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!

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!

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!

 

Magic Tricks

 Did you know my house does magic tricks!  Yes, it's unbelievable!  I'm finding out more and more about the magic this place does--just like yesterday--I found out that the washing machine and dryer does these funny things--it turns clothes inside out!  Yes, isn't that remarkable!  I put the clothes in the washer right side out--then I put the wet clothes in the dryer and guess what--they are turned wrong side out when they are dried!  What a trick! I'm always amazed!  And on top of that--the washer and dryer can make socks disappear and about a week later the socks magically appear stuck to my underwear!  Another great trick!

Oh, and there is this--I spend about an hour each week removing the dust from my furniture--guess what? in a few days, that darn dust is back again!!  Amazing!

And the door ways in our house do magical tricks also!  I walk from one room to the other to pick up something and once I pass through that doorway, immediately forget what I came to get in that room. Pure magic! 

My car keys and sunglasses disappear quite frequently as well.  I know I placed those items on the counter—but when I went to leave the house—I was held captive!  The keys & glasses weren’t where I left them!  Looking everywhere—found them on the kitchen table!  How in the world did they move from counter to table?  Well, it’s got to be magic! 

It also seems that closed doors and containers have tricks too!  Just leave your fabric and or yarn fiber alone for awhile and it multiples!  Best trick ever!

What tricks does your house accomplish?

Breezing to Assistance!

 Always one to assist when I can with functions or more importantly, giving from my heart gifts made with my hands.  I came across these events recently that will allow me to work with my hands and heart to give some much needed love to communities in need.

Missouri Star Quilt Blog has a list of quest for children needs--

Babies in need

 is just one of many listed on their blog--I for one have way too many

quilts--so these opportunities give me a chance to pass along some

love.  check out the blog for further info.

Hats For Sailors is another chance to give your hand knit or crocheted hats

to sailors.  Photo above is hats donated in 2020.  Each year a different ship is

chosen. "OUR SHIP THIS YEAR IS A CARRIER AND OUR GOAL IS OVER 6000 HATS!!!  THAT IS MORE THAN 3 TIMES WHAT WE HAVE DONE IN THE PAST.  IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN CONTRIBUTING, PLEASE EMAIL US AT HATSFORSAILORS@GMAIL.COM "

Any pattern can be used--preferred is 100% washable wool.  Check out patterns on their website

Tasty Treats!

We try--the emphasis is on TRY! to follow a low carb/sugar free food plan.  We have found many ways to cut out the amount of natural sugar we use in our meals--

this treat popped up on a webpage or a keto page--don't remember, but I thought I need to try that

and we love it!!

We use those carb tortillas for everything!  for tacos, fajitas, enchiladas, burritos, etc.

we can't tell the difference between these and regular tortillas.  Anyway--first you take a tortilla,

score it into fourths--just cutting up to the center--you have four sections

ready for the next step:

I couldn't find sugar free Nutella so settled for chocolate peanut butter (has some sugar but you use so little) and white chocolate squares --have used sugar free white chocolate and or dark chocolate chips 

One each forth smear the peanut butter, whipped cream cheese (in this case, I didn't have

cream cheese so used goat cheese instead--delish!), sliced strawberries in another section, and then the white chocolate square.

Here comes the magic!  fold each section on top of the other--I've worked out that

you need to put the chocolate square on the cream cheese, fold that over on the strawberries and etc. etc.

You have these neat little triangles of goodness!  Place one large square of butter in skillet, melt and

go for it--put those triangles in the hot butter, brown---all that inside will melt 

Hand food for sure!  dripping with chocolate, warm strawberries--awesome!

When I have no strawberries I use blueberries or any other fruit on hand--

Now, this method is not only for dessert but I've seen commercials using sliced meats,

lettuce, tomato, etc all folded into that one triangle.  I've wondered if you could do

this method to make a pizza! In the meantime, we're loving our dessert!

Here s a breakfast one--go have fun with your tortillas--what can you add to make this a truly wonderful stack.

 

Properly Aged Fabrics/Fiber

My friend has a saying "Fabric and Fiber need to be aged before use"  just like a good piece of beef--let that stuff sit around for awhile before you decide how to make use of it.

So when I went to my scrap bin, I found these hand dyed fabrics that have definitely been properly aged--like since 2000 or before.  Many moons ago I was member of an internet group of fiber artists--I was pretty isolated in my community as to knowledge of hand dyeing--turning to this group was enough inspiration to make my brain explore many avenues in the world of design.

The group would have challenges and exchange pieces every few months--therefore, I have various techniques in my stash.  at one time my thought was to make triangle bags with mine--cut several triangles and that plan fissiled  out--so they aged more.

half square quilts are easy to make and as a quilt you use many half square triangles.

but, I wanted something different--besides I had several triangles cut out and didn't want to discard them--these were special fabrics from many different fiber artists.

Then I settled on this layout--I could use other fabrics between each hand dyed triangle--

some of my pieces are cut from a pieced vest I made for an exhibit--the idea has formed and we're off and running to complete this top.

not only does my stash bin contain hand dyed fabrics--but numerous pieces of hand printed designs.

What to do with those?  Not sure but my brain is circling around a quilt top that is sashed with my hand dyed fabrics--it's just circling, doesn't mean it will happen--these might need to age more 

And I have a bin of natural and chemically dyed pieces--lots of indigo because I loved doing those for natural day demos on the plantation where I worked.--I have made one quilt using these fabrics but that was many moons ago!

Here is a view of the hand dyed fabrics I used in the quilt--I was given this darling

sheep fabric which was nice to use as borders and sashing.

Extra flying geese went to accent the backing.

I love my hand dyed fabrics and should use them often now that they are properly aged!

 

Rulers Rule The Quilter!

The other day as I was cutting out block pieces, I thought about the time when quilters didn't have such luxurious quilt items.  I have a mixture of rulers but in those early days of quilting there were no such things--I remember working with my mother in law as she taught me how to quilt.  I had no family members who did any type of fiber work.  My Granny was into ceramics--my mother did some clothes sewing, but I wanted to learn how to quilt.  Of course, MIL said we had to use fabrics on hand--well, guess what in those days it was mostly polyester fabric or a blend of--so we used old clothing for log cabin top--

It's amazing how much we have advanced as quilters--our fabric selection is vast; threads, patterns, cutting mats, wool mats for pressing, rotary cutters, etc. is readily available and I wouldn't think about making a quilt with templates--I would think how could I use my rotary cutter to speed up the process and make the pieces more accurate.

A quilter can never have too many rulers!  Too many rulers never!  It's amazing how we

think we can get by with just one plain ruler--NOT!

I love LOVE this set!  I should have more than one set--so easy to use

tiny rulers for tiny pieces

long rulers, short rulers, fat rulers, triangle rulers,

and storage for rulers--always put them back in the rack please!

My quilt equipment is evolving--I always need more thread, more cutter blades, more this

and more than--so fun to see what's new on the market and how it can be utilized for making more quilts!

 

Strawberry Watermelon Jam

I’ve been working on Suddenly Summer project from Fort Worth Fabric Studio for these past four months—I’m seeing summer appearing before my eyes every week

Strawberries—big juicy berries!  Then there were nice ripe watermelons and finally popsicles of flavorful colors!  

Put it all together—you have summertime delight!  Was looking at borders, decided none was needed—will just bind it with watermelon rind green—pattern is free--sign up for their next Fall adventure.

As I worked on these fruits of the summer, I wondered if there was a recipe for strawberry watermelon jam!  Guess what?  There are several recipes

Looks and sounds yummy! Alas, recipe calls for 7 cups of sugar--so that lets me out of making this jam!

I would experiment with Splenda or some other type of sweetener--don't want to ruin all those ingredients.  I'll just think about this jam as I look at my summer tablecloth!

 

This and That

 My friend and I are using Tuesdays to quilt our tops.  Here is C’s  on the machine ready for her artistic design

She made this one as block of month-$5 club

If you finish the block and bring it to next meeting you get the next block pattern with fabric

My layout for July block for Hands all around—I’m a little behind.  I had these half square already made—they are 3” squares.  Now need to make August block

Here is my quilted top from our first Tuesday long arm quilting day!  Great fun to do and I thought I’d never want to learn!

And look at these sweet faces!  My granddaughter holding her three week old nephew! How precious!  So blessed to have these two in my life! 

Pet Peeves

 Why is “pet” involved with peeves?  “Pet” peeves are particular and often continual annoyance; personal bugbear:
pet peeve is a behavior or display that generates slight annoyance in people. They aren’t things that are so inappropriate and rude that they necessarily warrant taking action, but they’re generally bothersome in a way that will make you roll your eyes in frustration.
My pet is warm and cuddly—definitely not a peeve; well, there are times a pet can be my pet peeve!!
Here’s my list of pet peeves:

• People who have a neat studio!  Mine is always a mess!  Never putting things back in place. 
• People on their phone while I’m talking to them—hubby! 
• Squeaky noises! 
• Chewing gum or eating loudly! 
• Incessant talking!  No rest for my ears!
• Rude inconsiderate drivers
• When my computer takes tooooo long to load a page! 
• People talking during a movie 
• Someone singing (off key) when I’m listening to my favorite song
• Forgetting what I came in the room for! 
• Cleaning under your nails with a knife
• Cars with no blinker fluid! 
• Waiting in line at stores and no checkers at registers
• Scraping your plate or bowl when it’s empty
• Stirring stirring your tea continuously 
• Ear worm songs!

How about your pet peeves?