Category Archives: ZAP

Amber Empress, Collage, Frozen, Glyph IV with Beads, Hand work, Series, Winter Apples, ZAP

Operation

 

IMG_0411Hello,

I had my operation for carpel tunnel on my left hand yesterday.   It went well and because I had the right wrist done 14 years ago I felt no fear.  The world of medical has  improved sense that first one  and it all seems to be smoother.   I can already do a few things that I know took a week to do last time.    Simple things like touch index finger to thumb.     The Doctor anticipated a smaller opening this time too- but because it is all wrapped up under the soft bandage I can not see that yet.   One Hopes for the best.

Progress Report :  Glyph IV
I did a lot of beading on this project this week and I am at the intersection of the O and L at this point.   I am pleased with how it is going.

.Frozen   I have started to applique the cording down to represent theIMG_0398frozen edges of the ice on this work.   Because I want the organza to only be connected to the base were the stones stick up through the ice, it is still free floating on top.

ZAP   I layered this work and started by stitching down all the text.   I have even begun the reflective quilting around the forms.   I am unsure about what way is up, so every time I hang it between work sessions, I try a different orientation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Joy I used the pattern that I showed in last weeks blog to create the shapes for this radial design.  It is based on the word JOY.  It is easiest to decipher when you look at the fourth of the pattern on the left.

Winter Apples This new work is based on a photo that I took last winter of snow on a crab apple tree.  IMG_0402

This is the shot.  I made a paper window and focused in on a smaller section.

IMG_0401This small section is what I decided to build the new work on.   I have selected a printed fabric that goes along with the theme and I have free motion quilted down the limbs I cut in wool.   I have made about twenty Satan apples  to hand applique down on top.   I used the double fabric method  to create the apples .   After I turn all the apples  I will applique them  and add steams.  I am still thinking about how to create the snow.     IMG_0403

Daily Practice  I have started with the second of my hand work daily pieces.    The fabric shapes are all cut-aways from other projects and all of them except the orange ones are fused to the background.

Collage 6

I am continuing to do the collage work.   Perhaps I need to start to think about adding titles to these pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amber Empress  This is my newest card for Susan’s challenge.

Happy Chinese New year.    It is the year of the Dog.

Keep Creating

Carol

Ethel Scarp #6, Exceptions, Glyph IV with Beads, ZAP, Zap It II

Rules

1 Comment

 

Hello,

As the wreath shows I am doing holiday work now.   I had a great time creating this wreath and it is festive, but it is too thick to fit between the door and the storm door!    I am so silly I did not even consider  that possibility.   It will have to hang inside some where.

I have been thinking a lot about rules and regulations lately.    I think those thoughts are  related to our recent  snow, because two rules     like alternate street side parking so the snowplows can do their work and  clearing the sidewalks are two seasonal things that have come up.    One tends to forget little items like those  rules  when there is not any snow.  So some rules usefulness come and go.     But rules in general are what makes for a smooth running society.     One can be still be  put into situations where they do not know what is expected of them and what to expect from others.   But in general rules of  self control  and kindness usually are good ones to use to go forward even in unusual  settings.   Expecting everyone around you to follow the rules of the road sure make moving around  a less hazardous activity.   But to every rule there are times when one must respond to the environments of that time and place.    One must be flexible and allow for changes and exceptions to rules at time too.

Progress Report: Christmas Banners   My good friend Regina gave me some beautiful machine embroidered blocks last month.   I had a good time putting them together in three small banners this week.   My daughter saw them before they were assembled and she really liked  them too and asked me for a set. IMG_0016       So now that they  in groups.  I will pass one onto  her and keep the smaller ones.   I already have spaces on my walls for these two for this season.IMG_0020

 

ZAP    This work is 37”w X 56”l.   I enjoyed doing all the hand applique of the bubble “IT’S”  on the top of the Zaps to break up the negative spaces here.  IMG_0026 The work is reflective quilted with the circles added as I went along.  IMG_0029

Zap It   This  rework project is almost done.    I decided that the quilt was ok- but nothing more then that.  So I added  the dark purple strips to spell out   “Zap it” on top.  Now  I have stitched over the dark purple lines sense  the rest of the work is quilted already.   I am still toying with the idea of adding more stitched lines in purple on top.IMG_0010  I think I need to set it aside for a while and then look again with fresh eyes in a week or two.

New workIMG_0022I pulled out the last pieces of work that I inherited from Ethel( the black stencil stuff and the  tree) and found some fabric to work with those pieces.   I will move onto it next.

IMG_0032Glyph IV   I keep beading away on this project.

Card    As the cards shows- rules are on my mind this week.

Keep Creating

Carol

Diva Meetings, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Flexibility, Pealing Oranges, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), ZAP, Zap It II

Event Filled Week

IMG_9961Hello,

This week had been one filled with events.  Last Friday  was busy as I took down the Finger Lakes Fiber Artist show a May Memorial.    Then  I went off to Oswego State University to Sharon Souva’s Graduate show.  It was wonderful.  She did a deep exploration  of four areas.   She took a photo.IMG_9945 This one is called”  Yellow Strip” and is a shot  of a part of the pavement.   She wrote a poem about each  subject.IMG_9947She then did a print of the subject.IMG_9946  This was followed by  a small rendering of the image in fabric before doing a full sized quilt on the topic.   I enjoyed seeing the progression.    Her other three topics where  IMG_9942grass growing out of a crack in the cement sidewalk.   This is the quilt.

A close up of a rock formation , this is  also  her  quilt solution.

Lastly , a quilt of  birch  bark with with lichens growing on it.   Her fabric interpretations are wonderful and inspiring.   I am so proud of her and admire the effort it took to go to school and see it to the end.

Then this wonder woman was a part of the Plow Shears craft show and sale on Sat and Sunday.   This is a shot of part of her boothIMG_9967 showing some of her landscape  fiber drawing sewing pieces.

On Sunday I went off to the Schweinfurth  to the  Finger Lakes Fiber  Artist meeting.   We talked about the Q=A= Q  show that is up and enjoyed hearing other members favorites and the why of those feelings.  At  2:00 we went up stairs   to enjoy   Bev’s trunk talk.    She was very kind with her full explanations about how she got to where she is now as well as her current process.IMG_9980It was a good  day.

Then on Tues I went off to QuEG’s and Diva meetings.   The holidays are keeping folks busy  so there was not much show and tell in either case.    Regina had finished her hand work on her circles and squares piece.  The base of this work is a piece of Shobori that she did. IMG_9989 Ruth shared   her cell work too.

  • Progress Report:   Peeling Orange    This work is 38” w X 41” l.   It is the last work that  I plant to use the Owl graffiti layout on.  It is not the  same pattern that I made in class.  I took the  idea and made it smaller to fit the orange hand dyed fabric that Regina gave to me.  There are cut-aways from other works in the series in this  piece too.   IMG_0013I am  now at the   point where I did not care if the viewer knows or can find the  the word  in the work any more.   I realized I have also become enchanted with  the little tails that sometimes end up sticking out along the edge .   I have cut them away many times- but decided I will keep some times on this work and some in the furture.IMG_0015

 

Zap It   I am now   doing the machine quilting and hand applique of the “It’s” on this quilt.     It is moving along nicely.

IMG_9995

Glyph IV

IMG_0004The beading goes forward on this piece.  I was so busy this week I did not get my hour in every day.   But I will keep aiming for that amount of time.

 

Zap It II  In my preparation for my own trunk show I looked at all my old pieces.   I ended up with a whole pile of not so strong work and was considering just passing it all off to other uses.  Then I remembered Ethel telling me  long ago that I made great backgrounds.   So I though perhaps I could use some of those weaker pieces as a background for the letter form explorations.     I liked one of  my line drawings of “Zap It” – so I used that  as the basis for the purple strips on the surface of this older work.   The next challenge is how I want to stitch these lines down on the surface.

Ethel’ Scarp   IMG_0006  I am ready to put together the scrap quilt now.  This is my back for this work .  It is also made from scraps.

Label Card Flexibility   When it came time to start a new card for this week I still had the “reuse” thoughts in my head  so being flexible seemed like the way to go this time.

Keep Creating

Carol

Coyote, Glyph IV with Beads, Glyph Series, Pealing Oranges, Raw Edge Applique, ZAP

Thanksgiving 2017

 

Hello-

I hope you enjoyed the holiday.  Our family went off to the Turning Stone Casino for the  big buffet.   We  all had a good time and over ate a bit I am sure.   I really liked this ice sculpture turkey.

IMG_9878 I went off to visit with Regina Tuesday and we had a good time talking and sharing ideas.  We always get so excited that very little work gets done- the the ideas really flow.  She kindly gave me a Christmas present in the form of a dozen Christmas blocks that I will enjoy putting together into a season piece.   She does wonderful machine work.  The more I know about that  process the more I respect folks who do it.   It requires a different set of skills than I possess.

I am working away preparing for a Trunk Show at the Schweinfurth Art Center on Sunday at 2:00.   Going through old work is exciting and stressful.    I am also seeing patterns in my subject choices and  I will use that idea to pull  the talk together.   I did sort out a whole pile of stuff to pass on while I was pulling work for the talk.  Now to organize it in a meaningful  arrangement.

 Progress Report: Peeling Orange  I am now doing reflective quilting on this work  and trying to decide what way is up.  I finished all the satin stitch applique on Monday.

 

 

 

 

 

ZAP  IMG_9866 In this work  the contrasting shapes are all appliqued down now.   I decided it  needs an “add on” so I made a new graffiti to add to it.

IMG_9871It   I cut a stencil for the word ” it” as I thought I could add it to the ZAP work.  I made a bunch yesterday and they are drying now.  IMG_9869I hope to cut them out and add them too the Zap top.    This is a  true visual decision that can only be made visually.

Scarf  I finished my new muffler last eve.  Then as usual, I found the lost one this morning when I was looking for gloves.  It is good to have a back up.

IMG_9881Glyph IV    The beading goes on.   I am working on the bottom of the” L” now.

Trickster Card  I was thinking about how the Native Americans often use the coyote as a trickster in their stories.   Folks really identify with a smaller clever animal in their fight for shrivel against  powerful odds.

Keep Creating

Carol

!7" Blocks- Ethel's scraps, Celebrate, Glyph IV with Beads, Glyph Series, Pealing Oranges, Raw Edge Applique, Scrap Happy Quilts, Whirlwind, ZAP

Open Studio Weekend

 

Hello,

This week I went off to an open studio week end at the Schweinfurth.  I worked in the wet studio with six other gals.   The first image is of the screen work I did on Sat.  I stared out doing Shobori with Liz.   We did four colors- orange, yellow, green and purple.IMG_9764   Everything worked well except the purple where I used a fabric that was only partly cotton and so it did not take the dye as well as I would have liked.     I still have a lot of fabric that is batching so there will be more next week.  IMG_9774Susan did some wonderful stuff as did Cheri.IMG_9770  Maureen worked on sox and other linens  she hopes to sell at the Plow Shears show  in early Dec.  Victoria did some nice work too.   We all had fun  and I came home exhausted.

Progress Report: Whirlwind This work is 30” w X 45” l.   It took several tries to get the edges strait on this one.    IMG_9829   I really like all the movement in this work.

Ethel’s Scrap   I continue to work away on this piece.  I finished row 5 yesterday and there are only nine so I am more than half done with this step.

 IMG_9814Zap  I had to remove the first applique as it caused a lot of ripples.   In doing the second two panels, I will add the inner facing and   tear away before I stitch to begin with- that will make the piece flatter and go a bit faster too.

Peeling Orange    I am zig-zagging the parts down on this one  and thinking about how I want to quilt it as I go.

Glyph IVIMG_9820I have been gone so much this week that I have not  done much work on this  project.   But I did put in a few hours and time is what it takes now.

 Card: Celebrate  As the holidays draw near I think about how important friends and family are to me and want to toast them with this card.

Enjoy Big Bird Day  everyone,

Carol

Diva Meetings, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Felt Work, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Glyph IV with Beads, Glyph Series, Pealing Oranges, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Share the credit, ZAP

Travel and such

Hello,IMG_9626

  •  I have had a busy two weeks.   It all started out with traveling and visiting museums .   Marty and I visited  six different ones on our trip to Maine and back.   With  shopping, a factory tour and visiting with friends it was all very exciting and stimulating- A very enjoyable experience.   But before I went away there was a three day workshop with Amanda McCavour.   She  is an expert on the use of various water soluble materials.  I learned a lot.  She has a show  of her life sized machine drawn rooms on display at the Schweinfurth  that will run from now until the first week end in Jan.   Most of the work we did in class was much smaller. This shot is of Cheri’s peacock feather. IMG_9633 I experimented  with   creating Fox Tail for use in one of my felted pieces.     Doing this workshop with fifteen others creative women made for lots of different and  exciting applications  to the use of this material.
  • The Quilts =Art= Quilts  2017 opened on Sat at the Schweinfurth too and so I went to the opening as I was already in the building.  This work is by Elizabeth Bush.  She won a Jurors Choice award as did  my friend, Julia.   IMG_9647This work by Emily was done by one of the other gals in Amanda’s class.  She came all the way fro California to be at the opening and to take the class.    It’s a strong show and I plan at least three more visits.

Then on Monday morning with the help of Cheri, Julia and Liz we hung a Finger Lakes Fiber Artist show at May Memorial Church  3800 Genesee St, in Syracuse.  This shot is of  a work by Sharon.  IMG_9658  These works show  two quilts  by Regina and a piece by Alice.     There was a Meet the Artist event on Sunday and that went well.   The contact at  May was very pleased.

  Marty and I  visited the Sherborn Museum  as one of our early stops on our trip to Maine.  We were blown away by the work of Patty Yoder who did wonderful hooked wall pieces.  She raised the sheep, sheared them, spun the wool and dyed it before she cut it into strips to create  beautiful and playful wall pieces with it.  IMG_9677  This is a close up of the eye of the sheep in the first photo.     There was lots of humor and  fun in  this  delightful show and we enjoyed it very much.

  • IMG_9695Our next  stop was the Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream factory.  We took the tour and had ice cream Sundays for lunch that day.    I  Loved their motto” If it’s not fun- why do it?”
  • IMG_9709 We went on to visit our friend  Elizabeth.  We enjoyed visiting her studio and talking about her work.  This shot is of a colorful basket full of the hats she makes to give away at Christmas.
  • IMG_9713  The next day we went on to Camden to visit with Barb and Steve.  Barb took us to Rockland and the Farnsworth museum.  We hurried through the Wythe art  works as we had seen them  before and went to a great show of wok by Marguerite Zorach.   No photos where allowed, but take my word for it – the works was fabulous.    The photos is of the black and white show, another temporary exhibit that was up in the museum.  We also visited  the  Center for Maine Contemporary Art.     The last museum we visited before we drove home  was  the Clark, where we saw the exhibit of Impressionist Line and  listened to the lecture on that subject.   I did not know that pastels were invented around the same time those artists were working.  Degas and Mary Cassatt sure used that new material.
  • Tuesday was the first one of November so I had both the QuEG’s meeting and the Diva meeting.   This quilt is by Liz and will be for sale at the Everson’s  Christmas Tree event.   IMG_9737 Angela continues to work away at her on line felting class.  I really like this piece.    Sally is busy with Christmas gifts for her grand daughtersIMG_9742and Sue Ellen is having fun doing cats.
  • The Divas had a good meeting as well.  Regina did a splendid job Finishing off her Garden Gate piece.  I love how she combined  a rubbing with a hand dyed to get this great look.IMG_9747Maureen is working with colored pencils and stitching on this piece.  Most folks had work in various stages of completing in preparation for the Thread of Change Show at the Unitarian Church in Ithaca  to open Dec 1.
  • The to round things out I had a FAB meeting yesterday.   Judy is working away on her red sweater again now that it is cold.  Nancy is making “post cards”  to attach to her quilt.     It has been a full two weeks.

IMG_9760

Progress Report:  Glyph IV  Because I was away not a lot of progress has been made here.  But I am working away to fill in the L with beads now.

Peeling Orange I have started zig –zagging down the  shapes on this project.   I am still thinking about how I want to quilt it.

IMG_9757Zap   I did start to applique the shapes down – but had to remove all I had done as it puckered up.  I purchased tear away and now I am ready to try again.

KnittingIMG_9763Winter cold has finally found us.  I could not find my muffler,   so I decided to knit one as I still have not focused on a evening hand project.

Felted work   I made this rock face a while back and thought that I would use the Fox  Tail from Amanda’s class on the surface.  But I think they are too close in value to get the effect I am shooting for.   So they will be a part of another project and I will work on a different idea for this piece.

IMG_9749 Label Card “ Share the credit.”  I have been thinking about how important  it is to work together for a big goal and value all the different things one brings to  projects.  I was trying to express that with this card.

Keep Creating

Carol

Creative Assistants, Ethel Scarp #6, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Glyph IV with Beads, Spring Whirl Wind, ZAP

Color every where

Hello-

I am enjoying the peak of fall color here.   The trees just seem to be burning with color.      I was hard pressed to choose a photos to use this time.

This week was a busy one.  There was a meeting of the Finger Lakes Fiber Artists on Sat.  I collected the quilts for the show I will be hanging for the group on Monday.

IMG_9542Marcia shared the new SAQA magazine and her work on a new jacket.    This is the small quilt  Pat shared with us.

IMG_9548Maureen is busy doing Indigo dyeing for her class with Jane Dunwald.    She is really mastering this technique.     Liz shared her projects form her class at the Barn.   She is learning  Shibori.   And  I am of  benefitting from this experience because we are doing more together.

Regina has been busy this month finishing things from her classes at QBL.    The triangles are from her class  with Rosalie Dace.     The quilt  at the top on the right is from Cynthia Corbin’s class.  IMG_9554   Noel is playing with different quilting and piecing techniques.   It was a very stimulating meeting with a varied group of creative gals.

IMG_9567We also  had a FAB meeting today.   Judy was working on a  baby quilt for her church.   We had our own little quilting bee as we tied it off before the end of the meeting.

 

Progress Report:Glyph IV  I am done with the beading on the W now.  That letter is the center so I feel like I have made progress.

 

IMG_9575Peeling Orange    I am to the point where I am zig –zagging down the  parts of this piece.   I will do all of this before I quilt it.

IMG_9581Spring Whirl Wind  ( Renamed from Tossed Salad as the blue does not work for salad. )      I am doing the line green with free motion quilting on this project.  I wanted to push the green back a bit.

New ScrapIMG_9574  I started building new blocks and pinning up possible layouts for the sixth quilt built from Ethel’s scrap box.    It may change as I have only made three rows of blocks and they are not connected.

Zap  I have cut the dark purple in  the ZAP  pattern.  I stitched the parts to the fabric and I even zig -zagged around the right one.  But it pulled and puckered up the fabric so much that I took all that stitching out and now there is inner facing on the back.  I will re do the zig zag before quilting.

Creative Assistants   Another new batch of silly little fellows.   I am working away during the football games.

 

Card- Some Days  This card is to celebrate having a day without any event.   Feeling a bit over done- I am going to plan some days like this in every week from now on.

I will be traveling next week so there will not be a post.  I will write all about it Nov. 9 .

Keep Crating until then.

Carol

Keep creating,

Creative Assistants, Pealing Oranges, Pond Water, Raw Edge Applique, Tossed Salad, ZAP

Indian Summer

 

Hello,

I am enjoying the wonderful weather.   I noticed this Paper Hornet’s nest on my  walk this week.  I am sure it had been there a long time but with the fall of some leaves it was revealed.

I spent a day playing with Liz this week and we did some Shobori .  I have never done any of that type of dyeing before and sense Liz was just home from a week at the Barn where that was what she was studying she was anxious to share.   IMG_9502    Before we meant she told me to make tucks in my fabric.  So I ironed this piece and sewed down all the ridges the ironing created.   We then wrapped the tucked pieces around  polls.  Liz then instructed me on how to do some free from wrapping without tucks.   IMG_9506    The polls were placed in a bucket with dye inside and we agitated them.   In an hour the job was done and we took the polls out and unwrapped them.   The fabric on the left is the one where I pressed diagonally( the upper photo) across the  fabric with the sewing machine.  The other piece is s strait tuck.IMG_9525  These are the two pieces that I did the random fold and rubber band wrapping on.   I love the effect and I have wrapped my polls for the next time we get together to do some more Shobori.

Progress Report:   Pond Water( curvy cut)  This quilt is 32 “w X 36” l.     I put this work in the curvy cut category because    the base is made from two pieces of fabric that where curvy cut and then spliced back together.  The last thing I did to the base was slice it vertically and then shuffle the order before sewing it back together. IMG_9519

The round purple units are from one of Grandmother Butter’s  hats.   This pieces  has  a lot of hand work on it and because I only put my needle to work on it after I was done with the label blocks it has taken a full year to complete.IMG_9521

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peeling Oranges    This is the last of the first glyph series  and  started with a few cut aways not used in other works and a smaller version of  the word “Owl” cut in orange.

Toss Salad   I am in the process of raw edge appliqueing down this work.  I am not sure what way is up yet either.  My mind is just starting to think about how I want to quilt this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Glyph  IV    The beading  goes on here.     After showing weeks of close ups this week I thought I would show a full shot of the sections beaded.  When I work for an hour I can fill in about an inch and a half square area.

 

 

  Card  – Resilience  IMG_9508  This is a shot of my card for this week.  I find it wonderful how the deciduous trees prepare for the  stresses of winger cold by shedding there leavers and retreating into their cores for the winter.

New Glyph Series- ZapIMG_9500  Now I am ready to begin a new glyph.   I wrote out a lot of words and did a bunch of trial drawings before choosing   ZAP.   Then I enlarged it and varied the width of the letters in some areas.   This word is enlarged to about 18″ square.  Now I am choosing fabric for the project.

Creative Assistants     Football season has begun and so has my work on these little fellows.   These guys are ready for paint embellishment and  pin backs.

Keep Creating

Carol