I never can say goodbye!

I have this problem, when I move, I can't quite leave behind the friendships I made! When we moved from Salt Lake to Sacramento in 2001, I still kept (well, really still keep) in contact with the wonderful women in Quilter's Holladay (sic, it is the name of an area, now city in Salt Lake County). It is is a wonderful local guild! I have made lifelong friends because I joined that group in 1995. When I knew I was going to be moving to the Sacramento area, I contacted the guild there. Didn't quite get the response I was looking for. They are a larger guild and I guess I was looking for a smaller, friendly guild. Anyway, one of the visits I made to see Sweetie (he had already moved, I was tying up loose ends in Utah) we drove around the countryside exploring. We stopped in Winters and got out to walk around.  Sweetie points to a building on Main Street, " quilt shop, gotta stop". We went in and I met Diane.  Everything good that happened to me in California is because I met Diane that day. I started teaching there after I joined Sweetie in California. And eventually worked at the shop as well. It was a wonderful time! I also met Carol via the guild that Diane pointed me towards and she invited me to join Cotton Club. It was a fun, small group. Diane eventually joined as well. About the time we moved back to Utah, they started doing a monthly block swap. Well, I had to keep in touch, so this was a good way to do it. They choose a simple pattern and you make a set of blocks each month to swap. And one for the "pot". I make all of my blocks for the year, mail them to Diane and she swaps them out for me. I have won the "pot" several times!

In progress

I had to pass on last year's swap, but when I saw the pattern for this year's blocks, I HAD to do it. Freeform cutting is always up my alley.  I am a bit behind, but as long as I get them done and to Diane by the end of the year, she can catch me up with the rest of the gang. And hopefully I can take trip to California in January to pick them up in person.

Last 4 batches

Finished block

You take a square, cut it in two, straight with a ruler, at angle or not (your choice). Add a strip of solid, then do the same crosswise. Leave the ends hanging, we all get to square up our blocks that we received in the swap.

Completed sets

We are to use black on white and white on black for every other month. I love the way these blocks come out! I can't wait to see what everyone else is doing! I have 7 sets done, done. Working on #8 and still have 4 more batches cut and ready to sew. I had hoped to finish these at the retreat last week, but spent to much time wandering around and chatting.

Joy's breakfast

Karen's breakfast

My breakfast!

Tuesday I went to breakfast with my knitting buddies at Das Cafe in Spring City. I wasn't in the mood for potatoes and eggs, so I had Nutella chocolate cake for breakfast instead!  It was good!

This is my off the wall post for this week. Also my Finish up Friday post.  I hope to finish up those swap blocks today!

Pie Plating!

Last week I attended the Pie Plate Patterns Super Spring Retreat! It was a great time! My friends, Lisa and Helen, came down from Salt Lake for the event.

Lisa, me and Helen

We parked ourselves up in the mezzanine for open sew time. You can look down and check out what everyone else is up to!

Helen and Misty

We tucked Misty into a corner for "time out". We had set up a cutting station. Helen cut strips for everyone for Strip Poker on Friday night.

Lisa

Lisa worked on a quilt for her new grandson who is due in the summer. In the background you can see Helen's heart blocks. She was auditioning a layout.

My quilts

I hung some of my class samples over the railings. My classes went well! I love teaching EZ Crazy! There are so many possibilities with color schemes and layouts. Behind the blue quilt is where Misty was in time out.

Gift Bag

Wine!

A few years ago I had taught my Dice and Splice Flag Quilt class at the Quilt Walk festival. It is a quilt as you go project that uses zigzag stitching to join the blocks. I walked into the class and saw that all but one of the students had featherweight machines in front of them. I was shocked! Did no one read the supply list? The ringleader, Michelle, explained that they did not want to bring their heavy machines to the festival. We were able to work out a method for them to make the quilt. The next morning Michelle ran into my roommate, Sandy.  Michelle asked her if I was ok. Sandy replied that I had a very trying class the day before and it took me two glasses of wine to get over it! Michelle and her posse were coming to the Super Spring retreat this year. And when she saw that I was scheduled to teach the Flag quilt class, she decided to bring me a bottle of wine in case I had another batch of hooligans in my class this time!

Hurry! We are in a race!

The Dream Team!

Bonnie and Brenda offered a special surprise Friday afternoon activity. It was a Treasure Hunt using a smart phone app!  Lisa was our ringleader and we went all over Fountain Green and Moroni finding clues and answering questions! We had troubles checking in at the locations, so I think we could have won, but we came in third. It was FUN!  I hope that they will do it again next year.


This is my Off the wall and Finish up Friday post for this week.

Sweet Sixteen

I was able to get my February Sweet Sixteen done last week! Well, except for the binding. I want to use a solid black and that is in my new sewing studio. I will get it this weekend.

February

Closeup

Still having fun with the mosaic idea.  I have a plan for my March piece. Since I will be at the Pie Plate Pattern's Super Spring Retreat next week, I hope to have some time to work in it.

This is my off the wall and Finished Friday post for this week.

Two months into the year? Already?

It is hard to believe that it is already the end of February!  Where did the year go?  We did score a beautiful granddaughter on my Dad's 84th birthday a month ago! Best present you could give to a great grandfather! He was tickled pink! :)

I have challenged a group of my fiber art friends to do a Sweet Sixteen project. Since it is Sweet Sixteen this year (2016) I thought it would be fun!  Feel free to join in if you are interested.  Leave me a comment (make sure that you are not set to no-reply) The rules are simple.  Make something (fiber arty) that has 16 in it. It could be one piece that has sixteen fabrics, a shawl with sixteen sections, sixteen art quilts, 16"x16", etc. Whatever says Sweet Sixteen to you! Due December 31, 2016.  My theme is that I am doing a monthly piece that is 16"x 16". Each month will be focused on a color. I combined it with my Quilt Keepers challenge, using the orange batik as my pebbles.

Original idea

Final version

I am into peace signs. Always have been. Right now I think that the more you put peace out there, the more it will become so. At least I would hope so. Peace, pass it on. I wanted to do some more with the idea of mosaics, so I fused the batik and then hand cut out pebbles.  I was going to arrange the pebbles in a double row, but felt it looked too clumpy. I fused the pebbles to the black background. I free motion quilted to outline the pebbles and then filled in the background with peace signs.

Just before the binding

back

The quilting shows up better on the back. I have a design in mind for my February piece, but have not had a chance to get it started. I hope to show it off next week.

I have been preparing for Pie Plate Patterns Super Spring Retreat. They are a mother/daughter design team who live in a small town 15 miles Northwest of my small town. It is a fun retreat! A nice thing for them to do for the local quilting community. And bonus! This year it is opening on my birthday!  

I have relisted my patterns for sale on Craftsy. I am not set up to handle VAT, so if you are in the EU and wish to purchase a pattern, please do so at my Etsy shop, they handle VAT on instant download patterns. Thank you.

We were down in Kanab last weekend and there was a Hot Air Balloon Fest.  What fun!  I have never seen balloons up close while they are filling and launching.  I would never go up in one, I have a fear of heights, but it was exciting to see all the bright colors floating near the red rock cliffs.

Looks like fun!

Heading out over the valley

My favorite, Smokey the Bear!

Lifting off

This is my off the wall, and Finished Friday post for this week.

Happy New Year!

Slacking off to start off the new year, this is my first post of 2016. I am still having some internet access issues, hopefully things will work out in that department.

New Baby quilt

We are expecting a new granddaughter, any day now (she was due yesterday). I finished her quilt last week. I had rotated it in my photo program, but when I uploaded it to the blog it rotated back. Anyone know how to rotate a photo on the blog?

Challenge Fabric

My little quilt guild handed out brown paper bags with fabric in them. Each is different.  My friend, Marcia, got a bag with this and I got another fabric. We traded bags.  I need to get something made from this by next month's meeting.  I have an idea. Hopefully next week I can post some progress photos.

Metal sculpture in St. George, Utah

Yarn Graffiti near Kanab, Utah 

I love finding art! On a sidewalk or out in the wild! Recently I drove to St. George to visit my dad and saw this metal sculpture outside a thrift shop. Very cool! And then sweetie and I were out driving around the Kanab area and I spotted this Yarn Graffiti on a sign post near Jackson Flats Reservoir! I haven't run into any before and was thrilled with this sighting! I know that a lot of the people that tag trees and other objects with yarn call it Yarn Bombing. I find the term implies violence, so I chose to call it Yarn Graffiti, which I feel implies art. One of the Yarn Bombers in one of my Ravelry groups explains that they are trying to take back the term bomb.  Um, well I don't get it. How do you take back a term like bomb? Am I missing something? Does that word have another meaning besides an explosive device meant to injure or destroy, or the verb of detonating an explosive device?  I am not going to argue the point. They are decorating the world with yarn and trying to make people smile.

This is my Off the Wall and Finished Friday post for this week.

Snow Dyeing

 On Monday we had a foot of snow! Great fun! Time for snow dyeing!  I thought I would write up a little demo on how I do my snow dyeing.

I start off with Prepared for Dyeing (PFD) fabric. I have several bolts of Moda's version, but any brand will do. I tear my fabric into either yard or half yard pieces.

Soda Ash Bucket

Next it goes into the soda ash bucket. I let it soak for 10-15 minutes, making sure that it is fully saturated. I use an old wooden spaghetti fork to stir it around and to push it down into the liquid. *NOTE*when ever you use any kitchen tools in the dyeing studio, they can never go home to the kitchen!

Out of the bucket

Using gloves, I wring out the pieces and toss them into a plastic wash tub.

Mixing dyes

While the fabric is soaking, I will mix up dyes if I need more than I already have mixed up. I spread out a dampened mop up cloth to catch any stray powder. ALWAYS wear a mask when handling powder dyes.

Ready to go

Ready for snow

I have been playing with twisting some of my fabrics. In the wash tubs I try to spread out the fabric as much as possible. In the round ice cream buckets I played with some twists and accordion folds.

Snowed!

I then dump a bunch of snow on top of the fabric. In the past I have crammed it full of snow. This time I was testing just making sure that there was a decent layer of snow on the fabric.

Dyed

I pour the liquid dye over the snow in various patterns. I found out last year that some colors will meld and make brown! LOL! So this year I am trying out dyeing with complimentary colors.

All the dyed snow

I do this in the afternoon and let the snow melt overnight. I guess you could do it in the morning and rinse out in the evening. Whatever works for your schedule.

Melted snow

I love to see what dyes look like after the snow melts! Even though you think you know what you are getting, it is never quite what you expect.

Rinsing

I rinse out all the pieces.  I then toss them into a big bucket of clean water and let them stew for a bit. Then another quick rinse and into the washer.

Synthrapol

I wash the batch with Synthrapol. It helps set the dyes.

Brown, terra cotta and a bit of purple

I am trying to dye a background for a flower quilt. I have had several attempts that didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to. Love this piece, but I am not sure that it is right for my flower.

blues

I may go back and over dye the light area

Pleated twist

I took quick photographs of the finished fabrics out in the snow. Some of the photos look a bit on the blue side.

Another twist

I may go back and over dye the light areas on this piece. I am really happy with the way the twist turned out.

Navy, forest green and yellow

Another folded one

This piece looks great in person. I folded it in half and then accordion folded it. I swirled it into the round bucket.

Another accordion fold,.

My favorites

These last two are much brighter in person. I love the bottom one the best of all this batch.

This is my off the wall and finished Friday post for this week.

Finally finished a project that should have been years ago

Years ago I conned,er um, talked a group of friends into a 12 x12 project. We each chose one word and then every other month I drew one out and everyone was supposed to make a 12 x12 art quilt piece inspired by that word. More friends wanted to join in. Others dropped out. I believe that only about 3 of us completed all of the words. I myself was missing 3 or 4 words. Recently I was thinking that I should go back and complete the set.  The last couple of years I have been in a knitting group with a couple of women in a neighboring town. We meet for coffee and chatting every couple of weeks. 

One of my missed words was Joy. Well, one of my coffee/knitting buddies is named Joy! Both she and Karen spin yarn. Joy has been spinning for a long time and it is a joy to her. Since her birthday is this week I decided to do a 12x12 in her honor. Joy's Joy.

Joy spinning on her wheel

I took photographs of Joy and Karen spinning one meeting. I am looking to get a wheel some day and it was a good excuse to ask questions and compare their wheels. While at the same time getting a photograph to base my quilt on.

It is all about the twist

In spinning, it is all about the twist! So I quilted twist into the background.

My pattern

I printed out the photograph in black and white. Then I traced the outline of the wheel. I fused some fabric and used the outline to cut out the shape of the wheel.

The spinning wheel

I used stitching lines to enhance the shape of the wheel.

Joy's Joy

I used a bit of my own yarn that I had spun on a spindle to put on the bobbin. I left a tail of fiber and then quilted Joy into the background. Karen's husband is a wonderful woodworker and made a hanging stick to go along with it. Joy was so surprised when she saw this!

I know that I still need to do Frog and Road.  I need to double check my list and see what others I am missing.

I am linking to Off the wall, TGIFF, and Finished Friday.