Category Archives: SAQA

FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Fish, Hand work, Nine Play, Pixies Group, Plants, SAQA

Spring Closing

Hello,

We have slipped into a real summer like feel here in central NY, even though summer does not officially begin until next week.   Most of the early flowers are gone and the  spring  ones that are still around are looking a bit shabby.   The seasons move so very quickly.     We have moved our walks to early morning as it is cooler  too.   The beginning of the walk course is were the hills are and  at the middle we start down.  Then this last stretch is  about 14 blocks on mostly level ground.   I always fins it a great meditative time.

I had three events this week.  The FAD gals meant on Monday and Sharon shared her completed blossom work.    I have enjoyed watching this one grow.

 

I made it to the SAQA lecture on Wed and there was a Pixie meeting too.

 

 

Progress Report:   Stamps   I finally got going on cutting the new stamps this week.   Now to do some printing.

 

 

Lavender Level     I made lots of progress on this little sea piece.  I am using lots of the free motion and wool roving techniques from my class last  summer.

 

Flower Garden   I built some additional thread work to make more flowers.

 

 

 

 

This is picture shows the  roving before I do the thread work to hold it all together.  This will become some sun flowers- I hope.   The base is built so making the actual garden will be gin soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Dragon Fly   I continue to work on this hand project in the evenings.    It is progressing slowly.

 

 

Pillows    I was doing some more spring cleaning and found a  few unfinished pieces so I decided to complete them.  I have now made two into pillow cases.  I will  stuff them and then sew them  up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Asha”s quilt   I am all ready to quilt this project.  The heart print around the out side is polar fleece that will be a the back of this work.

 

 

 

 

Nine by Nine by Nine     This top of 81 little one inch squares in neutral colors will be the base  for some free motion portrait work I want to do.  I was inspired by the Genesee Valley Quilt show for this project.

 

I hope you  are enjoying the  pleasant days and nights.

Keep Creating

Carol

Collage, Flag Challenge, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, SAQA

Half Moon

Hello,

This evening we will see the flower half moon in our skies.  Change is such a constant  that one can forget to notice.  I did  notice the cottonwood seeds piling up along the road today on our walk.  “Summer Snow” was what Nick called it in his childhood.   I even caught one of the little white things as it drifted to earth this morning.  I guess  I am paying more attention that I thought.

The week has been a full one with a trip along with  Liz to Marcia’s for another play day.    Joyce had her newest doll  called “Holding It Together.” We all sort of feel that way now days.

 

 

 

 

 She and I also started Bog Coats at that time.   I am struggling along on it now.

 

 

 

 

 

My good friend Joyce  Holman had an opening on Saturday at the Art Rage Gallery.       I really love her work.   So much action  and great color.

 

 

 

 

 

I did the homework for my Naturally Inspired class as well.  We are [painting backgrounds at this point.

I did the SAQA on line lecture on Wed and attended the  Pixie meeting too.

Progress Report: Ethel 5   This is the last piece that is made with blocks that Ethel started.   I did have to make some to finish this, but I used her fabrics to do so. I feel a bit sad to close this door, but it’s time I guess.   Her fabrics are all integrated into my own stash at this point, but I still look of batiks and think of her.

Lap #8  I am working on getting this piece fully quilted at this point.  I am sure it will be done soon.    It is made up of blocks leftover from the 100 day BV project.

 

Lap  #9  I am to the binding step on this project.

 

 

 

 

Lap #10     Off on another  bit of play with this new lap work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Work  I am still building little nine patch works as a background.  Progress here even though my original goal has been cancelled.

Purple Washup    I was not happy with the melting of the Tyvek on Wash Up, so I used ink to color the surface this week  and started a new  piece with it.     The ink allowed for lots more distortion of the surface. 

 

 

 

 

Collages  I got busy and worked on collages on Sunday.   These are the results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Handwork  I have been doing a little handwork on this piece.  It is a leftover form the Joyous Embroidery Class.

 

 

Flag  Susan’s assignment from a few weeks ago inspired a new flag having to do with the environment.

Enjoy the seasonal changes and keep Creating

Carol

 

Foundations Series, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Re Work, SAQA

More changes

Hello ,

My daughter gave me flowers for Mother’s day and they are beautiful.   This could be jumping off place for  some new work too.

Nature keeps amazing me.  The red bud from last weeks photo has dropped all its blossoms now and has little green leaves instead.  Both the oaks and walnuts have bloomed and leaves are forming.   They are about three inches long at this point and so very delicate.    It is such a wonderful time of year.

I shipped off five lap quilts to my Aunt for distribution in her  nursing home.   It is good to have a goal.

This week has been quiet here with only two meetings.   The Pixie Zoom group meant yesterday.  We always talk of interesting things and catch up with one another.

We had a play day at  Angela’s this week too.    We were  doing Shbori with watered down inks.     Victoria did some wonderful work.

Angela showed us her most recently completed work too.  She dose wonderful hand work.

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report:  SAQA Auction.    This is my   12’X 12″  entry for the SAQA Auction this year.     I do so enjoy doing them.

 

 

 

 

Lap 5   I quilted this piece this  week and I am now in the process of stitching down the binding.

 

 

 

 

Lap 6     This work also got totally assembled   this week.  The quilting is all done and it too with get the binding worked on this week.

 

 

 Lap 7  I started a new lap quilt on Monday and I only have a little of the parts to fill in now.

 

 

 

 

 

Ethel 5     I finished the binding on this work yesterday.   Now I need to do some diagonal quilting  and it will be complete.

 

 

 

Shore Line      The Tyvek  I painted last week did not melt much .  I think I used too much paint.  It is  was still fun to knot it up with additional stuff like old belt buckles and beads.   I am in the process of stitching it down and adding beads to the surface.   This work is  built on top of  one of my rock pieces  from the foundations series.

I love the season and all the changes that are happening.   Life for me is great.

Keep Creating

Carol

100 day Challenge, Collage, Felt Work, Hand work, Pixies Group, SAQA

Cold January

Hello,

It is cold here in upstate NY.   Were I live we did not get much snow, but a lot of wind.  There are lots of limbs down here.   Friday was a very nice day however and I made a trip to the Schweinfurth to deliver my Three Witches work for the Both Ends of the Rainbow show.   I also delivered the work to two other folks .   I made a stop at Artistic  Impressions and dropped off some work for her.   On the way home I delivered nine lap quilts to a nursing home.    Then last stop, was at the Bette Library were I left three quilts for their Cabin Fever Quilt show in Feb and March.  It was a busy day.

I went to Barbara’s opening on Sunday.  It was great and lots of folks were there.   She however was not and is still under the weather.     Hope she gets well soon.

The Pixies meant as usual and Robert had some wonderful images to share.

I continue to work on my Finding Fragments class work .    I have added stitch work to both of these collages and have ideas for more .

 

 

 

I started the SAQA 100 day challenge for this year on Monday.   I decided to challenge myself to make four new block design over the course of the time, putting in 25 days on each.  I  want to make the blocks in three sizes and mix and match them  in the final work.     Today is day 4 and I have six blocks arrange in this photo.   They are twice as long as they are wide so they can be arranged in may ways.

Progress Report:  Tidewater Pool  This project is nearly complete.  I only need to decide how I want to finish it- by binding or framing.    I am anxious to start the next too.

Ethel 2   All the rows are attached to the back now and I am ready to do the boarders that I cut yesterday.

 

 

Past Times   I have not quite got the lace stitched down for the second block for this project.  But i am moving along.

 

 

 

Joyce Project   I uncovered this project when I was deciding what work  I wanted to take to the Cabin Fever Quilt show.  I have decided to finish it for Joyce for her Birthday celebration later this spring.   This is her great grandmother’s  wedding travel dress and cape.    I am only appliqueing it down at this point.

Pillow   I finally got going on this long over do project to do another letter for the series.  It will become a pillow.

 

 

 

 

Valentines    Some Angelina came in the mail this week so I had to play with it.   I mixed it with roving and I made some raw material to cut up for Valentines this week.

 

I hope everyone is warm and well.

Carol

 

 

Diva Meetings, Drawing, Explorations, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Nine Play, Pixies Group, Re Work, SAQA, Sea Floor

The View

Hello,

     Yesterday Liz and I made a trip to Old Forge to see the quilt shows at the View.     It was wonderful.   I was so attuned to seeing composition after the show that I had to take a photo of the wall was we walked away.   Look for a work based on this in my future.

 

 

 I really enjoyed the shows and having work by people I knew only added to the enjoyment.      Marcia had one of her real beauties accepted .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Noel had two in the show and this one won First Prize.

 

 

 

 

Sue Ellen also had two works accepted in this show.    ( it is square the angle is my fault)

 

 

 

 

This quilt won the award for best use of color and it is the one I liked best too.   All the colors are done with silk.

 

 

Denies had a quilt in the Contrast QSDS show that was also on display at the View.

 

 

 

 

 

This week I also had a zoom meeting with the Pixies.   My Food entry for this week was  a Baked Potato.

Here is the accompanying story:

When I was about 10 my parents decided to go back to school and they did it in the summers. Gene and stayed with them in student housing in Iowa City for the fist week. It was not designed with children in mind and very desolate. When we went to visit our grandparents on the week end it was decided that we would stay with them instead of living in Iowa City. All that summer and for several others we would alternate between Dad’s parents on the farm in Morning Sun for a week and spend the following week with Mom’s folks in Grandview. As kids it was great for us. I recall one day when Grandmother Ruth had prepared baked potatoes as a part of dinner. Both Gene and I turned up our noses at that. Grandmother asked “ do you like mashed potatoes and potato chips?” We agreed we did and then she said “ Has anyone ever taught you how to eat backed potatoes?” Then she preceded to slice the skin and mashed it with a fork followed with salt and pepper. Then she topped the whole thing with of butter.“ Now try it.”  We both did We loved baked potato’s ever sense.

 

  The Quilt Diva’s  had a meeting on Tue and it was a fun and lively one.       Anne took a  class called “Forest Bathing” .   It was all bout slowing down and enjoying the environment.   She  then did a follow up drawing class with the same teacher.       We are  a malty  talented group.

 

 

 

This quilt was a challenge from the Modern Quilt group that Anne belongs as well.

 

 

 

 

 

  I also am working away on my Joyous Embroidery class stuff.    I am enjoying the fabric collage project that we are now working on.

 

 

Progress Report: Nine Play   I have split up and shuffled the nine basic blocks.  I added some strips in as well to add interest.  I think I am ready to start assembling the  top  now.

 

 

Blue Sea    I have layered  this work and after some suggestions form the Diva group I now have some good ideas about how to do the quilting.

 

 

Sea Floor  This work is being influenced by the Joyous Embroidery class  and my interest in the sea too.  I painted the lace that my friend Judy gave me with the intent to use it on the class project- but it works better here.   This project is also a re work of an older quilt from my Rock based work series.   The sea horses are the ones  that did not work on Blue Sea.

Scrap work   I am working away on this project.  I  sewed a lot of blocks tougher this week.

 

 

 

Lap quilt # 17     As a part of the  SAQA 45 day challenge I am working away on lap quilts.  These are the colors I have selected to use for the next one.

 

The days go by quickly and I am filling them with work and good times.

Stay safe and enjoy the season.

 

Carol

Drawing, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Felt Work, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, SAQA, Split Compliments

End of September

2 Comments

Hello,

I can’t quite believe we are at the end of this month.  The time seems to be flying by.    Fall mushrooms are appearing in yard now.  I so enjoy coming across these little treasures.  This one, although not colorful as the many orange yellow ones or the white puff balls I see scattered across my lawn, I find specially dear.   Perhaps that is because of the splits that are signs of ageing and growth or because of the scale changes in color.  I am not sure, but I am enchanted.   It’s like a faded flower in some way too.

This week was busy with a FAD  and Pixie meetings.   Judy is busy working away on small quilts to use up her fabric stash.

 

 

 

 

I also made progress on my work for the Joyous Embroidery class.    Fleur Woods gave us lots of ways to add texture to our work this week.     Making Pompons was one of them.  I tried doing it with out the tool first and that is were the big ones came from.  Then yesterday I got the tool at Michaels  and those pompons are much better.     she also suggested that we do some free crochet  to make little mounds or tuffs.   I think I need to keep playing with that idea.   She is inspiring me a lot however.

Progress Report: Imagine    This quilt is 32″ w X 53″ t.      It is the last of the split compliment pieces.  I have some other ideas of projects using the many yards of solids that Liz gave me, but not with color study being the emphasis.   I have learned a lot about color doing these exercises.  And I have learned a bit about quilting too.

 

 

 

 

Ethel Scrap project   I just keep working away on these bits and pieces building more and more 5″ squares.

 

 

Basket    I joined the SAQA Strolling along challenge again and so I am putting in an hour every other day on this project.  It takes me about 40 min for every trip around the out side at this point.  I am on row three of the build up of the sides.

 

 

 

Lap #15  I alternating  the  work  on  the  basket  with  work  on  a lap  quilt.  This  one  is  extra  long   because  I  making it for my cosine  Mike who is over  6 ft tall.     It is pin basted now and I will start to quilt it later today.

 

 

 

Lap # 17    Seeing that I will soon finish # 15, I pulled these fabrics for the next one this week.

 

 

 

Blue Sea- Felt  I made seahorses I made last week were too dark for this work so I made new ones.    They are still dark, but they do work  on the surface  of the project.

 

I will add eyes and stretch it and move on I hope.    There is another work down the road using the seahorses that did not work for this project too.

 

 

 

Drawing.    I did not do a collage this week , but I did draw these dragon flies and frog instead.

Enjoy the cooling  weather and changing color.

 

Carol

100 Day Challenge, Blue Beach, Creative Assistants, Drawing, Explorations, Felt Work, Pixies Group, Purple Impinging, Re Work, Sisterhood of the Scissors

Longer Sun Filled Days

Hello,

The natural world is responding to the longer sun lit days.  It is wonderful to hear so many birds and see so much green on our walks.     I do not mind it being light until after dinner time either.

There was an Associated  Artists meeting this week and we had a  demonstration.  Her trick is to use that fiber” spider wed” stuff that one can purchase at Halloween to attract the paint on the surface.  She then rubs the fiber off the surface and the lines of paint remain.   I asked for and she gave me the fibers and they were the start of a new felted piece for me.

 I think it will be a new nebula thing of some sort.

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a Pixie meeting and the Sisterhood of the  had a great zoom meeting even though there were only four of us.  Scissors.

I keep working away on the 100 Day SAQA challenge stuff too.  I started a new top yesterday using the Tiger print as my jumping of point.

 

 

My wonderful and  generous  friend, Liz, passed forward lots of beautiful solids to me too.   They were in storage, so now I have a lot of laundry to do.  I see that as a chance to really get to know what treasures she has given me and I can  sort of plan my next projects.

 

 

The spring Sketchbook Revival started on Monday.  I love the little challenges it provides- but that is usually about 2 hours a day to complete the drawings.    I like the starch  it provides me.

As a result I did not spend as much time in the studio as usual, but I am still working.

Progress Report: Collection Greens   This is the total top for this next 100 Day Project.   I did start the quilting using free motion yesterday.

 

 

 

 

This step will go quickly I think  and I hope to finish it this week.

 

 

 

 

 

Blue Beach   I am still adding buttons to the surface here.  I also did finish all the work on all 20  Creative Assistants as my second hand work this week.   No photo of that project as it is all put away for the next QBL already.

 

 

 

Imagine Purple    I finally finished all the hand work on this project on Monday.  I started the machine quilting to fill in all the spaces between the running stitch lines.  There is lots of stop and go on this step so the going is slow.

I hope you are enjoying spring and staying safe.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

100 day Challenge, Aplique, Creative Assistants, Explorations, Felt Work, Hand work, Purple Impinging, Re Work, SAQA, Sisterhood of the Scissors, Understanding Orange

What I See

Hello,

I just had cataract surgery on my left eye yesterday and that has alerted me to how our eyes effect what I see.   Through the eye with the new lens things seem clearer and more blue that the yellow brown that I now see through the right one.  It makes for a bit of a fuzzy mix at the moment.    I have not has the reaction that one of my fellow artists talked about.  She found that she hated the color combinations for some of her past work.  So far that has not been the case with me.   The body seems to be adapting.  It is an amazing machine!

This week I made it to the Sisterhood of the Scissors and the Pixie’s Zoom meetings.  Both were enjoyable .  I also made a trip to the Cabin Fever Quilt show were I had three pieces.    This is an old work that is hand appliqued  that I did for my Dad.   It is double bet sized  and I had pulled it for my solo show to start with,  but found it was far too big.

 

Sharon was demonstrating on the day I went to visit.

 

It was fun to watch her cut each branch and then place it before fuzzing it down.     She then machine stitches over the work too.

 

 

 

 

This is an example of a finished work.

 

 

 

I am following the SAQA  Materials Matter series and this week it was on Wool.  That got me fired up to do a little felting.

It is always good to have places to do handwork.

 

 

 

The  SAQA  100 Day Challenge got attention too.   I cut new stamps  and printed one set.

 

 

 

I realized I was  getting tired of printing on white so I pulled some different old work and printed on top of it  for some of  these.

 

 

 

 

Then I selected two from this purple/yellow group to be the jumping off place for the next little project.

 

 

 

 

 

I even got some of them cut yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Understanding  Orange   I am  only putting in about an hour a day on the  hand stitching so it is slow going.

 

Purple Imaginings   I finished assembling the top of this work  and it is pin based now.  I have not decided how I will quilt this yet so it is just waiting.

 

 

 

 

Creative Assistants    I finished off  16 more of these little guys this week.  There are only 15 in the shot because the last one would not fit on the box top.   There are lots of others in various stages too.

 Rework Project     In my fooling around this week  I decided to add some new surface design to this quilted piece. I had removed the old stuff a few weeks ago.   It is started, but as many things I am not sure were to go from this point, so I will let it set for a while.

 

Keep your eyes open and stay safe

Carol

 

 

100 Day Challenge, Blue Horizons, Creative Assistants, Envision, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Fiber Artist Stitch Club, Meandering Mind- Examine, Pixies Group, SAQA, Sisterhood of the Scissors

Hanging Solo Show

Hello,

My big event for this last week was the hanging of my solo show.   There was lots of prep work and I am glad to have had that done a head of time.   I had lots of great helpers – thank goodness.  It still took quite a while to do the job as the group had never hung a quilt show before.  Now I am looking forward to the opening on Sunday.

The new Textile Artist Stitch Workshop is going on this week and I have been following along.   We painted fabric and then cut the work up and put it together in a new fashion.  I am only just starting to add stitch work to the surface of it.

 The SAQA 100 Day Challenge started on Sunday.   That challenge is to do art work every day for 100 days.  Last year I did the black and white figures that resulted in  the two quilts Action and Athletes.  Both of those quilts won prizes in different shows.    My self challenge within the 100 Days is to cut four stencils/ stamps on the odd days of the months and to print them on the even days for 50 days.  I want the prints to be interactive.  At the end of the 50 days I will use the fabric as the start of new work.   I have learned some things about this project already and so it is morphing a bit- but that is what learning will do for one.

Today is a cutting day and I will make new stencils/stamps later today.

 

The piece on the far right is the only one that I printed a new stamp on top a a piece from the first printing.  I need a stronger contrast in color for it to be really effective.

The Sisterhood of the Scissors had a Zoom meeting on Tue and it was fun to talk with those gals.  Yesterday was the FAD meeting and we had a good time too.  Patti showed off the new handknitted sweater new had just finished.    It looks warm to me.

 

 

The pixies topped off my meetings this week.  Robert is doing some real fun graphics and we had fun talking about them.

Progress Report: Blue on Horizons   Do to all the other events this week, I did not have a lot of undirected time in the studio.    I am nearing the end of the quilting on this work.  The mix of hand and machine quilting is fun for me.

Creative Assistants All the Creative Assistants with faces also got arms and backs this week.  Now I need to make more stuffing and work toward the next step with them.

Envision    I am building units for  project.    There is till shuffling going on here. Hopefully the top will be done by the end of the week.

I hope that everyone is staying healthy and enjoying the new year.

Carol

100 day Challenge, Annalise, Blue Horizons, Creative Assistants, Creative Strength Training, Meandering Mind- Examine, Pixies Group, SAQA, Scrap Happy Quilts, Sisterhood of the Scissors, Textile Artist Stitch Club

End of 2022 Reflections

Hello,

It has been a full year for me.  I started the year by doing the Quilt Surface Design 100 Day challenge.    That resulted in the two black and white figurative quilts that both won awards.  One at the Associated Artist Show and the second is still hanging as a part of the Quilt=Art=Quilts show at the Schweinfurth until Jan 8.  I plan to do that challenge again this year and do it as printing.   I did a lot of hand work this year response to the Fiber Artist Stitch Club’s mini lessons.  I was distressed by the wild fires in the west and did two different  wild fire quilts this year.    I started Creative Strength Training in March and that proved to add lots of meetings and challenges to my creative life too.  I was glad to be a part of that.  We have  our final meeting on the year on Sat.

I continued my weekly meeting with the Pixies.  We discovered at our meeting on Wed that we have been getting together virtually sense Aug of 2020.   I completed my Childhood Memories series this year.  That was a prompt from Susan.

Happily Quilting by The Lake returned in the summer.  I had two great classes and I am glad to say it will meet again in July of 2023, but in a new location.

The Sisterhood of the Scissors had  their retreat in the fall  and I made three new tops in those five days.  I finished the last one this week.   I had a fine year and I resolve to pass forward some of my materials and  to be a bit more selective in what groups I join this year so I can spend more time in the studio.

 

Progress Report: Analise   This work is 30″ X 31″.   I did the top at the Sisterhood retreat and only finished the hand work on it this week.  I really liked playing with the complementary colors  and that sparked the monochromatic series that I am in the middle of now.

 

 

 

 

Michell’s Project   This little project is 26″ X26″ and is a commission for my friend Michele.   It is going to be framed so it is not a traditional quilting job.   It is made from the neckerchiefs that her dog wore when he was alive.  A  memorial project of sorts.

 

 

Forbidden Fruit    This is the first in the Monochromatic Series. That is a sub set of the Meandering Mind series.  One thing leads to another in my processes I guess.   I started the quilting this week.  I am doing all the hand work  at this point and extending the curves to see how they can interconnect and pull the work together.

 

Blue Horizons     This is the second in the Monochromatic Series.   I finished assembling the top yesterday.

 

 

 

 

New Work  In keeping with the series I pulled all my greens yesterday.  I hope to begin today on this one.

 

 

 

 

 

Creative Assistants  I wrote last week that I will make this my last tribe of Creative Assistants.   It will be a big one as this is the pile of started body bases and I plan to make them all before I stop building.

Scrap Assembly   I continue to strip together my scraps for my scarp happy quilts.  The baskets does not seem to diminish very fast even though  I try to put in and hour at that task every day.  I gave myself a break yesterday and cut the 2.5″ strips I use in the quilts for about half an hour and put a few together.

Do stay safe and keep Creating throughout  2023!

Carol