Half over

Border blocks

I got my border blocks sewn for my Wales Sampler quilt. Wednesday is the meeting, so I need to sew the border on and write up the instructions. I will have a photo of the completed top next week.

Emerald Pools

I am getting down to the nitty gritty of my leader project on the wall. And in the bottom corner I just noticed that a triangle is missing! It could easily have been knocked down, and since that corner of the design was sloppily slapped onto the wall, I didn't notice it was missing until I tidied it up. Luckily I had more of that fabric, several of the black and whites were used up when I cut for this quilt. I hope to have this guy finished and off the wall this week.

More bowls for the shop!

I worked the shop on Friday and Saturday. While it was slow between customers, I was able to wrap more cord for bowls. I just need to trim some threads and then photograph them to list in my Etsy shop. I have so much fun making these! The little ones are perfect to put next to your machine as thread catchers.

Cute little guy!

I also made this little guy! My sweetie loved it so much that I told him I wanted him to have it. He put it on his dresser for a loose change catcher. And today is his birthday! So I will be baking his favorite Rum cake as a special treat.

This is my Design Wall Monday post.

Oh, and BTW, I drew a name for my giveaway. I will announce the name after I hear back from her. Thanks to everyone who entered! It was fun to hear all about your favorite treats!

Really? The 12th of December?

My week started it off with some unnecessary expenses. I broke my coffee roaster. I was trying to move it, and the chamber and chaff catcher went flying to the floor and shattered. The unit is top heavy and I am usually careful about moving it and this time wasn't. Good thing is that replacement parts are available. 

English Nut Bars

I did some Holiday baking. My daughter-in-law was told by her husband (my son) that she was required to get the favorite family cookie bar recipe. So we baked them. She then went home and tried again, forgetting to separate the egg white from the yolk. They were fluffier, but still good. The recipe is here.

Pink scrap bowl

Black scrap bowl

Purple bowl

I got three bowls finished this week. I will be making a few more this weekend. I love how the scrappy ones turned out!  They are available for purchase at my Etsy shop. The purple one isn't up yet, I had trouble photographing and getting the color right. Message me if you are interested.

I am participating in the Sew Mama Sew giveaway. There is still time to enter, my drawing will close tomorrow afternoon (I forgot that I am working the shop tomorrow) Check out this post.

This is my off the wall Friday post.

Monday Morning

Wales quilt

I have one more section to sew on and my Wales block of the month quilt will be sashed! I have the border designed, but just need to select what fabric I want to use. And also to write up the final instructions.

Emerald Pools

I am getting close to finishing my Emerald Pools leader project. I really love how the colors glow!

I am participating in Sew Mama Sew's giveaway day! Check out this post to enter.

This is my design wall Monday post for this week.

Giveaway day!

I am excited to participate in Sew Mama Sew's biannual giveaway day! It is so much fun to check out all the wonderful sewing and quilting blogs! This round I have a yard of Blank Quilting Jet Black solid fabric and a fat quarter of a hand dyed fabric. The base fabric was a black on white holly print. I over dyed it using procion fiber reactive dyes. It has been washed in synthropol to set the dyes. But I do recommend using a dye catcher when washing items made from hand dyes, just in case.

To enter my giveaway, please comment on this post (make sure that if you are set to noreply that I have a way to reach you) answering this question, what is your favorite cookie or treat to celebrate your family's Holiday season? One entry per person please. Since I will be working at the quilt shop on Friday, I will draw a name first thing Saturday the 13th.

My family's favorite cookie is English nut bars! While my Son and Daughter-in-law were here for Thanksgiving, she said she was "required" to get the recipe from me.  I was thrilled to know that my son had remembered those cookies and wanted his wife to learn how to make them. I will be posting it to my family recipe blog later this morning.

Thanks for stopping by my blog, I hope you take a minute to look around!

December?

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful time. The kids and grands were down for the weekend. They left yesterday afternoon. Sweetie and I did a bit of clean up and then plopped down in our chairs, exhausted! I did not get into the sewing room at all. But after I get some chores done today I plan on getting back in there.

Sashing

First up is to finish the sashing for the block of the month that I designed for one of my local groups. I would also like to get the border on the top before the next meeting.

Wales Sampler blocks

I used all star block patterns for the 12 blocks and then used a star sashing design to continue in the same theme. The border also has stars.

Emerald Pools

I am still hammering away at this class sample as my leader project. It is slow, but steady progress. I hope to get it off the wall this week.

I also booked a class at a shop in California for January. I am going to be out there for a quilting retreat that my friends put on and so called the shop where I used to work and teach to see if the new owner would be interested in a class that week. She accepted! I miss that place! It will be fun to be back in the shop teaching. I will add it to my schedule after the owner gets a chance to announce it at her monthly Block of the Month event.

This is my Design wall Monday post for this week!

Since this is cyber Monday, I would love it if you are shopping at any of the sites that I have a banner for that you click on the link from my blog. I try not to be very pushy with promoting the ads and so I make very little from the ads. I greatly appreciate any clicks and purchases! I know that there are a lot of deals today and the next couple of weeks. Happy Shopping!

Freezing cold Monday

The weather turned cold this weekend! And we had snow Saturday afternoon and evening. Maybe an inch or two but it stuck. The next morning the temps had dropped to the teens, so it didn't melt off until the sun hit it. Most is gone, but the cold stayed. Hopefully it will warm up a bit today.

Never ending Hexagon

I got quite a bit done on my hexagon project while I was working the shop on Friday. This is my center, I think I am going to do a medallion style layout. I was able to get all the black pieces stitched on. I hope to start adding the next round of flowers this week.

4 sets!

Two more sets prepped

Since I can't make myself work on a piece with a deadline, I did some mindless sewing. A group that I used to belong to in California does a monthly block swap. I have participated from distance the last couple of years. I mail them out when I get a year's worth finished. I am running late this year. Their last meeting for 2014 will be the second Monday in December. I got 4 sets made this weekend and 2 more prepped. I will sew those today and get the last set done so they can go off into the mail this week. Cross that off the list.

Leader project.

My leader project is growing slowly. But I did round the corner so it feels like I am making progress.

This is my Design Wall Monday post.

Off

I was able to photograph and get some hand dyes listed in my Etsy shop. I have 5 pieces right now, more will be listed next week. I am trying to earn some money for more dyes.

My blue sky fabrics came out of the dye bath. It is late, the indoor setting of my camera just doesn't do justice to these beautiful blues! I will try again over the weekend to see if I can get a better photograph.

Never ending story

I recently picked up this project again. I am going to do black hexagons between the flowers. It is a good take along project for when I am at the shop and it is slow.

Moved the hoop

I pulled out my hand quilting project. I haven't touched it in 3 years. I forgot how much I enjoy the relaxing stitching of hand quilting . I am trying to put in 1/2 hour each morning with my coffee. I hope to get this guy finished to make the local shows next year.

I am having a serious case of artist block. I can't quite get going on a couple of projects that have deadline looming. So instead I pull out UFO's that haven't been worked on in years. I guess at least I am working on something, anything.

This is my off the wall post for this week.

Design Wall Monday Bring out the UFO'S!

My main focus right now is an art quilt piece that I cannot show publicly until after the book comes out. So I will spotlight a couple of UFO's that have resurfaced recently.

The Never ending Hexagon 

I started this years ago, probably at least 10. It comes out every once in a while and then I get side tracked. I am using shirtings for the lights and 1800's repros for the darks and red centers. The last time this resurfaced I had laid out the blocks that were done and finally figured out a plan. It would have been a good idea to take notes on what that plan actually was! I think that I took a photograph of the layout, so I need to search my photo files and see if I can find it. Meanwhile I have been sewing the wrapped hexes together while I am at the shop and it is slow.

Hand quilting

This is another long time UFO. I was part of a row robin back in about 1999 or 2000. I sewed the rows together in about 2002 or so. Then I started the handquilting about 2005 or 06, I thought I had about a third of it completed. Not. But it came back out again. I am trying to quilt on it every morning for about 1/2 hour. We will see how that works out. I really would like this to be finished and then it can make the rounds of the local shows next year.

Red rock

My sweetie and I took a quick weekend trip down to Kanab! I adore the red rock of southern Utah!

This is my design wall Monday post for this week.

Dyeing for sky

I am working on a project for the upcoming National parks tribute. I need sky. The pieces of turquoise and blue that I have previously hand dyed are too small and I do not want to piece this section. So off into the basement I go to dye some sky.

Two blues

I decided to dye two possible backgrounds so that I would have a choice. I got out my favorite turquoise and then sky  blue.

Dissolving 

I always have a "drop cloth" soda ashed and ready to dye. I use it to mop up messes, to put under the dyes while mixing and to wipe out the containers. You never know what you will get with the drop cloth! I do wet the drop cloth when mixing the powders so that it will grab any powder spills.

Soda Ashing

I saw this hint somewhere online. I mix up a bunch of soda ash in a big bucket. I have a lid for the bucket and after I soak and remove the fabric I am dyeing, I can just close up the lid and it is ready to go for the next dyeing adventure. When it gets too low, you just add more soda ash and water to the bucket.

Turquoise

Sky Blue

I have these two pieces "cooking" under plastic. Hopefully I can get them rinsed out tomorrow. I reuse those cheap plastic tablecloths. These are starting to get tattered, time to get some more from the dollar store.

Ziplock bags

I also did 4 fat quarters in ziplock bags. Again, using the "drop cloth" to catch any excess dyes.

Labeled!

I found out the hard way that I really need to label those bottles with the excess dye. Last time I thought I had extra brown and dyed a piece for a background. It turned out to be Burgundy red.

Sorting some for the store

Pretty pink

I need to get more dyes. So next week I will list on my Etsy shop some hand dyes. I need to pay for my habit! I have a hard time photographing the colors, they never show up as bright as they really are. Something to work on next week.

This is my off the wall post for this week.

First Snow!

Back porch

We are having a little bit of snow. Nothing like those back East are dealing with. But it still counts as snow!

Birthday Hearts

On the back

This year I had challenged a couple of friends to finish UFO's. Twelve for the year. I did pretty well at the start. Then I had a couple of new projects with deadlines come up.  So in the last couple of months I only got one done, So I am at 7 for the year. Time to catch up. This little quilt top was given to me by my daughter more than 10 years ago. She had taken an applique class and this was the class project. She gave  me the top and said you quilt it! Happy Birthday to me! This recently made its way up to the top of the pile. The fabric that I was going to use for the back wasn't big enough and so I found I had this heart print that would work well. I got it pin basted yesterday and hopefully this week it will get quilted in between the new work that has deadlines and can't be shown publicly yet.

Speaking of not being able to show publicly, a project from last year can now be shown! This is part of the Beatles project and this photograph my friend Kaye took at Houston a couple of days ago. What a thrill to have a piece in the show! 

Photograph by Kaye Evans

My quilt is "Twist and Shout" and I talked about it last week on this post.

This is my Design Wall Monday post for this week.

It is here!

Last summer I signed up to do an art quilt for the Inspired by the Beatles an Art Quilt Challenge. I was not allowed to show photographs for a long time. Although the book has been out for a month, for some reason my order took forever to get here. 

I got a package!

The tracking said that the package should arrive on the 30th.  YES! A key in the mail box!

A box from Amazon!

And yes, the box was from Amazon! Wahoo! I had two dogs on leashes with me, so I had to wait to get back to the house before ripping open the box.

So pretty!

I was so excited to see the beautiful covers! I had added my friends copy to my order and I also bought one for my Dad.

My Quilt!

What a thrill to see my quilt in the book! They are in alphabetical order, so I am near the end. And this week they are at Houston, I wish I could be there, but it wasn't going to happen this year.

My fabric choices

I had this vision when I got my title of "Twist and Shout". I was hoping to find some vintage 60's fabrics, something with a bold print. After searching for months, I couldn't find anything. I had called out to my former group in Salt Lake and a friend commented she didn't have a 60's print but had something she thought would work. And she did!

My cut outs

Drawing is not my strong suit. And after trying to find some twisting silhouettes, I finally just broke down and did my own drawings. And it turned out to be just what I wanted. I first quilted the background with a twisting design. I forgot to take a lot of the in progress photographs. I then fused the silhouettes and stitched around the edges.

In progress

You can see the layout here and the quilting shows up nicely in this photograph.

Ready for the binding.

Like I said, I forgot to take photographs, so I don't have a finished photograph! My daughter was visiting from England and we were heading up to the lake for a week. So I was rushing around getting the piece ready to mail before we left since the deadline was the next week. I mailed it off and headed to the lake.  Then realized that I didn't have a finished photo.

You can find the list of venues here!

This is my off the wall post for this week.