Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Coming Attractions!

 Need something to sew?  These are coming attractions!  I'd like to make everyone of them!

Fort Worth Fabric Studio is hosting their 2021 Autumn Mystery now!

Fall Frolic is hosted by Pat Sloan--begins October 13- December

Red Thread Studio is hosting their 2nd All American quilt along
to hone veterans across USA--join in!















Friday, September 24, 2021

I LOVE Fall!!!

 The feel of fall has arrived!  Those cool breezes that push away the hot temperatures and high humidity are welcome!  I can gather a jacket from the back of the closet for early morning breakfast on the patio--then it warms mid afternoon, but the best part is when it cools in the evening and that jacket comes back on!.  Ahhhh, I love FALL!  

And I enjoy making fall type quilts.  Here is just a small selection that I have made over the years.

This small hanging is from Four Seasons--don't remember the designer--
but love to hang each season, especially FALL!

Batiks!  Robbing Peter to Pay Paul--saved the pattern for years
before I made the quilt top--had to gather batiks first!

Close-up view

This was a free pattern done through Fort Worth Fabric Studio--happened one
fall years ago--check out the fall theme one now ongoing!

Spider webs and bats!

Absolutely loved stitching this pattern!
I think you can still find it somewhere

Lots of fun!

And the nine patch blocks set it off perfectly!
One of my favorite!  Just fun fun fun to make!  I liked making the
characters come to life

Well--later I'll pull out more of my fall quilts--don't have enough
wall space to hang every one!


Monday, September 20, 2021

Ta Da!!

When we walk into the long arm quilting studio you never 
Know what quilt will be on one of the three machines.  This
Is one of those beauties—years in the making—one person
Carrying out the tradition of an unfinished legacy! 
How many hours, how many stitches went into this? 
Definitely a labor of love!


The quilter decided to use overall flower motifs in white—


I placed my pumpkin top on the machine—had been thinking
For over a year and half how it should be quilted.  Finally, under the needle I just went for whatever my hands and brain did

I had another one of my dyed backings and swirls with white thread worked perfectly to accompany my pumpkins—whew! That’s another off the list! 

I spy something wrong here!

Two more added 

We’re working on this row along—been interesting! 

My little heart! Finally finished!

Another block to add to collection for this year’s top from the Quilting Life

One hat down, another on the needles! 
I would say I’ve accomplished something! 

 



 



 

Thursday, September 16, 2021

Fall Is Coming!

 It was time to change the setting around my blog--so I chose FALL!  Maybe, it would make me feel cooler if I see those falling leaves.  Alas, temperatures are still soaring in the 90's each day but we chugged along with our chores and make the best of each day--soon, very soon, there will be cooler temps and real falling leaves!  IN the meantime, I looking at more UFO's to add to my pile..............

Stitching on this makes one feel cooler--this began September 7--but, you can still
jump on board to pick up the patterns, etc. from Fat Quarter Shop


This lovely will began in October--sponsored by Sherri from
A Quilting Life blog  I'm loving the reds and pinks--hope to be ready
for February 14th!

 and since it is fall--I'm thinking Fall Leaf patterns as well as Pumpkins!  
did you know that fabric producers offer free patterns on their website?


This is Happening!  Now!  Blue and Gray Sampler BOM from Debby--
a little piecing and little applique--looks interesting!

Aby Quilts has a great tutorial to making a fall table runner--but this layout
could be used for any season of the year!









Monday, September 13, 2021

The old man, a tree and birds

 Here is a little tale to bring to you.  It’s about an old man, a tree in his backyard and visits of birds.  

The man is not quite ancient although his hairline is receding with what hair he has graying and thin.   He is slightly bent, walks with a limp at times, coughs once in awhile and sends out loud sneezes without warnings, that make you jump sky high.  Some call him a curmudgeon.   But, his family thinks he’s loveable.  The  old man is fighting a battle in his own backyard. 

The tree is quite lovely—reaching over rooflines, sending out branches of pear shaped leaves—it is perfectly fashioned as an open umbrella. It provides shade morning and afternoon—it is a welcome sight for those to rest on the hammock strung from its base. Breezes blow gently,  rustling noises abound—ahh, so peaceful.  

.. in all the life span of the tree, it had remained a symbol of nature in the old man’s backyard until one morning the old man woke to the sound of hundreds of chirping birds! Sure, that sound is nice to hear upon waking—but, do the birds need to perch and roost in his tree?  The old man thought of all the surrounding trees—why his beautiful tree in his backyard?  What made this one tree inviting?  Why are the birds holding a convention with a host of thousands in his tree? 

Sure, friends said birds need to roost somewhere to wake you in the morning.  They never give a thought how birds leave their droppings all over the old man’s backyard, patio and deck.  Then the visiting dog rolls through the grass to pick up that stinky smell of chirping birds. 

The old man has declared war on the birds! He didn’t want to harm the birds, he just wanted them to move to another tree not in his yard.   First, he figured he’d shoot a blast of water from the hose into the inner most branches of the lovely tree.  That worked and hundreds of birds would fly out to sit on rooftops and survey the old man’s actions.  the old man needed to do his water blasting every evening and morning—he is an old man after all and sometimes he’d forget in the evening; so next morning there were the chirping birds, leaving their droppings all over the old man’s outdoor furniture. 

Off he goes to do research on how to repel the birds from his lovely tree and rid his backyard of falling poop.  Ahh, he found that birds don’t like peppermint—so he says to his wise wife—“I’m going to soak cotton balls with peppermint and sling the balls into the tree—that should do the trick”. He was quite proud of his solution. 

The wise all knowing wife said, “first off, how are you going to throw cotton balls up that high? And what if a wind comes up, which happens often, to blow out the cotton balls?  We’d have white cotton balls all over the backyard.”  The old man considered this—then said, “I’ll forget that idea—I’ll use my sprayer to shoot the peppermint up in the tree”—so off, he went off to stream the concoction into the branches.  Just like that, a wind sent the spray back into his face and he smelled like peppermint for hours.  Certainly repelled birds and anything else from the old man.  

What now?  The birds are still there morning and night.  More research the old man said.  Ahh, small birds don’t like big birds!  He bought a big bird kite that he installed near the tree.  The old man was quite proud of himself!  The big bird kite soars over the tree, scaring off the little birds—the tree still stands quietly for the time being.  Now, the old man has another problem—the old man’s neighbors have a dog, which barks at the big soaring bird!  

Friday, September 10, 2021

Sew little time!

Where does the time go in each day?  Some days I feel very productive with
projects and other days, the minutes and hours just tick away quickly and I have 
nothing to show for the day!
Sew-- just little time to make sure all my projects and UFOs are
finished.

FINALLY!  This one is off the quilting frame and ready for binding--
It had its problems in construction--some of the instructions were not clear
or maybe, my mind was just not fully engaged......alot of ripping incurred!

Another block done in "Hands all around" from Civil War diaries
Thought I was finished with this easy block-from
Santa Fe Trail project until

I looked at the pattern again!  Gee whiz--more ripping on that
top row--now, it's all good!
This one is complete!  Thanks to my long arm quilting partner--who
did fantastic job of bringing this quilt to life!  The pattern was charity pattern
early in the year from Fat Quarter Shop

She free styled hearts and swirls on the quilt--such love!
 

Another block for Santa Fe Trail quilt top--this one was really easy--
no ripping required!

August block from A Quilting Life

As you can see--Sew Many Projects--Sew Little Time!

Tuesday, September 7, 2021

What is a Gamp?

 You are probably wondering "what is a gamp?"  I didn't know either until I began weaving.

"A color gamp is a cloth that contains a set of color stripes in the warp that are crossed by the same set of color stripes in the weft. The resulting fabric will show the interactions of all the colors with every other color in both the warp and weft."

Several days ago I was cleaning out a closet in my studio--left far too long to be sorted--it was about time, I organize that section of my room.  It's interesting what you find in that type of adventure.  I pulled out my color gamps that were woven many many moons ago.  I thought 'why are these hidden in the box?"  

Several of us decided to study color by weaving gamps.
One person set up a loom with the correct weave structure and we took
turns visiting her and weaving our section
The first one we wove was plain weave

Then we progressed to twill weave

close-up view

I found a treading error on my section--most likely I broke a thread
and didn't see it was gone until afterwards

We went onto other 8 harness samples

close-up

And this one--I really enjoyed weaving--lace!

It was a good task in weaving different settings and threading as well
as threadlings.  But there is no way these pretty colorful gamps should
remain in the closet hidden away.
I took them out--guess what all were hemmed stitches on loom--I washed
them and now will use them for various sundry functions outside that box!
They brighten up any room!

Friday, September 3, 2021

Playing With Color

Recently, I pulled my handwoven towels off the loom--
it's not so easy to know what colors will interact properly when you
weave.  You think the fibers will intermingle good, but you never know--
even if you have woven and used fibers for ages.
luckily, these towels look pretty good.  I like the look of the weft as a plaid.
Crossing with a blue over the multi warp.--I really thought this would be a winner
and it is!

I've used orange, red, burgundy, orange, some yellow in the warp
and crossing with blue in spots--okay, I like that effect as well.


Here I played with excess amount of blue--don't know how I'll 
decide where to cut the towel--just plain fun using different colors in the weft.

And here I've used orange as a weft on the same warp--what a difference!

All hemmed and ready for gifting! 


I've been dyeing backing for my quilts--how cool is this!
I take my white backing and scrunch it into the dye pot--dry it is!
Put water to barely cover the fabric, pour the Teal dye all around
and steam for an hour or more.
Plenty of dye left for another 3 yards of fabric--different look---love it!
So, you can see that playing with color is a fun game and you never know
if you'll like the results or not--especially when you are weaving--it's not so
instant!
 

U V

Undulate means  to move in a wave-like pattern . If a sound increases and decreases in pitch or volume like waves, you can say the sound is ...