Scraps!

Do you save scraps? Little tiny bits of fabric or yarn? In the studio, there are bins of scraps--all those small pieces that are cut from a large section of fabric. You just never know when you'll need that little piece for a project--it will be just the right color or pattern to add. Do you have at least one bin that looks like this?
and of course, when you try to find that perfect color match, you must empty the bin to find it and you never know what you'll find in your search......................
Wonderful fabrics you had forgotten all about...or interesting fabrics you wonder why in the world did I ever purchase this??
Like this pile--these are large enough to cut 6" blocks--just right for a Binky quilt.
Or these small slivers, which can just be perfect
for that grandmother's fan block. And then there are those little bits of leftover yarns.
8/2 cotton yarns that will fit nicely into a dishcloth warp--color added to a white surface.
and then there are those small bits of handspun--well, you just never know when these will come in handy. Oh, well, time to sort through that other bin in the corner. Might we find something unique there?

Tying Up Loose Ends

The time is growing short for the summer house stay, so tying up loose ends is very much on the agenda for the coming weeks. Always, always, there are UFO's brought from the main house with thoughts that those little projects can be completed in the summer--NOT! But, Finally this past week, there was the push to tidy up and get those things out of the UFO pile. There were the two caps half knitted--yes, half finished! So, it didn't take much time to whip them off the needles. The top one is all hand spun.
This hat was from all those loose sock yarns.
These are charity hats for Knits for Needs . Since it was hot weather, there was no desire to knit on wool hats, but sure feels good to add them to finished projects. And this project has been ongoing since early in the year. It's from Fat Cat Patterns. It was easy to manage one or two blocks a month on this project. Sindy is repeating the BOM for this Christmas quilt so hop over to her website and catch up. She has also begun one for Halloween that will complete next spring. This quilt is going to the hands of long arm quilter--she'll have fun designing for this! Okay, off to finish up at least one more UFO from the summer stockpile.

Red-Letter Day

Ever wonder how certain phrases come about? So many of these saying are passed along with history and here is one of the origination's of Red-Letter Day.

A red letter day (sometimes hyphenated as red-letter day) is any day of special significance.The term originates from Medieval church calendars. Illuminated manuscripts often marked initial capitals and highlighted words in red ink, known as rubrics. The First Council of Nicaea in 325 decreed the saint's days, feasts and other holy days, which came to be printed on church calendars in red. The term came into wider usage with the appearance in 1549 of the first Book of Common Prayer in which the calendar showed special holy days in red ink.

Many current calendars have special dates and holidays such as Sundays, Christmas Day and Midsummer Day rendered in red colour instead of black.
On red letter days, judges of the English High Court (Queen's Bench Division) wear, at sittings of the Court of Law, their scarlet robes (See court dress). Also in the United Kingdom, other civil dates have been added to the original religious dates. These include anniversaries of the Monarch's birthday, official birthday, accession and coronation.

The term "red letter day" is colloquially used to indicate any date of personal significance.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_letter_…

You are probably wondering--why bring up this saying......here is the answer. The past few weeks red has been involved in the handwork and these two projects have been completed--so, alas, a Red-Letter Day!
Woolly Wormhead is a favorite when it comes to designers! She has a unique way to design hats.
The yarn used in this hat was Serenity Garden Yarn, 100% Microfiber. It knitted up well--no squeek sound, just soft almost natural feel.
Someone is going to love this hat!
To block the finished hat, use a large dinner plate; give it a little sprinkling of water and let dry--perfect. Now, here is the large Red piece completed. This mystery pattern came from the mind of Lyn Brown and was called Puddle Jumping Mystery. You might have seen the progress in an early post.
Sure is nice to have this completed and ready for quilting. Okay, that's it for this Red Letter Day. Hard telling when we get back to using red again--kind of burned out right now!

Lisabeth!

Lisabeth pattern was from the hands of She-knits Sharon Dreifuss, mastermind of KAL mystery patterns. While sometimes fun, this one was a challenge. Why? This person has never done intarsia knitting before so you can well imagine why it took so long to finish this up. While everyone else in the group was finished and wearing their Lisabeth shawl, we were still trudging along with the pattern. Was the second thread pulled too tight or left too loose? Were the threads twisted around the right way? Gee whiz......
Now if this doesn't look like a mess and tangle of threads.

So many loose ends.....

Don't know what's worse--weaving in all those loose ends or doing the intarsia!

Weird looking patches of color in odd places makes one wonder what this pattern was all about.
So sadly out of shape and looking like a heap of knit stitches.
To the basement carpet we go, taking along pens, spray bottle of water and pillow for the knees.
Stretch, well, just shape the 'blob' into some reasonable looking shawl. Try it on and see what the pattern is all about. Well, there was a little cheating here first--just to make sure this shawl was knitted the right way.
It does fit just right though! Hurrah! Maybe another intarsia project will be in the works before long.

Henry Moore Sculptures in Garden Setting

Our outing this week took us to the free day at Denver Botanic Gardens. It was a pleasant morning but too bad we didn't arrive earlier! Everyone was on an outing as well--seniors, young mothers with babies, small school groups and loners like us. We began our day with refreshment in the Offshoots Cafe where we planned the best way to view all the gardens and see Henry Moore's sculptures, which are on display through January, 2011. Each area of the garden hosts one of these massive sculptures. Near the Ornamental Grasses area was "Large Reclining Figure". This area is the Rock Alpine Garden.
In the Porter Plains Garden sits this piece titled "Large Totem Head".
One of the lovely spots to view was the Water Garden, where "Hill Arches" rested.
This piece titled "Two Piece Reclining Figure: Points" was at the top of the amphitheater.

In the Fragrance Garden was "Oval with Points". This was a favorite area of many as they enjoyed the smells of the surrounding garden. Also, the piece allowed some shade on the sunny day.
From this photo you can tell how massive these pieces are as this young man surveys the view from his angle.

In Lanie's Cutting Garden, one could view "Goslar Warrior".

And a delightful piece to see was "Mother and Child"in the Le Potager area.

Near the Ornamental Grasses area was this striking piece, "Large Reclining Figure". It was an interesting outing as we didn't know about Henry Moore's work. It was also a chance to see the updates to the gardens. And now, we'll leave you with some sights of the gardens.

Look closely for the bee!

From Nature to Human Hands

We attended a natural exhibit from the hands of Regina Benson. Her pieces use various techniques to achieve the end results. She will take black fabric to “discharge” the color. There are ways to do this with certain pastes. She will use soy wax resists and Shibori techniques to enhance the fabric texture; then she over dyes or rusts the fabric surface several times with natural and acid dyes. The unusual markings are then over sewn with free-motion stitches using hand-dyed threads. Sometimes she will intensify the fabric with encaustic or burning processes.
Here are some samples of her work in progress. This piece is wrapped around PVC pipe before being discharged.
Examples of stitched or shibori fabric after discharge.
Here is bowl of soy wax shavings. Her note says that soy wax is derived from plants and more earth friendly than bee wax or paraffin.
This piece is entitled "Night Bloom"; it is dyed, discharged on snow, layered and stitched.
Entitled "Ablaze", this pieces is dyed, resisted discharge, layered, stitched and burned.
"Solar Storm"--dyed, discharged on snow, soy wax resisted, stitched and burned.
"Breaking Ground"--rusted (who would have thought that age of rust will give us a nice color), discharged, pieced, layered, burned and stitched.
"Unearthed" is another rusted piece, soy wax resisted, pieced, layered, stitched and burned.
This was truly a favorite--"Baltic Seaside" dyed, discharged with reeds and stones, painted, layered, stitched.
This large installation was eye catching! "Amber Grove"--dyed, shibori discharged, embossed with leaves and twigs, stitched and burned.
"Twilight at Sea" is a very colorful hanging. Techniques used--dyed, discharge on grass, re-dyed, painted, layered, stitched.
And before you enter the exhibit area, you are greeted with this wonderful exhibit of three large hangings. From this angle it's hard to see the other two, but all three were discharged.
What an appealing show--well worth the time and visit to the Botanic Garden Exhibit Hall.