Category Archives: Three Trees

Enjoying the Spring June 5, 2014

ColembineHello,

I have been enjoying being out of doors and doing lots of yard work this week.  Being gone always means lots of catch up for me and that seems to be how I have spent most of my time.  That and meeting with my friends that is.    The first Tuesday of the month was this week so I had the usual QuEG’s  and DivaBarb meetings plus the FAB group has moved to the first of the mouth too.  It is good to see all my friends  and it is very stimulating.

Barb started off the QuEGs meeting  with her three “sliced block” tops.    She sure seemed to be having fun with them.   Then we moved on to Linda who is taking an on- line class where she is doing prep work for a quilt about her Irish Linda's-notebook BJuneLiz's-work Grandfather.   The notebook is a work of art all by it’s self I think.    She is collecting lots of ideas to work from for the project.

Then we looked at Liz’s strip blocks.   It is a memory quilt using  her friends father’s shirts. The  outside  strips of each block  are from the shirts.  The florial  prints in the centers rBJUneSueEllen's-new-fishepresent the friend.

Then we looked at Sue Ellen’s work.  This new fish quilt of hers really is a joyful one I think.   This photo does not show it- but the green has a wonderful reflective quality that really adds to the feel of water in this piece.

Next we Sally's-onelooked at Sally’s wonderful work.  She has finally finished piecing  her “One Block Wonder” top.   I love how she used the fabric in such a way that the quilt goes from light to dark in a Sally's-work machine embroderydiagonal sweep across the top.      She continues to work hard on her Machine Embrodery too.   All the lemons are drawn in thread as is the green sprig and the pie crust.     Her work always blows me away.

After the meeting I drove south and picked up Susan who is now back in Central New York andBJUNE5Sharon we rove to the Diva meeting together. Where I got my second jolt of creative stimulation.   Sharon who is going to graduate school had lots to share. Photos, prints and quilts   as she prepares for the many art  shows she partisipates in during the summer.   She is one busy gal.

BJUNE5-Donna Donna is taking a class in Spirit Cards and this a shot of one of them.   I am sorry that there is so much glaire here.   I like too how all the groups I belong to are so accepting of a wide varitey  of different materials as well as styles.  ANNE's-work

Anne peresented this finished piece at the meeting too.  I think the machine work really adds a lot of secondary interest to the surface.    I admire how she uses her fabrics.

-Susan's-holidaySusan spent six weeks in Mexico and she built this day journal of that event.   She challenged herself to try lots of different techniques on  six inch pellon squares with each square representing an event for each day of the trip.    I think it is a wonderful way to stay on track and to be creative at the same time. This close up shows foil she found in Mexico behind the painted and  cut out pellon sheet.  SUSANcloseup

 

 

 

 

 

 

The FAB group meant this Victoiraweek as well.    I taught them how to make silk paper.  This shot shows Victoria working at that.   Nancy made clouds with the silk roving that she intends to use on her new bed room quilt  as a part of  the sky.

Victoria and I are in a color class later this summer.   She is preparing for that by doing a  bit of progressive dying  for that -Victoria's-colorrun - Copyproject.   I think this color run is great.  It will be fun to use them in class later.

Patti is the Patti's-loomowner of a new pin loom and she has been weaving away.    She loaded it up and started a new project during our meeting.  I can hardly wait to see  the finished piece.

PattiI like all the color that she is using here.     With all the visiting going on, I did not do much work on my own stuff.  I am OK with that one needs to fill the well every now and then.

 

 

 

 Progress

Three Trees and a Singer 21" x21" $80.00
Three Trees and a Singer
21″ x21″
$80.00

Report:  Three Trees and a Singer   The title of this quilt has changed from just Three Trees  to the new one because I added a black bird.   It is very small in this image, but it is there on the far left tree about half way up.  I added the bird last because I thought the work needed a little  reason to look with  a bit more care.

Bird The bird is in this closeup. The trees are all based on pictures  I took  in the winter of  trees in my  backyard.  The trees are all full of leaves now I am glad to say.      The photo to the left here shows all three techniques that I used to create the  trees.     The brown is a woolThree-close up I started with and the black is yarn that I stitched down on top of  the wool.  Then after I had stitched together i sewed it  to the background.   Then  I loaded the bobbin with thick tread and from the back I free motion drew the limbs onto the surface of the quilt.   I enjoyed creating  this quilt.

 

 

 Daily News ( Formerly Daily’s) Daily's  These are the last of my Daily’s.  I say that because I feel I have learned what I needed to from this project.  I am calling the work Daily News because I worked on the pieces every evening  during the time the news was on TV.   Now I have to figure how what to do with the pieces I have created.   I have 240  four and half inch squares.   They are not finished so this can’t be the end.   I do not want them to simply end up in a box and  I do not want to simply sew them together as I have enjoyed placing them next to one another in various arrangements.      I am thinking of several possible solutions and I will spent this week making my final decision about that during this time.  That and planning the next possible mini challenge.

I hope the week ahead is full of good creative time for all.

Hugs

Carol

Back in the Studio May 29, 2014

 Foundations XIX -Mossy Stone  33" X 29"  $340.00
Foundations XIX -Mossy Stone
33″ X 29″
$340.00

Hello

It is good to be home and after I recovered from my jet lag I enjoyed getting back into the studio and working.    I think having something partly finished helped me get started too.   So I will jump into the Progress Report.

Progress Report: Foundations XIX Mossy Stone   As this image shows I am now done with this quilt.      I am not sure about Mossy Stone-cl2how to declare the size, but have settled on measuring the distance at the longest points to  come up with the numbers.   This quilt  has a very large number of fabrics in it as well as threads, yarns  and some silk paper.   I enjoy the extensive thread work that finishing the quilts in this series requires.   The thread patterns create nice direction and flow directions  to Mossy-stone-cl3my eye  and when I get to that step it is almost meditative in nature when I am working away at it.    I do not see the end of this series any time soon- it is just too much fun to see how many fabrics I can use and how many textures I can include in the process.

 

 

 

Growing in the Dark – Paper Quilt  

Growing in the Dark  Paper Quilt 16" X 21"
Growing in the Dark
Paper Quilt
16″ X 21″

 

I took a  day workshop in  using the Gelli plate on the weekend before I went off to Paris.  I  made a lot of  wonderful paper and fabric printed images.  I decided to challenge myself and use some of them to do paper quilts again.  I have not done that style growing in the dark -cl2in over two years so it was a bit of a challenge just to recall the process.   The Gelli Plate process is full of chance and I really like that aspect of  using them.  Paper is in the bottom section of this shot   and fabric in the top- they do take the paint /ink differently , but I like them both.    This work because of the nature of the stiffness of the paper Growing-in-the-dark-cl1requires  that one work smaller.  I can only roll so much under the machine arm.  The paper  also is a much flatter material  so it goes together much more quickly .  I added in some of the silk paper as you can see here and it works well with the  other materials.  I have pulled another pile of paper and fabric from the workshop to start another soon.

 

 

 

three-trees

 

 Three Trees   This work is coming along.  I made the base of the trees on wash away with a dark gray green  wool and then added black yarn on top with machine stitching.  I then trimmed the  away as much of the wash away as I could before I submerged them in  back-of-3-treeshot water.  When they were dry I arranged the trees on the surface and sewed them down.   I loaded my bobbin with brown embroidery thread and the top of my machine with black.   I turned the quilt over and did free motion drawing of smaller branches in the trees using the outlines of applying the trees to the top as my three-trees close up 2guide.    This shot of the back of the quilt helps show what I did.    This closeup shows all three processes.  The dark green is the wool, the black is the  yarn and the brown is the thread.  This project  proved to be a very good way to get back into the free motion process for me.

 

 

 

AsuriteFoundations XX- Asurite  This is my new inspiration stone for the new work in the series.   The first step is to cut the bucrum in the shape of the stone.  Then I  start pinning the background  fabrics to the surface.  Asuritestart   I did the light area first this time and used two different blues and some hand dyed that had blue, white and gray in Pileit.  I then pulled  a pile of blue fabrics that I thought could work and piled them on the floor below the BM29Pinned-Asuritepinwall.  Having them at my feet meant I could pin look down and cut the next piece I wanted with ease.   I continued building on the surface until I had the whole color areas built  in.    The next step was to begin to Asurite close upstitch and pin more into the work and start to build the surface.  I like to work in this free form way and let the process guide me along.  It does mean that I stop and pin the work up frequently and look at the work, but I like that step  as well.

 

Spring Iris BM29-Spring-Iriscl1 Spring Iris   I am doing the free motion outline step of this work now.    I was so happy to see the Iris in Monet’s garden and I took a lot of photos.  I think I will try to add a  bit of applique on top with the photos in mind.   I am not sure how I will do this yet- but I am thinking on the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Canvas   red-canvus I started the painting process of this work in the fall as a play day with Cheri.     Seeing the great way she used what we started that day at the Diva Meeting  in March got me to pull the canvases I had created out again.  I cut them up and then zig zagged them back to create a bigger unit.  I then painted on top again to add more depth.  I was still not happy.  So I have now done some hand work and I think I am nearing completion.  I added beads, buttons and some altered metal to the  red canvas close upsurface.   I need some assistance as to how to finish this work  so I will take it to the Diva meeting and get some help.

 

 

Daily's Daily’s     I think I am done with this series as far as making the little units is concerned.  I have eight more and that will complete the thirty blocks I have with the two triangles on them.   I have done this daily work for eight months and feel I am ready to find and ending place and move on.  I will take this week as I finish the blocks to decide on a way to complete the project and to think about a new daily or weekly challenge.

Keep Creating

Carol