Category Archives: Pixies Group

Creative Assistants, Envision, Forbidden Fruit, Hand work, Pixies Group, Presume

Pushing Forward

1 Comment

Hello,

 All my efforts at the moment are to prepare for my solo show that gets hung on Sat.   This is a shot of the post card.  I addressed and mailed out  30 on Monday.  I am excited even though it seems to have taken over my life of late.   I have 18 pieces that I have prepared labels and polls for at this point.   I will spend most of Friday doing one last press of them so they hang  as flat as I can make them.   I have a nice mix of new things that have never been shown any were and a bit of a review of older work.     I will polish up the artist statement and be all set I think.   I also pulled work for the Cabin Fever Quilt show at the Betts Library that opens in early Feb.    I only have three pieces in that show and I have very little work to do except turn in my art for that show.   Koi Joy(  at the right)  is one of my entries for that one.

 

The Pixies were the only group that I meant with this week so there was not a lot of outside in put.  I am glad however as I had plenty to keep me busy.

Progress  Report:  Forbiddin Fruit   This work is 35.5″ X 55.5 “.  It is the first in the mono chromatic  works although it is also my entry for the Red competition for Quilt Surface Design Isolation  that is due at the end of the month.   I did a lot more hand work on this then I intended at the beginning, but the work called for it so I pushed forward.

 

 

 

Blue Horizon    This is the second in the mono chromatic series that is a sub set of the  Meandering Mind series that I started in the Creative Strength Training class.  I am doing free motion work and hand work on this piece too .

Presume    The green work in the mono chromatic series is all assembled now and pin  based.   I am learning a lot about color with these challenges.

 

 

 

Envision  I started working away on this piece on Tue.  Still playing with curves and the mono chromatic thing and having fun.

 

 

 

 

Creative Assistants  I pushed myself to get hair- my third step in the construction of the tribe done this week.  Each of these bags holds about  35  bodies so  I have lots of faces to do now.

 

Handwork  Its time for the Rochester  6X6 show stuff so most of my efforts in the hand department are going in that direction at the moment.  Two are done and two to square and bind.

Finish up  I added the binding to this work so it is done now and I can go on to other things.

 

 

 

 

 

Drawing   I enjoyed the on line drawing class this week.  This is my response to the   Bird- House”  challenge.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

100 day Challenge, Annalise, Blue Horizons, Creative Assistants, Creative Strength Training, Meandering Mind- Examine, Pixies Group, SAQA, Scrap Happy Quilts, Sisterhood of the Scissors, Textile Artist Stitch Club

End of 2022 Reflections

Hello,

It has been a full year for me.  I started the year by doing the Quilt Surface Design 100 Day challenge.    That resulted in the two black and white figurative quilts that both won awards.  One at the Associated Artist Show and the second is still hanging as a part of the Quilt=Art=Quilts show at the Schweinfurth until Jan 8.  I plan to do that challenge again this year and do it as printing.   I did a lot of hand work this year response to the Fiber Artist Stitch Club’s mini lessons.  I was distressed by the wild fires in the west and did two different  wild fire quilts this year.    I started Creative Strength Training in March and that proved to add lots of meetings and challenges to my creative life too.  I was glad to be a part of that.  We have  our final meeting on the year on Sat.

I continued my weekly meeting with the Pixies.  We discovered at our meeting on Wed that we have been getting together virtually sense Aug of 2020.   I completed my Childhood Memories series this year.  That was a prompt from Susan.

Happily Quilting by The Lake returned in the summer.  I had two great classes and I am glad to say it will meet again in July of 2023, but in a new location.

The Sisterhood of the Scissors had  their retreat in the fall  and I made three new tops in those five days.  I finished the last one this week.   I had a fine year and I resolve to pass forward some of my materials and  to be a bit more selective in what groups I join this year so I can spend more time in the studio.

 

Progress Report: Analise   This work is 30″ X 31″.   I did the top at the Sisterhood retreat and only finished the hand work on it this week.  I really liked playing with the complementary colors  and that sparked the monochromatic series that I am in the middle of now.

 

 

 

 

Michell’s Project   This little project is 26″ X26″ and is a commission for my friend Michele.   It is going to be framed so it is not a traditional quilting job.   It is made from the neckerchiefs that her dog wore when he was alive.  A  memorial project of sorts.

 

 

Forbidden Fruit    This is the first in the Monochromatic Series. That is a sub set of the Meandering Mind series.  One thing leads to another in my processes I guess.   I started the quilting this week.  I am doing all the hand work  at this point and extending the curves to see how they can interconnect and pull the work together.

 

Blue Horizons     This is the second in the Monochromatic Series.   I finished assembling the top yesterday.

 

 

 

 

New Work  In keeping with the series I pulled all my greens yesterday.  I hope to begin today on this one.

 

 

 

 

 

Creative Assistants  I wrote last week that I will make this my last tribe of Creative Assistants.   It will be a big one as this is the pile of started body bases and I plan to make them all before I stop building.

Scrap Assembly   I continue to strip together my scraps for my scarp happy quilts.  The baskets does not seem to diminish very fast even though  I try to put in and hour at that task every day.  I gave myself a break yesterday and cut the 2.5″ strips I use in the quilts for about half an hour and put a few together.

Do stay safe and keep Creating throughout  2023!

Carol

Annalise, Blue Monday, Creative Strength Training, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Finger Lakes Fiber Artist Group, Meandering Mind- Examine, Pixies Group, Sea Dreams

Dec 16, 2022

Hello,

I am deep into the holiday season now.  I have packages under the tree and dates almost every day with various friends and groups.     Saturday was the Finger Lakes Fiber Artists group meeting.   There were only nine of us but we had a good time.  Pat Pauly showed us her newest Creations.

 

 

 

 

  Maureen is doing lots of printing.

 

 

 

 

 

Joyce   has finished up her forest doll series.  Cute solution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ann is having fun mixing charts  with this work.

 

 

 

  Susan took a drawing class and shared her work too.

 

 

 

The last   Creative Strength Slow Stitch group meeting was this week too.  I will miss those gals.  I enjoyed our little challenges.   This is my last 6″ challenge.  I have set ups to do two more to fill the book.   There was also a FAD meeting and Pixies too.    Mix all that in with a few parties and such and that has been my life of late.  I do enjoy all the movement of the season.

Progress Report:   Explore  This work is 32″ X 37″  and the second in the complementarity/tint and shade self challenge.

 I am enjoying mixing machine and hand work with this group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sea Dreams     I have been working hard on this one this week and now need to add eyes to the fish and do the binding.  I  am sure I will finish it quickly.   Working with the taffeta  has added to my holiday spirit too.

 

 

Forbidden Fruit   I seem to be moving very slowly with this project.   there are lots of decisions to be made along the way here.

 

 

 

 

Blue Monday     Finished this hand work piece this yesterday.  I did take three Witches off to the framer yesterday too.  It will be a Christmas gift for my husband as he likes Shakespeare’s  “Macbeth”

Stay safe and enjoy the season.

Keep Creating

Carol

Creative Strength Training, Curvie Cuts, Deconstruction, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Frenzy, Koi in the Kelp, Lap Quilts, Maneuver Series, Pixies Group, Three Witches

Forward

Hello,

Fall is all around now.   I did not spend as much time in the garden this fall as in the past and my Hosta went to seed.  I have never seen them before and love the black feather like seeds.    I wonder if I will get any germination.

The reception for the show at May Memorial was  Sunday and I enjoyed talking with folks.   The Creative Strength Training group meant yesterday as did the Pixies.  I also had a FAD group meeting scheduled, but sense Eric was ill, we canceled that one.   He is fine today.

Progress Report- Lap 5  This work is 37″X52″ .   I created the patterned pieces.   I shipped two lap quilts off to my step mother and aunt this week too.

 

 

 

 

Frenzy( rework)     It is  35″w X 33″ t.  After Talking with Jane Donwald about this work I decide to alter the background.    The fish were lost in the first one.   This solution although much smaller is so much stronger.   I need to go back in now and reconnect the eyes on some of the fish .

 

 

 

 

 

Koi in the Kelp I am now doing hand work on this piece.  I am adding eyes and sequins as scales to add texture to the bodies.

 

Three Witches  I need to now fill in the rest of the wraps for the witches and build up some areas of darkness.

 

 

 

 

 

Maneuver Series – Deconstruction I received so  much positive feed about the first three works  that I decided to alter the challenge and try it again.  I am going to only use the complementary colors, but use tints and shades of them in this series of three.   All the white that is showing from the pin wall will disappear under color.

New Fish   I have pulled more metallic fabrics for another Koi piece.  So I made a curve cut background and I will make the fish to go on top.  Having learned the lesson about contrast  the metallics are   all darker.

 

 

 

Mask With October I think of mask and have always enjoyed making and putting on costumes.  This month the theme for Creative Strength Training  is form, and I though I could create a mask to fit that category.     I am having fun,

 

I am going on a trip and will be away for two weeks so there will not be any posts  until Nov 3.    Please enjoy Halloween and stay safe

Carol

 

Blue Water, Consider, Contemplating, Coy Pond, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Hand Out, Koi in the Kelp, Pixies Group, Pondering, Three Witches, Wall of Fire

Hurricane Ian

Hello,

The hurricanes that have hit the country the last few weeks have raised my concern for my fellow Americans.   So many of my friends live there  and there is  family too.   It is hard to face such destruction from nature .  The water and wind sure makes one humble.   I did talk yesterday with the Pixies who live in Gulfport Florida. Robert was staying in the area and the other two had both evacuated.  My sincere wished go out to all who suffered any loss and I hope you are all back to balance as fast as possible.

For me here in central New York, I am still feeling very positive as I received my award from the Art show on Sunday.   I was delighted by the support I received from my quilting friends too.

The Schweinfurth asked that artists contribute a small work to be raffled to help support the institution, so I started a new piece called “A Little Action.”    I now remember why I only did one work a day and it is a bit tedious.

 

 

FAD meant at Nancy’s on Wed.  It was good to see all of them  and Nancy shared her wonderful new piece.   I think it looks great!

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Wall of Fire    I built up the fire portion of this work this week.  I  think I am nearing completion.

 

Lap 4 This work is all ready to be quilting now.    I am always surprised at how fast the pin basting goes.

 

 

 

 

 

Lap 5   I had extra time in the studio on Monday so I started a new lap quilt.

 

 

 

 

 

Hand out  This work is done now.  I will give Ginny first choice on the one of the four that she wants  sense she gave me the wool coverlet that the hand units were cut from.

 

 

 

Consider   I finished the hand work on this piece this week.   Now all three works are complete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other two works in the series are

 

 

Contemplate

.and Consider.    They are all the same size  and use complementary colors.   I am going to put them in the Associated Artist show at May Memorial for the month of Oct.

 

 

Blue Water   I have now placed and zig- zagged down the top half of all of the fish in this work.   It is building nicely I think.

 

Koi in the Kelp After consulting with Jane Durawall, I changed the orientation of this  piece and added kelp.   I like the feel of the action much more  and the extra layers of depth it now has too.

Rework -Coy Pond    Again after feeling a bit unhappy with this work I got some critique from Jane.  She had several suggestion that I liked and I finally decided to cut away the brown background and mount the whole interlocking fish unit on a new background of blue and yellow.    I am about half way done cutting away the background now  and think it will be a lot stronger when it is complete.

Three Witches   I had to wait on a friend in the parking lot while she had an in office procedure done today.  So I worked on the right side of the face this morning.  I think it beginning to feel solid.

New Handwork for Slow Stitch    I finished this work early in the week .

 

 

 

 

Then I had an idea for a second  textural piece so I did this work this week too. Texture is my real love so I guess this is natural for me.

 

 

 

 

 

Handwork     This work is part of the leftover fused fabric pieces that I started a few weeks ago. Sense I finished the “hand series”, I  pulled up this work and started it late last evening.

Again my thoughts are for the Hurricane victims.

Carol

 

 

 

`

Coy Fish, Creative Strength Training, Diva Meetings, Fire Wall, Fish, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Three Witches

Rainy Days

1 Comment

Hello,

We are enjoying a series of rainy days here in central New York.     I am thankful as so may are in drought or in flooding conditions.    Here it is just gentle and soaking into the ground for the most part.   I like to walk in the rain too so I am taking advantage of it.

It’s the beginning of the month and I had several meetings.  The Creatinve Strength Training group meant.  The element of emphasis this month is Texture- my favorite so I will enjoy this one.    The Pixies meant and Quilt Divas too.

Barb had a  great little quilt based on a Slot Canyon that I really liked.

 

 

 

 

And Terri shared her news work too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report:  Coy  Fish   This work is 34.5 ” X 35.5″.  I like how this project came out.  I still have not come across my inspiration work, but that is not necessary now.

 

I really like the fish forms and playing with them is fun for me.

 

The second piece with more Coy fish I have  set aside as I am feeling it is too busy. I am thinking on it now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reaching  This work is 15.5″ X 26″.  The color here as well as the textures are what I really enjoy about this piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hand Out  I am still building on this piece.  I want more hand work here than on Reaching.  I do like the complexity that the spider webs add too.

 

Lap quilt 2  With this quilt I am again using up Sue Elle’s blocks.

There is still lots of quilting to do on this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt 3   This is just the start of another lap work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three Witches  I am enjoying doing the hand work on these interesting faces.

 

 

 

Feather Dancer   I uncovered this work while looking for another project .  There is so little left to stitch that I decided to complete it.  Getting closer every day.

Fire Wall   With new fires in the west I felt I needed to create a new fire piece.  I got the base fabric from a fellow quilter at QBL this summer.  These layered quilts always take lots of time to build up to the level I feel is complete.

Ponder   I am done with the hand work on this piece now and only have the hand work to do on the last one in the tryptic  to complete the series.

 

 

 

 

I hope the fall is developing nicely for you.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

Drawing, Hand Out, Hand work, Pixies Group, Reaching, Sisterhood of the Scissors, Three Witches

Beginning of Fall

Hello,

It is September and I see that as the start of fall after so many years  of beginning the school year at this time.   This milkweed seems to be agreeing with me as it has started to change its summer color for the fade of fall.  The seed pods look good.

I had a mixed week with only the Pixie meeting this week, and a Dentist an Dr appointments.

The big event was a field trip with the Sisterhood of the Scissors yesterday.  We me meant at   the Memorial Art Gallery on the University of Rochester Campus.   The show was Ubuhale, and it was of seed bead work from seven women from an area in South Africa.     The works were all large mostly  8 Ft by 10 ft and all done with beads.    By the end of the show one could easily identify the work of each artist.

 

 

This gal did not mix her bead colors much, but I love the effects she got.

 

 

 

This woman liked trees and even in her work with the cattle she had a tree as part of the composition.

 

 

All the works took about a year to produce and they were specular!

We all went away  happily inspired.

 

Progress Report: Coy Fish    I finished the binding on this work yesterday evening  and I am now ready to begin the hand detailing.  I did the applique with a metallic thread and a gold colored thread both fed through a big eyed needle.

 

 

 Frenzy   I have built all the fish I want to use on this piece.   But in taking this photo I realize they really do not work for what I wanted to say.    Back to the drawing board…

 

 

 

Reaching    I added the spider web and have started on the leaf forms here.

 

 

 

 

 

Hand Out  I haves started to stitch down the leaf shapes on this one.

 

 

 

 

 

Three Witches   I keep filling in the hand stitching on this piece.   Again the photo helps me see were I need to add more shadows.

 

 

 

 

Drawing    This is the drawing for the third witch.  I think she strikes the correct note for the work.

 

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt    I have done all the stitch in the ditch work here and I am now adding free motion work in the big areas.

 

 

Cut away blocks    I keep exploring with this technique.  I am doing two blocks every day so this is just a sample.

I hope everyone is enjoying the close of summer and ready for a new school year.   Stay safe.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

 

Applique, Consider, Contemplating, Coy Pond, Creative Strength Training, Hand Out, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Pondering, Reaching

Rolling Along

Hello,

This week was a good one for me.  I had lots of social stuff over the week end, and great studio time this week. The Pixies and Creative Strength Training went forward as well.  I am re reading the Creative Strength Training book that Jane wrote and I had too.  I am following the exercises she recommends and I started a little self challenge to do a bunch of Expanded Squares.    In keeping with the ideas of using what you have I cut my squares out of some dark gray paper that I had. 

 

Too  easy to  put  off   doing the exercise when one does not have exactly what is  required.

 

 

I also put in a day in the studio with my Grandson Nick on Sunday.   He designed and printed the shirt  for one of his friends.

We  spent the rest of the day designing and starting a back pack in the form of a fox.     Without  a pattern it took a lot of thought and we got about half done we ran out of gas on that project.  It was great fun though.

Progress Report:    Ponder   I  worked on all three of the pieces in this group.  This one is now done with the quilting and the binding has been completed.  I need to do some hand work in the solid colored areas to hold them down.   Contemplation is at that same point.  I need to finish the binding on  Consider and add a sleeve there too.

Lap Quilt  I stared and completed this top this week. I intend to send it to my Uncle in Iowa in the fall when it is done.

 

 

 

 

 

Golden Leaves   This work got its start at QBL this summer.  I am now ready to begin stitching the parts down.

 

 

Three Witches  – Samantha   I worked mostly on this second witch this week.    I am mixing the weight  of the thread just like I would do if I was drawing and adding more or less pressure.   I like how it is developing.

 

 

 

 Coy Pond    I started this project before I went off to QBL and it got buried.  I uncovered it this week and went to work . 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the coy fish are made of at least three  parts and many have four. I think it needs about 10 more fish for me to be happy with the numbers.   But in looking at it  I realized that everything is of the same value .   That dose not make for a good work so I will build a new background this week  and hope I can fix the problem to my satisfaction.

 

Reaching ( hand project 3)   I was given a wonderful old  hand worked wool blanket that was falling to shreds.  My friend Ginny  said do what ever you want with it.  I am trying to save the good parts and make tributes to the hand work of women in the past.  I made two works using parts of the blanket  for Creative Stitch Club and I had  a few new ideas so I am moving forward with them now.

 

 

Hand Out( hand project 4)   This is the other idea.  I have only laid out the back ground at this point.     I sure have lots of hand work to do this week.

I hope you are enjoying the summer and keeping creative

Carol

 

Brown Study, Cattails and Dragonflies, Consider, Contemplating, Creative Strength Training, Daily Practice, Hand work, Pixies Group, Pondering, Three Witches

Summer Days

  Hello,

I hope summer it treating you well.   I am enjoying my walks and savoring every moment of the sun, pleasant temperatures  and gentle winds of the season.   I have had several encounters with wild life this week.  On my way home in the city of Syracuse at about 2:00 in the afternoon, I turned a corner to find a doe crossing the street followed by a young spotted fawn.  It makes one slow down and really look at our wonderful world.  Then on Tue eve when we were setting out on our patio, listening to music and quietly talking, a skunk walked about a foot away from my husband on his nightly food search.  Then Eric had a face to face encounter with yet another Skunk last eve.   No doer either time.

I had my usual meetings with Creative Strength Training and Pixies this week.  There was a special class for  CST called Negative Painting that I enjoyed too.   I have not finished the work for that class yet so.  The Slow Stitch group meant last week and I have finished  two  6″ squares that were the challenge.    This one is the non objective square.

 

This one is the abstract one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are all sorts of extra positive effects from QBL.  For example, I got  a box full of ties to use a raw material from my friend, Diane.   All the ties are gutted now and ready for use.     Here are my new treasures and a new challenge too.

 

 

 

 

I also made a connection with a fellow post card creator,  Becky.   She sent me this wonderful work this week.

 

 

Progress Report: Twilight Crows    This work is 16″ w X 30.5″ l.   I made the work in Valerie Goodwin’s Light and Easy workshop at QBL and finished it this week.

 

 

 

 

I am enjoying the working with crows and the transparency stuff too.

 

 

Brown Study- rework    The work is 24.5″w X 8″ t.  This piece is another project from QBL that I completed this week.  Paula Kovark taught us how to insert quilted  pieces into existing quilts.   The four contrasting triangles show that effect.    She called the effect “suturing “.    It sure makes for lots of fun applications I think.

 

 

 

 

Cattails and Dragonflies   This work is 11″ square.  This project is also the result of Paula’s class. one of her many challenging assignments was to make a continuous line drawing the filled the page.  I was not quite successful with the continuous line part,  but most of it is.   Color and paint were added this week.

Circling Circles  I have been working on the quilting of this work for a while and I can now see the end.  I only need to quilt three more of these circles and I will completed the job.

 

Complementary Colors Tryptic 

 Paula’s emphasis on quilting lines and talk with my friend Sharon has lead to some great quilting with this series.  I am all done with the quilting on Contemplate ( yellow and purple).  Not only did I make the quilting reflective , but I also inserted little points into the lines sometimes.   Now I am quilting on Consider( red and green), and I am starting with the colors them selves and will build out from there.    I will begin to quilt on Ponder this  week with yet another quilting approach.

 

 

 

Handwork  With the addition of a few more beads and stitched I declared this  work done and I will move on.

 

 

Three Witches  I won a beautiful piece of linen as a door prize at QBL the first week.  So I stared a big project.  I am going to try to created a black on white hand  stitch  piece of the Three Witches from Macbeth.   I have drawn one an done some research on faces for the second and third.   I only started stitching yesterday.

Stay cool and keep Creating

Carol

 

Contemplating, Creative Strength Training, Daily Practice, Explorations, Hand work, Pixies Group, Pondering, QBL- Quilting By the Lake, Time Life Line

July 2022

3 Comments

Hello,

Summer is always a busy time and this week was no exception.   We had a big family Birthday party picnic on Sat to celebrate the July birthdays and it was wonderful.   Everyone ate great food, enjoyed the weather and laughed a lot. What more can you ask for.  Then I went off to a play day in Varna on Sunday.   Spent the day with seven other folks exploring printing.  I did work on my Pondering piece.  I am so glad events like that are  opening again.  Then on Tuesday, Liz and I got together and dyed again.  That is always lots of fun. 

 

The Creative Strength Training class meant yesterday and it was a good discussion.    I also had a session with the Pixies on Wed too.

My other big news is, my friend David B is now the proud owner of Against the Wind.

This will be the last entry for July as I am off to Quilting by the Lake on Sunday for two weeks.

Progress Report: Pondering   

This top is all put together now.  My goal is to have  the tops of all three of the pieces of this set before I go off to QBL.

 

 

 

 

Contemplating   This is the third top.  I have only made a few of the units for this work.  It is pinned to a dark background so I can see how I want the placement of those parts.

 

 

Daily Practice Quilt  I am now quilting circles on the  quilt.   It is calming work.

 

 

Handwork    I keep adding to this work every evening.  It is nearing completion.

 

 

 

Life Line Drawing  After giving it some thought I decided not to add color to this work and I consider it done.   It was a good way for me to think about my life beyond the childhood work.

Enjoy Summer  and I will write again after Quilting by the Lake with lots of new stories and ideas I am sure.

Keep Creating

Carol