Category Archives: Felt Work

Diva Meetings, Ethel's Scarp Nine Patch, Label Blocks, Land Fall, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Water Run

First Week in October

October 6, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello-

It is the first full week of October and I went to my group meetings on Tuesday. At QuEG’s, Angela started us out with a baby quilt top she has finished for her yet to be born grand daughter. She is excited about it. She also showed us some of her work from an on line class she took. I really like the idea of making your sketch life sized before beginning work. A simple idea that had never occurred to me. I have always done a thumb nail sketch- but I can see value in doing it life sized. She also had her books from her class at QBL to share. It looks like she learned a lot and had a good time.

Linda shared her workings with her new felter. This is a great start and I think she will do more on it and do several other projects.

Linda also created this wonderful forest quilt. It has so much depth.

Sue Ellen is busy getting ready for Christmas at the shop so she was trying out new ideas and this tree was one of them. There were only five of us at the meeting, but we still managed to fill the two hours with sharing and talk.

Then it was off to the Diva meeting. Lliesa started us out with a new map quilt. Unlike her one from last year that was based on a real location, this one is all imagined. I like how it is growing.

Ruth is doing a series of works based on Dinosaur tracks. I like the way she is working . The irregular shapes really look like chunks of rock to me.

Lorrie made this little quilt for the sale at the quilt show next week end. It is a happy little thing.

Donna is doing rust dyeing now and has achieved some great effects. I always go home for the meetings with a real high on things to think about and try Like the rust dyeing……. It is great to meet with folks of a like mind.

Progress Report: Water Run This work is 24” X 20” wide. I sure enjoyed working away on this work. When I stretched it I really got going on the next ones too. I like doing the free motion work as the fibers sometimes move as I work.

That movement makes it feel more organic to me.

Land Fall This work was designed on a vertical layout, but is has turned to become a landscape type of work. I try to pay attention when the work directs me and go with that flow. It has about four hours of work in it so far. Slow but enjoyable for me.

Felting I am still adding roving and fabric to the surface of this work. I found some wonderful organza in one of my boxes when I was looking for something else. I know it will blend well in this work. No stitching yet. It is starting to look a bit like a flame to me.

Ethel’s Nine Patch This is the back of Ethel’s Nine patch. Again I am using her fabric and I though I would add some solids in primary colors to it- but I like the effect so I have just built it this way. There are lots of scraps left in the box, so I know there will be more work like this in my furture.

Queen Anne’s Lace

I am working on the hand stitching on this work. There are only two more flower heads to do and that step will be complete. My fried Tanya gave me some Eamu feathers a few weeks ago and I think I may use them in this work. The gray feather pinned to the center area is one of the feathers.

Bird Land This work is on the bottom of the stack so it does not get much attention. I did finish all the cutting of the birds this week though. Now to stitch things down.

Label Block # 83

I keep working away on these blocks and they keep getting completed. No rush and no pressure really is a nice thing.

Keep Creating

Carol

Along the Shore, Collage Based Work, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Generational Whispers, Small Cleft

A Bit about process

September 22, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello-

I am getting back into my usual grove this week. I went to a FAB meeting where Judy showed us more of the blocks she created after the Mill Sight weekend. I think the colors work well together well and it will result in a grand quilt. I have finished several pieces this week so it is time to begin new work. I though I might talk about one of my processes. First I select an image. This is a photo that I took in Washington state of a cut in the road. Then I make a little windows and run them around the photo to find an area I think is a good jumping off point. When I choose one and I then do a little sketch of it using dark, medium and light. At this point I need to decided on a size and select a fabric for a base. Because of the great amount of shrinkage and warping that occures with all the felting and the stitching I apply I make the background fabric 10 inches bigger then the final projected finished size. The next step is to lay out roving in the areas that are light med and dark and felt it down. I then build up the surface with yarn, silk paper and fabric strips.

Progress Report: Small Cleft This work is 24” long and 20” wide. It is based on a photo I took four years ago. I used the same process I described above for this work. I incorporated silk yarn in this work as well as silk paper. There is also some fabric bits and yarns here too.

Beach Front This quilt is another in the three challenges process. My hand dyed fabric is the white with colored spots and Ethel’s is the blue and dark batiks. It is based on a collage. The top half is quilted in parallel lines while the bottom section is done in a wavy pattern to suggest water.

Generational Whispers This work is 43” long and 38” high. I shows five generations of women in my family with my grand daughter at the center in the bottom. I did free motion drawing on organza to create the portraits and then sewed them to the background. The last step was to add the names of the women represented then quilt. There was not enough space below all the heads to add their dates of birth and death on the top so I have added a panel on the back with that information.

Butterfly I am just about done with the thread painting on this butterfly. The black sections on the body and the left wing remain. Then I will add it to the top and do the final quilting on that piece.

Ethel’s Nine Patch I am enjoying building these squares. I have completed 25 at this point. To make it a queen sized quilt it will take 43 blocks so I am a little beyond half way done at this point. Looking at the scrap box I know there will be a second one of these too.

Label Block # 81 I feel back into my old pattern and only finished on block this week. I have started making Creative Assistants in the evening so I did not put in any extra time on this project.

Keep Creating.

Carol

Deep Jellies, Ethel's Scarp Nine Patch, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Far Off Forests, Felt Work, Label Blocks, Tall Text, Text in Quilts

Summer’s Ending

August 25, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

As the nights get shorter and a few bits of color are starting to appear in trees one is reminded that summer is fast coming to an end. I went off to Mill Sight Lake along with other FAB gals for a weekend of talk and quilt work. We did swim in the lake too, but due to a much needed rain on Sunday we did not get any boat work in. We talked and discussed all sorts of things including the projects we where working on. Patti made Pillow cases and Judy and Nancy worked on Disappearing Squares- a block with lots of possibilities. The food was great and we had a good time.

Progress Report: Deep Jellies This work is 37” long and 41.5 “ wide. I did stay true to my vow to do hand work on it every day for and hour and it got done this week. I sure enjoy the mixing of the orange and blue. The dyed blue green lace and the deep blue ribbons represent the parts of the jellyfish that capture the food and pull it into the center so digestion can begin. I still find the idea that these colorful fellows live in total darkness.

Tall Text This quilt is 49” long and 32.5” wide. started this project in Rosalie Dace’s class at QBL. I did reflective quilting in the negative spaces around the text in this work. It has been a good week to finish things up as I prepare for my travels. I like to come back with a clean studio as I am sure I will get lots of new ideas on this trip.

Far Off Forests I am now done with the free motion work on this piece. I need to get new stretcher bars to finish it as the machine work has so distorted it that it will not stretch to fit the ones I have.

Ethel’s Scrap Nine Patch I inherited this box full of leftovers from Ethel. I took it on the camping weekend. I had one idea about how to use these colorful pieces but the other gals have convinced me to make a nine patch quilt with them.

This is a shot of all of the parts I put together over the weekend that I am now ready to cut into 5” squares and mix with solids for this project. I know I would not have done it in this fashion without the influence of the other gals.

Label Block # 75 I only got one block done this week. I have several near completion though so I will keep my numbers correct.

I will be traveling with Marty for the next few weeks so the next post will be Sept 15.

Happy Trails to you as well.

Carol

Collage Based Work, Deep Jellies, Far Off Forests, Felt Work, Going Deep, Ivy Wall, Label Blocks, Tall Text

Work Week

August 18, 2016 admin

Hello-

I saw this young fellow in the cematery on my walk this week. Later I watched in horror as he ran across Comstock Avenue dodging cars and into the woods behind Manley Field House. Good luck Bambi!

This week was one where I got a lot of studio time and although I have not finished much I feel good about what is going on. Uneventful weeks are good for reflection I find. In class with Rosalie Dace at QBL she stressed the importance of Values in our work. Now I have heard that many times but I just never really got the concept. One of my fellow class mates showed me how to see it more clearly and although I have not got the whole idea yet I am seeing what they both meant.

Here is a photo of a group of fabrics that I think work together. In color they seem to have a wide range of values. ( this is were my eye needs training) because when the same fabrics are viewed in black and white it is easy to see there is very little middle value in this collection. So now I need to go back in to the stash and fine a few more pieces in the middle range like the grayed oranges to have more values in this work.

It is good to always be growing.

Progress Report:Going Deep I added the backing to this work after I stretched it yesterday. I really enjoy the building up of the layers of these wool based projects. This is the first one where I do not have a canvas under the fiber piece and I think that allows for more a feeling of buoyancy. The thread build up on these works takes a lot more time then I think will when I start. But the final effect is well worth the efforts. Sometimes it only takes such a small bit of fabric or yarn to really add color to an area. It is like building a puzzle with flexible pieces.

Deep Jellies I am still doing the hand quilting on this project. I have been putting in an hour a day on that process- but it is a big quilt so I have about one third of it done now.

Tall Text I started this in Rosalie’s class. The top is all assembled now and I am in the quilting stage. I am doing reflective machine work around the cut up letter units with variegated thread. I think the textural interest will add a nice dimension to the work.

Ivy Wall This is an early stage for this work. The butterfly will all be done in thread painting with the machine. The image is mounted on organza with tear away stabilizer on the back. I did the brown leaves as a rubbing with pastels last summer. There is a little machine work at the bottom so I know this technique will work.

Far Off Forests- wool work From this corner one can see that it only takes a small scarp to build up an area with a different color.

New Project This is my current three challenge piece. It is all one unit now and I am pondering ways to quilt is as well as the way I want it oriented. This shot is exactly upside down from the original, But some how it works better for me.

Label Blocks #73 and #74

I am pushing my self to get a few blocks ahead as I know I am going away for a three weeks at the end of August.

Keep Creating

Carol

Deep Jellies, Going Deep, Label Blocks

Full Summer

August 11, 2016 admin

Hello,

Summer is proving to be hot and dry here in central New York. I am still washing out fabrics form Carol’s class at QBL. The top half of this photo is stuff from the class. The bight bottom half is what I did at the play day meeting of the Mixed group on Sat. We did discharge work and paint printing due to the water shortage. The day started out with Pat showing us the simple process of using watered down bleach to remove color. We watched and then went to work applying the knowledge.

This shot is of Anne and Anne working out in the sun.

The drying lines quickly filled with beautiful fabrics.

Not all of us worked out side.

Pricilla and I both work away in the barn with paint and acrylic ink. I did my printing with shaving cream and inks. I tried using shaving cream and water color too- but it ran when I heat set it as I sprits it with water. The yellow is ink and the red is water color and it ran. I was experimenting and when one does that there are no guarantees.

I was very successful with the other pieces however. The fabric was beautiful and we had fun.

Yesterday I went off to Susan’s and played. She was busy cutting stencils and working on a big layered project.

Sally was there as well doing paper clay figures. She is marring the paper lay with drift wood to create her figures.

Regina was doing hand work on her projects that are due for a show by the 29th. I did hand work on my Deep Jellies quilt. We talked and worked all day and everyone made progress on there various projects. It is good to work with others some times.

Progress Report: Deep Jellies I did a lot of quilting on this on Wed. and I tacked down the fuzzy orange around the big jelly fish. I made an assignment for myself to do and hour on this every day for the next few weeks.

Class project This project along with three others also need hand work attention so that is part of the reason I though I should start to dedicate an hour a day to hand work.

Felted Wool works I keep moving forward on these projects. The gold one is ready for stretching. This close up is just one small section of it.

Going Deep This blue wool one is almost done too. I discovered that it is longer then my stretchers so I will lose about six inches of it. Again I am learning. I do not know how much the wool with shrink when I do the machine work because this green one will not fit the stretchers already and I have just started the machine work on it.

New work This is my new three challenge piece. I have barely started it so there is not much to see yet. I do like using the collage as my starting place for work. Looking with more intensity seems to stretch me more then my typical approach of responding to what is on the pin wall all the time.

Label Block 72 And the beat goes on with this project.

Keep Creating

Carol

Deep Jellies, Felt Work, Garden Gate, Generational Whispers, Going Deep, Label Blocks, Natural Elements, Sweetheart Tree, Trees

Preparations

July 14, 2016 admin

Hello,

This week has been a quite one and most of my efforts have gone toward preparation for two weeks of Quilting By the Lake. That begins on Sunday. But I begin helping with the hanging of the quilt show on Friday. I will be taking a dyeing class the first week so I have spent a lot of time pulling things together for that and soda soaking fabric. I am looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones. There will be no blog post for the next two weeks do to my classes. The next post will be Aug 4.

Progress Report: Generational Whispers

I put in a lot of time on this piece this week. I started out by taking Gwen off and re drawing her. Then I put her on again. There are still some stitching wholes, but I will remove them with water.

The I went forward to add Wendy and Alexis. I am going to rework Alexis a bit so I will not show her at this time.

Garden Gate The quilting step is going along nicely now. he paper patters help me keep the size correct with this one. I can also add the design beyond the print on the fabric with the paper stencils. They are made of paper and getting rather shabby now. It is a good thing I only need to make two more copies of them before I begin the fill in quilting.

Sweetheart Tree This is the saved work I started altering last week. With the quilt work complete the piece got its blossoms. The plan it to add beads in the green and blue to the centers. That will add another texture and build a focal point in each flower.

Deep Jellies The hand quilting is going slowly forward on this piece. It has been too nice out doors in the evening to set inside and watch TV so I do not put much time in on it.

Going Deep This felted work in building nicely. It is the only one with a title too so that is why it is listed separately. This is still a very early stage.

Wool Work This piece is nearly complete. I have not formulated a title for it however. That will happen before I stretch it.

Wool work III . Again no title yet. This one is at the adding fabric on top stage. They are mostly just pined in place. The two greens hanging off the bottom are possibilities.

Wool work IV is still at step one without any fabric added at all.

Label Blocks #68 and #69 I tried to get a head on this project this week as I know I will not be around to do this type of hand work.

Keep Creating

Carol

Diva Meetings, Felt Work, Garden Gate, Label Blocks

Diva 15 Show- plus

July 7, 2016 admin

Hello,

This week has been a full one starting with the opening of the Diva 15 Show. This work is Anne’s and it sure looked great on the gallery wall. I think the whole show was a wonder of our diversity and talent.

Sally’s piece just glowed on the wall with its bright colors. I enjoyed the large number of people who visited and talked with lots of them. There where fellow quilters of course and lots of younger folks too.

Maureen really showed off her shobori with this piece. The evening went quickly and I had a good time.

This is Alice’s entry for the 15 wall. It is one of the works that has sold already too. She also has a show at the Earlville Opera House this month. The 15 wall was a big draw as the display took the entire back wall of the space. Cindy’s little work was a real gem with all its machine worked movement.

I was espically taken by Noel’s piece because it grew out of a play day she and I had with Susan last summer.

Susan’s work looked good near the food table and I heard lots of positive things about it. I feel the opening was a success and the whole show is as well.

This is also the fist week of the month so, I had meetings. The QuIG’s had lots of nice work. Angela is making great progress with her felted pieces and Liz keeps putting out her little blocks every week too.

The Diva meeting is doing more critique work so not a lot of pieces were/are completed . Only Regina has a big display of her Black and White studies. The were based on paper sketches she did in a class. But all the fiber work she did in isolation. They were so strong and went she changed their orenatation there were big changes too. I find them dramatic and can hardly wait to see were she goes with these ideas.

Progress Report: Blue Iris This work is 39″ l X 34” w. It features the Sachiko panel of course. The Japanese characters are scattered around as I felt they went together. I ended up making a panel for the back with the translations on it. That seemed like the simplest way to transmit that information. This panel is Luck.

This panel is Good Health. This is another Ethel project as she had all of this fabric sorted into a little bag. The Sachiko was not even started so I feel this is more my work then many of the other projects of her that I have completed.

Garden Gate I am now ready to start the quilting on this project. I am using the orange print as the basis for the quilting patters. They are so complex that I drew them in paper and cut them out. I will now stitch around the paper patters in the non printed areas.

Generational Whispers I took this work to the Diva meeting and got some good direction from my fellow art quilters. I stitched down Mom and myself yesterday. I decided that Gwen who was the only person in profile did not work so I took her image off the surface and will re do her. Sometimes errors are made – “Rumpus” as Susan calls them.- They lead to growth.

Wool works There are no titles for these wool pieces yet. But this on is the oldest of the four and it has the most machine work on it. There is a lot of distortions of the wool as the machine work is added. All four of these works are based on rock structure photos. This one is from on of my visits with Marty. I am not staying with the colors of the rocks- but I am trying to keep with the dark and light patterns. I enjoy this step and I like how the threads, yarns and bits of fabric build up the surface. The first two are built on a tweed wool base. This piece has a great deal of silk fabric built up on top of it. Beth gave me a bag of silk scarves last fall and I finally got into it and I am having a good time using them.

This wool piece is done on a black felted wool skirt that I cut up. Building over the dark color sure makes the wool roving glow some how. This piece only has about and hour’s worth of work at the sewing machine in it at this point.

This wool piece has not had any sewing machine work done on it. The roving has only been punched into the skirt felt. This is an example of step one for all these wool projects. I have not worked much on this project as I usually run out of time before I get to it.

New Work I do not seem to do well when the pin wall is blank so I started another 3 Challenge piece. It is in the fabric/color selections stage. Here is the collage that is the inspiration.

Label Block # 68 Week another square.

Keep Creating

Carol

Blue Iris, Felt Work, Generational Whispers, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing, Weeds

Openings

June 30, 2016 admin

Hello,

Summer is blooming all around my house. I love all the color that surrounds one this time of year.

Have you crossed over from the room to another and then stopped cold -not remember what you were in search of. It happens to me all the time and then I read that is a common thing. The scientist studying the brain have determined that this is part of a self protective alert system man kind has carried from his early development. Moving from the inside of a cave to the out side world meant that one had to clear the brain of all distractions to be aware of the new environment. The same is true of going from the protection of a forest out into a meadow. These clearing or emptying of mind the may have meant the difference between life and death to our ancestors. So the next time you forget why you went to the living room forgive your self and chalk it up to old mental protection processes.

Progress Report: No Clue This project is 50” l X 41.5” w. It fits in my three challenge too. Snow dyed and direct dye painted fabrics where used in this project. It was based on a collage and it has some of Ethel’s fabric in it. The quilting lines run parallel to the edges of the color changes in this work.

Generiational Whispers The faces are starting to be applied to the surface on this work. A few of the lines are new to the portraits but many are just drawn over the machine lines that were on the organza. This person is my grandmother Ruth.

Blue Iris I just used reflective quilting on this project. I have labels on the back noting what the oriental symbols mean. I am still quilting.

Weeds I am still working away on the flower heads on this project. There did not seem to be a lot of time for hand work this week. I am enjoying working on the discharged fabric that Randy made.

New work This top is almost complete now. The quilting pattern is the new part of this challenge. The big orange print is rayon that is backed with iron on inner facing so it will not stretch. It was a gift and was a pair of bib pants in its last life.

Wool projects I have started adding silk paper, yarn and fabrics to the surface of this project. This is my favorite part of the process. My friend Tanya gave me some of her unused stretcher bars last week so I put three sets of them together and started more wool projects. This is the early stage of one of them. I start out laying roving in patterns and then felt it down. The next step is the layering of more material on top to add the texture.

Found Project This project was in the bottom of a basket of UFO’s. I was frustrated with this project last fall. But looking at it with new eyes now -I see a direction to go with it.

Label Block #67 Another block done.

Keep Creating

Carol

Collage Based Work, Dappled Sunshine, Deep Jellies, Fabric Collage Constructions, Felt Work, Generational Whispers, Label Blocks, Machine Drawing

Summer has begun

June 23, 2016 admin 1 Comment

Hello-

I spent Monday, Summer Solstice, at Susan’s. The wonderful Fox Glove is from her garden. We were experimenting with adding color to fabric. Susan being more systematic did a lot of different studies. I did rubbings with chalk and paint. This example is of one of my early works. Susan’s daughter Rebecca worked up stairs and completed a quilt top. Then she tried another color combo of the same block and this little work is a corner example of that. I like how the high contrast creates a glow effect here. It was a good day and I enjoyed myself.

Progress Report: Dappled Sunshine This three challenge quilt is done now. It is 58” l X 45” w. I have not worked this big in a long time. There is pebble quilting in the orange areas and strait quilting in the tan and brown areas. I used some very old altered fabric like the cream with lines of paint at the top of this photo. The area under the brown strip is ice dyed from this spring. There is also some canvas in this and a print I did in paint using a doily as the resist.

Deep Jellies I have started doing hand quilting in the areas of solid blue in this quilt. I like the contrast. It will be a slow project too as there is lots of blue.

No Clue I keep trying this work with different orientations every time I work on it. The machine quilting is going forward and I have quilted about half of the pink areas at this point.

Blue Iris I have now completed the top assembly of this work. Ethel had collected all the fabric in one bag. I have put together all the squares and done the lay out. Now on to the quilting step. Great fun.

Generational Whispers I continue to work away on this project. I re drew Alexis’s head because it was too small. I decided I did not like my drawing of Gwen so I re did her too. I took this work with me on Monday and got some help from Susan about how to move forward on this challenge.

Wool work The base is mostly down on this work. I will start to add in fabric and yarn this week.

New work This work got buried under the other stuff this week and did not get any attention. That sort of thing happens when one has so many projects going on at the same time.

Label Block #66 I just keep plugging away on these.

Keep Creating

Carol

Briar Patch, Diva Meetings, Foggy Dawn, Label Blocks, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Silver Growth, Trickle

Ice Cycles

March 3, 2016 admin

Hello,

Long ice cycles are one of the sure signs of spring to me. The weather keeps shifting from cold to warm here and that means melt and thaw and melt again.

I had lots of meetings this week. Sat was a meeting of the Mixed Group. It is always very stimulation and enjoyable to see the work of other artists and get their feed back on one’s own work. Tuesday the first of March so both QuIG’s and the Divas meant. Liz found a weekly offer by Moda on Their web sight were they publish two new blocks ever week. She has a note book already and four blocks are completed.

Corinne shared her print work from our last play day at Angle’s.

At the DIva meeting Kristen shared her shop entry for the “Row by Row “ show at

quilters corner. Donna shared her Bernie Sanders doll.

Noel showed off her piece for the “ 15” show that the Divas will have this summer. It was inspiration to see what everyone is doing. I am so very lucky to have such wonderfully creative friends.

Progress Report: Trickle This is the forth stretched quilt that I felted first. For this one I did not add any thing to the back of my woven wool fabric before I felted it. This meant that it all stretch at the same rate and so it ended up much flatter. Now I need to get the corners of the work to be smooth and flat. It seems there is always something to learn.

Foggy Dawn I have taken the advice of my fellow quilters from Tuesday’s meetings on how to quilt this work and did it all in swirling patterns. It is now ready for the facings.

Briar Patch I am having fun doing free motion raw edge applique of the leaves on this work. I will also do free motion to add the black berries .

Silver Growth I started this work because of the gift of a beautiful top that my friend Regina gave me. The deep purple with the silver work on it at the bottom. Now I need to figure out how to ingrate this work.

New Work I have enjoyed laying out the balance of this work. Now I am ready to begin the sewing step. I will fill in the white areas with narrow strips of fabric as I always do.

Scrap Happy I am to the step in this quilt where I have put the blocks in rows. I need to stop now and make a back for this project before I can go forward. It will make a good quilt to pass on.

Label Block # 42 I just keep working away on these little pieces.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Felt Work

First Week in October

A Bit about process

Summer’s Ending

Work Week

Full Summer

Preparations

Diva 15 Show- plus

Openings

Summer has begun

Ice Cycles

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer