Christmas stockings done

My sister will be glad to know that I finished these stockings and they are going in the mail TODAY!

These two snow-people look so happy.

And here's another happy guy, Leo, visiting Santa Claus last Saturday.  The Lab Rescue of NC group does a fundraiser "Picture with Santa" that we love to attend.

Edited on Friday, Dec. 20th:

I originally made this pattern of stockings back in 2009, blogged about it here.  It was from an on-line pattern I found at http://everydaycelebrate.blogspot.com/2008/11/tutorial-lined-stocking.html.

The stockings are so easy--you cut out four pieces, pile them one layer on top of the other, then sew the edges, and turn.  The cuff around the top is sewn on separately.   The snowman faces were my personal touch, but you could easily adapt to whatever you wanted to create.

Hooking up today with Off The Wall Friday.

Why my house will never be clean...

The past two weekends (Columbus Day and October 19-20) were spent on the road--traveling to NY over Columbus Day, then to Pittsburgh for a wedding on October 19th.  So I had very little time to do anything fabric/fiber related lately, especially since I don't get home from work til 5:30 every night and have a hard time getting motivated in the evenings.

I tried to make up for it this past weekend, first getting up early Saturday (as always) and soaking some fabric in soda ash solution to get ready for ice dyeing.  I first saw this method on this blog  and thought I'd give it a try.  Instead of using the dye powder, she made a strong dye/water solution.  (I have lots of jars of dye solutions already made up, since I don't always use 100% of what I mix, so it was a good reason to use it up!)  Thanks, Dolly!

Here are some of my results--which I think turned out beautifully! Colors used were Fuschia, Straw, Tangerine, and Sky Blue.

The one surprise to me is that the blue pretty much disappeared, turning into lots of purple, but not much green.

It was so cold over the weekend (for here) that the ice didn't even melt all the way after 24 hours.

I liked these so much that I started another bunch of ice dyes on Sunday morning using mostly blues & purples (Blue violet, Sapphire blue and Grape)

And then I did some screen printing on some fabric that I had dyed and painted previously, using some thickened dye solution.  This hasn't been washed out yet, I think I have to let it set for about 24 hours before washing.

And I tried stamping with a hand carved stamp I had made a while ago -- but my Setacolor paint was more like a gel (think it's getting too old) so it didn't turn out exactly like I had planned...

No time for house cleaning!  Oh, and the wedding I attended in Pittsburgh last weekend was for my niece, Karin, who lives in Florida.  I gave them a quilt for a wedding picture, and she was nice enough to send me a picture of it in their house--but I can't get the picture to show up here correctly.

And here's my former wild cat, Ferrell.  He has been hanging around since last spring, and he even lets me pet him once in a while now.  He has a warm bed to sleep in, lots of food & water, and has pretty much made himself at home.

 This is one reason why a cat is a valuable thing to have around--a baby snake.

This is Ferrell taking care of that snake--he played with it for a while then killed it.  I've seen quite a few snakes around my yard that are 6' long or more, which is kind of creepy but they do have their place in the ecosystem, I guess.

And a picture of my beautiful lab, Leo, who has been with me for about 1.5 years now and is a wonderful dog.  Thanks again to Lab Rescue of NC.

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.  

Finishing up some things

A (very) long time ago I saw an article in a Quilting Arts magazine about Itajime Shibori (resist clamping of shapes) and thought it was something I definitely had to try--so I did.  I made up a bunch of these pieces by clamping a plexiglass shape onto a fabric square, then bleaching the color out of the surrounding fabric, and re-dyeing the color back so the only pattern left is where the plexiglass covered the design.

I made up a bunch of squares, even sewed beads onto some of them, but then they got set aside.  So I got them out over my Christmas week off, and finally made a little wall hanging with some of them.

I still have a bunch more to work with, but I just wanted to feel like I did something productive with my time off...

Unlike Leo, my rescued lab, who doesn't like to do much and doesn't feel guilty about it at ALL. 

I also quilted this little wall hanging called "Summer Solstice", that I sewed together months ago...

And quilted up this "Snowflake" table runner, still have to bind it and then it's done.  I'm figuring this to be a Christmas present all ready for next year...

Happy New Year!
--Edited on Friday, 1/4/13 to link up with Nina Marie Sayre's Off The Wall Friday.  My goals for 2013 are to be more productive, and to use up as much fabric as I can before dyeing or buying any more.  Also, to do something with those piles of scraps that are everywhere.  Like Nina, I should also add discipline and focus as words to live by this year.  Thanks for hosting this each week, Nina!