Category Archives: Pixies Group

Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, Dark Mystery, Drawing, Pixies Group, Poppy Field, Saturday Afternoon, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Quiet Week

Hello,

I has been a very ordinary and quiet week here.    Spring keeps showing the eye new views .   I have always loved Iris, but they do not grow in my garden as  it is too shaded.  These lovely ones are along our route and I look forward to seeing them in the spring. I had two Zoom meetings.  One with Social Art and one with the Pixies.  Both were enjoyable.

There was also a new Textile Artist Stitch Club assignment this week.  The teacher this time is Brook Harris and American fiber Artists.      This is my interpretation on the assignment thus far.  I drew rubber bands and then enlarged the image to get this shape before doing the stitch work.

 

 

Progress Report:   Saturday Afternoon    This work is part o f the Picasso/ Cubists  Challenge  with the Sisterhood of the Scissors.    I have finished the outlining of the parts of this work.   Then I finished the quilting yesterday  and now I am ready to face this work  and add the sleeve.

 

Horsetails     I am doing the hand work of adding the green  leaves on the steams now.    I am adding the leaves as it just did not feel complete.  I think I sometimes get seeing the end that I do not look as carefully as I should.     This will help the final piece I think.

 

 

 

Poppy Field  I did finish up the poppy flowers and I like the way they look, but I still think they do not have enough contrast with the background so I will order some   red orange roving and make more flowers. I may or may not use these on the work.  I will make that visual decision when I see how it looks.

 

 

 

 

 

Dark Mystery   The black Kimono that Noel gave me a part of just  called out to be used so I started this work.  I used several of the other pieces of silk she gave me too.  Guess I built a bit of confidence from doing Bonsai with only silk fabric.

 

 

 

New Fire     As I learn of the new fires in the west I am again inspired to do yet another fire quilt.  I have painted some fabric and pulled some other pieces so I feel that I can start soon.

 

Daily Practice    I started this strip this week.  That is the difficulty   of using  my wipe up rags.  They are usually the ends and leftovers of light colors, so they are unusual shapes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drawings  These are my works from this week.  I tried adding a wash with ink on the first one and was not real happy with the look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I tried adding dark with Plastic Crayon.  It works better and allows for better control of light to dark color application.  I can also go back in over the top of that product and build in more texture if I want.  So I think I will keep exploring with that material for a while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- The Minnahuni
Dad’s fist office mate at Ball State was a man named Frank Yahass. Frank was into canoeing in a big way and all his talk soon peaked Dad’s interest. He did his usual research and ended up purchasing one. We got a fiberglass square backed turquoise canoe in the spring. Dad also purchased a little five horse power motor to put on that square backing so we would not have to paddle all the time. Mom selected the name – Minnahuni from the Hawaiian word for Joker.  She did not know how to swim and saw all boats as taking a chance and she was sure we would tip over. As it turned out that never happened. We built our spring trip around the canoe and went to Georgia and the Okefenokee Swamp. It is just a National Wild Life Refuge so it is not well developed, but it sure was fun.  We also saw the origins of the Swanee River.  The water was lite brown  and were there was a bit of foam – it really looked like root beer. Mom said that the water was that color due to the large amount of decaying vegetable matter in the water.  It was that same rich brown in the swamp too.  The camp ground was in a pine forest where the needles of the trees were really long compared to what I remember from Yellowstone and they covered the forest floor like a big soft carpet. The first night we were visited by red skunks, and racoons. There were deer too that ate cereal out of your hands. The ranger at the dock warned us to be very careful launching our boat as there was a very big alligator that frequented the dock area. Mom was very glad that the dock had a great ladder to enter the boat and we did not dip our paddles too deep in that area to avoid the gator. We paddled out the narrow docking area and into the big lake like portion and turned east. Dad sat in the back, while Gene and I took turns sitting and paddling  in the front. Mom stayed low in the middle the whole time. We did not venture  far that first afternoon but really enjoyed our new toy. On the second day we left the lake area and went deep  into the swamp. Dad paid close attention to the map and we had a good time. Mom took lots of pictures and relaxed a bit too. We ate our picnic lunch among the Cyprus knees and saw a big turtle basking in the sun. I do not remember seeing many alligators, but that was fine with all of us. It was very quiet and we heard lots of bird calls. We did not see anyone else until we got back to the dock late in the afternoon. Gene and I were both really tired that evening and went to bed early. We walked the board walk in the swamp in the morning and saw more birds. After lunch we put the canoe back on top of the car top carrier and headed north.
We  then went to Oak Ridge Tenn. It was built as a part of the Manhattan Project. I recall visiting a museum like place and learning about how atomic energy could be used to create power plants. There was also information about how isotopes could be used in the human body , but my mind is a bit fuzzy on that.   The next day,  Dad drove hard and long on Saturday so we got home late that night. Got up on Easter Sunday morning and hunted for eggs. Sometimes it is hard to give up the pleasures of childhood. It was a great spring break.

Stay Safe

Carol
>

Bonsai, Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, Drawing, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Poppy Field, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Sisterhood of the Scissors, Textile Artist Stitch Club

New Growth

Hello,
Spring continues to explode around me. It is so beautiful ! Over the long winter one tends to forget  how powerful green can be. I had two Zoom meetings this week. The QuEG’s meant and the Pixies  did too. I also had two meetings face to face. FAD meant in Judy’s garden and enjoyed ourselves greatly. Today I meant with my fellow quilters in the Sisterhood of the Sisters group as we viewed the Members Show at the Schweinfurth.  This shot is of Sharon her work.    As it turned out there were only seven of us- but it was still great. 

 

This is a shot of Ann at the show.

 

 

The only other member of the Sisterhood   who had a piece in the show was  Noel.

 

 

But I have lots of other friends who were in the show too.   This diptic is by Barbara Vural , a gal that I taught with for over 20 years.

 

 

This sculpture is by Carol Adamack,  another Art  Teacher that I taught with.

 

 

 

 

 

This shot shows a quilt by Mary( the Haron) who is  Quilt Diva’s and a work by Cindy,  another art teacher /quilter I know.

 

 This is a work by Anne another active Quilt Diva  member.      It is a great show and will be up until  May 30.   I found it very stimulating.

 

 

 

 

 

The Fiber Artists Stitch Club got a new assignment from Saima Kaur. I am enjoying working on my project.

 

Progress Report: Bonsai This work is . I challenged myself to not use any cottons in this work and it did prove to be a challenge. The silks and synthetics do slip around a lot. I am working hard to get it to be flat and I will make another attempt at the pressing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday Afternoon I am in the process of zig zag appliqueing yarn down to out line the shapes.

 

 

 

 

Poppy Field After talking with Liz I decide that this piece needed a center of interest. As my friend Ethel said” you make good backgrounds”. So I took the information that I learned in Amanda Mc Carver’s class a few weeks ago and stared some bigger Poppies in wool and thread. I have these two about ready to put together and I want to make three more and hope they do the trick.  I plan to place the three petal piece on top of the twin petals and add a center to create the blossoms.

Drawing I did four more drawings this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt       This new work is make from all fabrics that I have altered .   I am still enjoying building with my own stuff.

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories :  Portland OR
The school play my senior year was “Girl Crazy.” I worked backstage and enjoyed the process. In the spring we did a variety show called “Musical Moods” For that production I was on stage as a dancer in the piece about the south pacific. The Tiki that Mom had carried home on her lap from Hawaii was on stage too.   It is now residing in the corner by the bookshelf in our east bed room. The National Thespian Convention that year was in Portland Oregon. Mr Fee took seven of us to that event. I sold lots of candy to raise money for the trip that year. I was the only senior , with two Junior girls and four Junior boys. We boarded the train in Muncie at 4:00 am and headed for Chicago. There, we joined a train that was exclusively for Thespians going to the convention. Kids from further east were already on board. Our group was seated together at the end of a car in the last four seats. It was long ride of two nights and three days with new car loads of kids being added as we went along. Sitting in front of us was a group from PA. One of the boys just in front of me had a guitar. He played beautifully and we all sang folk songs all the way across the country. Songs like “If I had a Hammer” and “ This Land is Your Land, This land is My Land.” It was very enjoyable.
Mr Fee challenged each of us to come up with a personal bit of acting to do some time over the week we were at the conference. I decided that with the help of the others I would try to play the part of some one who was deaf and could read lips. I did a good job fooling the gals on my floor in the dorm. Only once in the shower room did I almost blow it. My back was turned to a gal in the shower and she asked me to hand her a bar of soap on the bench. As I turned I realized I could not have herd that request, so I quickly said in my flat voice, “ Good Night” and left the bathroom. We had a dance one evening and I went of course. One of my boys from Central had to explain to one of the gals on my floor that I could feel the beat of the music through the floor so I could dance. I could not have pulled the week off without their help.
The Conference was at Lewis and Clark college in a remote beautiful hilly setting. When we got our room assignment I was a solo so the other girls helped me with my acting by waking me up each morning by coming into my room. I had a great view of a beautiful gully like the one in Columbus Junction. The conference went on for five days with workshops in the mornings a play preformed by our peers in the afternoons and a second each evening. We really covered a lot of ground. Again I did two workshops on costuming. I learned some nice tricks. As to the plays, I really only remember “Waiting For Godot”. The group discussion after that was very lively. The memorable evening performance was of “Peter Pan.” It was great to talk with the stage hands after that one and have them explain how they built the equipment to do the flying. That was also the last event of the conference. The train ride home was not as exciting as we were in a different car then the PA folks, and we were tired . Mr Fee did ask us about our” acting “ experience. I admitted that I was tired of playing that part by the end of the week. It did make me more sensitive towards others with that impairment.

Stay safe and Keep Creating
Carol

 

 

Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, Drawing, Felt Work, Horsetails, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group

Siding Complete

Hello,

The work on the siding was completed on Wednesday.  It looks good  and the house looks longer to me.       But this morning we decided to change the siding on the gables too.  So more construction is in my future.
I am really enjoying my walks now that the weather is a bit more comfortable and the views are great. Every day I can see the changes in the   new growth of the leaves of the trees. The color of the flowers tickles me too. This is a great red  here.
I went and helped my friend Noel sort and roll her silk kimono parts this week. She was sorting to pass silk forward to others in one of the quilt groups that I am a member of t so she kindly gave me first choice and I came home with some real beauties.   There is lots of new inspiration for me here.
The Pixies was the only group that meant this week and we did enjoy our talk. No new assignment came out of that meeting, but I am keeping up with my drawing. I continue to work my way through the 1938 book called “The  Secret Museum of Mankind” . I realized that having a source  of subjects at my finger tips helps me get the drawings done every morning. I guess I just needed a prompt.

Progress Report: Horsetails This quilt it 30″w X 41″ l. The plants are made from polar fleece and couched down with embroidery floss.

 

 

 

 

I love the texture contrast.

 

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt   # 11      This work is 40″w X 50″ l. The blue squares are all indigo sun printed images that I made. I also did a little oil stick color additions on some of them. A woman from PACE, a local elder care facility, came and picked up ten of these lap quilts  for folks who are wheel chair bound.   I  made all of them Jan. 1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonsai I just finished sewing down all the leaves this morning and now I am ready to begin to quilt this work. I did stitch in the ditch before I added the trunk so there is a little quilting already, but it needs a lot more to make it flat.

 

 

 

Saturday Afternoon ( Cubist piece) This work is for the Sisterhood of the Scissors change. The black is fused to the edge of the shapes and adds a lot to the look I am after. The bottom three pieces  of fabric are what I plan to use to make their clothing.

 

 

New Lap quilt.I pulled these fabrics to be the next lap quilt.     I like having and on going little project.   It is a good opportunity to play with different color combinations and not feel stressed about doing so.

 

Drawing    I am still drawing on old dictionary pages.   I like the unity that gives the work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Felting      I made some backgrounds in felt this week  as I wanted them so I could just move forward when I got a new idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daily Practice I worked on this during the Pixie meeting as well as the usual news hours this week.

 

 

Childhood Memories- Theater

My parents did a lot to expose my brother and I to different things. The first time I remember going to the theater was in Greeley the summer between third and fourth grade. The College had summer theater program and we had season tickets. I do not remember the titles of the plays and sometimes I did not under stand the stories, but I enjoyed watching the actors . Gene almost always fell asleep but I never did. It was not until years later that I realized the ghost I remember on stage was from Macbeth that summer. When we moved to Muncie the new Emerson auditorium had just opened and my parents got season tickets to the Artist Series. We had
seats in the second row in the center on Sunday afternoons. I got to see such wonderful production as “Oklahoma,” “ Gigi” and “Camelot” with Robert Goulet . We also had season tickets to the Ball State Drama Department series. Again our seats were near the front and I remember great performances of “ Once Upon a Mattress” and “A Mid Summer Nights Dream”. I still love and support live theater. It is magical to me.
When I was a Sophomore my last class of the day was Drama with Mr Fee. We had to read a play every week and write a little synopsis. We also did lots of little 10 and 15minuits scenes in class for our class mates. We leaned how to apply makeup effectively. One day I got made up as an oriental with black spray painted hair. I just could not resist wearing that home on the bus that day. I got lots of strange looks, and Margaret laughed and laughed at me. Another day I was made up as a young witch, but I did not wear that make up home. Mr Fee also ran two drama clubs. Stage Door was for kids who were underclassmen and wanted to participate in school productions. We mostly did crew work for the plays. To be in Nations Thespians one had to have experience it at least two productions and by the time I was a Junior, I qualified. For the sophomore year, the play was “ Everybody Loves Opel”, and I painted lots of scenery. I helped with costumes for “ Bull in a China Shop” the next year. That interest in dressing up folks only grew with time. There was a state Thespian Convention one weekend at Ball State and I participated in that. I was in the solo competition and did a piece called “ The Button”. I do not remember what my score was, but I sure remember working on it in drama class. The morning of the conference when Dad was driving me to campus he suggested that “ I try on a different personality, like show more leadership, and see if you like it. You will never see these people again so what do you have to lose?” I sort of tries that as I did know the campus and could easily direct folks to the correct locations for performances and such. I liked helping people. I did have a great day and did connect with a few folks from Fort Wayne. I even got to show them were Burkes was when we went out for a quick dinner. Theater is still dear to my heart.
Stay Safe

Carol

Bonsai, Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, Diva Meetings, Drawing, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Horsetails, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Poppy Field, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

New Siding – Step one

Hello,
It has been a busy week for me. Yesterday the workmen came and started on the next step of the house renovation. They pulled all the old siding off in less than an hour and then spent the rest of the morning adding a new layer of insolation. My studio is on the end of the house and has three out side walls so it sounded like I was trapped in a wood peckers den with them pounding on three sides of me as they attached the new covering. I had to remove my thread rack as the pounding knocked the spools off the wall.  We do not have a date for the new siding yet, but I am sure it will be soon and I will have a second day of nailing.
I did have four Zoom Meetings this week- QuEGs, The Diva group, FAB and the Pixies. I enjoy the meetings, but I do miss seeing folks in person.   That is changing I think. The Diva group is working hard on getting shows going and that is a positive thing. FAB is considering meeting in one of the gals gardens next time too. Susan of the Pixies is pushing us to draw more and I did some work on dictionary pages.
I am working from old photos from “The Secret Museum of Mankind.”

 

 

 

 

 

A book  was  published in 1935 with only little lines about the location of the image and a few words about the subject. I am working on the section about the Americas now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Poppy Field. This work is 34.5″ w X 43″ l. I did stamp on top of the first batch of quilting of the poppies and leaves. It did help I think. There is still a limited contrast here.   I will try to pay special attention to that factor as I go forward.

 

 

 

 

Horsetails All the polar fleece is stitched down now and I am starting to quilt it . I can see a challenge   for this piece and that is   getting this project  to be flat.

 

 

Lap #11 I just keep playing at fabric combinations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonsai This project has a  challenge of its own and that is  using all silks and synthetics as the base.    Those types of fabrics  do shift around a bit. I did the trunk  of the tree  out of several yarns wrapped in nylon netting.   Now I am adding the leaves in metallics and silks. It take me about an hour to add fifteen leaves so this step is slow.

Cubists Project.     I built this base for my second run at a cubist study   for the Sisterhood of the Scissors Challenge. I am using my collage construction approach on this work.   I hand dyed al the fabric in this base.

 

 

Daily Practice I am still working on filling in the background areas on this piece.

 

 

 

Dyed Mayan I am now quilting in this old Mayan piece. The pale colors of the dyes are a lot closer to the colors of the real walls at this time them the applique ones are.   I do need to push for a little contrast here too I  think.

 

Childhood Memories- Kennedy Assignation
Band was the first class after lunch. We got our uniforms the first day as well as band lockers. The uniforms were black pants with a purple strip and black suit jacket type coat with a purple strip on the cuff. Add a white military type hat with a brim, spats and white scolder caps with purple ” M”s  on them and the uniform was complete.   We did not wear the hats when we play concerts.   All Sophomores were seated at the end of the rows of the other like instruments. One could challenge another student to move up at any time and there were “ play offs” during study halls or at the end of the day. I held   first chair of third   clarinets for all three years of high school. By having this  class after lunch we could start a little early and practice routines and formations on the football field. Mr Mc Daniels would let us go early so we could hassle the eight blocks back to the High School building in time for our next class. We preformed on Football field for   the first Friday at the first football game of the school year.  We  learned new routines for all the  home football games for all three years. We did pep rallies and also play at all the home Basketball games too. The band gave me a social network and identity as well as assuring that I had a social life that involved me in lots of active events. I am sure that I came in contact with students that I would not have know other wise. There was no incentive to got to competitions like there had been in Jr High and I really did not miss that much. Mr Mc Daniels did keep it interesting and fun by having special events. One time we did a clown band and all dressed up in silly clothing. Another time we went patriotic and all wore red white and blue clothing.and a third time I remember, we all dress as colonial  Americans.   I made a special red check dress, bonnet and pantaloons with ruffles on the bottom.  My best friend, Margaret played the Sax a phone,  and  her sister, Ceicle was a part of the band too. She was two  years older and played the Oboe. Cecil got a black ford Mustang conveyable for her birthday in 1963 and she included me in her transpiration circuit when we went to band events. The gang that I did hang out with all grew from band. Bobby Cornell played the Trumpet and he lived near Margaret and Ceile. Mike Ritter also played the clarinet, he was a first chair and he and Cecil were an item so he was part of the group. Susy Bright, was a Band Aid, and lived in the same area as did Jim Freshwater who played drums that made two car loads of us and we did lots together. Sometimes it was a simple as going for a coke or a drive to Burkie’s a local restraint for fries. We did have a Mc Donald’s but it was across town and off the highway so we did not frequent it much.
After Band I had Physics class. I enjoyed it and had a better student teacher for that class then the regular guy. That class was followed by English  with Miss Meehan. I hated diagramming sentences, but enjoyed the literature section of that year. We were silently reading Silas Marner on Friday Nov 22, when the class was interrupted by the intercom with a radio broadcast. We all sat silently stunned and listened to learn that John F Kennedy had been shot in a motorcade in Houston. My last class of the day was Drama and it was a bit chaotic and three of the other older girls in the class were sobbing the whole period. At the end of the day we were told that all after-school activities were cancelled. The ride home  on the bus  was very crowded with many of us standing in the isle and no one was talking. The TV news with Walter Cronkite was very sad.  We had a Basket Ball game on Sat and it too was very subdued.    At the end of the game, Mr Mc Donald told us to appear at the field house at 1:00 on Sunday to march in a memorial parade to the cemetery. When we got there we all had black ribbons attached to our marching helmets and black arm bands. The white arm caps, spats and feathered topper for our helmets were removed. The drums all were draped in black too and sounded extra solemn . I am sure we played something somber but I do not recall what. When I got home, I to learn the Jack Ruby had been shot too. There was no school on Monday and it rained all day.

Stay safe

Carol

Childhood Memories, Coral Sea II, Daily Practice, Drawing, Horsetails, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Scrap Happy Quilts, Stencels, Twilight Crows

Quiet Spring

Hello,
This week I seem to have finished up lots of things. Clearing the decks is always a good thing in my mind.   It is like the raking I have done this week to clear out the gardens for new growth.   One needs to move on.

Yesterday Liz ands  I went to “Sew What”, a recycle sewing supplies shop in Auburn NY .   It felt great spending my money to up cycle materials that other sewers no longer needed.     I know that as a society we are generating far too much material that can easily end up on land fills  or polluting the water.  That is really only  a poor solution for our planet.    This resel/recycle shop is so much better!      Liz purchase two quilting hoops as they were so inexpensive and she did not know what would work best for her.    She also sorted through there button    bin to find some 50’s buttons to make a bracelet for herself.   As you can see I made a bigger purchase- but it is all stuff that I can and will use.  I used the pre wrapped bobbin thread today in my machine when I did the illustration  for Childhood.    They had a wide selection of sewing related materials, yarns and books.    It is a good resource and I will donate to it as I sort through my studio and support it by stopping and purchasing materials that I will use in my work.    We all need to take care of this world and recycling is one of the best ways we can all do our small part.

Pixies was the only group that meant this week. Susan challenged us to draw last week and these two are my answer to that. The Woman is my Mom.

 

 

These are my favorite red shoes.

 

 

 

Progress Report: Coral Sea II This work is 16 X 18. I enjoyed embellishing this work. The fish are made from fancy ribbons so they will not fray.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twilight Crows This work is 40″ X 48″. I cut all the stencils in the past and just used them together in a different arrangement this time. Most of the other fabric are altered as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt # 10 This work is 37″ X 51″. I so enjoy just putting fabrics together to create a new unit. I always seem to make extra filler and I am challenging myself to use that as the starting off point for then next one.

 

 

Scrap Happy. I finished this scrap happy this week. I plan to pass it on to my granddaughter.

 

 

 

 

 

Poppy Fields I was frustrated by this work and Liz suggested that I stamp on it to build up the contrast. I am much happier with it now. I plan to push forward now.

 

New base I built this base of all silks. It proved to be a challenge to get them all strait. I plan to use it for a base for my next leaf exploration piece.

 

 

 

 

Horsetails This quilt is a result of a dream I had this week. I have no idea where it came from, but I am enjoying the process. I have not tried couching poplr fleece before.

 

 

 

Daily Practice I am done stitching all the units down now and moving on to the background. I am about one forth done with that step on this section.

 

Stencils   I cut and printed some new and stencils that I mixed with some other ones.  A fun way to build more complexity in my work.

 

Childhood Memories – Sophomore Year II
I was always good at sports and   loved the gym class that meant alternate days with the Health class. Indiana is a big basketball state and Muncie Central was a real sports  power house .They had won the state   Basketball championship several times and for  two years in a row before I attended. I was looking forward to playing basketball in high school, so when  the school  morning announcement   made no mention of girls  basketball try-outs, Iwas  baffled.  After  the second day announcement of boys try-outs, I went to the Principal’S office and asked. The Vice Principal told me that” We don’t do that, because its not “ Lady-Like”. When I asked Dad about this, because I knew he had coached girls ball, he just laughed. “ Carol,” Dad said, “ There is only one gym and if there is a girls team, that would cut the practice time for boys in half.” That realization made me quite angry. I also realized that the cards were stacked against me and there was little I could do. I sort of worked on the issue of girls sports with Miss Anderson and by the time I was a senior there was a girls Track team and I was on it. No threat to the boys with that sport. We had the hand me down uniforms from the boys team. I was the base for the relay team and we won several races. I do have one ribbon from that activity.    I took synchronized S swimming at the YMCA as my  fall Junior year  physical ed class and joined that team. I was glad that having  straight hair was popular as the class was just before lunch and my hair was dry by the time my first class started. There was no travel for the swimming team and we did only  two performances . Despite the lack of outside support, I did have fun. I can still do all the fun moves we learned like  the clam shell and star fish.
> Lunch was a full hour and I  often at in the Cafeteria .   Sometimes I spent some of my lunch hours playing Chess with the Chess Club  that met  in one corner of the big room. We were also allowed to leave campus at noon to eat in the community. I got in trouble financially with that in October . I went with a couple of other gals to the Woolworths counter and  where we ate lunch. The cost of one Woolwoth lunch was more then a whole weeks work of lunch from the school lunch room. I should have realized early on – but the social aspect of it captured me. The last week of Oct I had only 15  cents in my pocket. Just enough to purchase milk at school at three cents a box for the week. So I stopped going to lunch with the “in crowd” and carried peanut butter sandwiches that week. I needed to learn that lesson. Being downtown also presented other temptations. There were three bookstores in the downtown area and I used them to purchase many paper back books. I know I spent money on every copy of an Edger Rice Burrows book I could find. Charm bracelets were all the rage at this time and I often checked out jewelry stores for charms for my self and gifts for friends Birthdays. My friend Ann’s parents owned a jewelry store there too. I did go several times and looked at charms there, but found they were just a little bit more expensive than the other stores, so they did not get much business from me. I still have my three bracelets that include charms from all the states I had lived in and some of my interests,   another bracelet that is all gifts , and a third , witch was the last one I built and it is very eclectic with a small Opal, a cowboy, a part of scissors  and a graduation hat , among other things.

Please take good care of yourselves
> Carol

 

 

Childhood Memories, Coral Sea II, Daily Practice, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Twilight Crows

Earth Day

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Hello,
Happy Earth Day 2021. I got up to a fresh dollop of snow this morning. The Hosta were just coming up outside my window and now they are covered in white. Mother Nature and Old Man Winter are at odds I guess.   It is a good time to consider how important this planet is to our existence.     We do need to care for it as there are no alternatives.

QuEG’s, FAD, and Pixies all got together via Zoom. I am happy to be saving the fuel it takes to go to meetings, but I do miss seeing folks face to face. I did use my paint brushes that I had created for Pixies. Here are a few of the more successful ones.

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report- Lap Quilt #9 This work is 37″ X 63″. I used mostly my altered fabrics on this piece. There are only two commercials. I am enjoying making these little works as there is no pressure from anyone to do them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twilight Crows I finally got this top all assembled.   I used several pieces of my hand dyed along with commercial fabrics here.   There are also several types of silks and syntheticts in this top.   I will layer and quilt it in the next few days.

 

 

 

Coral Reef II This hand work piece is nearing completion too. I enjoyed adding the fish as they give it an extra feel of life.  The fish ar cut from metallic ribbon so they do not fray and need lots of stitching.

Poppy Field I did the grass the other day. Then I felt defeated. There is not enough contrast and from a few feet away it looks like nothing is going on. I was ready to toss it. But after talking with Liz, I have a few things to try to see if I can save the work. Only time will tell.

Daily Practice This work continues to grow each evening. I have learned that I do not want to do another piece for this project that is this large. If I have another base this big I will tear it in half before I begin working. It is too difficult to see all of the surface at once in ones lap.

New Work     I started a new lap quilt today.  This is the first step were I lay out colored blocks in places I think they might work in for the piece.   I will add strips in 2.5″ and 4.5″ around these blocks to unite them and build the top.

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- Sophomore Year

 In the fall of 1963, I started attending Muncie Central High School in downtown Muncie, Indiana.   That change presented me with lots of changes.    For the first time I caught the bus at the end of our driveway and went for a 20 minute ride to school.     To my mind, the building was huge- it took up a whole city block.   It was crowded as it was the only high school in town.  A new high school called South Side opened the following fall and cut way down on the crowding.    I was the last stop on the bus route and the first one off in the evening.     My best friend Margaret Dunn however was the first one on and last off in the evening.  She often saved me a seat near the front of the bus.  Her ride was an hour and a half and she often was done with homework when she got there.    She calculated that by the time she ended high school she had ridden the bus 12 days going to and from school.    The first day started by going to a home room of fellow Sophomores and we remained together for all three years.  We were selected and seated in alphabetical order.   I was seated between Mike Merl and Marla Miller.   Marla and I became friends and  we were initiated into  Honor Society together.   As it turned out she and I were both commuters at Ball State and in the same class of 350 freshman there in the fall.  We agreed to  sit  in the front row to make sure we stayed awake as the class was at 7:00 am  three days a week.  When class was over at 8 we went together to the  Music Library to study and hang out until our next class.    There is more story there, but I will hold that until later.     In the first home room meeting we filled out lots color coded cards.  Name, add, phone number, date of birth etc…….   Then the teacher collected them ; the white card, the blue card, the canary card, the violet card and the salmon card .    We got locker cards and we were given our class order assignment after she went over the  rule handbook   with us.   We also returned to the same room for  standard tests and to  get class assignments and fill out the same cards in our Jr and Senior years.     There were few changes over the three years, but a few folks disappeared.  I did not have class with any of the folks in the home room or any of the friends from Middle School.  I wrote in my diary that I was not happy about that.

   The Geometry class that Dad had insisted that I take was my first one every day.  I remember the yellow paper back book that we used.     It was complex, but logical.  I do not recall needing help from Dad either.     I think I got mostly A’s and B’s in that class.     My second   period class was  World History.    There was lots of geography in that class too.    Period three was Art class.     I recall that there was much more Art History in this version of art class.    We studied Cubism and did paintings in that style.  Later in the year we studied Alexander Calder.    We made big mobiles out of the big metal cans from the Calfeteria. I remember making a Mandolin  out of one of the cans and punching holes  with a nail to outline the hole  and the edges of the instrument.   I used wire to show the strings.     I also make a bunch of flowers out of wire and balanced those elements with others to make my mobile.  It was huge.  When the teacher hung them from the lights , mine was quite low and some one attached a note to one of the flower stems  that said “ Take me down!”

Fourth period I had Nursing class with Mrs Webster.    The only thing I recall from  that class was learning about Syphilis.   The images of its effects were so gross, that I swore I would never kiss any body in my life.   She did scare us  straight- for a while at least.

Stay safe,.

Carol

Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Sisterhood of the Scissors, Textile Artist Stitch Club, Uncategorized

Getting Green

Hello,
I hope everyone’s holiday was pleasant. We are really starting to feel like spring as the greening up of the world gets going here. Ones views are being cut back too as the leaves grow and fill in all the possible openings  of long distances and grow  to collect light for Photosynthesis.
I had several zoom meetings this week. tThe  QuEG’s, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists,   Sisterhood of the Scissors  and  the Pixies meant. There was an assignment for the Pixies from last week and that was to make ones own brushes. These are mine.  All have chopsticks for handles and yarn, fur, and rubber bands for the brussels. I will try them all out this week.

 

 

 

I finally finished my Coral Sea piece for the Textile Artist Stitch Club. It is 14.5″ X 13″. There is a felted base that I stitched the various beading, and sequin  techniques on top of it.   I am quit happy with the work.

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: 10″ X 10″ s   These works are  for the Quilt Consortium.     I have been working on these 10 X 10 inch works to go for their fundraiser. This week I put sleeves on them and added the labels so they are ready to ship. They will be sold for $10.00 at the show later this year.
Camels Today

 

 

 

 

 

Plant Play

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dragonfly Days

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exploration

 

 

 

 

 

Lemon Aid

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coral Reef II I actually started this work before the one I did with Textile Artists. Completing that project pushed me to work again on this one. I am trying more unique materials as a result of the doing the first one. The green plants for example are cut from a bit of Christmas ribbon.

 

Crows I printed more crows and I have now pulled fabric for the beginning of the assemble of the project.

 

 

Lap Quilt X I just keep doing these fun little explorations. This one has lots of my altered fabrics in it.

 

 

 

 

 

Daily  Practice   I continue to enjoy doing this work every evening and the piece keeps filling up.

 

 

 

Childhood Memories High Finance
I started serious baby sitting after we moved to Muncie. My first job was across the street with Steve Ballow. He was the same age as Gene and Dad worked with his Mom, so we did know them. That job lead to other jobs with faculty members. By the third year I had so much work that Gene was pressed into service too. I lost several costumers to “ The Gentle Giant”, as he was called, because he had a big growth spurt in 8 grade. In early Sept of 1963 Dad pulled me into the den for a big talk. He told me it was time for me to be more organized and responsible with my money. He then pulled out the family books and showed me how he was organized with categories of different kind of expenses and bills. He pointed out several months of clothing entries , and we added up how much was being spent on my clothes alone . He said he would provide a clothing allowance based on an average of these figures. He went on to talk about other expenses, like food. In my case lunch money would be provided. He then said that if I packed and carried my lunch from the family stores, he would still provide the food allowance, and I could save for special expenses that way. You will be riding the bus to and from school, it is too far to walk, so you will have a transportation allotment. Then he covered recreation expenses. You will want to go to ball games, dances and other school events that fall into that category- and extension of your old allowance is a good way to think of that. Your mother and I get paid once a month so you will too. You will supplement you income with your babysitting, of course, but you must live on those incomes combined, so I suggest that you save some money for emergencies too. You can not come to me or your mother for cash any more. Then he gave me a little red note book and I set it up to suit me. I was always good at following instructions so I did well with this too. I quickly learned that I could stretch my clothing budget and have fun sewing my own clothing. The next trick I learned was that if I made a wool plaid skirt and jacket, and I made a solid blue skirt, I had two outfits, economically. I added to that a turquoise skirt and jacket that picked up one of the stripes in the plaid to make more parts, and so my wardrobe grew. I added browns and tan skirts and vests all in classical styles that served we all through collage and beyond. This idea of making simple but related pieces that could be used interchangeably served me well when I was doing costumes for the school plays when I was teaching. Red check shirts made for “Guys and Dolls” were used in Annie Get Your Gun”, with the addition of a white lace edge for the cow girls in the wild west show for example. The efforts that my Grandmother Ester put into teaching me, and the Home Economics from middle school, have been sources of great joy and economy for me.
> Dad also started teaching me how to drive at this point. We used the station wagon as it was an automatic. We began by driving in the country, then moved to quiet town streets. I never really learned to drive a stick shift , although the two -tone green Rambler was a standard. One evening, Dad thought I was ready to drive down town to the high school for a math club meeting. It started out well, but I was not very good at using the clutch. We were waiting at a stop light in the growing darkness, the car facing uphill just before the bridge across the White River when things went wrong. I rolled back into the car behind before Dad took over and we went forward across the bridge. We stopped on the other side and talked with the other driver. No damage done, but I was quite shaken. Dad drove the rest of the way to the high school and I went off to my meeting. One of my friends brought me home. I just could not get past that event so even though Eric and several others have tried to teach me, driving a standard is not one of the skills I have.

 

Childhood Memories -Summer 1963
In the summer of 1963 I was 15 and Gene was 12. That made us both a bit more independent than in the past, so with that in mind , Mom took her first Summer School Field trip with Dr Cooper. She spent 8 weeks in Hawaii studying biology there. She sent home lots of post cards and we enjoyed them. She also brought gifts when she returned. I got a great University of Hawaii sweatshirt. It was always a conversation starter when I wore it.
On Wed every week, Dad, Gene and I went to the Student Center and had dinner. Then we would go down stairs where Dad taught us how to bowl. Gene caught on very quickly , but for me it was a bit more of a challenge. We did have fun though. By the end of the summer I had the hang of it and we repeated that pattern for several years. Some evenings when it was not Crowded, Dad even worked with us on how to play pool. I recall his careful explanations about how to use the cue stick to line up the angle with your eye to project where the ball should go…… Then there was the part about where on the ball one was to hit it to be successful. Again it was a skill that Gene excelled at and me not so much. It was still fun.
> When Mom got home we still went for an end of summer trip. We drove to Chicago and spent a day in the Field Museum. It is on the lake in a building that was part of the worlds fair when it was there. I was struck by the two big totem polls that flank the doors when one first comes inthe doors of the museum. I think that is were my love of the northwest Native American’s art started.
The two big bull Elephants that are in the center of the main hall were surrounded by special displays and booths as they were having a Mexican Celebration. I was captivated by the pinata they were building. They were made with a cardboard box as a base , with a head, a tail and wings added in more cardboard. The whole unit was then covered in crepe paper and tissue paper. I tried to build my own when I got home from what I remembered. The rest of the museum is wonderful too. I enjoyed the many animal dioramas and sea floor exhibits the most.
There was a skeleton of a sperm whale and it was huge! Mom was the most interested in the displays of the cultures of the South Pacific sense she had just been there. There was also a display of Northwest native peoples that really impressed me. Gene liked the fossils and dinosaurs. There was a Transistors Rex skeleton in the same area as the whale, I think . It was an exhausting day.
> The next day we went to the Art Institute. There was a special exhibit of a scaled down version of the Sistine Chapel on display . It was amazing , with lots of detail and one could really see all the angles and figures as it was much closer to the visitor than the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Mom said. even so, the Sistine Ceiling was glorious- though one’s neck got a bit tired from the looking up. The only other thing I really recall was George Seurat’s Sunday In the Park! I was blow away. It was my first real mural sized painting, and to add the stippling to the size really amazed me. I had done mosaics and knew how long those took to do – so the thought of doing all those little dots really registered! I do not know if there was any other work in the room- but if there was I never recollected it, and I have visited the painting several different times. I even took 5 of my students on a field trip in my car my first year of teaching to see the museum and that work of art. We went from Chicago to visit the grandparents in Iowa for a few days. There was a big family picnic at the cabin while we were there. It was good to see the cousins again. I did not realize how much I missed the long summer stays with them.

Stay safe and make wise choices,

Carol

 

Black Roses, Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Felt Work, Pixies Group, Quiet, Raw Edge Applique, Scrap Happy Quilts, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Gifts

Hello,
I feel so very fortunate to have such kind  and generous friends. Last week I got a surprise package in the mail from my friend Patti. It was a paint brush organizer. So very handy and I put my brushed in strait away. I feel so flattered that she would share her time and effort to make and send me such a nice gift. People can be so very kind and it is doubly wonderful when it comes for no reason. It touches the heart. Such a small act can really lift the soul and raise one’s sprites.   I will try to do the same in the future.
I had four Zoom meetings this week. The QuEG’s meant on Tue with the FAB and Pixies meeting yesterday. It so good to stay connected. The Textile Artists Stitch Club started a new project with Jude Kilgshott. I am still not done with the handwork on my leaf print, but I went a head with the new assignment anyway. Jude asked us to collage a bit with fabric pieces and then stitch them down. I am half done with that as there are suppose to be 8 pages. She was trying to help us see the beauty of the back of the stitch work as well as the front and the transparency of Organdy really does allow that. I will keep working and hopefully get back to the old project too.

Progress Report: Murder  II This work is 36″ X 46″.   I discovered that I had on older piece named Murder of Crows   so I had to rename this work.

 

 

 

 

I did stitch in the ditch  in the seams and around the crows. But I felt that was not enough so I added what I call “ wind lines”  of quilting that run horizontally across the quilt in a wavy pattern. It works and the piece is stable now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scrap Happy I made  a trip to the Dr on Monday and he said I was healing nicely and could go back to normal activity.  That meant that I could lift things without fear of breaking the stitches on the back of my hand. So the first thing I did was quilt this queen sized quilt. It was hard to rustle about under the machine but I did it. Then I did the binding and it is done now.

 

Quiet- Daily Practice One of the other things I could not do with the hand , was stretch this piece. So I did that this week  now  that I have full use of my hands.

 

Black Roses      The work is 38″ X 36″ .    This is a rescue piece. The base was the original  background for Three Sisters.  I removed the figures  and had the old background  piece on the table.  Next to it was   black and white rose fabric .    It was a  gift from my friend Tanya. She often passes me interesting fabrics to play with. It just seemed to go together. And I had a chance to use my cording foot tht I had purchased for the machine.

 

I enjoyed this project.

 

 

 

 

Three Sisters So this piece got a new base and some additional build up. I think I am now ready to stitch the parts down.

 

 

 

 

 

After the Fall This work too had to be put on hold until I got the OK form the Dr. It takes about 10 min to stitch down each  leaf and I find that I can only work  for about half and hour before I begin to tire. All the stopping and truing the whole quilt to sew half and quarter inch sections  is slow work.

Felted Backs I built these backgrounds for the machine drawn birds. I will get out the Felter and do the  felt work this week so I can put it all together.

 

 

Daily Practice I am working away on the daily practice too. This is the new one with a week’s work of effort on it.

 

Childhood Memories- Dr Kunkel and Sailing
Moving to Muncie changed the lives of all of the family in different ways. Gene seemed to have  had  the most difficulty adjusting to a new bigger school. Dad said a new place was a great chance for a fresh start and I took it that way.   One of the changes Dad did was he started using his real first name. When Dad was born  one of his cousin’s  was born across the county   a day after  Dad.   Both boys were named James McElhinney. To keep them strait in the community, Dad went by his middle name of Howard. When we moved to Muncie and his diploma said “James” , he decided to go by that name. In October, I was really  feeling my oats and that nearly lead to disaster. I was comfortably reading away in my room one afternoon when the phone rang. I go up and went down the hall to our only phone and answered.
“Is Jim there?” asked the voice. I said “No” and hung up the phone. I had just gotten settled  when the phone rang again. This time it was the same question and same answer. I returned to my room and the phone rang yet again. As I walked down the hall I though, “ I ‘ll play a joke on this guy.”
“Is Jim there ? ” the caller asked for a third time.
“Yes,” I said. “But he is too drunk to come to the phone.”
“Is this Jim McElhinney’s home?” the caller asked.
I was not smart enough to just hang up, but said. “ Oh! I am so sorry. He is here and I will got to the garden and get him for you.”
After Dad got off the phone he gave me a bit of a dress down for being such a smart-allic.
“What if that had been one of my bosses?” he asked. I never did anything like that again.  As it turned out the man thought the whole thing was quit funny.    He was Dad’s office partner, Dr Kunkle. He and Dad got to be great friends and traveled all over Indiana working with teachers to develop curriculum programs. The two of them also went to Alaska to do the same thing with the Klincket Native American tribes off the coast.   I also developed a connection with Dr Kunkle when I went to Ball State. He was the sponsor of the sailing club there. That is were I learned to sail and I became proficient enough to be a Captain. My friend Margaret and I went out in one of  the club’s Windmill lots of times. On one trip with her I even swamped the boat and had to haul it back to the dock myself. It was a cold event. I only had one more  experience with sailing when I was much older. I spent afternoon trying to learn to sail surf on Cazenovia Lake. I could not “come about”  so I could “tack” north.     I kept   losing control and falling off the board.   So I was slowly “sailing”  farther and farther down the lake. Finally the owner came with his son and rescued me . The son sailed the board home and I rode in the cab back to the house.   Gene got to be good friend with Dr Kunkle too and also learned to sail with him. Gene was a good sailor and the two of them went to lots of sail boat races on weekends.   They eve won some cups.

Stay safe

Carol

Birds, Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Scrap Happy Quilts

Holidays

Hello,
Happy Chinese New Year to you! It is the start of the year of the Ox tomorrow and the beginning of the Spring Festival. With the new moon tonight, it is also the start of the lunar new year.   Add to that, Valentines Day on Sunday, and one has a lot to celebrate in the up coming days. I find it interesting that all of those holidays include a lot of red in their celebrations.  I guess we are getting a bit tired of the grays, blacks and whites of winter.
I had a few Zoom meetings this week. The Retired Art Teachers meant and we enjoyed the talk as we are all spread out now and some  gals live in  FL and South Carolina.   They joined us  in  this meeting. The Pixies also talked this week. Zooming is a real pick me up for me, but  I do miss the social contact of live meetings.
The Textile Artist Stitch Club project is going well. I do not think I will have the handwork done before I get the next assignment, but I am not too worried as I tend to complete projects. Good thing that is one of my better habits as I keep staring things due to the hand operation. The fact that I can not rustle the big projects under the machine means I just get to a point and I must stop. The UFO pile is really building up. I hope that the Dr gives me the Okay to go forward on Monday and I can finish up a few things.

Progress Report:  Lap Quilt – Glyph    This is the only project that I completed this week becasue it is small.   It is  37″ X 46″  .   I enjoyed working to finally put these  stenciled  squares into a work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt IV I am using my hand dyed as a starting place for this project. It is layed and I have stared the quilting in the ditch work on it. I am sure I will finish it in the next day or two.

 

 

 

 

Scarp Happy Quilt I am assembng the back of this project now. It is a great way for me to use up bits and pieces.

 

 

 

 


Murder of Crows I finally put this work together this week. It too is at the stitch in the ditch quilting step. I can manage these smaller works under the machine even with the hand limitations.

 

 

 

Sisterhood of the Scissors Challenge- Three Sisters The assignment is to do something with portraitures with a Picasso influence. I am going for the cubist period. But this is awful! Too much of a good thing I guess. I will dismantle it and start again.

 

Thread Painting – three birds   I did these birds, a Chickadee, a Finch and  a Cedar Waxwing thinking I had three felted backgrounds on the shelf. When I pulled the backgrounds out, I discovered that only two would work and the felting step was only just started. I will  make one more background and  work at getting them all felted properly.

Daily Project I am on the second piece of fabric in this nightly handwork series. It is a very calming way to end my working days.

 

 

 

Childhood- Jr High continued
I continued to play my clarinet after we moved and all through high school.  In eight grade I befriended a tall, some-what gangly, awkward gal named Margaret Dunn. She played the drums and bells . Our friendship was a powerful influence in my life. She is the only person I am still connected with from high school . She now lives in Rhode Island. She and her husband travel all over the world judging Kite Competitions and teaching folks everywhere how to make kites. Both Margaret and I took part in the school musical, “When Our Hearts Were Young and Gay”. We were in the choirs, so we had lots to time to talk and enjoy the event. We were also together in Science class with Mr Davidson. I will admit that when the class dissected a frog, I was not impressed. It was smelly and colorless, a bit of a let down after Mom’s rabbit the year before. My lab partner was thrilled. Like Mom, Mr Davison had ways to add points to one’s grade. He had a big collection stamps of wild animals and one could enlarge an image for extra credit. I took out my colored pencils and got busy. I did several, although I only recall doing the Sage Grouse with his tail feathers all fanned out and the chest wattles enlarged. Mr Davidson also sponsored early morning bird watching walks. Margaret and I arrived at school at 6 on several occasions to accompany him along with other kids to spot birds. Dad let me borrow his binoculars and that made the project more enjoyable .
> A brand new class for me was Home Economics. There were two Home Economics teachers . One taught sewing and health/hygiene . The other taught cooking and nutrition. I remember learning how to make Tuna Salad with hard boiled eggs and making cookies. In the sewing class our first project was a felt pajama bag shaped like a cat’s head. The skill the teacher was shooting for was how to put in a zipper. My experience with Grandmother Ester helped me in that class. I did get a speeding ticket in that class, for running the sewing machine too fast. Our second project was a straight skirt. She stressed that we all needed a good set of sewing scissors. I got some with Singer printed on the side and I still have them. I selected a pattern with a skirt and shell and then picked out black and white plaid corduroy fabric to use. Matching the plaid was a lesson I will never forget as I had to rip out my seams several times. I created a separate challenge for myself by making the shell reversible. That was the start of my career of making one garment do two jobs. I don’t know how many costumes I made using that trick. In Hygiene we learned how to wash our faces using little circular motions. We did craft projects in that class too. In Nov. I ordered a kit to make Mom a ceramic tile tray for Christmas. It came and I assembled it according to the instructions. Mom loved it and the tray sat on its side on the counter under the china cabinet for years. I also remember that we “learned’ how to knit a flat tie under the chin scarf/ hat. I did learn enough to get the job done, but the practice did not stick ! I was over fifty when I felt I could call myself a novice knitter.
> I was becoming aware of popular culture. There were two popular TV shows about Doctors at that time- Ben Casey and Dr Killdare. People seemed to like one or the other, but not both. Dr-like shirts were all the fashion that spring. Mom knew I liked Dr Killdare, but she refused to purchase me a trendy bit of clothing. And she was correct, by the next fall no one was wearing them any more. Another TV star that was popular was Carol Burnett. I was thrilled that she and I shared the same first name. I had a job at home ironing clothing and I would often set up the board and watch “Frances Farmer Presents” old movies on TV in the afternoon when I got home from school while I ironed. The family watched lots of westerns together and my favorites were Maverick, Have Gun Will Travel and  The Rebel with Johnny Uma.

I hope you have good TV show memories too.

Stay safe

Carol

Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Textile Artist Stitch Club

Grounded

Hello,
I hope everyone is doing well.  My big excitement for the week was a little operation on my the back on my left hand on Monday morning to remove a growth. That has really slowed me down as I can not lift much. I can do hand work sense I am right handed and can work on a few things – but lots of work will need to wait two weeks until I see the Dr again. It is good to slow down and take stak every now and then.     I survived the big snow that hit our area by just staying put, Zooming and working.   I did go for a walk in the cemetarty today inthe sun shine though  and enjoyed it throughly. I had lots of meetings this week. The QuEGs, FAD and Pixies meant and it was all stimulating. There was also a RATs ( Retired Art Teachers) meeting too. It is good to stay connected with folks in this time of isolation. The Textile Artists Stitch Club ‘s new teacher is Caroline Nixon. She had us do a bit of bio printing before we started stitching this week. I have only done a little of the stitch work so far.

 

Progress Report: After the Fall I had started stitching down the leaves on this project before Mon so there is a little progress.  I will not be working on it until later now as it requires lots of handling and with the stitches in my hand I can not pull the fabric around as I need to for the outlining of the leaves.

Lap Quilt – Glyph I layered this quilt yesterday. I think I can stitch in the ditch quilt this work because it is all strait runs and not much else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

6X6 The Rochester Cultural Arts Center has made it annual call for little six inch by six inch works so I got busy and finished off these three during some of my meetings this week.

 

 

 

Old Project I found this piece while hunting for bases for the 6X6 projects. I will finish it up quickly I think.

 

 

 

 

Daily Handwork I finished the hand work on this big piece this week. I want to stretch it so again that will be put on hold .

 

 

 

 

But I did begin a new Daily series after talking with my friend Barbara. I am going to use a lot of my paint and hand dyed fabrics as a base and use the left over pre fuzed solid fabrics from the Mayan series to stitch into. It should make for a complex and interesting surface to work on.

 

Collage Crows  I did a few more crows in the collage techniqie this week .  I used an old fabric that Marty and I had made after a visit to Elizabeth Bush where she showed us how she was using spray paint on fabrics to create some wonderul images.  The backgound is fine for this strong contrast in the pieces of black.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood -Mr Carr
A teacher that had a profound effect on my development was Mr Peter Carr. Mr Carr wasmy  summer school art teacher the summer between my Junior and Senior years in high school.  His classes were  structured, his lessons specific. The first day of class he gave all the students  a sketch book and said we would have three  pen drawings due very week . One would be assigned and the other two were our choice. The first assignment was to draw what was under the kitchen sink and  I remember having the most difficulity  drawing the gallon glass vinegar bottle.  Then with  the intention of impressing him, I drew a portrait of a Viking with a helmet with fur and horns.   Using a ball point pen made one slow down and look carefully before putting down the lines- there was no erasing. The Viking looked great- but some how I had given him a very crooked nose. Mr Carr gave me high marks for the work , but on the nose of the Viking he had corrected the line  of the nose in red pencil.  I never made an error in the nose alignment again as every time I look at the sketch I see the correction. Other assigments included a trip to  the cemetery, what was under our beds, and our reflection in a shiny object. I  still love to draw with  a Bic ball point pens. We did ceramics, his art form of choice, painting and collages  that summer. Then the  last few weeks of class we had choices. I decided to try doing a punch needle rug for the choices offered. This was my first real use of fibers as a art material. I did my designs in colored pencil keeping in mind that rugs had no up or down and needed to look good from all points of view. I selected the strongest design  with his help.   I built a wooden frame and stretched the burlap over the frame and  begin the work.  I drew a design of FIRE in magic marker on the burlap and began punching in the colored yarns. The rug was successful as the shapes were good, the colors strong and the stitches were of varying heights. I spent many happy hours working on the project, but I  did not complete it before the end of the class.  I got an A none the less. Mom hung  my  “Fire” in the front hall so you could see it when you came into the house. “You could not put it on the floor,”she said. “One does not walk on fire.”  The rug won a blue ribbon in the Art Fair my senior year at school.

The rug hung in the hall until Mom moved to AZ in 1979 when it came back into my possession. I went on to do a “Water” rug and one all in greens that I called “Fields.”  That  work was like looking at the earth from an airplane- some thing I had not done at the time.
Mr Carr came back into my life when I was a senior in college.  At Ball State all folks on the path to becoming teachers took a class called “Practium”.

The class was a chance to teach a few lessons with the supervision of a master teacher in the lab school. Before we ment the kids to beging that experience, we had a meeting with Mr Carr were he  prepared us for the experience. He told us all to come to class the first day dressed as an Artist. “ Look the part, act the part, and you will be the part,”he said. I went out and purchased myself a pair of blue bell bottom throusers that covered my shoes, a white highly  textured blouse and a navy blue wool Nehru jacket. It passed the text. Mr Carr  was as good at teaching us how to teach, as he was at teaching art.   One great pointer was to limit the scope of the assignment so kids don’t flounder around and waste time.  Another was to break  complex projects into small units that kids can build on to create good work.  He reminded  us to reward the students  efforts along the way as much as theie final projects. That is where the real growth happens. I credit him with setting  on a great path to becoming a successful teacher.

Stay safe,  and keep Creating

Carol