Category Archives: QBL- Quilting By the Lake

QBL plus

 Hello,

It has been a busy three weeks sense I last wrote a message  with lots of events.   Summer is in full force here and  very beautiful.   I am looking forward to the Art, Garden and Sustainability  Trail that will be taking place in my nationhood this Sat.    More about that next week.

First I want to talk about Quilting by the Lake 2023.    This year, its 37th,  the event took place at Wells College in Arura NY.  The college is in a splendid  setting  on beautiful Cayuga Lake.   Several folks went swimming in the lake too. The campus has lots of gracious  old building and as it runs along the lake edge there are lots of ups and downs.

This is a shot of my dorm.  I was in the front corner room,  level one with two windows.  We spent several evenings on the balcony stitching during the week.

There was also a very large and comfortable parlor were we worked to put together a puzzle week two. It had 2,000 pieces and we did not complete the task, so I broth it home and I plan to bring it week one next year so we can get the whole thing done.   This shot is of Lori and Reggi early on in the process.

This is how far we got before we had to dismantle it for travel.

 

Week one I was in independent study with  a dozen other gals.

 

 

 

 

Nancy finished this top, a quilt and did some machine drawing of a Goldfinch.

 

 

 

 

 

Reggie, who specializes in picking up finished blocks  and making tops out of them, did five during the week.   This one is make up of Dear Jane  blocks.  One   of 4.5″ block had 49 hand pieced units in it.

 

These pineapple blocks were done by another gal in studio and they got completely assembled as a quilt top for her grandson.

 

 

Rachel Clark taught a coat making class in our building week one and also gave the opening lecture.  It was inspiring.

 

 

 

 

Week one ended with show and tell in the dinning room.

This is a shot of a few folks from Irene Rodrick’s class ” Dancing with the Wall. ”

I went home and did laundry before returning on Sunday for week 2 and my class with Amanda McCarver.

Our class was was working with wash away  and roving to create different effects.   We did lots of little experiments and I learned a lot.    I am sure I will apply what I have learned to my work in the future.    This  a shot of the Solvy sandwich  with roving, yarn and loose threads before machine work is applied.

Here are my works for the first three days.

 

 

More experiments.

 

 

 

 

 

We  also had a quilt show that was of work of the Finger Lakes Fiber Art’s group.     This shot is Victor’s Work  from the show.

There was an event every night that included a trip to the Schweinfurth to see the Nancy Crow show were she gave a lecture.  We visited a local farm were there was a talk on antique quilts  and both weeks had a night were we gathered around the fire pit and made  Smores.  This shot is of Davana enjoying hers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Liz  too.

We had good time and made some new friends and enjoyed our old friends too.

 

 

 

 

Week II of QBL completed with show and tell and the Apron Auction.

 

This shot is of Elsa and her Blue Bird.    She was in David Taylor’s class.

 

 

The Apron Auction was lots of fun with lots of silliness.    The money goes to the Scholarship Fund, a very worth while cause.

It was a bit sad to see it all end, but I enjoyed myself as did many others.

Tue was the Aug Diva meeting.

 

Most of the time was spent talking of how we will finish up the “Together We Rise Project.”   This is Lori’s entry.

 

 

 

 

Mary  reworked hers as she did not feel that the burbles read well.    I think the balloons do a great job.

 

 

 

 

 

Mary also had a great self directed project.  She is still working through some of the fabric’s she purchased when she traveled to Africa.

 

Her beading adds an extra layer of interest.

 

We visited the Rock Garden Art show at the Homer Art Center while we were there.       Terrie had four little cityscapes .  There were all fun.

 

Cheri had four more of her wonderful prints in the show too.     I really like what she is doing now.

 

 

 

 

 

I also had a Pixie meeting yesterday and enjoyed catching up with those folks.  Our new assignment is to do something with insects.  I need to finish my lettering for that too.   I did an L and an S    at  QBL that I plan to turn  them  into pillows this week .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Wild Fire in Whisky Hollow   This work is  35″ w  X35″ t.  I did this in indigent study at QBL.    I did the binding and  sleeve after I got home.     With this work I really wanted to show a green tree paired with one on fire.    I saw and image like this in my check in with the wild fires in Canada that week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the Fire  I was struck by the destruction  of the fires and what remains afterward , so I made this quilt as it is a part of the story too.   I think is needs more work so it is not completed yet.

 

 

 

 

Handwork   This is what I worked on during QBL while setting on the balcony of my dorm .   It is moving along.

 

 

 

 

Lap quilt #11    I finished this top before I went off to QBL.  That seems like a long time ago to me now.    On to the layering and quilting.

 

 

 

 

 

Scrap Happy    I assembled and quilted this quilt tis week in preparation for the local  Art, Garden and Sustainability  Trail on Sat.   I will  deliver it to one of the organizer this afternoon.

 

 

 

 

It has been a busy time , but I have enjoyed it all.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

 

 

 

July 2022

Hello,

Summer is always a busy time and this week was no exception.   We had a big family Birthday party picnic on Sat to celebrate the July birthdays and it was wonderful.   Everyone ate great food, enjoyed the weather and laughed a lot. What more can you ask for.  Then I went off to a play day in Varna on Sunday.   Spent the day with seven other folks exploring printing.  I did work on my Pondering piece.  I am so glad events like that are  opening again.  Then on Tuesday, Liz and I got together and dyed again.  That is always lots of fun. 

 

The Creative Strength Training class meant yesterday and it was a good discussion.    I also had a session with the Pixies on Wed too.

My other big news is, my friend David B is now the proud owner of Against the Wind.

This will be the last entry for July as I am off to Quilting by the Lake on Sunday for two weeks.

Progress Report: Pondering   

This top is all put together now.  My goal is to have  the tops of all three of the pieces of this set before I go off to QBL.

 

 

 

 

Contemplating   This is the third top.  I have only made a few of the units for this work.  It is pinned to a dark background so I can see how I want the placement of those parts.

 

 

Daily Practice Quilt  I am now quilting circles on the  quilt.   It is calming work.

 

 

Handwork    I keep adding to this work every evening.  It is nearing completion.

 

 

 

Life Line Drawing  After giving it some thought I decided not to add color to this work and I consider it done.   It was a good way for me to think about my life beyond the childhood work.

Enjoy Summer  and I will write again after Quilting by the Lake with lots of new stories and ideas I am sure.

Keep Creating

Carol

October Cooling

Hello,
There is a real feeling of fall now as it has turned quite cold around here. The hardy Zinnia are still doing well and we have not had a frost yet. But if is in the air. I did some house/studio cleaning too. It seems I need to get my “nest” in order for winter. I have eliminated three boxes and a bag of stuff to pass forward for others to use. It makes me feel good to do that sort of thing.
There seems to be another thing in the air too,  because three of the groups I meet with cancelled meetings this week. Two due to low audience.   Perhaps everyone is busy hankering down for fall and winter too.

Progress Report: Three Sea Horses This work is 22″w X 16″t. Noel talked of this method of laying down roving and then putting netting over the top so one could  machine stitch on it. I tried that method on this project. The sea horses are cut from felt so there are sharp edges and then I added roving on top too. I like this technique. It is very soft, but  I think I need to work on contrast more the next time I try it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two Trees The work is 18″ w X 18″ t. I started it in the Rock On Class With Cynthia Corbin at QBL this summer. This week I got busy and did machine drawing of two trees from a photo of them on Dad’d farm. It sure has the gray feeling I was having about the day.

 

 

 

 

 

Topographical I had a good time working away on this piece this week. I think two more hours of couching will complete the process. I feel there is lots of potential in this process and plan to explore it more in the future.

Past My Window- Autumn Leaves

I stared working away on this piece this week and it just seemed to take on a life of it’s own.     I started pinning the leaves I had created to supplement the ones I had made in Betty’s class on the final day.  Then I found a package of silk leaves that someone had passed my way and they just seemed to go together so I was off and pinning like a fool. It will take a long time to do all the free motion applique I think. But it is enjoyable for me.

Jumping Off Place        Angela gave me a packet called Through the Looking glass. It contained some great textured yarns and fabrics. I pulled it out yesterday and read the instructions. It is not my thing any more then it was Angel’s, but it turned out to be a good starting place. Only the organza, and little blue sequined square are from the kit. The rest I pulled from my collections. I will use the wonderful threads and supplement then with my own as the project was designed for a 12 “ square and I have gone way beyond that.

Coral Sea This work did not get much attention this week. But I did find some more felt that has misty fuse on it already so I am off and running again.

 

 

Wool Rounds I keep my hand in this project and finished three circles this week. My process is to fill in  one circle  at a  toime and every time when I finish with one stitch on a round, I have thread on the needle. I use that  thread  to do the blanket stitch on a new wool unit to tack it down. When all the units are tacked down I will move onto the next ring of stitches in the circles while still finishing off one fully.

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories Depot

My parents built their first house in Ainsworth Iowa. Mom saved the check for the lumber yard for the construction and it was $180. In thinking about the houses I lived in I realized that three of my childhood homes were built into hills with a walk in door at that level.  Two of the them had garages . The Ainsworth house faced south with a gully on the west side that slopped up to the high school where dad taught high school. When we lived there we  two trips to the train depot in town. One time it was to get a great big box that contained parts for a rocking chair with an  apple green plastic on it. I got to play in the box while dad did the assembly. That  process was mostly one of  adding the arms and legs. I love rocking in it . The second time we went to the depot, it was to pick up a shipment of 100 live baby chicks. We took them home and checked them before we drove the m to Grandmother Esters house. I remember setting next to the box in the dark in the back of the car listening to the little peeps. I think I fell asleep. Because my next memory of the chicks was in Grandmother’s basement behind a 2″x 12″ that made a short wall next to the corner furnace. They all ended up in the brooder house and later in the hen house. I’m sure I must have gather eggs from some of them in later years. and  had some of them for Sunday dinner too.

I hope everyone is enjoying fall and creating great work.

Carol

Cool Fall Weather

Sept 12

Hello,
Today is cool and rainy. A good day to do work.   Tomorrow is Friday the 13 and the moon will be full.  Be sure to check it out at those two things will not happen together again until  2048.

There was a QuEG’s meeting this week. It was good to see folks. Liz brought her project form the Silk class. It looks good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sue Ellen is finishing up projects and this is one.

 

 

Corrine was at the Red Thread workshop at Ghost Ranch.    This was one of her projects

 

 

 

 

This is one of the projects that Angel has just completed. She is taking an on line class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She also experimented with some direct eco printing.  These cards are the result.

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a Diva meeting this week.

Maureen shared her knowledge of Spoon Flower with Susan and the rest of us.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheri had new work to share too. This is one of her pieces from QBL.

 

 

 

 

 

Noel also had work from QBL to share with us.

Lots of nice hand work here.

 

 

 

 

Liesi  did some dyeing with her grandchildren this summer and she shared it with us.

Both meetings were lively and enjoyable.

 

 

 

 

Associated Artist is having its Members show this week. This is Barbara’s piece from that show.

 

 

 

 

This is my work at the show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Seven Feathers This quilt is 28″ w X 48″ l. I finished the reflective quilting this week. I am glad to have learned the processes that Betty Busby teaches.

 

I made the marbleized fabric at QBL about 30 years ago.  The batik is from the day we made it at Regina’s earlier this spring. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tee Shirt Quilt 2 I finished up this work yesterday too. I am glad to have completed the project. Now I need to get it to my daughter and onto the family.

 

 

Night Fires I have finished all the free motion work on the orange and yellow sections of this quilt. I want to add some hot spots with red. I think I will do the work on the dark parts of the forest first though.

 

 

Apples ans Chickadees    I have started to do the machine quilting on this project.

 

 

 

 

 

Coral Sea This is just the beginning of this project.  It has been  a long time sense I have done a sea floor piece and I thought I would like the stretch again.

 

 

 

 

New Project- old lace I need a hand work project for my trip to Chicago in Oct. So I am beginning by building this back ground.

 

 

Topographical   I am still couching down the blue yarn on the brown sections of this work.

 

 

 

 

Wool Rounds I have button whole stitch around all the wool circles but one. It is relaxing.

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories; The Bell Visit
When we were in the Tetons my aunt Marce and uncle Paul brought my cousin Russell out for a visit. Uncle Paul was a man who loved to play practical jokes. While they were visiting he spent one afternoon in the ranger station setting on the floor chipping out arrow heads. Then when he got home to the farm in Iowa he dropped them around the barn lot and had a good time rediscovering them when ever a sales man showed up.   After picking up an arrow head he would make   little disparaging statements like” Oh no another one” and preparing to toss it aside. The sales man always offered him money of the “find” from the “ old Indian encampment.”

The second day of their visit we went to visit Craters of the Moon. That meant a drive across the continental divide.  Gene, Russell and I were in the back section of the station wagon. The boys started daring one another to eat the play dough. I did not get into that. As we climbed higher and higher with all the switchbacks the two to them got sick- we had to stop the car and they both exited quickly and threw up over the side of the mountain. I never told anyone why they got ill. They were fine when we got to the park. I do remember that although we stayed mostly on the paths with our running and exploring, the sharp lava glass nearly shredded the soles of our shoes.   It was a good exhausting day.

Keep Creating

Carol

Full Summer

Hello,
It has been a quiet week here with a few events thrown in for spice.

 

 

 

 

I hung a dozen works at the Oaks for the on   Saturday .    Then on  Sunday I went to Marcia’s to Percilla’s Sale. The flowers are from Marcia’s garden.

I purchased a few Jackets and got this wonderful applique from Gautama that Percilla had purchased on one of her trips.    I love this little bat.

 

 

 

 

Tues was the QuEG’s meeting and folks had a lot to share. This is a work that Victoria made and gave to Susan.    They were working with hand  painted    silk organs.

 

 

 

They were in Micky Laure’s class and Susan purchased this piece at the scholarship auction by the teacher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Susan’s work from the class.

 

 

 

 

 

Corrine is off to Ghost Ranch for a workshop and she made these leather journals for her self and her daughter for that trip.

 

 

 

 

Sue Ellen did this commission of one of the lakes in the Adorancks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linda made this nice bed sized quilt at QBL . It is from a Jelly Roll with the dark blue added for contrast.

 

 

Angela is taking a class on line dealing with hand stitching.  This is one of nine squares she has done for one of the first three units  of this class.

 

 

They are only using strait stitches with different spacing and yarn thicknesses.   Here are two more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Fox in the Rocks This work is 27″ w

X 39.5″ t.    I started it in the  Rock On class with Cynthia Corbin  and finished it this week. I used some of the techniques from Betty Busby’s class to create the fox.  The painting and the use of colored pencil to create detail are from that class.

 

 

 

 

There are several more form this class that I am working on now too.

The cheese cloth texture  is some I painted earlier this spring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bee Blouse I loved this shirt but it had a bad spot on it and I thought I would save it by covering up the spot. I had purchased bee appliques from Amanda Mc Carver at QBL and thought to use them.

 

 

 

I though three bees were not enough so I made some myself and some lady bugs too.   The bees are on the shirt and the lady bugs were used  to cover a tear on my new blue jeans.   This shot is of the insects drying after I washed out the wash away.

 

Blue Jeans
They do the trick I’d say.

 

 

 

 

Feathers I made the fabric for the feathers in Betty’s class and she cut them out on her stencil machine. They are fused the fabric and I am building a quilt around them.

 

 

 

 

 

Old and New- Purple and Blue

I keep adding the new hand stitching to the blocks and I can see the end now. There are only four more blocks to do. It takes about 15 min to do each one so this project will be done with this phase by next week.

 

 

 

Beaded Bag I came across this old project while looking for a piece of fabric. I could not remember when I had started it, but I knew it was long ago so I started the neck unit. This little red tab is what an hour will do- so now I know why I put it aside.

 

 

 

Childhood Memories; Saturday’s in 6th grade.
My allowance when I was in 6th grade was $.75.         $.25 of that went into the Skippy Peanut Butter jar bank. That was saving for a $25.00 savings bond. The rest was for spending.
My best friend was Julie and her parents owned the local roller skating  rink. It cost $25 cents to get in and .25 for sake rental so that is what how I spent my allowance. I loved the Limbo and the Hokey Poky.         Julie was the first person I had meant with a birth defect. Her second finger did not have the last digit and she had a very small fingernail growing out the top of it. She was an excellent skater and the first Sat of every month she went off to  competitions.   So on the Saturdays when she was not at the rink I did not go rollerskating.    I went  instead to movies with Gene and Lee.    $ .25 admission and $.10 for popcorn. That allowed for a nickel for a  Slim Jim- a Camel Taffy on a stick that took the whole afternoon to consume. The remaining   dine   was spent for ice cream on the walk home from the theater. We saw a lot of old westerns and had a good time.  I had always blown my whole  spending  allowance by Saturday evening.

Keep Creating

Carol

Quilting by The Lake # 36

Hello
I am still feeling excited from two weeks at Quilting by the Lake. I enjoyed hanging the quilt show on the Friday before the opening. Sharon helped me with the Finger Lakes Fiber Artist part of the show .

This work is by Joan a part of that section of the show  and I’d say it’s a real beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

My Forest Fire quilt was well received too.
I did not really get to look closely at hanging time. I am glad I had two weeks to check all the great work out.

 

 

 

 

This work is by Barbara B.    She did a trunk show week two on Wed afternoon and showed lots of wonderful stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

I was in the Rock On class with Cynthia Corbin. She had to step in at the last min to replace Rosalie due to a visa problem at the boarder. I really learned a lot about myself in this class and sense I really love rocks it was a good fit for me.    The work on the left is by Liz and the work  on the right  is by Robin and I think they are both well done.

Show and Tell was fun on Monday. Susan, who I meant at QSDS was at QBL too and she shared this piece with everyone.

 

 

The Quilting by the Lake conference has been going on for 36 years. I have been attending for 35 of those years along with two other gals, Linda Salitrinski and Linda Hazelton. This year we were honored with aprons of our own.

Monday evening there was a lecture by Ellen Blalock, the artist in residence.    Her talk was powerful  and was a peek into the world of black life here in America .  This quilt  ( a close up) was about sexual abuse.

 

Week two I had class with Betty Busby. She is a real dynamo and had more to teach us then could fit into the week. There were one or two demos every day and four the first day.

Here she is demonstrating how to use oil sticks  to create volume.

 

 

 

 

 

We did work with natural plants objects one day and this is my piece using that technique.

 

 

 

 

 

She was very generous with her stencils and I took advantage of that as did most of the class.

I did enjoy learning how she used the cutting machine on interfacing. I designed these feathers to have cut out for me. She also cut three from her collection for me to use as well. They are the beginning of a new piece, of that I am sure.   The top two light blue feathers are mine design.

 

Betty  had a power point show every day after lunch and she shared her work and techniques with us then too. This is a shot of her diatoms quilt

 

 

 

  There was lots of activity  all the time in class.    Karen who was setting next to me did a lot of free paint work using circles.

 

 

Lynn who was setting behind me is working away in this shot and Gerry is next to her.   This shot is early in the week as that wall behind then filled with work  as the week went on. 

 

 

 

 

We all went home with arm loads of fabric that we had altered and lots of ideas for future  projects that hopefully will appear in the QBL quint show next year.

The last night both weeks there was show and tell. This is a shot of  Noel’s work from one of the other classes.

  There is also a raffle drawing for work folks can donate to raise money for the scholarship fund.  This is a quilt by Sally Davis donated for that purpose.

The was a apron auction both weeks too.  The aprons are created by the teachers and are  always a big success.

This is a shot of Amanda McCavour’s apron. I only have this great image because Noel purchased the apron and she showed it to me on Monday.  All the images on the apron are thread painted items that show off Amanda’s specialty.

 

 

 

 

 

Liz was in Micky Lauler’s class and when we got together on Monday all we really did it talk about all we learned. We both explored a bit more with the techniques we learned in class. This is Liz’s work showing one of the techniques she learned.

 

 

 

I  used one of the paint techniques I learned to paint these printed images.

 

 

Then today Liz and I went to Angela’s for a bit of Gelli play.  We were transferring  magazine images.  Angela was the most successful with that process, but we all had fun.

 

Progress Report: Three Stars and No Moon    This quilt I started in the Rock On class.   When I was nearing completion I realized it needed a focal point so I added  the petoglyphics .  Mari who was setting behind me asked if I was Native American. When I said “no”, she asked if I really wanted to hijack some other culture’s symbols.    I though about it  and decided to invent my own symbols and plan to do so from this point forward. 

 

These are my figures of a person  with three stars and a sun of my own designing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rock 2

This rock also was built in the Rock On class.  It too is a very nice background so I drew a fox to add on top of this surface.

 

 

 

I will enlarge the drawing to fit the base and paint a fox to integrate into this work.

 

 

 

 

Rock On 3    This is another project that I started in the class.   It is barely begun.

 

 

More Samples from Betty’s Class

I did these two drawings in Betty’s class to make with the pellon technique that was used with the feathers.   But they were now cut.  I will use them to make silk screens for use in my projects later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old and New- Purple and Blue  I keep working away on the hand outlining of the squares on this project.  I have 21 more squares to do.  It takes me about an hour to do four blocks so hopefully next week I will be done.

Knitting

I needed to do some different type of hand work so I started this circular scarf for winter.

 

 

 

Childhood Memories: Dress Up I spent may a happy day staying at Grandmother Ruth’s house. My Aunt Shirley was only 8 years older than I and the house was still set up for children’s enjoyment. Grandfather had built a grand play house for Aunt Marcaleen and Shirley when they were young.  Aunt Shirley kept it well stocked with lots of great old clothing from Grandmother’s and Great Aunt May’s cast offs. Cousin’s Kelly and Tracy and I had many a backyard teas and parades in the wonderful get-ups we put together there.

Hollyhock Dolls

One hot late summer afternoon Aunt Shirley showed Kelly, Tracy and myself how to make Hollyhock Dolls.   We used the old  Carrom Board as our dance floor and our imagined balls were quite grand with the many swirling colorful gals. Grandmothers flowers were never safe after that summer as we repeated the doll making many a time.

Hide and Seek Many times there were lots of grand kids at the Cocklin house.   I remember one time when we played “Hide and Seek”.   My brother Gene was it and I hid in the Paper Birch tree above the sand box  next to the hedge. He never thought to look up and finally had to call “ Ollie -ollie-oxen- all in free”.  Because the sandbox was in the backyard and base was in the front no one knew where I hid and  I never told anyone where I had hidden.   We were called into dinner shortly after that so my cousins never found out either.     Sometimes it was an advantage to be the oldest girl in that generation  who can keep a secret .

I continue to be excited by the information that I got in classes and I will keep working on the started items over the next few weeks and mounts.

Keep Creating

Carol

Prep Week

Hello,
This week has been a quiet one. I did go and dye with Liz on Monday. We had fun and I worked to create several fabrics that look like rocks for my class. The work  pictured is what Liz created. Most of my efforts this week have been in preparation for QBL that begins for me on Friday. That day I will help hang the quilt show at Onondaga Community Collage. Then all the action will begin on Sunday. There will not be any new posts until Aug 1 after QBL is over.

Progress Report: Old and New- Purple and Blue The rework of this project is very satisfying. I like how it is much flatter too.

 

 

 

 

 

Diminishing I work hard on this project to complete the car wash series before I encountered Rosalie Dace again at QBL. I am done with the quilting. I did free motion spirals in the circles and pebble quilting in the rest of the work. Then the back ground was zig -zag stitched. That was new for me but I like how it looks.

 

Wool Rounds I started this new hand work piece this week as I finished the last hand project. I am not sure where I am going with it but I am enjoying the process.

 

 

 

 

New Work I am ready to do another forest fire piece and so this is all basted for that purpose.

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories :Parade Win When I was in the second grade there was a local parade in Columbus Junction. Mom made a green and gold tutu for me and a matching one for my Tony doll. I was so proud to be allowed to march all the way downtown without my parents. I had earned a quarter from Mrs Fister and I was going  to spend it all by myself.  After the parade I went into the drug store to do my solo shopping and the Draggiest leaned over his counter to talk to me. He said “ Congratulations”. I asked for what and he told me I had won a prize in the parade for my costume. I was surprised as I was unaware there was a contest at all. He told me to go across the street to Roundies Grocery and pick up my prize. When the manager, Mr Roundy gave me the prize of $5.00 I was delighted. I thanked him and took the money and ran all the way home to tell Mon, totally forgetting my goal to spend a quarter.

Gingerbread Men At Christmas time one year, again in Columbus Junction, Mom and I made gingerbread men with raisin eyes and mouths. We took them to the “shut ins”  in the community and hung some with red ribbon from silver ropes in the windows. I was disappointed that I did not get to eat any, but Mom said when we took them down from the windows after Christmas I could eat them all. That was about a dozen. I was nullified. When we took down the tree the weekend after New years, I got my reward. Then came the disappointment- the gingerbread men were hard as rocks and we had to throw them out.

Keep Creating

Carol

Busy Week

 

Hello,

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

IMG_2189Pat  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.

IMG_2196  Bev is working in a much quieter pallet than Pat and Marcia.   I like the irregular   bottom edge too.

IMG_2197Sharon 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. IMG_2201 Julia is exploring in a new direction too.   I really like the text like shapes she is using.   IMG_2202Liz 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.

Corrinenes BookCorinne 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's catsSue 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.

Diva meeting  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.  IMG_2226   I am so enjoying doing thread painting that I can add on top of the felt.IMG_2227

Black Capped Chickadee  n the same vain as the Cedar Wax Wings,  I am doing a Chickadee.IMG_2213I built this background in felt.   I drew my birds and I have just started to do the free motion work here.IMG_2215

 IMG_2209Consider  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.

IMG_2205Experiments:   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.   IMG_2211  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.   IMG_2222I picked up some oak and Gingko leaves on that walk and IMG_2223I 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

Quilting by the Lake 2017

 

IMG_8688Hello,

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.

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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,IMG_8694 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.

IMG_8808There were four special shows within the quilt show at QBL this year.  One was five Dear Jane Quilts by Sharron.

Sharron's dear JaneShe talked about her journey with the development of this project one afternoon after class. IMG_8705  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 .  Cheri and Sharron  These two works are from that section.  The top Quilt is by Sharon Souva.  The bottom one is by Cheri Sheridan.     Liz's work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 and her lecture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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. IMG_8825She works with silks that she has hand dyed herself and that adds a wonderful layer of excitement to her work.

 

Sister Sew and SewSister 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.IMG_8744This 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.

IMG_8745This work is by Diane.   Her first work with all solids she tells me.   IMG_8763  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.Cynthia

 

IMG_8767Friday 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.

Wedge classOne 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 IMG_8774Fund.   This is Rosalie Dace with her “Chicken bag” .

Week two I had a class called “One Theme – Many Variations”  with Kerr Garbowski.   IMG_8884

We started each morning with some drawing.  This shot is of Cherri doing a blind contour.IMG_8810of 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. Cherri's wrok 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.  IMG_8852Cris and Ann were in front of me.  Both worked hard.  RobinRobin sat next to me again and did some strong work.

IMG_8850 Gerri really did some big works with her little screens.Liz 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 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 IMG_8977some of my fabrics from class.

Quilters are a divers group. One of my friends,IMG_8786.jpg Emily has done a lot of beading in the form of bracelets this year.  She shared them with us.  They are wonderful!

 

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

We played games based on carols.Christmas gang  We pulled  poppers.   We drank eggnog, we had a garb bag gift exchange and laughed a lot. IMG_8734 Sharron dressed in red and was our master of ceremonies.Sharron   It was great fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LindaThis shot is of Linda with one of the works she did in class.   IMG_8888 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 Cynthia sweetened the pop of her tote by adding some of her own hand dyed materials to the collection.IMG_8899  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.

Dancers My daughter’s company had a booth there too and this shot is of her and several of her fellow workers.  IMG_8929Wendy 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.IMG_8931This is the piece that Linda was working on in Independent Studio.

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

 

 

 

Sally's Light houseThis 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.IMG_8932This is another bit of jewelry  by my quilting friend Corrine.

The Diva gals had lots of wonderful work too. IMG_8944Lori 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Noel's work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Sally's piece

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

IMG_8960.jpg  Ruth is actively working away on her dinosaur track quilt.  These first layers are ready for the mud layer now. IMG_8953

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

SusanSusan 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

Owl 1The 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.IMG_8698Gliph 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.IMG_8737

 

Glyph IVAt this point I wondered about a size variation with the  glyph.   I did a shrink   and an enlargement.IMG_8740 I have not done any work with the smaller ones even though I have several ideas.

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

 

 

Label Blocks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

IMG_8900

QBL 2016 Plus

Hell,

So much has happened in the last weeks it is hard to know where to start. IMG_6051.jpg  Quilting by the lake was as wonderful as ever.  I helped hang the quilt show for QBL on the Friday before.            We started out with a empty  gym and over the course of the day filled it with beautiful quilts.   IMG_6052.jpg    This shot is of a special exhibit is of work by Debbie Heaps.  She did one of the little lectures about her work IMG_6090.jpgduring week one where she explained her process and philosophy  of quilting.  It was great.

 

 

 

I had a class with Carol Southerlund called in the Thick of It. IMG_6060.jpg  She is a strong teacher with lots to share.   The first day she sent us out at noon  to find images that we enjoyed.  I got hooked on the patterns and shapes in car tail lights. IMG_6078_thumb.jpg These images turned into the inspiration for our foam stamps.  We did them in both positive and negative.

 

 

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This is a shot of my work space on the third day.

 

 

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My good friend Regina was seated behind me.

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There was lots of work going on .  Carol showed us how she built her steamer to fix color in cloth on Thur eve.  IMG_6108_thumb.jpg

 

 

 

 

Masks

 

 

 

 

She also showed us how to discharge fabric.  This   is a shot of part of the class wearing out masks.  One can never be to careful when it comes to using chemicals in dyeing.

 

My friend Sharron worked in Independent  Studio.  IMG_6111.jpg This is her sixth summer of working on six Dear Jane Quilts.  She is doing the triangle boarder blocks now and she assures me that they will all be done by next summer.

 

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Friday Evenings at  QBL is show an tell form the classes were students hold up There work and   the teacher’s explain what they did.

 

IMG_6126.jpgRandy was in Valerie Goodwin’s class and did many little  works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are two other  parts to the final evening.  There is a raffle and my friend Ethel Whittamore gave me one of her unfinished quilt to put into this project.   I finished it and put it in the raffle as she requested.IMG_6146.jpg The money goes to the scholarship fund.   Sally Davis won the quilt.  She was an old friend of Ethel’s too so I am sure it went to a good home.

 

The teachers also altered bags that are then auctioned off to add more money to the scholarship fund.

 

It was a good week and I went home tired.  IMG_6140_thumb.jpgIMG_6141_thumb.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I unloaded my car with the dye stuff and packed it again for week two and my class on Pattern, Rhythem and Repetition with   Rosalie Dace.

IMG_6155.jpgLike week one there were lectures.   John Kubiniec talked on Monday and showed all the quilts that are in his new book Spin on Drunkards’s Path.    The book came out this week too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy Bailes also did a talk for us. IMG_6157.jpg She will be teaching her

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

techniques next year.  I am so happy for her.

 

 

Rosalie started us out with some paper work were we built our designs.  IMG_6158_thumb.jpg  She spent a lot  of time talking about value and I think I have a better understanding of it now.   This is a lay out on my desk of light , medium and dark values  that is considered for my piece.

IMG_6160_thumb.jpgThis shot is of my work space on day  two.

 

 

 

 

 

Again Regina was seated behind me.  This is  an early shot of her first piece in Rosalie’s class.IMG_6163.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name_thumb.jpgI got involved   with Graffiti again  in this class and did my name in two colors on different backgrounds.IMG_6164_thumb.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_6167.jpgI then sliced them up and reassembled them in this pattern.  It is all put together now and I am pondering how to quilt it.

 

 

 

 

At the  end of class we had a short critique.        John was in the class and this was his work for the week.

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Regina and I also  took down the  part of the quilt  show.  That process always make me feel sad.    IMG_6169.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is how it looked before we started.  In the end it was just a gym again.

 

Week two ended with the same pattern as week one.IMG_6174.jpg   Here is Debbie with her top and Jean Riley too.  IMG_6176.jpg

 

Again the teachers did bags and made more money for the Scholarship fund.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sat. morning I got up and went to Ithaca to take down the Diva 15 show. IMG_6181.jpg I had great help so it did not take long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are two of my woks that were in that show.

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Briar Patch was in it too.

 

I feel I am still recovering but I did go to both the QuIG’s  meeting and the Diva meeting on Tuesday.

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Noel was in Rosalie’s  Transparencies  class the first week   This is one of her works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lori started this work at QBL.   LOris-work.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lieass-work.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liesa  did this work for her living room wall.

 

Maureen is doing free motion machine work on her work now.  It is fun.Maureens.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susans.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susan shared her Bronte sister dolls with us.        The Diva group is so diverse that it is always exciting to see what  folks are doing.   I enjoy it very much.

IMG_6185.jpgLabel  Blocks #70 and 71     I did manage to keep at this project  and made progress.

 

Keep Creating

Carol