Creative Assistants, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Label Blocks, Nine Blue Iris's, Notebook Covers, Pods, Transparency work

Keeping Active

May 25, 2017 admin

Hello,

These beautiful Alliums where blooming in my friends garden and they just captured me when I drove up. There are constant changes as the weather grows warmer and the days are longer. One needs to pay attention to the catch those changes. Keep Your eyes open.

I had two meetings this week. The FAB group meant and it was an active meeting. Nancy is making great strides on her Mother’s quilt. I spent time helping her with the free motion work in the center section around the little sunflowers and the birds. She is does not have enough experience with free motion work to make it work flow for her yet. But time and work will solve that problem. Patti is taking painting classes in both acrylic and watercolor. I think that takes courage.

Judy is working away on her “Disappearing Nine Patch” and assembling it . She has plans for a second already

Marty was at the meeting too and she showed us the quilt she made for her great grandson.

I really like how the longitude lines curve just a bit to give the rounded feel to the piece.

The Finger Lakes Fiber Artists also meant this week. It is so stimulating and there is lots of interaction between the participants. This shot shows Regina and Sharon talking at lunch. ( the works on the floor are Sharon’s)

This is one of Pat ‘s rare small works – it’s about 16″ square. Her hand printed fabric really lends its self to a big format so this is a different challenge for her.

This is Julia’s piece in response to a collage that she did in David Horning’s class at QBL two summer’s ago.

This work is by Bev. I love how she breaks up a shape and re assembles it. The colors work well together too.

Then on Monday I went to Liz’s house we spent the day using thickened dye to alter the color of fabric. We both did about three pieces and will meet aging in a few weeks to do another batch. These are mine and I am most delighted by finally getting some pure white in the front piece.

Progress Report: Nine Blue Iris This work is 15” X 31” . Iris are one of my favorite flowers that bloom early in the spring. The old lace in the background here is from a pillow case that my Grandmother Ruth made . I am continuing to challenge myself to work with organza and build up layers of color. Flowers work especially well with this idea as they are so delicate.

Most of these flowers are three layers thick,

Pods I am continuing to build these little works. I only have enough altered felt to do two more and then I will move onto another project.

Jellyfish This project also is working with the layers of transparency. The colors do not come through as well as I had hoped. Not enough contrast here I think. But that is part of what I am learning about this material.

Notebook- Harlequin Paper

I made this book cover from the Harlequin paper I made last week. I fused down candy wrappers to black felt and then layered golden brown nylon netting on top. The work was then free motion quilted over the surface to hold it all together and give it a strong body. Making it into the note book jacket was the final step.

Creative Assistants I finished up another 30 of these little fellows this week. They will disappear that QBL as I give them away.

New Work

Liz challenged me when we were dyeing to create something with some of the fabric we have created together over this last year. I pulled all of these to do just that .

Label Block # 122 I keep working away on this project one little block at a time.

I will be away from home so there will not be any post for the next two weeks. I will have holiday ones to share when I get back.

Keep Creating

Carol

Button Weed, Curvie Cuts, Felt Work, Label Blocks, Little Jellyfish, Pods, Pond Water, Truquoise Street Studio

Going Forward

May 18, 2017 admin

Hello,

We continue to go forward into the wonders of spring. I love all the smells that assault my nose as I take my daily walk. Some flowers are fading, but others Like Spiraea, and Lily of the Valley seem to quickly take their place and demand the attention of the bees.

I went off to see the art show at St David’s last week. It was very impressive and with so many of my friends represented I really enjoyed the powerful work. This is one of Sharon’s new works. I like how she is building up the surface and overlapping the leaves. Carol had two sculptures in the show. I know she struggled with this one.

Barbara had two pieces as well and this one is a part of her street seen series. Beth had two pieces too and both of them had red stickers on them. She was delighted with the sale news.

My Friend Angela had work in the show too. I learned later that this piece sold too. It is always a powerful show with lots of interesting work. I am delighted for my friends.

I went off to play with Beth and Barbara on Thursday afternoon at the Turquoise Street Studio. They were both working away on pastels as is there usual thing. It is fun to work in a parallel setting.

Progress Report: Button Weed This work is 16” X 20”. I enjoyed working on this piece as I have good memories from the Iowa farm and picking these weeds. We use to use them as noise makers when we did Indian dancing. I was always taken by the fact that they where such a strong spring green.

Pods I keep working away and finding new ways to embellish these little pods. It is fun to find homes for the last few odd beads and buttons that I seem to have lots of.

Pond Water I did hand work on this project at Turquoise Street. I am adding the gold units now. It is very calming almost meditative work for me.

Iris This project had proved to be a challenge. I made all these iris blossoms and then discovered that they just got lost on my background. I guess there will be a second one in this grouping. So I built some in blue and purple for the actual project. I am ready now to go back in and build up this flower with more detail and color.

Curvy Cut Jellyfish This project is moving forward. I really like the shapes of these jellyfish. I have had to really challenged myself with I could how to build them up to get the effect I want. I am sorry that the dark centers get lost with the many layers of organza.

Brown Back I found a use for the back I made last week already. I am ironing down all the cut-a way’s from the fusing I use in my work.

Red Scarf I keep working away on these works. They are fun to build, but they do take a lot of time. I will add the soft neck unit when I have all the nets filled. Only three more to complete.

Wool Brown I am a little beyond half way along with the felting of this work. I will do the free motion work on top when that step is complete.

Mixed I am all done with the felting here and ready to add the stitches on top.

Label Block # 121 They just keep on coming.

Keep Creating

Carol

Curvie Cuts, Felt Work, Flight, Label Blocks, Pods, TaJira, Thaw in Xavier Wood

Spring Energy

May 11, 2017 admin

Hello-

Spring really brings on fast changes around here. Last week this lilac barely had leaves and now it is in full bloom. And the smell is wonderful. So too of so many plants. I love all the quick changes that happen this time of year. The leaves fill in all the empty spaces as they reach for the sun shine and soon one feels under a canopy of green. The vast views of the land are cut down as the leaves block the eye line to the horizon line and one feels enclosed and protected. I find it really energizes me as well and I have had a great week.

Progress Report : Thaw in Xavier Wood This work is 38” X 40” and based on photos I took last fall when we had a nice thaw in mid November. Ice is a subject that seems to constantly call back to me. I love how the leaves are effected too not only in color but how they deteriorate. I even tried using copper for a few of them knowing that they will also fade with time.

Pods I seem to be fascinated by the areas of connection of the units for these pods this week. They sure got most of the attention. I am also using Sharron’s buttons as focus points on the surfaces of many of the pods.

Curvier Cuts This is the back ground for a new study of jellyfish. All the curved cuts suggest the motion of moving water to me and jellyfish sure take advantage of the ocean’s motion to move.

Flags: Tajira I keep working away on the flags that I started in Florida. This one is called Tajira because that is the name of the new baby Giraffe that was just born to April last week. This “ child” was 90 pounds and 6 Feet tall at birth. The lettering was done on silk paper.

Flight I enjoyed making this stencil. It is colored in with water color pencils. I had to add the beaded fringe because so how this piece of cloth was too short to meet the size requirement.

Spring Iris’s I built up a base of several layers of different types of creams and white fabrics and then added some brown and yellow stains to the surface for this piece. I used some old lace that my grandmother Ruth created for the edge of a pillow case here too. Then I did a life sized drawing of the Iris’s I want to put on top of this work and now I am ready to begin that step. Because I want to use layers of sheers for the petals I am moving very slowly. I am considering adding roving between the layers for more color.

Buttonweed This rock wall background has been waiting for me to make a decision about the top layer for a few weeks. This week I finally decided to go with my original plan and drew these big paper patters for the seed pods for the Button Weeds. They will be cut from this bright green because that is the strong color the weeds are and that plus the shape is what draws me to them.

Harlequin Papers This is a pure experiment. I had read some where that one could fuse down candy wrapper papers and use them on a work. So this week when I spilled the box of papers I thought that it was a sign that I needed to act on that idea. I will need to look and think about it for a while before I know how to proceed from this point.

Wool- Red My friend Tanya , gave me a big piece of red wool this winter and I finally pulled it out and cut three pieces from it. The roving is just hand felted into the surface here.

Wool- Brown This felted beginning has the same red wool base. It also has a lot of fabric mixed with the roving and wool yarn on the surface. I have not started laying out the third one yet. When it too is hand felted I will get out the felting machine and do that step to all three pieces and go from there.

Brown Base These fabrics seemed to go together so I untied them. It is just a raw base for a future something. I know that I will use it at some time and be glad that it is ready like a primed canvas is for an painter .

Purple Possibilities While I was pawing through my stash looking for the the green to use in Button Weed and the blues I used in the curvy cut piece, I noticed that there were lots of small purple bits in the bottom of bins and such. So I started collecting them in one place. I will use this as personal challenge to use them all together in a piece some time. I enjoy a little problem solving every now and then.

Label Block # 120 I keep working away on these blocks. Only 25 more to go at this point.

Keep Creating

Carol

PS- One last look at the spring flowers.

Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, Pods, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

May Apples

May 5, 2017 admin

Hello,

As this image shows the May Apples are up. No blossoms yet- or at least none as of yesterday. But they will appear soon. They are such fleeting plants as they will all be gone in a month. Knowing the hill side where these live means I look for them year after year in one of the small wild areas close to home.

This week was a busy one that started last Friday with a three day open studio at the Schweinfurt Art Center. I spent the time in the wet studio again and had a great time. There were only three of us down stairs, so we all had lots of space to work. Liz worked on top of old black ans white samples for her dyeing. Good way to give this work a second life. Penny built paper screens and did lots of stamping. I had a lot of new thermofax screens that I enjoyed playing with. There were some problems though. Liz and I used the dye and print paste we

had mixed up in Oct. Most of Liz’s work washed out to very pale colors. This great big piece went from a strong powerful work to this timid pastel work. I did not have as poor a luck as she but my works could not seem to keep their whites.

None of the browns, that I truly love ,worked either. I did have good luck with my greens though.

Liz shot this one of me working.

I am still washing out they dyes so I will wait for my final decision about the success of it all. We will start from scratch next week. There were seven gals upstairs working in the sewing studio too. We got to talk with them at lunch time.

The “Made in New York” show was also up in the gallery. The wings were especially striking. The whole week end event was fun and exhausting.

Because Tuesday was the first Tuesday of the month, I had QuEG’s and Diva meetings too.

At QuEG’s Sally had lots of great work to share. The more I learn about machine embroidery the more impressed I become. All those little red snowflakes on this tree skirt are machine drawn! She had some wonderful hand work too. The light color of the ribbon, basket and flowers was done with Crayola crayons before she did the embroidery work. It is quietly luscious. Linda has been exploring water soluble crayons and having fun at that. She is also playing with black and white fabrics .

The Divas were also inspiring this month. Regina shared more rust dyeing and this wonderful Bird of Paradise miniature quilt. It is paper pieced. I find the idea of all those little 1/4” seams coming together in the points a task I do not even want to attempt. Ruth is working on a social commentary piece about the massacre. It will be a pleasure to watch this work grow. Lori is doing Gelli plate printing to create backgrounds for her stitching work. The quiet colors are so beautiful here.

Noel brought her big leaf top from a Pat Pulley Workshop she took a few weeks ago. The fabrics are very strong. There was a lot of stimulation this week so not a lot of work got done.

Progress Report: Ice I am to the point on this piece where I am machine drawing the leaves that are in the water. There is no pattern for what I am doing and I get to invent the vain and leaf shapes as I go along. It is fun, but very exhausting at the same time. The few place where I have cut and applied fabric leaves are much easier to complete.

Pods Only one pod was finished this week. I have two more that I am sure I will complete this eve, but they are not done yet. I am using lots of the special buttons I have been purchasing over the years and some from the of the fancy ones that Sharron gave me as my center points on some of these latest ones.

Label Block # 119

Again I keep working away on these blocks. Only 26 to go now.

Keep Creating,

Carol

Curvie Cuts, Label Blocks, Mantis, Milkweed Pods, Pods, Pond Water, Scrap Happy Quilts, The Fox, Three- D works, Wood Ibis

Spring Rains

April 27, 2017 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

The spring rains here in central New York sure have pushed the buds forward and the trees are greening up. Its so pleasant outdoors I even ate my breakfast out on the patio this morning. I finished up the drying and pressing of the silk paper from last week. This one is my new favorites with the captured Japanese Lantern pods from Regina in it. I did a lot of work in the studio this week and the project report will support that.

Progress Report: Milkweed Pods This stretched work is 18” X 24”. There is a lot of free motion machine drawing in this piece. The background was built up and then the milkweed pods were added on top. The steams were created with three yarns that were zig-zagged together and then sewn down on the surface. I did a lot of stitching on the pods to show the woody textures on them.

Scribble This small quilt is 18” X 21”. It is made from the cut away fuse backed scrap fabrics that I have have created in the last few weeks. The green from the Jacks and the pink from the blossom projects. I then just do a lot of free motion machine play on top to hold it all down. This quilt along with two others will go to the Animal Shelter here in town to be put in the wire cages. They soften the effect of the metal cages a bit.

Flags- Wood Ibis I just keep working away on the flags that I made in Florida. The lettering here was done with a Sharpie marker.

Fox This too is one of my Florida Flags. I used fabric markers to add color and do the big lettering on this one. The small text is stamped work.

Mantis This work has fabric crayons as the color agent. The lettering is done with a stencil and silver stamping ink.

Pond Water This project is going slowly as most of the current attachments are being made by hand. I work for several hours last week adding these little white units. This work is a part of my curvy cur series. The white is deconstructed screen worked fabric that I purchased from Randy.

Pods I continue to create more of these pods. I am having fun using lots of the beads from my box and some of the fancy buttons I have purchased of the years. It is much nicer to do little projects then to build a big beaded work.

Scrap Happy Ethel’s scrap box was calling to me this week too. So I got busy and spent time putting together the little strips she had precut. I can see this project will be a slow one- but sometimes I need to do “no mind” stuff and this will go the trick.

Ice Two days of cold rainy weather got me going again on this project. All the white/snow is free motion quilted now and most of the leaves are attached as well.

I do enjoy the process when I get going.

Scarves I have completed the stuffing of two more scarves. I like the process but it is very slow. I takes over half an hour to fill all the units for one row of the scarves. I am ready to add the silk fabric in the centers of these works. I have learned that the nylon net is to scratchie for the neck, so I add a unit of softer fancy fabric to the center that rests against the neck . The good part is finding homes for all those little stray objects that collect in the drawers. I am including lots of jewelry bits from grandmother’s button tin too.

Label Block # 118 I put a lot of hand work into other things this week so I only got one block done. Only 27 to go now.

Keep Creating

Carol

Crow Calls, Label Blocks, Pods, Samurai Romance, Truquoise Street Studio

New Growth

April 21, 2017 admin

Hello-

Spring is fast upon us here in central New York. From the blooming of the trees to the lots of green sprouts across the ground it is here. Not having to always load up with hats and gloves is a very freeing feeling. I went off to visit with Regina this week. She did this wonderful piece with a snow dyed background and then she hand painted the grapes and leaves on top. It will be wonderful when she is done. She also showed off her machine work. The more I learn about this process the more I respect the gals who do it. There is or can be lots of computer programing in the process as well as all thread and color selection that goes on. It looks to take a lot of skill to me. We also did silk paper and had a long and good day.

Then I help Judy and Nancy work on the basing of Nancy’s Blue Bird quilt. There are lots of hours of machine drawing left on this project and I am certain that the end result will be a beauty.

I spent Thursday afternoon in the Turquoise Street Studio with Beth and Barbara. They are both working on there entries for the St David’s Show next in two weeks.I did hand work all afternoon and enjoyed the conversation.

Progress Report: Samurai Romance This work is 18.5 “ X 37.5 “.

I did four different techniques for adding textures to the surface for this work. I really like using foil and will try to keep that in mind as I go forward with new works.Foil can be added to paper, wool and interfacing. I have only applied it to fabric in the past. With each project I seem to be doing more and more free motion work too. It is also a powerful tool to use the machine as a drawing tool.

Pods I was doing some sorting and found some unique and beautiful buttons in my stash. They come in packs of five- but I am still going to use them as part of the embellishment of these pods. I cut quite a few more this week but there is still the fabric that I created in all four colors left so there will be lots of these to pass to folks at Christmas time as well as plenty to keep for myself.

Guatemalan Top This top is all done now. I will be sure to wear it at QBL this summer so show off how to use some of the great needle work.

I think Pricilla will be glad to see how I used the embroidery I purchased from her too.

Crow Calls I am working away on this project. I am adding the crow in flight to it now as the trees are mostly full of birds. I am almost out of the suede too so when that is all gone I will stop.

Iced Leaves I am making slow progress on this work. I have cut and embossed some of the copper leaves I want to use. I have also started to stitch down some of the fabric leaves too. I will admit now that it is spring I do not seem to have the drive to work on this I had earlier in the year.

Tan Rock This background is all done now. I have done some research and some drawings trying to decide what plant life I want to add on top. I am still in this part of the design stage.

Red Rock The same can be said for this red rock face.

Label Block # 117 The stitching keeps going forward on this project. I did a lot of hand work on the pods so not as much extra time was put into this project this week. I still meant my goal of completing one more block.

Keep Creating
Carol

Cherry Blossom Time, Crow Calls, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Label Blocks, Pods, Samurai Romance, Starfish, Still Life

Moving Forward

April 13, 2017 admin

Hello,

I am enjoying the unfolding of spring here. There are lots of buds and birds. I went to the Towpath Quilt Guild quilt show on Friday.

My friend Noel’s quilt looked great as did many others. I enjoyed the show and saw many friends too. It was inspired to go home and work in the studio.

FAB had a meeting on Monday and Nancy show us this label that she programed for her Mom’s Blue Bird quilt. It looks good to me.

Progress Report: Cherry Blossom Time This work is 39” X 35”. I created it from the branch that was left over from the Blooming Branch project. It was too dark for that work so this one was born. The branch was created from the sleeve of a wool jacket that I then built up with two different yarns.

There area 61 blossoms on this quilt. I made the centers from silk paper that I cut in circles and then stitched down with long French Knots.

Flag-Starfish This is my newest flag from the Susan Challenge. The text on this piece is machine writing in the section on the bottom.

Pods These are the newest completed pods. I am enjoying the embellishing step as I get to use lots of beads sequins and pearls with this project. I cut six more felt embellished units this morning so there will be more in the future.

Crow Calls This project is a reworking of a completed quilt. I built up the trees and stitched them to the quilt. Now I am adding the crows. They are cut from suede that is then free motion stitched down. I added twenty five birds yesterday.

Samurai Romance I have been following the suggested techniques in Stitch, Fiber, Metal and Mixed Media. I have not purchased any new materials to do this project, but adapted what I have on hand to do the projects. This week I applied foil to thick interfacing and then did free motion machine drawing on top to create the flowers. The centers are glass beads.

Still Life This work is an experiment. I have been making silk paper for a while and for this project I made the silk in the flower shapes instead of the sheet form. Now I am stitching them down.

Ice I have started adding the leaves to this project. This week I made leaves out of copper. They are embossed with a blunt pencil. This first one is trapped under a bit of “ice” and I like the effect. The other one isset to be in the water section of the work. It may need netting too but I do not know at this time. I also want to also add some fabric leaves too.

New Works This is a started build up for a new work. There is a minimum of free motion machine work on this piece at this time. It is based on a photo of a rock face. This is a second pin up for another new work. It is based on another section of the same rock face- with a different color base

Top I fell in love with this piece form Guatemala. he hand work is beautiful. But it is far too short for me and I wanted the sides closed. So I have started altering it to work as a top for me.

Label Block #115 #116

I got inspired and did two blocks this week. I also cut 15 more black squares to complete the top.

Keep Creating,

Carol

Birds, Blossoming Branch, Crow Calls, Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, Pods, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Summer Meadow, Year Of the Rooster

Spring

April 7, 2017 admin

Hello-

It is starting to really feel like spring here in central New York. I see little bits of green on the tips of branches and shoots in the flower beds on my walks. This was the fist week of the month so I had meetings. The QuEG’s meeting was small but there was lots of work.

Liz finished this beauty using all Kay Facet’s fabrics. She and Sue Ellen both had work for the group challenge for the guild.

This is Liz’s finished star challenge piece. It looks good I think. Sue Ellen’s star is a good one as well. The use of the light blue fabric and the size were the other two limitations to the challenge. Angela is busy working on felting some of her patterns from her tip to Hawaii I think the limited pallet will server her well with this exploration.

The Divas also meant on Tue eve. with more exciting stuff. This is Lori’s completed tundra piece from her trip to Alaska.Maureen showed us lots of the new wonderful hand printed fabric that she is working on. Donna is proud of finally finishing her big king sized top. It is amazing as it is her first quilt.

She is also working away on some figures in paper clay. These bathing beauties are fun I think.

Regina is doing lots of handwork on her shobori pieces from last month. She is also exploring with rust dyeing.

Lliesa shared her memory scrolls from her semester in Japan. They are so wonderful. All created while she was there with her husband and made from fabric she got at the temple sales that she attended.

There are four scrolls and each one is full of beautiful appliqued works all with memories and stories too. She stitched the insect by hand here and told a story about the cricket pets one has in the small houses there. I just could not look enough at this piece of work.

Progress Report: Summer Meadow

This work is 15” X 21.5 “ in size. Sewing of the flowers was done from the back of the work with thick thread and cord in the bobbin. The dragon fly has wings cut from ribbon that was then free motion attached to the background. The body is made of bugle beads that I hand stitched to the surface.

Blooming Branch This work is 33” X 40.5”. It is the result of a challenge by my friend Sharron. We bot purchased some silk kimono fabric

This shot is a close up of that fabric. The challenge was to use it in a project to show at QBL in the summer of 2017. This is my solution.

Crow Calls I am adding the trees to the surface of the work now. It takes about 50 minuets to do each tree and the birds have not been started yet. I am enjoying it none the less.

Samurai Romance I finished the leaf panels this week . I am beginning to feel it is a bit over crowded and I still have one more technique to add to the surface.

I may do some editing before this is all done and I am happy now that I only pinned things in place as I went along.

Banner –Year of the Rooster This is one of my works that I started in Florida with Susan. The lettering on this one is stamped. The rooster is colored with crayon.

Banner- Birds This is my second banner this week. The texture is created by rubbing over a plastic doily with crayon. The text here is cut felt letters that were machine stitched down.

New IceI am just starting to free motion stitch down the parts of this work. The bright pink at the bottom, is the felt inside that I am building on.

New Scarves Chris asked for more scarves so I got busy and did these two this week. I am always surprised by the bits of stuff that seem to pile up and work in these projects.

Pod 6 I gave in and decided to create a few more pods. This one needs some weight/beads on the bottom and it will be complete.

Label Block # 114 I made it to the fabric store this week and got more black fabric for the last 25 blocks. Cutting them is the next step. Only 36 to go now.

Keep Creating

Carol

PS check out my tutorial on how to rust print.

Uncategorized

Rust Dyeing tutorial

April 6, 2017 admin 3 Comments

Lovely color and unique fabric can be created with rust dyeing. If you want control then this is not the process for you. One never knows what one will get.

Materials:

Clean prewashed fabric. ( this example is done on white- but color can be used if it is light)

Metal- tin objects like the ones pictured- but old drill bits, tools iron shapes etc.. ( I did the work in an old cookie sheet that was rusted and it added to the effect.

Vinegar / water solution of 50 /50.

Spray bottle, and gloves.

It is best to do this on a warm day- but one can put the work in a black plastic bag and get good results. The heat seems to help.

You can simply lay your objects on the fabric and pour the vinegar and water solution on top or you can wrap and tie the fabric around the rust to get the transfer. I like to lay things of top of the bundle too.

Then you spritz the fabric with your solution and put it in the bag if you wish or if it is warm one can just walk away for 24 hours. I usually check and respitz later in the day . This is how my fabric looked in the morning before I started rinsing. The old tools and bike chain still on top.

Then rinse fabric in a water and salt solution. This is a lite solution of salt. Next rinse in water. The soapy water. Then in clear water again. These are my buckets lined up.

Then hang your cleaned fabric to dry.

Have fun.

Susan had good regulates placing a piece of glass or plexi glass on the table. Then placing thin cut shapes between two sheets of fabric spritzing then with vinegar and water. Followed by a second piece glass or plexi glass on top. Again wait 24 hours .The top fabric was the most successful. Look at the image at the top on the line. You can see the butterfly clearly on the bottom row here. It is as the bottom of the line piece too.

Bee Happy, Blossoming Branch, Crow Calls, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Flag Challenge, Label Blocks, llegado

Home again

March 30, 2017 admin 1 Comment

Hello-

I am home from my trip to Florida. I had a good time and enjoyed my stay with Susan. We got up with the sun and went to the shore to see it rise. She and I worked on rust dyeing and I came home with a nice selection. Jim took this great photo of me holding one of my rust creations. We went to his home one night and drew all evening too. I will do a tutorial of the process rust and post it by next week. This shot is of Susan across the table at drawing on Tues.

Chris Winter visited on afternoon and we did image transfers with Citra Solv .

Through out the week we cut stencils and made flags with them. Now all I need to do is the finish up on all fifteen of them. They all need text of some sort because that was the main challenge to begin with. I will put the two I have completed in the progress report section. We worked away very day and the time flew bye. I came home to find ice and snow still remaining from the storm that dumped 24” before I left. This shot is of the sky light in the airport.

Monday I went off to visit with my friend Angela. She did a special demonstration for me of how to use pre felt. I now feel I know a lot more about how to use my roving and felt more effectively. She is a good teacher. I am sure the processes will be a part of future works.

This morning the FAB gals meant at my house. Nancy has finished the top of her quilt for her mom. It is beautiful. The colors make one feel so summery and warm. We will get together and pin baste it in the near future. Judy is still knitting away on her red sweater. She is working on the arm wholes now , so the end is in sight.

Progress Report: Flags 1 Bee Happy This is the fist flag I finished. I did most of it in Florida and only added the sleeve here at home.

Flag 2- Llegado I added the tabs and the beaded fringe on the bottom of this one to make it long enough to fit the size we agreed upon. Llegado is Spanish for alight.

Blooming Branch All the blossoms are stitch down now. I am working on the hand quilting step of this project. I did not add enough wind lines with the machine for me to feel it is stable . So I am outlining things in the background by hand.

Summer Meadow This work is nearly done now. I added the daises and little yellow flowers to the surface . All the work was done from the back side of the work with extra thick threads in the bobbin. Another new machine process that I will add to my tool box of techniques for use in the future.

Crow Calls I thought I was ready to add these trees to the surface of the quilt. But when I started pinning them up, it became apparent that the black trees are too dark. The crows will be lost in them if I do not build up more browns and grays into the black trees. So there is work ahead for this week on this project. I think the wash away partly obscured this problem until this point.

Samurai Romance I am adding the beads around the outside of the leaf panels for this project. That and the Turkey Work stitches take lots of time. This panel is done the other similar one does not have any hand work yet. It is smaller then thisfist pannel.

New Ice I started a new ice piece this week. I took a lot of photos of the ice forming in Xavier wood and this one had leaves sticking up through the ice and snow. I want to try to capture/show them with this piece. I have some ideas, so stay tuned.

Label Blocks # 111, #112,#113

The one thing I have completed in the last three weeks is my label blocks. But I did discover that when I laided them out that 120 blocks will not be enough to cover the bed without sashing. I do not like that idea so I will cut 25 more black squares and add labels to them before I put the top together.

Keep Creating.

Carol

Cre-8

Keeping Active

Going Forward

Spring Energy

May Apples

Spring Rains

New Growth

Moving Forward

Spring

Rust Dyeing tutorial

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Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer