Dyepot—Step One

Dyeing 101–don’t make a mess!  Learn from my mistakes— you’ll make different mistakes!  I have horror stories—like the time we were in a naturally dye workshop.  The instructor was making up an indigo batch, she sat the jar aside, without the lid, and when she turned back to add to the jar, she knocked it over!!!

The indigo dye went everywhere!  Even hit the ceiling somehow!  To this day if you go into that room and look up you’ll see an indigo dyed ceiling tile! A very pretty blue tile!!  

Today I’m dyeing with a union dye (Rit).  DON’T!! Dye in the kitchen!!

 A union dye will penetrate most fibers but if in a powder form can travel many miles even in no wind!

You will find little speckles of dye even though you thought you were careful! 

I need three backings for quilts and blue is a good color for those three tops.  I scrunched  (that’s a technical term!) the white cotton fabric into dyepot.  I’m going for a mottled look—not a uniform color.  Add water and steep on low heat.  Sprinkle in small amount of dye—better use a face mask or you’ll be blowing blue for awhile!  I used liquid dye this time—little safer than powder—can’t always find color you want in liquid form though. 

Looking good as heat simmers away—poke down the fabric periodically with your dye spoon

Good color for this one but dye is not exhausted as this one is rinsed thoroughly I repeat with second fabric

Second is a little more exhausted but guess what?  There is still dye left unattached in the pot—

So in goes the third fabric

Lighter blue still and I could have gone two or three more to completely  exhaust the dye—didn’t though.  

I hate throwing away good dye! 

Dispose of dye carefully—

Fabric pieces go in washer for good cleaning and then into dryer. 

Backings ready for next quilting day!

 

WARM FEET

Finally! finished!! those hubby socks!!   There was a terrified thought at one time!  What if the sock won't fit his foot?  I did all that knitting and the sock could be too big or too small?  What a thought?!!  I didn't want to rip those darn things out to begin again!  What to do?  I'm sure you're thinking if you measured the foot ahead of time you wouldn't have this problem?  Or if you did a sample--oh, horrors of horrors!  Measure? Sample?  Those are dirty words and not in my vocabulary!  I hate sampling!  and I hate measuring!  I like to 'wing' it and if it turns out right--I'm happy!  Here's what I did.....................I have a foot--it might not be the same size as hubby's but if I try the sock on my foot, I can sort of see how it fits.........................

I made sure the stitches would not come off the needles--slipped my foot in and ta da!  it fits my foot just fine==I'm good!

Sock should fit snuggly on his foot!  The second sock is hanging off the back--looking good!  Hurrah!  This time--not measuring or sampling worked!

Knitting away—another thought when I looked at the yarn that was in the skein—not much there! Will I make it to the toe by playing ‘ yarn chicken’? 

Down to the last few yards—one sock being knit with one end, other sock with other end.  Knit till socks meet in middle of yarn—then what??  Will yarn make it to toes?  If not, what to do? 

We’ll, you guessed it!  Yarn ran out before I closed the toe

Thinking of “gold toe” socks, a brand he likes to wear—didn’t have any white to dye gold or gold yarn—bummer!  

Next best thing—find a sock yarn to finish with

Doesn’t look too bad.  Besides he won’t wear these out in public; just knock around socks.

Actually, there many rounds left!  Ta—da!  Finished. He likes them!! Except now, he wants another pair…..oh bother!  I’ve spoiled him!!

 

Hard Way to get 9

 Nope!  Not playing a card game or dice game.  Just trying to make a 9 patch out of a 4 patch.  I decided to work on “Oh Say Can You Sew Quilt Along?  especially since I found this bag of 4 patches--why did I have a bunch of 4 patches?  Good question.  I don't remember why I made them in the first place--therefore, why not turn these into 9 patches--I need 31.  Let's begin

I don't care that it's a mixed bag--the 9 patches will be scrappy which I like.

I spent about 30 minutes ripping the seams and placing squares together--to the sewing maching next==

couple of seams per each patch and there were have just what we need

Those 4 patches turned into 24 nine patches--just need 7 more to make the first clue.

Then comes clue 2--and this is always a stumper for me--how do you get those

For clue two, 124 pieces are needed OR 31 sets of 4--I didn't want to construct the block like the instructions--there must be an easier way==124 is alot of cutting and sewing and then trimming to correct size.  

I found instructions to make 8 half square blocks at one time!  Math is involved!

Add 7/8" to the triangle finished size (ex. triangle square is to finish at 1 1/2" so

1 1/2" + 7/8" = 2 3/8")

Take that size multiple by 2 and you have 4 3/4"

So simple formula to remember!

Learn Something New Every Day

Just because you think you're old and can't learn anything new--think again!  I've been spinning for over 40 years--taken a few classes from 'experts', taught myself some new tricks from books, suggestions from fellow spinners and now we have youtube!  A great source when learning a new technique!

For many months, I receive an extra 'round up' of spinning news from around the world.  I'm so happy I found this--Sheila Dixon--handspinning newsletter!  I've visited many excitng places though her newsletter--sign up for the free edition.  She also has a paid newsletter.  You won't be sorry--you learn something new each month from her newsletter==I guarantee!!

In the April newsletter, there was an article about cross lacing--I've heard of this technique, but totally dismissed it from my brain!  Then it pops up in the newsletter and I took another look-- well, I'll be!  This is a game changer as I've been spinning cotton for years--my feet treadle faster and faster to put enough twist in that short fiber to get a finer yarn. 

Cross lacing can stop there being so much draw in, slowing the wheel down and allowing all the twist that we need without over twisting.  You do this by tracing your single across the bobbin hooks, from one side to the other. Or if you have a slider style flyer wrap your single over the metal rods of the flyer.

And when I go to internet--there are lots of articles on this topic--Boy!  I was slow to jump on this bandwagon.  Thanks Sheila for getting me to move off my soft seat and explore something almost 'new"!  Here is a video from world renown spinner, Judith MacKenzie showing how to use cross lacing!  I'm excited to try this with my cotton spinning--off to the wheel............................

Long Arm Days

It’s definitely a long arm day!  My arms are so tired and feel like weights—why?  Because my friend and I were doing our long arm machine quilting! 

 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Longarm quilting is the process by which a longarm sewing machine is used to sew together a quilt top, quilt batting and quilt backing into a finished quilt. The longarm sewing machine frame typically ranges from 10 feet (about 3 metres) to 14 feet (about 4.25 metres) in length.  

What if you take this lovely fabric and place it where most people will not see it?

That's what we call "backing"! 

and we use this fabric to 'back' our quilt before it goes on the long arm--

it's laid down first--then comes the batting--we prefer 80 cotton/20 poly.

Next comes our quilt top--one that we've been working on for months--block of the month!One block to construct each month--slow and easy it goes!

Machine is making perfect stitches and off we go with our 'free' motion quilting!

The corner design fit just perfectly!

And the beauty is off the machine, ready to be trimmed and bound.  This quilt will be bound with a nice yellow--that will set off the aqua.

Sorry to say--this isn't my creation--but my friend Cheryl has made another great cover for her bed.

Here is my finished (well, almost finished) quilt.  This was a year long study with rows--sponsored by Tuning My Heart--I wrote about this quilt top several blogs ago--I just didn't need that last row of baskets--did I?  Anyway, drop by Debra's blog and take a peek of her wonderful creations.

My quilting consist of snails, stars, and hearts--I'm not a whiz at this free motion but learning more as I go along!

Next to the trimming and binding--will most likely look though my binding box 

 to see what I can sew together for this hodge podge colorful quilt.  That is one way I use up bits and pieces of leftover binding.

Happy stitching y'all!

Sock Report

   I'm working away on that pair of socks for hubby.  It's been slow going for sure--I'm not the fastest of sock knitters-now-- a few rows here and there.  In years past, I’d knit a pair of socks two or three times a year. 

I turned the heel easily--that's not my problem.  I just like to do socks two at a time--I feel I'm getting them done at the same rate or speed, instead of knitting one at a time.  If I knit one sock, I'm not sure I'll go to knit the other one and will it be the same length or same number of stitches?

A friend who taught sock knitting- only made one sock!  Why? because she was teaching different styles so why knit two?  some times I think that's the way to go--I get bored knitting two but if you had several different one sock, it would be fun to wear different ones on each foot!  Make senses??

Until I get both socks to the same place, I'll knit from the heel to decrease for gusset on four needles.  Then back to two circular needles for both socks and off we go!  A jumble of needles!  And confusion--it all makes sense to me!

Two socks on two circular needles!  yay!  heading to the toe!

--where did socks come from?  Who invented socks?  Why are they called Socks?  So many questions!  And of course, you can always find the answer by doing a little research!

A Girl With A Past

You know who she is!  She's been around for years--maybe as early as 1800s

 but popularity with crafters only began to grow after the publication of the Sunbonnet Babies Primers in the early 20th century. 

 Kate (Catherine) Greenaway (1846 - 1901) is credited with popularizing depictions of young children. She was a British Book editor who is best known for the sweet pictures of little children and girls in bonnets.Kate illustrated greeting cards and Almanacs. 

Many embroidery designs on the patches of fine Victorian crazy quilts were copies of Greenaway illustrations. A beautiful example is housed in the collection of the Smithsonian.  These Victorian embroidery designs were Sunbonnet Sue's first appearance in Quilts.

 An American illustrator, Bertha Corbett (later Melcher), is regarded as the "Mother of the Sunbonnet Babies"

Teachers, parents and children fell​ in love with Sunbonnet & Co. due to her sweet temperament, wholesome vignettes of everyday life and that adorable ever-present bonnet. In a nutshell, 

Merchandise galore! Greeting cards, postcards, dishes, embroidery patterns and Quilt patterns! Sue's simple graphic features were very enticing for hand quilters and so soon after the release of the Sunbonnet Babies Primers, magazines began publishing patterns under various names such as Dutch Doll, Bonnie Bonnet and Sun Bonnet Baby.

Over 100 years later Sue has remained popular, appearing in quilts, dish towels, pillows and even clothing.

Debby Kratovil offers this free Sunbonnet Sue for your quilting pleasure.  I was never a fan of Sunbonnet Sue but you must admit that she's pretty cute and a simple pattern to create; good way to applique with few pieces.

My friend Laura has a real treasure!  Hand appliqued Sunbonnet Sue quilt!

Up close look at the neat handiwork--Grandmothers are the best!

 Sunbonnet Sue lives on in this modern take--

maybe, she'll hook up with "Sunbonnet Sam", "Farmer Sam", "Overall Bill", "Overall Boys", and "Dutch Boy"

Even a song about that little gal!

Alert! Alert! For Today

 Beginning today, May 5 through May 9th, you can enjoy these free patterns from many designers!

 Each Designer is sharing one free downloadable quilt or project pattern during this five day event.

• Fun and Simple Sewing Projects from 20+ Inspirational Quilt Designers
• 11 Quilt Patterns from some of the most creative quilt designers out there.
• 10 Quilty Projects – think bags, baskets, pin cushions, caddies, etc. that are fun and creative. 

Why not sew for your patriotic quilt now?  Here is free Sparky Stars pattern, designed by Melissa Corry

and here is pattern that is so versatile.  Chandelier!!  free from Lella .  Above Photo is from Alycia Quilts

What will you create this summer?

Fair warning!  This sew along begins June 8–

Another fun challenge sponsored by Pat Sloan. 

I’ll be doing red, white , and blue!  

Is It A Tea Towel or A Dish Towel?

 Today as I was doing laundry, I picked up a kitchen towel to fold.  Some I admire as the towels are handwoven; others are tattered and torn but still useful.  Then my brain wondered to ask the question--is a kitchen towel called a 'tea' towel or a 'dish' towel?  Or have you heard towels called “ cup” towels? 

Many moons ago, I did towel exchanges with several other weavers around the country.  Now, when I pick a towel from the kitchen drawer, I give it a look over and think "oh,  this one was woven from such and such" or this one was in an exchange from late 1990's.  The only thing I don't like is the fact, many of the weavers didn't put a name label on their exchange!  What a shame--I don't know who did the work!  I admire it all the same.

These towels have been used for years and not ready for the trash pile yet--all are from exchanges. 

This one has some holes from wear and usage--but still good to go! I could get my needle

and thread to reweave the vacant spots--nope, think I'll let it have the character it has--besides, I'm lazy!

The Very Best Ones are in the bottom drawer--not to be touched until one in the above drawer has absolutely exhausted their life period!!  Bet you have some of those--don't you?

I did give mother and mother-in-law hard time when I would give them a gift of handwoven towel and they put it away, never to be seen again.

Mine can be seen!  if you open the bottom drawer, just be sure you don't pull them out to wipe up a spill!!

Mother-in-law would give gifts of feed sacks that she had hand embroidered--poor cloth is waning away from use--still ready to be useful though.

Okay--now back to tea towel vs. dish towel--"a cloth for drying dishes." Often made of linen, cloth, or a combination of the two, tea towels date back to England in the 18th century, when they were used to insulate tea pots at tea ceremonies (hence the name), dry fine china, and cover baked goods. During this time, people also used tea towels to practice embroidery, often gifting friends and family tea towels stitched with flowers, initials, or other designs. As the times changed, so have tea towels: By the 19th and 20th centuries, most tea towels were reportedly made with striped or checked cloth for a more decorative touch.

The only time that you shouldn't use the names interchangeably is when you're using a towel made of terry cloth. By definition, tea towels are only made of linen or cotton, whereas dish towels can also be made of terry cloth. Both types of towels, however, are roughly the size of a hand towel, ranging from 16″ x 28″ to 18″ x 30″.

And now to a cup towel…

 

CUP TOWEL ..noun..soft fabric, used to dry dishes. Called CUP TOWEL/DISH TOWEL  in the South, especially in TEXAS..  

So, call them what you want--tea or dish or cup!  They serve the same purpose--

I'm going back to admire my handwoven towels and maybe dry some dishes!