Category Archives: Harmony

Busy Two Weeks

 Fall tree Hello,

It has been a very busy two weeks for me.  I not only traveled to Ottawa for four days I took a felting workshop, spent a day with Ethel  making silk paper and a day painting sky with Nancy.     The world around here is starting to show its fall colors as well and the days have all been wonderfully comfortable.  Victoiria I spent the end of the first week doing a felting workshop.  We played at all the techniques we knew with each one of the participants demonstrating her expertise in different areas.    Victoria taught us about nano felting as she has been doing a bit of this with her niece.  All of us come with a different design approach,  so they all came out Cherri very unique.   Cherri really  liked this method of creating felt and she ended up doing at least three pieces in this style.  I was told she is making a vest for her granddaughter with some of it. One of the gals did not do wet felting but started with wool that had been felted in the washing machine and needle felted little pins with this technique.   By doing this method she had lots of control and created very fleting-with-pre-felted-detailed work.    She was making pins and added beads and manipulated the felt as she worked to create various textures in her pieces.   I really liked the way she manipulated little wisps of wool to add nice details like the soft line of green in the leaves of the red and gray green pin. BO2jelly-roll-2 BO2Jelly-roll3 BO2jelly-roll-felting1The second day we did wet felted Jelly Rolls.   Mostly we created flat disk like units – but Cherri also created some plant like forms with her green felted units.               felted-beadsAfter lunch I tried making felted beads and had a good time with that  too.    I have no goal for their use and they  may rattle around the studio for  a long time before they find a home-   But I sure enjoyed the process. One can also do three dementional felting using the dry method.     This mushroom is a greatfelted-sculpture example of that.     I did a little seasonal piece using a wool basefelted-owl and dry felted roving into the surface were I wanted the different colors to remain.   It was a fun time and I enjoyed it very much.      I can certainly add this technique to my work.

 

Then I went on my travels to Canada.   I love to travel and feel it is very invigorating.  Travel can open ones eyes to look at ordinary thing and pay attention to the every day.  I was especially taken by the wonderful    gingerbread work on this house.Canada house     I might have noticed it at home, but I probably would not have taken the time to look carefully at it or take a photo.  The fact that it would not appear in my life again if I did not act then helped to sharpen my vision. We  went to Ottawa with the intention  of visiting the museums and did that.  We  visited all three of the major ones there.  Our fiat stop was Noethwest-housethe museum of First Peoples.     It is a wonderful mix of history and the current lives of the Native Americans of  Canada.   By building these mock up of Traditional Northwest Tribal  buildings the museum presented the totem poles in their normal settings.  Inside the houses were displays of artwork again modern-workshowing historic works and contempary ones as well.     I found the whole day very exciting and I am sure I will soon create a work using this influence.

 

 

The next day we went to the National Art Gallery of Canada.  Again it was inspiring.  I have always liked the work of the Canadian seven and it was great to see the work live.

Marty and the moose. Then on Friday we visited the Museum of Natural History.  The building is beautiful although it looks like it was built in the early part of the last century with its stain glass and carved wood.     Some of the displays show this same old flavor but most are very current.  There are lots of interactive displays and each sections also had a play area for smaller children.

Nancypainting

I spent yesterday working with Nancy painting a sky for her quilt. It was a beautiful day to paint out doors.

We had a good base to work on top of from the first attempt two Nancy's-skyweeks before.    We agreed it needs one more day to get the finial effect she wants for this portion of her quilt.

 

 

Progress Report:  Harmony  

Harmony  24" X 42.5" $370.00
Harmony
24″ X 42.5″
$370.00

This work displays the Japanise Character that stands for Harmony.  That is where  I got the title.   The two orange  silks are from Japan and I felt that this was a good way to celebrate that fact.   I looked at many renditions of this character before I settled on this form.   The black of the shape is all chain stitched in embroidery thread.

 Harmony-cl-4

 

 

 

BO2Harmonycl1

 

 

 

 

Sand Stone Church

Sand Stone Church  16" X 21"  $125.00
Sand Stone Church
16″ X 21″
$125.00

I purchased Valerie Goodwin’s book “Art Quilt Maps”  in the spring even before I took my second class with her this summer.   I thought I should try to follow her instructions on how to build this type of map quilt and this project is the result.     This work is based on childhood memories of a Sand Stone Church that was in the pasture next to the one my grandparents owned.   My brother and I often played in the church Church-cl2 BO2Clroads-of-stone-church BO2Clstone-church-3and in the cemetery that was just up the hill from the old building.     The church it’s self had no roof and the local natural stand stone was curmbeling away in some places so we felt safer in the cemetery- espiceally under the big old oak that stood in the corner.  The branches were low and we could easily climb quite high in that tree.    The second close up is an areal view of the gravel rural road that ran in front of  my grandparents  house and the farm yard around the house, plus the garage and barns.

Somky-TwilightSmoky Twilight     I am enjoying using  the many tints and shades of gray I have for this work.  It is in the very early stages of assembly, but I think it is starting work.

 

 

 

 

Chrysanthemum   I am to the free motion stitching/Free-motoin-work-on-Cquilting  part of this project.    This work got away from me as far as size is concerned and grew quite a bit from my original plan, but  that does happen from time to time.    Again I am using some of Ginny’s silk in this project( the red  show here)

Enjoy the colors of fall and keep your eyes open to the possibilities for ideas all around .

Hugs

Carol

 

 

Slowing Down

Hello,

I have been a little under the weather this week.  I have taken lots of naps and consumed a  lot of water.   This slowdown has helped me focus a little and think about whereNancy's-sky-2 I am and where I want to go .  I have lots of friends and I have the freedom to explore.  It’s  a wonderful time for me and for that I am truly Thankful.

Yesterday, I went to Nancy’s house and we spent a fun morning painting sky for one of her quilts.  At the end of the time we decided that we needed to revisit this activity and so we will alter this work and try again early next week.

 

 

necklace-8Progress Report:  Necklace

This is the last of the necklaces that I have created flowers for.  I put away the materials and will try to wear them this year.  It has been fun and I may use some of the techniques to add additional textures to some quilts in the future.  One can never have too many tool in the toolbox of processes.   

 

Harmony   Harmony-closeup I am filling in the symbol of Harmony with the chain stitch on the surface of this quilt.   The process of doing this hand work is very calming and good for a person like me who is not in top form.   It is also  filling in the time that I had been doing the hand work on my Daily News project.

 

 

 

 

BS18ChrysanthemumChrysanthemum

I have now finished assembling this top.  I think that this time I got a little carried away with the strange angles .  It is not at all flat at this point and I hope that I can press it into that condition.   I may have to open some seams and add or subtract to do that process.     I am not convinced that this is the up position for this work either.  I will do the look  for a flat surface and rotate thing for a while before I go forward to the quilting step.

I want to tell my readers in advance that I will be away next week and there will be no post.  I will be back and the next entry will be Oct 2.

 

Keep Creating

Carol

Paying Attention

BS11Cemetary Hello,

When one needs ideas for solutions  or inspiration I believe  one has some  choices.         I was struggling with part of the  Stone Church project.     There is a old cemetery that is a part of that area and I wanted to include it in my piece.  But I was having trouble  so I took a walk in the near by cemetery to refresh my mind.  I was surprised by the presence of the deer.  There  were two actually and the cemetery  is surrounded by city on all four sides.   Looking at  how compact these stones and how much they overlapped has helpedVictoria's-project1 me formulate a solution to the  work I must do on the project.

Sometimes the ideas are as much about paying attention as anything else.     There was a FAB meeting at my house this week.  Folks showed their work and  Victoria is moving along nicely with this quilt.  She got inspired by Ginny’s silks that she had purchased a few weeks ago.  They  are shown here in the orange and  gray strip. ( I got inspired by that same orange silk)    I Vickie's-bed-fullthink the shadow of the leaf looks wonderful too.   She  also showed a top that she had assembled for a bed quilt that she is making for her new house.    I am so impressed by the large number of prints she uses and the colors.    I would not have put that strong orange with the turquoise myself- but I love the combination.   So by paying attention to this  little surprise I now have  a jumping off  color  combination  to try in the future.   The real trick here is to note the surprises and in my case write them down.  I do that in my idea journal and it helps me when I need to get going with a new piece.

Progress Report:

Foundations XXI  Elsies Stone - Cape Cod Rock 43" X 44" $595.00
Foundations XXI Elsies Stone – Cape Cod Rock
43″ X 44″
$595.00

Foundations XXI Elsie’s Stone- Cape Cod Rock   The Road Less Traveled

I am finally done with this project.  I love all the texture on the surface of this wonderful stone.  I am very grateful that Elsie gave me this parting gift.     The many fascists of its surface with the limited colors make it fascinating to me.   I think I could revisit this rock and work from a different side  too.

I used yarn ,  nylon nettingClose up -Elsie's-St and lots of torn fabric bits to produce the colors and textures.    There is also my favorite silk paper at work on this piece.

 

Elsies Stone-cl2

 

 

 

 

 

The Road Less Traveled  35" X 45"  $535.00
The Road Less Traveled
35″ X 45″
$535.00

 The Road Less Traveled

  I started this quilt in Rosalie Daces Color class at QBL.  I have finally completed the process.      I used many of the techniques she taught us.  I did insert slender curved lines into sections.  I let colors “bleed” or flow  across seam lines to make connections.  I used raw edges to add texture  and I hand embroidered across parts of the surface to draw sections together.      Even Close up -road-less-traveledusing all thoughts techniques  I did not use all the techniques that she taught us.  As a teacher she has a lot to share and she does so very willingly.

I enjoyed using these

BS11Road-LT-clearthtones and I will continue to  pursue the techniques she taught.  I am still not happy with size of my slender inerts- so there is work  to do there.

 

 

Stone-Church clStone Church

I already mentioned the bit with the cemetary so I will not cover that again.  I added lots of machine lines on the roads as they were gravel and I remember how there seemed to be lots of “tracks” of the tries on them.   I remember too that Grandmother Ester liked to drive down the middle and only pulled the turquoise ford  over when she could see a car coming toward her.

Harmony     I am done with the assembly of the form of this quilt.  I decided to use the character that

Harmony cl represents Harmony for the central focus and so far I have just quilted around that shape to create the quilting pattern.   I want to fill in the character with black hand stitches/ patterns so it stand out.   But I have not come up with the correct stitch to do that job yet.   So I keep looking in books and paying attention to the world around me and hope that I will find inspiration.  Until then  the project will just hang in the studio awaiting the correct solution.

BS11Sketch-for-CNew Work      In Valeri’s Goodwins class she had a do a fabric ” sketches” of 4″ X 6″ before we started work.   So in keeping with using the best the teachers have to offer I made the sketch first.  This is the one I selected as my jumping off place.    I wanted to use the big printed flower I created a few weeks ago as a big part of this work.  NowBS11Crumasnthum I am in the process of pinning up parts that I think will work to do the job.  I have split the two flowers apart and added parts of a third to the design.  Very few parts are  connected or solid in its position at this point .  This is  fun but scary part of the process-  but I need the challenge.

 

 Daily News    This project is finally complete.  I have now Daily6sewn all the blocks closed and will continue to play with placement  for as long as the process interests me.   This will be the last post where the  project will appear because at this point all the finished units have been appeared at  least twice and some more times then that.   Daily-5I have enjoyed doing a daily sewing pieces and it is very true that the whole is made of of lots of little parts.  If I had started out with the intention of making  180  hand embroidered  blocks I do not think I would have done it.  But by making small manageable  units- it as a doable Daily-4task.    I have been encouraged by Susan to submit this idea as an airticle for Quilting Arts so that is my next project.

Keep Creating

Carol1Daily3

 

 

 

 

Daily1

Daily2