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.

Summer colors-pink and green

Just a quick post to show something I've been working on recently, it seems that green & pink is my favorite combo this week.

 

 

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.

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.  

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.

Finally--feeling creative again!

Been in a rotten mood lately--not sure if it was due to the weather, a boring job that drains the life out of me, or what...I have been sewing, making, dyeing and all that, just haven't bothered to post anything here.

Saturday and Sunday I spent batiking, these are some of the fabric pieces I ended up with:

I use beeswax and parafin, melted together in my electric frying pan, and the high-tech stretching method of push pins on a cardboard box.  Egg cartons are some of my favorites to use for patterns, I save them, and always look on the bottom of the carton to see if there is a different design that I haven't used yet.

This pattern is from the egg carton shown above.

I also used a pool noodle, which melted a bit by the time I was done.  Luckily I can get them at the Dollar Store and cut off a couple of inches as I need them.  Cookie cutters also work great--but the heat from the wax transfers quickly on the metal cutters, so pliers are definitely needed to hold them.

After waxing, I put the pieces on some plastic, and pour on some dyes mixed with soda ash.  Then they get covered and stay in the sun for about 2-3 hours.

 The pieces then have to be boiled to remove the wax, and sometimes I over-dye to get a secondary color.

The blue/green piece above was made with a pool noodle, the middle piece with the flowers was with a cookie cutter, and on the orange piece the polka dots were made with a carrot.

It was a great weekend!

Spring isn't quite here..

Not too spring-like here in North Carolina, which is unusual!  Since moving here in 2005, I've found spring to be a beautiful, warm season.  This year, it's still been downright chilly--not just in the morning, but all day long.  So, i just had to make my own spring.  A couple of weeks ago I won a fabric giveaway from Marianne Bos, who lives in Singapore!   Her fabrics are the print ones in this little quilt, which I then combined with some of my hand-dyed solids.

It's just a simple snowball quilt, still in the process of being sewn together.  (another UFO...)

Aren't her fabrics beautiful?  Thanks so much Marianne!

And I'm also finishing up this little quilt, too, which I showed in February.  Here are the leaf shapes that I cut out and moved around, then zig-zagged back on (using some heavy iron-on stabilizer on the back to hold them in place).  The piece was long, about 5' total, and yesterday after stitching the leaf shapes, I cut it in half, so now I have two pieces.  But they look like fish...

 Ok, and now I'm working on my second hooked rug, too.

Happy Valentine's Day

It's only been a month since my last post...how did that happen?  I've been busy working on what seems like hundreds of things, just not taking pictures of anything.  Just wanted to give Elaine Quehl a big thanks for a giveaway on her blog that I won-- four gorgeous fat quarters she dyed--

I got to pick my colors, and these were the ones for me. 

I've started slicing them up and using them for a variation of a Darned Quilt that I made before.  I started with some gradient hand dyes in orange/browns that I cut in gentle curved pieces, sewed together, then fused to a really heavy piece of pellon stabilizer.

Then I cut strips of Elaine's beautiful fabric, and will sew them on from edge to edge.  I'll probably couch some yarns and ribbons, too.  After this foundation is all set, then I'll cut shapes (circles or maybe leaves?) and move them around, followed by sewing, or darning, them into the cutout opening.

Since this weekend is supposed to be cold (for here in NC, anyways!) I'll most likely stay in and sew and have more progress to show next week.

A couple of weeks ago I got this Liebster Award from Katherine McNeese at Blue Heron Quilts.

It was a nice surprise, but then I forgot all about it with everything that was going on at work.  

Here are "The rules":
1. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
2. Answer the questions that the nominator set for you
3. Create 11 questions for the people you nominate
4. Choose 11 blogs with less than 200 followers and link them in your post.

This was just too much information (TMI) for me to share, I'm just not the kind of person who is comfortable putting everything out there for others to read.  Thanks for thinking of me, Katherine!  But if you would like to check out some great blogs that I like (with less than 200 followers), check these out:

tiedyejudy.blogspot.com
multicoloredsnippets.blogspot.com
notesfromstudiob.blogspot.com
ellendacoop.blogspot.com
theredheadedmermaid.blogspot.com
explorationsinquilting.com
fiberartistjourney.blogspot.com

Oh, and finished up my hooked rug.  It measures around 24" x 36", and it was kind of fun to make.  Except for the binding on the edge, which hardly shows up here, but that took forever and was worse than hand sewing a binding on a quilt.

Also--we had a challenge unveiling on Art Quilts Around the World a few weeks ago, our self-portraits.  

Here's mine!