Hello,

QBL for this year is again complete.  As usual  I had a wonderful and creative experience.   It all got started three weeks ago now when we started setting up the show for another year.  I always find it a bit surprising how we can transform the gym into a study of color and pattern in the course of two days.

Then on Sunday we all begin with a banquet and get to see the old friends that  help pull us back year after year. Classes begin on Monday morning and then we start our real growing, stretching and learning.   I took classes this year from two fine teachers.  Week one was a Color class with Rosalie Dace and week two I worked with Valerie  Goodwin- Exploring Design Principles.

We started with  two days of design exercise.  This shot is of a technique that Rosalie taught us to achieve thin lines of color in one’s work.  The picture is of some thin lines by Sally Abrams using the technique.  We started our  final project on Wed.  I challenged myself to work with Orange and Purples and pinned all of this up on Wed eve before I left the class.  I decided it was too much to work with all of these colors and pulled back and limited myself to mostly the purples with oranges accents.   Then I applied what we had been taught about value and selected some Fuchsia of the same value as the orange to partner with it.   I went to my usual building technique and started to layout my new project.     I did insert some slender lines, but mine are not as good as what Sally demonstrated from what Rosalie taught us.

There were events to supplement our classes every night.  Monday evening after show  and tell we left the audtorium to find a double rainbow in the western sky.  The second bow is very pale and to the right , but it is there.    Then on Tue evening before the Mini Mall there was a third rainbow in the evening sky.    What a great time to be studying and thinking about color.

 

I did pass out my little Creative Assistants again this year.   Not only was I rewarded by lots of hugs and smiles for the little fellows, Rosalie surprised me with a little doll of a similar nature from South Africa.    I feel so  honored by this  gift as I know she has limited space in her suitcase because she comes to the states to teach for six mouth stretches.

Along with all the  planned stimulation there are also lots of sharing of ideas and discussions going on about all sorts of other ideas at meals and in dorm rooms.     The atmosphere is super charged with ideas.

Then we start week two.    I was in class with Valerie Goodwin and we started with design exercises using the seven design elements in paper. This first one is Rythem

 

Then Pattern.

This third  one is Movement

We then posted the results in the hall under the correct titles and  talked about them.

 

 Contrast

Emphasis

 

 

 

Then we followed up the  paper exercises with   fabric ones using her techniques  for building up the surface.

Balance

Unity

 

She further challenged us with two word contrasts as our final project.  For that she added a twist, because not only did we choose a two word combo,  but she then gave us all a second two work combo that she felt we needed.     Then it got real quiet as we tackled our individual challenges.  Mine

words were  Transition/Culminaton and Expansion and Contraction.  QBL is so full of helpful folks and it happens everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This shot is of two of my classmates Robin and Chris,  talking possible solutions.

Randy is another long time friend that was in my class and she was just across the table

from me.  It was wonderful to watch how she worked on the problems.

 

 

Of course I visited my friends and did all the other activites of QBL the second week as well.   I enjoyed   Valerie’s talk at the Schhweinfurth Art Center  too.

 

This photo is of Donna Lamb the director of QBL and the Art  Center talking with Elizabeth Busch at that event.

 

I visited friends in other classes and looked at what they were doing on Walk About Day.

It is always fun to see what is happening outside one’s own classroom.

Ethel with work from Rosalie Dace’s week two class.

 

 

The last evening of QBL we have class show and tell where folks show off the last days of work .  This shot is of Barbara with her friend Kitsy,

 in the bathroom where she changed into the dress she had created, fitted and put together in Studio Class.  She looked great at show ans tell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Then there was the final event- teacher apron auction to raise funds for the QBL  scholarships for next year.

Dorothy Caldwell

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth Busch

 

 

Victoria  Findlay Wolfe

 

Valerie   Goodwin

 

 

Philippa Naylor

 

 

 

 

It was a wonderful two weeks and  am so delighted that I can attend.  I always get so much out of going to this conference.  For years it was the only contact I had with other quilters from one year to the next and it served me well.  I would encourage anyone who is at all interested in this art form to attend this next year.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Hello,

I have not been home 24 hours yet and I am still a bit out of it as far as time is concerned, but I enjoyed myself a lot on this trip.   We got ourselves settled in  at the Hotel Atlantic and went of a Metro trip to  the center of Paris and walked to Notre Dame Cathedral.   It is much larger than one expects and all the carving in the stone is amazing as well

as a wonderful interior.  We ended up walking all the way around the building.    We ate dinner on the south bank of the Seine and enjoyed watching the tourists stroll by us in our outside cafe.    The second full day we got on board the train and went out of Paris to see Monet’s home.   This photo is of his garden pool.    There were so many colors and textures.  All the gardens  were so very beautiful with purple rose and lots of iris in bloom.  I took tones of photos and know that I will use some of them as jumping off places for new work.    You could not take any photos in the house, but it was  a grand  feast for the eye as well.

Then next day we went to the  antique  market.    This shot of the diving helmet is only one of the many wonderful items we looked at.  Jen is an a dealer and she knew some of the  booths we visited.  She was the only one who purchased anything, but it was like visiting a museum where one could get really close and even touch the displays.    Jen was also our French speaker and that made our visit so much easier!    She  is fearless about Paris and  willing to just take off in new directions so that we  tried areas of the city that even she,  in her seven years of travel there,  had never ventured into.    This wonderful sculpture was in the square where we  went underground for the metro every day at the St-Lazare station.  It also served as our marker when we came home in the evenings- a welcome sight that told us we were close to home.   Jen had enough confidence in us  to send us home on the Metro without her on the third day.

Went to the Grand Promade the next day  and started our walk to the Louvre with Nepolian’s  Egyptian Obelisque.       The visual feast of the Louvre is amazing.  We did see the Mona Lisa and spent the morning looking at paintings.  After lunch we walked many gallery’s full of marble statuary.  I thought this face was very lovely- but I have so many photos that again it was hard to choose just one to present.        We then went down to the Seine and took a boat curse.  We got off  walked up to the  Eiffel Tower  along the river enjoying the parks, the bridges  and the sun set along the way.     This shot is of Barb holding up one of the scuptures- even though I did  not hide the base at all.  It is a good shot of how happy we all felt about the weather and the experience.     Everywhere I looked there were textures and images that I just enjoyed.

It was 9:00 in the evening when I took this shot of the Eiffel   Tower with all the sparkling lights going off  at dusk.  It was beautiful and  great to watch.   I was so glad that we waited until evening to see this  and did not visit the tower earlier.

We went to  visit one of the biggest and oldest cemeteries in Paris the next day- Cimetier Du Pere Lachaise.    The stone work there was wonderful too.   Every bit of land was packed with muslims.   They represented  about 250 years of different types of grave types used  in Paris.  I was espically  fasinated by the ceramic wreaths.     There were many types of flowers represented from roses and poppies to violets.  The ceramic work was so very thin as these roses show.  Many flowers showed the effects of pollution and were black- but that could be rubbed off. We only experienced one day of rain on our trip- that was on  Tuesday before we came home.    We spent that day shopping at all the stores on Avenue De Champs and Checking out the Arc de Triomphe.   It is having some work done on the top so I cut that off in this photo.  Again wonderful stone work  here.

Every day we walked the staircase in our hotel. We were on the fourth floor and I just loved looking down.    We decided we liked the back stairs the most as the wood  did not seem to be as worn as the front stair.    I did take my pedometer and we counted the steps each day.  They were all well beyond 10,000  and one day we did almost  15,000.     I loved all the different roof lines and doorways.    It was a very enjoyable trip and I have lots of great memories as well as a ton of photos.

Hugs

Carol

Hello-

Yesterday I forgot to add to the post the info about the Rochester Contemporary Art Center  the info about the wed sight and how you  can be a part of this even if you are interested. The add :

Rochester Contemporary Art Center

137 East Ave

Rochester NY 14604

info@rochestercontemporary.org

Phone # 1 855-753-9334

Look at the web sight and join the fun

Carol

Hello, 

 This is the time of year when we stop and give thanks.  I am so thankful for my family and friends, my good health and my chance to create  art.  Life could not be better for me then it is  and for that I am truly grateful.

The open studio on Thursday evening went well and I sold one piece with a chance to sell a second.   The shop owner at Eureka talked us into being open on Saturday as well, because she says lots of folks stop on their way to the Syracuse University Ball games.  So Barbara got busy and put out a sign on Saturday.  She did really well selling over $ 400.oo worth of work.  I am happy for her.   I got a lot of button whole units created for the Blooming Bacteria quilt although I did not sell anything on Saturday.

 Progress Report:  Blue Yonder This quilt is full of experiments.  I hand printed the blue images on the white last winter.  I made the screen from the curlers mom had used when she gave me a  home perm when I was a kid.    I printed the blue fabric paint on top of a white fabric that I had done a little blue crayon rubbing on first.   I also spent a day with Barbara last winter using stencils and modeling paste on fabric.  I did not know if I could stitch through it when I tried that experiment,  and  it worked.  I also added turquoise and blue paint on some of the fabric so it was not so stark.  I did some bleach discharging on the royal blue fabrics that I used on this work.  The fifth exeriment that is part of this quilt is the dark blue and light aqua square.  I found one  old  piece of light sensitive fabric in the package and exposed it to sun light with one of my stencils on it last summer.  That created the indigo and  pale blue part of the block. Then I used the same stencil a second time only I used  the aqua oil crayon on the stencil this time.    This piece of fabric is also were I got my idea for the quilting pattern.  The swirling pattern is not the same but very similar. 

 

 

 

 

Sun Shine   This quilt is also an experimental project.  It is based on one of the techniques that Katie Pasquini Masopust teaches in her classes.   After adding scraps of fabric on top and giving the canvas a second paint job, I stated slicing and then zig zagging the pieces back together.  It is a scary and fun technique.  When I was  happy with the composition then I free motion quilted the work and bound it.  I enjoyed the porcress so I think I will try it a second time.   The slicing sure adds a freedom that is not typical of the usual quilting  process.

 

 

 

 Foundations# 4    This is my newest highly textured piece.  It is based on a rock formation picture that I took last summer in Maine.  I have decided to change the title of the series to Foundations because no one but me sees “rocks” in the work.  It is too abstract and I am OK with that idea.  I  so enjoy the process of building up the wrinkles and adding the textures of the silk paper and  yarns.    I just let the fabric tell me what to do after I get the basic lay out pinned down.  It seems to become alive and change under my finger tips.   Building up layers of stitching lines and fabric bits is fun!  I can hardly wait from one day to the next to get back to these pieces. 

Foundations #5 

 

 

 

 

 

This one is even less defined than #4.  I am still auditioning fabrics that I might use here.  ( the pinned fabric on the right and left)  I do know that I want the leaf print to become totally lost before I am done here, so you can see there is a lot to build up on this one.

Swallows     A few weeks ago I made a background for Oak Leaves that did not work.  The colors of the blues cashed with the greens so I made a second background and this one is the first attempt.  I was watching birds on my walk one day this week and thought that I could create a stencil and use it on this extra sky.     So when I got home I cut a swallow stencil and printed it on a bit of fabric.  It worked, so I did it on the sky.  After I have lived with it bit longer and I am sure that is does not need any more birds I will start to quilt it.

Daily’s  I am finding that I am having fun exploring new stitches as I continue to work with these little pieces.  My stitches are far from uniform, but they are fun.

I hope that the holiday was a pleasant one for all and that the turkey was delicious.

Keep Creating.

Carol

Hello to  everyone,

 I am home from a most wonderful journey to Maine.   But before I left the computer crashed.  I was able to get some info down loaded by the GEEK SQUAD( thank you!) but some things were lost.  Like all the Favorite connections and such.    It has taken me until today to get back to where I can write this work.  I did indeed type a post on Wed in prearation, but again in my efforts at the new navigation of this system  and I saved it somewhere so safe I can’t find it again.  Enough complaining!   Maine was beautiful with lots of great color ans my favorite subject-rocks.  I took lots of new pictures of rock surfaces in Arcadia and I am sure they will be worked into upcoming art.  Rocks and water go together so well.    We spent a day in Elizabeth’s studio painting  and had a grand time.   The paint was almost as colorful as the environment.  I created more fabric for rocks of course and Marty did great water color type stuff.  Elizabeth  let us pin the drying fabric to the back of her milk shed and it made a grand display.  Barb spent the day mixing lots of colors,many will be used in furture paint days as she says she is just starting to play now.  

Progress Report:  Oak Leaves  For the background on this piece look at the posts  for Sept 12 and 19. I am ready to build the background now.  I tried two before I reached the one that is in the photo.    I plan to quilt horizontal wind patterns onto the blue background and then apply the limb and leaves on top. 

Rounds    I have now assembeled this work and it is waiting the next step.   I am uncertain about how I want to go forward with the process so I will just move it to the bottom of my work pile and will let it rest for the time being.   I did show it to the gals in the work study group yesterday and they had some good suggestions about how to proceed.  I will  let those ideas work in the back of my mind for a while and when I look at it again later I hope I will know exactly what to do with it.

Vertical Wall ( formerly Road to Dry Falls)   I quickly put this work on the wall at the end of quilting one day and it was on the vertical instead of the usual horizotnal format.  When I came back in the morning, I knew that the new layout was a much better position.  I think that this work is nearly complete now.    When I am sure the work is complete I will sign it and post close ups.

   Gray Wall   I am doing the hand work and free motion quilting on this work now, it will soon be complete so I am only going to show a close up of one area  for this  week.

New work  This is a new work that  I started just before my departure for Maine.    I  came across some of the fabric I had screen printed last winter with Barbara  so I used it.   The color pallit is a bit bright compared to what I am working toward at the moment,but it was a fun diversion.

 

Daily Exercise    I decided that I needed a small hand work project.  So I cut some white 4.5 ” squares.  Then I  fused a red circle and a black rectangle to each one.  I made no attempt to cut them the same size nor did I try to put the shapes in the same location on each square.   I then cut a four inch squares of batting to add to the back of the squares.  I took red and black thread along to do the handwork with and started my personal challenge.   I have done 16 blocks so far and have the start of several more.    Doing just a little everyday is a good thing for me  and not  too demanding.  I am having fun shuffling them around already I cannot tell for sure what order I did them in.  I like laying them in in different relationships to one another too.    I will keep it up for a while,  but I am not making any commitment to the leath of time for this action yet.

I hope fall is keeping everyone happy.

Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

Hi followers,

I messed up and left my camera at my daughters today.  I will get in in the morning and post for this week tomorrow.

Thanks you

Carol

Hello,

I am feeling like we are to the dog days of summer now.  The slow down and the feeling that nothing is really pressing is  upon me at least.  We had a good time this week on our visit to Philly and the Barn’s Exibit.  I did use the audio guide that the museum provides and that did enhance my experience.   I enjoyed all the images.  I had forgotten that he collected so may African masks.  That is a subject that I too love.   Barns took so much care in how he presented the material that it was quite enjoyable.    I found that by the beginning of the third  hour of intense looking that my mind could not really absorb  much more  material.   We really only did a through look at the top floor as the ticket man told us floor one was crowded when we started, so he sent us upstairs.   Eric and I agreed that we will need to do a return trip.   I was exhausted and slept really well that night.   I feel really good about looking at art too- it is so stimulating.  Because I was away for three full days this week I did not get too much done.

  Progress Report: Thoth  Eric’s birthday gift is finally finished.  I will add the sleeve this evening and then give it to him.  He can take it to his office and hang it next week.  I like the stencil of Thoth and I am sure I will use it again.  

 

 

 

 

This second shot is of the eye is one of the Egyptian’s favorite symbols.    I quilted in papyrus plants  and leaves in the back ground as a part of my new push to add interesting quilting to my work.

This golden scarib is from an old stencil that I did several years ago.  I have made it a habit to always create a new stencil or stamp in the Egyptian style for each additional quilt that I create in this on going series.     There seem to be many people in my life who find Egypt fasinating, including myself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wind Fall   I stared this quilt weeks ago and I have only just gotten back to it.  I wanted to do something for the “Sticks and Stones” show that was not rock related.    We had some sever weather a few weeks ago and there were lots of little dead branches that were blown down after the storm.  I had collected a pile as they were so smooth and simple in shape.  I hand stitched with heave cotton some to them to the surface over the course of the last few weeks.  They are all attached now and I will begin to quilt the piece this week .  So the final will show up next time.

I hope summer is proceeding in a clam forward motion for everyone.

Keep Creating

Carol

  Hello,

Quilting By the Lake is over for one more year, but I am still in the happy after glow of seeing everyone.  Week two brought with it   new classes and some additional people.   This first shot is of the mini mall that happens both weeks and is when the participants can sell their wares- books, patterns, posters and fabrics- to others at the conference.  This event is always well attended by both faculty and the students as we all check out the special items our fellows wish to part with.

Week two is always as much fun as week one because I enjoy  watching as new a different ideas emerge from my  peers.    This shot of Sharron shows her 4.1/2″ Dear Jane blocks behind her.  She is doing this quilt in six variations and claims that after she has worked out the “bugs” with the first block the others are easy.  

Debbie continued to work away on her scrap quilts and finished two more tops the second week.    Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves in the Independent Studio class and produced lots of work.  Linda ( on the right) quilted and completed this this beautiful orange and black piece.   Betty worked very hard on this black, white red and yellow quilt for her grandson.  I think Cathy did a lot of exploration with her seven  works that are pictured behind her. I feel the smiles say as much about the good feelings that carried us all home as any thing.

Apron Auction  Last week  there was an apron auction and this week that was repeated.  All the teachers made or altered QBL aprons. Cynthia Corbin skillfully hid a small piece of her  work on the back of this fuffy/furry apron.    Rosalie continued her fish theme with fried fish this week.   We all had fun bidding and enjoying the festivites at the end of the session.

Progress Report Exploration 1:   I did some work myself  too.   This new bit of exploration was more work with the curved line connections.   I made the white, rust, orange and green fabric in a QBL 2 class about four years ago.  The colors fit well with the rock and canyon things I am doing now that it has now found a home.

Exploration 2:    Here  I used a piece of Randy Keenan’s discharged fabric as my starting  place.  I had purchased it at the mini mall.  I was also feeling a bit out of my depth with the curved work so I wanted something I felt comfortable with too.   I started quilting this with silver thread this morning. 

 

 

Exploration 3:  This work too started with and older bit of Randy’s fabric.   I purchased it last year  and it got burried.  It only came back to light when I was doing my cleaning in preperation for  QBL three weeks ago.

 

 

Exploration 4:    This is another of the curved line piecing / rock wall projects.  I am not at all happy with it so far.  I think I did too much in the way of curves and so it is very warped…… A new problem for me to solve before this will be seen again.    But I am showing it to let you know I make mistakes, especially when I am trying new things.  If one does not make errors every now  and again then one is playing it too safe.

 

 

 Good Habits   This quilt was also started at QBL  and I finished it this week.  I think the completion was do to the small size as much as any thing.    I challenged myself to create a block of a simple every day object.  I chose a toothbrush.      The white areas are the bristels of the brush and I added lots of line quilting to add to that feeling.  The  multi-colored area is the handle of the brush.   I quilted in toothpaste tubes in various stages of usge in the solid areas.  I did have fun with this project and plan to make the idea a challenge to one of my design groups.

Do to a change in plans I will be away next week on Thursday  so this blog will be posted on Friday next week.

I hope everyone is enjoying the bounty of summer and creating great things.

Hugs

Carol

Hello,

I am home from Quilting By the Lake for the week end and it has been as fun and exciting as always. I helped hang the quilt show on the 12th. We stared the morning with a big empty gym and boxes of quilts and hanging units.    We asssembled units and started putting the work up.  This shot is of Tony – a long time assistant that has followed QBL from  Morrisville Community College,  its last home,  to Onondaga Community Collage, the new home for the last five years.  By  noon the gym was starting to look like this shot.    We continued to hang and make alternations as the day went on.  There was a featured exebit of the work of one of our quilters.  It showed her work from the first year  of QBL to last year when she passed away.  It was lovingly curated and hung by two of her good friends Debbie( standing) and Andy( on the ladder).  Although the job was not complete we went  home at 4:30.  A new crew came in on Sat and finished the job.

I started giving away little doll pins that I now call  Creative Assistants to folks at QBL years ago.  They stared by my making a pin for a friend that was a copy of a petroglyphic that she had shown me the year before.  The pins have taken on a life of there own and I enjoy making them over the course of the year and them passing them out to folks that I come in contact with.   They are fun and a bit silly- they always make everyone smile.  Some folks have very big “tribes” as they add a new member every year as the pins change each and every time I do them.    ( I will post a tutorial on how you can do it too after QBL is over. )

I spent my week of uninterrupted  quilting in a class called Independent Study.  It is unstructured and undirected.  We all work at out own thing at our own pace.    These shots of some of my fellow class mates gives you an idea of the wide range of actions going on.  Everything is relaxed and enjoyable with folks working on finishing projects,  to staring new directions.     One gal even spent some of her time creating little pig dolls and enjoying the process.  Most of the gals in this class  are old timers.  We all enjoy the atmosphere.   I  can not believe I have been participating for 31 years- but that a fact….. Only my Marriage is a longer relationship.

Progress Report

I did start lots of work too.   Project 1

I am continuing to use images from the trip to Idaho as inspiration.  This is one from a rock wall at Dry Falls.  I am still playing with strips of fabric that I can wad and fold over to create texture.

 

Project 2     This one is of a small crack in  another stone wall.  It was in direct sun light and the contrast of the rock face and the shadow was very strong.

Project 3   This work is also inspired by a rock picture.  I used a much more traditional way of assembling this one however without the folded textures.

Project 4 Oak Leaves    

I played  silk that was fused to cotton.  I sewed the leaf vains on to the surface and then cut the leaves out.  I picked some real oak leaves( deep green) and used them as inspiration.   I learned that the side one puts on top when sewing in the vains is the way the leaf will curl when you let it hang.

The last event of the week at QBL is an auction of aprons that have been altered by the teachers.  The money raised goes to the scholarship fund .  It is always lots of fun and we all get a bit silly.  This time Rosalie Dace quilt teacher from South Africa, really went over board as she dressed her part.  It seems the IRS in response to her inquires about paying taxes had written her a letter.  On the back in pencil was a message that told her “she need not pay any taxes on any fish that she caught or sold”.   So she dressed up in wades, a fishing hat added a net and poll to illistrate her story.   Also shown in the photo are Cynthia Corbin, Hollis Chatelain and Katie Pasquini Mastopust.It was a fun week and I look forward to more of the same this next week.

I hope your week is as creative as I expect mine to be.

Hugs

Carol