Category Archives: Finger Lakes Fiber Artists

Burning Woods, Childhood Memories, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Mom VI, Tee Shirt Quilts, Wool Rounds

Labor Day 2019

September 5, 2019 admin 1 Comment

Hello,
This week was Labor Day and even though I have been retired for years it still represents the end of summer and the beginning of fall and school for me. It was a quiet day and I worked in the studio a lot. I got to thinking about horizons as I watched the children walking to school this morning. The Father was sharpening them along toward new futures that would certainly broaden the horizons of those young minds. Horizons are a important part of artists work too. It is a part of many a landscape and a great tool to use to show depth in art work. Just a small shift can change ones perspective and the horizons one sees. It is a way for one to explore even thought we are through with formal schooling.

I did unroll my Eco Dyeing projects from the Finger Lakes Fiber Artists play day two weeks ago. I am sorry to say the beets red dye turned black with time. But the red silk that I used did transfer lots of its color. This is the paper.

This is the fabric.

Progress Report: Seven Feathers I have stitched down all the feathers at this point and I am doing reflective quilting to complete this piece.

Tee Shirt Quilt I finished the construction of the back for this quilt yesterday. Now I can begin the sandwich and quilt it.

Burning Woods It seemed like it took a long time for me to begin pinning on this work. Now it is moving along quickly. I have even started to stitch down some of the parts of this work.

Memories of Mom This work appears and disappears the stack of things to do so progress is slow. I am also unsure about whether I have pulled together all the items I want to use on it. I just need to keep exploring.

Wool Rounds I am finished with this first batch of circles. I am now working on a second bunch.

Childhood Memories- Schoolroom Glacier

This memory is also of the Tetons. When Dad was a ranger Mom wanted to go to Schoolroom Glacier. It is a classic example of how a glacier pushes rocks to for a moraine and a lake as it moves forward. We never made the trip that summer as it is 14 miles from the trail head at Jenny Lake to the glacier. Farther then she thought we ( I was 10 and Gene was 7 ) could hike in one day. But when we returned to the Tetons and Yellowstone the year I was a senior, we rented horses and made the trip. Do to a heat event ( precursor of climate change) the snow at the front of the glacier collapsed into the lake and a lot of water flooded out. This destroyed the perfect V that was usually a part of the moraine. It left a big cave like form in the front of the glacier too. Mom was very excited and took a lot of photos to use in her class. She also purchased older slides of how it had been before the collapse. While we were there it stated to rain. I had a new cowboy hat as I had out grown my old one, so my head was dry. But to my dismay the horse I was riding threw a shoe and I had to walk her most of the way down. My hat’s form was ruined by the rain, but I still have the horse shoe.

Keep Creating

Carol

3X3, Childhood Memories, Creative Assistants, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Icarus, Shows, Tee Shirt Quilts

Show Work Week

May 2, 2019 admin

Hello,

The Blood root is from my garden. Spring keeps pushing forward. Thank goodness!

This week has been a busy one. Sat. Liz and I went to Varna for a play day. I taught folks how to make a boiled book. We had mixed results as the leaves are still too soft to get really strong images. But we did have fun with it. Liz made progress on her applique circles. I think this will be a great quilt when it is finished.

These books and tags are the work of Donna.

I have put in a lot of time making labels doing artists statements and making sure I have all the necessary items to hang and present a good shows. Yesterday with the help of Angela and Julia, we hung the Finger Lakes Fiber Artist show at May Memorial at 3800 Gennesee St here in Syracuse. The quilt by Sharon is a part of the show. The works looks good against these dark walls.

It was great to have the help and the process took less then two hours. I forgot to print out our into statements so I made a stop there today to post that addition. The show will be up until Wed May 29 and is open most days from 9 until 4:30.
Today with Beth’s help we hung a show at the Life Force Center. This quilt is called Tucson’s and is one of 32 of my works in this show. It will hang from now until the middle of June. Beth was very helpful and it took about two hours to hang this show too. Building and hanging shows is a part of being an artist, but I look forward to doing my own creative work for a while now.

Progress Report: Circular Thinking- 3 X 3 This work is 51″w X 51″l and it is my response to the Sisterhood of the Scissors challenge 3 X 3 . It was a bear to assemble. I see now that I really need to take a second look at the one side and perhaps re do the facing there. When one is working on a piece as big as this it is hard to see the total until the end.
I am glad I did all the stitching, even thought there seems to be as much embroidery thread in my stash as when I started.

Icarus I am finishing up the machine drawing on this work now. Even though I fused the fabric to batting before I did that step it sure got distorted. Lots and lots of heave pressing has flattened out most of that however. Again I need to live with this a while to see where to go from this point.

Creative Assistants I finished another batch of these little fellows this week. There are 23 this time. When I was cleaning I discovered under my chair, one more that needed the last three steps to finish it off . Guess that means I have a starter for the next group.

Tee Shirt Quilt I have make little progress on this work this week, but it is moving forward.

Sketchbook Revisited Class Along with many others am doing a online free class for the last week and a half. It is a great way to stretch and explore. This lesson was by Anne Butera. The emphasis on studying the subject, but not getting too hung up on the details. Looking at color and using a big brush captures it all quickly. I am enjoying myself even though I am behind a few lessons.

Childhood Memories -Crack the Whip One year at Thanksgiving time we had a real cold snap for about 4 days and there was no snow. We all went to the cabin that Grandfather Howard had built on the slew.( It is a back water of the Iowa River- created when the river changed its course and left old Chanel still full of water) The ice was thick and flat. One could skate in a strait line for as long as one wanted to if you went up the slew. All the cousins who had ice skates spent a wonderful afternoon skating. Being one of the older kids I had done the “hand me down” thing with several pairs of skates. Uncle Paul pulled us in a laugh filled game of Crack the Whip. Gene, Danny, Russell, Tracy and Doug were there I am sure. My memory is a little fuzzy about who else was there. When we got cold and tired we went up to the cabin and had hot coco and popcorn from the popcorn machine around the stone fireplace that grandfather had built. It was a great day!

Keep Creating

Carol

3X3, Collections, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Forest Flock, Linnen Jacket, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Winter white

January 10, 2019 admin

Hello,

We are in the middle of a beautiful snow storm here. I shot this image through one of the garage windows. I love the ice crystal patterns and how they break up the view.

There was a Flinger Lakes Fiber Artist meeting this week. This work by Pat was one of the wonderful works we looked at and talked about.Pricilla brought all these silk squares that she intends to use in a new jacket.

Liz shared this work that she machine quilted her self. She and I dyed printed the fabric in one of our grange dates last summer.

Lori showed us this work of hers that was in the members show at the Schweinfurth. The gold and black fabric background was a piece of fabric that she purchased from Pat last summer.

Noel took Pat’s Two by Two class and this is the result of that. I like how Noel uses diagonals in her work.

I find this work by Regina just fascinating. I just keep looking and seeing new areas of interest with each study.

Joyce is working on book forms now and this is just one that she shared.

Marcia is playing with movement in her work at the moment. I think it is just great how much variety is going on in this group of talented women and I am so happy to be a small part of it.

The QuEG’s also meant this week. Liz showed off another of her works. She is in the process of quilting this piece too.

Sue Ellen spent a little time playing this season and created this table runner. Lots of bright color here.

Progress Report: Collection V I keep working away on this project and I think I am nearing the end of itI am doing the line stitching now, usually a sign of the completion of the task.

Forest Flock I worked on the second set of birds this week and they are a little beyond half way done. They need about three more shades of thread in blues and grays to be complete I think.

3X3 I have now laid out all the panels for this project. I want to add some circles in transparent fabrics on top and then I will be ready to begin hand stitching on them.

Jacket I keep stitching away on this project but it is slow as it is the bottom of the stack and there is no time line for it.

There are no cards this week because I can not find the ones I did. There were curling as they dried so I put them under something and cannot find them. They will turn up and then be a bonus.

This is also the last entry for a few weeks as I am off to Oaxaca Mexico to visit with Susan. The next post will be full of news of that trip I am sure.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cedar Wax Wings, Daily Practice, Diva Meetings, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, QBL- Quilting By the Lake, Re Work

Busy Week

November 8, 2018 admin

Hello,

This week was full of fiber art meetings. Saturday was the FLFA meeting at the Schweinfurth.

Pat shared her latest work with us at the Finger Lakes Fiber Artist meeting on Sat. She hand dyed all the fabric in this work. There where lots of folks present as we had to cancel the Sept meeting. These works are by Joyce. She really puts a lot of motion in her work.

Marcia shared this dynamic piece with us. She creates movement in a different way.

Bev is working in a much quieter pallet than Pat and Marcia. I like the irregular bottom edge too.

Sharon had a whole pile of little works that she is going to sell at the 12X12 show at the Broad Street Gallery in Hamilton. This one was my favorite.

Angela is still exploring with Polynesian tapa cloth symbols. She made the screens and printed all of these by hand. Julia is exploring in a new direction too. I really like the text like shapes she is using. Liz went off to the Barn and took a class with Clair Bends and this is just one of the dye pieces that she created. He is fun.

The QuEG’s also meant this week. Liz shared these three pieces again from Clair’s class.

Corinne had been to the Red Thread workshop and shared this wonderful book that she made. It is full of different types of experimenting that they did. This photo shows work with a copper plate and a Gellie plate print.

Sue Ellen made a top using a cool Cat Pannell that she had purchased. She is planning on giving it to the service project at Tow Path. I think that is very kind of her.

After four I went south with Noel to go to the Diva meeting. Cindy shared this beautiful work with us.

This quilt will be a part of the Diva show Earth Song, at the Unitarian Church in Ithaca from Nov 30 to Jan 10.

It has been a full week and I am excited about moving forward.

Progress Report: Cedar Wax Wings This work is 12” X 12”. It is my entry for the Off the Wall Show/Sale for Associated Artist in the Manlius Library. It opens on Sunday. I am so enjoying doing thread painting that I can add on top of the felt.

Black Capped Chickadee n the same vain as the Cedar Wax Wings, I am doing a Chickadee.I built this background in felt. I drew my birds and I have just started to do the free motion work here.

Consider This is a rework of an old quilt that I cut up and used as a base for some hand work.

Noogoora I am doing the hand work on my seed heads now. The white side shows the my out lines that I am attempting to stay within with my stitches.

Experiments: I try to use the books and magazines I have on my shelves and this little experiment grew out of one of them. I had tried tacking yarn down on top of felt like suggested earlier. This process is done under wash away and is suggested in …………..msdmf I moved on. I have a great photo close up of a butterfly wing showing all the little “scales” of color. I wanted to try adding bits of color – fabric or yarn in little pieces to get this type of effect. I thought that if I scattered the bits on felt- then might stick enough to remain on the surface until I could stitch them down. That did not work. But adding a bit of nylon netting over the top did. Now I want to try that idea on a bigger scale. In the book Layers of Stitch by by Valerie Campbell-Harding and Maggie Gray in chapter 6 Cutting out the Patch talk about stitching on felt and cutting it away. My mind jumped to the wash away and I built my net using that instead. ( I never could follow directions) Not sure where any of these ideas will go, but I really am not to worried about that part.

Rework- new I decided I would take a second look at the old rock pieces. I did them just for myself and some are a lot stronger than others. I was talking with Liz about this and she suggested that I build a new ice piece over the rock surface. I like that idea and I will try that as well. I cut this piece so a near square piece so I can stretch it when I am done. When I was on my walk I noticed how the leaves were floating in little pools and I thought I could do that on the rocks too. This is my first attempt. I picked up some oak and Gingko leaves on that walk and I made stencils out of my tracings of the leaves. I will add paint to some fabric using the stencils and add them on top of the rock.

Daily Practice I just keep stitching away on this piece. It is very calming work.

Keep Creating

Carol

Diva Meetings, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Flexibility, Pealing Oranges, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), ZAP, Zap It II

Event Filled Week

December 7, 2017 admin

Hello,

This week had been one filled with events. Last Friday was busy as I took down the Finger Lakes Fiber Artist show a May Memorial. Then I went off to Oswego State University to Sharon Souva’s Graduate show. It was wonderful. She did a deep exploration of four areas. She took a photo. This one is called” Yellow Strip” and is a shot of a part of the pavement. She wrote a poem about each subject.She then did a print of the subject. This was followed by a small rendering of the image in fabric before doing a full sized quilt on the topic. I enjoyed seeing the progression. Her other three topics where grass growing out of a crack in the cement sidewalk. This is the quilt.

A close up of a rock formation , this is also her quilt solution.

Lastly , a quilt of birch bark with with lichens growing on it. Her fabric interpretations are wonderful and inspiring. I am so proud of her and admire the effort it took to go to school and see it to the end.

Then this wonder woman was a part of the Plow Shears craft show and sale on Sat and Sunday. This is a shot of part of her booth showing some of her landscape fiber drawing sewing pieces.

On Sunday I went off to the Schweinfurth to the Finger Lakes Fiber Artist meeting. We talked about the Q=A= Q show that is up and enjoyed hearing other members favorites and the why of those feelings. At 2:00 we went up stairs to enjoy Bev’s trunk talk. She was very kind with her full explanations about how she got to where she is now as well as her current process.It was a good day.

Then on Tues I went off to QuEG’s and Diva meetings. The holidays are keeping folks busy so there was not much show and tell in either case. Regina had finished her hand work on her circles and squares piece. The base of this work is a piece of Shobori that she did. Ruth shared her cell work too.

Progress Report: Peeling Orange This work is 38” w X 41” l. It is the last work that I plant to use the Owl graffiti layout on. It is not the same pattern that I made in class. I took the idea and made it smaller to fit the orange hand dyed fabric that Regina gave to me. There are cut-aways from other works in the series in this piece too. I am now at the point where I did not care if the viewer knows or can find the the word in the work any more. I realized I have also become enchanted with the little tails that sometimes end up sticking out along the edge . I have cut them away many times- but decided I will keep some times on this work and some in the furture.

Zap It I am now doing the machine quilting and hand applique of the “It’s” on this quilt. It is moving along nicely.

Glyph IV

The beading goes forward on this piece. I was so busy this week I did not get my hour in every day. But I will keep aiming for that amount of time.

Zap It II In my preparation for my own trunk show I looked at all my old pieces. I ended up with a whole pile of not so strong work and was considering just passing it all off to other uses. Then I remembered Ethel telling me long ago that I made great backgrounds. So I though perhaps I could use some of those weaker pieces as a background for the letter form explorations. I liked one of my line drawings of “Zap It” – so I used that as the basis for the purple strips on the surface of this older work. The next challenge is how I want to stitch these lines down on the surface.

Ethel’ Scarp I am ready to put together the scrap quilt now. This is my back for this work . It is also made from scraps.

Label Card Flexibility When it came time to start a new card for this week I still had the “reuse” thoughts in my head so being flexible seemed like the way to go this time.

Keep Creating

Carol

Diva Meetings, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Felt Work, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Glyph IV with Beads, Glyph Series, Pealing Oranges, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Share the credit, ZAP

Travel and such

November 9, 2017 admin

Hello,

I have had a busy two weeks. It all started out with traveling and visiting museums . Marty and I visited six different ones on our trip to Maine and back. With shopping, a factory tour and visiting with friends it was all very exciting and stimulating- A very enjoyable experience. But before I went away there was a three day workshop with Amanda McCavour. She is an expert on the use of various water soluble materials. I learned a lot. She has a show of her life sized machine drawn rooms on display at the Schweinfurth that will run from now until the first week end in Jan. Most of the work we did in class was much smaller. This shot is of Cheri’s peacock feather. I experimented with creating Fox Tail for use in one of my felted pieces. Doing this workshop with fifteen others creative women made for lots of different and exciting applications to the use of this material.
The Quilts =Art= Quilts 2017 opened on Sat at the Schweinfurth too and so I went to the opening as I was already in the building. This work is by Elizabeth Bush. She won a Jurors Choice award as did my friend, Julia. This work by Emily was done by one of the other gals in Amanda’s class. She came all the way fro California to be at the opening and to take the class. It’s a strong show and I plan at least three more visits.

Then on Monday morning with the help of Cheri, Julia and Liz we hung a Finger Lakes Fiber Artist show at May Memorial Church 3800 Genesee St, in Syracuse. This shot is of a work by Sharon. These works show two quilts by Regina and a piece by Alice. There was a Meet the Artist event on Sunday and that went well. The contact at May was very pleased.

Marty and I visited the Sherborn Museum as one of our early stops on our trip to Maine. We were blown away by the work of Patty Yoder who did wonderful hooked wall pieces. She raised the sheep, sheared them, spun the wool and dyed it before she cut it into strips to create beautiful and playful wall pieces with it. This is a close up of the eye of the sheep in the first photo. There was lots of humor and fun in this delightful show and we enjoyed it very much.

Our next stop was the Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream factory. We took the tour and had ice cream Sundays for lunch that day. I Loved their motto” If it’s not fun- why do it?”
We went on to visit our friend Elizabeth. We enjoyed visiting her studio and talking about her work. This shot is of a colorful basket full of the hats she makes to give away at Christmas.
The next day we went on to Camden to visit with Barb and Steve. Barb took us to Rockland and the Farnsworth museum. We hurried through the Wythe art works as we had seen them before and went to a great show of wok by Marguerite Zorach. No photos where allowed, but take my word for it – the works was fabulous. The photos is of the black and white show, another temporary exhibit that was up in the museum. We also visited the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. The last museum we visited before we drove home was the Clark, where we saw the exhibit of Impressionist Line and listened to the lecture on that subject. I did not know that pastels were invented around the same time those artists were working. Degas and Mary Cassatt sure used that new material.
Tuesday was the first one of November so I had both the QuEG’s meeting and the Diva meeting. This quilt is by Liz and will be for sale at the Everson’s Christmas Tree event. Angela continues to work away at her on line felting class. I really like this piece. Sally is busy with Christmas gifts for her grand daughtersand Sue Ellen is having fun doing cats.
The Divas had a good meeting as well. Regina did a splendid job Finishing off her Garden Gate piece. I love how she combined a rubbing with a hand dyed to get this great look.Maureen is working with colored pencils and stitching on this piece. Most folks had work in various stages of completing in preparation for the Thread of Change Show at the Unitarian Church in Ithaca to open Dec 1.
The to round things out I had a FAB meeting yesterday. Judy is working away on her red sweater again now that it is cold. Nancy is making “post cards” to attach to her quilt. It has been a full two weeks.

Progress Report: Glyph IV Because I was away not a lot of progress has been made here. But I am working away to fill in the L with beads now.

Peeling Orange I have started zig –zagging down the shapes on this project. I am still thinking about how I want to quilt it.

Zap I did start to applique the shapes down – but had to remove all I had done as it puckered up. I purchased tear away and now I am ready to try again.

KnittingWinter cold has finally found us. I could not find my muffler, so I decided to knit one as I still have not focused on a evening hand project.

Felted work I made this rock face a while back and thought that I would use the Fox Tail from Amanda’s class on the surface. But I think they are too close in value to get the effect I am shooting for. So they will be a part of another project and I will work on a different idea for this piece.

Label Card “ Share the credit.” I have been thinking about how important it is to work together for a big goal and value all the different things one brings to projects. I was trying to express that with this card.

Keep Creating

Carol

Creative Assistants, Ethel Scarp #6, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Glyph IV with Beads, Spring Whirl Wind, ZAP

Color every where

October 26, 2017 admin

Hello-

I am enjoying the peak of fall color here. The trees just seem to be burning with color. I was hard pressed to choose a photos to use this time.

This week was a busy one. There was a meeting of the Finger Lakes Fiber Artists on Sat. I collected the quilts for the show I will be hanging for the group on Monday.

Marcia shared the new SAQA magazine and her work on a new jacket. This is the small quilt Pat shared with us.

Maureen is busy doing Indigo dyeing for her class with Jane Dunwald. She is really mastering this technique. Liz shared her projects form her class at the Barn. She is learning Shibori. And I am of benefitting from this experience because we are doing more together.

Regina has been busy this month finishing things from her classes at QBL. The triangles are from her class with Rosalie Dace. The quilt at the top on the right is from Cynthia Corbin’s class. Noel is playing with different quilting and piecing techniques. It was a very stimulating meeting with a varied group of creative gals.

We also had a FAB meeting today. Judy was working on a baby quilt for her church. We had our own little quilting bee as we tied it off before the end of the meeting.

Progress Report:Glyph IV I am done with the beading on the W now. That letter is the center so I feel like I have made progress.

Peeling Orange I am to the point where I am zig –zagging down the parts of this piece. I will do all of this before I quilt it.

Spring Whirl Wind ( Renamed from Tossed Salad as the blue does not work for salad. ) I am doing the line green with free motion quilting on this project. I wanted to push the green back a bit.

New Scrap I started building new blocks and pinning up possible layouts for the sixth quilt built from Ethel’s scrap box. It may change as I have only made three rows of blocks and they are not connected.

Zap I have cut the dark purple in the ZAP pattern. I stitched the parts to the fabric and I even zig -zagged around the right one. But it pulled and puckered up the fabric so much that I took all that stitching out and now there is inner facing on the back. I will re do the zig zag before quilting.

Creative Assistants Another new batch of silly little fellows. I am working away during the football games.

Card- Some Days This card is to celebrate having a day without any event. Feeling a bit over done- I am going to plan some days like this in every week from now on.

I will be traveling next week so there will not be a post. I will write all about it Nov. 9 .

Keep Crating until then.

Carol

Keep creating,

Diva Meetings, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Label Blocks, QBL- Quilting By the Lake, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Quilting by the Lake 2017

August 4, 2017 admin

Hello,

I can not believe that this is how the gym at Onondaga Community Collage looked on Friday July 14 the day after my last post and the day we started preparing for Quilting by the Lake for this year. This post will be full of photos and snippets of what happened in those glorious days plus a bit of what has happened this week too.

So by the end of the day we had filled the gym with all the quilts that we had received at that time. It was not ready for guests as more work

came in on Saturday, but we did a lot.

I spent my Saturday helping my friend Sharron move into her dorm room and decorate for Christmas in July. We had fun, but more about that later.

There were four special shows within the quilt show at QBL this year. One was five Dear Jane Quilts by Sharron.

She talked about her journey with the development of this project one afternoon after class. I have watched her work away on the blocks doing all the color variations at the same time for each of the 350 blocks. It has taken her six plus years to complete this master body of work. It looks great. Marcia De Camp had a solo show as well. Non on my photos of that are strong enough to be included here, but believe me when I say it was powerful too.

The Finger Lakes Fiber Artists had a great display . These two works are from that section. The top Quilt is by Sharon Souva. The bottom one is by Cheri Sheridan.

This quilt is by Liz Anderson, she is also a part of the Finger Lakes Fiber Artist’s group. The little girl on the far right is Liz at the age of six.

Noel Keith also had a solo show and talk the second week . Some of her works have been included in the Quilts=Art=Quilts shows in the past. She works with silks that she has hand dyed herself and that adds a wonderful layer of excitement to her work.

Sister Sew and Sew made an appearance at the quilt show. She had lots of tips and bits of knowledge that she shared with us as well.

This shot is of Sister checking the length of this woman’s hem from the floor. An item that my Catholic friends assure me was common in their pasts.

My class week one was with Cynthia Corbin. I am going to post a few of the solutions that folks created in class.This is a shot of Annette’s project in the middle of the week. It changes as she assembled it. I really like the quiet colors.

This work is by Diane. Her first work with all solids she tells me. This shot is of my table partner Robin and her work as we did our Mimi talks about our work for the week on Friday afternoon.

We were Cynthia’s last topic class and so we gave her flowers as a thank you for her kind support and help.

Friday night at the end of the first week of QBL we have show and tell where each class with their teacher get up on the stage and show what they worked on. This is a shot of Alice with her project from Studio class.

One class- on the use of wedges- just moved there boards with their work into the auditorium and display them. Nice touch.

Another event at the end of the week is the action of TOTE Bags to raise money for the Scholarship Fund. This is Rosalie Dace with her “Chicken bag” .

Week two I had a class called “One Theme – Many Variations” with Kerr Garbowski.

We started each morning with some drawing. This shot is of Cherri doing a blind contour.of onions- her subject.

We worked with colored pencils, chalk and paint blocks too. This is Cherri’s experiment using those things on a silk screen. With each pass she added more color so the image changed with each print.

Lots of my friends where in this class and we all had great fun. We did lots of deconstructed screen work. Cris and Ann were in front of me. Both worked hard. Robin sat next to me again and did some strong work.

Gerri really did some big works with her little screens. I have been dyeing with Liz on most Mondays this summer and her big strong gestural work is so inspiriting. These two works from class confirm this feeling.

Angela was also in this class and she did this wonderful series using a glue line print of her husband’s saxophone keys. She too changed the background color with each pull.

These are some of my fabrics from class.

Quilters are a divers group. One of my friends, Emily has done a lot of beading in the form of bracelets this year. She shared them with us. They are wonderful!

Week II of QBL also brought our Christmas in July celebration.

We played games based on carols. We pulled poppers. We drank eggnog, we had a garb bag gift exchange and laughed a lot. Sharron dressed in red and was our master of ceremonies. It was great fun.

The second week ended with show and tell like the first. Debbie had completed this quilt.

This shot is of Linda with one of the works she did in class. And another class project.

The week ended with the tote auction and Cynthia’s tote sold for $1,350.00 – the highest price paid for any work that was going to the scholarship fund. Cynthia sweetened the pop of her tote by adding some of her own hand dyed materials to the collection. This is a shot of the bag after the sale. Nice way to close QBL for 2017.

Saturday I went downtown to the Art’s and Crafts fair where I saw several artists friends and watch the native American dancers. They really moved and I enjoyed all the action.

My daughter’s company had a booth there too and this shot is of her and several of her fellow workers. Wendy is the one in the middle.

I also had QuEG’s and Diva meetings this week. At QuEG’s we looked at many projects folks worked on at QBL.This is the piece that Linda was working on in Independent Studio.

This piece is what Liz worked on in Rosalie’s class week one at QBL.

This is another 3-D work by Sally. The whole section at the bottom is all made with thread- except the door. The light house had a lite in the top too. She does amazing work with her embroidery machine.This is another bit of jewelry by my quilting friend Corrine.

The Diva gals had lots of wonderful work too. Lori showed off her knitting with these hand warmers that she made on her curse to keep her hands warm. She also showed off her stitch work.

Sandy proudly displayed her work just home from a quilt show.

Noel showed off her newest work where she was mixing black and white with solid colors.

Sally displayed her second quilt showing off her morning walks. The quilt shows a map of the rout in red and the photos are some of the items she sees.

Ruth is actively working away on her dinosaur track quilt. These first layers are ready for the mud layer now.

Maureen is working away on layers of dye for her new projects. This is lovely.

Susan is still doing little units of work on Pellon. These are memory pieces of her experience in Mexico. As I have said many times I am so very fortunate to have so many stimulating and creative friends.

Progress Report: Owl project

The first week I took a class with Cynthia Corbin called The ABC’s of Composition. In this class we design blocks using letter forms as the basis of the blocks.This is the black fabric patters for my blocks. We then interpreted the patters in color and built the quilt around them. I stayed with this word all week and went from this first start to a “glyph” using the word owl.

I have always been fascinated by the positive and negative spaces in art and this project played into and developed several more pieces in this vain.

At this point I wondered about a size variation with the glyph. I did a shrink and an enlargement. I have not done any work with the smaller ones even though I have several ideas.

The larger one however has become two pinned works. Watch for upcoming developments.

Label Blocks More blocks is getting smaller and the end of this step is insight.

It has been a busy few weeks and my mind is full of ideas. Now I need to slow down and get some work done.

Keep Creating.

Carol

Creative Assistants, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Label Blocks, Nine Blue Iris's, Notebook Covers, Pods, Transparency work

Keeping Active

May 25, 2017 admin

Hello,

These beautiful Alliums where blooming in my friends garden and they just captured me when I drove up. There are constant changes as the weather grows warmer and the days are longer. One needs to pay attention to the catch those changes. Keep Your eyes open.

I had two meetings this week. The FAB group meant and it was an active meeting. Nancy is making great strides on her Mother’s quilt. I spent time helping her with the free motion work in the center section around the little sunflowers and the birds. She is does not have enough experience with free motion work to make it work flow for her yet. But time and work will solve that problem. Patti is taking painting classes in both acrylic and watercolor. I think that takes courage.

Judy is working away on her “Disappearing Nine Patch” and assembling it . She has plans for a second already

Marty was at the meeting too and she showed us the quilt she made for her great grandson.

I really like how the longitude lines curve just a bit to give the rounded feel to the piece.

The Finger Lakes Fiber Artists also meant this week. It is so stimulating and there is lots of interaction between the participants. This shot shows Regina and Sharon talking at lunch. ( the works on the floor are Sharon’s)

This is one of Pat ‘s rare small works – it’s about 16″ square. Her hand printed fabric really lends its self to a big format so this is a different challenge for her.

This is Julia’s piece in response to a collage that she did in David Horning’s class at QBL two summer’s ago.

This work is by Bev. I love how she breaks up a shape and re assembles it. The colors work well together too.

Then on Monday I went to Liz’s house we spent the day using thickened dye to alter the color of fabric. We both did about three pieces and will meet aging in a few weeks to do another batch. These are mine and I am most delighted by finally getting some pure white in the front piece.

Progress Report: Nine Blue Iris This work is 15” X 31” . Iris are one of my favorite flowers that bloom early in the spring. The old lace in the background here is from a pillow case that my Grandmother Ruth made . I am continuing to challenge myself to work with organza and build up layers of color. Flowers work especially well with this idea as they are so delicate.

Most of these flowers are three layers thick,

Pods I am continuing to build these little works. I only have enough altered felt to do two more and then I will move onto another project.

Jellyfish This project also is working with the layers of transparency. The colors do not come through as well as I had hoped. Not enough contrast here I think. But that is part of what I am learning about this material.

Notebook- Harlequin Paper

I made this book cover from the Harlequin paper I made last week. I fused down candy wrappers to black felt and then layered golden brown nylon netting on top. The work was then free motion quilted over the surface to hold it all together and give it a strong body. Making it into the note book jacket was the final step.

Creative Assistants I finished up another 30 of these little fellows this week. They will disappear that QBL as I give them away.

New Work

Liz challenged me when we were dyeing to create something with some of the fabric we have created together over this last year. I pulled all of these to do just that .

Label Block # 122 I keep working away on this project one little block at a time.

I will be away from home so there will not be any post for the next two weeks. I will have holiday ones to share when I get back.

Keep Creating

Carol

Birds, Creative Assistants, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Xavier Wood Ice

Winter Return

March 2, 2017 admin

Hello,

We are experiencing a snow storm today with cold blowing winds. It’s a bit of a shock after three days of wonderful warm temperatures near 60. I do like the soft effect the snow creates on the the landscape however. It is just early March so one should expect a bit more winter. I guess I will be doing another batch of snow dyeing today.

I had two meeting this week. The first was the Finger Lakes Fiber Artists meeting and they meant on Sat. Priscilla had been to Guatemala and she had purchased some wonderful embroidery works that she shared with us. Bev and Mary had nice works to share too. I always get some much out of meeting with fellow creative folks. They helped me see a change I needed to make with one of my works too. It was great.

The “Both Ends of the Rainbow” show was up in the main gallery at the Schweinfurth. I checked it out after the meeting. The kids and the adults had grand works. I was really taken by this altered book.

The FAB group was my second meeting this week. Patti is weaving away with embroidery floss on this project. I like the way she is mixing her threads to avoid sharp color changes that would create strips. Nancy also brought some color from south of the border as she in now home from her trip to Peru. This work is from the natives who live on Lake Titikata. Wonderful work with the chain stitch here. The natives are working for the tourist’s dollar and they are using much brighter colors then when I was in Peru 8 years ago.

Progress Report: Creative Assistants I am working away on my little pins now. This batch of 34 is now complete. Or it will be when the Squeezie Paint is dry tomorrow morning. I think I am done making these for this year. I have over a hundred to give away and that it enough.

Branch I am about half done with this second branch. It is built out of a tweed jacket sleeve that is then build up with layers of yarns on top to give it more texture and to add interest. The water soluble is trimmed away from most of the left side at this time. This close up shows a section that is almost done.

Blossoming Branch I am ready to add this first branch to the new background. I’ll add flowers too as it is suppose to be a Cherry Blossom branch. It almost appears too light so I may have to build up some darks in the limb as I put it on the surface.

Summer Meadow This is the first assignment from Layer, Paint, Stitch. I am now doing the bobbin grasses. That process means that the bobbin in this case is loaded with crochet thread – it is too thick to go through the machine needle and that is why it is in the bobbin. Then one sews from the back side and the thread is couched down on top. This little trick is wonderful and I can see many ways to use it in my work. Learning new tricks and techniques is why I do these type of exercises. Paint will be added to this surface later and the grasses will show up.

Samurai Romance I have now finished the first panel of this project( on the left). I couched by hand some think yarn and leather strips to the build up the vertical lines. The two brown patches on the right are now ready for step two of there alteration for the project from the Stitch, Fiber, Metal and Mixed Media book. They are small wet felted wool pads. There will be lots of texture on this piece.

Xavier Ice I just keep working on getting every thing free motion attached to the surface of this work. The build up is moving forward.

Birds I thought I might make some little birds from the leftovers of the Pods Project. These are Ok, But I think I can do better. So I will keep thinking and make a second run at this idea with some of the other leftover felted fabric I created.

Label Block 109 Another one down and only 11 to go now.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Finger Lakes Fiber Artists

Labor Day 2019

Show Work Week

Winter white

Busy Week

Event Filled Week

Color every where

Quilting by the Lake 2017

Keeping Active

Winter Return

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer