Home again. Now what do I do?

We are home after our long trip. 14 states, 11 new to me! And just under 5000 miles.Our main focus was to visit Sweetie's brother and wife in Middle Tennessee. We also went to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was fabulous! I got to see the Mississippi River for the first time. It was a wonderful trip!

Last of the travel knits

While Sweetie is driving, I knit.Mostly simple dishrags. I can't count how I made on this trip, some were given away. I got bored of the brick pattern so popped off with a simple checkered design.

Winnings!

We had a family Kentucky Derby party! There were five of us and we each got 4 horses. Buy in was a dollar a horse. We chose one horse and drew for the other 3. I chose Always Dreaming because I like the name. At the time I chose it, the odds were 5 to 1. Found out later that it was the favorite and it won! So with my winnings of $20 I bought some sock yarn in a yarn shop somewhere in Kansas. I can't remember the town. It was the only craft type shop that we stopped at the entire trip. I plan on participating in the Tour de Sock this summer, a fund raiser for Doctors without Borders.

Fun Finds

We have a thrift shop in town that is run by the hospital auxiliary. I like to stop in every once in a while, you never know what you will find. Recent finds were a 3 yard cut of a blue batik for $6 and a yard cut of this gauzy red and yellow print for a buck. And then a yard of tulle for 25 cents.

How I pictured it

Being away from the studio for a month was hard. I had so many ideas on the road. Wish I had kept notes. I am trying to get back in the groove and so pulled out this project that has me stumped. I had this idea of a quilt as you go project and sewing the sections together without a sashing. Eh, it did not work. Above is the way I visualized it.

What Helen saw

I had it laid out on a bed at the hotel while I was at Quilt Fest last autumn. My roomie and good buddy Helen was there to advise me and she was looking at the piece from a different angle. I am torn between the two versions. At this point the only thing I am sure of is that it will be bound with a dark violet around each panel. Not sure whether to hook them together of keep them separate. I would love to hear your opinion on this piece. I have named it "Iris".

I am linking to Nina-Marie, Amanda Jean, Myra, Sarah. Laura, Kelly Lorna
Tweety Beth, Small quilts Beth Emily Nicole, Lorna

September

I did one last dye session last week. As we are in the midst of a  move, I had some leftover dyes that I wanted to use up before the final load. I do know that old dyes lose some of their umph, but sometimes that is a good thing. And I just didn't want to waste it, dyes are expensive.

Mop rag

I always put down a damp soda ashed piece of fabric when mixing my dyes to catch any stray powder. I reuse it several times and then use it to dump the dregs.  I am pleased with this one!

Forest green and yellow

I was surprised how the green looks more blue.I believe that the dye had degraded and the blue held on in the forest green. This was accordion folded and then I poured on the dyes in a ziplock bag.

Purple and yellow twist

If I were a few years older, I could have been a hippie! I love the look of tie dye. This piece was twisted and then tied in a knot before adding the dyes. The deep purple dye also degraded.

Blues dry folded

I used a piece of fabric that had previously been soda ashed and left to dry. I bi folded it and dumped on cobalt, navy blue, and the last of the deep purple.  I think this guy has possibilities of some surface design.

Blue and brown dry 

Another tie dyed look. I folded this piece like you do for Hawaiian applique. I then dumped the dyes on it, in a ziplock bag. Some little bits of black, terracotta and blue (cobalt, maybe?)

Brown and gold dry folded

I folded this accordion style and then accordion folded it in the second direction.  Not sure if you can see it in this photograph, but I had dripped a bit of the deep purple on it by accident. It is about the only spot in the dye session that the purple turned out purple! Terracotta and gold. Maybe it was actually deep yellow.

Another mop rag

Another mop rag.  I also use them to wipe up the table after the dye session (I have the table covered with a plastic table cloth while dyeing)

Stacked

I finally finished stacked! I took this class at the Bryce Winter retreat, eh? 4 years ago?  My friend, Lisa B. taught it. It was fun!  She is teaching it again this year at the Utah Quilt Guild Quilt Fest in a couple of weeks. I wanted to have it finished so she could have another class sample.

Stacked closeup

So things are happening with our move and hopefully we will be home (200 miles away) in 3 weeks. Right before Quilt Fest! I will head North to the Fest and sweetie and the puppy dogs will head South to our home in Kanab. It has been a long, stressful move.  I will be glad to finally be settled and move on to the next adventure in our lives.

I am linking to Beth, Amanda Jean, Nina-Marie, Sarah, M-R, Lorna, Myra, Emily,  Beth Judy

Finishing a challenge piece.

Little Hampton

I was able to finish my piece last week and get it dropped off to the show.  It was accepted, but didn't win a ribbon. For some reason I don't have a photograph of the finished quilt, just one of before the binding got tacked down.  I am hoping to try and stop by the show Saturday morning and get a better photograph.

Appliques for the Beatles quilt

I was able to get my Beatles challenge quilt worked on.  I just have to tack down the binding and sleeve.  It needs to get into the mail ASAP, it has to be in Virginia by the 5th of August.  I have only shown a bit of my piece, I don't want to jinx it. There is going to be a book and a touring exhibit! Hopefully my piece will make the cut for both. (fingers crossed)

Hiking in the hills.

Our daughter is visiting from England.  Sunday the 3 of us and the puppy dogs took a hike up in the hills above our home.  It was a beautiful day for a hike!

Karen's Garden

My daughter and I went to my friend's house for coffee and knitting.  Her garden is wonderful!  This big boy was growing in the green house.  I wish my tomatoes were ready!

This is my Off the Wall post for this week!

Snowbird

Ruth's quilt top

Ruth's mini Hexagon project

View of the slopes

The snow was lovely!

Finished!

And another finish!

My friend Ruth has a time share at Snowbird.  Every year during her allotted week she invites the gang to come up for the day and have a sew day and potluck at the 'Bird.  And every year I had a conflict!  Not this year. Well actually after I decided to attend the Snowbird event I found out that it was my local group's meeting.  Then the day before, my former Utah Valley group, sent out an email to former members that they had David Taylor giving a lecture.  And then a sad note, a funeral here in town.  But I was committed to Snowbird and then dinner with the kids and grands.

It was fun.  I had a couple of bindings to work on and got them finished.  We had a beautiful view of the slopes.  It was snowing off and on the whole time.  We had a nice selections of salads and chocolate for lunch.  And then I had a wonderful time with my kids and the grands.


This is my Off the Wall post and also my THIFF!  Check out what everyone else is up to by clicking on the links!

Off the wall

Tada!  Ooops!

The corners should all look like this . . .

. . .  and not like this!

I finished the quilt top from the class that I took at the retreat.  Actually finished it twice, once I thought I was finished and then realized, despite my careful pinning procedure, I had sewn on one of the borders upside down.  It is fixed now.

Last week on Off the Wall there were so many wonderful ideas presented by the participants.  One that I decided to try was blogged by Linda.  She showed how she made some Valentine postcards with fabric that she had drawn on with sharpies and then brushed with rubbing alcohol.  I had to try it out.

My sample piece of fabric, sharpies and brush.

Just some simple shapes and swirls.

It worked!

I just used the wrong side of some junk fabric lurking in my studio.  One thing that would have worked better is to use a much larger brush.  It took quite a bit of time to go over all the lines with the tiny brush.  I think that with a larger brush you could go over the entire piece of fabric quicker.  I have the last round of a surface design round robin to do and I was thinking of using this idea.  

This is my Off the Wall and THIFF post for this week!

20 a day

So I missed sewing on Monday.  I was driving down to Ruby's Inn near Bryce National Park for a quilt retreat.  I did knit for at least 20 minutes (probably an hour or more) so I am going to count that.  And since I have been at the retreat I have sewn quite a bit every day.  I finished the binding on the t-shirt quilt last night!

SNOW!

The best design wall ever!  You layout the blocks by the pool area
and then go to the 3rd floor to preview.

Pool area.

Pool area, another view.

My good friend Anne's daughter Aliria is going on a medical volunteer mission in May.  If you are interested
in helping fund her way, please donate and you could win a wonderful art quilt donated by Anne.

This is my off the wall post for this week.  Also my THIFF!

Finished!

Close up of the front

Close up of the back

Ta Da!

Earlier this week I posted about making a quilt for my Dad.  I finished it this am!  It is now in the washer, my Dad is allergic to dogs and I wanted to make sure to get any stray dog hair out.  And I also feel that machine quilted quilts look better after a trip in the washer.  Something happens, it is "Magic"!  I will try to add a photograph to this post after the quilt drys.

This is my Off the Wall post and also my THIFF.

Sewing day Friday

I think this is the layout I want!

Mini Mystery

Back pieced from the leftovers.

One

Two

And three bowls finished!

I feel like I got a lot done this week, but not as much as I wanted to.  I was able to get some bowls made, wrapping cord one evening and sewing the next day.  I also realized that I had never posted the finished Mini Mystery that I designed for my local quilt group.  I like the way it turned out.  I used up the leftovers for a backing. The gals in the group enjoyed the project.

I finished up the blocks after the demo for the other group.  I had been playing with them all week on the wall. I took a photo of the final arrangement and then sewed them together this afternoon.  I didn't get a photo of the completed top, but it is just like the arrangement! :)

I still didn't get to my 12 by 12 for the 12-12-12 challenge.  But I have all weekend that I can work on that.

So I had some FO's for the Thank goodness it's finished Friday TGIFF
And also this is my Off the wall post, check out what everyone else is up to at Nina-Marie's blog.