A nice quilty weekend

I finished up two baby blankets on Saturday--they were sitting there for a week just waiting for the binding to be sewn on.  I love how they turned out!

 This is the back of one:

 And this is the back of the other:

And I made two Pottery Barn style pillows using some linen fabric that I bought at a quilt show recently.  The fabric was $2/yard, and is white, so I dyed it this light turquoise color one day last week.  I sewed a big button on each last night, and now they're finished.

Feels good to finally get some things done!!!

Seems like we're heading straight into summer

Went to NY to visit my daughter & family over Easter, plus she had her new baby (Ethan) April 13th, so things were a little busier than usual.

While there, I took my granddaughter Madelyn to a goat dairy farm near their house where they have tours.  She loved it.  The goats were so friendly, but weren't like goats at a petting zoo that try to attack your hands for food.

And now that I'm home again and back to work, I've been making some simple baby quilts for my niece who had a baby girl on April 16th--

Also, have been doing samples for the Surface Design in Felting on-line class I'm enrolled in.  Felting is such a fun and unusual experience--more different than anything I think I've done before.

 This sample is a piece of silk over some merino roving, with circle resists.

Hot this past weekend here in NC--will probably have to turn the AC on by the end of the week.  Spring is over, summer is here.

Spring may be here--finally.

One reason I like to blog is that it gives me a chance to look at what I've actually gotten accomplished.  Even though some days it seems that all I do is go to work and come home late, I still am able to complete some projects.

One is a baby blanket for a soon-to-be born grandson:

And a baby blanket I made for my sister who needed it for a baby shower.  I haven't bought fabric for a specific project in quite a while--she wanted something with monkeys on it.

Lots of free motion stitching went into this.  I wonder if the recipient will even think about all that work?  I'm sure not.

And even some dyeing, now that it's warming up a bit.  These two pieces were pretty awful looking at this stage--

 But they evolved into these pieces afterwards.

 I just love the look of shibori!

 And more, always more...

I've opened an Etsy shop and am selling some of my fabrics (or trying to--no sales yet!).  Gotta get rid of some of it so I can keep making more.  Hope to get these posted up there today.

Linking up with Nina Marie today--Off The Wall Fridays!

Bye Bye February

This month I've been a guest blogger over on And Then We Set it on Fire a few times, and have been doing a lot of dyeing related to the Ann Johnston DVD.

Here are three fat quarter pieces that I dyed Turquoise (for a Fire blog post), then I batiked with an egg carton dipped in beeswax, and overdyed.

I like how they turned out, and I think they'll make some cute pillows.

And I also finished up a crib bumper set for my daughter who is having a baby in April, this time a boy.  Got this whole set in the mail to her today.

What a mess! I had to get these out of the way because I just don't have enough room...

 And for two Saturdays in a row, I went to a quilt-as-you-go class at my LQS, Quilting Quest in Lexington.  I had some blocks made already, so I used them to learn the technique of joining the already-quilted squares.  Very easy, and I'll definitely use this again, probably to make a baby blanket soon!

Time flies!

My two entries for the upcoming PAQA-South member show were accepted, more information about the show is here.  I was going to post pictures of my entries but no longer have them since my computer at work got a virus and EVERYTHING is currently gone that was on it (and that's where my pictures were).

So, only a few little pictures today, after not posting for a MONTH.  

A couple of baby quilts, for my niece Taylor's new baby, Emma.  Emma was born about a month early, back in August, so these aren't too late, she just arrived too early. 

 Simple straight lines, and simple diagonal line quilting.

And this one I just fused flowers on a blue background, then quilted flower and leaf shapes all around.  I seem to be getting lazier as I get older...

I've been working on some other projects, but forget to take pictures.  My goal is to try to clean up and use most of my commercial fabric stash by the end of the year.  Not realistic, but gonna try!!

Oh, and some hooking practice with some wool that I dyed last month, just trying to get a feel of how the strips look when hooked.

First post of July

Wow, I can't believe how fast this year is flying by!  Already half-way into July, how did that happen? 

I've been busy, both with work and at home in the sewing room.  The bumper pads and dust ruffle all ready to be shipped off to Long Island to my niece.  Lots of sewing goes into these, even though they look pretty simple!

A small hooked rug I've hand sewn onto a dark piece of fabric, the border is ready to be quilted.  Never tried anything like this, so I'm figuring it out as I go along. 

And here's another rug, now about 90% complete--I need to dye some more of the blue wool.  We've had so much rain that I haven't been able to dye much this summer!  Not complaining, though, after drought conditions for five years now.

Here's a baby blanket that is going to be sandwiched up and quilted this weekend.  I made some dresden plate circles a while ago and appliqued one of them on a piece of blue hand-dyed fabric that I had.  It's simple, but will be a great background for some free motion quilting.  I am piecing another one, and they will both be sent to my niece (along with the crib bumper pads) for her upcoming baby shower!

My daughter and granddaughter visited me for a few days late in June, and since granddaughter Madelyn is 21 months old, I took some small pieces of fabric and made a glue resist on them with Elmer's gel glue that I let dry thoroughly, then had her paint the fabric with Jaquard textile paints using a foam brush.  It was fun for her, and we ended up with some funky pieces of fabric that I'm going to use to make pillows with.   I had to let the paints cure for a week, since I couldn't heat set it due to the glue, but it all turned out nice.  Here's one small sample, the rest of the pictures weren't in focus that I took before work:

And here is that felted vessel I made earlier this year, now filled with dried silver dollars.  It doesn't look as bad as I thought it did.

I'm linking up with Nina Marie today!

Is it Friday yet???

Another month has gone by, and I haven't posted...still feeling "unfocused", if that's a word.

I did finish my rug, and I'm very happy with how it turned out!  It was a learning experience, and the best part was learning how to dye wool, a process different than dyeing cotton.  The finished rug is about 24" x 35".

So last weekend I worked all day Saturday on this mess--starting with a piece of natural colored wool felt, then adding layers of wool by needle felting, and then resorting to adding pieces of netting using my sewing machine.  And it just looks like a mess!  What a waste of a day!  I think I already threw this out, if I haven't I plan to.

And this is another thing on my design wall, from the Judith Trager Craftsy class I've been viewing.  Each square is around 10", so it's pretty large at this point.  I'm just using up scraps, which I have way too many of.   Her class is pretty good, for anyone who gets those half-price or discount emails.

And my niece is having a baby girl in September, so I'm making the crib bumper pads and skirt for her, she wanted the colors of baby blue and lavender, which I seemed to have a lot of already.  I picked up the foam bumper pads at Hancock Fabrics yesterday, so I can get these done soon.

And here's Leo, not stressing out at all.  I think he slid right off the couch pretty soon after I took this picture.