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??

And the winner is .....

#2 - Wil - CONGRATS!!!!! Watch your mail for a surprise!!

I had Morgan draw so I wouldn't be tempted to cheat (only joking, I would never cheat). Then I had him draw for the Nesting Robin we are doing on one of my dyeing groups. A nesting robin is like a round robin but you do all of the work on your piece instead of it being mailed to others and them working on it. We started out by dyeing our fabric-suggested at least 3 values of a color wheel and then choosing a value and doing one with black, one with brown and one with grey. We can also use white, beige or black. Next we were to make a center, it could be as simple as a multicolored piece of fabric that includes most of the colors from our color wheel or a complex as we wanted. I haven't done mine yet as I haven't settled on the colors for my color wheel yet, hopefully one of the sets I have in the washer right now will work. Each month I will post a color harmony and technique to be added. Everyone gets to decide the size of their piece, some will be doing small wallhangings and others large quilts. Not sure on mine yet but knowing me, it won't be small.

Hopefully I will get all the fabric I dyed pressed when I get home from the quilt show tomorrow night and Sunday while DH watches the race and get it posted in the evening, if not, definitely Monday.

What a day-so far

Todays testing took MUCH longer than I expected. The mammogram was pretty quick but the Upper GI, well let's say I didn't get out of there until after 3:30. The stuff I had to drink (YUCK!!) went so far and then decide to just sit there, so then after 1 1/2 hour I had to drink something else that was worse. Besides all that I wasn't able to eat or drink anything OR take my medicine which meant I had a killer headache and my back was killing me. They finally let me take something for my headache about 2:30 and I got to take the rest of my meds when I left there after 3:30. Decided to come to Crispers to grab a salad, give the meds a chance to work, and catch up on email before going to the grocery store to get something for DH and the boys for supper so I can dye when I get home. Hopefully the headache is gone by the time I get home and the back has eased off enough to get it all done, if not I will work on it tomorrow.

Got a note from Bonnie McCaffery today asking if she could put a picture of my Icicle challenge piece on her website in the student gallery!!!

Dyeing Day set up

I spent part of today preparing for dyeing tomorrow after returning from an upper GI and a mammogram. Hopefully, I will feel like it when I get home!

I got all of my fabric torn, numbered, my log for what I want to do ready, my dye and urea measured into bottles ready for water, fabric soaking in SA, some other fabrics that need over dyeing soaked in SA and put in the freezer for some ice dyeing and the counter all ready to go. IF I feel like it when I get home I will spend the late afternoon and evening dyeing, let it batch for 24 hours so it won't be ready to post pics until late Friday or Saturday and Saturday I am going to a quilt show in West Palm so it may not happen until Sunday so watch and I will get them on as soon as I can.

I've been TAGGED!!

I've been tagged by Kelly, http://myartandotherstuff.sampasite.com/ -OK, it was back on Feb 4 but I was on blog restriction

Here are the rules:

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Post 7 (weird or random) facts about yourself on your blog.

4. Tag 7 people and link to them.

5. Comment on their blog to let them know that they have been tagged

1. I'm a native Floridian. Not many of us still in the state.
2. Been married to DH twice, almost 27 years this time.
3. I live 10 minutes from the beach and only go about 1 or 2 times a year.
4. I'm a night owl.
5. I had open heart surgery when I was 42.
6. I am a procrastinator.
7. I love chocolate and Diet Coke (OK that probably isn't weird or random but I couldn't think of anything)

I tag:
Judi http://judiscrazyworld.blogspot.com/
Michelle http://stitchandpaint.blogspot.com/
Tracy http://tracyborders.blogspot.com/
Karen http://bunks.wordpress.com/
Thelma http://thelmashanddyes.blogspot.com/
Candi http://candiseyecandy.blogspot.com/
Cobi http://360.yahoo.com/paddestoelengek

Sorry if you have been tagged before.

Shiboris, parfaits, experiments and ironing boards

The last few days I have been working on a few swaps. The first picture is of some shibori pieces ready for dye and the second one is after they are dyed. Here is what I did:
I used leftover dye that had been sitting on the counter for these pieces so the colors are not as true as they would have been if they were fresh. The colors used were all Dharma - Rose Red, Golden Yellow, Peacock Blue, Turquoise and ProChem Mixing Blue. All except the Turquoise were mixed at ½ value with 2T urea added per cup of water and 2 tsp SA added prior to applying to dry fabric.
#1 Stitched and rocks bound with upholstery thread
#2 Didn't resist at all (this is the one with the pink string wrapped around it)
#3 Folded and bound with binder clips
#4 Yellow applied and pressed to work thru fabric then turquoise applied
#5 Yellow applied and pressed to work thru fabric then red mixed with shaving cream and applied
#6 Blue and red mixed to make purple, then rinsed because it was VERY dark, applied red shaving cream mixture
ALL were left to batch 24 hours









I used leftover dye that had been sitting on the counter for these
pieces so the colors are not as true as they would have been if they
were fresh. The colors used were all Dharma - Rose Red, Golden
Yellow, Peacock Blue, Turquoise and ProChem Mixing Blue. All except
the Turquoise were mixed at ½ value with 2T urea added per cup of
water and 2 tsp SA added prior to applying to dry fabric.
ALL were left to batch 24 hours









I have been using urea since I started dyeing 3 years ago. It is
pretty expensive to ship it so thought I would try it without to see
what would happen. Well, I think the results are very similiar and
that I might even like the without results better. The top row has
urea and the bottom row does not. The colors are Dharma turquoise
and golden yellow and the green is 50/50 turq and golden yellow.
What do you think?









I was reading Kate's blog http://katesquilting.blogspot.com/ this afternoon and she showed her ironing board linking back to Libby's blog http://simplylibby.blogspot.com/ so I am following suite. In honor of Leap Year and Sadie Hawkins Day she is doing a little drawing if you post a picture of your ironing board and put a note on her blog. I will do the same thing if you put a note on my blog. So, put a comment on today's post that you have posted a picture of your ironing board on your blog and I will enter you in a drawing for something special too. My first photo shows the family ironing board, the only one we had until I made one for my sewing area a few weeks ago, and it is the second picture. As you can see, the first one is kinda yucky, mostly from spray starch that I use when pressing my gorgeous hand-dyed fabrics. The new one hasn't gotten broken in enough yet!! so it is nice and clean still. It is also 6'x30" and wonderful. I had a piece of plywood cut at Lowe's, covered it with cotton batting and then the teflon stuff you make ironing board covers with and used DHs staple gun. It is great for ironing clothes, yards of fabric and right next to the machine for pressing as I sew. As you can see there is some dyed fabric waiting to be pressed on the far end and some fabrics waiting to be made into something on the end near the iron.



Well, guess I'll go for now, thanks for stopping by.

Back again

Sorry for the long absence but I wouldn't allow myself to post until I finished my Winter Challenge piece 'Icicles' and it is finally FINISHED and posted to the Challenge Quilts blog!!!! http://challengequilts.blogspot.com/ I posted all the details there so if you don't mind, I'll ask you to go there if you want to read how I made it. Plus it will give you a chance to see the great work all the others did.









While I was waiting for the glue on Icicles to dry, I worked on my lessons for an online class that I am taking with Ellen Lindner - Instant Art Quilts, http://www.adventurequilter.com/ . I got it right the first time!! She thought I had all my colors in the right place so I was very happy with that. Below is a picture of the fabric I used for it and the end result, as of now anyway. I think I will set it aside for now and later make an underwater scene with it unless it tells me it wants to be something different. I ended up only using the 1/2 yard piece and not the FQs that are pictured. Everything is torn and then fused to a muslin base. The 3 small pieces on the left are all I had left from the half yard piece.









I have some shibori and parfait pieces batching so hope to post some pictures of those results tomorrow night or Monday. I hope to start posting on a more regular basis but if I get behind again, I may have to restrict myself again!!