Category Archives: Machine Drawing

Daily's, Diva Meetings, Foundations XVII Granite, Foundations XVII Obsidian, Foundations XVIII Rusty, New Iris

National Choclate Chip Day May 8, 2014

May 8, 2014 admin

Hello,

I hope everyone is enjoying a choclate chip cookie today. What a wonderfully silly thing to make a national day. Not sure of the origian of this idea, but I am sure the cooks approve. As do those of us who will eat a cookie for any reason.

This week contained the first Tuesday of the mouth so I had meetings. The QuEG’s meeting was great with lots of show and tell. Sue Ellen showed us this wonderful book/ album/portfolio of all of the fish quilts she has done this year. What a great way to present your work. Corrinie is not beading on this wall piece. I sure love the semenate. Linda and I showed the fabrics we had created in the soy dyeing class from last month.

Then it was off to the Diva meeting on Tuesday evening. Anne and Ruth had both taken a workshop with Gwen Marsdon. This first one is Anne’s take on the processes. I like how crisp and clean Anne’s work always is. She limits her color and uses it so very well- something that I could afford to learn a little be more of.

Ruth chose to try all the techniques and plans to assemble them into a sampler type thing when she is done. As is usually true in a class each person puts their own stamp on the final outcome. They both had a good time too.

Spring seems to bring a lot of workshops to all of us as Donna took one as well on Encostics. She came away with three wonderful images and I found it difficult choosing the one I liked best to show here.

Liese continues to wow us with her wonderful little dioramas. This one she finished up on Earth Day (April 22) and it is her statement about all the pollution in our Oceans. I really enjoy her little people- they are so very animated and full of life. She told us this work was the center piece for the dinner table on Earth day too.

This meeting marked my fifth anniversay with this very diverse group of gals. I so enjoy them and I drive home with my mind spinning with new ideas and inspirations every time.

Foundations XVII Obsidian 34" X 33.5 $400.00 — Foundations XVII Obsidian
34″ X 33.5
$400.00

Progress Report: Foundations XVII Obsidian This quilt has many different fabrics in it. I used some denim from my husbands pants in one area. There is velvet, silk, cotton, taffata and nylon fabric here too. I made my choices based on the colors that I saw in the rock ( there are lots of reflections due to the nature of the stone) – it did not matter what type of material it was. The process also involved some fibers that I purchased years ago without any knowledge of the content or type. I was delighted by the color then and I still am. I am glad to finally find a home for some of them. There is some aposistory fabrics in this too. the textured gray black show here was on the piano seat Mom covered when I was in Jr high. I m glad to find a home for it too.

Foundations XVIII - Rust 26" X 42" $385.00 — Foundations XVIII – Rust
26″ X 42″
$385.00

Foundations XVIII – Rusty This quilt has lots of old fabric that was intended to become clothing. The rust colored wool was purchased for an a-line skirt. I am still struggling with the irregular shape and the high point at the top of this quilt is still a problem here. I though I had it sloved, but that proved not to be the case. I plan to add some stays in to that section today. I am not surprised as there are always new problems with unexplored territioy. This first close up shows some fabric that I rust dyed. I did break a needle when I tried to free motion through the three layers of the rust dyed fabric. I do not know why, but I fear that even though I did wash it when I finished the fabric there still could contain a bit of residue . Again I used lots of different fabrics on this piece. Wool, velvet, cotton and the back side of taffata can be seen here. I am enjoying the process.

Maya’s Tee Shirt Quilt I finished this quilt this week too. It took me four hours to do the hand stitching on the binding of this project. It is a queen sized quilt. The free motion work on the blocks was the most enjoyable part for me.

New Iris’s This top is now ready for the quilting step. It is a little too much like a very nice background at this point so I will need to think carefully about how to go forward on this project.

Foundations XIX – This is the new pinned up section for the next work. I love the wonderful moss green fabric that Noel gave me a few weeks ago. This mossy stone is the outgrowth of that feeling. I feel the striped fabric that is the base for this one is still too strong so I will keep building on top of it.

Daily’s My storage box for these little exercises is almost too full so I think I will end this series soon. I want to move on to another idea as well.

Keep Creating.

Carol

PS I am off to spend a week in Paris so there will be no post next week. Look for lots of pictures the following week.

Daily's, Electric, Green Grow the Grasses, Scrap Happy, Scrap Happy Quilts, Smoke

Knowing when to stop. March 27, 2014

March 27, 2014 admin

Hello,

One problem I often face when I paint is not knowing when to stop work on a painting. So I often go too far and add that extra tree or bit of red and then ruining a work because I am not be able to repair the problem…… I usually do not face that with my fiber work because I can pin things up and nothing is permanente until I make the final decision ans sew then down. This week I seem to be filled with lots of doubt about this completion “thing”. I can not seem to decide if I am finished with either of the two Foundations pieces that I am currently working on. So I pinned then backward to the wall and have not looked at the surface for several days. I hope when I face them with fresh eyes early next week the absence will help me make the decision about rather to go forward or stop. There is one other little quirk in my mental state as I discovered a work I had folded up last fall with a similar problem. (This blue and purple work) Now it is easy to see that the there are really two haves to this work and they do not go together. So I think I will slice then apart and try to solve each half independently of the other. After I slice them in two I will be able to work with each half to see if I can save all or any portion of the work. I may still need to rotate the sections but as seperate units I think my chances of success are much better.

Progress Report: Scarp Happy I have been working on this bed quilt for a few weeks. It is done and has gone from my life. The woman from Prevention Net Work came yesterday and picked it up for their Spring Fund Raiser. This organization works to keep teen off drugs by providing alternate activites for them to work on. My grandson worked on a play with/for this organization a few years ago. I am glad to support groups that deal with teens.

Scrap Happy I also passed this quilt to a second auction. This Scarp Happy has a diagonal block lay out. It is going to the Meals on Wheels of North Syracuse for there benefit. I was assured that it will sell well and add to their coffers. Again I am happy to support this organization.

Electric This top really went together quickly when I finally got to it this week. I am now in the process of adding the quilting. I am using the silk screen printed fabric that I made as the inspiration for that quilting. It is fun- but very slow as I have to stop so often and change the direction of the stitches at sharp angles. No stitching line thus far is longer than an inch and a half and most are under a half an inch.

It is quite a slow process.

Green Grow the Grasses I am having a good time doing the free motion drawing of the flowers on this quilt. Some of the machine drawing is just on top of the print on the fabric and some is just my own creation. I have also added some leaves to the surface to add interest and varity.

Smoke I am still working away on this piece. Every time I think I am done with it I pin it on the wall at the end of the day and then look at it first thing in the morning before I turn the lights on. That is when I can see what the quilt needs and thus far that has been more hand quilting. One cannot rush the process.

New Work Then of course when I do not know what else to do I start a new piece. Seriously, I was not done exploring the slender inserts idea and this thing popped into my head just as I awoke the on Tueseday morning. So I am off and running with a new thing.

Daily’s These little works seem to be one of the constants in my life at the moment. Thank goodness for routine.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Foundations XI- Stream Bed, Machine Drawing, Smoke, Striking Gold

Changing Spring Weather March 13, 2014

March 13, 2014 admin

Hello,

The Weather is full of spring surprises. Tue is it was sunny and 54 degrees here. I enjoyed my walk noting all the bare ground and seeing may birds. Wednesday morning it stared raining early and continued until about 8 am and then started snowing. By 3 in the afternoon I only did a shot walk as the snow on top of ice was a foot deep, slippery and the slogging was difficult. Today it is beautiful with full sun and blue sky’s- but a chilly 16 degrees with wind. Tomorrow it is set to be 43. All this snow and cold will soon be a memory as we all enjoy the wonderful changes spring brings.

Progress Report:Foundations XI -Rust and Rifts

Foundations XI Rust and Rifts 30" X 38" $400.00 — Foundations XI
Rust and Rifts
30″ X 38″
$400.00

I continue to truly enjoy this collage like process of assembling works. The chance to use so many fabrics combined with how one can twist and turn those fabrics as one works with them is so much fun. I like too the fact that I can just keep building on top of each section until I get the effect I want. This means that I can use yarns and threads to produce different types of lines across the surface. The free motion work adds so much freedom and direction to the surface.

This shots shows rusty velvet and the back side of one of the rusty colored fabrics. This second close up shows the several of the threads that I used on this piece as well as the tucked and folded fabric.

In this third close shot you can see the silk paper the frayed out heavy fabrics and threads that are attached.

Green Nebula. I finally got this felted piece framed. I think that is the best solution for felted works. I think I will work a bit smaller on the next one as so much of it is lost in the framing process. I did enjoy adding all the bead work to represent planets and stars among the green gasses.

The sequins on this piece are antique ones from my Aunt May’s sewing box. They are of a material that is not fractured or as highly reflective as most of the sequins that one can purchase today. I learned a little bit more about photography with this project. Both

closeups have flash reflections in the form of lines near the center and the full sized shot has a shadow across the glass. It seems there is always more to learn.

Foundations XI – Stream Bed I am doing the fun stage of this project now. I love the free motion work that all of the works in this series require. I like how the project leads me forward and how much time it takes, because the time means I put it up and look at the work in progress a lot. I am not real happy with the piece at the moment. I see that it is too dark- and the one tan area is far too square. All these problems can be changes and that is exciting to me.

Smoke This quilt sort of got away from me as I worked on it. I did not intend for it to become so large, but the gray silk units seemed to call for that action. I did fuse inner facing to the back of those same units as they were far too flexible and wandered around a bit with the seaming. I am now in the process of doing hand stitching on this one. In my typical style I am letting the surface tell me what to do next.

Striking Gold I am having lot of fun working on this piece. The base is one solid piece of fabric and then I added Lumier painted torn grown cloth on top. There is also a bit of orange nylon netting on the surface as well as fabric bits. I then did some hand work with some Taylor’s thread that my friend Judy had given me several years ago. I also have added some free motion bobbin work to the surface. (The zig –zag lines) I am enjoying working away on this project.

New Work All the snow covering the ground has brought my desire to work with spring colors back to the surface. Just pinning these up yesterday in the snow storm was cheering. I am going to really emphasis the green this time in the form of long lines to represent grass coming up.

Daily’s I think these little Daily’s are the reason I am doing so much more hand work then I have been doing past years. I just seem to get going on the square and the thing is done. So picking up another project is a very easy and natural progression.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Foundations IX, Foundations Series, Foundations X, Machine Drawing, Rounding up Green, Spring Iris's, Tropical Palms

Valentines’s Day February 13, 2014

February 13, 2014 admin

Hello,

Valentines’ day was always one of my favorite holidays, I am a romantic I guess. I never really had any big crushes on anyone as a child- but it was decorating the shoe box or the big envelope that all the exchanged Valentines came in that I enjoyed the most. When I was teaching I always had the kids spend a day making a Valentine creature- the only shape they could cut was a heart. Now the heart could be long and slender , short and fat- just what worked. We used the scarp box of construction paper so there was lots of colors to choose from. I loved the green heart frogs, black bats and other animals that the kids produced. This year I had some wonderful Mylar red paper so I started playing and made Valentines with it. I great fun and I put them in the mail yesterday. It really cheered me up as all the snow is getting to me a bit.

I did four entries for the 6″X 6″ fund raiser that the Rochester …….. does every year. I think it is a great concept/fund raiser were they accept small( 6″ X 6″) works from everyone who wants to particiat. The gallery t then sells them all for $20 each. I enjoy making my little petroglyphics stencils and stitching them to the backgrounds. I made four.

Rounding Up Green 34.5" X 38.5" $ 465.00 — Rounding Up Green
34.5″ X 38.5″
$ 465.00

Progress Report: Rounding Up Green This quilt was nearly completed last week. I was working on the facings last Thursday. I created the blue fabric a few years ago with a silk screen print.

This close up shows some of the dyed fabric and on the far left there is some commerically embrodiered fabric that was in my stash. I also used a bit of the fabric that I experimented with when I was preparing to dye. I really like the wildness of these “rags” and always find a good use for them in my work.

Tropical Palms 16" X 23" $130.00 — Tropical Palms
16″ X 23″
$130.00

Tropical Palms This quilt went together really quickly. I realized with this one that I am ready for spring as there is lots of fabric out on the cutting table that is in the pastel range- with a big emphasis on pinks. I had a very enjoyable time drawing the palm trees on this project. It did make me feel warmer too. The purple hand dyed fabric in this work is bye Judy Roberts. She does wonderful stuff in my option. I used the print fabric as my starting point for the quilting pattern. The biggest area needed a bigger tree so I improvised and mad the leaves of the tree with that section. The other quilting- all in a horizontal waving pattern- is meant to represent the rolling sands that I remember from a trip were I saw palm trees. I was tempted to add texture to the stump of the tree- but after doing a drawing first I decided that an addition like that would be distracting. Using my sketchbook is never lost effort and it really dose help clarify what needs to happen some times.

Spring Iris’s This is another one of my

Spring Iris's 17" X 21" $125.00 — Spring Iris’s
17″ X 21″
$125.00

responces to all the cold and snow. The big print that dominates this work was a piece of decorator fabric. I really liked the beautiful color work in the flowers and tried to emphasis that with my quilting. I also tried to spread out the limited bit of fabric that I had across the surface of the work to add to the movement of ones eye around the piece. There is some of the pink and purple fabric that I printed a few weeks ago in this work. After I did a few drawing in my sketchbook I free motion drew around the flowers and again with the same types of lines. I added some flowers using the same style in different areas of the quilt to make sure there was enough quilting to keep the work stable. I also did free motion work around the leaves and tried to push the garden idea even further with this action. Then as I did the clean up of the materials form this project I found another piece of the florial print so there is a place to begin another quilt with this theme.

Foundations IX 25" X 32.5" $285.00 — Foundations IX
25″ X 32.5″
$285.00

Foundations IX This quilt was nearly complete last week too. I just wanted more green it the work so I held it back until I had made that addition. I added treads I had pulled from some green silk and some green silk paper to get that additional color on the surface. The works in this series are highly textured and all the wadding and overlapping of the fabrics makes some areas very thick and others very thin, but I sure like the effect I am getting with this technique. The machine drawing adds to the texture and colors of the surface too. I am still using some of the fabric that Marty and I discharged last spring on these works too. The dark fabric with the light areas is one of those pieces.

Foundations X I pulled fabric for the next work in this series and this is my current selection. I may add some additional material and or subtract material- this is just a beginning pallet.

Daily’s They are still being produced. I only have a little more than a weeks worth of this layout left and I will need a new starting place for the next batch of works. It all goes together so quickly when one does a little bit at a time.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Diva Meetings, Golden Path, Maya's Tee Shirt quilt, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Tee Shirt Quilts

Snow February 6, 2014

February 6, 2014 admin

Hello,

It is a snowed like crazy yesterday and I just could not stay in doors. I had a good time waking in the deep snow. The going was slow as there was about 10 inches of new snow on the ground and it was falling very thick and fast. I walked a block from home and looked back- I could not see the house. I did enjoy the way the fire plug and several small pine trees seemed to be wearing pointed snow hats. I helped push a gal out of her driveway and the snow plow did pass by before I got home form my short walk. It is getting difficult to find joy in this long winter. But I console myself by remembering that this too will pass. The QuEGs group meant on Tuesday. There were only four of us but it was still a good time. Sally is doing some amazing stuff with her embroidery machine. She programed and stitched all of these bags herself. She said she wanted to test thread and needles. There was also a Diva meeting on Tuesday evening and again it was very stimulating. There is so much variety going on in the group it is hard to keep up. Cheri is exploring painting on canvas and really starting to make it her own thing now I think. She not only adds hand dyed fabric on top in a collage like process she is also doing lots of hand stitching on top too.

Lori is doing a wonderful job mixing machine work with hand embroidery on silk. This piece will be a real WOW when it is done. There are two folks exploring book making processes at the moment. Liese is working on a book with individual hand made fabric pages- she is not sure how it will go together at this point. Several pages are sun prints. One is marbaleized, and some are collaged. It is an engineering problem now. The other book worker is Alice. She is using an accordion book format for her works. One book is titled “We Love the Sky” and sun rise to moon rise are represented in her book as one continuing diorama . This image is of rain and storm followed by the rainbow. Her second work is titled ” We Love the Woods” and it too is in the diorama layout. I love how she mixes her painted parts with commercal fabrics and images. I find her trees really strong. Sandy is busy doing wonderful hooking projects. She has two works that are both landscapes that work as a set or stand alone. Her mix of sliced wool and yarn do wonderful things together is powerful. The work in small but this style works for her busy life at the moment. Anne went to a work shop in Vermont with Cynthia Corbin called Emerging Styles. She came home with a wonderful pile of great started projects. She discovered how important light is to her way of creating and that has pushed her into a new direction. I can hardly wait to see how this develops. Noel likes to use silk in her work and although this is an older piece it shows her wonderful handling of this some what difficult material. She does not fuse the silk to any thing either and that allows her to distort the material in the manner this shows. Ruth is still working away on her African symbols project. She is ready to begin quilting on this work now. I think it is very strong graphically. Needless to say I am all excited by all these wonderful works and ready to charge forward. I am so very fortuniate to belong to two powerful groups of creative folks.

Golden Path 29" X 30" $ 305.00 — Golden Path
29″ X 30″
$ 305.00

Progress Report: Golden Path This quilt really seemed to come together without much in put by me. I had all the stripped sections left over from another project and they were in the bottom of a box. When I came across the red, gold, and blue fabric last week it just seemed to pull the other fabrics with it. The big gold and white chunks of fabric are from the printing day I did a few weeks ago. I looked at the surface of this quilt a long time before I started quilting it. I decided to emphasize the square shapes in the center using a Greek Key pattern. I started quilting in the center making first one key and then another connected to the first using variegated yellow thread. I then stared outside the second squared area and built a second set of units. I continued to build until I had about a dozen keys and by then I had worked for an hour on the project. So I stopped. Before I began work the next day I looked critically at the work. It needed a bit of punch so I added a row of gold thread in an outline pattern all the way around all the created units. Thus the name – Golden Path- as it just leads one around the center units. I then switched back to the yellow and repeated the same procedure as the day before. I then added as second out line of gold and retuned to the yellow keys to the out side of the quilt. I am pleased with the results.

Rounding Up Green I am quilting away on this quilt now. I am using the same idea as I applied to Golden Path only I am using spirals. I create one and then from it I spiral out and create a smaller one next to the first and keep building the pattern out from the center of the work. I will not add a row of gold thread however. It is working without that addition.

Maya’s Tee Shirt Quilt I continue to work away on Maya’s quilt. I now have three rows completed. It is getting bit difficult to handle on the pin wall. I still have two rows to construct and then it will be time to start a back.

Scarp Happy I have been working on putting together scraps for about a mouth now. I decided to give myself a break for that and build a top out of the work. I cut the pieces into long 2.5″ widths and then added those pieces to 4.5″ centers. There are blocks with an Egyptian print center and blocks with a red print center . I am now ready to start creating rows for the top of this quilt.

New work-purple and pink I think the cold and whiteness of the weather is effecting my leaning toward spring colors at the moment. This one is just starting to come together. I am going to try to work in the 18″ X 24 ” format again. This is my first return to that format.

New work spring

I pulled out the fabric for this project yesterday during the storm in the morning. Again I think this is my attempt to think about spring instead of the cold all around me.

New work Foundations IX

This is a close up of the new work on the next Foundations piece. It too will be on a smaller format. All the green thread is unraveled silk thread from a woven section of fabric. The solid green and blue are silk papers.

Daily’s I do my Daily’s when I watch the news in the evening. I have been following that practice for a while now and my attitude about the news is much more mellow.

Keep Creating

Carol

Daily's, Lacy Roses, Maya's Tee Shirt Quitl

Happy Chinese New Year January 30, 2014

January 30, 2014 admin

Hello-,

The Chinese New Year begins tomorrow. It is the year of the Horse. Folks born in this year are said to be popular, cheerful, skillful with money and good with their hands. It sounds like a good combination to me. One of the few traditions that I am aware of is that oranges are a good fruit to consume tomorrow because you eat the whole thing and that will bring you luck. Eating something green is said to help with money items too. I enjoy learning about different cultures in relationship to days of the year.

There was a FAB meeting at my house today and we did metal embossing. We all ended up creating valentines and had a good time at it.

Lace Roses 21" X 26.5" $ 195.00 — Lace Roses
21″ X 26.5″
$ 195.00

Progress Report: Lacy Roses I seem to be running on a real high this week. I started this piece on Friday and it is done already. I did all the cutting of the fabric with my scissors instead of using the rotary cutter. Sometimes the distortions were huge- and then filling in those areas proved to be a bit of a challenge to me. The starting fabric is the red print that I created with fabric and a paper doily. I was a bit surprised when I printed this as I did not expect it to be as delicate as it is. I enjoyed the free motion quilting of the rose like shapes with the addition of leaves and spirals on the surface too. I used a variegated thread for the whole top.

Foundations VIII I am enjoying this collage like process of assembling quilts on buckram. As usual I did start with a sketch , but quickly pulled away form the drawing as I started placing the fabrics on the surface. The challenge I presented myself with of working in the smaller format does change my approach as I can do the tacking down of the parts much more quickly. ( check the image form last week) I again used silk paper on the surface as well as pulled threads and yarn bits. I like how the raw edges play across the surface too.

Maya’s Tee Shirt Quilt

I just keep putting in time on this project. It is moving along. I always forget how long it takes to created a queen sized top between the times I work on one to the next. I think it will be a very bright quilt when it is done and one that makes me smile.

New work Green I had so much fun creating the print fabric last week that I though I really should do a piece using some of the fabric that I printed. So this is the second thing I started this week. I pulled out the stack and this blue fabric from two summers ago and the green wipe up rag fell on the floor. I decided that I would use these two to get me going on a new work. The blue fabric was printed using a silk screen and the blue Elmer’s school glue. It is water soluble and as I printed with the water based paint the lines deterioated. That made for a changing image that I really enjoyed. It was fun as always fitting the pieces and color balance together too.

New Work- Gold I so enjoyed the challenge of the green and blue top,that I pulled out some other fabric and built a pallet for the next top. The red blue and gold piece of fabric is one I created with Ethel last spring using a wonderful technique were one sews fabric to thick batting with water soluble thread, paints the raised surface with wax and then adds dye. The dye sinks into the valleys were the wax does not go and dyes the fabric and when you clean up the fabric this is the result. I hope we do it again some time.

Daily’s I am working away on the Daily’s. The half circle plus the double line serve as great new challenges for me on this project. It sure is fun.

Keep Creating

Carol

Charlottes Shadow 2, Daily's, Foundations VII Fragments, I'd Reconsider, Pomegranate

Moon Light January 16, 2014

January 16, 2014 admin

Hello,

Tonight is the full moon, but last evenings moon light was beautiful too. The light was so silvery white through the sky light that I had to go to the window and look out. Most of the snow had melted, but there was still one drift in the back yard. The tree limbs cast beautiful blue gray shadows across the snow and my mind catalogued the colors and patterns for a new work. This morning I did a sketch of the idea so I would not lose the feeling. I can hardly wait until I have time to begin this new project.

Pomegranate 33" X 46" $535.00 — Pomegranate
33″ X 46″
$535.00

Progress Report: Pomegranate I am quite pleased with how this quilt ended up. All the shadow quilting around the fruit did have a pull on the seams- but I minimized it as much as possible by sewing in one direction all the way around and then doing the next pass in the opposite direction. All this action made for very slow work. I also added a spike every now and then to the pattern so there were some strait sewing lines too. I also tried a little experiment with the paint on this project. To give the fruit a little more “punch” I painted clear fingernail polish over some of the red seeds. I really like the transparency of the paint on this piece. It adds to the interest of this work for me. The paint is fabric paint.

I'd Reconsider 16" X 25.5" $145.00 — I’d Reconsider
16″ X 25.5″
$145.00

I’d Reconsider I spent a lot of time looking at this quilt before I started quilting on it. Titles are always a difficult thing for me. I had been calling this work Sunshine and Rust- but looking carefully at the surface-working out the quilt pattern- I noticed the eye shapes in the printed fabric. I decided to use those shapes as a starting place for the quilting. The shape was so easy to quilt and just seemed to flow across the surface of the work. Then when I started altering the size of the eyes to fill in the space it was even an easier process for me. It took on a life of its own and I went with that feeling. When it was all done the title of Sunshine and Rust seemed to be a major miss fit. “I’d Reconsider” seems to work a lot better for me. I have learned that I will not title a work until it is totally finished from this point forward.

Charlotte’s Shadow II I am to the quilting stage of this work now too. It is going to be more in the nature of the fabric that is the main material for this series. I have started adding leaves and finishing flowers on the top at this point. I will keep working away in this type of style until I have completed the work.

Charlotte’s Shadow III This is the third and final quilt in this series. As this shot shows I have only begun to pin some parts to the wall. I will shuffle them a bit before I begin to put it together.

Foundations VII- Fragments I am still quilting away on this work. It was pinned to the pin wall and when I came into the room before I turned on the lights yesterday morning I looked at the piece. With all the color washed to darks and lights by the laque of light I suddenly saw a section of the quilt that was not working at all. I had created a whole in the upper left hand side by surrounding a section with darks. When I turned the light on it was still there. My eye is still drawn to that flaw so I will begin the correction today. That is one really paint/college like quality of this construction method. I will build over the area that I find offensive a with layers of organza so I can keep the texture. This shot shows how I am building texture with yarn in one of the areas of this quilt.

Tee Shirt I have a new commission piece. It is a tee shirt quilt. All the images have been mounted on inner facing so they will remain square when they are seamed together. Sewing on double knit fabric is always tricky. I am now ready to lay them out and add the sassing to them so they are uniform in size- like building a log cabin block. That step will make assembly easy and simple.

Quilt Daily’s I believe the daily’s are getting more complex with time.

Keep your eyes open to the beauty around you.

Hugs

Carol

Blue Yonder, Daily's, Diva Meetings, Oak Leaves, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

November 7, 2013

November 7, 2013 admin 2 Comments

Hello,

The weather is still somewhat mild here. I find because I am working on the quilt with the oak leaves on it I am looking more at other oak trees too. This one is in the Oak Wood Cemetery were I walk some days. I Have noticed how different trees have differnt colorations. This old one is a deep red. The one along the drive is primary yellow- but that is only at the bottom, now as the top has turned brown. I have also observed that there are many different shapes to the leaves. I know that has to do with species differences. Some leaves are very sharply pointed like the one in my yard and some are all curves ends. I picked up one in the parking lot in Ithaca yesterday and not only were the ends of the leaves very curved the leaf had a really deep dip, almost to the spine, after the first vain from the base of the leaf. Mother Nature loves variation on a theme. I may have to get a tree book and do some serious study.

This week was the first full week of November and so I had my group meetings on Tue. Both were very exciting. The QUEGs group had severl members who had be to the big quilt show in Houston and they had lots of wonderful pictures and gadets to share. The Diva’s were inspirational too. Everyone seems to be so energized with lots to share. Ruth is working on a project using African simbiles as the bases for the block. This one sure is bold. She had also created a wonderful study using her style of expertly mixing batikand hand dyed fabrics. Cindy shared her amazing prints. She did them with the big Gelly Plate. She is now going back into the work and adding machine stitching in top. They are the faint red lines crossing the yellow in this photo. The work is very elegant. Donna was kind enough to bring her Alchemist Mask. I love masks and this one is a great one. She built it over the old store mannequin she has in her studio. The face is nobel. I like the life size doll eyes she put in the face too. They add so much in the way of focus. Alice is working on a Human Angles series and this is one of them. I am showing this image because she has a unique style of working were she paints the image she wants on the back of her cloth. Then she turn it over and lays a piece of black fabric on top. With the two layers together she flips the work to the back and sews around the image she has painted. So this picture is from the back. She then trims the black off the front along her seam lines and her images are outlined in black- her signature style. It is very cool I think.

This work with four figures is by Cheri. I especially like the unfinished edge she used here. They are a wonderful and inspiring group of gals who seem to be all working away in their own direction.

Progress Report: Blue Yonder This quilt is ready for quilting now. I have done my “stitch in the ditch” step after basting. Doing that makes the work stable for all the crazy directions I always seem to want to go. I have not decided what that free motion quilting will be yet.

Oak Leaves This is a close up of the project. I am having lots of fun making more and more leaves. I just love how the unattached body of the leaves casts such wonderful shadows on the quilt. They also flutter a bit when there is a breeze, like when I come in the studio door. There is a lot of texture here and I love that.

Daily’s The Daily’s are coming along. I now have a full cigar box of the little fellows and they are starting to look really impressive when on puts them all out. I still have ideas of layouts for the parts and shape and color changes I want to try- so I will keep the practice up. I also added a silly rule- no new purchases for this project. I am almost out of red embroidery thread so I will have to switch to crochet thread- I have several huge balls of that. I am sure that will change the character of the stitches. But that is part of the experiment.

Keep Creating

Carol

Curvie Cuts, Felt Work, Fossil Bed, Green Nebula, Machine Drawing, Red Nebula, Rock Face 1

June 27, 2013 More Summer Fun

June 28, 2013 admin

Hello everyone,

I am as busy as ever, but I have taken time to listen to the birds sing and enjoy the beauty of the summer season. Yesterday I went off to visit with my friend Ethel and we used the beautiful weather to spend a day dyeing out side. This shot shows one of the fabrics I dye painted. I can still feel the influence of the rocks and the water on what I am doing. Along with dyeing is the batching step. This small shot is of some of the fabric under plastic so it will not dry out. The last step is the rinsing out- a project for later today. I worked on 10 pieces of fabric so that will take me a while I am sure.

Fossil Bed 23" X 32.5" $ 188.00 — Fossil Bed
23″ X 32.5″
$ 188.00

Progress Report: Fossil Bed This quilt is complete now. I have enjoyed doing all the stencil work here. The last bit of embellishment that I did, was the addition of gold foil shells and then the little round stamps that I created at our last play day in May. In this second closeup the circle stamps are shown in orange and blue along with a second foil section. I also did quilting in gold thread. Susan told me that she want to see more images of the finished surfaces and so there is a third closeup of this quilt.This last closeup shows the brown stryophone stamped area with the quilting in gold too.

Red Nebula I think that I am done adding to this work. I need to decide now how I want to finish it. One of my works is off being framed now. I may want to do that to this work as well. I will know better when the framed work comes back to me.

Green Nebula I have only just started my hand work on this second felted work.
This piece has a hand dyed fabric backing. I am enjoying that hand work as always and this time I am using some antique pale green sequins on the surface.The sequins are from my great aunt’s sewing box.

Rock Face
This is my newest top. I got so inspired by my trip to Idaho and looking at all the rocks, that I just had to do a work on that subject. I got to use my newly developing skill with slender curved inserts too. I think this is just the start of a new series.

I hope that summer is treating you well and that you are enjoying the great out doors .

Keep Creating

Carol

Before the Bud, Canyon De Chelly- Mummy Cave ruin, From the Pavement, Greek Butterflies, Landscapes, Machine Drawing, Mapping the Ruins, Natural Elements, Urbam Beauty

May 23 2013, Spring Walks

May 23, 2013 admin

Hello Friends,

I have been out doing my walking in the early morning to make sure I really follow through. It seems so easy to put it off and then get

involved in other things. So I was not walking in the afternoon at all. Much better to start the day with the walk and it will soon be hot in the afternoons as well. Anyway it has been a glorious feast for the nose of late. What with blooming Honeysuckle, Lilac and a beautiful Dog Wood to mention a few I have really enjoyed starting my days with a walk. I seem to be more aware of the world in the morning as well so I am very glad that I have made this switch.

Friday last week I went to the Turquoise Street Studio and meant with some of the gals from the painting class from the weekend before. Deb had gone back in and did additional work on this painting of limes. I really think it works. This picture is of a new painting Deb did based on the class work too. The class effected all of us. This next images is of Beth doing a value sketch in preparation for a new pastel. The teacher had suggested using a gray paper sketch book so one only needed to do the tonal work by drawing in black and white. Beth is doing just that. I did hand work as I seem to take longer to digest the Value idea into my work. Yesterday I went to Ethel’s house to spend a day playing with silk paper. This photo is of Ethel mixing dye in preparation to the silk. Pam was also there and she did some fine silk paper too It was great fun and I created four different new sheets to use. I went with an eye to make the paper for a specific task and the results were great.

The gold sheet and perhaps the cream one as well are destine for one of the canyon painted surfaces I painted last week. The blue and purple paper I created because I wanted to see if one could add bits of yarn to the surface too. I think it will work well in a meadow idea I have in my head. It is always so much fun to work with others I always feel like I get so much more from these events then I contribute to them.

Before the Bud 17" X 26" $110.00 — Before the Bud
17″ X 26″
$110.00

Progress Report: Before The Bud

This quilt is completed now. I really enjoyed doing all the free motion work here. The colors really work for me as well. With this quilt I am changing my policy a bit. I am adding the price of the work to the image. After reading a third article were a buyer stated that she did not like having to contact the artist to find out about the price of work I decided to include that info in the image. Selling my work in not my goal, but I need the space so I will gladly do so. Besides for me, the act of creating is the most important part of the process. The Problem solving if you will.

Excavating the Ruins 21.5" X 31" $168.00 — Excavating the Ruins
21.5″ X 31″
$168.00

Excavating the Ruins
I have enjoyed working on this project due to all the great textures. I really like all the wholes here and that contrast adds a lot of interest to my eye. The map in white organza is of one of the cliff dwellings in Canyon de Chelly National Monument. In looking over it I though it needed a little more punch so I added a little petroglyph form the canyon for further interest. I found this little figure very fascinating.

Greek Butterflies 17.5 " X 25" $ 105.00 — Greek Butterflies
17.5 ” X 25″
$ 105.00

Greek Butterflies
I am very happy with how this quilt finally resolved its self. The lesson on Value came to play here when I took a second look at the distribution of darks on the week end. I had to take out some of the piecing and insert some more dark near the bottom before I was happy with it. I also realized I need to add something to the light block in the center of the quilt. So I drew in a butterfly of my own using the photos as direction. I added color after I had out lined the image. I was concerned with how to quilt this work. I knew I wanted to out line the butterflies but had no idea beyond that. I toyed with the idea of making the rest of the quilting a reflective of that outline pattern, but was not sure. So I then it hung on the wall for several days before I saw a photo of moth trails in Pinterest. Then I knew that was what the quilting patterns should be. I find this quilt to be very up lifting and the quilting pattern adds to that idea in my mind.

Mummy Cave Ruins
This shot shows a possible layout for the additions that I am planning on adding to this painted top that I started last week. On the far left is some of the wonderful silk paper that I created yesterday. In my origional photo there is a wall of stone that is in the foreground and I wanted to capture that feeling to some what frame the ruins. Hanging on the right is some painted inner facing that I may add to make the rocks a bit more colorful. Again I have added the oil stick stencil drawings to this work surface. I need to do some free motion work on the parts I am sure of before I know what will go where and if the places where they are pinned at the moment is the final location for them. Make visual decisions – Visually.

Urban Beauty – From the Pavement I was doing hand work on this at the Turquoise Street Studio last week. I am enjoying building up textures on this surface. The base units are lutador that has been painted with Lumiar paints and the white is gesso. ( lutador is a type of spun ground cloth that can be found at some hardware stores this time of year) I then melted it a bit with the heat gun to melt and distort the surface. I have done free motion drawing and the hand stitching to add to the complexity of the surface. I am not sure of were the work is leading me so I hang it often an look at the progress to know what I want to do next. This makes the process very slow, but worth it I think.

New Work
This is an attempt at a new direction. Sense I seem to keep getting hit over the head with this Values idea( even read about it in a book this week) – I thought I better pay attention. So I designed a block ( Check the light blue section in the lower right) . I tried to keep light med and dark in the same area- and did three different size variations on the block – small ( lower write) a little bigger ( lower left- this one is also turned 45 degrees) and large( look at the turquoise section) This is all new territory for me when it comes to designing and I am not sure it will or does work at all. But I want to stay sharp and open to new “roads” so I will keep playing- the challenge is the thing.

Enjoy the wonders of the season.

Hugs

Carol

Cre-8

Category Archives: Machine Drawing

National Choclate Chip Day May 8, 2014

Knowing when to stop. March 27, 2014

Changing Spring Weather March 13, 2014

Valentines’s Day February 13, 2014

Snow February 6, 2014

Happy Chinese New Year January 30, 2014

Moon Light January 16, 2014

November 7, 2013

June 27, 2013 More Summer Fun

May 23 2013, Spring Walks

Creative Fiber Collage Artist Carol Boyer