Category Archives: Felt Work

Agate, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Felt Work, Foundations Series, Foundations XXIII Water Marked Sandstone, Memory Map Quilts, Spill, Yellowstone

Quality

October 23, 2014 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

Leaves continue to be a big part of my daily dose of nature. But I want to talk about a Jewish Proverb I came across in my reading this week. “The Quality of life is fuelled by our productive wealth.” That idea has been on my mind while I have been walking for the last two days. To begin with I really think that my life is a rich and wealthy one, but I think even though I am productive that is not the only thing that adds meaning and value to my life. Quality is strongly related to context. One can have “Quality Time” and for me that can mean just

time spent listening and interacting with a friend or child. A big part of that quality comes with the focus of that time- no distractions or concerns for other things. When I was making the halloween costume for my grandson- (some video game character that I do not know anything about)- that” one on one time ” with him telling me exactly what he wanted and helping with the sewing machine work was real quality time. I spent quality time talking with Nancy on Wed at the FAB meeting when there were only the two us and we got to telling stories about our youth to one another. That shows a quality of trust too. (She is making progress on her quilt and the sky with the clouds she made in silk paper on that sky is great. ) Then there is also quality friendships like the one I share with Nancy and a few others. There is a degree of necessary quality in all our lives for things like shelter, food, good quality air and water- without those assuredness none of the other quality things can come about. We need those quality ingredients to be healthy and to fully appreciate the degrees of wealthy excellence our lives hold.

Agate 23" X 36" $300.00 — Agate
23″ X 36″
$300.00

Progress Report:Agate I finished this work this week. It has been created from a big piece of silk paper that I made with Ethel a few weeks ago. The most difficult part of this project was deciding what side of the silk paper to use- they were both so lovely. I had a good time attaching the silk paper to the quilt with many hand stitches. This project was created with silk hankies that were hand dyed before I put the paper together. I might not have selected these colors to use together on my own, but I sure like them and will try to add this type of mix to my own way of thinking.

Spill This quilt is coming along nicely now. I love all the textures on the surface of this work. This shot shows silk paper- two types the sheet form (on the far left) and the flow form(the green blue at the top) , the iron melted mylar( the turquoise ) and iron melted plastic bag( the apple green). The whole thing has been fun for me.

Watermarked Sandstone I am still doing machine drawing on this work but I can see the end is in sight. Again I am playing with texture- my favorite thing. There are “nodes of iron ore” in the image and so I have created some solid rust colored circles to add to the surface of the piece. Before I can stitch them down I need to add rust colored paint to the surface to show how the water wears away the iron too and in so doing it stains the surrounding stone.

Yellowstone Memory Map I so enjoyed creating the Sandstone Church project that I thought I would do a second memory map type quilt from my childhood. When I was seven, my Dad was a summer ranger in Yellowstone National Park at South Gate. I have wonderful memories of that summer and want to try to put them into this new project. This is layer one and it too is ready for a paint layer to soften and unify some of these parts.

I hope you too are enjoying the fall color and creating fun works.

Hugs

Carol

Agate, Alpine Lake, Felt Work, Foundations Series, Foundations XXI Whipshock Hill, Foundations XXIII Water Marked Sandstone, Landscapes

Eliminiated

October 17, 2014 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

I want to talk about being eliminated from a judged show. I have entered three this fall and of the five quilts I entered and paid fees for, none was accepted for the shows. One never knows the” why “of such rejections. Even having been a” holder” for Scholastic art compactions and being in the same room as the Judges- I sometimes could not understand that “Why” question. Judges are people with tastes and biases of their own. One time I did hear one judge say” I never accept any art with a skelton in it.” Sense I as a teacher, had used a skelton from the science room as part of a still life with my own students, I felt that sure was an unfair feeling for a judge to carry. But they are people – not gods even though they are given lots of power. Perhaps the work did not go with the others selected. Or maybe the judge did not like the design or color combinations. The artist never knows those things. My Father often said” It’s not so much what happens to you, as what you THINK about what happens to you that makes the difference.” With that in mind, the whole experience becomes one of choice. I could be angry , hurt and sad by these developments, but I choose not be be. I still feel my work is good and I am proud of what I do. I

enjoy the process and that is the important part for me. It would be nice to have someone- a judge confirm my feelings- but that is not the case at this time. Lastly, I am the one who chooses to enter the competitions. I will let time heal over the feelings and try another competition that may fit what I do a little better next time.

I spent a couple of days working with Nancy on her sky again. She is becoming quite a good painter with a sponge. She built up more clouds and the work has some real depth now. I think that we are done with this step and the quilting will add even more demention to the final. I am so proud of all the chances she takes with her work.

Asurite Foundations XX 34" X 44" $1100.00 — Asurite Foundations XX
34″ X 44″
$1100.00

Progress Report: Asurite Foundation XX This quilt was finished in June, but I have not posted it because it was an entry for one of the shows I mentioned above . One of the limitations on entry to this show was that the work was not to be shown publicly before . This quilt was lots of fun to work on and I am quite happy with it even all these mouths later. I added lots of metallic fabric in this work as well as many silks and satins.

I used some fancy yarns and threads in this work as well. I find that when I pickup the actual rock that I used as inspiration- I see more possibilities for additional pieces . Only time will tell.

Whipshock Hill

Foundations XXI This is a second quilt that was part of the same entry mentioned above. I finished this work in June. It is based on a cut in the road along Route 279 nine miles west of bennington Vermont BO16-Whishock-cl3 . In actually it is about 500 yards long and a very humbling sight. I added lots of yarns and ribbons to the surface of the quilt as there were lots of little fractures and lines of thin deposited color changes in this rock face. There is also some silk paper in this work.

Alpine Lake

This is a new technique that I am developing that is a very college like approach to quilting. I am continuing to think more in the way of color for the solutions then the type of fabric I am using. I even used an old bit of a paper quilt that was the correct color and texture for the water in this work. I used some double knit on this one as well as silk, silk paper, organza and cotton fabrics. I even did a little free motion zig zag work to add more texture to the tree. I need more practice to get that under control.

Agate I am still adding hand work to this felted work to add texture to the surface. I may have given up doing Daily’s , but I still am doing lots of hand work.

WaterMarked Sandstone I started this new Foundations Piece earlier this week. This one is loosely based on an old black and white photographic of sandstone that has watermarke erosion on it. I know the typical colors of sandstone so I am trying to stay in that limited range with this first step. I really love the texture and I am having fun planning ways to show it in this work.

New work This is a pure play piece. I am not at all sure what I am doing and have no clear idea where I am going with this. The scarps had just been in the bottom of one of my baskets and I thought they looked good together…… Quilting, crumpling and following the directions of the work may or may not help this. But I am willing to give it a bit of time and freedom to see what happens. Giving myself permission to mess up is very freeing!

I like to hear feedback, post a comment.

Keep your eyes open to the wonders of the season.

Carol

Anastasie Ruin, Bacterial Bloom, Blooming Bacteria, Curvie Cuts, Egyptian Quilts, Eric's Thoth, Felt Work, Green Nebula, Landscapes, Sunny Crannies

July 11, 2013 Summer Days

July 11, 2013 admin

Hello,

I feel we have reached the slow days of summer when Mother Nature really does her magic. I have noticed on my walks changes especially in the trees. Hickories, pines and oaks all have immature versions of the seeds to come in fall. Because of all of the rain we have experienced here, I think the apples will be really big this year because the green ones on the trees now are already bigger then gulf balls. Nature provides me with a visual feast each day.

I am getting ready to attend the Quilting By the Lake conference. I so look forward to seeing my friends and to getting stimulated by lots of new ideas and thoughts about the art of quilting. In preparation for that work I had to do a bit of sorting. One thing lead to another and I ended up pulling all the fabric out of the closet and refolding and stacking it. This shot shows the job as it neared completion. As you can see I have lots of fabric. This activity not only cleaned up the shelves, and sorted out the material that I need for my projects, but it also made me realize I do not need to purchase anything new. I hope I can stay to that resolution over the next two weeks while I am there and tempted by the fabrics of the venders. I am doing two weeks of Independent study this year and I plan to keep working on the Rocks and Canyon series. I will allow my self to find other ideas as well. Please be aware that there will not be any posts for the two weeks of QBL. Then we plan on a little vacation so this will be the last post until Aug 8.

Anastasi Ruins 18" X 24" $ 110.00 — Anastazi Ruins
18″ X 24″
$ 110.00

Progress Report: Anastazi Ruins
This work is complete now. I have really enjoyed putting the silk paper into this work. It makes the feel of the flow of the rocks really work for me. I liked doing the free motion work to add texture to the surface too. The other thing I tried here and on the Sunny Crannies quilt was adding torn strips of satin to the surface. The strips were slender so they folded in on them selves and they flipped over that also added to the textural changes that were created.

I ended up not using the painted unit I posted last week on the ruins. It was just too much. But I did add nylon net to the top of the cave area to help with the darkness.

Sunny Crannies

This quilt is a part of the Rock Face series. I really seem to be fascinated by the surfaces of road cuts and cliffs. This one came from on of the photos that I took in Idaho a few weeks ago. Here I went back to the free cut method to put the work together. Rocks do not break in continual strait lines most of the time so the free cut is the only way to get the correct feel.

This shot shows that I also turned the brown commercial fabric over and use the “back” side to get another tone to the surface.

I used some of the fabric that Marty and I discharged in this quilt along with some slender torn gray jean fabric as well. I really like this plus the satin surfaces on the work. Finally I used more of the silk paper here too. This piece of silk paper has some glitter and gold added to the silk as well as the color. I look forward to teaching this technique with the Quilt Exploration Group in September.

Rounds

This project is moving along nicely for me. It is changing under my finger tips however, but one needs to be open to that as it happens. All the circles are stitch down now and it has been washed so there is fraying of the shapes. I plan to slice the top and invert one or more to the slices before I reassemble it. I also want to add so yarn appliqued to the surface to add more texture. I will then have to see what the quilt tells me to do.

Eric’s Thoth

Thoth is the Egyption god of writing. I intended to complete this quilt for my husbands birthday. That happens to be today so I will not make it. But I am sure he will accept it later. He is an English teacher and worked on his collage publication called ” Thoth” so this seems like a good idea to me. I made the stencils- Thoth, the Eye or Horis and the Eagle mouths ago, but never put them together until now.

The scarab stencil is even older. I added the scarab after the whole top was assembled as I discovered that the area needed an addition.

I enjoyed adding the Hiroglyphs to this project too although I did them before I assembled the top. I have had this set of stamps sense I taught school and I used them with the kids. Here I spelled out ” Eric the Teacher” using the Heiroglyph guild book.

Green Nebula

I keep working on the beading work on this quilt. I am just about ready to do the quilting now. About three more evening of watching TV should to the trick to finish the beading step. Then I will begin the hand quilting.

Blooming Bacteria

Here again I made my background using the free hand cut method. I did the cut and flip thing on this background too. The red circles are just pinned to the surface now . When I get the placement exactly were I want it I will satin stitch them down and begin hand work. I imagine it will be a while before this work reappears again, as the work I do at QBL will probably capture my attention for a while. I wanted to have this work started because I have made all the “add ons” and I do not want to forget the direction while I am away.

I will look forward to posting again Aug 8.

Keep Creating

Carol

Curvie Cuts, Felt Work, Fossil Bed, Green Nebula, Machine Drawing, Red Nebula, Rock Face 1

June 27, 2013 More Summer Fun

June 28, 2013 admin

Hello everyone,

I am as busy as ever, but I have taken time to listen to the birds sing and enjoy the beauty of the summer season. Yesterday I went off to visit with my friend Ethel and we used the beautiful weather to spend a day dyeing out side. This shot shows one of the fabrics I dye painted. I can still feel the influence of the rocks and the water on what I am doing. Along with dyeing is the batching step. This small shot is of some of the fabric under plastic so it will not dry out. The last step is the rinsing out- a project for later today. I worked on 10 pieces of fabric so that will take me a while I am sure.

Fossil Bed 23" X 32.5" $ 188.00 — Fossil Bed
23″ X 32.5″
$ 188.00

Progress Report: Fossil Bed This quilt is complete now. I have enjoyed doing all the stencil work here. The last bit of embellishment that I did, was the addition of gold foil shells and then the little round stamps that I created at our last play day in May. In this second closeup the circle stamps are shown in orange and blue along with a second foil section. I also did quilting in gold thread. Susan told me that she want to see more images of the finished surfaces and so there is a third closeup of this quilt.This last closeup shows the brown stryophone stamped area with the quilting in gold too.

Red Nebula I think that I am done adding to this work. I need to decide now how I want to finish it. One of my works is off being framed now. I may want to do that to this work as well. I will know better when the framed work comes back to me.

Green Nebula I have only just started my hand work on this second felted work.
This piece has a hand dyed fabric backing. I am enjoying that hand work as always and this time I am using some antique pale green sequins on the surface.The sequins are from my great aunt’s sewing box.

Rock Face
This is my newest top. I got so inspired by my trip to Idaho and looking at all the rocks, that I just had to do a work on that subject. I got to use my newly developing skill with slender curved inserts too. I think this is just the start of a new series.

I hope that summer is treating you well and that you are enjoying the great out doors .

Keep Creating

Carol

Adventure Challenge 2013, Far Horizons, Felt Work, Landscapes, Purple Trees, Stump Men

March 14, 2013 Day Light Savings Time

March 14, 2013 admin 5 Comments

Hello,

As I set here at the computer I feel like I am running behind. The clock has been set forward for Day Light Savings Time, but my body is not making the adjustment. I wake up, and can not believe that it is so late. And that in turn makes me feel like I am behind all day long. I am sure that the fact that my husband is on spring break and we are not setting the alarm also adds to my slow adjustment. Mother Nature is not helping either. I am rearing to go when it is sunny and nice- It got up to60 degrees one day, but days like today when the snow is flying again make me want to stay in the winter cocoon -I call bed. I the fact that I forgot my camera, and left projects behind twice this week also add to my feeling of out of balance. Hopefully I will adjust soon and get into “normal” rhythm with the universe and myself.

Progress Report: Speculations on Value I have spent most of my efforts this week working on this piece. It is nearly complete and the two long light blue strips are facings that need to be flipped to the back and stitched down. The fabrics in this quilt have been piled up together for a long time and it felt good to finally assemble them. I tried a new quilting pattern on this work too. Sue Ellen introduced the QuEGs group to a pattern she called Mac Tavishim quilting at the February meeting. In looking over my notes I saw the drawing and thought this would be a good time to try it. The stitching pattern means one starts and curves out to a comfortable point and then returns in a somewhat reflective pattern to the starting point, to then one swings out again to the opposite end again. This process is repeated as many times as you feel comfortable or until the space is full, then you start a second. As this example shows I need to keep practicing, but I do like the process and think I can really use it in the future.

Far Horizons This very simple at this point. I cut the original curved horizontal piece into three sections, shuffled and flipped one unit, then re- assembled the group. Now I will begin to add lines and stitches as well as small objects on to the surface as embellishment. It will be a textural play surface for ” add-ons ” and more hand stitch explorations.

Purple Trees: This work continues to move along very slowly. I like how the trees are shaping up. The new problem is how to bring the three units plus their grounds together into a final grouping. I am inching forward as I do not know what I am doing when it comes to how to assemble this work.

South West Voices: This work got buried in the fall in one of my cleaning frenzies. It just surfaced again this week and I am now quilting away on it. The quilting here is zig-zag and some what reflective of the patterns in the multi colored fabric.

Stump Men: I just keep working on the felting of this project. This shot is of one of the roots. I think I am nearing the completion of this project and now need to do lots of looking and thinking about what touches it needs to be complete.

I am looking forward to true spring and not needing gloves and boots when I go for my walks. Those types of walks are always inspiring to me.

Keep Creating

Carol

Bird Goddesses, Felt Work, Goddess Series, Madum Peli, Sprider Woman's Twin Towers, Stump Men, Trees, Twilight Trees

January 24, 2013 The show- Goddesses:Text to Textiles

January 24, 2013 admin

Hello-

The show is all hung. I will admit that I am very pleased with how the thing looks. As the creator of this work, I had never viewed as a group. I do not have a big enough space to even spread it all out in one room. I was quite surprised by the fact that Lauren insisted we hang them all, and by how well they all worked together. This shot at the top is of three of the quilts and three of Lauren’s baskets below. It was a fun experience doing the work with her too as she was so very excited by my pieces. She had asked me to do the show after seeing only one piece of my work. This third shot with the pink wall behind it is in the bar room of the resterant. She also has pointed me in several other directions for places to contact about future shows too. It was a very up lifting day for me. These photos do not show all the work I will add more next week. I now look forward to the opening on Sunday.

Progress Report:Spiraling Out

Spiriling Out — Spiraling Out
43 ” X 55″

This quilt is finished now. I added a lot more quilting to the surface this week and I like how that pulls it together. This work was created do primary because of the silk screen material that I had purchased from randy Kennan this summer. I really liked the action in the fabric and tried to repeat some of the patterns in the quilting patterns I added. The close up shows the decomposing screen and some of the needle work. It was a fun project.

Twilight Trees I have really enjoyed doing these twisted tree forms. I am enjoying the movement using curves has added to my quilt work.

I liked the new skill I am building and feel now that I am ready to tackle the DMC Challenge that they were meant to be a prelude for. I sure hope that my vision can be full filled- but that remains to be seen. Tree Men I have been playing with the felt work tree too. This shot is a partial of two of the faces. Thus far I have done all the work by hand and so the green tool to the lift side is in the photo. I have rediscovered that the black wool felted skirt that is the dark background unit is difficult to felt to. I am glad that I need to soften the intensity of the dark so I am going to really build up the other grays and browns on top of it. That will help unify the work too I hope.

Pele I spent time this week getting this top to be flat. I cut and stitched away several wedges of fabric for this purpose. There is still a lot for me to learn about the curved cutting process like do not make the action too sharp. Anyway it is flat now. This shot shows the arms of the fire goddess drawn in thread on organza. I will trim away the the outside portion before I attach it to the top. I am still considering if I want to add some more color to the arms before I do that step too. I do want the arms to appear as a spirit like presence on the surface.

Play Day Printing I spent Friday last week printing with my Styrofoam stamps. The Styrofoam is the thick sponge like type that comes packed around big items like printers or computer screens. One draws into them with a welding iron in a well ventilated location. I cut mine last summer out doors The teacher who taught me how to do use this technique was teaching a second class on the same day and I was tempted to take it a second time, but decided instead to just play by my self with what I remembered. I think I got more accomplished too because I did not have to pack up my materials and spend travel time to get to the workshop. This top one shows two fabrics printed with fabric paint on commercial textured fabrics. This shot shows more turquoise fabric with a Styrofoam leaf stamp print and on the gray a stamp made from some plastic floor matting. The white is a mixture and I like this piece of fabric the most. This last piece is the white again with the last Styrofoam stamp of the figures dancing. I cut one set on one side of the foam an the other set on the back. I had a good time and although I have no plan for there use at the moment, I am confident they will all go into work in the future.

I hope winter is treating everyone well.

Keep Creating

Carol

Felt Work, Goddess Series, Out of the Dark, Stump Men, Text in Quilts

Thur Dec. 27 Between the Holidays

December 28, 2012 admin

Hello-

We are now in the space between the gift rush and celebration of Christmas and the celebrations of new beginnings that come with New Years day. I happen to be in the middle of a big snow storm too and that does give one pause as travel is not really a good idea at this point. I fortunately do not have to leave the house except to shovel the walk so the post man can get to the mail box. I will venture out and walk up the street to check on the 95 year old- Fred, but mostly I am staying put. This week is the time I try to evaluate and be realistic. To finish up the started projects and to discard the unsuccessful things, and be honest about what seems to slip to the bottom of consideration and toss out the things I really will never go back and finish. If I do have anything in the way of resolutions there are two. This one about being realistic and the second is to try the 30 day exercise that I have been hearing about. That proposition is to take a small thing that you have wanted to do like become a better drawer, learn to use my Print Shop Pro program, or do more collage journaling, and commit to yourself to doing that idea for 30 days. Then you reevaluate. You can then choose your next action on this idea. This sounds very doable to me. I will make my decision by next Tue.

Progress Report: Out of the Dark

This quilt is a new work for the goddess show that I will be doing in Jan. I actually did the first piece of this in Aug with Susan. That section is the middle sized goddess that I drew in pencil and we made a photo transfer onto fabric. The other drawn images are done in permanent ink.

I did the ink drawings from the images in “The Language of the Goddess ” book by Marija Gimbutas. I really enjoyed working on silk for this project.

Painted Sands This is another of the wiggle series and I am enjoying the freedom

of this process. The big painted units I did last summer. There is also some text on thous areas from a stencil that I created.

The crisp gold line here is the stencil. It is a part of my graffiti series were I was using my name as the element of the stenciling.

Tree Men

This is one of the old projects that I have pulled out to work on. After trying out four different arrangement for the units I think this is the strongest one and now I need to decide what the next step will be. It is hanging from the bookshelf in the direct sight line from my sewing machine. I think this will help me look and think about the process more. I do not hold any illusions though- it has been 5 years sense I started this so going forward may be slow.

Written Words This quilt is again one where I am using the graffiti stencil. It is

a bit easier to see as this time the letters are stenciled in a blue purple paint. I quilted my name in free motion work in all directions to hold this quilt sandwich together. There are blue facings on the top and bottom that I will pull to the back and stitch down to create a knife edge.

Jots and Joints This is a new quilt top that I started this week as I wanted to use several of the painted fabrics I had created in my class this summer. In class I created the stencil- the line with a dot at both ends show here in dark green. I am still playing with scraps from the silk scarp bag with this top. The light blue/white is a course weave silk fabric.

I hope you are all enjoying the season. I will post my 30 day effort resolution along with my work next week.

Keep Crating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Felt Work

Quality

Eliminiated

July 11, 2013 Summer Days

June 27, 2013 More Summer Fun

March 14, 2013 Day Light Savings Time

January 24, 2013 The show- Goddesses:Text to Textiles

Thur Dec. 27 Between the Holidays

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer