Category Archives: Natural Elements

Daily's, Green Grow the Grasses, Striking Gold

Vernal Equinox March 20, 2014

March 20, 2014 admin

Hello,

Here we are at the first day of spring according to the calender. It is also

Striking Gold 17.25" X 25.75" $160.00 — Striking Gold
17.25″ X 25.75″
$160.00

the time when light and dark are at equal lengths for our part of the world. I always enjoy watching the world awaken from winters grip and the surge of life as it goes into high. I will be watching for little shoots of green this week and hoping there is no more deep cold to cut off the new growth.

Progress Report :Striking Gold I am done with this piece. I am excited as this time I have tried a combination of hand work and lots of free motion along with the direct applique technique of the foundations series without the buckram. I used one solid piece of fabric ( the gold printed material) for the base with two layers of felt behind it instead of batting and then used the same techniques. I was not sure that I could do all the free motions work with out the strong base of the buckram for this process. But it worked. I used nylon netting and ground cloth on the surface as well as bits of fabric . I did some bobbin work on this piece too( the zig zag across the painted ground cloth shown here). I tried several types of hand stitching on this piece too. French knots, stippel stitches and some X’s to hold down some of the yarn that was applied to the surface. I feel like I have expanded my choices when it comes to adding textures to the surface of my work and that is one of my main goals.

Green Grow the Grasses It was fun to work on this pale quilt this week. The soft colors seems so in tuned with my spring cold. I have done some of the free motion work in the green grass sections and a few of the little flowers. I am not sure how I will quilt the rest of the project.

Smoke I am doing hand quilting on this project. I decided to follow the black and gray painted lines on the silk fabrics as my inspirations for those stitching lines. I think it will need some machine work as well – but I will not really know the answer to that before I finish the hand work.

New Work As always I am thinking a head so I pulled out a new batch of fabrics for possible use with my next top. I am sure I will not use all of these on this work as I plan to work small- but it is always easier to eliminate than to not have enough.

Daily’s The Daily’s just keep coming. I have only four more blocks with the black circle and two red rectangles to complete. Then I will need to dream up a new layout challenge for myself. Look for that next week.

Keep Creating

Carol

Bacterial Bloom, Foundations IX, Foundations Series, Foundations X, Foundations XII, Scrap Happy Quilts

February 20, 2014

February 20, 2014 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

It is thawing here and the sound of dripping water from melting snow has been going on all day. The street is running water and directing it toward the storm drains. I find it is cheering as though Spring may in fact come. The fact that I herd song birds this morning helps with that feeling too. I have worked in the studio a lot this week.

Blooming Bacteria 24" X 38" $320.00 — Blooming Bacteria
24″ X 38″
$320.00

Progress Report : Blooming Bacteria This quilt is based on an image from an electron miscrope of bacteria- that is were the name came from. It has taken me a long time to complete as I had to make each one of the black button whole circles by hand with a small crochet hook. I know I started it last fall when I was taking my grand son to Physical Therapy. I then stitched the units down to the surface. The free motion work in the red is called pebble quilting and it really unified the quilt. I did reflecting quilting around the outside of the circles. This quilt also has a background that is curved pieced . The red is a hand dyed piece that I received from a fellow quilter. It was only a fat quarter and I used every bit of it that I could in this work.

Foundations IX Spring Moss 19.5 " X 26 " $ 180.00 — Foundations IX Spring Moss
19.5 ” X 26 “
$ 180.00

Foundations IX Spring Moss This work in the foundations series, was influenced by that spring desire I felt last week too. It is also loosely based on a shot I took of some Granite a few years ago. Like most of the works I have been doing in this series there are lots of raw edges and a tron fabrics here. The dark green is Dupni Silk. It frays so much that I saved all the threads and applied them to the surface as well. I continue to use the silk paper I created last fall. I am looking forward to warm weather when I can go out doors and create more- it is too messy do inside in my dry studio. I used lots of different colored thread when I was doing the free motion work on this work. Some apple green, yellow green, yellow and pink to get the effect I wanted for this piece.

Foundations X When I could see that I would soon finish with Foundations IX- I started thinking about the next one in this series. I was trying to make the top section of this work lighter than the bottom, but still have shadows near the top. I am not happy with the solid unit on the bottom right- but I have enough to begin work. I want to bring in more of the rusty coloring into this work.

Foundations XI I pinned up this new top this morning. I have been experimenting with long stitches in yarn on nylon netting. I was trying to create another texture that I could use in my work. The four pieces are on the surface and may or may not stay as I go along. This is a pure experiment, but then not knowing how something will work out never stopped me before. I will keep you posted.

Scrap Happy I am working on the scarp box and I decided to start a quilt using what I have. This is a good thing too as this morning I had a call from our local public TV station and they want a quilt for their auction. This shot shows the red and earth toned centered blocks as they look when they are assembeled.

Daily’s I am reaching the end of this style of block. There are only three left that have the half red circle and two lines. So next week there will be a new layout.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Oak Leaves, On the Raod to Dry Falls, Truquoise Street Studio

Open Studio November 21 , 2013

November 21, 2013 admin

Hi ,

Welcome to all the new followers that have signed up this week. 32 new folks were added to the subscription list and I am quite flattered.

This is a shot of the Turquoise Street Studio wall with work by Beth Houston Barholdt and Barbara Vural. They are having an open studio this eve as a part of Third Thursday. I was asked to join them and I have work for sale as well. I know I should have posted this bit of news last week- but I did not think of it. I will try to keep my eye on that ball in the furture. So as that bit of news suggests I have been busy getting ready for that event. Tagging, matting and framing of little works really take a lot longer than their size suggests.

On Tuesday, I went along with the other gals who are part of FAB- our mini group, to see the Quilts= Art= Quits at the Schweinfurth Art Center. We spent two hours looking and talking about the work shown there. It is always so inspiring. Then on the way home we stopped at Patchwork Plus and did a little shopping. Nancy and Victoria both purchased material, while Patti and I purchased other things. We had a good full day and I went home with my mind spinning in many directions.

I started working on Christmas Cards this week too. I stitched down green silk scraps from the Oak Leaves project on top of green triangles. Then I added a star and squeezie paint balls to the trees. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Oak Leaves 45" X 30" $ 350.00 — Oak Leaves
45″ X 30″
$ 350.00

Progress Report: Oak Leaves This quilt is complete now. I had shown it to the gals in FAB at the last meeting and they suggested that I add something to the bottom left hand side. This work hung on the design wall all week and finally yesterday morning it hit me that what it needed was a little bit of suggested green leaf fromation from another branch. So I added it. I really like how the silk leaves are fraying with time on this piece. That added texture plus the wonderful shadows created by the overlapping leaves, especially were they cross the frapped branches, are enjoyable to me. I have never used silk in this fashion before and think there is more exploration for me in that direction. I do not have any more silk at the moment so it will have to stay at the dream/ imagination stage for now.

On the Raod To Dry Falls 29" X 39.5" $290.00 — On the Raod To Dry Falls
29″ X 39.5″
$290.00

On The Road to Dry Falls This is the lost top that I mentioned last week. I had started it at QBL. I used some very old material here- the yellow, orange and white in the center and left sections- and some more recently altered stuff. The cream and green at the top on the right and lower left is from the discharged play day I did with Marty last spring. I also used some of the silk paper on this work. I am enjoying the process of free motion attachment of yarn( the white lines) as well as the sewing/quilting lines for texture. I am getting better at stretching the silk out to create more of a web like effect too.

This quilt also has some hand painted fabric in it. Well that many not exactly be hand painted as this light sections is really a wipe up cloth- but I do not know how else to describe it. Nothing is trash to me I guess.

Daily’s The Daily’s continue to be joy for me. This week’s collection seems to be a mixture of crazy and control…. I am not even going to guess what that says about my mind. There are only a few more prepared blocks using the black circles and red squares….. So there will be a change in something by next week.

Keep Creating

Carol

Blue Yonder, Daily's, Diva Meetings, Oak Leaves, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

November 7, 2013

November 7, 2013 admin 2 Comments

Hello,

The weather is still somewhat mild here. I find because I am working on the quilt with the oak leaves on it I am looking more at other oak trees too. This one is in the Oak Wood Cemetery were I walk some days. I Have noticed how different trees have differnt colorations. This old one is a deep red. The one along the drive is primary yellow- but that is only at the bottom, now as the top has turned brown. I have also observed that there are many different shapes to the leaves. I know that has to do with species differences. Some leaves are very sharply pointed like the one in my yard and some are all curves ends. I picked up one in the parking lot in Ithaca yesterday and not only were the ends of the leaves very curved the leaf had a really deep dip, almost to the spine, after the first vain from the base of the leaf. Mother Nature loves variation on a theme. I may have to get a tree book and do some serious study.

This week was the first full week of November and so I had my group meetings on Tue. Both were very exciting. The QUEGs group had severl members who had be to the big quilt show in Houston and they had lots of wonderful pictures and gadets to share. The Diva’s were inspirational too. Everyone seems to be so energized with lots to share. Ruth is working on a project using African simbiles as the bases for the block. This one sure is bold. She had also created a wonderful study using her style of expertly mixing batikand hand dyed fabrics. Cindy shared her amazing prints. She did them with the big Gelly Plate. She is now going back into the work and adding machine stitching in top. They are the faint red lines crossing the yellow in this photo. The work is very elegant. Donna was kind enough to bring her Alchemist Mask. I love masks and this one is a great one. She built it over the old store mannequin she has in her studio. The face is nobel. I like the life size doll eyes she put in the face too. They add so much in the way of focus. Alice is working on a Human Angles series and this is one of them. I am showing this image because she has a unique style of working were she paints the image she wants on the back of her cloth. Then she turn it over and lays a piece of black fabric on top. With the two layers together she flips the work to the back and sews around the image she has painted. So this picture is from the back. She then trims the black off the front along her seam lines and her images are outlined in black- her signature style. It is very cool I think.

This work with four figures is by Cheri. I especially like the unfinished edge she used here. They are a wonderful and inspiring group of gals who seem to be all working away in their own direction.

Progress Report: Blue Yonder This quilt is ready for quilting now. I have done my “stitch in the ditch” step after basting. Doing that makes the work stable for all the crazy directions I always seem to want to go. I have not decided what that free motion quilting will be yet.

Oak Leaves This is a close up of the project. I am having lots of fun making more and more leaves. I just love how the unattached body of the leaves casts such wonderful shadows on the quilt. They also flutter a bit when there is a breeze, like when I come in the studio door. There is a lot of texture here and I love that.

Daily’s The Daily’s are coming along. I now have a full cigar box of the little fellows and they are starting to look really impressive when on puts them all out. I still have ideas of layouts for the parts and shape and color changes I want to try- so I will keep the practice up. I also added a silly rule- no new purchases for this project. I am almost out of red embroidery thread so I will have to switch to crochet thread- I have several huge balls of that. I am sure that will change the character of the stitches. But that is part of the experiment.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Oak Leaves, Rounds

Halloween Oct 31, 2013

October 31, 2013 admin

Hello,

I have spent a lot of time this week preparing for Halloween and all the joys there of. This first shot is of my grandson in his black crushed velvet cape that has a red lining of the same material. Very dramatic to my eye and worm as well. I did a second costume for the 10 year old grandson too, but as I have not seen him dressed in it, so I do not have a photo to share. Let’s just say it is a very elaborate pirate costume, from a video game. All the fun of seeing how kids portray themselves will come this eve and I do so enjoy them when they appear at my door. It is good to try on different persona every now and then.

Because I spent so much time creating costumes I did not get a lot of quilt work done this week. Progress Report: Rounds

I am working on the quilting step of this work now. I decided to emphasize the stamped circles and quilted around them all first. I also filled in the rest of a circle if it was cut off in the stripping process. Now the quilting is reflective of those first actions. All the curves means I am moving very slowly because there is so much turning of the whole quilt as I stitch along. I like the rail drops on a pool like images I am creating using this technique.

Oak Leaves This work got some attention this week too. I made a bunch more leaves and trimed them out for application to the surface. The leaves are made of various shades of green Dupioni silk that is backed with green cotton. I draw the vanes out in thread and then free hand cut the leave shapes, all the time referring to the actual leaves that I picked up last week. I will pin them on the quilt and hand stitch them down this week. I seem to have lots more hand work than usual at the moment, but I enjoy that too.

Blue Yonder

This work is fully assembled now. I enjoyed the process and it did seem to change under my fingers as I worked on it. I have created a back and will do the assemble process soon. I am trying to clear things up from the pin wall so I can start on a new series of rock pieces.

Daily’s

The Daily’s changed this week. I did black circles and red rectangles this time. I also watched a video on embroidery stitches on Wed and have a whole head full of stitches to try. It is fun and a challenge- that is what I wanted so I feel very good about the process.

I hope you enjoy all the fun little visitors this evening.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Oak Leaves

Fall Color Oct 24, 2013

October 24, 2013 admin

Hello,

As this picture tells the color is still high here. I just keep enjoying it as I know a hard fall rain will rip the leaves away from the trees and expose the branches. I know that the world around me will open to much wider vistas whtn that happens, but I will miss the color.

I have put most of my efforts this week into the production of a Halloween costume for my grandson. It is some pirate character from a video game. There is not any commerical pattern of course. It has lots of layers-four- and lots of strage bits of leather harnesses and straps plus brass studs and rings. I even got to make some skull embellishments out of paper clay yesterday to make it more complete. I will let them dry one more day before I paint them and add that the surface. I guess he knows I am always up for a challenge. Progress Report: Oak Leaves It is hard for me to believe I started this in July at QBL. But with all the time I have spent of late looking at leaves it sure seems approiate. I have stitched down all the leaves I created last summer to the branch. I feel it looks a bit skimpy now so I will make more as I still have the bonded silk that I made the first ones from. On my walk today, I picked up four new leaves to use at patterns for the new creations. I felt a little sad as there were so many beautiful colored leaves and the oak ones are just brown. I still do love the shapes of them though. It also added a lot more quilting this week to this quilt.

Blue Horizons I started this work a few weeks ago. I spent a little time assembling this top on Sunday. It is coming along and I will soon have it completed.

Daily’s I am dutifully working away on my Daily’s. I did the fusing step on a new batch this week and tried a little twist. One of the new blocks is unique in the shapes. I hope that viewers can spot it. All the ones for the next few weeks will feature this change. I am having fun and that is the goal.

Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

Blooming Bacteria, Daily's, Gray Wall, Oak Leaves

Thursday October 17, 2013

October 17, 2013 admin

Hello,

Fall is in about in all its colorful beauty here in central New York. The yellow leaves have forsaken the trees to lay down a carpet of gold in many locations. That is not to say that all the leaves have fallen yet- there are still lots in the trees, but I so love to walk in the crunch that they provide this time of year. I just go a little crazy with my camera and shoot lots of pictures.

I have been busy with lots of play dates and a workshop this week. The workshop was last Friday eve and it was on curved piecing. I was trying to learn how to make very skinny lines with the cruves and I think I am getting closer to what I intended. I mostly selected colors for this experiment that are not my usual pallet. I go for the second class with Ruth White on Friday this week. It is about how to create wholes. I have done some of that on my own, but it is always valuable to get instructions I think.

I spent a play day with Susan on Monday and I played with my Gelli plate the whole time. It was great fun. Susan was experimenting with a new technique for creating stencils. Sadly she was not very successful and discovered mostly what did not work. Her work is on the top shelf and mine is the stuff on the bottom. We did enjoy making our commitment lists for the winter as she has departed for the south now and I will not see her for six mouths. I now have a mini goal to work for and she does as well.

I spend yesterday playing with Liz and Angela. The day was a handwork day and it was great too. Angela is the queen of stitches in my world. Both Liz and I looked at tons of books on the topic too. I have two luscious videos and several books to study now too. It is wonderful to have friends that are so very sharing. Liz did not even get her needles out, but Angela and I both did. She worked on her on going Tapa cloth Hawaiian embroidery block quilt. It is going to be a real stunner when she is done I am sure. Liz drew stitch pattern ideas in her journal. Angela taught us some new hand stitches and I now know the difference between a steam stitch and an outline stitch. ( that has to do with the side of the line that the thread endes up lying on.) She also taught us how to do a Colonel Knot. I worked on my Blooming Bacteria quilt. I also picked up my new thermo fax screens. I need to do the taping of the edges now and then find some time to start to print them. I am excited about that, but it willl need to stay on the back burner until later this fall.

Progress Report: Gray Wall I am very pleased with out

Gray Wall 38" X 36" $700.00 — Gray Wall
38″ X 36″
$700.00

this rock quilt has turned out. I love all the texture and the mix of fabric types that it contains. It really flows for me the way I remember the wall being. I enjoy the raw edges and all the free motion stitch work that is part of this quilt. The paint work adds to the lichen feel of the rock face for me as well.

Susan really helped me with the finishing of this work. Or it would be better to say she encouraged me to leave the raw edges and the exposed back of this work. There is no hiding of my processes in this piece.

Oak Leaves I have been doing handwork on this piece too. The limb is almost all stitched to the surface. I can see that I need to add more machine quilting to make it more stable now that the branch has added so much weight to the quilt. It is a learning process when one is trying new stuff.

Blooming Bacteria This quilt has been setting and waiting for attention for a while.(see Aug 16, 2013) I somehow lost most of the crouched circles I had created for it. I put them some place so safe that I cannot find them at all and that is frustrating. I have done a lot of cleaning in my search and the only conclusion I can come to now is that I mistakenly tossed them out. I took it to the handworks play day yesterday and added some of the circles that I had and started creating more. It will be a long process before this quilt is done.

Daily’s I am doing my Daily’s as I am now calling my hand work square projects. They are still fun and with the new stitches that Angela taught me I still can see more ways to play with the idea.

I hope everyone is enjoying the colors fall as much as I am.

Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

Oak Leaves, On the Road to Dry Falls

September 12, 2013 Fall Rains

September 12, 2013 admin

Hello, Today in my part of the world it is raining again. We need the water, but I am tired of the gloom that the gray skies seem to bring along too. It makes me want to take a nap. This photo is one I took on my way home on Tuesday after taking down the “Sticks and Stones” show. As you can see from the image it was gray that day too.

Progress Report: Pumpkin Lichens
I am not showing this work this week because I had a bit of a disaster with it . I though I had trimmed it all up and I was adding the sleeve when I realized that one side was a good inch longer than the other….. I have not done all the deconstruction that needs to happen before I can correct that mistake yet, but I will do so and show that next week.

On the Road to Dry Falls I made progress on this work this week. I am doing more of the tron and free motion stitch down work on this surface. I used this technique with the fused silk, some taffeta and some nylon netting. I like how it allowed for a feeling of shadow and texture.

Oak Leaves
I started this at Quilting by the Lake. The leaves are free floating and made with a top layer of silk and a bottom of cotton. I have been looking at it in this state for a few weeks now and it finally came to me that It needed a three dimensional limb too. So I pulled out some roving and frapped it with a dark patterned fabric. In this closeup you can see how the fabric is wrapping around and creating a new texture. There is a little of the roving showing at the bottom of this shot.

This second shot is of the full limb as it is now. I need to create a background and stitch the limb to it before I add the leaves.

I though I might add fused silk clouds to this work as well. I will at least create some clouds for myself in the fused silk workshop that I am teaching on Friday.

New Work
I am doing pure explorations with this new piece. I took a class with Valerie Goodwin at QBL in 2012 and she suggested we use all the different way we knew to attach fabric to the surface to add texture. I had not really applied this idea before but when I came across my class notes I though I would give it a try. So with this small piece I have used flip piecing, raw edge and hand stitching. The next process is to add paint….. I am having fun as I am not at all sure what I am doing and the class notes are not as complete as I had though. A year plus is a long time and one does forget details.

I hope fall is sending you visual joy and creative time.

Hugs

Carol

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

July 11, 2013 Summer Days

July 11, 2013 admin

Hello,

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

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

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

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

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

Sunny Crannies

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

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

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

Rounds

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

Eric’s Thoth

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

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

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

Green Nebula

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

Blooming Bacteria

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

I will look forward to posting again Aug 8.

Keep Creating

Carol

Before the Bud, Canyon De Chelly- Mummy Cave ruin, From the Pavement, Greek Butterflies, Landscapes, Machine Drawing, Mapping the Ruins, Natural Elements, Urbam Beauty

May 23 2013, Spring Walks

May 23, 2013 admin

Hello Friends,

I have been out doing my walking in the early morning to make sure I really follow through. It seems so easy to put it off and then get

involved in other things. So I was not walking in the afternoon at all. Much better to start the day with the walk and it will soon be hot in the afternoons as well. Anyway it has been a glorious feast for the nose of late. What with blooming Honeysuckle, Lilac and a beautiful Dog Wood to mention a few I have really enjoyed starting my days with a walk. I seem to be more aware of the world in the morning as well so I am very glad that I have made this switch.

Friday last week I went to the Turquoise Street Studio and meant with some of the gals from the painting class from the weekend before. Deb had gone back in and did additional work on this painting of limes. I really think it works. This picture is of a new painting Deb did based on the class work too. The class effected all of us. This next images is of Beth doing a value sketch in preparation for a new pastel. The teacher had suggested using a gray paper sketch book so one only needed to do the tonal work by drawing in black and white. Beth is doing just that. I did hand work as I seem to take longer to digest the Value idea into my work. Yesterday I went to Ethel’s house to spend a day playing with silk paper. This photo is of Ethel mixing dye in preparation to the silk. Pam was also there and she did some fine silk paper too It was great fun and I created four different new sheets to use. I went with an eye to make the paper for a specific task and the results were great.

The gold sheet and perhaps the cream one as well are destine for one of the canyon painted surfaces I painted last week. The blue and purple paper I created because I wanted to see if one could add bits of yarn to the surface too. I think it will work well in a meadow idea I have in my head. It is always so much fun to work with others I always feel like I get so much more from these events then I contribute to them.

Before the Bud 17" X 26" $110.00 — Before the Bud
17″ X 26″
$110.00

Progress Report: Before The Bud

This quilt is completed now. I really enjoyed doing all the free motion work here. The colors really work for me as well. With this quilt I am changing my policy a bit. I am adding the price of the work to the image. After reading a third article were a buyer stated that she did not like having to contact the artist to find out about the price of work I decided to include that info in the image. Selling my work in not my goal, but I need the space so I will gladly do so. Besides for me, the act of creating is the most important part of the process. The Problem solving if you will.

Excavating the Ruins 21.5" X 31" $168.00 — Excavating the Ruins
21.5″ X 31″
$168.00

Excavating the Ruins
I have enjoyed working on this project due to all the great textures. I really like all the wholes here and that contrast adds a lot of interest to my eye. The map in white organza is of one of the cliff dwellings in Canyon de Chelly National Monument. In looking over it I though it needed a little more punch so I added a little petroglyph form the canyon for further interest. I found this little figure very fascinating.

Greek Butterflies 17.5 " X 25" $ 105.00 — Greek Butterflies
17.5 ” X 25″
$ 105.00

Greek Butterflies
I am very happy with how this quilt finally resolved its self. The lesson on Value came to play here when I took a second look at the distribution of darks on the week end. I had to take out some of the piecing and insert some more dark near the bottom before I was happy with it. I also realized I need to add something to the light block in the center of the quilt. So I drew in a butterfly of my own using the photos as direction. I added color after I had out lined the image. I was concerned with how to quilt this work. I knew I wanted to out line the butterflies but had no idea beyond that. I toyed with the idea of making the rest of the quilting a reflective of that outline pattern, but was not sure. So I then it hung on the wall for several days before I saw a photo of moth trails in Pinterest. Then I knew that was what the quilting patterns should be. I find this quilt to be very up lifting and the quilting pattern adds to that idea in my mind.

Mummy Cave Ruins
This shot shows a possible layout for the additions that I am planning on adding to this painted top that I started last week. On the far left is some of the wonderful silk paper that I created yesterday. In my origional photo there is a wall of stone that is in the foreground and I wanted to capture that feeling to some what frame the ruins. Hanging on the right is some painted inner facing that I may add to make the rocks a bit more colorful. Again I have added the oil stick stencil drawings to this work surface. I need to do some free motion work on the parts I am sure of before I know what will go where and if the places where they are pinned at the moment is the final location for them. Make visual decisions – Visually.

Urban Beauty – From the Pavement I was doing hand work on this at the Turquoise Street Studio last week. I am enjoying building up textures on this surface. The base units are lutador that has been painted with Lumiar paints and the white is gesso. ( lutador is a type of spun ground cloth that can be found at some hardware stores this time of year) I then melted it a bit with the heat gun to melt and distort the surface. I have done free motion drawing and the hand stitching to add to the complexity of the surface. I am not sure of were the work is leading me so I hang it often an look at the progress to know what I want to do next. This makes the process very slow, but worth it I think.

New Work
This is an attempt at a new direction. Sense I seem to keep getting hit over the head with this Values idea( even read about it in a book this week) – I thought I better pay attention. So I designed a block ( Check the light blue section in the lower right) . I tried to keep light med and dark in the same area- and did three different size variations on the block – small ( lower write) a little bigger ( lower left- this one is also turned 45 degrees) and large( look at the turquoise section) This is all new territory for me when it comes to designing and I am not sure it will or does work at all. But I want to stay sharp and open to new “roads” so I will keep playing- the challenge is the thing.

Enjoy the wonders of the season.

Hugs

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Natural Elements

Vernal Equinox March 20, 2014

February 20, 2014

Open Studio November 21 , 2013

November 7, 2013

Halloween Oct 31, 2013

Fall Color Oct 24, 2013

Thursday October 17, 2013

September 12, 2013 Fall Rains

July 11, 2013 Summer Days

May 23 2013, Spring Walks

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer