Category Archives: Textile Artist Stitch Club

100 day Challenge, Envision, Meandering Mind- Examine, Pixies Group, Presume, Textile Artist Stitch Club, Understanding Orange

Now February

Hello,

I am surprised that we are now in February.  January flew by in my eyes.   I came across a quote by Salvador Dali this week and it is haunting me.

Mistakes are almost always of a scared nature.

They sure do seem to stretch us and make us rethink what we are doing and how things are going.  I, like most folks, have made some “duzzies”.     My Father always called them learning opportunities and I guess looking at the quote in that light they are scared if you use them that way.  I sure know they have lead me down so strange pathways I am sure I would not have explored with out the errors.   Like the time I accidently cut a whole in a finished work.   It resulted in a whole series were I did wholes on purpose and I learned a lot.  It is something I am now rethinking.   Perhaps there may be some more wholly quilts in my future.

I continue to work away on the 100 day challenge for SAQA.  I  was sick for three days so I am a little behind but working to catch up.   I cut a Rooster as my next image for another  Chinese Zodiac symbol.

 

 

 

I did the printing the same as before with the new images on the left and the over printing on the right.

 

 

Next  I cut a Tiger.

 

 

 

 

   I mixed and orange just for the tiger here.   But it reads as red.

 

 

 

The  last thing  I cut  was an Ox for the series.   I plan to print it later today and  cut another creature for the group too.   That will make me caught up I think.

The pixies did meet this week and that is always an up lifting thing.

Progress Report: Presume   All the machine quilting is done on this now and I am ready to square and add a binding.   It will be done in the next day or two.   I learned that doing reflective quilting  creates bubbles in the surface of the quilt if you do not alternate the directions of the path ways with each trip around.   The pressing that out is not fun.

Envision  I finished the hand work on this on   Tue and started the free motion machine work yesterday.

 

 

Understanding Orange   I am almost done building units for this top.  I am still shuffling them around and will soon begin to assemble the units.

 

 

 

 

Textile Artists Stitch workshop  I stared this project in the free workshop a few weeks ago.  I am working slowly away on it  and like  the addition of some solids in it.

Stay safe and Keep Creating

Carol

 

 

100 day Challenge, Annalise, Blue Horizons, Creative Assistants, Creative Strength Training, Meandering Mind- Examine, Pixies Group, SAQA, Scrap Happy Quilts, Sisterhood of the Scissors, Textile Artist Stitch Club

End of 2022 Reflections

Hello,

It has been a full year for me.  I started the year by doing the Quilt Surface Design 100 Day challenge.    That resulted in the two black and white figurative quilts that both won awards.  One at the Associated Artist Show and the second is still hanging as a part of the Quilt=Art=Quilts show at the Schweinfurth until Jan 8.  I plan to do that challenge again this year and do it as printing.   I did a lot of hand work this year response to the Fiber Artist Stitch Club’s mini lessons.  I was distressed by the wild fires in the west and did two different  wild fire quilts this year.    I started Creative Strength Training in March and that proved to add lots of meetings and challenges to my creative life too.  I was glad to be a part of that.  We have  our final meeting on the year on Sat.

I continued my weekly meeting with the Pixies.  We discovered at our meeting on Wed that we have been getting together virtually sense Aug of 2020.   I completed my Childhood Memories series this year.  That was a prompt from Susan.

Happily Quilting by The Lake returned in the summer.  I had two great classes and I am glad to say it will meet again in July of 2023, but in a new location.

The Sisterhood of the Scissors had  their retreat in the fall  and I made three new tops in those five days.  I finished the last one this week.   I had a fine year and I resolve to pass forward some of my materials and  to be a bit more selective in what groups I join this year so I can spend more time in the studio.

 

Progress Report: Analise   This work is 30″ X 31″.   I did the top at the Sisterhood retreat and only finished the hand work on it this week.  I really liked playing with the complementary colors  and that sparked the monochromatic series that I am in the middle of now.

 

 

 

 

Michell’s Project   This little project is 26″ X26″ and is a commission for my friend Michele.   It is going to be framed so it is not a traditional quilting job.   It is made from the neckerchiefs that her dog wore when he was alive.  A  memorial project of sorts.

 

 

Forbidden Fruit    This is the first in the Monochromatic Series. That is a sub set of the Meandering Mind series.  One thing leads to another in my processes I guess.   I started the quilting this week.  I am doing all the hand work  at this point and extending the curves to see how they can interconnect and pull the work together.

 

Blue Horizons     This is the second in the Monochromatic Series.   I finished assembling the top yesterday.

 

 

 

 

New Work  In keeping with the series I pulled all my greens yesterday.  I hope to begin today on this one.

 

 

 

 

 

Creative Assistants  I wrote last week that I will make this my last tribe of Creative Assistants.   It will be a big one as this is the pile of started body bases and I plan to make them all before I stop building.

Scrap Assembly   I continue to strip together my scraps for my scarp happy quilts.  The baskets does not seem to diminish very fast even though  I try to put in and hour at that task every day.  I gave myself a break yesterday and cut the 2.5″ strips I use in the quilts for about half an hour and put a few together.

Do stay safe and keep Creating throughout  2023!

Carol

College Life, Consider, Creative Strength Training, Explorations, Hand work, Pixies Group, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Summer Season

Hello,

I hope everyone is enjoying the season.  I am just home from my daily walk and I enjoyed the sun, sky and the green world.   Our  block party was on the week end and it was great to reconnect with the folks who live around me.  Several folks know us by seeing us walking by.  This week was the end of the month and there were fewer meetings.  I did meet with the Pixies and Textile Artists Stitch club had a new assignment so I was still busy.    I did work on  both of the pieces that I started using the hand as the beginning.

This work,  Reaching Up  is       2535443543o  X 23432439u .  I need to finish stitching on the sleeve but that is all that remains for completion here.

The second one,  Reaching Out, is all stitched together and now needs a boarder and the rest of the finish work. 

I have enjoyed using wool as the primary element in these two works.

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Against the Wind

I have now layered and pin basted this work.  I hope to begin the “wind” quilting later today.

 

 Handwork Top     I have now assembled all the parts for this work and added boarders.  I need to do the pin basing and quilting on this one as well.

 

Consider  I started this work last week in response to Jane Dunnewold’s  challenge to do a work using complementary color combinations.  I mixed this idea with the exploration of the some of  suggested  piecing processes in Irene Roderick’s book “Improv Quilting. ”   I had fun and plan to to the other two complementary color combos and explore more of the suggested techniques.

New Daily Practice   I decided to challenge myself to do some hand work were I add unusual objects to the surface of some of the stained old family fabrics I have an abundance of .   This is painted and melted Tyveck with part of an old hat vail.

 

This is the last of my childhood series.  I think changing my name from Carol McElhinney, my birth name to Carol Boyer is a good marker for the end of childhood.  Susan challenged us to do this project in April of 2019 and all the other participants have long dropped away, but I am glad I did it.  There have been 162  entries.  It has been a good journey and I look forward to a new project that will engage me as much as this one has.

College Life – Wedding Day

June 7, 1969, finally arrived. I was more scared than excited. I was full of doubt, but Eric came up stairs and talked with me about my fears. I will admit I was ready to run away from the whole event, but he assured me that we would be fine and it would all work out. Then it was off to Brook Drive and my old home. The house was full of family all excitedly preparing for the church. The Dean boys seemed to be every where, helping with everything. It was my last time in my old bedroom as Carol McElhinney. That was my thought as I put on my gown. Carrying the veil, I got in the car with Mom, Dad, and Gene and we drove to the church. Kelly looked so cute in her white dress, with her new pixie hair cut and the little basket of flowers. Tracy, wearing a dress with a matching coat, was tending the wedding book at the door to the chapel. She was laughing as usual. I went into the prep room and Mom helped me with the veil and someone handed me the beautiful yellow flowers. Margaret and Ellie filed into the sanctuary followed by Kelly and Scott. Then I heard Larry’s beautiful voice singing “What is a Youth?” He was followed by the recorded entry music, Purcell’s Trumpet Voluntary, which Larry had selected. Dad took my arm and told me I looked beautiful as we walked down the aisle toward Eric, Dean, and Gene. I only had eyes for Eric and the beautiful green of the woods behind him.

It got quiet as Reverend O’Kelly started the service. Folks told me later that I was so quiet in my responses to his questions that they could not hear a thing. Eric did and that was the only thing that was important to me. It was time for the rings and Scott passed them to us. I jammed the ring on Eric’s finger when he presented it to me. “I pronounce you Husband and Wife.” We kissed each other, turned, the wedding march started, and we hurried down the isle out into the lobby. Eric dropped my hand and ran to the bathroom. I turned a little panicked to see Mom and Dad coming out and seeing me standing alone both had expressions of inquiry on their faces. That uncertainly did not last long as Eric re appeared. It seems he had stuck out his right hand and I had forced the ring onto the correct finger of the wrong. A little soap and things were fixed. “I hope its still official!” Eric said.

The rest of the reception, in the education hall of the church, was a blur of happy faces, hugs, and words of congratulation. Punch was served along with wedding cake, of course. Eric and I then opened some gifts. I don’t remember most of them, but I do recall being a little embarrassed by Eric’s joke about a cut silver waste basket and matching tissue box from Aunt Margaret. There were also red pots and pans that lasted years. Eric and I went off to the chapel for pictures and then we both changed for our trip north. Folks threw rice as we went to the car and drove away, heading to Holland, Michigan, for our weekend Honeymoon. I was excited, but I don’t recall too much except we went swimming in the hotel pool after dark one night. At one of the little shops in town, I did purchase a little pair of wooden shoes that I still have. Sunday and it was time to start for home. We took some back roads and had to make a stop just after crossing back into Indiana. There was a turtle crossing the road. We picked him up and took him to the side before continuing our journey home. Monday was the start of summer school for both of us, and the start of our life together. Reverend O’Kelly had told us to check with the court house to make sure the marriage licence got filed properly. We never did. “It’s our escape clause,” Eric said. The event must have been a good take, since fifty-three years, one child, two dogs, a bunch of cats, four moves, and several college degrees later, we’re still together.

I hope everyone continues to enjoy the season.

Keep playing

Carol

 

Bacteria Dreaming, College Life, Creative Strength Training, Hand work, Textile Artist Stitch Club

June 2022

Hello,

We are really feeling the warmth of summer this week.   I am working away in my studio as usual. Creative Strength Training offered a nice little challenge this week.  Kathy G asked for folks to contribute 6″ squares of empty bowls for her Cry of the Poor project.   I did two little pieces for her.

I am feeling much better about my project for Textile Artist Stitch Club now that I have done some real building up of the surface.   This project really reinforced my feelings of building work based on how it is looking as apposed to drawing it all out before hand.

 

 

Progress Report: Bacteria Dreaming   This project is 21″w X 30″h.   I actually had a dream about the colors for this work.    The base is linen that I was given to me by my friend Susan.

 

 

I hand dyed and printed the lighter fabric and then did hand stitching for the rest of the project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Against the Wind   I continue to build this work.  I love the process, but it is very slow.  All the birds are built now and I am only building the background.

College Life :Winter 1968-1969

On December 1, Eric proposed by asking me,“ When do you want to get married?” I was thrilled and we talked of several dates. He asked me to keep it a secret, since he could not afford a ring. He did have a plan, however. Grandmother Butter had made a deal with him that she would give him $1,000 if he did not smoke or drink until after he graduated from college. So he and Larry went to Indianapolis and persuaded her to give him the money early and then he went out and got a diamond for me. (The ring probably cost a tenth of that.) That was December 5, and I was so surprised and thrilled! We went directly to show off my “ Star of David,” as I called it, to my parents. Eric told me I floated to the front door. Mom and Dad were both pleased, too. Mom quickly went off to her desk where she pulled out a sealed envelope labeled “Prediction Letter.” It was dated August 25, 1967, and inside was a note in which she predicted that I would marry Eric in two years. My girl friends threw me a bridal shower with a white umbrella and pink flowers before the end of the month.

Eric was around for the first week of the winter term. Then he was off to South Bend and his student teaching. I worked hard on losing weight and was fairly successful that quarter. I did most of my social life with the gals in the house and put a lot of time in on my classes. One class was Ceramics II, in which learned to “throw” pots. To make a satisfactory pot and be able to fire any thing one had to throw a perfect ten-inch cylinder. When I thought I had achieved even walls and the ten inches, Dr. Reichel would test it by using a wire to cut the pot in half. If you passed, then you could throw pots to finish. I was not successful until the last week of the term. But I can still throw a perfect pot today. Art History III was my academic class, and I did the best that term as the art was more contemporary and I found that more to my liking. My physical education class was Judo. It was great fun. I still remember the teacher telling us to avoid physical action if possible and if one was attacked unexpectedly, that kicking your attacker in the shins always allowed one a chance to run away. Metal Sculpture was my last class. I enjoyed that class too. I got to be good friends with our model for the stretched lead project. Her boy friend purchased my work of her and that was my first art sale.

At the end of the term Eric and I went to our one and only live concert, a Glenn Yarbrough concert at Butler University in Indianapolis. I had most of his records and several of the poetry books that he read from, so I really enjoyed the evening.

Enjoy Summer and keep Creating

Carol

College Life, Creative Strength Training, Daily Practice, Textile Artist Stitch Club

May Workings

Hello,

I hope that you are enjoying the seasonal changes.  I continue to see changes in the natural world every day and that delights me.

I worked hard on my pieces for Textile Artist Stitch Club  and finished my owl.  I think I will find ways to roll the fabric to couch down in future works.

 I also continue to work on the Life Time Line that I am doing for Creative Strength Training.    Each day I add a little more and fill in the gaps too.

Progress Report:   Trees in Spring  I did the painting on the canvas a long time ago  and wanted to do a little machine drawing this week,

 

Burn Out   This work is moving forward.  The lower trees are stitched down now and I ready to  begin the actual fire part now.

 

 

 

 

New Work    I have now built a new base for some hand work.   I want to continue my play with the addition of stuff and stitches to the surface.

 

 

 

 

Daily Practice    I should finish this work this evening.  Then I only have one more base to do the hand work on and I will be ready to assemble the quilt top.

 

College Life- More Camp

All summer long there were special event s every week. I remember “Backwards Day,” where we started the day with dinner and campfire, followed by the free time and finally the classes. We had to wear our clothing backward, too. We celebrated Half Valentines Day and Christmas in July, and organized our silly version of the Olympics. There was a camp improvement day where there was lots of raking and painting to do. One week we had a camper/ Staff talent show. I sang along with Larry and Marcus. We did “Love Makes the World Go Round.” All the special events gave everyone things to look forward to and kept us involved. It was always fun. was lots of fooling around among the staff, too. One late night several other girls and I were heading back to our cabins when we heard lot of noise coming from the pool area. When we went to investigate we discovered a group of the boys skinny dipping. Suddenly, they all got quiet and stayed in the water. We teased them, of course, and dangled out feet in the water so they had to say in the pool even longer. One evening I joined Ellie, Margaret, and Susan so we could dye all the jocks that were hanging in the boys changing room purple. They got a surprise in the morning, but it only seemed to upset Jay, whose swim suit was whitet. One night someone tied a sweatshirt to the clapper on the dinner bell and that made for confusion at noon that day.

Every week all the councilors had a night off. I spent most of mine with Ellie, Margaret, Larry, and Marcus. Ellie would drive us all to Lafayette and the laundry-mat as our first stop. Purdue University is in West Lafayette, so there were lots of fun places to eat and we did explore the campus one night. I remember us doing our own little performance in the band shell on campus. One week we went to the movies to see “Rosemary’s Baby.” Marcus was a Black fellow and with a wonderful fun personality. One evening he and I went into a jewelry store and pretended to look at wedding rings. The other three stood outside laughing at the clerk’s reactions. We enjoyed being scandalous, so when we came upon a photo place Marcus pulled me in and we talked with that clerk about wedding pictures. Marcus found an album of baby pictures on the table and kept pointing out all the beautiful “brown tone” photos. Again we could hear the others out side howling with laughter. I do not remember much of the rest of the evening until we returned to the car to go back to camp. Under the windshield wiper was a note” You are not Welcome Nigger Lovers!” That put a real damper on the ride home and the next night off we went to South Bend and visited Eric and his family.

We also had time off from 10:00 on Saturdays to 1:00 on Sundays between sessions. One of those times Dad came and took Inis, Gene, and me back to Muncie. It was good to get to know her a little better, and Dad enjoyed her too. Dad took us all to dinner at Ponderosa and then to the County Fair. Inis really liked riding the Double Ferris Wheel and seeing all the 4H exhibits. We had a good time in the house of mirrors, too.

Eric came to camp on three of the weekends off. On his second visit, he drove Larry, Ellie, and me up and down the crazy back roads, hills, and ravines in that area. We had a silly time. Then he left for home and had an adventure all his own. As he was on the Route 31 by-pass around Kokomo, and approaching a bunch of cars stopped at a red light, his brakes failed–completely. (The handbrake in that green Lark station wagon never had worked.) There was a Mobil station on the right at the intersection. So, as he tells the story, Eric just aimed for the drive, bouncing over a curb, dodging the gas tanks, and creating a short cut to the side road, which was clear but sloping downhill. So he made another right turn, into the back lot of that station, and rolled slowly up to, and slightly into, a chain-link fence. Men from the station ran to see if the drunk driver had survived. They found the driver, of course, and also found a customer for their brake service. All Eric could think of were the twisty hills, roads, and ravines he and our gang had been driving through just hours earlier.

I will be away next week at a quilting retreat so there will be no post.  I look forward to seeing my friends and making new ones.

Keep Creating

Carol

College Life, Creative Strength Training, Daily Practice, Hand work, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Spring is Here

Hello,

We are finally enjoying true spring here in central New York.   I love how the leaves are so thin and translucent.   They are as delicate as the petals of blossoms this time of year.

I had a good week as Wendy and I went for a late Mother’s day walk on Tue.  I enjoy the woods at this time of year too.  We both took lots of photos and enjoyed the time together.

 The second event of this week was the Creative Strength Training Meeting.   I am working on my Life Line for that group and enjoying it.  I  Sort of jump around as I think of details I want to add, but my first 20 years are almost done. 

I did the lesson for Textile Artists Stitch club with Salky  eccced and I am happy with the start of my response to her technique of twisting  thin strips of fabric and free form stitching.

 

 

 

 Progress Report: New Fire  New fires in the west inspire me to do new work.   This is early but you can see were the main trees will go and the house aflame.     So sad.

 

 

 

 

Bacteria    It seems to be a week of new starts for me.  It the moon headed toward fullness?     I had a dream about a new work based on bacteria so I built a base to do the stitch work on.

 

 

 

 

Daily Practice   I finished one more of my bases as apart of my daily practice.   There are only two more awaiting my stiches and then I can begin to assemble the project.

 

Slow Stitch  

 

 

 

 

 

 

College Life – Camp II

After week one there was a two week session. This alternating pattern was the story for the rest of the summer. The beauty of the two week sessions was that the councilors could and did take the kids to out of camp excursions. On my first one I took my ten year olds to a sight that was on the edge of the camp property where we set up our own tents and learned a little more wood craft. We got the fire going and the girls wrapped the potatoes in foil and we added them. At this point I discovered we had a bit of a problem. I had asked for chicken for our dinner and when I unwrapped them, I discovered that Jay had just pulled the first thing he saw from the freezer in our pack. So we had chicken necks for our meat. We just re-wrapped them and ate the potatoes, carrots and S’mores for dinner. Needless to say, I gave Jay a piece of my mind when we got home and checked the meat myself for all my other camping trips. Week three the Camper population was down and I did not have a cabin. I worked as Ellie’s assistant instead. I learned a lot about the administration of the camp that week and had a new respect for her. She told me it was easier than organizing her sixth grade classroom. The second two-week session I got moved to cabin 16 with Jo Ann, my Jr. Councilor, and a bunch of 12 year olds. We went for a float trip like the one all the councilors took earlier. The big event for that trip was the second morning when we woke up to find we were sharing our meadow with a group of hogs. I had one camper who would not come out of her tent. So I ended up carrying her to the boats while the rest of us dismantled the camp sight. We did stop on an island on the second afternoon and had fun swimming and swinging out over the river on a big rope.

I continued in cabin 16 the rest of the summer, and for my second float trip we had a different experience. The first day was fine, but during the night it started to rain. We got up in the light rain and packed the boats and headed down river. The girls did sing a lot in the morning–songs like “Michael Row your Boat to Shore” and “My Favorite Things.” But as it rained and drizzled on us all that day, spirits fell. Everyone was soaked and miserable. We were portaging over a dam at about 5:30 and not looking forward to the setting up our tents in the rain, when the camp truck pulled into the parking lot. The girls broke into the “Hallelujah Chorus” at full throat. Jay had redeemed himself. When we got back to camp hot showers and dry clothing were our first priority. It was a subdued dinner in the dining hall for us, especially as the dinner hour was over, and then back to the dry cabin and straight to the bunks and sleep. My only other camper adventure happened when one of my campers fell out of the lower bunk in the middle of the night and broke her arm. It just so happened the nurse was not in camp that night, so I ended up riding in the ambulance with her all the way to Lafayette. Between her sobbing and the siren, my ears were a bit taxed when we got to the hospital. Her parents met us there. I do not recall what time or how I got back to camp, but I did.

Now I wrote faithfully to Eric every week. But when he sent my first letter back with all the spelling corrected I was a bit angry. I wrote to him that if he wanted any more mail that would have to stop. He kindly stopped correcting–or at least I didn’t know about it.

Keep Creating

Carol

100 day Challenge, Daily Practice, Diva Meetings, Drawing, Fiber Artist Stitch Club, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Lost Habitat, Pixies Group, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Textile Artist Stitch Club

March

Hello,

With the beginning of March life seems to be opening up a bit.  I have had lots of meetings on Zoom and the Diva’s even meant in person.    The QuEGs  and Pixies had their usual zoom events and I had a new Fiber Artist Stitch Club meeting.  Sharon Peoples  was our new instructor for that class and we are working on stitching photos graphic images.   I am not very far along on this project- but I am started.   One was to trace an image on tissue paper  and then stitch around it. That creates the outline of were there are color changes in the image.

I’m doing the little cross stitches to fill in the areas now.

I also started Creative Strength Training  with Jane Dunnwald  this week.   For that I did  a lesson with black and white  in response to a song.  The limited color really makes for a strong graphic.

There is lots of reading to do for this class too. So I am a busy camper with mental growth.

 

 

 

I did take time out one afternoon this week to do three little 6″ X6″ pieces for the Rochester Gallery for their annual fund raiser.   I could not believe it had been a year sense I did my last bunch .

Progress Report: Lap #7      This work has lots of my altered fabrics in it.  There  is  some  shobori  that   did  Liz two summers ago  as well as lots of printed and painted fabric.  It was a trip down memory lane to work on this one.

 

 

Lap #8    This project is a real out growth of  # 7  as these were the fabrics I did not use as central units in the first quilt.  I had so much fabric cut and stitched together for the surrounds that it seemed silly to just put them in the scrap basket.

 

 

Lost Habitat  This work is 44″ w X 33″t.     I am quite pleased with how this one finally come to completion.     It is my response  to the fires in Colorado last fall when 500+ homes were destroyed by wild fire.   Some folks  had so little time to evacuate that they did not even get there photos or computer backups.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed this working on this piece even though the topic is stressing.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Drawing This is a second Neo drawing  that  I did after watching a video on the subject.

 

 

 

Daily Practice This is the work I am doing during the news every nigh.  The colors do not look like Ukraine- but that is the main topic on the news.

 

 

 

Action  I keep stitching away on this project.   I will soon be close to the edges were  I can stitch with purples.

 

 

 

 

 

Beading  I did spend a little time in the bead box this week.   I am still using beads I got from Joyce in the fall,  but some of my own have slipped in too.

 

 

 

 

College Life:  Summer School 1967

Summer school at Ball State in 1967 was two five week sessions. I took Painting 1 and World Literature the first session. Both of my classes were in the morning and I rode my bicycle to campus so I had the freedom to come and go when I wanted. I can’t say that I remember much about the literature class except it was lots of reading as we did a book about every two days. The painting class was with Dr. Nickels, the head of the department. I enjoyed going to Christy Woods every day and finding a quiet place to paint plants and flowers in water color. I got B’s in both of my classes that quarter.

I did not have much social life as Margaret stayed away at school that summer too. I continued my work at the student center dinning service, so I did have spending money, but not much to spend it on. I think that my being a part of the Sailing Club and being a Captain kept me sane. I had lots of afternoon dates with my brother Gene to sail. We went about twice a week that summer. All that sailing led to a great connection with Dr. Kunkel for Gene. The two of them got to be real buddies and Dr. Kunkel often took Gene off to crew for him in races for that summer and several others summers too. There were several weekends where I went off and dove with the Scuba Club that summer. Now the fresh water lakes in Indiana are nice for swimming, and I enjoyed the water skiing as well–but visibility below the surface is four feet at best and not very exciting. I enjoyed the process but was not thrilled enough to purchase more equipment than a mask and flippers. Both items were lost at an outing at the end of the summer.

There was a wonderful summer program at Ball State called “Shoe String Theater” and the family took advantage of it. Dad and I went to all six production, but Mom and Gene were spotty. I saw Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Vagabond King to mention just a couple. I still love live theater and go often.

Summer school for the second session was Philosophy and an education major requirement, called Human Growth ad Development. I did well in Philosophy and got a B, but in Human Growth I was not so strong and got a C. Along with all of that, there were lots of cards and letters from Eric and a few from Larry.

I hope spring is on your door step,

Keep Creating

Carol

100 Day Challenge, Action, Child Dancer, Childhood Memories, College Life, Drawing, Lap Quilts, People, Pixies Group, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Winter work

1 Comment

Hello,

We are starting to thaw after the big snow storm we had last weekend.   Only the  meeting was the Pixies, so I got a lot done.

One of the things I did was  a Neurotrophic Drawing.  It is a style with a series of steps that allows one to relax.  I did enjoy it and will do it again some time.

There was an additional assignment from the Textile  Artist Stitch Club from Monique Day.   She instructed us on how to make a plastic sandwich and how to cut more sequins from our sheets.

This in my stitchery with one new sequin pinned on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Overwhelmed  This piece is 32″ w X 40″ l.   I cut up scraps, bits of trim, ribbon and yarn and scattered them across the base .  Then I layered nylon netting on top and stitched the sandwich together.  Last I added the figure that I cut from wool I had washed several times.

 

 

 

Lap Quilt #5  I used lots of fabrics that I had altered in this lap quilt.   I am enjoying the play making these projects  offer me.

 

 

 

 

Action  I am doing the hand work on the figures now. The progress is very slow, but very calming.

 

 

 

Child Dancer  This idea came from a Paul Klee painting that caught my eye as I was flipping through an Art History book looking for a Monet image.   I then had a dream about is so I though I would try to capture that feeling.    I zig-zagged over yarn to create the out lines.

 

 

I am still playing catch up with my Memories so there will be two this week as well.

College Life- Start of Spring Quarter 1967

Over the break between winter and spring quarter, I did a little connecting with my old high school world. I went to see Musical Moods, an event that I had participated in all three years in high school. After the performance I talked with Don Jones and friend Sara Loe. She had been my band partner and played next to me, and she was looking for a friend to double date with her. I agreed to go on a blind date to spend a day spelunking in central Indiana. I did have a good time and, since it was a rainy day, spending it under ground was a good choice. We were the only four folks in that cave that day and we just explored. There were places where we had to crawl on our stomachs and some very narrow ones where we went forward in a vertical position. We all were quite muddy when we emerged, and I was glad it was not my car that we were driving home. I also spent a day scuba diving during that vacation. I enjoyed getting together with those folks, and I even helped Mike and Phil teach several scuba lessons at the YMCA that spring.
My classes for spring quarter really focused on Art. I had realized in the middle of the winter term that I really was not a strong enough artist to make a living doing art, so I had accepted the idea that I would go into teaching. I had Ceramics, Design , and Introduction to Art Teaching that quarter. The other two classes I had were English and Swimming. They did keep me busy.
On Wednesday of the first week back, I went to the Artist Series on campus at Emens to see Generations with Hans Conried. My seat was 101 in row L, and I was very happy with my view. I had taken care of my own wishes and gotten my seat the first day they were available. Friday of that first week Eric and I had our first real date. We went along with Larry and Nancy, a girl he “kidnaped” by asking her at the last minute when she could not say “No,” to see A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. We all laughed a lot and enjoyed it. That is still one of my favorite movies. On Sunday of that same weekend Eric and I went to see the Ingmar Bergman film Virgin Spring at the Foreign Film weekly presentation. For me that film raised lots of questions as I identified closely with the main character. I was both excited and scared at how much I liked Eric, yet I was concerned at how quickly we had become exclusive.
We had lots of dates over the next few weeks. One Saturday we decided to go for a picnic at Dixon Mounds. Eric, Larry and I walked the trials and looked at the mounds and then tried to fly a kite that I had put in the trunk at the last minute. That was not very successful, but we did have a silly time. We also had my parents badminton set, and that was the start of an activity that we played for years. Larry started the fire and we all enjoyed his hotdogs, too. We had lots of “Coke dates” and talked a lot. On another Saturday I took Eric canoeing on the Mississinewa River. The water was high, and we worked really hard on our trip up river. We did not reach our goal, but the trip back down was fun. I remember coming home exhausted. Larry, Eric, and I took off on the Thursday just before Spring Break and drove to Indianapolis to check out the 500 time trials that afternoon.
Back in Muncie, Larry and Eric opted to stay at Barney’s and not go home for the spring break. Instead, they went to work for Manpower, a company that sent people out on hourly jobs. I know one of the days that week, they spent throwing rocks into the reservoir to rebuild the jetty near the harbor where the sailing club had its boats. I on the other hand went with my family on a trip south and east.

College Life- Spring Break Plus

The spring quarter break that year we went south to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Gene had a new pup tent that we tried out the first night we arrived. Sleeping on the ground in March was quite cold! We took the full day cave tour the next day. It sure was a different experience from the explorative spelunking I had done earlier that spring. The guide was very informative. There were beautifully lit wonderful flowing formations as well as lots of dry areas in the cave. We went for a ride on an underground river and had lunch in a huge open area where we sat at picnic tables and ate bag lunches. The guide asked us to all be quiet and he turned off the lights. It was so dark! I have never “seen” so much darkness. One felt like the only person in a colorless nothing until he turned the lights up slowly again.

That night I slept back in the car top carrier and was much more comfortable. We spent the next day hiking and enjoying the park. I liked the spring flowers and had my first real experience with Rhododendrons. I still love that plant. The next day we drive mostly east and ended up at Myrtle Beach. That was great fun as we had a section of the beach all to ourselves. Gene and I spent the day canoe surfing. We would paddle out and then turn the boat back toward the shore and wait for a big wave. Then we tried to ride the wave into the shore. We got dumped out many times but still had a fun day. I remember the full moon rising over the Atlantic ocean that night and how it looked behind the palm trees. It was glorious to fall asleep to the sound of those leaves clattering against one another and the sound of the water crashing against the shore. I remember seeing a sign for a Black Beach on our way to our camp ground and pressed Dad to go there the next day. When I told him I wanted to see the black sand, he sadly told me the beach was a part of segregation and it was for Black people. I was so very naive.

Then it was back to school and back to classes. One of my classes was Ceramics 1. It was all hand work and an introduction to mixing and making one’s own glazes. One thing we had to get going on at the beginning of the quarter was finding and working on a natural clay project. As it turned out, the college was building a new Science building just to the west of the art building where there was lots of exposed raw earth. So that is where I got my clay. It had been drying out during the break, and I came back to class to break it down, sift it, remoisten the powder, kneed it and began building work with that clay. Mine was a wonderful yellow clay and I built three coil pots with it. One pot blew up in the first firing , but the other two did not. Mom had the finished works around for years.

On Tuesday of the first week back from spring break the Sailing Club had a picnic and boat launch. I asked Eric to go along with me and he did. We all had fun putting the boats back in the water for the new season and many of us got wet feet. We ate hot dogs that we all roasted over the open fire and generally enjoyed ourselves. Then we played flag football. It was mostly a game of chase, but fun. I unexpectedly intercepted the football and got a bit terrorized when everyone suddenly turned in my direction to pull my flags. I had a new respect for actual football players after that event.

Stay safe and enjoy Valentines Day

Carol

Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Sisterhood of the Scissors, Textile Artist Stitch Club, Uncategorized

Getting Green

Hello,
I hope everyone’s holiday was pleasant. We are really starting to feel like spring as the greening up of the world gets going here. Ones views are being cut back too as the leaves grow and fill in all the possible openings  of long distances and grow  to collect light for Photosynthesis.
I had several zoom meetings this week. tThe  QuEG’s, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists,   Sisterhood of the Scissors  and  the Pixies meant. There was an assignment for the Pixies from last week and that was to make ones own brushes. These are mine.  All have chopsticks for handles and yarn, fur, and rubber bands for the brussels. I will try them all out this week.

 

 

 

I finally finished my Coral Sea piece for the Textile Artist Stitch Club. It is 14.5″ X 13″. There is a felted base that I stitched the various beading, and sequin  techniques on top of it.   I am quit happy with the work.

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: 10″ X 10″ s   These works are  for the Quilt Consortium.     I have been working on these 10 X 10 inch works to go for their fundraiser. This week I put sleeves on them and added the labels so they are ready to ship. They will be sold for $10.00 at the show later this year.
Camels Today

 

 

 

 

 

Plant Play

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dragonfly Days

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exploration

 

 

 

 

 

Lemon Aid

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coral Reef II I actually started this work before the one I did with Textile Artists. Completing that project pushed me to work again on this one. I am trying more unique materials as a result of the doing the first one. The green plants for example are cut from a bit of Christmas ribbon.

 

Crows I printed more crows and I have now pulled fabric for the beginning of the assemble of the project.

 

 

Lap Quilt X I just keep doing these fun little explorations. This one has lots of my altered fabrics in it.

 

 

 

 

 

Daily  Practice   I continue to enjoy doing this work every evening and the piece keeps filling up.

 

 

 

Childhood Memories High Finance
I started serious baby sitting after we moved to Muncie. My first job was across the street with Steve Ballow. He was the same age as Gene and Dad worked with his Mom, so we did know them. That job lead to other jobs with faculty members. By the third year I had so much work that Gene was pressed into service too. I lost several costumers to “ The Gentle Giant”, as he was called, because he had a big growth spurt in 8 grade. In early Sept of 1963 Dad pulled me into the den for a big talk. He told me it was time for me to be more organized and responsible with my money. He then pulled out the family books and showed me how he was organized with categories of different kind of expenses and bills. He pointed out several months of clothing entries , and we added up how much was being spent on my clothes alone . He said he would provide a clothing allowance based on an average of these figures. He went on to talk about other expenses, like food. In my case lunch money would be provided. He then said that if I packed and carried my lunch from the family stores, he would still provide the food allowance, and I could save for special expenses that way. You will be riding the bus to and from school, it is too far to walk, so you will have a transportation allotment. Then he covered recreation expenses. You will want to go to ball games, dances and other school events that fall into that category- and extension of your old allowance is a good way to think of that. Your mother and I get paid once a month so you will too. You will supplement you income with your babysitting, of course, but you must live on those incomes combined, so I suggest that you save some money for emergencies too. You can not come to me or your mother for cash any more. Then he gave me a little red note book and I set it up to suit me. I was always good at following instructions so I did well with this too. I quickly learned that I could stretch my clothing budget and have fun sewing my own clothing. The next trick I learned was that if I made a wool plaid skirt and jacket, and I made a solid blue skirt, I had two outfits, economically. I added to that a turquoise skirt and jacket that picked up one of the stripes in the plaid to make more parts, and so my wardrobe grew. I added browns and tan skirts and vests all in classical styles that served we all through collage and beyond. This idea of making simple but related pieces that could be used interchangeably served me well when I was doing costumes for the school plays when I was teaching. Red check shirts made for “Guys and Dolls” were used in Annie Get Your Gun”, with the addition of a white lace edge for the cow girls in the wild west show for example. The efforts that my Grandmother Ester put into teaching me, and the Home Economics from middle school, have been sources of great joy and economy for me.
> Dad also started teaching me how to drive at this point. We used the station wagon as it was an automatic. We began by driving in the country, then moved to quiet town streets. I never really learned to drive a stick shift , although the two -tone green Rambler was a standard. One evening, Dad thought I was ready to drive down town to the high school for a math club meeting. It started out well, but I was not very good at using the clutch. We were waiting at a stop light in the growing darkness, the car facing uphill just before the bridge across the White River when things went wrong. I rolled back into the car behind before Dad took over and we went forward across the bridge. We stopped on the other side and talked with the other driver. No damage done, but I was quite shaken. Dad drove the rest of the way to the high school and I went off to my meeting. One of my friends brought me home. I just could not get past that event so even though Eric and several others have tried to teach me, driving a standard is not one of the skills I have.

 

Childhood Memories -Summer 1963
In the summer of 1963 I was 15 and Gene was 12. That made us both a bit more independent than in the past, so with that in mind , Mom took her first Summer School Field trip with Dr Cooper. She spent 8 weeks in Hawaii studying biology there. She sent home lots of post cards and we enjoyed them. She also brought gifts when she returned. I got a great University of Hawaii sweatshirt. It was always a conversation starter when I wore it.
On Wed every week, Dad, Gene and I went to the Student Center and had dinner. Then we would go down stairs where Dad taught us how to bowl. Gene caught on very quickly , but for me it was a bit more of a challenge. We did have fun though. By the end of the summer I had the hang of it and we repeated that pattern for several years. Some evenings when it was not Crowded, Dad even worked with us on how to play pool. I recall his careful explanations about how to use the cue stick to line up the angle with your eye to project where the ball should go…… Then there was the part about where on the ball one was to hit it to be successful. Again it was a skill that Gene excelled at and me not so much. It was still fun.
> When Mom got home we still went for an end of summer trip. We drove to Chicago and spent a day in the Field Museum. It is on the lake in a building that was part of the worlds fair when it was there. I was struck by the two big totem polls that flank the doors when one first comes inthe doors of the museum. I think that is were my love of the northwest Native American’s art started.
The two big bull Elephants that are in the center of the main hall were surrounded by special displays and booths as they were having a Mexican Celebration. I was captivated by the pinata they were building. They were made with a cardboard box as a base , with a head, a tail and wings added in more cardboard. The whole unit was then covered in crepe paper and tissue paper. I tried to build my own when I got home from what I remembered. The rest of the museum is wonderful too. I enjoyed the many animal dioramas and sea floor exhibits the most.
There was a skeleton of a sperm whale and it was huge! Mom was the most interested in the displays of the cultures of the South Pacific sense she had just been there. There was also a display of Northwest native peoples that really impressed me. Gene liked the fossils and dinosaurs. There was a Transistors Rex skeleton in the same area as the whale, I think . It was an exhausting day.
> The next day we went to the Art Institute. There was a special exhibit of a scaled down version of the Sistine Chapel on display . It was amazing , with lots of detail and one could really see all the angles and figures as it was much closer to the visitor than the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Mom said. even so, the Sistine Ceiling was glorious- though one’s neck got a bit tired from the looking up. The only other thing I really recall was George Seurat’s Sunday In the Park! I was blow away. It was my first real mural sized painting, and to add the stippling to the size really amazed me. I had done mosaics and knew how long those took to do – so the thought of doing all those little dots really registered! I do not know if there was any other work in the room- but if there was I never recollected it, and I have visited the painting several different times. I even took 5 of my students on a field trip in my car my first year of teaching to see the museum and that work of art. We went from Chicago to visit the grandparents in Iowa for a few days. There was a big family picnic at the cabin while we were there. It was good to see the cousins again. I did not realize how much I missed the long summer stays with them.

Stay safe and make wise choices,

Carol

 

Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, Drawing, Lap Quilts, Poppy Fields, Scrap Happy Quilts, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Signs of Spring

1 Comment

Hello,
As the photo shows one is beginning to see signs of spring around here. I also noticed lots of bird calls on my walks this week. I find that I am going through the world a little wide eyed of late trying to find those signs of the changing season. It is far to easy to look but not really notice the changes. The bright color really helped me notice these small flowers. One tends to categorize objects and in doing that, that action  make it easy to move onto the next thing, object or event and ignore the uniqueness of things around us. Claude Monet said” To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at.” He was speaking to art of course and I do agree, but there is another aspect too. I spent twenty min looking for my cell phone on my desk yesterday and only found it when I had my husband call the number an it rang. It was  lying  directly  in the center of the desk, but because it was setting on its side instead of on its back or front,  I did not recognize the form. I could not see because I had named and categorize the cell phone in only one form.   I feel that is a bit of a cop out for and artists and I am trying to really see the world now.

The week has been as busy as usual. In the Textile Artist Stitch Club we had a new teacher, Jette Clover. We did a winter landscape with her were we added paper to the work in the form of a stamp. I enjoyed the process.

 

I continue to work on my coral sea piece too. I added pipe cleaners as steams for my plants and added lots more big sequins this week as well as ,many beads.

 

 

 

 

 

Project Report: Lap Quilt #8 This work is all pin basted and ready for the quilting step now. There are lots of my hand dyed and painted fabrics in this one.

 

 

 

 

Poppy Fields This project is going forward. I finished the circles that represent the flowers and I am working on the tree and leaves now.

 

Shattered Stars I an quilting this work with silver metallic thread. I drew a big star on  a pieces of paper and then cut it up into triangular units  to create shapes for the quilting patterns. There are parts of three stars here and only four sections   of the third star be quilted.   They are the white paper units n the edges.

 

 

Scrap Happy This is a pile of the two and half and four and a half inch strips that I will add to various blocks to build the backing for this next quilt.

 

 

Crows I have created some new works to join together for a new work in this series.

 

 

Daily Practice I am setting this block aside now and moving onto the next. I am leaving some open area on each one as a place for the eye to rest.

 

 

 

 

Drawing I did a little playing with leaf shapes in the sketch book and think there is yet another project in this vain in the future.   One can save a lot of time and effort by drawing first some times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New   I am playing with stitching down bits of fabric just for fun with this piece.

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- Travels 1
The move to Muncie also brought a change in our travel patterns. Mom saw each school holiday longer than than a weeks time, as an opportunity to explore the country . She planned a trip for each vacation. Our first Christmas , as usual, we went home to Iowa and celebrated with our families. But we started for Muncie  a bit early that year, and hit spots in Illinois on the way home . Our first stop was Dixon Mounds. It is a excavated burial mound of the native Americans on the bank of a river. That first time that we visited it was still being excavated by the farmer, Mr Dixon and it was inside a tent covering. We were the only visitors and so we talked and asked questions directly to Mr Dixon. We were up very close to the few bodies that he had exposed. I recall a Mother with her  arm bones wrapped around a child and two pots there as well. We stopped there several times over the years and each time the excavation was bigger and more sophisticated. My last visit was with Dad about 12 years ago and it is now  a big museum with several buildings . There are 248 exposed bodies that one can view from a raised walkway the surrounds the excavated space inside a fancy building. One is not as close as the first time  of course, but the size of the burial is much more evident now. There is also a display of pots, arrowheads and stone axes . We also stopped at the Illinois State Museum in Peoria. To see its wonderful displays of wild life and life sized dioramas of Native Americans. Mom was just getting into her museum studies and she really enjoyed it.
During spring break that year,  we drove east to Acadia National Park. I remember that Gene and I had illusions of swimming in the Atlantic ocean before we got there. It was very windy, a rocky shore and oh so cold! We spent a lot of time walking along the rocky water line and throwing rocks into the water. I still love the sound of waves as they crash on the shore. I remember Mom pointing out an old lava filled crack in one section and her talking about how it was like the lava deposit on Mt Moran in the Tetons. We did some hiking and exploring. For the most part were had the place to ourselves.
At the end of summer school that year we went to Toronto, Canada, my first trip to a foreign country. I was not impressed by that, as it looked the same as the land we had been driving through. I did notice some folks speaking French in the capital. We toured the capital building . I remember being fascinated by a statue of a Unicorn ,setting on his hind legs and holding a coat of arms. I mistakenly thought it was part of the coat of arms, and learned later that it was not.    I spent part of my allowance on a little doll dressed in a kilt with a beret. She is still in my collection. We visited a great rock and mineral display and the usual stuffed creatures at the Natural History Museum there too. We then drove south to Niagara Falls. I was impressed by their size and sound. On the Canadian side we visited a museum that was more like a Victorian curiosity cabinet than a museum. There were lots of interesting things, but no real organization. Mummies were in the same room as various turtle shells. There was one of the broken up barrels in which someone had gone over the falls. It was really shattered! I recall a big slice of a red wood tree that was over twenty feet across. It had markers on some of the rings noting historical events- like building of the great wall of China, Christ’s birth, the fall of the roman empire, and Columbus’s arrival on this content. We crossed to the US side, and were  much closer to the falls. I was impressed by how loud the water was and how very swiftly it was running. We started home and camped on Lake Erie.   That night Mom, recited Hawthorn’s Song of Hiawatha. “ On the shores of Gitche Gumee, of the shining big sea water….” It sure is a big fresh water sea!

Stay Safe and play  little this week.

Carol