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?

Odds And Ends

Today I’m working on things that need to be tied up and ready for another day of quilting, stitching or whatever. 

I bought two different blue fabrics to use in the borders for this charity quilt.  Auditioning them along side the quilt and photoing them didn’t help me decide which one to use.  I like them both!  Maybe, I’ll use one for border the other for binding—decisions, decisions, decisions!

I’m sewing on these tiny blocks—at least I can use triangle 

Paper to get exact measurements.  Easy to do the stripes but, I sweat the tiny pieces!

You can download these sheets —nice to have ones that size up at 1.5”

I found these dye packages—I need a backing for two fall quilts—maybe, combining these together, the outcome will be a shade of fall—

This is the look in dye pot.  More red orange than I wanted but after rinsing it just might work. 

 

Sleep

 You’ve bathed, brushed your teeth, said your prayers, put on your nice clean sleeping clothes, ready to slip between freshly laundered sheets—the pillow is fluffed up so your head falls onto the pillow, ahhh, here it comes——sleep!  

An hour later—where is sleep?  Where has it gone?  so many thoughts run through your brain—what’s for dinner?  Make a shopping list—what household chores need to be done?  Where or where is the “sandman”?  

Another hour passes—still sleep is nowhere! I’ve penned the great American novel, wrote a symphony, organized the pantry, cleaned the kitchen, bathed the dog, but still sleep evades me!  

Let’s count sheep—that doesn’t help! Saying over and over “sleep” doesn’t work!  Thinking of a beautiful spot on earth doesn’t work! 

Don’t look! But, I do—the clock is ticking the minutes and hours away—soon it will be daybreak—my eyes are not heavy laden with sleep yet.  Okay, I’ll listen to my calm app—only I’d need to get out of bed to retrieve my phone—can’t do that as sleep will come any minute now!  Alas, NOT! 

I give up!  And the next thing I know, the sun is shining through the window and it’s 7 AM!  Sleep came and went and I didn’t even know it. I hate those sleepless nights!