I try to choose a word to concentrate on every year and in doing that I find I pay more attention to my actions. Last year I selected EXPLOIT. I tried to make the most of every experience and situation I encountered. I do not know how one measures the success or failure of such a venture- but it did make me try to use each day/event to its fullest. It has almost become second nature with me now. It is time to focus on a new word/concept. I have been thinking about the idea for the better part of January and I have decided to think/concentrate on an art concept this year. I have selected LINE as my focus word/idea for 2015. I will now make a sign for myself to help keep it in sight and focus on it. Look for some thoughts on this topic next week.
I have had a good week. Cris Winter came and we had a great play day. We made Fused Silk Papers. It was fun to play with her as she had lots of different ideas about how to use the silk paper. I would not have inserted the plastic ribbon into the surface without her suggestion. ( the red building has the plastic ribbon in it) I also played a bit more with the shape due to her influence. It is good to explore and try new stuff I think.
Nancy has made great progress on her quilt . I really love how she has developed the mountains. I am so proud of her.
This shot is of the Inside Out show at the Manillus public library. By friend Barbara belongs to the group- that is her work on the left and she invited me- my work on the right. It is a fun show with lots of different types of work in it.
FAB meant this week too. Patti is doing card weaving and creating a great tree pattern with the cards. ( the figures are the back of her project) I never learned how to do this process, but I remember my mother doing it when I was a child.
Progress Report: Scrap Happy # 3 Now the third one in this grouping is complete. I have parts set for three more so these will keep popping up for a while. As I said before I sure love the new open space on my shelves because of doing this project.
Creative Assistants I finished a new batch of these little pin fellows this week. They are just fun and I enjoy the process. About 30 more have faces and will need to be completed this week.
New Work This work is not getting much attention while I am working on the Creative Assistants because it is ready for the hand work and I have been putting all my efforts into the pins. I can see the end of that project so this one will get my efforts soon. I am trying to decide what color I want the thread work to be at the moment.
This week as been a full one. I went to play day /work shops sort of things two day this week. I printed with shaving cream at Turquoise street studio and now have a new pile of fabric to play with. Then I went off to a Figerative Art event were we all worked for the day on our own projects. This shot is of the clutter on my table were I worked on my Creative Assistants all day long. Marla showed these wonderful doll heads at lunch that day. She will be teaching her water color painting techniques at Artist Doll and Teddy Bear Convention in Philly at the end of April. Check our her blog at : orsinisangels.blogspot.com Its wonderful! I am still struggling with the new program so I do not have all the images I want to share but I have some. I thought I
Caramelized 26″ X 33″ $300.00
had it conquered yesterday- but the new things I wanted to add this morning are not going anywhere. I will keep at it.
Progress Report: Caramelized I enjoyed working on this project. I really used lots of different materializes on this one. There is fused silk paper of course. Some fabric that I printed last year. The light orange pattern on the rust fabric shown here with the gold silk on top. I like the silk screen I used here so much I used it again this week in blues on a turquoise background.
The last technique is some painted tyveck that I placed between two sheets of parchment paper and melted with a hot iron. I like how one is never sure how it will melt and bubble. There is also a little of silk Komona that I got from Ginny in this work.
Scarp Happy 1
Way back in early December my big sewing machine was out for repair. So I got out Grandmother Butter’s Feather weight. With that I sewed up all my scarps and now I am putting them together. I use a sort of Roman strip for my block ( look in the tutorials to see the full process) This one with the blue centers if the first.
Scrap Happy 2
This one with black and white patterned centers alternating with yellow and cream is the second. I am working on the next three using different colored centers and they will appear as I finish them.
Dry Falls Lichens I am to the fun part of this work now. I am adding the lichens . They are created by layering felt on the bottom with velvet on top and then a layer of nylon net on top of that. With this sandwich pinned together I free motion circular patterns on top of all of it to bind it together. I really enjoy doing this step.
New work I made this simple layout for yet another bit of hand work. I found some wonderful plastic shapes that I want to add to the surface by hand so this will serve as my base.
Keep Creating and I will keep struggling with the program.
Spring is finally showing it’s self her in central New York. Three days in a row of blue sky and sun shine! Tue and I spotted this garden full of spring flowers and it made me smile every time I thought of it all day long. Hurry for the new season! This week has been so very full of stimulation I, hardly know were to start. At the FAB meeting Patti showed us two scarves she had knitted to send off to be given to runners at the end of the Boston Marathon this year. They both were so very soft that I am sure they will be welcome gifts. Victoria had been to a little workshop that Noel is giving. They are playing off the ideas of the necklaces that Mackenzie- Childs sells. The catalogue in the background was the inspiration, and Victoria really put her own spin on it I think. The when I went to the Diva meeting last evening I found that Noel was the gal who is leading this play. She is giving up her rented studio and cleaning as well as trying to create a new workshop for herself. Everyone in both groups loves the idea, myself included so she has agreed to open her space and try a variation with several more of us. I am looking forward to that play day.
The QuEG’s meeting was in morning on Tuesday and there was lots of inspiration there too. We got to meet in Sue Ellen’s studio, always an inspiration place all by its self. She ” wowed” us with six new works! Like all of us she has lots of fabric and these two pieces were created from her first dyeing experience over 15 years ago. She says she did them to try out different quilting patters on similar tops. I think she proved her point.
Then there is the wonderful on going work by Sally. She does such amazing stuff with her embrodery machine. The birds just blew me away all by them selves. Then all the unique nine patch blocks on top were just wonderful too. In addition to that she had a pack of about a dozen 6″ cards that used smaller images. Each card was different and where she used varigated gray black and white thread for this card, many of the cards used different threads for different sections. She pushed the idea further water color pencils to add more color to these small wonders. She gets sure gets miles of usage out of her machine.
Liz is playing with retro fabrics and antique blocks that are six inches on a side. The fabrics and patters sure play together well and are a delight to look at. The small size means it is not overwhelming- but it will sure take a lot of blocks to finish the piece.
Barb is working on this colorful work for her grandson. The dark blue is denim- just the wright thing for a young boy. She is just starting to quilt in the areas around the zig-zag lines- the white is chalk that will disappear when that job is done.
Then there was the Diva meeting on Tuesday evening to add further delight to the eye.
Anne is pushing forward trying unique quilting patters with the works she showed last month. I really like how the horizotal varigated thread seems to disappear in places on this work. Class projects are great places to play with new ideas and explore.
Alice had yet another new wall book to share with us. This one is called We Love the Water. The bid bird is one she hand painted on black fabric. The loon and flying Canada Goose are both from commercial fabrics. I find the way she mixes thous two ideas amazing. Most of the time putting these two things together just does not quite meet the mark- but she does it flawlessly.
Noel is working with thin strips now. All the brown units that are cut on the biases sure add to the challenge here. I like the limited values that she uses here.
She also had a second larger top in this same vain with kits in some of the diamond shapes.
Cheri finished the wonderful work she shared with two mouths ago. She has added a lot of hand work to her canvas painted quilt Fiddle Heads. I really like this work!
The last of the three Scarp Happy quilts was picked up on Friday. It went to the local Public Television Station for their spring auction. I also gave them a small wall quilt. I have done this for years as I so believe in public broadcasting.
Progress Report: Green Grow the Grasses This pale spring quilt is now complete.
Green Grow the Grasses 23″ X 32″ $260.00
It too makes me smile as I recall the joy of creating the stamped areas as well as all the free motion flower and leaf forms I put on the surface of this one.
I really feel the sewing machine has become a drawing tool for me. That has only come with years of doing the process, but I want to encourage everyone to keep doing it until it is a natural act for you too.
Smoke 23″ X 52.5″ $395.00
Smoke
This work was also completed this week. More than once I thought that I was done, and I would hang the work on the pin wall at the end of the day. Then when I would look at it with fresh eyes in the morning I would see easly what else was needed- more hand work for the most part. I had never quilted through silk before I tried this project and learned a lot doing so. I really like how the needle glides through the surface of the project.
I cut up an silk scarf that I had created years ago and was not what I would call a success. All the dark and gray areas are a part of that project. I like the result here.
Grove I am still working on the insertion process. I only have one more tree to add the branches to and then I will start the stumps and setting. I may shuffle the parts I have created too. But I make those visual decisions by looking at the subject.
New Work This is the top half of the work I was considering cutting apart last week. It was not working as it was so I cut it. The black tree is just pinned in place. I did try several other placements before I settled on this one. Again the visual decisions was made visually. I have quilted in the ditch the background sections of this work and plan to free motion in the tree with additional limbs as needed.
Daily‘s I am working away on the these little fellows. I discovered one of the black circle and units from last month in the bottom of the tin where I keep the prepared squares. So I finished it too.
One problem I often face when I paint is not knowing when to stop work on a painting. So I often go too far and add that extra tree or bit of red and then ruining a work because I am not be able to repair the problem…… I usually do not face that with my fiber work because I can pin things up and nothing is permanente until I make the final decision ans sew then down. This week I seem to be filled with lots of doubt about this completion “thing”. I can not seem to decide if I am finished with either of the two Foundations pieces that I am currently working on. So I pinned then backward to the wall and have not looked at the surface for several days. I hope when I face them with fresh eyes early next week the absence will help me make the decision about rather to go forward or stop. There is one other little quirk in my mental state as I discovered a work I had folded up last fall with a similar problem. (This blue and purple work) Now it is easy to see that the there are really two haves to this work and they do not go together. So I think I will slice then apart and try to solve each half independently of the other. After I slice them in two I will be able to work with each half to see if I can save all or any portion of the work. I may still need to rotate the sections but as seperate units I think my chances of success are much better.
Progress Report: Scarp Happy I have been working on this bed quilt for a few weeks. It is done and has gone from my life. The woman from Prevention Net Work came yesterday and picked it up for their Spring Fund Raiser. This organization works to keep teen off drugs by providing alternate activites for them to work on. My grandson worked on a play with/for this organization a few years ago. I am glad to support groups that deal with teens.
Scrap Happy I also passed this quilt to a second auction. This Scarp Happy has a diagonal block lay out. It is going to the Meals on Wheels of North Syracuse for there benefit. I was assured that it will sell well and add to their coffers. Again I am happy to support this organization.
Electric This top really went together quickly when I finally got to it this week. I am now in the process of adding the quilting. I am using the silk screen printed fabric that I made as the inspiration for that quilting. It is fun- but very slow as I have to stop so often and change the direction of the stitches at sharp angles. No stitching line thus far is longer than an inch and a half and most are under a half an inch.
It is quite a slow process.
Green Grow the Grasses I am having a good time doing the free motion drawing of the flowers on this quilt. Some of the machine drawing is just on top of the print on the fabric and some is just my own creation. I have also added some leaves to the surface to add interest and varity.
Smoke I am still working away on this piece. Every time I think I am done with it I pin it on the wall at the end of the day and then look at it first thing in the morning before I turn the lights on. That is when I can see what the quilt needs and thus far that has been more hand quilting. One cannot rush the process.
New Work Then of course when I do not know what else to do I start a new piece. Seriously, I was not done exploring the slender inserts idea and this thing popped into my head just as I awoke the on Tueseday morning. So I am off and running with a new thing.
Daily’s These little works seem to be one of the constants in my life at the moment. Thank goodness for routine.
It is thawing here and the sound of dripping water from melting snow has been going on all day. The street is running water and directing it toward the storm drains. I find it is cheering as though Spring may in fact come. The fact that I herd song birds this morning helps with that feeling too. I have worked in the studio a lot this week.
Blooming Bacteria 24″ X 38″ $320.00
Progress Report : BloomingBacteria This quilt is based on an image from an electron miscrope of bacteria- that is were the name came from. It has taken me a long time to complete as I had to make each one of the black button whole circles by hand with a small crochet hook. I know I started it last fall when I was taking my grand son to Physical Therapy. I then stitched the units down to the surface. The free motion work in the red is called pebble quilting and it really unified the quilt. I did reflecting quilting around the outside of the circles. This quilt also has a background that is curved pieced . The red is a hand dyed piece that I received from a fellow quilter. It was only a fat quarter and I used every bit of it that I could in this work.
Foundations IX Spring Moss 19.5 ” X 26 “ $ 180.00
Foundations IX Spring Moss This work in the foundations series, was influenced by that spring desire I felt last week too. It is also loosely based on a shot I took of some Granite a few years ago. Like most of the works I have been doing in this series there are lots of raw edges and a tron fabrics here. The dark green is Dupni Silk. It frays so much that I saved all the threads and applied them to the surface as well. I continue to use the silk paper I created last fall. I am looking forward to warm weather when I can go out doors and create more- it is too messy do inside in my dry studio. I used lots of different colored thread when I was doing the free motion work on this work. Some apple green, yellow green, yellow and pink to get the effect I wanted for this piece.
Foundations X When I could see that I would soon finish with Foundations IX- I started thinking about the next one in this series. I was trying to make the top section of this work lighter than the bottom, but still have shadows near the top. I am not happy with the solid unit on the bottom right- but I have enough to begin work. I want to bring in more of the rusty coloring into this work.
Foundations XI I pinned up this new top this morning. I have been experimenting with long stitches in yarn on nylon netting. I was trying to create another texture that I could use in my work. The four pieces are on the surface and may or may not stay as I go along. This is a pure experiment, but then not knowing how something will work out never stopped me before. I will keep you posted.
Scrap Happy I am working on the scarp box and I decided to start a quilt using what I have. This is a good thing too as this morning I had a call from our local public TV station and they want a quilt for their auction. This shot shows the red and earth toned centered blocks as they look when they are assembeled.
Daily’s I am reaching the end of this style of block. There are only three left that have the half red circle and two lines. So next week there will be a new layout.
It is a snowed like crazy yesterday and I just could not stay in doors. I had a good time waking in the deep snow. The going was slow as there was about 10 inches of new snow on the ground and it was falling very thick and fast. I walked a block from home and looked back- I could not see the house. I did enjoy the way the fire plug and several small pine trees seemed to be wearing pointed snow hats. I helped push a gal out of her driveway and the snow plow did pass by before I got home form my short walk. It is getting difficult to find joy in this long winter. But I console myself by remembering that this too will pass. The QuEGs group meant on Tuesday. There were only four of us but it was still a good time. Sally is doing some amazing stuff with her embroidery machine. She programed and stitched all of these bags herself. She said she wanted to test thread and needles. There was also a Diva meeting on Tuesday evening and again it was very stimulating. There is so much variety going on in the group it is hard to keep up. Cheri is exploring painting on canvas and really starting to make it her own thing now I think. She not only adds hand dyed fabric on top in a collage like process she is also doing lots of hand stitching on top too.
Lori is doing a wonderful job mixing machine work with hand embroidery on silk. This piece will be a real WOW when it is done. There are two folks exploring book making processes at the moment. Liese is working on a book with individual hand made fabric pages- she is not sure how it will go together at this point. Several pages are sun prints. One is marbaleized, and some are collaged. It is an engineering problem now. The other book worker is Alice. She is using an accordion book format for her works. One book is titled “We Love the Sky” and sun rise to moon rise are represented in her book as one continuing diorama . This image is of rain and storm followed by the rainbow. Her second work is titled ” We Love the Woods” and it too is in the diorama layout. I love how she mixes her painted parts with commercal fabrics and images. I find her trees really strong. Sandy is busy doing wonderful hooking projects. She has two works that are both landscapes that work as a set or stand alone. Her mix of sliced wool and yarn do wonderful things together is powerful. The work in small but this style works for her busy life at the moment. Anne went to a work shop in Vermont with Cynthia Corbin called Emerging Styles. She came home with a wonderful pile of great started projects. She discovered how important light is to her way of creating and that has pushed her into a new direction. I can hardly wait to see how this develops. Noel likes to use silk in her work and although this is an older piece it shows her wonderful handling of this some what difficult material. She does not fuse the silk to any thing either and that allows her to distort the material in the manner this shows. Ruth is still working away on her African symbols project. She is ready to begin quilting on this work now. I think it is very strong graphically. Needless to say I am all excited by all these wonderful works and ready to charge forward. I am so very fortuniate to belong to two powerful groups of creative folks.
Golden Path 29″ X 30″ $ 305.00
Progress Report: Golden Path This quilt really seemed to come together without much in put by me. I had all the stripped sections left over from another project and they were in the bottom of a box. When I came across the red, gold, and blue fabric last week it just seemed to pull the other fabrics with it. The big gold and white chunks of fabric are from the printing day I did a few weeks ago. I looked at the surface of this quilt a long time before I started quilting it. I decided to emphasize the square shapes in the center using a Greek Key pattern. I started quilting in the center making first one key and then another connected to the first using variegated yellow thread. I then stared outside the second squared area and built a second set of units. I continued to build until I had about a dozen keys and by then I had worked for an hour on the project. So I stopped. Before I began work the next day I looked critically at the work. It needed a bit of punch so I added a row of gold thread in an outline pattern all the way around all the created units. Thus the name – Golden Path- as it just leads one around the center units. I then switched back to the yellow and repeated the same procedure as the day before. I then added as second out line of gold and retuned to the yellow keys to the out side of the quilt. I am pleased with the results.
Rounding Up Green I am quilting away on this quilt now. I am using the same idea as I applied to Golden Path only I am using spirals. I create one and then from it I spiral out and create a smaller one next to the first and keep building the pattern out from the center of the work. I will not add a row of gold thread however. It is working without that addition.
Maya’s Tee Shirt Quilt I continue to work away on Maya’s quilt. I now have three rows completed. It is getting bit difficult to handle on the pin wall. I still have two rows to construct and then it will be time to start a back.
Scarp Happy I have been working on putting together scraps for about a mouth now. I decided to give myself a break for that and build a top out of the work. I cut the pieces into long 2.5″ widths and then added those pieces to 4.5″ centers. There are blocks with an Egyptian print center and blocks with a red print center . I am now ready to start creating rows for the top of this quilt.
New work-purple and pink I think the cold and whiteness of the weather is effecting my leaning toward spring colors at the moment. This one is just starting to come together. I am going to try to work in the 18″ X 24 ” format again. This is my first return to that format.
New work spring
I pulled out the fabric for this project yesterday during the storm in the morning. Again I think this is my attempt to think about spring instead of the cold all around me.
New work Foundations IX
This is a close up of the new work on the next Foundations piece. It too will be on a smaller format. All the green thread is unraveled silk thread from a woven section of fabric. The solid green and blue are silk papers.
Daily’s I do my Daily’s when I watch the news in the evening. I have been following that practice for a while now and my attitude about the news is much more mellow.
Spring is coming to our part of the world as I see more and more green. Even this bit of stain glass green caught my eye yesterday and I have looked at this many times and not really seen it. I like all the patterns created from the siding on the opposite wall as it sifts through the glass. Green is one of the colors that scientists tell us the human eye see more variations on than any other color. It sure seems that landscapes have lots and lots of greens in them and why I think I noticed the small flecks of green on a bush across the street yesterday when I went out for the mail. The grass seems a bit greener this morning too even though it is gray and raining here today. Green was my mothers favorite color and she wore lots of it. There was even an apple green couch and a green plastic covered rocking chair in the living room in one of the first houses I remember. It is a color that I do not seem to have a lot of in my stash. But as I kid I remember being a bit frustrated by the limit of greens in the crayon box. I am just glad that Green is starting to fill up my world again.
I helped my friend Nancy this week work on the quilting of her new quilt. She is new to quilting and did not come to the quilting through traditional paths- but jumped in with both feet staring with a animal applique quilt for her grandson several years ago. This time she put her unique point of view into a work using channel and flannel. It makes for unique challenges and I love working with her on it. ( the green stain glass is behind her)
This week I went off to the Turquoise Street Studio and worked with the pastel gals too.( look at all the greens in Pat’s pastel box). They were all getting busy for a workshop this week and having lots of fun. Beth and Pat both did finish up work on old projects and color exercises. Barbara on the other hand was making what she called “Skins” of various mediums and color on wax paper that she could later peal off and apply to paintings. I did hand work on my Brass Bits piece. I am using decorative stitches to apply the brass bits that Sharron sent me last fall. The top of this image shows a bit of copper knitting that is used to keep slugs off of plants. Texture is my thing.
Progress Report: Cracked Up I did free motion quilting on this work this week. It was enjoyable to let the patterns on the printed fabric be my starting place for this piece. The piece has its facing’s machine sewn on and I will get the hand work done soon.Slicing Through : This work got attention this week too. There is that green again, but this is Marty’s blue challenge fabrics with my solid green added. I am still a little shaky about were this is going. Sometimes the materials seem to be telling me what to do and I tend to follow the muse when that happens. Usually that is not a problem- but in this case the challenge has a size limit and I am well beyond that already. I see challenges as places to really grow in new directions so I am going to go with this and see were it leads me.
Untitled This work is still in flux. I have done all the piecing and I am OK with that part of it- but some how it is not satisfying-right -or something…. I am discontented. I have pinned various metallic ribbons, wrapped pip cleaners and such on the surface to see it that is what it needs, but still I do not feel like I have the answer. It may just need to be folded up and put away a while – like the Purple Trees work from March 14. It’s not a creative block- it more discontent……I will not let this stop me- time will help.
Auditions These colors all work together and I have pinned them up to look at and think about them for a new top. I am very comfortable with blues and they may help me move forward with the” problem children” that I just mentioned.
Scrap Happy I am working away on this project too. I want it done by Monday when the woman for the Prevention Network comes to pick up a quilt for the spring auction. I always like to have two works done so she has a choice. This shot shows two rows that have been sewn together through the batting and the backing in the flip quilting method. The blocks are roman strip with centers of red and blue star prints. The two side bars of the block are made up of scrap pieces- that is were my name for the work comes from. I find these quilts are what I call ” no brainers” as I have made so many that I do not need to think much about the process to complete the task.
This week has been a very busy one for me. I have had an event of some sort every day this last week. That started out with QuEG’s play day were we all worked with Gelli plates.. ( From Gelli Arts)The smiles should indicate how much we all enjoyed the process. We worked and printed only on paper because we did not know what we were doing. The paint was flying onto the surfaces as we all explored the mixing and mark making fun of working this way. Linda explored with Saren Wrap and got some wonderful results that I want to try.I really liked working with the styrofoam plates and printing on top of collaged papers. I can see the potential for use on fabric as well. We all went home with stacks of paper with a wide variety of images on them. There is lots more exploitation necessary I think. Then I went off to Ethel’s and we did more discharge work and wax painting with her new jaunting tool.( at the bottom of the photo) On Friday I went off to the Turquoise Street Studio again and did even more stamping. My goal is to print with all the stamps I have created. I worked all day and I still have a bag full. I am sorting and tossing out some that are weak as I go along. I will need to spend another day at that at least- but I think I will not work on that when I go the next time. I want to do more Gelli play first.
Progress Report : Tropical Day Dreaming
Tropical Day Dreaming 19″ X 27.5″
I had a lot of fun laying out and assembling this bright quilt. This project uses the gessoed fabric like Gearing Up, except this time I made it all. The gesso is painted on turquoise felt with two different stencil patterns. I used the textured gesso on plain white fabric- again with a stencil and then painted the fabric with turquoise and blue paint. The textured gesso can be seen in the close up. I free motion quilted a tile pattern all over this quilt. I do not recommend the texture gesso however as the machine does not like stitching through it. I even tried a leather needle, but the thread kept breaking .
Another Choice
I challenged myself to use paper applique on this top. I had done some wax resist on paper and then dyed it. ( the white lines in loops were the wax and the blue is the dye.) I found I could not use the paper as I intended because it would not stick to any thing with the wax finish so it was shuffled around for at least four years.
Another Choice 24″ X 37″
When I was looking for paper to use with the Gelli printing it came to the top again. So I decided to use it. First I cut the wax covered paper into triangles. Then I zig-zagged them down to blue felt. I played with several layout locations, never really finding anything I was happy with. Finally on Sat I saw the cut away triangles from my last paper quilt and added them to the mix. I was satisfied. The size if the quilt holds the many parts and I am very pleased with the results.
Purple Trees This project continues to move forward ever so slowly. I would enjoy a row of days without any commitments- then I think it would come thought. But I do not see that in the near future so I will just have to limp along on this project.
Experiment: Far Horizons.This is an experiment as the heading suggests. I am still working with the wiggle cutting and trying to get it to lie flat. Now that I am at this point I want to make several vertical cuts and then rearrange the parts. I am not at all sure how this will work, but I saw a quilt that I think was created this way and I wanted to play with the idea.
Scrap Happy . I am still working away on the scrap happy quilt. This first shot show two rows that are ready to be sewn. The second show shows the same area open up.I only have three more ten block rows to add and the top will be assembled. After that point it usually takes me about four more hours to complete the quilt.
New Top This top is my newest beginning. No name yet but I am working on it. The commercial fabric with the strong strip pattern is the unifying part of this one. I silk screened the pale blue pattern on the white fabric with dye. I like the pattern but was disappointed by how pale the color turned out to be. I will screen some more fabric in a darker color in the future.
Color Challenge These fabrics will be the start of a new piece this week. I was reading an old article on color and one of the things the author was pushing was using analogous colors and then adding the compliment for punch. I realized that I had never consciously tried this color combination. I may still add some neutral to this mix, but for the most part this will be the color combo I think.
I am happily playing in the studio as much as I can and I hope the same for you.
I really fell we are moving out of the depths of winter as the days grow longer. I was awakened this morning and the golden pink light of dawn was spreading across the quilt. I
Beth
wear glasses and so when I looked at the window to see the sky I not only saw the beautiful color, but also the fuzzy dark lines of the maple branches against that sky. It is oh so wonderful to wake up in light again. I watched the color of the sky change from that golden pink to pure gold and then lighten to a lemon hue to pale blue before I moved from the soft warmth of the bed clothes. The sky has changed over the course of the day and now is a velvet gray with snow falling again. I still feel pleasantly pleased when I think of the color of the dawn of today and know there will be more coming.
Pat,with Barbara in the background
This week I went to the Turquoise Street Studio on Friday and played with my pals. The others all worked in pastels, but they include me any way. I really like the atmosphere and I do get work done. I am still playing with gesso on fabric, felt and cardboard this time. I was thinking that I could add the felt or cardboard on top of the Gear shift quilt in a fashion similar to what Barbara was doing with her paintings- but that did not work. I will use them on cards or something else. I never feel anything is a loss when one is exploring and playing with ideas. I also put in a little time creating some small works for the Six By Six project. That is a show where you make small works that are all six inches square and sell for $20.00 each. I did a little fusing for this project- something that I have not been doing much of lately. It is a great way to explore and use little bits of fabric as well as little bits of time.
Progress Report: Gear Shift I am in the middle of quilting this piece now. I left the circles that I am using as templates pinned to the surface to show how I do them. For smaller circles and little shapes I cut the shape into a old photo- that way I can see exactly where the stitches are going. For the bigger shapes I cut the circle and pin it so I can see the area around the out side of the shape. I use this same method for any irregular shape I am quilting.
Growing Up I was feeling the gray snowy effects of winter the day I started this work. I am quilting it using the growth lines as my starting points and filling the surface with the nobs of new growth at the end of the lines. I am sure I will finish this quilt this week.
Blue Fuse This is a detail of more of the hand work I am doing on this top. I am trying new stitches and keeping the color limited on this one.
Purple Trees
I am still struggling with this work. This shot is what I greeted me on the pin wall this morning. The last work or yesterday. I really only like the tree on the far right and feel that I may abandon the other two and start for that point. I think it is important to show my failures as well as my successes because they happen to everyone.
The Tide Is In This is a top that I came out of my frustration with the tree work. I often play when things are not going well. I also wanted to use some of the felt gessoed fabric and the some that I had painted on Friday at the studio.
Scrap Happy Project
This is the sot of the blocks for the Scrap Happy Quilt I am working on for the TV Auction our local Public station does every spring. The big colored areas show the center of the roman strip of the block. There will be two different row patterns using an alternating lay out. So there is not top of bottom to this quilt I will turn the second row in the opposite direction when I put them together. I do enjoy making these quilts.
Keep Creating
Hugs
Carol
PS – sorry- I though I pushed the publish button on Thur and only when I checked today did I catch my mistake. I will try to stay on top of things.
Sandy did not hit this part of the country- but the cold sure did. We went form fall to instant winter. It snowed on Tue- not a lot just enough to make me glad I had pulled out the hats, mufflers, and mittens over the week end. I worked away on a quilt to ship to the shore for the
Scarp Happy Queen size
relief program the quilt group organized. I have been working away on this scarp happy quilt fora while and now I am very happy that I have been. I only had to finish the binding and now it is ready to ship. I always have one of these types of quilts in some form of assembly- it is my way of getting started some times. It is also a way to use – by cutting up-my mistakes and they do not become just trash. I machine assemble them and they are totally machine washable and dry able. It is just about time to start putting together pieces again so I will do a tutorial on the process by early Dec.
Progress Report: Lauren’s Wedding Quilt I am finally done with Laurn’s quilt. I like
Laurn’s Wedding Quilt 90″ X 100″
the way it looks like a birds eye view of the mid west. I also like the way the gold and brown centers sort of float up to the top of the work . This quilt also made me realize I do not seem to be very confident in my use of green. It was my mothers favorite color and I think I resisted it for that reason. I will ship it off tomorrow.
Composition in Purple This quilt is one I have lots of mixed emotions about. I like the
Composition in Purple 20″ X 28″
colors and I know that Laurn’s quilt did influence me into starting this one_ (especially the boarder fabric). I also wanted to contrast the shinny silk with the matt finish of the cottons. I am still playing with wiggeleing the seams. It is fun but I do not have the control I really want with this process.
New Exploration 3 This new top is really into the wiggle stuff that I got from Marty last mouth. I pictured two others in this series last week. I am really enjoying inserting the little units into the composition. I have a lot more control of the curves and movement of seam lines with this process. The other two in this series are nearing completion , but not done so I am holding them all to show together. I am enjoying this process so much- that there may be even more.
Hello,
play day. We made Fused Silk Papers. It was fun to play with her as she had lots of different ideas about how to use the silk paper. I would not have inserted the plastic ribbon into the surface without her suggestion. ( the red building has the plastic ribbon in it) I also played a bit more with the shape due to her influence. It is good to explore and try new stuff I think.
This shot is of the Inside Out show at the Manillus public library. By friend Barbara belongs to the group- that is her work on the left and she invited me- my work on the right. It is a fun show with lots of different types of work in it.
week too. Patti is doing card weaving and creating a great tree pattern with the cards. ( the figures are the back of her project) I never learned how to do this process, but I remember my mother doing it when I was a child.
is complete. I have parts set for three more so these will keep popping up for a while. As I said before I sure love the new open space on my shelves because of doing this project.
I finished a new batch of these little pin fellows this week. They are just fun and I enjoy the process. About 30 more have faces and will need to be completed this week.
