Into the Sewing Room

I know I’m working at cleaning OUT the sewing room but these things came my way from Ohio a month or so ago and I was thrilled!

Stored in this bag!  Because don’t we all save our frozen vegetable bags to reuse?….

The back of the bag IS clear so it does make a better storage bag than the current ones I get that are not transparent.

INSIDE —

I think all 3 of us girls worked on this.  I remember watching Nancy do it and and wishing so much that *I* would get a turn.   Now the yarn is all used and we all got turns.

I also remember making new spool knitters —

The orange one is purchased and I started this with the orange & cream yarns.   We made the spool with the blue yarn but I guess I didn’t get very far.  The tail is barely peeking out of the bottom of the spool.

The old box with a brand new spool of thread is from my SIL.  Love it!!

Read Full Post »

Radishes – Two Weeks Later

Phil pulled these radishes two weeks ago and I’m just getting around to showing you.

He loves seeing a green field when he is out doing chores.

The combine is running full-speed ahead as this week is a great week!  FIL is home so mostly is running the combine.  We have a retired friend here helping to haul loads.  Yesterday and today he has been running the shuttle from combine to highway at our farthest field.  Phil picks up the wagon there and brings it home to unload.

The field around the house is cleared and the neighbor has cleared across the highway.  An open view once again.

It is busy for all of us!  Eating is done in shifts or on the go.

Read Full Post »

Sign Painting — Now Planted!

I finally got the names added to the sign on Friday, the 17th.   My MIL came over that morning to see as FIL had told her he was watching the progress.  She likes it and thought it was quite the undertaking.    I told her I had just wondered while painting the names if I should add in Joyce, Sue, Lizzy, and I didn’t know Henry’s wife’s name.  There must be a story as “we don’t want ‘her’ name tho so it would have to be the 2nd wife’s name”.   I see.  Alrighty.

The name painting was tedious and rotten on the arm & shoulder muscles so I took breaks often.  First I traced the names with the carbon paper and then came back with a tiny paintbrush to paint them.  I was sitting on one of my buckets as that made a pretty good height for me.   Once I got to the end of each name, I could go back and give each one a second coat.

Phil came to check and I asked if he realized that only Henry has 5 letters to his name and the rest of them have 6 letters.  The look on his face told me he couldn’t care less and NO he had never thought of that before. 🙂

Then last weekend was rainy & yucky so this fair-weather-gal stayed inside.   On Tuesday, I put the dots between the names and did any final touch-ups.  A few hours later, Phil came to the garage and called for me that he was ready to plant the sign.  He had already re-dug the holes.

He had this idea and I just played along… I drove slowly and he held the sign like this in the back end.  I was being careful so just grabbed the camera and tried one shot out the back window (one handed while I drove and looked forward) ….

Firmly planted & leveled and only a bit of someone’s muddy hands across the top.   It was nearly sad to leave it out along the road in the drizzle!

A landscaper, I am not.  Hopefully this won’t look bad here for long.

We are just home from JP’s scholarship awards program.  (  l  o  n  g   )   I tried to have one man take pictures of me and the other man at the sign.  We were dressed up for the most part.  It was windy.  My hair is blowing.  😦   No pictures to share.   I need a female around here….

Read Full Post »

My Table

I’m trying for a quick blog post…..

But one picture has SO much to say!!

In the front are 5 sets of fat quarters I cut last week.  When I dye fabrics, the extra dye when I’m done (or when class is ending) goes into one bucket.   I add a cup of salt (I just dump some in, never measure it) and a yard of PFD fabric.  I let it stay in the bucket overnight or until I remember it.  LOL!!   It is a surprise every time!    Those that were at the parfait class on Friday got a surprise!  Sorry you missed it.  😉

The back of the photo shows my work table in the sewing room.  I’ve been stealing bits of time here & there to work on the current project.  It just rammed itself into the LONG list of projects and made itself current.  🙂

After following the Pink Pincushion for a few months, I’m joining her year of Schnibbles starting in October.  This year is La Petite.   We’ll see how much I keep up!  For the first pattern, I wanted something fall-ish because I hate fall (weather, Phil’s schedule, coming winter, my previous orange carpet) and thought it would be something happy for me for the season.  I LOVE this fabric line from Barbara Brackman and ordered what I needed from the Fat Quarter Shop.  Pleased with a new online place as well!   The pattern is Paganini from Miss Rosie’s.   (at the bottom of the page, click on Paganini)

So… that picture was Tuesday, I think.  (or Wednesday…)  As of RIGHT NOW, I’ve won the scalloped border argument (late yesterday afternoon) and I’m heading downstairs to stitch it on.  🙂

My calender on the table is where I record what I’m working on.  I don’t always keep up tho!   But at least in some future moment of time, someone could read this and see what was going on when I made a quilt they’ve claimed.  😉

Sometime I should tell you about my walk yesterday…..

And the SIGN!  😉

Read Full Post »

The JB Box

I finally sent a box of JB to Ohio… Just Because.   My mom invented that I think.   😉  But this time 1/2 of the box was for her and 1/2 for my sister-in-law.

Mom FINALLY got her triple-third-place pillowcases!

Just because the judges didn’t like them didn’t mean the family won’t love them.  🙂   My parents have lots of hummingbirds visit their deck!

My sister-in-law received her long-awaited napkins in the fabric that matches her future placemats.    I don’t have a picture of them…  just napkins.

I also made a table topper out of her coordinating fabrics of the placemats.  Word has it the quilt has gone to the lower living quarters and that is just fine as well!  Just so she enjoys it!!   🙂

I worked out the details on my EQ7 and started with a 9″ paper-pieced star.   This is the Connecticut Star from Carol Doak’s 50 Fabulous Paper Pieced Stars book.  Yes, I love that book and now that I have the CD to print the patterns MY size, I think I’ll use it more often!   SIL was born (or just raised?) in Connecticut and I liked the design for her fabrics.  It is 24″ square.

My boysenberry hand-dyed fabric was PERFECT for a sashing and outer border.  Her napkin fabric is the navy print.  May I just say I lovelovelove mitered borders!!

I used wool batting so that it would poof around the quilted areas.  The star just has 3 rings of freehand loops and then quilting 1/4″ away from the edge.   I used my fun gridded background loops in the setting triangles.   The turquoise border pattern is one from Joanie Poole’s books.  Just imagine…. traced my design onto turquoise fabric with the blue washout marker! LOLOLOLOL!!  You can laugh… I understand.  I thought I’d go cross-eyed but sort of just fumbled my way along, hoping it would look OK in the end.

I love these little surprises and could hardly stand the wait until they were done and delivered!

Read Full Post »

Fabric Dyeing – Parfait Style

I have done several batches of parfait dyeing and… it is terrific!  It is such a process and the fun of pulling fabrics out of the jar and getting the surprise color is such a blast!

I have finally gotten some pictures around to show you.  One day, I did 2 parfaits at a time.  One in my pickle jar and one using a jumbo sized plastic pitcher.   I actually liked using the pitcher better because I could get 2 hands in there to mix the color and soda ash with the fabric.

I chose my dyes for each container and had them in my carrying box in the order I wanted to layer them.  Here layer 1 is in each container but the color for layer 2 is in the cups ready to go.

I could hardly stand my happiness of seeing the fabrics so I spread them on the lawn in the order they were in the jars.

They aren’t rinsed at all yet! Brand-new babies!!

Here are those fabrics ready to use – rinsed, washed, dried, & ironed!  –>

Just by happen-stance, I laid them out the same.  Or the fact, that both times I wanted them in the order they were in for the dye process and that as a native born European-American mutt, I read from left to right.  Something like that….

The Parfait Dyeing Class is available to my Beginner Class alumni and will be this Friday, September 24, 2010.  More details are on the Fabric Dyeing page.   It is the second class listed so scroll to halfway down the page.    (The next beginner class is October 18 and the information for that class is also on the Fabric Dyeing Classes page.

Read Full Post »

Sunrise…

I do believe that if the sunrise came later in the day, I’d enjoy more of them.

I’m up super early this morning (since 5 a.m.) and this has appeared out my east window.  Just stunning to watch minute by minute.

However, I did have to go out on the porch for pictures as the windows are TOO dirty!!  Yikes!!

There is a chance of rain nearly everyday this week.  Phil took off a few rows of corn last week but won’t be out probably at all this week.  Early, he’s ready, and the corn is drier than it got ALL last fall!!  Yahoo!!

Last night was quilt guild and between that and some happy emails, I’m psyched and charged for today.  So I might as well get a move on.   I have so much to tell you, why don’t you come over for a chat?  Neither of us will get our jobs done and we can catch up with one another.  🙂

Read Full Post »

Round Robin Begins

At quilt guild tonight, I’m turning in the beginning of our Round Robin project.   I’ve always thought it would be fun to participate in one of these and I’m excited the guild is doing this!  Last month there were over 20 people signed up so that will be fun!!  (We have around 60 members.)

This is my center block —

Yes, I showed this before but hadn't said it was for the Round Robin.

The rules gave us the size of block to submit for the center — 8″ finished square.  Not very big!

In a brown paper grocery bag will be:  my center block, my journal, and up to a yard of ONE companion fabric.   I don’t know YET what fabric I’ll include!  Each month it will come back with a border added and sent home with another member.   We aren’t to see “our” quilt until the end!

Because I love paper piecing (and piece w/o stitching on the paper  🙂  ), I hunted for a block in Carol Doak’s 50 Fabulous Paper Pieced Stars book.

One would think… that when there is a CD in the back of the book, that one could print the patterns off the CD.  Not with this book!     So I had to order the companion CD with the printable patterns.  *sigh*   But I have already used it twice and really will use it often so not such a big deal.

(The patterns in the book are 12″ finished blocks so, with the CD, I could chose to finish to 8″ (really 4″ quarters) and have the correct sized pattern!  Slick!!)

I chose the California block in honor of Dad’s home state but also because it had a great design.  🙂

I bought my fabrics at the quilt shop south of the bypass and wanted a fresh look with pink, of course.   Each month our center will be sent home with another member in the Round Robin with rules of what to add that month.  One border will be with triangles, another with squares, one with applique, etc.  We aren’t to see our center until the very end but we can chat with others if we need help.  Just not the owner of the center.  Barring no big snow storms that would cancel our monthly meeting, we’ll be done in early spring next year.  I doubt I’ll be able to show you progress here on the blog so that the owner won’t see her quilt.

It is suggested that we include a place for the others to write notes to us on the border they worked on.  I got excited for a reason to make a fabric paper book for myself!!   🙂

It is about 6″ x 6″ and ties with a bit of brown organdy ribbon.  There are 2 signatures with 2 papers sewed in each one.  The pages each have a wash of pink or green paint and some have stamping on them.   I made a title page, wrote my welcome page, and made a page for my center block.  There are 16 pages/sides so I hope the others will write plenty in the book.   On my center block page, I added a scrap from an old book and a title block.  The stitching is a little rough/rustic on purpose.

You can click on the combo picture above and see it a bit bigger.

Read Full Post »

The Dresser – Part 3

I know you’ll excuse the delay as K took home a cold along with the knobs for her dresser on Labor Day.  I’m sure you aren’t reading words, just looking ahead to pictures…

Ta-Da!! –>

Yes, the dresser is NOT in the bedroom (neither is the bed yet as she doesn’t have one) but it makes a DANDY TV stand, don’t you think?  It is narrow like a buffet-type of table.

The unburied, formerly scratched up, black, magazine rack is peaking in to show its new cleaned-up, newly painted, deep purple coat.   Much better IRL.

While she was home over Labor Day, I think I told you we had painting projects going on.   Only 1 before picture —

A few frames she grabbed at her local thrift store.   She picked through a used box here and added a few more.  After priming, we painted them in black gloss & silver metallic.

Once hung… she needs more!!  🙂 (Donations accepted…)

This week K got to unpacking in her sewing room.  What a treat to have a designated place for that.  Soon we’ll take her the sewing cabinet from her grandma R, along with…. a bed frame as the new mattress set should arrive next week.  Yippee!!   Moving on up!!

Read Full Post »

21 & 21

Not much to say and really I think that is best.  The week before September 18 is usually a week best spent not talking.  Odd things come out.  It is weird how that happens.  After a few days, I realize it is the month, the week.

You’ve seen the pictures.    Three is all I have.

You’ve heard the story.  It ends.

But the hurt remains and the answers of ‘why’ continue to evade.   And no, I have not found the good in this.

Always glad when today is over.   I wonder when these milestone birthdays of 16, 18, 20, & 21 have all past, if that will make the day easier.    Not fishing for sympathy but writing is good for me and I also don’t want to ignore the day.

On the Sonlight forums we talk of being members of “The Club, that no one wants to be apart of…. “

Read Full Post »