Knitting meme

I saw this on a knitting blog tonight and thought it was interesting and that I would add it to mine. If you decide to put it on yours, please leave a comment for me so I can check out your answers.

: My Knitting Experience : :

Bold for things I have done, italics for things I plan to do one day, and normal for stuff I am not planning on doing. ?? for unsure

Afghan ??
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire ??
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn ??
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting ??
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn ??
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with bananafiber yarn
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns ??
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting ??
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone elses handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living (This is my dream.)
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self-patterning / self-striping / variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

If you are a knitter, and participate, leave me a comment so I can read your list!

meme note

If you click on the mosaic you can see the pics larger!!!!! Thank goodness all the time I invested wasn't wasted. At least I was laying in bed doing it. Later!!

meme

The concept:

a. type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. using only the first page, pick an image. (upon rereading these instructions, I didn't do this, sorry, on some items I had to go thru 20 pages, even used some of my own pics-OOPS!!-guess I don't know how to follow directions too well)

c. copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One Word to describe you.

12. Your flickr name.

Don't know what happened, the person whose blog I got this from had a big mosaic, not sure what happened to mine. You can go to my flickr if you want to see it, maybe you can see them a little bigger.

I will try to catch up soon. Still dealing with headaches and need to get pain injections in my back again, possibly contributing to the headaches. Hope to catch up on all my quilting and dyeing commitments very soon!! Sorry for the delays, it isn't like me to be so slack.

Spirals

Where has the last month gone?!?!?! I think part of it disappeared with a weekend trip and then recovery, scrapbooking, starting a new quilting group, attending an existing group every week, shopping for more fabric, a little dyeing, reorganizing my quilting area, etc., AND I'm trying to learn to knit!! Hopefully more on that later!! I have also been reading alot this month. Read Jodi Picoult's My Sisters Keeper & Nineteen Minutes-both very good. Also read Debbie Macomber's Shop on Blossom Street and have started A Good Yarn-two new favorite authors!!

I didn't get DHs quilt made yet but it is cut out and I will finally start sewing on it Thursday. I wasn't happy with the selection of fabrics I got so went out and got more, now I have 30+ reds and 30+ blacks and think it will be much nicer than less than 15 of each. Photos of some of the blocks next week.

Now for the tease in my title, here are the spirals I made, some for a swap and the extras for my stash. I used Dharma clear yellow and two of their new colors, carribean blue and imperial purple. The first picture shows the fabric tied up ready for dye, the next with the dye applied and then the results. The fabric in the smaller pieces is 1/9th yard and the larger piece is a FQ.

MIA

Wanted to show what I've been working on and explain where I've been. We had to have a new AC put in so that meant cleaning out the garage so they could get in there to work. It needed to be done and in the process we have decided to get a storage building for DH to move his stuff to and close the garage in for my studio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Soooooo, I was even more motivated to throw stuff away and insist on Christmas stuff going into the attic. We have also been shopping for new appliances and finally made the purchase last night-new fridge, freezer, washer and dryer. Not a minute too soon!! Last Friday I decided to make DH a quilt for our anniversary which is May 15 so spent Saturday shopping for fabric. Found what I wanted, it is now all pressed except the border and backing and the pattern I chose is a quilt as you go so need to get the backing pressed so I can get it started but that will have to wait until Sunday because my sister called yesterday and said they are having a cookout for Mother's day tomorrow so we are headed there tomorrow for the day. I may have to give him what is done on Thursday and promise the rest ASAP!!

OK, as for what I have been doing lately, besides the above and working on my beach challenge which I will get finished and show after I get the anniversary quilt finished, lots of pillowcases, some for myself, DH, the boys and gifts and the Shadowed Squares quilt-it still needs the dark brown border.

Hope everyone has a great Mother's Day!!

And the winner is .....

Sorry I forgot to do the pillowcase draw yesterday. So without further ado...the winner is #4 - Margo!! Watch your mail. I hope to mail it out tomorrow.

Pillowcase tutorial and giveaway

I can't believe it has been so long since I blogged. I promised a tutorial for my pillowcases, so here goes:
Fabric requirements
3/4 yd - cut 27x41 body of the pillowcase
1/8 yd - cut 3x41 trim (doesn't have to be exactly 3")
1/4 yd - cut 9x41 cuff (doesn't have to be exactly 9")


Fold fabric for body of the pillowcase in half, rights sides together, begin sewing from the raw edge to the fold. I like to sew mine on the serger but they can be done on a sewing machine but you might want to zigzag the edges or cut them with pinking shears or a pinking rotary blade.

Next sew the long raw edge of the body of the pillowcase, fold the cuff and trim in half, right sides together and sew the short seams.

Turn all right sides out. Fold cuff and trim in half, matching raw edges, press.

Layer like photo, matching seams.


Pin onto bottom of pillowcase body. You won't be able to see the trim piece when sewing but it should be between the body and the cuff so that you will be sewing through all pieces.

Press and now you have a beautiful or fun pillowcase. I don't usually wash my fabrics before making the pillowcase but do wash them before using.

OK, for the giveaway is this pillowcase. It is made with a very soft and silky feeling 65% bamboo and 35% cotton fabric. Comment on this post before Monday night and I will do the drawing on Tuesday.

Swaps, pillowcases, quilts

Light med dark values

Med value with black, grey and brown additives

My preferred way to mount a color wheel

Make a shade gradation

Half step 50% gradation

I can't believe it has been over a week since I last blogged. I have been busy mounting the many dyeing swaps that I have participated in-I have mounted about 150 color wheels, 70+ gradations and a few misc type swaps, like make a shade where you add black, brown or grey, etc.

I have also cut out a lot of pillowcases, a few purses (3 or 4 I think) and quilts (including my Montana quilt and the teal and brown shadowed squares). I am one that likes to do assembly line stuff sometimes and really like to cut a lot of projects out at one time and then sew without having to stop and cut the next project so I am set for a while now. When I was a teenager my mom and I would spend an entire weekend cutting out pants and tops for her once we knew a pattern fit and she liked it, cutting out 2 or 3 at a time, to save time and then would pin the steps and when I was finished with one, all of the ones we had cut out would be finished.

In a few days I plan to do a tutorial on the way I do my pillowcases and will do a giveaway on the one that I use for the tutorial, so watch this space.

On Saturday I will be going to the quilt show in Melbourne and will be meeting Ellen Lindner in person (I took her Instant Art Quilt class online) and taking my IAQ for her to see and get some ideas for quilting. I can't wait. She is doing a talk entitled "Increase Your Fiber with Raw Edge Appliqué".

Baby quilt finally finished!!

I have been working on and off this baby quilt for waaaay too long but it is finally finished and delivered. I used the Yellow Brick Road pattern and pink Minkee for the back. It is tied with 1/8" baby pink ribbon, every 4". The request my DH had was for a PINK, all PINK quilt, as the mother wanted everything for this baby pink. I said there has to be a color other than pink so I chose to pull out the green from the leaves. It turned out nice and the new parents LOVED it so now on to other projects with NO guilt!!!!

Shibori swap and new patterns

I received some gorgeous shibori pieces in the mail today from a shibori swap I did with one of my dyeing groups. We could do any type of shibori so I received a variety of styles. Artist listed left to right - if their name is in a different color click on it to go to their blog

Kate
Karen
Wil
Kelly

Maya, dyelicious.com/
Linda
Ann
Ellen




I also got the Shadowed Squares pattern I bought the brown and teal fabrics for the other day and one I ordered from twowackywomen called Magical Slice and Dice for some kinda oriental fabrics I bought. It is similiar to a stack and whack quilt but is done with 4 squares so it doesn't use as many repeats of the fabric. I saw it on Robin's blog, one of the wackywomen and she has done it with some beautiful large floral fabrics - 3 different ones from Alexander Henry . If you go to Jan 27 she used Astrud, on Jan 21 Abbey Road and Dec 27 Day of the Dead

Ice dyeing aka cracked ice and hostess gifts

Below are some photos of some fabric I iced dyed a couple of years ago. I was using Kona PFD at the time and don't think the results are quite as good as they are with the P&B Dyers Cloth that I am currently using. These were all done but soaking the fabric in soda ash, then freezing in a solo cup. I especially like the one with fuchsia and jet black.


Dharma Sky blue and Fuchsia red











Dharma Golden yellow





Dharma Fuchsia red and Jet black





Fuchsia red




Below are the wonderful hostess gifts I received from the ladies that participated in the Make a Shade swap on Dyehard Runoff. We did a 6 step half gradation of a color and added a small amount of an additive (black, brown or grey) to it to see the shades we would get. If you are interested in learning to dye fabric or have just started dyeing or want to swap dyed fabric, this is a wonderful group to join. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DyeHard_RunOff/

Ice dyeing - a little better explanation

When I have done my ice dyeing I soaked my fabric in soda ash, then scrunched it and put it into a cup or ziploc and put it into the freezer (double bag to protect food), try not to do into too tight a ball or the dye will never get to the inside. This time I just poured the dye over the frozen fabric and let batch on the counter for 24+ hours. About a year ago I did some pieces with fuchsia and jet black and it turned out really neat, I will see if I can find the fabric and put those photos up in a few days.

Ice dyeing

I finally got my ice dyeing pieces ironed so here are pictures of them. The first photo shows them after they have been soaked in soad ash and are ready to go into the freezer. I know some have been doing snow dyeing and used turquoise without much luck but I used turquoise and caymen island green on several of these pieces and batched for 24+ hrs and the colors did very well.








This is the first set before and after dyeing, they were all done in cups.








Next set, top row done in cups, bottom row done in ziplocs









Done in ziplocs













Done in ziplocs

Quilt show and my new stuff

I must confess, I haven't even started pressing all the fabric I dyed the other day yet but hope to get it done after I take DS horseback riding tomorrow and we run a few errands.

When I got home yesterday I had a wonderful surprise in the mail from Thelma, these beautiful lace motifs to use in my upcoming crazy quilt project. THANKS so much Thelma!! You can see some of her CQ here (http://thelmassewnthings.blogspot.com/) AND the Tintzl I ordered from Bonnie McCaffery to use in my Elements in Fabric class came!!











The quilt show was great and you can see pictures of some of my favorites in my photos under March 1 Quilt Show (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrismomom/) and of course I had to spend a little money, you know support the quilt shops....








I am hoping to make two laptop bags to use when I don't need to carry too much with me so I can take a cute bag so I got these fabrics to use this pattern to make them and will decide which bag to use, based on where I am going and how I feel that day LOL











After the show I went to a local shop I don't get to often as it is about an hour and a half away and spent just a little more, added to my black and white stash and bought some teal and brown to make a pattern that I am going to call Shadowed Squares until I get the pattern in the mail next week (they are waiting for it to come in). The dark brown will be the borders, binding and the shadow, the light grey/blue will be the background and the teal and brown prints will be the squares. I think it will be really pretty.











Oh, and I forgot to take a picture of the purse pattern I got there. If I just made one of each purse pattern I buy I could change purses once a week and use a different purse every week of the year, think I should quit buying them and start making them, huh??