It was a pleasant day and we all enjoyed ourselves.

I also spent a day both weeks making silk paper. I have used some of it on quilts already. But my main reason for making the paper is I want to teach a class were the we make the paper and then use some of it to make book jackets.

Progress Report:Rifts

This is the new rock piece that I am working on. It too is another close up of the shore of Arcadia. I am struggling with direction on this one and keep pinning it up with different orientations. Looking is the only answer for me. It is also were I used some of the silk paper that I mentioned earlier.

The process is still in it’s early stages so there will be lots more build up of the surface and changes.

Mill Site Melody I stared this piece at QBL and I am to the quilting stage now. I have had a good time doing reflective quilting in this section and making additional machine drawing in other areas.

These wheat like shapes are based on the images I see in the discharged print image.

Forest Floor I continue to do hand work on this piece. The stitches are beginning to build up with more remaining to be added.

Scrap Happy I finished this quilt this week. It will be a gift to help comfort my friend Tanya who had to have her horse put down. She is quite sad about that and I hope this red and black quilt with give her warmth and comfort.

New Work I took David’s suggestion and selected one of my collages as a starting point for a new work.

The collage only has two pieces of paper in it- but I could not limit myself to just two fabrics. I have added more and as I build I can see I am making alternations in the design due mostly to scale I think. It is a different approach and I like that.

There is no shot of a finished block this week either because I am not done with one. I am off to spend tomorrow playing with another friend working on Gelli plates so I am writing this a day ahead. Summer is just a busy time.

Keep Creating

Carol

Butterfly Days, Hand work, Something Big

Active Summer

July 16, 2015 admin

Hello,

Summer seems to bring lots of movement for me. I went to a studio sale on Friday last week. What a bargain for me- fabric at $3.00 a yard- how could I go wrong? I helped empty the tables. Then stopped at Sharon’s studio before I went home. These are two of her River Grasses series. They are bot sold. I am happy for her. I also spent a day this week packing up four quilts to ship off to the opening show at the Pink House Gallery in Saranack Lake. My friend Cris Winter kindly asked me to participate. There will be a second opening in Aug and I will be sure to attend that one.

Then I made a trip down to see my friend Ethel and pick up two of her quilts for the Quilting By the Lake show. This quilt is titled ”Blue Notes”. I always love the way Ethel builds such a complex surface with such a limited pallet. Fun too to have it in my studio for a few days for close and repeated study. I will be helping hang the Quilting By the Lake show tomorrow.

Progress Report: Something Big This work in nearly finished. I used the felted jelly roll cuts from one of our play days at Blue Moon Studio on this one. I have put so much time into the hand work on this project that I did not finish a Label Block this week.

Van Goth’s Iris’s This is the full finished panel that I purchased in Maine. I know who will get this work in the fall.

This close up shows how my practice with the free motion work paid off.

Butterfly Days This work has been pieced for a long time. It has spent most of that time under other works. Then one night last week just as I was falling asleep- I realized that I could add something on top to make the quilt work. I had noticed several butterflies on my walk that day and so that is what I added. They are cut from ground cloth( the stuff one puts down under stones so weeds will not grow up from below). I think now I will add some paint to the surface of the ground cloth before I stitch it down.

I am off to Quilting By the Lake for the next two weeks so there will not be any posts until Aug 6th.

Enjoy the summer

Keep Crating

Carol

By the Shore, Encounters, Foundations Series, Label Blocks, Scrap Happy Quilts, Three Grand Sons

More on Lines

June 18, 2015 admin

Hello-

I just had to post these flowers today. I love both the color and the contrast in textures. I have not been very good about

concentrating on lines as I intended to be this year. But I took a renewed look this week. I was caught by the lines on the street and thought the are indeed one type of line- strait. They are a lines of direction and ones of illusion. They create a feeling of depth on a flat surface and lead the eye back in space. Most art is an illusion and a bit of magic. I say magic because if one looks at the materials ( paint, pastels, fabrics and yarns) that an artists starts with-it is nothing but magic when one looks at the end result.

Encounters 26" X 25" — Encounters
26″ X 25″

Progress Report: Encounters This is my newest completed hand embellished work. I put a postage stamp on the lower left to help with scale. It is a standard size- but I am not happy with it. So I will keep looking for an item to add along the side to help give the viewer a clue as to the size of the piece.

This work has more of the fabric form the discharge screen printing class in it. The dark fabric is a Judy Roberts piece form her monthly mailing. It came in January and I just knew I had to use it with the white material. I think they play well together. I have enjoyed doing the various stitches on the surface of this piece. I only did machine work as stitch in the ditch on some of the seams to hold it together.

By the Shore

I am ready to start to build up the dark sections of this work. I want it to feel deep – not just black so I am going slowly. I like all the textures too

Name Game- Three Grand Sons This is the next one in the series. Stage one here with Nick and Ben. Both positive and negative shapes are shown here.

Gavin shows the second cut of the fabric. It is already getting difficult to read the name. I will slice all three of the names into 4.5″ blocks and shuffle them next and put them all together for the top of this quilt.

New Work This top is all put together now. It seems quite weak to me so I will have to do some wild machine work on top to pull it into a work of some interest.

Scrap Happy Sense I sold one more of my Scrap Happies to Beth and there is a wedding for Barb’s son coming up I started more work on these types of quilts. The one with the red and black centers is all set in rows. This shot is only three rows.

This second with three shades of blue as it’s centers is not as far along When the rows are all assembled . I will make scarp backs for the two of them. They are always fun.

New Hand Work Because I always want to have some hand work to do I laid out and pinned up this new start for my next hand challenge. The white base has a bit of screen printing in pink on it. I added some organza, yarn, silk paper and some of the felt slices I made as a part of a play day with Cheri had last fall. I will be using mostly the same colors of yarn and floss as I did for “ Encounters”.

Spray Painted I plunged in and started the quilting on this one this week. I am outlining the reds and purples and then inventing the areas on the solid units on this top. I am enjoying the process, but I am not sure about what I am doing.

Label Block I just keep working away on these little fellows.

I will be away next week so there will be no post again until July 2.

Keep Creating

Carol

By the Shore, Encounters, Foundations Series, Label Blocks

Natural Beauty

June 11, 2015 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

This moth was in my yard this week. I have never seen a live one before and it is beautiful . Marty and I came across it when we were out side painting on Friday. We were so taken by Elizabeth’s spray technique when we were in Maine that we had to try it our selves. It was a lot of fun and we both have a new respect for what Elizabeth is doing. It takes a lot of skill to control the application and just folding the fabric is not all that is involved. We altered lots of different types of surfaces with the paint. From cotton, satin to corduroy and organza. This play sent me off in a bit of a new direction.

Progress Report: Painted Work I got all excited by the painted cloth and so I started and assembled a new top. It is big simple blocks because I want to feature the painted surfaces. Adding in sharp quilted lines will really extend and enhance the painted areas I hope. I am really taken by the sometime crisp edges and sometime soft ones.

By the Shore Now I am to the fun stage with this work as I am building up the surface with colors and textures. It is so much fun to add all the different types of fabric, paper and yarn to the surface.

Encounters I am still doing hand work on this project. The base is a mix of fabric that I did deconstructed silk screen printing work on and some of Judy Roberts wonderful hand dyed material. It seems to become lost for periods of time and when I come across it again I see it with new eyes. I think I am nearing the end as I add different types of stitches to the surface. They have helped me solidify the vision for the work.

New work I am still building this piece. At the moment I am not real delighted with it and feel it is only a background for something more. It needs a focus I think.

Label Block These nightly practices are moving along. I am finding it very hard to keep the labels square sense I can not stretch the fabric. I will not do a hand project like this again.

Keep Creating

Carol

Canyon de Chilly, Carol, Flag Challenge, Hand work, Lexi, Memory Map Quilts, Nail Castings, Name Game Quilts, Whip Shock Hill #2

Warming up

March 19, 2015 admin

Hello,

We are starting to see the melting of the snow around here. It is beautiful in its own way. But it can become very dirty and discolored before its gone. With the longer days I find myself spending more time cleaning and sorting. I seem to have the clutter rule of “ One thing in one thing out” well under control in my closet and dresser drawers. But that is not the case in my studio. I have piles of stuff all around and I need to do some serious culling. I know that a clean and clear space helps one get going on the creative work and I do love to walk into that sort of setting. But I have been traveling and working with others so much of late, that I have let the materials pile as I rush from one play date to another. I have done a good job a voiding going out and spending money on new supplies and materials however. I have kept my spending sense January at less then $35. Not bad for two and a half month I think. But it is the gifting of stuff from those friends that is getting me into trouble. I did spent yesterday with my friend Ethel doing screen dye printing. It was great to play with the rich colors. Now I have all the rinsing and washing to do today. She also gave me a couple of yards of white duck…… I am hopeless!

I did work a little on the Challenge Project Susan and I started in Florida. I added a blue wash to this piece and think I have decided on the text that I want to add. I can already see that the word part of this challenge will be the most difficult for me. I plan to add some beads tomorrow when I go to see my friends at Turquoise Street studio.

Progress Report: Nail Castings This project started as a result of finding the white plastic units that hold nails in electronic nail guns. I was fascinated by the shapes of the things. I have enjoyed working away with thread out of Grandmother Ruth’s needle basket and exploring differenttypes of stitches.

Name Game 1-Carol Now I know I say that words are not my strong suit- but I do love the shapes of letters and the spaces around them. To build this top I first printed out my name in very large letters. 22″ tall and 22” wide in fact. Then I stitched around the letters and cut away the negative space. I stitched the negative spaces shapes to a second pieces of light blue that was also 22” X 22”. I found that the letters them selves created units of the turquoise that were too big. So I cut just inside the stitch lines and then added those new shapes to the negative space piece on the second fabric. Next I cut both pieces of fabric into 5.5” squares and began playing with the blocks. Some I turned side ways or even upside down, always paying attention to the relationships of one square to the ones next to it. This play part took me a long time and several days. When I was happy with it I sewed the blocks together. This is such a fun and challenging design project I started a second as soon as I had the top all assembled.

Name Game II – Lexi This second top went a lot faster as I knew were I thought I was going. I made this one more complex by using a plaid taffeta for the background fabric. I also made more blocks and will not use all of them in this project. I think this will create a stronger piece in the end. In this shot some of the blocks are sewn to one another.

Memory Map- Canyon de Chilly I added the Spider Women’s Towers to this project. I really enjoy working on these Memory Map projects, but they as all very slow in there development. The ruins are also attached now too.I am still trying to decide what other elements I want to add to the work.

Whip Shock Hill II I want to enter a show where one needs two quilts that relate to one another. I have been thinking about how much I enjoyed the work on Whip Shock Hill. The first project shows less then half of the hill so I though I would use this challenge to do the second half. This is just the roughed out

Whipshock Hill Foundations XXI 44" X 35" — Whipshock Hill Foundations XXI
44″ X 35″

stage. But I do not think I have shown this step before when it comes to these type of collage projects that I do. The base fabric is only pinned to the buckrum at this point and no stitching has been applied. This second shot is of the first piece.

I am keeping myself busy as the Spring season gets going.

Keep Creating,

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Hand work

Purple Touches

Creative Power

Deep Winter

Winter workings

Snow Bound

Summer Actions

Active Summer

More on Lines

Natural Beauty

Warming up

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer