Paper – Fiber – Fabric

It’s been awhile.

I’ve sure missed working like this with my hands

I love it.

Feels so good.

I think I’ll do it again soon. All of it.

Freshly Spun

Fabric Note Cards

No real purpose for these, so, into the shop they go.

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the plan

wow! thanks for all the quilt love. did someone link to my blog? i have received so much traffic and so many e-mails the past few days. anyway, thank you.

so, my summer is coming to the end. i have one more week until we start homeschooling again, and than at the end of september i will start taking classes again. last year once school started for me i had very little time to do anything other than school related stuff for my kiddies or myself. it was kinda depressing not to be able to hang out with friends or go to church functions (other than sunday) or anything. if i had finished my homework and was willing to stay up late i could squeeze in a little crafting time but that didn’t happen very often at all. oh well. i figure that this year will be the same, so i dont have any grand plans in the works as far as projects go. i do however have a short list of things i want to finish before i start classes.

first let me show you the cute blankie i finished this last week. i followed the happy things tutorial again. it turned out way cute. i took my time and top-stitched each stripe since i wasn’t going to use batting and quilt it. when i finished the top i simply cut out some flannel the same size and bound it pillowcase style. i also added a few ties using embroidery floss, to keep the back from shifting away from the top. oh wait, before i sewed the flannel to the top i appliqued on an “e” with matching fabric. than i stitched around it with contrasting floss.  i love blankies like this. just perfect for wrapping a little one.

the e stands for elliot. a little boy who just arrived last week.

ok, now for my plans. i want to finish up these projects before school starts at the end of september.

the robot quilt: the top is done now i just need to quilt and bind it. the only problem is that i am not sure how i want to quilt it.

the self striping yarn project: i knit up a tube when i was on vacation in idaho but decided it was way to big to make as a purse so i frogged it, reset the yarn and started over with a smaller purse. the tube is completed as well as the strap. now i need to sew up one end of the tube add lining and a zipper and sew on the straps. i am much happier with the size. the biggest dilemma with this project is that i can’t decide if like the side showing or the inside better. i turned the tube inside out a realized that i like that side as well.

and than i have this fabric that i am dying to make into another quilt.

oh and one last thing. i have a friend who is need a pair of booties. i think the booties will come first since this week i will be traveling and they can come with me. i could also sew up the lining on the purse and bring it since it needs to be sew in by hand. yes, i think i will do that.

so anyway that is the plan. who knows how much of it i’ll get done. i’ll see you again if i make any progress.

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subtle stripes and another quilt

i left town last week and took my spinning wheel with me. i almost didn’t bring it but was so glad that i did. the yarn turned out to be very beautiful on my self striping attempt. here’s the wip. the stripes are subtle but they’re there. hurray!

it’s going to be another lined bag.

here is another finished quilt. why am i making baby quilts? who knows, but there are two more tops waiting for me to finish.

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giving it a try

today i made my first attempt at hand dying roving. i am trying to make self striping yarn. here is the step by steps.

·        picked out two 2oz merino rovings from my stash, set them in a tub of water to soak for about 15 min.

·        while this was soaking i got out my cool-aid stash and decided to use all that i had. 3 blue something or other, 2 green apple, 2 pink lemonade, 1 grape, 1 orange·        moved out side to driveway and laid down two garbage bags and places my two roving side by side so that they would be the dyed the same.

·        applied cool-aid in about 6-10 inch sections. I just sprinkled it right on top. picture

·        added about a cup of water to each dyed section to moisten the cool-aid that was just sitting on top. 

·       rolled bag over roving and let sit in the sun for about 3 ½ hours. (i did find another bag of pink lemonade and sprinkled it over the green during this time) picture

·        after the kids went to bed i went out side expecting to have to rinse out the excess cool-aid but the rovings had absorbed it all; as i went to rinse it no color came out at all. picture

·        gently squeezed out excess water and moved the roving to the house to roll up in a towel to remove any remaining water.

they are now hanging in my yard drying. the colors are a bit muted; not as bright as i was expecting but i like it. picture

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a couple of projects finished

yesterday i headed over to laura‘s and got to work on the skirt for thisbe. i was surprisingly painless. i hadn’t sewn clothes for her since she was a toddler. i have to say that i wasn’t a fan of the fabric she picked out at joann’s the other day but when put together as a skirt it turned out pretty cute. it was made from the 3 peas tutorial here at kuky ideas.

i also finished the purse i started at the black sheep gathering. adding the lining and zipper was much easier than i thought it would be.

i also think it’s pretty cool how the yarn i spun up self striped. now that i have finished this i am going to try and dye my own roving to see if i can get it to self stripe again.

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