Category Archives: Circle Challenge

Applique, Circle Challenge, Felt Work, Fish, Lap Quilts, SAQA

The Leaves

October 23, 2025 admin

Hello,

Fall is in full color blast here in central New York. The shifting light bubbles that once filled my walking path have given way to a different colored carpet of yellows, golds orange and red leaves. They come tillering down to dance in front of me down the walkways. And my favorite sound fills my ears- the crunch of my feet as I shuffle through the colors. There is a wonderful magic in fall that I truly love.

Progress Report: Hollyhocks and Hummingbirds This work is 37.5″ w X 48″ t. I am quite happy with how I feel when I look at this work. I finished and added the hummingbirds this week and I made a few bees to the work as well. I hope to enter this piece in the SAQA Pollinators challenge.

Moring Meadow This work is 19″ w X 12 t. I read about using your sewing machine on soda cans and so I tried that. The centers of the tall purple flowers are that experiment. It works Okay- but the process does really dull the needle. I don’t really see any special use of this technique, but I will keep it in my mind for the future.

Lap 23-25 I came across this fabric painted cloth that my good friend Barbara V did years ago when she and I were playing in her class room while we were both teaching. I though it would make a great center unit for a lap quilt and so I am working toward that end.

Handwork – Fish

I felted the background a while ago. When I cam across it again this week, I pulled it out and started this new piece.

Crystal Blocks I started playing with this idea at the retreat a few weeks ago. The block is based on a high relief sculpture that I observed at the Rochester show this summer. (below)

At the retreat I did a first draft of this block. It was awful . So I reworked the pattern. This new rendition is square and lays flat so I am having fun playing with it now.

Spinning Out I have started to attach the circles to the surface of this third work I started at the retreat. It needs more build up I think.

New: shore line or tidepool I am ready to begin and new one of these highly texturized pieces. So I started with some punch needle parts this week.

I got a little silly one day and stated making little witches. the heads are paper clay with a stick in the center for the body to be built on. I used pipe cleaners for the arms and legs . They sure made mounting the little gals on brooms easy.

The brooms are made with a brown trim wrapped around a squire. I had a good time making dolls again.

Keep your eyes open and Enjoy the changing season.

Happy Halloween

Carol

Applique, Circle Challenge, Hand work, Pixies Group, Scrap Happy Quilts, Sisterhood of the Scissors

Home from Sisterhood Retreat

October 9, 2025 admin

Hello,

I arrived home from the 2025 Sisterhood of the Scissors Retreat on Kuka Lake yesterday. We left on Friday last week so and I had a good time. Liz got sick on day two and Victoria was not at the top of her game either.

It was a glorious time to be there as the color was great. I walked every day and that added to my pleasure.

Everyone sharded great little gifts and I came home with a horde of new items. They are a generous and thoughtful group of gals. The spotted fabric at the bottom is the challenge fabric for 2026. Susan selected it for us.

This years challenge produced a wide variety of solutions. Deb saw a lamp in the fabric and produced this bed room. She also used it in the head board.

Joyce saw a volcano in the fabric. She got to use a little her new coloring technique as well as the insert.

Kathy worked on this nice big project with lots of hand work on it .

This handsome small work was by Victoria.

Ann had a nice solution as well.

This is my work.

Everyone had projects that they worked on during the week as well as some show and tell.

Joyces spent some time beading on this beautiful batik piece.

She also had a good time working with her Gelli plate.

Ann worked on this piece that is a map of Kuka lake. She stitched down all the buildings and is now ready to begin adding grape leaves to represent the vineyards around the lake.

Ann had some wonderful little quilts for show and tell. She also showed off some of her beautiful crochet work.

Susan was jut home from another retreat doing three D work using paper and cardboard that she hand stitched together.

She showed off and worked on this flat piece too.

Kathy worked on this Quilt of Valor. It is ready for layering and quilting now.

We took a field trip on Sat to the Windmill and shopped and ate lunch.

It was a beautiful. day and we enjoyed ourselves.

We ate a lot of ice cream, sat on the big poaches and talked. The whole event went very quickly with a lot of work and relaxation for us healthy folks.

Progress Report: Hummingbirds I took lots of projects to the retreat. I did draw and outline the humming birds for my Hollyhock quilt. But I was not sure how I wanted to do the wings and so this is all I got done.

Round It Out I feel like I made a good start on this new project. The base is built and I have some of the circles pinned in place. It is really a work in progress.

Cut It Up I had cut up all the squared before I left and I sent a day squaring them up and putting them together at the retreat.

Scrap Happy The box of leftover squares from old scarp happy quilts was overflowing so I knew there were enough for a new top. This one is in rows with no pattern .

Handwork- Summer Meadows I took this along as my evening handwork and I only want to add little white butterflies to it and it will be ready for finishing.

Crystal Squares I took this photo of a high relief sculpture at the show that the group visited in Rochester earlier this year. I though it would be a good basis for a quilt square.

So at the retreat I drew it up and added quarter inch seams. Using those templates, I built one square. I need to do some modifications on it, before it will work as a square . But I think it is worth the effort.

Book Page I needed to do something completely different while I was at the Zoom meeting of the Pixie group yesterday afternoon, so I pulled out this old project and worked on it. One more flower to build now.

It has been a good week and I as soon as I get stuff put away I will be ready to tackle the projects that I am in the middle of.

Enjoy the fall and keep creating

Carol

Circle Challenge, Diva Meetings, Green Leaf scarf, Label Blocks, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Snow Dyeing, Teasil I, Teasil II, Three Jacks, Xavier Wood Ice

Winter

February 9, 2017 admin

Hello,

We are deep in the cold of winter here and that makes me stay in the studio and get a lot done. But I do have the meetings that come at the first of each month. QuEG’s meant. Liz is busy doing hand work on her project that she dyed last fall at the play/work retreat at the Schweinfurth. That is her work at the top.

Sue Ellen is busy too and she made this colorful quilt for the Linus Project. I always get a lot more out of the group meetings.

This time I showed them all the Circle Challenge pieces all together. That lead to a whole lot of playing with how they could or should be presented. I continued the whole idea when I got home.

There are just so many ways to go with them.

The Diva’s had a good time playing with them too. There was a lot going on at that meeting as well.

Alice has finished her Bed Quilt and she made prints of the finished work to give to all the folks in the family who owned the bed so they have the history. I think that is a good idea.

Liesa is building a wonderful book on stamps. She printed the stamps on fabric for this work and laments that she still has all the original stamps left.

Donna just returned from a 10 day retreat where she did a lot of Gelli printing and pastel work. Maureen is doing lots of work with indigo so she can do more teaching of the techniques. She shares her knowledge so very kindly.

Regina went off to the conference called “ Rocky Road to California” and took a class with the Tentmakers of Cairo. She keeps exploring new techniques.

Ruth is busy with her wonderful clam shells too. It was a good meeting and I came home with new ideas of things to do with my own work.

Progress report: Three Jacks This work is 28” X 40”. Because I had to take it apart to fix the nail at the bottom I took photos of the work without the glass. No problems with reflections that way. I also did a major cleaning of the glass- something that I had not thought of before either. The work is dramatic and I like it a lot.

The velvet jacks really convey the rich contrast of the two parts of the flower.

Snow Dying

It snowed this week and so I did a bit more snow dyeing. It is snowing today too so I will do an orange batch next.

Tease I I did the hand stitching on this work this week. It is almost ready to stretch.

Teasel II I pulled this fabric for the background of the green teasel heads I made the week before on Monday. Then I worked hard on getting that section done. I got all excited and even moved on to pinning the heads in place. They are not stitched down. No problem with contrast this time.

Leaf Scarf I did a lot of free motion work on this piece and determined yesterday that it was complete. It is based on a work I saw on Pintrest by Amanda McCarvour. I only work from what I remember not from any reading or recheck. So when I did look a second time yesterday, I was surprised by how different they were. I like the vanes of leaves mixed with the wool roving . The places where I tried to work in air collapsed so I think when I try it again I will put a layer of nylon net in the middle of the sandwich so there is a some stability to the whole thing. That and more stitching lines will do the trick I think. It will also help avoid the arching that happened with some of the gold leaves.

Xavier Wood Ice I have been taking a lot of photos on my walks of ice and now I am ready to begin a new ice work. This is the fabric lay out at about the middle of the process.

Pods I have assembled two of the pods from the felted pieces that I made. They are nor quite finished as I think I want to add some additional beads on the bottoms of them. But I am making progress. It is like the circle challenge in the way that I can think of more variations for each side as I go along. I will play until I tire of the process.

Scrap Happy I have been assembling the strips and cut pieces from Ethel’s scrap box for a few weeks. I cut them into five inch squares yesterday and made a block. It is 17” on a side. That is a little bigger then I usually use so I may need to make adjustments as I move forward.

Label Block # 106 I was in Jo Ann’s this week and I was tempted to purchase some additional embroidery thread- but I resisted. Then when I got home I did a little search and found a new bag full, so I am very happy I did not give into temptation. Only fourteen more blocks to build.

Keep Creating

Carol

Circle Challenge VI, Circle Challenge VII, Creative Assistants, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Fling, Label Blocks, Scrap Happy Quilts, Three Jacks

Working time

February 2, 2017 admin

Hello,

I feel good about the confines of winter as I seem to get a lot done. I am still feeling the energy of my show too. I will take it down tomorrow however. I have four works in the Cabin Fever Quilt show at Bette Branch Library here in town though. These four little works pictured here are my 6” X 6” pieces for the Rochester Art center. I mailed them off on Tuesday. They are all part of the felted work I was doing last week. I still have big chunks of the felting to use in the project when I get the final additional parts.

FAB meant this week and everyone had work to show and talk about. This is Patti’s new weaving project. The can at the bottom is full of her woof threads. Judy put aside her red sweater for the summer and has not pulled it out again. She is getting to the arm wholes near the top now.

Nancy got busy and finished off six new placemats for her home. They are spring like I think.

We had another snow storm last night so I am doing more snow dyeing. This is a shot of the top of the bucket shortly after I put the dye on top of the snow that is setting on top of the prepared fabric. Now to await the melting/dyeing.

Progress Report: Fling This work is 50” X 34”. It is based on a collage and has Ethel’s Marbleized fabric( the orange) and my hand dyed yellow and the light green and blue stuff. The quilting is done in two styles. For the orange and the white fabrics I followed the edges of the color changes. For the purples I did a pebble style.

Circle Challenge VI This work is 14” X 19” . It has a lot of movement in it. The quilting is reflective of the circles and done in quilting thread. I liked adding the beading at the end and I will do that again in number VII.

Circle Challenge VII I finished the quilting last eve. It is trimmed and ready for beads and facings so I will finish it quickly this week .

Three Jacks I put this work under glass this week- and that makes for awful reflections. Then before I sealed the back with brown paper I checked it and noticed that I had some how gotten a nail on the outside between the matt and the glass. So I will need to take it all apart and do it again before it is complete.

Scrap Happy I continue to work through Ethel’s scrap box. I need to complete a scrap happy quilt for the Prevention Network so I have been putting in an hour a day putting the scarps together. They are cheerful I think.

Scarf I have always enjoyed looking at a project and trying to figure out how it was done. So this week when I saw a wonderful image on Pinterest I thought- I will try to do something similar. First I pulled out a lot of green roving. After adding some leaves I cut from gold ribbon, I placed them on some wash away and drizzle some yarn on top of the whole thing. After placing a second bit of wash away on top to create a sandwich I started stitching everything together. This will take me a while to complete, but I am looking forward to this little challenge.

New Work I am all done with the assembly of the background for this project. But when I added the Tezel on top I did not quite work as I though it would. Then I looked at it in gray scale on my camera and realized the Tezel heads are too small and too close in value to the background. The opposite of what I did with the Jack in a Pulpit project. So I took the heads off and created new ones that are bigger and have a bit of orange in their color to create a contrast with the background. They work a lot better. Now I will need to create a new background for the first heads. I am going to test myself by creating it in the same size as the first and see if I can make it work with just a value changes.

Sharron’s Challenge Sharron and I purchased the same kimono( the stuff in the center) last year and have a challenge to created something with it. I pulled some fabrics that I think work well with this fabric and will start a project soon.

Creative Assistants I finished off a new batch of these little fellows this week. I need to really get going on them as I do not have much of a tribe yet this year. I want to be able to give them away at QBL this summer and not leave anyone out so I need to get going.

Label Block # 105 I think that I only need to do fifteen more and I will be done with this step of this project.

Keep Creating

Carol

Circle Challenge IV, Circle Challenge V, Circle Challenge VI, Collage Based Work, Felt Work, Label Blocks, Three Jacks

English

January 26, 2017 admin

Hello,

I was looking at how the light shown off this tree against the gray sky and liked the sheen there. That lead me to think of all the different words we have in the English Language to talk about light. Objects can have gloss, glint, sparkle, luster, shimmer, flicker and glow. Light as a concept expands our language to make it more colorful too. We can see the light. Things can dawn on one or we can have a flash of inspiration. There are bright folks as well as dim wits. One can have a brilliant idea. There are many more examples of words related to light that are a part of our language that we use to describe a lustrous world and I am enjoying that.

I went to an opening at Onondaga Community College yesterday were Jill Doscher talked about her fiber work. She talked of her process and how she grew from a printer to a fiber artist who dyes her own fabric and prints on it too. It was great.

I also checked out the Scholastic Art show that is also on display there. The teachers are doing a fine job with their students.

Progress Report: Small Spill This work is 12” X 12”. It is my usual construction but I did not use any wool roving on this work. I did use parts of a silk scarf I hand dye painted about fifteen years ago when Barbara anduse to get together and play with art ideas one a week . There are also some yarns that were free motion stitched down to add texture.

Blue Too This stretched work is also 12” X 12”. I played with taffeta, metallic fabric and organza on this one. I also stitched down purple candy wrappers because the color was what I wanted. The candy was from the bed and breakfast were I stayed with Marty and Rosalie last summer. It’s a fun way to add a personal memory to this work.

Three Jacks This work is ready for the frame now. Judy gave a big frame and glass that I will try to add this work to. I enjoyed doing all the machine embellishing on the Jacks this week. Lots of wide satin stitching.

Color Challenge VI This work is 15.5” x19”. I am enjoying the exploration this challenge is giving me.

This is the last piece in this series were I will have three of the light colored circles on its surface. But change is suppose to be a part of the process.

Color Challenge V I only need to tack the last two facing ( brown at the top and bottom ) and add the sleeve to this work to complete it.

Color Challenge VI I am doing the quilting on this one before I add the bead work. I am not sure how this will effect that aspect. This is suppose to be a challenge and a place to explore……

Felt Studies I did three more studies in felting this week. The pink uses organza ribbons as well as the wool roving. The orange used silk and organza scarves and roving, plus a bit of candy foil. The green got it sheen from Angelina and a bit of taffeta. These ideas are all from the book Stitch, Fabric, Metal and Mixed Media.

New Collage work I needed to do a bit of piecing this week so I went back to the collage based working idea and found an old collage( from Sept) to build a work around. The orange marbleized sections are Ethel’s work. The yellow and pale blue are mine altered fabrics.

New Work I started another stacked fabric work this week. I enjoy the process so much I can not seem to stop doing it. Building the surface it time consuming and so transformative.

Ice Dying I did yellow ice dyeing this week . I like the softer colors here. There is also a bucket full of the next batch that I need to wash out today. I used yellow and turquoise- and learned that the turquoise takes over. I will try again after the next snowfall to see if I can mix these two colors and keep some yellow in the final fabric.

Label Block # 104 I keep stitching away.

Happy CHinese New Year Sat.

Keep Creating

Carol

My friend Judy gave this to me last week. It smells heavenly.

Challenge III, Circle Challenge IV, Circle Challenge V, Circle Challenge VI, Five Jacks, Label Blocks, Three Jacks

Value

January 20, 2017 admin

Hello,

As the image shows I am still struggling with Value. Thus far in my own study I would say that value works best in strong contrast- or at least it is easier to see. Gradation limits the ability to see value, or perhaps that it is just more difficult to label. I can see that I really do not know what I am exploring. A good thing I think.

FAB meant this week. Patti was/in really into knitting hats this month. This red one is for a newborn and will go to the hospital.This second one if for a friend who is going to Washington on Sat.

Nancy is still working away on the Blue Bird quilt for her Mom. She had concerns about her boarders. The striped boarder will be followed by a cream one. It is good to have folks to explore ideas with.

Progress Report: Five Jacks This work is 20” X 31”. It is stretched on bars that my friend Tanya gave me. The final work is pleasant and I enjoyed doing the piece a lot. Applying the jacks this week was fun. I added color to the body of the jack with water color pencils that I then heat set. Because I knew I was going to stretch this work from the start, I also used paper as part of the material in the background. The dark brown jacks were all created with a wide statin stitch. Wools, velvets and a rust dyed green silk scarf were also used in this piece.

Three Jacks I finished the leaves on this work this week. The jacks in this piece are made from brown velvet.

Circle Challenge III This work is 16” X 19.5”. I only need to press and add the sleeve to this work and it will be complete. I like the horizontal hand work on this one. The beads add interest too I think.

Circle Challenge IV I am almost done with this piece too. I am back to quilting in the circular patterns in the background. I introduced a darker orange to the triangles as I needed a higher contrast.

Circle Challenge V I am changing things again with this work. Because I do not have any more of the light fabric that I used for the faced little circles, I tried using the dark orange that I used for triangles in number IV. I also dropped the triangles all together here. I am still machine appliqueing down the circles. The may move about yet.

Circle Challenge IV The same can be said for this layout. The tilt is the biggest change. Again most of the circles are free floating at this point.

Bird Block This is just a start for my entry for the SAQA auction. Not at all sure were I am going with this one.

New work 1 I pinned up this new blue work and have just started doing the free motion work. I am sure it will change with time.

New work 2 This piece like the other is small and in an early stage. I do enjoy this part of the process a lot. Its so fluid.

Red study I got a book for Christmas called Stitch, fiber Metal &Mixed Media by Alysn Midgelow-Marsden. This is one of her exercises using mostly felting on red velvet. I am so rusty with the falter I broke three needles and did not have any replacements so I had to stop and order some new ones. I do like who it is going however.

Label Block #103 And the bead goes on as they say. One more done and only seventeen remain.

Keep Creating

Carol

Challenge III, Circle Challenge IV, Five Jacks, Label Blocks, Name Game, Three Jacks, Wendy and Mark

Word of the year- Value

January 12, 2017 admin

Hello,

This is a shot of Caramelized from the Foundations show at May Memorial. The opening was Sunday and there were about 100 folks there. I was thrilled by the positive response. I even sold one of the works. It is a great space to show work as the walls are nice warm wood and the space is very large.

Rosalie Dace gave me this card of gray scale and pushed us to lay out our fabric for a project from light to dark to see the Values in class last summer. I feel I have not paid attention to this idea enough in my work so VALUE will be the word I concentrate on this year. I plan to make a poster with that word on it to hang above my pin wall to help me keep the idea front and center.

I also made a little promise to myself that every time it snowed more than an inch this winter I would do some snow dyeing. This is the first batch. I love the wild patterns and the color mixes. It snowed again this week and that next batch is reds and pinks. They are drying on the line now.

Progress Report: Wendy and Mark- Name Game This quilt is 50.5” X 45”. It is the main reason I am doing the word Value- because I feel this does not work as well as it might. The shapes are strong and I like how they play together- but there just does not seem to be the vibrancy that I was hoping for. One needs to expect that there will be second rate work sometimes. The important thing is to learn from the mistakes. It will be a fine lap quilt.

Circle Challenge II This little work is 16” X 19.5”. It flows well. I am enjoying the challenge of using machine and hand quilting together as well as the bead work.

The projects are small enough that I get to move onto the next idea quickly.

Circle Challenge III I really like the darks that are a part of this one. The addition of the triangles also makes this one more interesting I think. I am ready to add the hand stitching and feel that this time I will fall back to normal quilting thread.

Circle Challenge IV I did the circle on this base before I really did the hard looking at the Challenge III. It laques the power that the dark gives the work in the other piece. I will keep that in mind as I add the additional shapes to the surface.

Three Jacks These are my Jacks for this project. When I got them done and drew the leaves I realized they would cover too much of the background I had built and its power would be lost. So I created a simpler back ground for these Jacks. This is still not simple- but I think I can make it work for this project.

Five Jacks So Three Jacks became Five Jacks. The flowers are much smaller and they dance along the bottom edge of the rock face I had designed. It is ready to be stretched now.

Bird Square I started playing with the the few little birds leftover from a previous project. It is at an early stage and will change with development.

Label Block 102 I just keep at these little squares and they keep getting completed without much effort. I am starting to think about what will come next when this project is done in about 18 weeks.

Keep Creating

Carol

PS. One more shot from the show.

Circle Challenge, Circle Challenge 2, Diva Meetings, Label Blocks, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Three Jacks, Wendy and Mark

New Beginnings

January 6, 2017 admin 1 Comment

Hello,

In the deep cold we are experiencing now, I think of the wonderful warmth of spring and the new beginnings that a new year makes on consider. New sketchbooks, new book keeping, and new calender’s are all part of the new start for 2017. I am working on choosing a new word for my focus this year too, but have not decided quite yet. Sue Ellen at the QuIG’s meeting was thinking of spring too with this new Hosta leaf pillow she shared. The machine work is wonderful. The Diva’s also meant this week. Because of the show that Donna is hosting for us there was lots of talk and work for that event. I served as transport for work for Noel and Sharon as both could not attend. Sharon kindly gave me a little gift in the form of one of the book marks that she makes for her booth. I like it. Regina has been doing a lot of indigo dyeing. ( look at that pile) Cheri had two new pieces for the show as well as to share. She also does such nice little surprises for the backs of her quilts that I am sharing one of those too.

Ruth got into a traveling trunk show for SAQA and she showed us the new wave she did just for that. I like the waves out to sea too. Then there is the wonderful foam under the wave. It is really a strong work I think.

Lliese had a wonderful piece to share with us as well. This piece is much bigger than she usually works.

I hung my Solo Show yesterday with the help of Steve and Lynne. Preparing for this was a good experience for me as I got to really look at the body of work. I have been on this earthy foundations work for about three years now. We hung 21 pieces and I took 24 home with me that we did not use. I like having a choice. It is a beautiful place to display and I enjoyed doing that step too because of the wonderful help.

Progress Report: Circle Challenge 1 I am pleased with how this turned out. All the parts seem to work together for me.

Circle Challenge 2 This second challenge has different colors in some of the strips and the rotation is different. Three additional colored circles remain but the parts of the solid yellow circle have been dropped and replaced with four triangles. I am ready to do the bead work now .

Name Game Wendy and Mark I am all done assembling the strips of this work now. I made the back the other day and I am now ready to add the batting and begin quilting it.

Three Jacks I have finished the background of this work. Then I did some research followed by some drawing. The paper patterns are enlargements of the sketch. I still have one more to do as you can easily see. I could not find the color fabric in my stash that I wanted to use so I had to purchase the green on Tues at Quilters Corner when I was there.

Bird Block I am playing with some leftover bird cuts from the Bird land quit here. It is always a little challenge to see if the remainders can become something on there own. I am thinking now that I will balance the birds with some free motion bushes based on this sketch book drawing. They have such a light feeling that I feel they can balance the heavy birds on the left.

Label Block # 101 I am working away on these little blocks. Only 19 more to build now.

Keep Creating

Carol

Circle Challenge 2, Cotton Candy, Dead Horse Canyon, Felt Work, Label Blocks, Name Game, Uncategorized, Wendy and Mark

Numbers

December 29, 2016 admin

Hello,

We are racing now toward the end of 2016. In thinking about the end of the year and closing my book keeping, I become very aware of numbers. Because I am still enjoying Ethel’s fabrics I only purchased 38 yards of fabric this year and most of that in half yard units. The first for the Label Block project for this year was block # 34. This week I completed block # 100 so that is 67 blocks for the year. A bit more than one a week. I make pillows and fill them with the cut off bits of batting from the trimming and squaring off of quilt work. This year I completed 9 pillows. I donate quilts to almost every organization that asks for them and this year I gladly gave away 13 to such deserving origination’s like Ronald McDonald House, the Art Rage Gallery and my local Public TV station. I am still ahead in that game as I completed 59 on my own creations. I use lots of thread in my work and this year and I emptied 65 spools. I was a part of 5 quilt shows and I am looking forward to my solo show in January. I participated in 4 challenges. A good way to stretch ones self. I was rejected from 7 competitions. But I keep trying. I wrote and posted 37 blogs this year too. This year has been a full one with lots of things going on in my quilt life. Looking back, I feel that 2016 has been a good one for me and I hope you can say the same. I hope that I can face 2017 and handle the challenges it presents as successfully as I did this year.

Progress Report: Aunt Shirley’s Quilt This work got shipped off to it’s new home on Monday. I hope it gets to my Aunt before her birthday Jan 2.

Cotton Candy This work is 12” X 12”. It seemed to take me a long time to get to this little work. I just kept shuffling it to the bottom of the pile. The colors are so very different from what I am working with at the moment. But once I decided not to try to make it into one of my rock works it was easy and enjoyable. I will try again for rose quarts later.

Name Game- Wendy and Mark This work has gone through a major change sense last week. I added Mark’s name- (he is Wendy’s husband)- because the Wendy section was not enough. Still it is not something I look forward to working on. But I felt the same way about the one I did last summer where I used my own name. Perhaps that is the nature of this project. I am still shuffling the strips at this point.

Dead Horse Canyon I have been calling this wool work 1 for the last few weeks. That just does not cut it so I selected a name. This name comes from a childhood play area near my then home in Carroll Iowa. I have been thinking about it a lot of late and though this could be a tribute to all those memories.

New Work This is the newest rock based piece. I used gabardine for the base and I also added fusible inner facing to the back. That extra body has some real strength. I really like how it is not a warped as the wool piece above.

Circle Challenge 1 I have finished the hand circle quilting on this work now. I am ready to add the facing and finish it off.

Circle Challenge 2 With the end of Circle Challenge 1 in sight I put in machine quilting work on this one. I now feel I need to work on the layout for the third in that series now.

Scrap Happy I am working with the scraps from Ethel’s box this week. She had a whole stack of batik samples and they are all 5” square just like the ones I made for my quilt in the fall. So I am using them with some old and new 5″ squares for this new top.

Label Block # 100 As the big Spiegel label ( upper left corner) shows I am still using labels that are not all current. I just enjoy the process.

May the new year bring you joy and creative times.

Carol

Circle Challenge, From Dry Falls, Label Blocks, Pond Water, Red Nebula, Spotted, Wild Patches

Supporting a Friend

December 16, 2016 admin

Hello,

It’s a brisk 10 degrees out side this morning and the heat from my neighbors chimney is clearly visibel.

My big event for this week was to be a support a person for my friend Noel at her Trunk show at the Schweinfurth on Sunday. This shot is of Donna and Noel.

As it turned out most of the work was displayed on the walls and I only ended up holding a few pieces. It was very impressive to see most of her wonderful work hanging toghther.

These works represent years of effort on her part and they show how she has taken an idea that she loves and run forward with it playing with new color approaches and ides along the way. She even explored using an artist’s work as a jumping off place for some of her own work. I sure cant tell what work is based on another artist. A lot can be learned from this process.

She dyes most of the silk she uses in her work too so there is an extra layer of personal involvement in what she does. It is one thing to see works by others one and two at a time and quite a impressive and wonderful thing to see them all together. I am glad she is a friend.

Progress Report: Spotted This work is 39” X 38” and is one based on a collage. I am seeing the end of this type of exploration for a while. Doing one a month is not necessary any more. Not only have I learned how to build a work without strait lines I feel my quilting has improved with this series of projects. I also feel more free in my approach to design.

Red Nebula I am getting ready for a solo show in Januray and as a part of this process I am looking at older works. I did this piece a while ago but did not finish it. I decided to stretch it and add it to the mix of possible works for the show. Working with older pieces and doing this additional work makes me want to return to this subject and do further exploration.

From Dry Falls This work too is one I did over a year ago. When I check this piece for the stack of works to be considered I discovered that I had not stitched the label to the back. So I had to do that to complete this project.My labels include the title, size, my name and add.

Pond Water
This work has not had any attention for a few weeks and it too came to the top of the pile this week. I am enjoying adding embellishments to the top with hand stitches. I have seven pieces that need hand work on them at this time so it may be a while before I finish this one.

Wild Patch This work is in the washer at the moment. I have stitched all the patches to a solid purple background fabric with may raw edges on the top. I want to see if the frayed parts add a texture that I can use and control in my work.

Circle Challenge I This is a personal challenge I am working on. I want to use circles as a stronger element in my work. I am to the hand step here and the threads on top are what I am thinking about using for some big hand stitched lines on top to hold the work together.

Circle Challenge II

This is the second on in this challenge. More circles and I am still using the cut away as a part of the design. I will trim it to the same size as the first one. Beyond that I have not made any decisions about this second work. I know I will have to make some modifications as I am out of one of the fabrics in the circle section.

Dog quilt Our local dog pound has called for little quilts to add to the metal cages that the dogs are put in to add to there comfort. I had started the quilt, but lost my intention so it was just a top. I thought it would do better to go to this cause then sent in the box of UFO’s.

Label Block #98 One more done. I am happy to say my embroidery thread stash is shrinking as I work on this project.

Keep Creating

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Circle Challenge

The Leaves

Home from Sisterhood Retreat

Winter

Working time

English

Value

Word of the year- Value

New Beginnings

Numbers

Supporting a Friend

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer