Category Archives: Daily Practice

Spring Retreat 2018

IMG_0797 Hello,

The big event for last week was  the Schweinfurth Spring Retreat.  This time I was in the dry studio as I seem to have a lot to catch up on and I did not feel I needed to work wet again.     As is the point of these little retreats we all worked away on our own challenges.  This first shot is of Linda quilting a piece for her self.  She finished it and pin basted seven more baby quilts that she had waiting.  Liz spent the time doing a mystery quilt that the guild is doing.  She was weeks behind and did accomplish a lot. IMG_0814   Nancy spent the week end building a quilt for one of grandkids.  Linda S. worked  thread painting/quilting on this owl and a hand painted sea shell.  She does such beautiful work.    And so detailed!IMG_0824Kitsy  worked away on these two projects.

One of our usual participants  is fighting cancer so we all make blocks to put into a quilt to encourage her to wellness.   Each block is to have a W on it.   Liz went a bit crazy  and did five.   I brought mine block all finished.IMG_0795

 

Maureen was  in the wet studio and she did some beautiful shobori work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I worked on more thread painting and use of wash away techniques that I learned  from the class I had  last fall.IMG_0823he branch is  from the class and made thread painted  birds to be a part of that project.       The intensity of doing the tight work  with the  sewing machine , made me tense.  So I did two scarves as a

a way to relieve that tension.IMG_0812This green one has silk paper along with yarn ribbon and sequins on itIMG_0844  The brown one has lots of ribbons and yarns only.   IMG_0849I also did drawings for several other birds. 

Monday I went back to the Schweinfurth to help take down the “Both Ends of the Rainbow” show.      I picked up and returned several of Sharon’s pieces tooIMG_0798  It has been a busy week.

Progress Report: Dill   This work is  12 “ X 12 “.   The seed heads are beads that were IMG_0842stitched on top of the thread painted dill plants, that were stitched onto a wool and fabric background.IMG_0840      Then I stretched the piece  to finish it.    I enjoyed the process.

Asters  I am to the stage where I am ready to add the flowers on to this work.  I am doing the petal’s now  and will add the faced flower centers on top of the 1/2” petals next.  All is done with raw edge applique.

Fiddle Head Ferns   The fiddle heads are all done and the background is ready for the addition of actual open fern leaves now I think.

IMG_085212” X 12”    I am starting work on my entry for the SAQA  12X12 auction.     At this time it is only tacked up.

Altered garment    After purchasing a great jacket in Florida  with lace applied to it –  I wanted to alter a jacket of my own.  I am auditioning lace on this coat now.     I  have a great collection of old lace and tatting that my    grandmother and aunts did.   I will give these works a new life with this project.    Again things are just pinned down and nothing is stitched.

IMG_0854Daily Practice   I just keep adding stitch work to this top.   They are adding up but not to the degree that I want yet.   But that is to be expected as this is only the second week. 

NecklacesIMG_0831  I stopped at Jo Ann’s this week and because I was tempted and the beads were 50% off I purchased some.   I told myself I would make at least one necklace with them using beads from my stash.IMG_0833   These two necklaces are  the result.

IMG_0850Parts     I did make two more patches for the parts project.   It is growing slowly too.

Cards:  Talk   One of the best things about friendship is talking and sharing fun, problems and pain.

 

 

 

 

 

Layers   As I age I feel like  I keep adding layers and layers of experience on top of one  another.   I wonder how much gets buried this way?

Keep Creating

Carol

April Melt

Hello,

We are deep into the spring melt in this part of the world.  Eric and I stopped at Chittagong on our way home on Sunday to check the falls.  It was  so loud that we had to yell at one another to be herd.  The  experience sure was an adrenaline rush and all we did was look and feel the spray on our faces.     Water is a powerful force in nature.

IMG_0763This week was the first Tuesday of the month so I had meetings.   QuEGs meant at Angela’s house this time and we had a lot to share.   SueEllenSue Ellen is making twin bed quilts for her nieces and nephews.   This one is for the six year old and I think he will like the bright colors.

NotebookCorrine is doing leather notebooks now and this is just one of  five that she shared.  They are beautiful I think.

Sally is doing a wonderful flower series and she had four of them to share with us. Her hand work is beautiful!

Then I went off to the Diva meeting with Noel. IMG_0769   This shot is one of her fabric collages.    She said sometimes it takes an hour to find and eyebrow  for a piece.  What a challenge.

Liesa is knitting puppets for her grandchildren.  This one sure has personality. IMG_0778

Lori is doing a class where she is making lots of samples of stitches.  This work fits her life at the moment. IMG_0780   It is good to have a reference points  for further work.

Regina took two felting workshops this month and did great projects.    As is her style she jumps into things with both feet.   I think this shawl is   beautiful.IMG_0777In workshop  2 she learned how to create a bag.  This is her design and it hast two pockets in it.  One on the inside and one on the back.     She felted the handle too   I sure am lucky to have such talented and stimulating friends.

Progress Report:   Asters

The leaves are all attached now.  I made faced circles the size of quarters for the centers of the flowers this week too.  Now I am ready to begin the purple petals for those flowers.

 

 

 

 

Dill  I am ready to add the seed heads on the tops of the plants now.  Then I can stretch   the piece and do the finishing.

 

 

 

Memory Map: Carroll Iowa   I painted the street map and the outside of the house on organza  this week for this project.  Now I need to work on the other parts and add them too.  I will not stitch anything down to the base until I have them all in place so I can shuffle them  if I need to.

 IMG_0790Fiddle Head Ferns    This project is creeping along.  I got the idea to feature  the Fiddle Head Ferns  last week at the Social Art meeting when one of the women though  my Indian Pipes were the ferns.  So I did a bit of research and they are a similar shape although quite a different color.     I dyed the white pipe cleaners  green and wrapped them part way up with a green fabric to create the young ferns.     I think it will work when I build up the background a bit more and add mature ferns too.

Daily Practice II  This work is nearly complete.     I seem to be  at a  sort of at a stand still  on this one.   So I will pin it to the stretcher bars before I stop  work to see how it appears.    I hope that action will tell me what needs more attention.

IMG_0791  Parts   I am still building little units for this project.

IMG_0788  W Block  This block is for a group project were each block is to have a W in it.  It for a friend who is battling cancer and the W is to represent wellness.      I plan to free motion write lots of word of encouragement around the letter.

 

Collage  13IMG_0782  I just keep working on on collages and sorting my paper collection.

Cards   I got a little carried away this week.   I was still so full of adrenalin when we got home from the falls visit  that I made this card in  no time.   One can never tell just what will inspire one.

    I    then rushed forward and did Perhaps  followed by Extraordinary.     Sometimes one just is  just the conduit for the  art action.

Keep Creating

Carol

Busy Week

 

Hello,

The birds are returning!   If you look carefully at the photo and follow the stratus tree  to the top you can see the little song bird who was singing his heart out one day last week.   It sure give me hope- then it started snowing again. Carol Admac  I went to the Schweinfurth this week and was delighted to find work by several of my friends including this wall sculpture by  Carol A.   It makes me happy.   There was also a Finger Lakes Fiber Artist meeting this week.     This piece is by Pat.  She is challenging herself to use only two pieces of fabric  to create a new series.  It’s a great idea.   Maureen  Maureen is doing wonderful dyeing work.  These are three of the works she showed us.  Marcia finished this wonderful piece too.  Her strong graphic images always blow me away.

 

 

 

 

Progress Report:  Radiating Joy

This work is 38.5” w X 45” l.     It is one of the first works in this series that uses one big piece of commercial  fabric as the background.

IMG_0590  The many colors in the hand dyed fabric are strong enough  to stand out from the complex pattern.    The hand dyed is an Ethel fabric.

IMG_0592  The colors work for me and I do get a joyful feeling when I look at this piece.

 

Purple Asters    I just keep working on the vanes of the leaves here.

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Memory Map: Carroll     I have moved to  the painting step on this work and done a few sketches for the parts I want to add on top to create the piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FrozenIMG_0576 This work is going slowly as I have mislaid the photo that was the start.   I add one line of ice and then have to stop and look to see if it needs more…….  It is moving along slowly.

Dill     I am not at all happy with this piece.  The plants were done on wash away and applied to the felted background.  But the there is not enough contrast for the plants to stand out or the background is too busy for the frail dill plants.  I will get some feed back from my fellow artists- but it may be a work that needs to be tossed.

Glyph IV      I am done with the beading.  Now I only need to finish the vertical line quilting on this work.   It is very heavy with all the beads at this point.

IMG_0593New Work    I pulled these fabrics to start to build another quilt.   There are  lots of my hand dyed fabrics here that will get mixed with some commercial  fabrics .

 

Daily Practice II  I am nearly done with this project.IMG_0579 There are only a few more details I want to add and I am sure I will get them done this week.

New Work:  Daily Practice     For the next Daily Practice,  I wanted to challenge myself to work with orange and purple.   The scraps are from Zapped.  I did not change the shape of any of the scraps from that project.  I just had a good time shuffling them until I came up with this layout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Collage 12    This is the newest collage.  I did some machine stitching on this work too as I had done one another a few weeks ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cards: Believe  IMG_0564  I am fascinated by the flight of  birds and this hawk is a  beautiful example.    I find the fact that birds can fly amazing.

 

 

The Dancer  Movement is such and important part of  life.  And dancers do movement with such grace and beauty.  They too have my admiration.

I am off to  visit with Susan and Cris in Florida next week, so there will be no posting for the 22.   I will be back on the 29th of March.

Keep Creating

Carol