One Last Finish in 2009

One last finish for my husband, Joe. I finally sewed the binding on. I don't know if he wants it to hang on his office wall or not, so I may still need to sew a sleeve on if he does.

Back...and Happy New Year!

This is some of the dyeing I did before I went to California. They are half-yard pieces mostly. I have some that I also dyed in the purple range. I'll iron and get those up later. I have 3 long-sleeved t-shirts I also dyed for Joe, but I don't have pictures yet. I have to launder them, then I'll get some and post them.

I gave away two quilts at Christmas, I dyed a length of 4 yards of fabric purple to make a shirt (I think) or maybe it will be a quilt back. I haven't done much sewing...yesterday I sewed up eight bags for wine for gifts for the new year. I have a bunch of unquilted tops (as you can see to the right) that I want to get done before I do too many more tops. I have a bag I want to make...I pulled the fabric but haven't cut into it yet. Some part of me feels that I should put it away and work on the quilting that I want to get done. I don't need another bag right now, so it might go back in the closet for the moment.

I wish for you all a happy, healthy and fulfilling year in 2010.

Zip It is Done

The top is done, and ready to be quilted. I will surely have it done by February. I'm going to bring the top and backing to California with me so my niece can look it over and see if it is OK for the gift she wants.

I was going to try to finish the quilting on another top, but don't know if I'll be able to get it done before tomorrow morning. We're leaving at 3AM--so to bed early.

I don't know if I'll be posting much, so, Merry Christmas! Hope you have a wonderful one.

Design Wall

Here is what I'm working on. It's a very easy pattern and it needs to be done by February. I hope to have the top done before I got to California next Monday. I may have the backing pinned on as well, but I don't know that for sure. I've been very distracted...made 4 kinds of hand dipped chocolates, very yummy, and toffee, and peppermint bark, and 4 kinds of cookies and caramel corn.

I hope dye a couple of t-shirts for my husband for Christmas, but time is getting short so I don't know if that will get done.

To see more design walls, check out Judy's blog.

Snow Day Quilting

The outside view...

The inside view.

Disappearing 9-Patch swap top done

I decided on a simple white border and I'll make the binding a scrappy one from the left-over aqua fabric I have. I didn't have enough to make a border, but I think it will be a nice touch as the binding. I don't know what backing I'm going to use, I think a fleece (but not sure what color) but this time a fabric binding instead of self-binding.

I like it more than I thought I would when I first got the blocks in the mail. I don't have a recipient yet, but I'll figure something out...or should I say someone.

New Addition

Thanks to Kathie at http://threadlines.blogspot.com I now have this very cool works in progress section on the right sidebar of my blog. She had one on her blog, so I sent an email, and she looked and found it for me. The code and instructions can be found here if you're interested. I put all the tops and parts I had on a spreadsheet over there. I figure if the top is done and waiting to be quilted it's at 75%. If I see them every time I am going to post something, I'm more likely to work on them, rather than choose a new project.

So thanks Kathie!

What's on My Design Wall 12-7

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the borders. I have some aqua left, so maybe a thin white border (like the sashing) and then some different aqua fabrics. I don't have enough of any one fabric to do the whole quilt...but maybe I should just use that fabric for the binding. I don't have any red left, so that's out. Well, I'll think of something.

Yesterday I made some Christmas goodies for gifts. A batch of English toffee, a batch of peppermint bark, 6 quarts of caramel corn and then last night I made some "Bordeaux" chocolates. I tasted the centers, and they taste more like the brown sugar squares you can get as Sees. I haven't tried one of the the chocolates yet, but they look pretty!

If you want to see what others are doing, check out Judy's blog.

Some Dyeing

Here are the fabrics I dyed on Sunday. The rainbow piece is about 2 1/2 yards long. The others are half yard pieces and were just afterthoughts...I had extra dye so decided to throw some more fabric in. I don't know that I love them, but it was fun. I have no plans for any of them at the moment, but I'll think of something. The colors aren't quite right. It's still dark outside this morning. I'll try to see if I can get some outdoor pictures later today. They colors of the T-shirt are pretty close to accurate, but the fabrics above are actually brighter.

The t-shirt is for my husband. He is a bright color kind of a guy. He usually prefers blues and purples, but I spilled the dye and this is what was left. I actually had a bit of the fuchsia and all of the fire red. I mixed up more of the deep yellow to finish it up. I had fun doing this (even with the mess I made) and am happy with the depth of color. I've had the dye powder for at least 7 years and I guess I had it in optimum storage conditions because I think the colors are plenty bright. The rainbow fabric was a pdf cotton I bought from Dharma at about the same time I got the dye powders. The flowered piece was a pdf from Lunn studios when they were still selling pdf fabric. The other two were just 1/2 yards of quilting fabric I grabbed, threw in the soda ash solution and poured dye over.

Because the house is cool most of the time, I put all the fabrics (wrapped in plastic) in a food cooler, put a heating pad on low on top of them all and closed the lid. I left them for about 24 hours. I think that may have helped the dye bond with the fabrics.

All in all a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.