Learn to like it

This is my weekend excitement:

I have been getting all the data entry finished started for taking a data disk to the accountant.  I will never learn to like data entry or tax stuff.

 

And this is what Steve has been up to:

Wow.  Bright huh?  Much darker than we thought.  MUCH darker than the paint chip.  Lots greener too.  We had hoped for a pale turquoise.

Like Steve says…. we will learn to like it.

I have a quilt top ready to quilt for our bed when we move to this new bedroom.  I thought the paint would go with it.  If the paint had been the color we thought, it would have been perfect.  I may make another quilt top.  Or …… we will learn to like it.

 

Signs

I have been sick this week, so life at our house has been really boring.

Signs of boredom include watching paint dry in our someday-to-be-finished-but-dont-hold-your-breath bedroom:

 

And looking for signs of spring, like the color of the finches changing:

 

And best of all, I was watching the movie “Signs” when Steve walked in, dressed to watch it with me:

 

I love him so.

 

2011 Snow Dyeing–Part 2

I ironed the 4 yards of fabric that I snow dyed yesterday.  Here they are.

 

They don’t look so great all together… but separately…

 

 

 

 

Next are close ups so you can see the broken glass effect caused by the dye that gets so cold in the snow.  Red/blue:

Purple/teal:

Red/yellow:

And Brown:

 

I really overdid it yesterday, so I took it easy today.  It was bitter cold and snowing again…. another good day for watching the birds.

They were in constant motion today.

 

 

 

We need to get to the feed store in the next day or two, we are almost out of sunflower seed.  We have gone through 50 pounds this month!  Fat birds?  Or just LOTS of birds?  Maybe some of each.

2011 Snow Dyeing–Part 1

Today was a beautiful sunshiny day, so I thought I would make it a great day and do some snow dyeing.  I got my fabric ready by soaking in soda ash, then placed it in my dye buckets.

I also got my cups of dye ready ahead of time.   I dumped about a TBS Urea and 2 heaping plastic spoons of dye into a cup of warm water and stirred it up.  I am an “accidental” dyer… I don’t pay much attention to measurements because I love the happy accidents that happen.

Then I went out to fill each bucket with snow.  DAMN!  It was about 5 degrees F!!!  F stands for Fricken cold I think.  (It was so cold today that Steve’s beard froze this morning…the moisture from his breath.  AND he broke one of the cows’ water buckets when he accidently hit it when breaking the ice.  The tub shattered.)  Sorry…. I digressed.

Then I poured 3 colors, a cup each, of dye on top of the snow.  They sat to batch for about 3.5 hours.

When most of the snow was melted (about 3.5 hours) I dumped the snow and dye down the sink and rinsed the fabric in cold water to get most of the excess dye out.

Once rinsed, I  threw them in the washer with Synthrapol and let them wash on regular cycle.  Then I washed with regular laundry detergent and threw them in the dryer for about 20 minutes.  I will iron them tomorrow and take more photos then.

Here is what I have so far:

A silk scarf:

1 yard red/yellow:

1 yard red/blue:

1 yard purple/teal:

1 yard brown:

So….. since the Bears lost (YAY!) the only thing that will make this day better is if the Steelers win!

Windy day

Hey, are you snowed in?  To those on the east coast, I feel your pain.  We have had 50″ of snow in December, so I really do know how you are feeling.  But really… keep it there.  We aren’t expecting much snow, but WOW, it is windy out there!  I thought the birds were going to blow away!

At least his mate had the good sense to take cover and fluff her feathers.

Everyone have a good Christmas?  Ours was wonderful.  Quiet, happy and full of surprises.

The biggest surprise was when my friend Shirley stopped Christmas night with a plate of her famous home made sugar cookies.  Let’s just say that I could NOT get them all the way to the table without swiping one!  (I am too ashamed to show you what the plate looks like now.)  I hope she shares the recipe with me, so I can use my new mixer.

I spent most of Christmas day cutting out stars:

Yesterday I started putting some together.  I sewed for 3 hours yesterday, another 8 hours today.  And only have 8 blocks to show for it.  This quilt will take some doing!

If I don’t report in for a few days, you will know I am still working on stars!  It’s going to be a wild border I think.

And if anyone else who took this class at MQX with me is looking for the easiest way to cut out the stars, let me know.  I got it down to a system!

**Remember that you can click on any image to make it bigger.

Math Impaired and Design Dilemma

The most difficult part of quilting for me, is math.  Ever since I had my worst flare of MS in 1990, math is gone from my brain.   It took me 8 years to re-learn to use a calculator.  And quilting has helped me re-learn lots of math…just not enough!

So I started this Feathered Star in a class at MQX a few years ago.  (The pattern is Ronda Beyer’s Spanish Rose) I got so frustrated with the center that I came close to throwing the whole thing away.  But I loved the fabric too much.  Today I pulled it out to see if I could problem solve my way through it.

Here is the problem:

Nasty puckers.  Why you ask?  I was SURE it was because the pattern was wrong.  So I took a larger seam, trying to make it fit, which created puckers.  Why?  Because I wanted to hurry up and get on to the next part.  sigh… and it just doesn’t work.

So today I ripped out the whole center block, pressed and measured again.  Yeah.  I was wrong, not the pattern.  Because I stacked (as in Stack n Whack) the center 4 squares and used the wrong damn measurement.  Once I trimmed down the 4 smaller blocks, re-sewed it together and put the center back where it belonged, I was happy.  It is flat now and has no puckers.  Now I feel good about proceeding.

So now I have a design dilemma.  Actually, it is just a fabric choice dilemma.  The pattern calls for the print to go next, around the center star.  But I have enough to use the solid instead.  I realize you don’t have the benefit of having the pattern in front of you, but here is a photo of it: Ronda’s Spanish Rose.

 

Be sure to click on the photo below to see the whole thing.

I know exactly what I am going to do, after discussing it with my favorite design consultant.  (Steve)  But until we talked about why we liked each fabric, I didn’t know for sure which way I was going to go.

So tell me, do you have a preference?  If so, please tell me why.  I am sure there is no right or wrong choice, only personal preference.

My GO! and fabric fun

Now that all the Christmas quilts are done,  I have had some time to myself to do some cutting and piecing of my own.  A couple of months ago, I bought an Accuquilt GO! cutter.  Oh my.  I DO like it.  It makes cutting a breeze.

I spent part of the day cutting up muslin and this pretty hand dyed fabric that I got from Vicki Welsh.  Then I got busy to start piecing it back together.  I plan on this being my big winter weather project.

After several hours of sewing, I realize I may need to order more of Vicki’s fabrics.  I need to visit Vicky’s Etsy shop to see what is available.  I suppose I could mix in other fabrics, but not sure I want to do that.

 

 

What about you?  Do you plan any big project(s) for winter?  Tell me what you do when you hibernate!

Joseph’s (Ugly) Jacket

I spent 2 days working on this sweatshirt jacket.  Our studio is often pretty cool in the winter, so I wear some sort of sweatshirt or jacket while working.

I dismantled an old sloppy sweatshirt, pulled out my 2 bins of strips and got to work.  It’s ugly, but it fits and it’s warm!

 

And the back:

 

Sometimes it doesn’t work

That beautiful fabric I bought a week ago?  I had a vision for it.  I knew exactly how I was going to use it.  I chose the fabric for a specific pattern that I had never tried.  I could see it in the store…… it was gonna be great.

So last Tuesday I cut up the fabric and started laying the pieces out on my design wall.  This was to be the center of a quilt:

OMG is it ugly!  I hate it.  Sometimes, it just does NOT work.

And all the pieces were cut.  Yep, all of the fabric.

Back to the board….. laying out the pieces in a new way.

I am MUCH happier with this layout.  I have lots of work to do to figure out the rest, but at least the center is planned.

If you have quilted for a year or more,  I bet this has happened to you.  If not, well…. either you are not adventurous enough, or you are lucky!

As for that first layout….. I have another fabric that I think will work.  I figured out why the oriental fabric wont work and what kind of print will.  I love it when I can determine the “why” of why an idea does or doesn’t work as intended, don’t you?

My rainbow

Here is a goofy little way to waste time… but ya know? It is pretty true!

Your rainbow is intensely shaded orange, brown, and red.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are a deep thinking person. You appreciate energetic people. You get bored easily and want friends who will keep up with you. Others are amazed at how you don’t give up.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.