Category Archives: Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Daily's, Diva Meetings, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Continuing QBL Effects August 7, 2014

August 7, 2014 admin 2 Comments

Hello,

Summer is marching forward at an alarming pace. I am still feeling the effects of Quilting by the Lake as my buddies share their work from the classes they took.

This shot is of Linda’s project from Rosalie Dace’s class using Kandinski as inspiration. Liz was in that class too. They sure both have different works from the same workshop. Liz also did a hand works class . I really like her pieces from that as well. they were not the only ones who took classes.

Linda and Sally were both in Valerie Goodwins class the first week. One of the projects form that class was to make a sampler of the types of effects on could add to the surface to alter the look. This is Sally solution. They are both working on bigger works using some of these techniques now. Sue Ellen took a painting class where they learned how to create different effects with paint on fabric. These arr just a few of her many examples. They were wonderful.

Barbara is taking a class on line and she is learning how to cut through many layers of cloth to create a different type of effect. This work is in progress. She created the color change in the center section with extensive thread work and a little paint.

Lynn has finished a long time needlepoint piece. She says it has been so long in the making that she is not sure when she started- but it has been at least 10 years.

Corrine got a new stump doll for her home in Arizona.

Susan told us about her teaching and showed us her sampler of garlic paintings in this accordion book that she uses for presentation.

Liesa has been having lots of company this summer. She still managed to produce this great work about her concern for the melting ice poles.

She feels it is not menacing enough to produce the effect she is looking for.

I spent two days with Susan playing in her studio this week. One day was with her friend Linda. They played with Gelli plates. I worked on college and did cards. I was down to only two in my box. The second day I was with Susan, I experimented with writing tools on fabric and wrote quotations and drew pictures.

Progress report: Rafter Room This work is now ready to quilt. I have been making big pieced backs for years. At QBL , when Rosalie Dace was giving instructions about way to finish quilts she said,” Make the back interesting and relate it to the front with leftover pieces or similar colors. ” This is my back for the Rafter Room piece. It is nice to hear one’s ideas confirmed every once in a while.

Daily News Daily News is still a work in progress. I have about sixty of the units that still need backings. It takes about half and hour to add the velco to a square, stitch that to the finished front square, trim and then flip the unit right side out- then to finally stitch it closed to complete the process.

I took Daily News in its present state to the meetings I had this week and told the gals my story about the process. I then let them add the blocks for that day. It was fun and I got a lot of good feedback from that action.

The last image with the two squares on point were added by Liz when I showed the work at QuEGs. The velcor works on an angle and that adds a whole new way to go with the process. Friends sure can add to the wonder of each experience we have.

Let me know what you think of my blog by writing a comment.

Keep Creating

Carol

Baby Quilts, Daily's, Diva Meetings, New Iris, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Seeing July 3, 2014

July 3, 2014 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

As we head for the 4 of July celebrations I have been thinking about seeing. I read “We don’t see what we see. We see what we want to see.” by ALan Fletcher. My first response to this was surprize. But as I though about it I agreed. I then though- Oh this is not so true of artists- we pay more attention to what we see. Then to test myself I tried to visualize my walking shoes that I wear almost daily and recall how many holes were there for laces. Five I though with confince…. but when I checked there are six, although I only have my laces in five of the holes. So I drew them as my drawing exercise this morning. This will help me really “see” them I though. And that is true, I really did see them, but in the looking at the shoes I shut out all the things around the shoes. I would be quickly overwhelmed by the visuals if I did not do that editing and selecting of things in my world. In the end I have to agree with Mr Fletcher- we all are confinded by our choices of “what we want to see”.

This week was the first Tuesday of the month of July so I went to meetings. QuEGS meant and we all had lots to share. Liz is making progress on her memory quilt for her friend. All the blocks are made now and she will begin the final assembly soon.

Linda C. showed us her crazy quilt and amazed us by flipping up the work to show the paper and that showed the planning pages she had under the sewn squares. Several of us admitted we would not have planned out as much as she did, but would have let the process tell us what to do next. We all have different procedures we follow as we work. This work will be a stunner when it is complete. The good thing about seeing the processes of others does help us all of us to think more carefully about our own work and consider if we can improve by following the the examples around us.

Angela is still being influnced by her tip to Hawaii. She showed us several beautiful silk painted flower pictures this week.

Then I was off to my DIVA meeting. Cheri shared her “Miss Liberty” wall piece and her new lady lizard( in the for ground) She mixes fabric and yarn in her sculptures and I think that is a great idea.

Alice had her fabric books to show us. They are so delightful. I enjoy how she mixes commercial fabric images- the water lily- with her own hand painted materials- the turtle.

Ruth assembeled all the units she had created in the class she took last month. They do make a pleasing little collection I think. And what a great visual review of techniques to have on the studio wall so one does not forget about them.

Progress Report: New Iris I am happy to say this work is now complete. I took it to both meetings on Tue and asked for ideas on the beards for the iris. I had thought that purple was the color to use, but the others felt yellow or white would be better.

New Iris 28" X 22.5" — New Iris
28″ X 22.5″

I tried both colors before I settled on the yellow. The yellow sure does pop forward on the purple flowers and draw the eye. That is what contrasting colors are suppose to do, but I do not think of it most of the time while I am working.

I like the depth this quilt has – all the applique on top of what I once thought was a completed work, helps that idea. I will try to keep this more in mind in the furture too.

East Window This work is done now . I made this quilt to put over the window in the east bedroom in the winter. I used a special batting that has a foil liner in the center to reflect heat into the room and cold out. There is not a lot of quilting on this work. I only stitched in the seam lines( in the ditch) to connect the top and back. I would have done a lot more machine drawing on the surface if it was not for window use.

Baby Quilt This one got completed this week as well. I was surprised when I finished putting the last hem stitches in last even and realized I had finished off three this week. The bad news is I have no new beginnings.

I try to be practical with baby quilts and make them so they can be easily washed. I also add a sleeve so they can hang on the wall if the parents choose. This is the second child for this family so there are two bears, one for each child. The bigger one is helping the smaller bear and that is my way of saying that they should care for one another and the older one is a part of the process.

I like the simple outline applique technique that is easy to use with this style of quilting. It goes quickly when the layout of the parts is done. One only needs to think about the layers of the pieces so there are as few starts and stops as possible. Here I did the mane first, then the ear, then the body, and last I added the reins and the eye details.

Daily News I can now see that it will take a lot of time to finish this piece. It takes a seven min. to machine add the velcro spot, and stitch around the two units , leaving an opening. When I set down to do the hand work I trim the corners and turn the block right side out, before stitching it closed. I get between four and five of them done in an hour. I know I am working as fast as I feel comfortable with– but the process of finishing up seems a long way off at this point.

Please leave me a comet in the area provided at the bottom. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Diva Meetings, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Three Trees

Enjoying the Spring June 5, 2014

June 5, 2014 admin

Hello,

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 Diva 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 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 represent 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 looked 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 diagonal 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 and 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.

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 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 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.

The FAB group meant this week 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 project. I think this color run is great. It will be fun to use them in class later.

Patti is the owner 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.

I 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.

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 wool 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) 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

Daily's, Diva Meetings, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Green Grow the Grasses, Grove, Hand work, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Smoke

Spring! April 3, 2014

April 3, 2014 admin

Hello-

Spring is finally showing it’s self her in central New York. Three days in a row of blue sky and sun shine! Tue and I spotted this garden full of spring flowers and it made me smile every time I thought of it all day long. Hurry for the new season! This week has been so very full of stimulation I, hardly know were to start. At the FAB meeting Patti showed us two scarves she had knitted to send off to be given to runners at the end of the Boston Marathon this year. They both were so very soft that I am sure they will be welcome gifts. Victoria had been to a little workshop that Noel is giving. They are playing off the ideas of the necklaces that Mackenzie- Childs sells. The catalogue in the background was the inspiration, and Victoria really put her own spin on it I think. The when I went to the Diva meeting last evening I found that Noel was the gal who is leading this play. She is giving up her rented studio and cleaning as well as trying to create a new workshop for herself. Everyone in both groups loves the idea, myself included so she has agreed to open her space and try a variation with several more of us. I am looking forward to that play day.

The QuEG’s meeting was in morning on Tuesday and there was lots of inspiration there too. We got to meet in Sue Ellen’s studio, always an inspiration place all by its self. She ” wowed” us with six new works! Like all of us she has lots of fabric and these two pieces were created from her first dyeing experience over 15 years ago. She says she did them to try out different quilting patters on similar tops. I think she proved her point.

Then there is the wonderful on going work by Sally. She does such amazing stuff with her embrodery machine. The birds just blew me away all by them selves. Then all the unique nine patch blocks on top were just wonderful too. In addition to that she had a pack of about a dozen 6″ cards that used smaller images. Each card was different and where she used varigated gray black and white thread for this card, many of the cards used different threads for different sections. She pushed the idea further water color pencils to add more color to these small wonders. She gets sure gets miles of usage out of her machine.

Liz is playing with retro fabrics and antique blocks that are six inches on a side. The fabrics and patters sure play together well and are a delight to look at. The small size means it is not overwhelming- but it will sure take a lot of blocks to finish the piece.

Barb is working on this colorful work for her grandson. The dark blue is denim- just the wright thing for a young boy. She is just starting to quilt in the areas around the zig-zag lines- the white is chalk that will disappear when that job is done.

Then there was the Diva meeting on Tuesday evening to add further delight to the eye.

Anne is pushing forward trying unique quilting patters with the works she showed last month. I really like how the horizotal varigated thread seems to disappear in places on this work. Class projects are great places to play with new ideas and explore.

Alice had yet another new wall book to share with us. This one is called We Love the Water. The bid bird is one she hand painted on black fabric. The loon and flying Canada Goose are both from commercial fabrics. I find the way she mixes thous two ideas amazing. Most of the time putting these two things together just does not quite meet the mark- but she does it flawlessly.

Noel is working with thin strips now. All the brown units that are cut on the biases sure add to the challenge here. I like the limited values that she uses here.

She also had a second larger top in this same vain with kits in some of the diamond shapes.

Cheri finished the wonderful work she shared with two mouths ago. She has added a lot of hand work to her canvas painted quilt Fiddle Heads. I really like this work!

The last of the three Scarp Happy quilts was picked up on Friday. It went to the local Public Television Station for their spring auction. I also gave them a small wall quilt. I have done this for years as I so believe in public broadcasting.

Progress Report: Green Grow the Grasses This pale spring quilt is now complete.

Green Grow the Grasses 23" X 32" $260.00 — Green Grow the Grasses
23″ X 32″
$260.00

It too makes me smile as I recall the joy of creating the stamped areas as well as all the free motion flower and leaf forms I put on the surface of this one.

I really feel the sewing machine has become a drawing tool for me. That has only come with years of doing the process, but I want to encourage everyone to keep doing it until it is a natural act for you too.

Smoke

This work was also completed this week. More than once I thought that I was done, and I would hang the work on the pin wall at the end of the day. Then when I would look at it with fresh eyes in the morning I would see easly what else was needed- more hand work for the most part. I had never quilted through silk before I tried this project and learned a lot doing so. I really like how the needle glides through the surface of the project.

I cut up an silk scarf that I had created years ago and was not what I would call a success. All the dark and gray areas are a part of that project. I like the result here.

Grove I am still working on the insertion process. I only have one more tree to add the branches to and then I will start the stumps and setting. I may shuffle the parts I have created too. But I make those visual decisions by looking at the subject.

New Work This is the top half of the work I was considering cutting apart last week. It was not working as it was so I cut it. The black tree is just pinned in place. I did try several other placements before I settled on this one. Again the visual decisions was made visually. I have quilted in the ditch the background sections of this work and plan to free motion in the tree with additional limbs as needed.

Daily‘s I am working away on the these little fellows. I discovered one of the black circle and units from last month in the bottom of the tin where I keep the prepared squares. So I finished it too.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Diva Meetings, Golden Path, Maya's Tee Shirt quilt, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Tee Shirt Quilts

Snow February 6, 2014

February 6, 2014 admin

Hello,

It is a snowed like crazy yesterday and I just could not stay in doors. I had a good time waking in the deep snow. The going was slow as there was about 10 inches of new snow on the ground and it was falling very thick and fast. I walked a block from home and looked back- I could not see the house. I did enjoy the way the fire plug and several small pine trees seemed to be wearing pointed snow hats. I helped push a gal out of her driveway and the snow plow did pass by before I got home form my short walk. It is getting difficult to find joy in this long winter. But I console myself by remembering that this too will pass. The QuEGs group meant on Tuesday. There were only four of us but it was still a good time. Sally is doing some amazing stuff with her embroidery machine. She programed and stitched all of these bags herself. She said she wanted to test thread and needles. There was also a Diva meeting on Tuesday evening and again it was very stimulating. There is so much variety going on in the group it is hard to keep up. Cheri is exploring painting on canvas and really starting to make it her own thing now I think. She not only adds hand dyed fabric on top in a collage like process she is also doing lots of hand stitching on top too.

Lori is doing a wonderful job mixing machine work with hand embroidery on silk. This piece will be a real WOW when it is done. There are two folks exploring book making processes at the moment. Liese is working on a book with individual hand made fabric pages- she is not sure how it will go together at this point. Several pages are sun prints. One is marbaleized, and some are collaged. It is an engineering problem now. The other book worker is Alice. She is using an accordion book format for her works. One book is titled “We Love the Sky” and sun rise to moon rise are represented in her book as one continuing diorama . This image is of rain and storm followed by the rainbow. Her second work is titled ” We Love the Woods” and it too is in the diorama layout. I love how she mixes her painted parts with commercal fabrics and images. I find her trees really strong. Sandy is busy doing wonderful hooking projects. She has two works that are both landscapes that work as a set or stand alone. Her mix of sliced wool and yarn do wonderful things together is powerful. The work in small but this style works for her busy life at the moment. Anne went to a work shop in Vermont with Cynthia Corbin called Emerging Styles. She came home with a wonderful pile of great started projects. She discovered how important light is to her way of creating and that has pushed her into a new direction. I can hardly wait to see how this develops. Noel likes to use silk in her work and although this is an older piece it shows her wonderful handling of this some what difficult material. She does not fuse the silk to any thing either and that allows her to distort the material in the manner this shows. Ruth is still working away on her African symbols project. She is ready to begin quilting on this work now. I think it is very strong graphically. Needless to say I am all excited by all these wonderful works and ready to charge forward. I am so very fortuniate to belong to two powerful groups of creative folks.

Golden Path 29" X 30" $ 305.00 — Golden Path
29″ X 30″
$ 305.00

Progress Report: Golden Path This quilt really seemed to come together without much in put by me. I had all the stripped sections left over from another project and they were in the bottom of a box. When I came across the red, gold, and blue fabric last week it just seemed to pull the other fabrics with it. The big gold and white chunks of fabric are from the printing day I did a few weeks ago. I looked at the surface of this quilt a long time before I started quilting it. I decided to emphasize the square shapes in the center using a Greek Key pattern. I started quilting in the center making first one key and then another connected to the first using variegated yellow thread. I then stared outside the second squared area and built a second set of units. I continued to build until I had about a dozen keys and by then I had worked for an hour on the project. So I stopped. Before I began work the next day I looked critically at the work. It needed a bit of punch so I added a row of gold thread in an outline pattern all the way around all the created units. Thus the name – Golden Path- as it just leads one around the center units. I then switched back to the yellow and repeated the same procedure as the day before. I then added as second out line of gold and retuned to the yellow keys to the out side of the quilt. I am pleased with the results.

Rounding Up Green I am quilting away on this quilt now. I am using the same idea as I applied to Golden Path only I am using spirals. I create one and then from it I spiral out and create a smaller one next to the first and keep building the pattern out from the center of the work. I will not add a row of gold thread however. It is working without that addition.

Maya’s Tee Shirt Quilt I continue to work away on Maya’s quilt. I now have three rows completed. It is getting bit difficult to handle on the pin wall. I still have two rows to construct and then it will be time to start a back.

Scarp Happy I have been working on putting together scraps for about a mouth now. I decided to give myself a break for that and build a top out of the work. I cut the pieces into long 2.5″ widths and then added those pieces to 4.5″ centers. There are blocks with an Egyptian print center and blocks with a red print center . I am now ready to start creating rows for the top of this quilt.

New work-purple and pink I think the cold and whiteness of the weather is effecting my leaning toward spring colors at the moment. This one is just starting to come together. I am going to try to work in the 18″ X 24 ” format again. This is my first return to that format.

New work spring

I pulled out the fabric for this project yesterday during the storm in the morning. Again I think this is my attempt to think about spring instead of the cold all around me.

New work Foundations IX

This is a close up of the new work on the next Foundations piece. It too will be on a smaller format. All the green thread is unraveled silk thread from a woven section of fabric. The solid green and blue are silk papers.

Daily’s I do my Daily’s when I watch the news in the evening. I have been following that practice for a while now and my attitude about the news is much more mellow.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Diva Meetings, Flight, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Swallows, Transversing - Foundations #4

Dec 6, Holiday Happenings

December 5, 2013 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

Thanksgiving is really the beginning of holiday season for me. The QuEG’s group started the week off with a Holiday Potluck as a part of our meeting. We also added to the craziness by having a cookie exchange too. This first shot is of Liz and our hostess Linda with the gift that Liz brought her. We all were in top sprits and the food was great as were the cookies.

Friends always make my life full and this day was no exception. We did the ususal show and tell and there was lots of both. Linda started us off with her beautiful Baltimore album squares that she had unearthed when she moved. They show excellently exicuted hand applique’ work on this old project that she now feels she is ready to complete. She suggests that doing a UFO is a good way to get back into the creative process in her new space.

Angela was the next power house to show her work. She is framing her felted works now and they look wonderful. Her Hawaiian dased petrogliphits are wonderful. She is also experimenting with felting, hand stitching and dyeing. Sometimes in that orderis her order. She then goes back in and stitches even more .

I really like the color combinations she is using too. This work is also based on her petrogliphic series.

Sally continues to blow me away with her thread drawn Computer / Quilt work. She mixed and manipulated five different programs to create this holiday quilt. She also had some stunning little works that she had made into cards- her other specialty. What a gal!

I then went off to the Quilt Diva meeting the same evening. Alice was a busy this last mouth and she shared four finished and one work in progress. The work in this photo is called Guardians.

Ruth is continuing her work with on blocks that are based on Guyana symbols. This symbol is used to purmote Versatility, Intensity and Dynamism. She asked for ideas about how to quilt this work. What a strong graphic! I am impressed with her work.

Donna’s busy getting ready for her solo show. She is using found wood pieces and found objects as starting points for her new spirited figures series. She says she needs to make 27 by February. So she will be one busy gal to meet that self created challenge.

Elsie had been busy creating new bird blocks for Christmas. I enjoy her cardinals. They are so chipper and bright. They really make me smile.

After spending a day with all these intense creative folks all working in their own directions, I always go home with a mind full of new ideas and images from these two wonderful groups of gals.

Progress Report: Transversing Foundations #4 Because I am not a real fan of numbering art works I now have added to the title of this quilt. I added lots of machine drawing on this quilt this week and now feel it is complete. This morning I painted the back and so that is the image presented here. I will add the sleeve this week and the piece will be done. Using the bobbin thread colors as my guide I tried to paint in similare color and patters as the front. I know this is a lot difference, but it still works for me.

Foundations #5 I continue to work away on this piece. Everything here is quite fluid because so much work needs to be done on this piece before it is were I want it to be. I did try adding paper to the surface of this piece to get the color and effect I wanted. I will do almost anything for the sake of texture.

Flight: This quilt was called Swallows last week. I do not think that is accurate any more so I changed it. I am going to use that title on another piece where I used the swallow stencil on a more traditional piece. I worked on the quilting portion of this work this week. I am going to try to add some shadow(only machine drawn) swallows into the flight pattern to add interest and more texture. There is one small one drawn in the lower center of the flock at the moment. Can you find it?

New Swallows: Here is the new work that will carry the Swallows title from now on. I am still in the construction stage, but that is almost done. I find that I really like this stencil and may even do some more work with it.

Daily’s – This project continues. I have two more weeks of squares with red circles and black triangles to work with before I change the beginning lay out units.

The season is full of visual images and lots of action. Keep Creating.

Hugs

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

Diva Meetings, Idaho, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

June 21, 2013 Continuation

June 21, 2013 admin

Hello again,

This extra post is a continuation my saga for the last two weeks. This shot is of the sun set from Kay’s deck in Wenatchee Washington. I love how the light truned the rock to red.

I left off last time with the Iron Quilter experience. That was followed by the meeting of the QuEGs groop. Because of the play day on the Friday before the meeting was a big show and tell of what we had done. I followed that with a drive to Ithaca to meet with the Diva group. Ruth had been busy with her American Beauty/Clam shell quilt. All the ” blocks” are different and full of her love of color. She plans to keep the shape irregular and I think that is wonderful. Sandy wowed us with her newest hooked creation. She used strips of wool and she mixed yarn with them to create the colors she wanted for this landscape. Great solution to a color problem.

Liese created this quilt for the next show at Kendell. The theme is “Ship Ahoy.” She opted to commemorate her memory of being a Girl Scout leader. One of her favorite memories was of little wooden boats made by the girls with candles that they launched on the lake the final evening of their camping trip. It made many of us envious and we want to try it too. Annie created this spring growth piece. I like the show drift in the back with the green shoots so full of life in front. I hope it is completed for the fall show.

Susan, now back from her home in Florida, is finding inspiration from her garden. She is limiting her palet and mixing the colors she needs for her images. I think she is very successful with these leeks especially in this long format.

Idaho and Washington

I then flew out to visit with Marty. She and I spent a sunny afternoon discharging with bleach. It was specially exciting because we used hand dyed fabric so the colors from underneath were often a surprise. We tried using the fabric in wadded piles on the ground and some on the line. We felt we had more control of the results when we used the line method. Then the next day we dyed fabric. Marty was trying for browns and this shot of the tub looks like she was successful- but the dye was a bit old and it did not take well. I am still delighted by the stuff I came home with and look forward using it. This photo is of some of the new fabric pinned to the wall when I got home.

Rosalie Dace joined us on Saturday. We celebrated Marty’s Birthday on Sunday with a picnic on the deck. Marty made a great souffle that we all enjoyed. Then she opened her gifts. I love the socks sent to her by her daughter- so very operate for a quilter. They will keep her toes worm this winter.

Marty’s home, thanks mostly to her brother, is also a Bear Museum. This means there are bears everywhere a fact that is not without its hazards. Rosalie found that she had a bed mate when she went to her room. Bob,the big bear, was very accommodating and allowed her to rest her head on his abundant stomach.

We drove to Wentchee see Kay Hall and go to a lecture on geogely. Kay is a quilter with a love of texture like myself. She uses a lot of beading in her work as this great little piece shows. “The figure was in the dyed cloth,” she said. “All I had to do was embellish it.”

This shot is of Dry Falls National Monument. It looks so much different from my last visit do to the fact that the day was sunny and there was lots of rain this spring so it was very green.

I had a wonderful time on this visit. I have a whole new pack of pictures and tons of new ideas as well as fabric for new works.

Keep Inspired and Creating

Carol

Adventure Challenge 2013, Far Horizons, Landscapes, Purple Trees, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts

March 7, 2013 Meetings

March 7, 2013 admin

Hello Friends,

This week has been a very busy one for me. I have had an event of some sort every day this last week. That started out with QuEG’s play day were we all worked with Gelli plates.. ( From Gelli Arts)The smiles should indicate how much we all enjoyed the process. We worked and printed only on paper because we did not know what we were doing. The paint was flying onto the surfaces as we all explored the mixing and mark making fun of working this way. Linda explored with Saren Wrap and got some wonderful results that I want to try.I really liked working with the styrofoam plates and printing on top of collaged papers. I can see the potential for use on fabric as well. We all went home with stacks of paper with a wide variety of images on them. There is lots more exploitation necessary I think. Then I went off to Ethel’s and we did more discharge work and wax painting with her new jaunting tool.( at the bottom of the photo) On Friday I went off to the Turquoise Street Studio again and did even more stamping. My goal is to print with all the stamps I have created. I worked all day and I still have a bag full. I am sorting and tossing out some that are weak as I go along. I will need to spend another day at that at least- but I think I will not work on that when I go the next time. I want to do more Gelli play first.

Progress Report : Tropical Day Dreaming

I had a lot of fun laying out and assembling this bright quilt. This project uses the gessoed fabric like Gearing Up, except this time I made it all. The gesso is painted on turquoise felt with two different stencil patterns. I used the textured gesso on plain white fabric- again with a stencil and then painted the fabric with turquoise and blue paint. The textured gesso can be seen in the close up. I free motion quilted a tile pattern all over this quilt. I do not recommend the texture gesso however as the machine does not like stitching through it. I even tried a leather needle, but the thread kept breaking .

Another Choice

I challenged myself to use paper applique on this top. I had done some wax resist on paper and then dyed it. ( the white lines in loops were the wax and the blue is the dye.) I found I could not use the paper as I intended because it would not stick to any thing with the wax finish so it was shuffled around for at least four years.

When I was looking for paper to use with the Gelli printing it came to the top again. So I decided to use it. First I cut the wax covered paper into triangles. Then I zig-zagged them down to blue felt. I played with several layout locations, never really finding anything I was happy with. Finally on Sat I saw the cut away triangles from my last paper quilt and added them to the mix. I was satisfied. The size if the quilt holds the many parts and I am very pleased with the results.

Purple Trees This project continues to move forward ever so slowly. I would enjoy a row of days without any commitments- then I think it would come thought. But I do not see that in the near future so I will just have to limp along on this project.

Experiment: Far Horizons. This is an experiment as the heading suggests. I am still working with the wiggle cutting and trying to get it to lie flat. Now that I am at this point I want to make several vertical cuts and then rearrange the parts. I am not at all sure how this will work, but I saw a quilt that I think was created this way and I wanted to play with the idea.

Scrap Happy . I am still working away on the scrap happy quilt. This first shot show two rows that are ready to be sewn. The second show shows the same area open up.I only have three more ten block rows to add and the top will be assembled. After that point it usually takes me about four more hours to complete the quilt.

New Top This top is my newest beginning. No name yet but I am working on it. The commercial fabric with the strong strip pattern is the unifying part of this one. I silk screened the pale blue pattern on the white fabric with dye. I like the pattern but was disappointed by how pale the color turned out to be. I will screen some more fabric in a darker color in the future.

Color Challenge These fabrics will be the start of a new piece this week. I was reading an old article on color and one of the things the author was pushing was using analogous colors and then adding the compliment for punch. I realized that I had never consciously tried this color combination. I may still add some neutral to this mix, but for the most part this will be the color combo I think.

I am happily playing in the studio as much as I can and I hope the same for you.

Keep Creating

Carol

Diana, Paper Quilts, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Rusty Text, Text in Quilts, Trangle Show, Twilight Trees

January 10, 2013 Winter Work

January 10, 2013 admin

Hello,

I always love this time of year after all the wonderful joys of the holidays have become good memories and things seem to slow down and commitments diminish and I can really get some work done. That does not mean I am not busy- it just changes and I find I am more focused on what I want to accomplish. I started on that path with a play day with four friends.

We ( the QuEG’s – Quilt Exploration Group) got together in Angela’s new big studio and played. It was so much fun that we decided to repeat the play part for the next few mouths doing different projects each time. We will all be “teaching” a technique or leading in the exploration of a new material for the up coming days.

Angela, Liz, Corinne — Corinne, Liz and Angela showing a sample for the future

I enjoyed the silk screen printing with dye that we did in the morning and got some nice images. They are true to the color expected because Angela mixed up the dye that day. I do not have any idea where I will use these fabrics. I do know that I will eventually use them.

After lunch we made cards for a fellow creative friend who had fallen over the holidays and could not join the party.

The whole day was great fun and really got me going for this week.

Progress Report: Spiraling Out I am still quilting on this project. I have not done anything this large in a while and I had forgotten how very long the process can take. This shot is of the quilt under the needle at the top. It is fun to do the free motion work again.
Paper Quilt I am enjoying working on this project. I edged the openings and edges with a zig -zag stitch and knobby yarns. I keep trying different solutions to filling the wholes and different arrangements for the four units. This sort of play takes me much longer than I expect.

I did eliminate on of my attempts for filler so I feel like I am making some progress.

Lines in Fabric This is an exploration project. I talked last week about doing the DMC Quilt challenge. This shots shows I am still working – but the progress is slow. Marty told me that I needed to press each seam toward the outside ,cut the “line” fabric and then sew the next piece on. That way I can get narrower lines – and that is my goal. I have really not had an opportunity to do that yet. I will get to it I am sure.

Diana I am pleased with how this top came together yesterday afternoon. I added the gold embellishment to the fabric in a class two summers ago. It is the just the right touch of elegance for this work. This will be my last quilt for the Goddess Show. I plan to start the quilting tomorrow. I have got to get busy with the labels for that show next.

Rusty Text This is really a working title for this top. I needed to do a little creative work that did not include any pressure. It is also another bit of play with the Text stuff for a possible entry into that competition. I printed letters on inner facing and mixed that texture with silk. The silk was also printed on in the green stripes. When I showed it to Marty on Tue she was quit supportive about the work. I am still not sure about the direction I want to go with the quilting of this work, but there is not real pressure here as I have a mouth before it is due.

Enjoy the wonders of winter.

Keep Crating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Continuing QBL Effects August 7, 2014

Seeing July 3, 2014

Enjoying the Spring June 5, 2014

Spring! April 3, 2014

Snow February 6, 2014

Dec 6, Holiday Happenings

November 7, 2013

June 21, 2013 Continuation

March 7, 2013 Meetings

January 10, 2013 Winter Work

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer