First Day of Spring

I was on a roll for a while in February, posting quite a few times.  Lost some of my momentum over the past few weeks, though!  Part of that was due to an ice storm earlier this month when I lost power for a few days, it was a slight setback, but things are better now!

Last weekend I dyed some yarns that I bought at a fiber show in January from a wonderful lady from Heelside Farms.  This was white when I bought it, now look at the wonderful colors:

Do you like my professional drying rack?

So, I dyed all this yarn and needed to use it for something--I got out some burlap and started hooking some small pieces (about 7" x 10").

 This one is a little bigger (about 8" x 11").  

And, I have been doing a little bit of sewing, too.  This is what's on my design wall now.

New Year

Happy New Year everyone!  Can't believe it's 2014, where does the time go???

Not much of a post today, just something to get rid of my previous post since it was a Christmas one.  I'm working on a new project, needle felting some sari ribbons that I ordered on ebay, incorporating them into a quilt.

This was the first sunrise of 2014 here in NC.

And here is a small rug that I hooked in about 3 days.  Two of them I spent in front of the TV watching the Walking Dead marathon, I had watched a few of the shows before, but didn't know where everyone fit into the plot.  Now I do.  Can't believe I like that show.

Cold and windy here in NC, but at least compared to the rest of the country, it's not too bad!

December Blahs

Here it is already December 5th, where did 2013 go??  In the last week, we've had a dusting of snow, temps down into the teens over the weekend, and now it's almost 70 degrees out.  Hard to tell what season it is, it doesn't really seem like Christmas could be so close.

I've been working on a piece for the PAQA-South show, ArtQuilts Whimsey, with a submission deadline of March 1st, and a juried show in April.  Entry is open to everyone, check out the link for more information.
I'm trying out some things I haven't done before, so it's been an adventure--luckily I still have a couple of months to get this completed.

And been doing more rug hooking, working on a little Sunset piece that I might frame or make into a pillow.

And making some potholders using the fabric my little granddaughter Madelyn painted when she was here this summer.  I figure it's a nice gift for her Mom and paternal grandma, and they're easy to make--I've had the InsulBrite stuff for two years now, it's about time I used it!

 And more dyeing of wool, using a simple technique.. wool is so much easier to dye than cotton.

It's totally dark by the time I get home from work at this time of year--so it seems so much later than it really is.  But I do love the sun coming up early in the morning, as I wake up at 5:00 every day and work on something before leaving for work.  Another couple of weeks of going to the office, then we get some time off for Christmas.  Can't wait!

Updating this to include a link to Nina Marie Sayre's blog and Off The Wall Friday.

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!

Caraway pictures

I went to a rug show yesterday (my first) at a place near my house called Caraway Rug Camp.  It's about 20 minutes away, and there was a week long retreat/class going on with a show open to the public for one day. (Those of you who live where there is a lot of rug hooking going on don't understand how unusual it is for me to see this variety of rugs so close to home!)

Some pictures of the rugs I saw there:

I wish I had been more careful and photographed the tags accompanying the rugs to give credit to the maker.  I also wish there had been vendors there, as I really wanted to buy a new hook and love to actually hold things sometimes and try them out before buying, which you can't do online.

Here is what's blooming today at my house, bee balm--

 and the butterfly bushes are just starting--

And this handsome man has taken up residence on the roof of my shed, he won't let me touch him, but he hangs around.  Of course, I had to feed him, so I'm afraid he'll never leave now.

Reveal Day - Out of Asia

Today is reveal day on Art Quilts Around the World, with our theme "Out of Asia".  Since I have a shibori obsession, I thought I'd use some of my shibori fabric scraps from pieces I've dyed over the years and create something with an Asian theme.  Shibori is a Japanese technique, involving wrapping fabric around poles before or after dyeing, or wrapping with strings, or folding and using resists to create patterns.

This piece uses four different pieces of shibori fabrics, mostly in blue/white, and measures 11.5" x 16".

While searching through some of the bins of fabric I've created, I found lots of great pieces that I've forgotten about, like these, that I really should use!

And another rug hooking project in progress, this time with starfish.  I'm dyeing all the blue wool for this one, and having lots of fun with it.

Getting hot and humid here in NC again, we had a cool stretch of weather that's apparently over now.  Summers are not very pleasant here--good time to stay in and do some quilting on weekends.

Spring in the Air

On the And Then We Set It On Fire blog, an interesting technique was presented this month that I had to try. First step was to dye these four pieces--

Hopefully this weekend I'll have time to do the rest of the project.  The dye colors I used were fuchsia, chartreuse and blue violet.

Has anyone every tried to make a vessel using the wet-felt resist method?  I did, using some alpaca fibers.  (For some great instructions, you can check out this blog).   Wet felting is quite a tedious process, but I ended up with this little vessel--that looks pretty much like a coconut.  Not my favorite, but I used what I had on hand.  If I do this again, I'll use some better fibers, like merino, so it doesn't turn out so hairy!

You can see the fuzzy-ness of the alpaca fibers better here:

And work is still progressing on what is for me the world's slowest craft, rug hooking.  The background strips are some blue wool that I dyed myself.  Loving the colors, but will be glad when it's finally finished.

Last weekend was a beautiful one here in NC, so I batiked some fabrics to use in a project I'm working on.  If you want to read about the process, check this blog post.  I just love the whole process of making batiked fabrics.

Spring might finally be here!  We had a t-storm or two overnight, and things are finally starting to bloom.

Linking up to Nina Marie's blog today, check out all the great links there!

Also, linking up to Fiber Artist Journey today, too.