Cooler Please!

 Cooler please!!! It’s been so darn hot!!  I’m ready to think cooler, be cooler, make cooler!!!  I think it's time to begin some fall quilt and knit patterns.  I'm searching--searching!  for that feel cooler pattern!

Here is a list of what I've found so far:

Fort Worth FAbric Studio--new mystery

Join their Facebook group to receive all the free instructions or you can purchase a kit from their website  Halloween is just around the corner!

Fat quarter shop Halloween sew along is already completed but you can still find the free pattern here

Alycia quilts presents her new Quilt of Valor pattern beginning September 21--she'll post the fabric requirements Septembewr 7, which gives you plenty of time to gather your supplies

Think Christmas!  Keep watch on the website to see the requirements! @Fat Quarter Shop

And something for knitters!

Instagram--@Sweaterfreak--beginning August 5 Insta Slip Cowl   

We’re going to need this cowl  -when- the weather takes that turn to cool! 

Some details: This will be a simple slip stitch cowl with no cast on and no bind off using two colors and you will need 190 yards of each color of heavy fingering or sport weight. She used Finull for hers but you can use any yarn that knits up to 23 sts per 4" on 3.75mm/US#5 needles. Change needles to get your gauge. This is a cowl so gauge is not super crucial. >>There are three clues: 5th, 12th and 19th of August!

What’s Cookin’?

Well, it happen!  I purchase sweet yellow onions all the time--onions with lots of yellow skins.

When you get them in a mesh bag, the yellow onion skins are contained--now, that is the purpose of the mesh bags--to contain the yellow skins!  Peel as much of the skins off the onions and leave the skins inside the bag!  It can be thrown right into the DYEPOT just like that. 

I collect as many onion skins as I can over a small period of time--we like sweet onions so 

I accumulate alot of skins--NO, don't throw them away!

I've known to ask the produce manager to save the skins for me or I'll rake up a batch when I go to the grocery!

 

Sorry--I didn't use the mesh bag this time--filled up my large pan with yellow skins, added water to top them off and placed them on a burner--

this is one time you can dye in the kitchen!  No mordants or harmful chemicals added to the pot!

The skins boiled away so I added some eggs to the mix--thinking boiled eggs are always a good thing  in

the kitchen!

After about 10 minutes of boiling, I have nice colored eggs--soft yellow to add to my white ones. I saved the boiled onion skins for a time when I'll throw in some yarn to dye.

A couple of the eggs split during cooking; this is what you get on the egg after peeling.

Now, I'm off to make Deviled Eggs!

To devil means to “combine a food with various hot or spicy seasonings such as red pepper, mustard, or Tabasco sauce, thereby creating a 'deviled' dish,” according to the Food Lover's Companion, the definitive guide to all things food and cooking.

I make my 'deviled' egg yolks with mayo, salt, pepper, dash of vinegar, yellow mustard (sometimes, I'll use my homemade mustard, which is sweet-spicy), little sweetner (can be honey)  Mash all together till creamy--fill the empty egg shells with mixture.

I like to add toppings--

e.g. cooked bacon, curry powder, jalapeno slices, sometimes--a boiled shrimp if I've flavored the eggyolk mixture with spices like cayene.

How do you make your deviled eggs??  Always need these eggs for a picnic or a party--first thing eaten with a crowd!

Museum of Western Art

 

Museum of Western Art is in our backyard.  This past week we attended an open house for their special exhibit with Becky Crouch Patterson, artist, author, designer as she celebrates 

"Lukenbach Legacy:  Hondo's Daughter"-- Hondo is historical owner of Luckenbach!

if you haven't heard of Luckenback, then here is some history--this town is a state of mind! you must listen to the song too --

back to the museum open house event

Becky opened her first one woman show with outstanding fiber art and oil paintings.

We enjoyed meeting Becky, sharing a glass of Newsome wine with her as she

shared a couple of her stories about her life growing up in Luckenbach light

Machine embroidery pieces "Women in Blue Bonnet"

Close-up of lacework on the collar

Machine embroidery "Picasso's Blue Boy"

42"X 54" "Angels on HIgh"

55"x36"  "Feria de las Flores"

"Make Me An Instrucment"

36"x48" Hondo's Sheep in Sunset"

96"x72"  "If you Love Me Feed My Sheep"

60"x72" Best People on Earth Are Dogs and Horses

36x48"  "Wears No Man's Brand"

I didn't take photos of her paintings, which were colorful and beautiful--

Becky calls her fiber hangings "tapestries".  But, what is a tapestry? 

a piece of thick textile fabric with pictures or designs formed by weaving colored weft threads or by embroidering on canvas, used as a wall hanging

Here is what I call a tapestry.

Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may be visible. In tapestry weaving, weft yarns are typically discontinuous; the artisan interlaces each coloured weft back and forth in its own small pattern area. It is a plain weft-faced weave having weft threads of different colours worked over portions of the warp to form the design.

What do you think is a tapestry??

Great Balls of Wool!

 I can hear the song in my head—“great balls of fire”  

 as I plod through my wool fiber that has accumulated over the years. 

How often do I wear wool?  All most never since I live in a warm state—oh, we do have ‘cold snap’ occasionally that lasts maybe one or two days—otherwise, there is no need to have bins of wool fiber. What to do with all that “stuff”.  I don’t want to throw away!  I could stuff pillows with some.  Or compost, if I had a compost pile.

I’m going to make balls!  Yes!  Great balls of wool!  Balls of felt!  which will be perfect to use in the dryer--then I thought, I have a baby in the house at times!.. He would love playing with these super soft wool balls.  And when thrown, no damage would be done!

Here is one bin of wool--dyed wool fleece and carded roving

I begin to roll the fleece into a small tight ball--'squirrel' moment!  Look at the crimp on that fleece!  This would be so nice to spin--

Gotta to stop thinking about the spinablility of the fleece and stick to the action at hand!

Keep adding fleece to the small ball and keep rolling until there is a large size ball.

You're saying "why are pantry hose involved?"  THis is my lazy way to make felted balls.

The traditional method means lots of soak and rolling in hot soapy water.

Lazy way--panty hose!  Do you know how hard it is to find panty hose in this day and age?  how many people wear panty hose anymore?  I did find these knee highs--will work fine for this task.

TAke that nice tight ball of wool and stuff into pantry hose

Tie a knot tightly!

Stuff as many wool balls into the panty hose, tighting between each ball.

Next, here comes the fun--throw into washing machine with hot soapy water (I usually wash towels in the load--gives the balls some friction)  When the cycle has run, pop into the dryer!  

Did say it was the lazy way to felt?!

Ta-da!  Great balls of wool! 

All felted and freed from panty hose trappings!  Easy peazy!  Still more fiber to use!  Back to making great balls of wool!!

Warped!

My husband will say that I’m definitely “warped” most of the time!  

But, in this case, I'm only becoming 'warped' because I'm sleying/threading my loom!

And there are times, I've not engaged my brain--therefore, taking me longer to really

thread the loom!  I tend to wander to other thoughts--"Squirrel" moments!

Usually, if I'm planning on the same pattern, I tie one warp onto the pre-existing thread--seems to be a good method--

until, there is a problem with a missing thread OR in the case of the last warp three threads were

sleyed into one dent instead of just two!

Of course, I didn't catch the error until five yards had been woven off!

oh, well, I can live with some mistakes.

Now, I want to rectify that error for this threading!  Slowly, I go--

I spent several hours winding warp on the board.

I wanted to sit down to wind threads--pulled out some shelves from my fabric cart--

worked great!  

 

It seems all is well!   it's a go for tying up and throwing the first shuttle--then it happen!

I missed a dent!  can you see the problem??  well, I can!  Sticks out like a sore thumb!

But, I'm weaving away--put down the hem thread first, same as warp, wove with my handspun brown cotton; added an indigo dyed blue warp

 thread for accent--

must use up all that spun cotton from the tour de fleece event.

I tell myself, it'll all come out in the wash!

 

 

 

 

Keeping Track?!

 How do you keep track of your knitting?  Especially if using charts?  I like charts—once you become familiar with charted symbols, your brain co-ordinates with your hands to make knitting a breeze.  

For years I used sticky notes to underline where the row was.  Brown headed daughter gave me these long sticky notes.  Now, I’m low on the long ones—so the colorful post a notes will work.  Just takes more of them— One problem with sticky—after moving the notes several times, all the sticky won’t stick any more!

The other day I found my magnet board!  Where had it been—right under my nose, of course.  Once again, I pressed it into service. Those long magnet strips work well—don’t move them any though when off to the side!

Disaster!  

Another problem—can’t use the magnet board for more than one project at a time.

Then, I remembered There was an app for that!  

KnitCompanion is free app that allows you to import a pattern and is a way to underline your knitting row.

If you check online, you can find other methods that will keep track of your knitting—but, for me—

Back to the sticky notes!!  Besides, post a note comes in such pretty colors!

Watercolors on Cloth.

On a trip to Flagstaff, Arizona to visit my brother several years ago,  I took a detour to a quilt shop--of course!

the guys were playing golf and I have no interest in hitting that little white ball, watching it soar, 

waiting my turn to hit it again- using up four hours time!

Quilt shop is much better to spend four hours.

During that visit, I purchased these hand painted four panels from a local artist, Roberta Rogers

I didn't want to frame the panels so saved them for future ideas.

I decided to take the panels and make them into one large banner for over the headboard of our

master bed.

The banner added color to our mountain home in Colorado--loved looking at the scenery

every day.

And there were reminders of Arizona and the lovely saguaro that grace the landscape

Ahh, the colors of the Southwest!

Evidentually, we moved from that mountain retreat to southern states and I had

no idea what to do with my SW banner--into the storage bin it went--just recently, when

stash diving, I found the beautiful watercolors again.

I inched my way through the panels with a seam ripper, dividing the cloth from the panels--

once again, I'm waiting for an idea to hit my brain so I can again display theses

one of a kind paintings.