West Houston Quilt Exhibit

Over the weekend, I attended the West Houston Quilt Exhibit, held at the Berry

Center in Cypress, Texas--

this local guild brings excitement to the community with their biennial

exhibit.  I always like to see what challenges that have been issued

to the members.

Love this challenge!  Candy!  What candy bar would you use to make

a quilt?  This one is PayDay--Made and quilted by Gloria Ware!

Such fun!  Pattern was from Owl Be Home by Christmas by Cherry Guidry

 

Celeste Fritz "Love Dark Chocolate!" 

Star Light, Star Bright from book

"Bargello with a Twist"

Hershey's Yes!!

Phyllis Rucker loves Mounds bars,

she chose "Mounds Moroccan Tiles"

from Far Flung Quilts

Oh, can you guess what candy bar?

Bee Twixed!  clever name by Barbara Wenker

Taken from a pattern by Kathleen Andrews,

KwiltArt Patterns  This won third place in

the category 

I know what this one represents!

Peanut M&Ms by Lillie Hays

This was her original design and it

won an award

Hersey's at it again!  This one by Annie Forrest

No reference of pattern 

A collaboration between Pamela Hensley and Georgia

Johnson brings us Heath Bar--the note said:

the pattern was chosen because the ruler was on sale--

no reference to which ruler, except it does triangles

Here you have Millie Savage's take on Mr. Goodbar

titled "Sunflowers" pattern from Laundry Basket Quilts

by Edyta Star--raw edge applique

Do you like Babe Ruth Candy Bars?

Here's Linda Stewart's take on that candy.

It's quilted by Lillie Hays

"Run For Snickers" by Jean Fleming,

also quilted by Jean

Halloween theme was the creative way

Alice Sadeghpour decided to go with

Skor Candy Bar; quilted by Lillie Hayes

First place winner!!

And bet you can guess that candy?

M and M's, of course!

Teresa Beautz's "Old School Meets

New School", also quilted by Teresa--

this won second place prize.

check in tomorrow for more info

My Year Of Therapy Has Arrived.......................

It is a year of knitting techniques from Arnall-Culliford Knitwear

This will be a great adventure through 2017 and I'm looking forward

to what we will knit along the way.

I opened the bag and pulled out all these goodies!

I think I got a good bang for my buck!

lovely yarns

luxury yarns, like baby alpaca and silk!

wonderful sock yarns!

For March, our first assignment is Helical Stripes!

Here we go......... using the Zauberball--we are off

and knitting!! 

UFOs Bite The Dust!!

I always have a good day when I can say I accomplished something in the studio--

finished!  UFO!  Out of the bin into the world it comes!

I've had this one waiting in the wings for awhile--this was to

be made for the WOW weavers basket for CHT

June conference--my contribution--

I like making these hot pads.   I use indigo dyed woven fabric

for both the lining and the main.  These are some yarns that

I dyed and wove several months ago--and sometimes I hate to cut it up--

but I'll weave more--some day!  And this will go for a good

cause.  I also used my indigo dyed fabric for the bias tape trim.

One down!!

The other pattern that has been sitting around for awhile

is this!  I have made several of these--kept two and gave

many away for gifts.  I found this kit in the bottom of 

the UFO bin--so, it must be sewn

This is also using my handwoven indigo dyed yarns for

the outside and indigo dyed cotton cloth for the lining

Perfect blocks for this!

Great for storage of scissors, thread, pins, etc.

It is also a catch all for any loose threads

So excited! To finish another UFO!

Oh, then there is this kit!  Holy Smokes--I have

no idea how old it is--but, I had done all the

stitching on the wool front and back

This is the back

This is the front

Here are the handles--the whole kit was complete except for

assembling--why do I procrastinate with something that is

al------most finished!!

Okay, finally the handles are attached to the front

and the back!  And I have a great carrying bag for my sewing

supplies--another UFO bites the Dust!!

wonder what else is just waiting for a few

simple stitches to be finished??

Weaver's Delight!

We are photo laden today!  And that's a good thing!

Our March WOW (Way Out West) Weavers met at a local library

to share their past adventures and weaving tidbits.

It's is so difficult to show off this lovely table square--

and it is square!  Since we are responsible to fill a basket

of goodies for the June CHT conference--our group chose

a kitchen theme.  This was woven by Marion C--

It is Spot Bronson weave structure--she felt that since we

are a weaving group, our basket should include wovens, hence

this lovely piece!  

It is woven with 8/2 cotton, sett at 24 epi

She even fringed all sizes and hem stitched to

add a polished note to the piece.

Wish I could win this basket!

Our other Marian C also decided to add something woven to

the basket--a linen table runner!

She finished it off using a Finnish technique to

soften the linen--she found the article in older 

Handwoven magazine--it's also good to keep those

old magazines around--never know when you'll find

something that will add to your knowledge

Such a nice finish on the hem--just too

marvelous for words!

Three of the gals took a recent workshop with Sarah H Jackson

She presented her Color Confidence workshop

Color is one of the most exciting components of weaving, and… learning to use colors confidently can be challenging. Mixing yarn colors doesn't work like mixing colors with paint, and even experienced professionals with in-depth color knowledge are often surprised by color effects in woven cloth. In these workshops, participants will explore fresh ideas for developing color studies, learn how various weave structures impact color interaction, and understand how to effectively translate color combinations into woven cloth.

There was some wrapping of yarns to see how design in

color works

Then the samples came out on the table.

This one, according to the weaver, was not

successful--she didn't like the way the 'tracking'

showed up in the structure.

I liked it!  Simple plain weave--and you get this pattern

just from warp and weft

Each weaver chose a colored warp from ones

that Sarah had pre-wound.  I'll take any warp

that is already pre-wound!!

Then the warp was crossed with various treadlings--

Here is another weaver's warp--8/2 cotton

sett at 18 epi

A glance at plain weave structure with

different warp colors

There are many elements to this runner to be liked

And this one--you can see the difference that color

makes

Oh yeah!!

This was an interesting workshop for those who enjoy color

To top off the meeting, Marian C, pulled out this

exquisite weaving she is doing for Complex Weavers,

fine threads group!  Oh, WOW!

She used four colors in this runner--can 

you see the color differences?  Neither could she

Her selvedges are perfect and there you can

see two of the colors

Alas, this lovely runner will be cut into sections

to share with the other members of the fine threads

study group.  We can't wait to see what others wove for

this challenge--and our Marian said she was not 

happy with this!  Can you believe?

Knitventure Society

 Here is an opportunity to improve your knitting skills.  All next week you can enter the skill studio and see daily demonstrations on knitting this fabulous Celtic Cables Cowl, designed by Lucy Hague.

This monthly learning skills study is presented by igKNITion.  The pattern is located on Knitty.com.

But, by signing up to igKNITion you can learn these skills in the week of March 6-10 and

knit along on Niennir the month of March.

March 6: Provisional Cast Ons
March 7: Celtic Cable Increases & Decreases
March 8:  Creating Cables: 2 & 3 Stitch Cables
March 9: Creating Cables: 4 & 5 Stitch Cables
March 10: Grafting In Pattern

I have downloaded the Niennir pattern and am ready to learn a new/different technique to add to

my knitting basket. 

Black and White!

I'm working each month of couple of quilting blocks of the month.

This one is strictly black and white--as that was my 2016 birthday

fat quarter request from my expatcher group.

It's amazing how many black on white prints there are 

available.  This is the Winter Solstice project designed by

Pat Sloan.

182 days to create a quilt with 25 blocks--set is interesting

and totally unique!

I just had to throw in some red for this block!

square at 36"--you could make a baby quilt from this pattern--

use up lots of scraps too!