Category Archives: Hand work

Hand work, Lap Quilts, SAQA, Trees, Uncategorized

Moving Forward

Hello,
It has been a quiet week with family and yardwork being where most of my energy went this time. I am also pulling materials for a three day silk screen workshop that starts tomorrow.
Progress Report: Lap 16/26 This work is nearly complete. I have a little quilting and the binding to do and it will be done. Nice bright colors for the gloomy day I started it.

Night Tree I am enjoying working on this block. Making lots of fly stitches for the branches here. I hope to get so inspiration for the next tree block soon.

New Block I drew out this block a few months ago and then put it aside. I came across it again this week and blew it up and did the drafting of the templates. I like the block parts- but this sample block has too many different pieces and graphics to be effective for me. I will try something else with this one later.

Shoreline Wash Up I keep working away on this project. It is starting to feel like it is moving in the direction I want. I am still not thrilled with it so I glad that I will have my mind in a different place during the workshop this weekend- I hope that brings me back to this project with fresh eyes and I can see where I want to go with it.

Fungus There is my play with the SAQA Fungus Challenge, I am fooling around with caroche around the plastic units that hold soda bottles to create some interesting high relief forms for that purpose. It is a pure experiment and it seems to have a life of it’s own. But I enjoy it.

Liberty Loss I’m moving forward slowly on this project. added the purple mountains and trees this week. The fields of grain are pinned in place Too. The city will complete the background I think.

Enjoy the season,
Carol

Hand work, Lap Quilts, Shows, Trees

Noticing Nature

Hello,
Nature is really all around me of late. This family of Canada Geese crossed our path as we walked yesterday. Then this morning we saw a skunk in the back yard and an open blue Robin’s egg on our walk. I love the great things that appear in Spring.

I went to the Art Rage gallery on Thur even and enjoyed the show on Plastic in Our World show. This use of detergent bottles was my favorite.

Last Friday Cheri and I went to the Genesee Valley Quilt Show in Rochester. FLFA was well represented. These two works are by Bev.

Jean won two first place ribbons for her work. This piece looked really great and the washboard musician from last fall was the other pieced. My Plastic Silverware was part of the NY/ NJ SAQA show too. We had a great time and saw some old friends on this trip.

Progress Report: Lap 14/26 I need to finish the quilting and add the binding on this work. I will do that today so I am showing it for the last time today. I will make another run to the nursing home on Tue and it will be gone.


Lap 16/26 I pulled all these bright colors for the next lap on a very gran and gloomy day this week. They cheered me up.

Night Tree I appliqued the moon on this next tree block. I will stitch the tree in this week.

Liberty’s Loss I am struggling with how I want to do the background for this piece. I seem to be a bit overrun with ideas. I may just have to do them and make the decision visually. Sometimes that is the only way to go forward.


Doll Pins I played with applique by adding scraps to water color paper and doing free motion stitching on top to distract myself from the Liberty project and made some more bodies for the pin project. Sometimes distractions helps.

Blue I need to do this handwork at my desk because of all the beads and such so it does not get attention on a daily basis, but I am making progress on it.

I am enjoying spring and I hope you can say the same.
Keep Creating
Carol

Applique, Hand work, History, Lap Quilts, Trees, Uncategorized

New York City Trip

Hello,
I hope you are enjoying spring. I am now home from a three day trip to NMYC with my daughter. First stop was the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. It was inspiring, haunting and informative. Some parts were beautiful and others brought me to tears. They have done a great job with the whole thing including information about the other two sights. The two exterior pools representing the buildings were beautiful as well.

From there we walked to our hotel in Chinatown and checked in so we could drop off our back packs as we had packed light. Then off to the National Tenement Museum. There we took one of the five different tours they offer about the early livers of immigrants in this country. Ours was about a 15 year old girl’s immigration from the Irish Potato Famine and her life here. The tour was in an actual old Tennent building- three rooms 250 square feet, fifth floor without running water. That was only in the well on the ground as well as the out houses for all the building. That space was shared by as many as ten people. It was fascinating and when the guild told us there were 62 layers of wallpaper on the walls- I was amazed.

We did a lot more locations on Thur. Started out at Castle Clinton- the first fort that was built in NYC during the revolutionary war.

Next stop was at the Museum of the American Indian. Again good history lessons and beautiful examples of tribal clothing, pottery, basketry and living implements.

There was also a wonderful exhibit of modern native American art glass makers.

We moved from there to the National Monument of the Negro Cemetery. This sculpture is made from a study of three skulls that were exhumed and then reburied. We got another history lesson. We then walked back to Chinatown and visited an old Jewish Synagogue- that is now a museum. The same area had one been populated mostly by Jews when they first migrated to the US. It too was full of history and beautifully done.

After dinner we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. Lots of people were there and lots of vendors selling tee shirts and other travel trinkets.

Friday we donned our backpacks and walked to the subway where we rode up to 153 street. We got off there and walked to the Hudson River. First stop was Hamilton’s Grange, another Natural Monument. We watched a great movie about his life. We did not tour the house as it did not open for tours until noon. Wendy is on a quest to visit all the National Parks and Monuments- there are 433.

So we then walked along Riverside Dr south 20 blocks to Grant’s Tomb. The visitors center there had a great film and was full of info too. I’ve filled in lots of gaps in my knowledge on this trip! We walked from there back to another subway stop and rode down to 42 street and did Time Square. It’s a real visual overload and very crowded event in the afternoon.

Went to the Port Authority and caught the bus to come home. We walked over 19 miles over the course of our three days and I’m still a little tired.
I am slipping back into my home life feeling glad and thankful for it.

Progress Report: Confused This work is 43″ X 52 “. I enjoyed working with the metallics on this project.

Crow Calls I started this at the retreat and only got back to it this week. It is 20″w X 16″ t. I tried a new mounting technique were it is taped to the stretched canvas. I feel a bit like it is cheating, but I will reserve juidgement until I see how it holds up over time.

Lap 12 I seem to be really rolling along with these lap works of late.

Lap 13 For this lap quilt I used only leftover strips from old lap projects. I have lots more and will do this again as they are fast projects.

Lap 14 For this work I used some of the hand printed fabrics form my dye class at QBL three years ago.

Lap 15 Here is the next lap project. I used some old wipe up fabrics from print projects for this one. I now have seven completed so I will be making a trip to a nursing home soon to deliver these.

Cheery Tree Block I finished this before the trip.

Stenciled trees Block This project was my started to get back into being home.

New Project I can’t seem to go to long without a hand project. I sure love playing with texture.
Hope you are creating with joy.
Carol

Applique, Birds, Drawing, Experiments, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Paper Dolls, Raw Edge Applique, Trees

Spring Openings

Hello,
Spring is a magical time as every day brings changes in the plants around us. Each time we walk we can see differences in our the world. The opening leaves on the trees keep filling in the long views and offering beautiful delicate leaves for one to view instead. I love this time of year.
It has been a quiet week with a few Zoom meetings and a FAB luncheon.

Progress Report: Confused This work is going well. I have appliqued down all the parts and the quilting is done too. I am working away on the binding and will finish it soon.

Lap 11/26 In my usual fashion I moved directly into the next lap quilt as soon as number 10 was done.

Unicorn I have appliqued down the silk head for this project. I added color with markers and colored pencils. I hope Alexis will be pleased with the results.

Jean’s Challenge This is the forth and final piece for challenges. It is not due until September, but I felt inspired to work on it. I may add more as the deadline gets closer.

Crows This is the second bird work I planned to work on at the Spring Retreat. I used a mix of the raw edge applique and some seaming on this background. It is almost ready for the applique of the birds. I feel I may play a little more with this style and make my own. On to the birds next.

Doll Pins I continue to assemble these little gals. I have put together 104 at this point. I still have lots of bodies to add to so I will go forward. I am shooting for about 225 for QBL with some to spare.

Walnut Shell Drawing The squirrels have been busy eating up their winter supplies and dropping the shells in my path. I came home with a pocket full earlies this week and so I did a little sketch work.

I will be off in New York City with my Daughter next week so there will be no post. See you again May 14.
I hope the spring brings you delight.

Keep Creating,
Carol

Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Paper Dolls, Trees

Close Call

Hello,
I hope everyone is enjoying the wonders of spring as much as I am.

Driving home I nearly hit a squirrel.     It made me recall the time I had a close call with a dog as well.  Just how many times in the course of our lives do we experiences these near misses with disasters, both big and small.   We delude ourselves into thinking we have control, and we do to a degree.   Like I can choose to linger a bit by putting the cup in the dishwasher and in doing so, my trip down the usual road to an event may mean I miss the big accident at the cross road.    One will never know for sure.    The  choice to take this class or that may mean that we miss or meet a special person  who could change our lives.   We can only go on faith and past experience that good and positive things will continue in our lives.
I directed the Finger Lakes Fiber Artists meeting on Saturday. We had a good time and enjoyed some great work.
Ann provided this great abstract pieces for us.

Jean M did this strong photo like image of a harbor. It has amazing detail.

Sharon also presented a photo like wall quilt of some birch trees. This is in progress.

Linda is doing thread work with her personal photo images that she blended.

Karen, one of the new members shared this piece along with six others.
It was a good meeting and folks left feeling inspired.

Progress Report : Near Misses This work is 33″ w X 43.5″ tall. Again I am using the crystal block as my pattern. I realized this week that although I was very careful to increase the size of each piece of the pattern, I did not figure in the fabric consumed by the number of seams when I made them. Realizing that I know understand why the points did not meet. I have enjoyed working with the pieces none the less. I will have to ponder on how I can make alterations if I want the blocks to meet in future designs.

Lap 10 26 This top is all done. I will follow through on it next week.

Cherry Blossoms tree block The flowers are filling in on this tree ever so slowly. I need to add a trunk as well.

Little Doll Pins I am making these little doll pins as gifts for QBL later this summer. I have given away all but 10 of the Creative Assistants and this is my new attempt. There are lots of parts to these gals so I many only do it once.

I am off to the Spring Retreat at the Schweinfurth tomorrow so there will be some new starts next time.
Keep Creating
Carol

100 day Challenge, Experiments, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Stretched Works, Trees

Spring

Hello,

We are feeling the warmth of the spring and days of longer sun shine.   My little brother died this week and that event has brought home how important it is to care for ones health.   I sometimes want to avoid my exercises in the morning and not take a walk,  but I know those actives and eating healthy are an essential part of  being able to continue my creative life.    For me that is my joyous goal in life.  With that in mind and the spring  weather, I feel I can push forward.

Progress Report: Ocean Organisms   This work is 24″ X 18 ” and stretched on canvas.    It is highly textured and has lots of found objects.  I am preparing for a solo show in Aug and the space is not conducive to quilts.

 

 

It also has lots of texture on the surface.   I crouched the urchins for another project, but decided that did not work there, so they became the jumping off point for this work.

 

Shore Line Tree Block  I finished off this  block this week.  The tree crown is all created with turkey work stitches one on top of another in various greens.

 

 

 

 

Cherry Blossoms Tree Block   I started this work yesterday . I pinned down a pink woven organza and I an building  flowers on top .

 

 

 

Block On Block  This is my experimental project.   This became my  new 100 day project.  I was trying to find a new way to use scarps, so I places several on top of one anther and stitch through them with an X or cross stich with the machine.    Then I stitched them together with the raw edges up.   It is all in the washing mashing fraying out now.  Or I hope that is what is happening.   It may be a disaster, or a wonderful success, you will have to check next week.

 

 

Pins   All the pages of fabric layered papers  are cut into the dresses of my pins.   I have started building the hair and head units.

 

 

 

 

 

Lap 10 /26  I pulled these fabric for the next lap quilt.  I wanted to do something a bit more masculine this time.

 

 

 

 

Close Calls   This work is one using the crystal block that I invented.   Ready to layer and start quilting.

 

Make wise choices this week and keep Creating.

Carol

 

 

100 day Challenge, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Trees

Quiet Week

Hello,

Things have quieted down this week.  I only had to pick up my three works from the library show .   The 100 day project continues.     I did finish up  Flowering Field.  I enjoyed working on all the radial designs for this one.

 

Then I started the next piece for the challenge.    I’m calling it Red Rings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report:  Lap 9/26   I only need to do the handwork on the binding and this work will be complete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ocean Organistic   I am doing the handwork on this project  and it is slow, but present work.

 

 

 

New Crystals  This new crystal block project will have twelve blocks instead of the nine of the previous three.    I am rotating them too. Hopefully it will give a very different look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shore Line tree block    I have not put in much time on this work yet.     It will grow as I fill it in.

 

 

 

 

 

pins   I thought I would  make some little doll pins as gifts for QBL this summer.  I machine stitched down scraps and bits on water color paper and have started cutting the bodies.

I hope spring is bringing joy and delight to you.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

100 day Challenge, Fabric Collage Constructions, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Hand work, Natural Elements, Trees

Spring Feelings

Hello,

It has been warm here for several days.  I notice the longer days light and I am adjusting to daylight savings time.  I went to   Ithaca with Sharon  last Friday to shop for new fabric.    Great fun  and I  only purchased some fabric for my Alexis project and back grounds.   Yesterday I was out for the FAD meeting.

I continue to work on the 100 Day SAQA projects.  I finished #2 on Friday.    I did more exploration of the fancy machine stitches here and added buttons for more embellishment.

 

 

 

Then on Sunday I started the third project made with Angela’s fabrics as my base.

I am doing fancy thread and such embellishments on this one.   I put in an hour a day on this project so I can work on other things  too.

Progress Report: Leaf Litter  This work is 24″ X 18″.    The leaves are ones I dyed in Pat Pauly’s class in the fall.

 

I  enjoyed working with Angelina and felted cut offs to fill in more on  this work.

 

 

 

Lap 7-26   This work is almost completed.  I only need to finish the binding along the bottom, so I am calling it done for this week.    All the print fabrics are from a bag full of fabrics that my friend Linda passed to me.   I made a person assignment to do several lap quilts with her fabrics as starts.

 

 

Lap 8-26   This project also started with Linda’s fabrics.   All the prints are hers.

 

 

 

 

 

Tree Series- Night Tree block This block is all but done too.  I know I have a  pearl moon that I want to add to the sky and I know I will do so when I find it again.

 

 

Natural Crystals   This is the third work using the crystal blocks.  Each block is a different layout of the fabrics, but all are facing the same direction.    It is ready for quilting, but  I have no idea of what I want to do for that yet.  Ponder time.

 

 

 

 

New Handwork   I had pulled a lot of pinks and purples for Leaf Litter, so I used them as my start for this work instead of putting them away.

Easter Pins  I went off  on a bit of a tangent on Monday and played with attaching scraps to paper with the machine.  The I cut the project into eggs and added pompoms as tails .  I will pass them out to friends

I hope  you too are enjoying the crazy weather shifts of spring.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

100 day Challenge, Broken Blocks, Hand work, Trees

New Beginnings

Hello and Happy New Year,

I enjoyed the holidays, but now I am into the new things this year requires.    Last Saturday was the first full moon of the year- a Wolf Moon.

I was busy over the last three weeks and I did finish up the muffler I was crocheting.  I have worn it with all my shoveling of late.  The double quilt is done and I am working on a second with that broken block.  The Tree project is going forward nicely and I am on day 8 of the SAQA 100 day challenge.    My job for yesterday was to go and pick up my work form the QAQ show at the Schweinfurth.  I also dropped of the entries for Sharon, Marty and myself for the Both Ends of the Rainbow Show.   Then I stopped at Bett Library and dropped off three works for their Cabin Fever Quilt show that opens in Feb.      So on to the progress report.

Progress Report: Polk Berries    This quilt is 29″ w X 41.5″ l.   I finished it just after I posted last in December.   The base squares are my Broken Block pattern.  I really like how they work.

The berries are made from ribbon my friend Marilyn gave me in the spring.    I really like how it came out.

 

 

 

 

 

Graffiti      This is actually a shot of the back of this quilt .   The front is done of course and it is made  with the broken block pattern that I created a last year.   I finished this yesterday and will based and quilt it next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jetsam   I can not let this technique go, especially when the Joyous Embroidery class is starting a send run.  This shot is about one third of the work.

 

 

Tree Project   This tree square was completed just before Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 I was so inspired I moved right along to do a second Christmas tree with more jeweled beads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I moved on to doing a bare tree that I finished just yesterday.     I want to try a more abstract applique tree next.

 

 

 

 

 

Pink Crystals    I am quilting this project now and will finish this week I hope.   This is my second attempt at this block .    I still have a lot to learn here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SAQA 100 days   This year for this challenge I decided to do all the suggested projects in the  “Fabric Embellishing  The Basics and Beyond ” book.   I purchased the book in 2010 and never really focused on it so here goes.    I am on day  8 and so far I am only building backgrounds as the  book suggests.

 

It has been enjoyable to review process like fabric weaving  and crazy quilt squares as starters.  A new one for me is fabric scrunching.   That process involves wetting the fabric and twisting it and allowing it do dry that way.   I am still waiting for it to dry out so I can unwrap it .

 

I am feeling happy about next year and hope you are as well.

Keep Creating

Carol

Broken Blocks, Hand work, Ice on Vincent, Lap Quilts, Tide Pools, Trees

Year’s End

Hello,

This morning when I was laying in bed after awakening, I realized this would be my las post for 2025.  I will not be posting on Christmas day- a week from now as I will be with my family.  And the following Thru is Jan 1of 2026, again a holiday and no posting.  Do enjoy  both of those  holidays in your own fashion.  My thoughts went on to do a bit of a review of this year.  It has been and an outstanding one as for me and my art works.     I have created  45 pieces , 25 of them my lap quilts that I have given away.  I have enjoyed working on them and I will continue that tradition as it has a helpful purpose.    The most of the other  works are arI quilts.  I  have enjoyed lots of recognition  this year.

I started last January with the La Moyne show with my fellow artists Sharon and Victoria.     There were four works  of mine  in that show.    This was followed by the Betts Branch Library  Cabin Fever Quilt show and  my first quilt talk for the year.       Then in June I had my Solo show for  Associated  Arts at the Manlius Library.     That show included 20 works all of the composite stitched works that I have be pursing the last few years.

  I have realized this year that I have been inching in this direction for a long time, but   I seemed to need a bit of encouragement in that form- it came from  the on line class Joyful Embroidery, with Fleur Woods for me  to see that.

My next be event was having my work accepted into the  SAQA Fire Competition.     It  will travel with that exabit for four years and visit many museums and shows across the world.

 

In the spring I did a trunk show for the Thumbstall Quilt Guild doing a history of my work.( this work was in that display)

 

 

 

I did a second trunk show for the Marcellus Modern Quilt Guild titled “Were do Ideas Come From”,  where I talked about inspiration. “Ice on Vincent” was a part of that talk.

 

Then my Green Tide piece won Best of show at Assonated Artists in Sept.  ( The only full shot I have of this work has too many pixels, for the program to accept, and   I seem to have deleted  all the smaller versions. )

 

 

 

 

 

The run of successes continued with my piece for Contrast  the SAQA New York- New Jersey Regional show,” Plastic Silverware. ”  That was in Rochester in the early fall and was in The View at Old Forge.   It will be in several other shows and end in the Genesee Valley show next year.

 

My work “California Burning- the Victorian ” was also a part of the Quilts Unlimited show at  Old Forge.

 

The work” My Year” was accepted in the Q=A=Q show at the Schweinfurth and is hanging there now and will be up until  Jan 6, 2026.

Sunday ,the 14, I did my last Trunk Show for this year.  It was at the Schweinfurth and my theme was based on the  fact that a fellow quilter, after seeing ” My Year”- said,” I didn’t know you did handwork. ”   All the pieces in the talk had handwork in them.   There were 19 pieces in this presentation.

 

 

To my delight one of my friends is purchasing this work after seeing it in my talk.  It has been a bumper year for me and I will be hard press to keep that up.   But I have enjoy the recognition.

Progress Report: Flotsam Jetsam    This work  is 24″ X 18″.  I continue to enjoy creating these Conclamant Reliefs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Handwork    This work is starting from leftover and cut off pieces so it too is a Jetsam piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linda’s Lap # 26/25  This lap quilt grew of of a bag of cast off shirts from my friend Linda.   I will pass it back to her when I am done.  It is enjoyable work as it is so very colorful.

 

 

Double Quilt   I am doing the binding on this work now.   I am about half done and I am sure I will finish it soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Muffler     I try to put in five plus rows  in  every day on this piece.  I have 20 inches at this point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tree Project # 3     I thought that I was done with this work , but when I shot it this morning I thought it needs more.  A bird perhaps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tree Project 4   I am enjoying doing this Christmas tree a lot.   I have an idea for  second one too.

Broken Blocks    I cut ten inch blocks from this run of fabric for my next Broken Blocks experiment.  They were part of a pack that the creator thought went together- I can sort of see it, but I would never have selected them on my own.    I am trying to stretch myself.

 

 

 

Crystal Blocks#2  I pulled these fabrics to use with a second quilt using the block pattern I created.  This time I will do a traditional setting where I put the same color in the same location in each block.

 

 

Snowmen    I made these little pins to cheer folks up after the holidays when I see them again.

 

 

It has been a wonderful year and I look forward to more creative work in 2026.  May your holidays be full of good cheer and may you make some wonderful memories.  Until next time –

Keep Creating

Carol