Knitting

A little history.  My Mom spent hours trying to teach me to knit and to crochet when I was a youngster. I had the hardest time controlling the knitting needles, while crochet came easier.

It is maybe 50 years later probably more.... and Mom would have been proud of me.  I have in the past 10 years knitted lap throws, just simple knit and pearl.  Learning again from the Internet.

My best friend is having a grand baby girl in February so I wanted to knit the hat my mom had made for me and I used for my daughter.  I had the pattern (dated before I was born) and decided to give it a try... again with a little help from the Internet.  I had a live person as a back up, but was able to knit it without her help.  It is the best fitting hat for babies!

In progress...

The finished hat... it is a little big for a newborn so
I am making another one smaller.

This is the picture on the pattern.

So there it is I DID IT all by myself!

Sew see you later.

Bette

Nov/Dec continued

I finally finished the quilt I began this fall.  See my post dated 10/2/2012.

I'm sewing the binding on.

It was quilted by a local long arm quilter, Cindy Clark, who did an excellent job.  I'm calling the quilt Blue Moon.



Our daughter and family came over thanksgiving weekend.  Our grandson and I walked to the end of our cove and up the creek.  We had so much fun, got stuck in the muck, and played in the water.  Yes the water was cold, but was the only way to wash off our feet and legs.

Our grandson stuck in the muck.  I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull
him out.  After lots of tugging I got one foot loose, then we worked on the other one.

Sew see you next year!  Hope your Christmas season was a good one for you.  Have a safe and happy new year.

Bette

Things I've been working on Nov & Dec

 It's been awhile since I've written anything.  I'm going to try to do better in 2013.

I have been doing a fair amount of sewing but many of the items I couldn't show on my blog because they were gifts.

So here goes.  The quilt Bee I belong to "The River Queen Bees" made the center pieces for our quilt guild Christmas luncheon.  We began in July/August and finished them at our November meeting.   They looked really nice on the tables and were given away to one guild member at each table.  We made a total of 17 dolls, 12 for the guild and one for each of us.  The pattern for the dolls is by Magic Threads,  "Oh Tannenbaum".  If you want to see more of her patterns click on this link Magic Threads.

Our River Queen Bee
Lto R... Bette, Nancy, Sharon, Linda, and Mimi

I made a baby quilt for a special little boy born in November.

Peter and big sister Tessa.

I saw these Dammit dolls at a craft show and had to make one for our daughter and her friend.  Both teach high school math as well as being mothers, wives and all the responsibilities that go along with it.

They both loved them.  It is a "doll" of sorts that you smash against something (not living) to get your frustration out.

I will continue on to another post as I am now having a problem placing my pictures where I want them.

Sew see you later,

Bette

the Dyed Wall Hanging is Done

Here is the picture of the dyed wall hanging I did.

It is now proudly displayed on their wall.

        

I am now working on a baby quilt.

Sew see you later,

Bette  

Ice Dyed Silk

Awhile ago I spent a few days ice dying.  A friend of mine had asked me to do some dying for her so that she could hang them in her house.  After a review of what she wanted, I went to play.

We decided to do a couple of ice dyed pieces of silk.

So I tried to do a little Shibori along with the ice dyeing.  After doing a trial and found that it worked I dyed the silk.  The size of each is about 52 inches X 66 inches.

Below are the two pieces I did for her.  After the frames are made (by her husband), we'll get together and mount the fabric on the frames.  Then I'll take another picture of the finished art work.

 

These were dyed on silk charmeuse.  The above pictures were taken on the dull side, as the shiny side doesn't show the patterns as well.  For instructions on ice dying go to my blog dated November 15, 2011.  It's really fun and not much of a prediction as to how it is going to turn out.

Right now I'm working on 2 quilts.  Karen Dumont's Braid Parade as shown in my Oct 2 blog.  It has finally been quilted (by a pro... Cindy Clark), and I've got it back.  So now I need to trim it, put the prairie points on and the binding.  I am also working on a baby quilt.  Which reminds me I need some pictures of it so I can show you the progress.

Sew see you later!

Bette

Making an easy "Silk Screen"

In the Oct/Nov issue of Quilting Arts Magazine there was an article on making Paper Lamination Stencils.  You'll find it on page 58.  I read and read the article several times.  While Carolyn Abbott calls these stencils, I'm calling them easy silk screens.

For my first one I used part of a sheer window curtain. I have this in my stash just for making my "silk" screens.  I chose to use freezer paper for my resist.  I also used matte gel medium.  It took a couple of days because there is a drying process where I left it over night.  If I had used a resist other than freezer paper, it may have taken some time off the preparation.

I tore freezer paper into strips and laid them down on top of
my fabric.

Making the strips seemed to take forever..... I'd do some other way next time.

Ironing them down.  Be careful to keep your iron cool enough to avoid
melting the fabric.

Lay newspaper down first then put your fabric with resist on top of it. Resist side up.
I put the gel medium on my squeegee and pulled it across.
Make sure you cover the entire piece of fabric.

There many brands of gel medium.  This is just what is locally available to me.

This is where the piece has to dry overnight.  Yes the newspaper is stuck to
the fabric.

Next day... crumple the fabric and newspaper and put into a bucket of cool water
for 10 minutes.  then pull it out, squeeze out some water and place on a flat surface,
newspaper side up.  Now, remove the newspaper.  This took some time and made a mess.

After scrubbing the newspaper side I turned the fabric over and removed the freezer paper.
this came off pretty easy.

It was time to soak the piece again, and remove some more of the newspaper.
I ended up soaking the fabric/paper three times.

Most all of the newspaper is removed.  Time to dry it again, this didn't take as long
The next step is to put parchment paper on top of it and iron it.

All ironed .

I trimmed the edges.

So that I would have something to hold onto, I put duck tape around the edges.
 I just covered  about 1/4" to 1/2" of the fabric with tape.
Then turned it over and covered the other side so no sticky tape showed.

Time to try my screen out., so I mixed up some textile paint.

Put my screen over fabric that has been pinned down to my printing
pad. (made from a 2'X2' ceiling tile covered with batting and cotton fabric.)
For printing I put the paint onto my squeegee and pulled it across while
holding the screen in place.

And this is the result.

I've moved the screen, covering the wet paint with newspaper,
and pulled the screen again.

A close up.

Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with the results.  this makes a good size screen.  I had all the materials on hand so the cost was $0.  I think I'll work up a few more.

Sew see you later,

Bette

Karen DuMont's Quilt

Last Tuesday I did the workshop at our quilt guild.  Karen DuMont was teaching us the quilt pattern Braid Parade which she designed. ( to see more click here)   Her prairie points are two tone and adorable.  We didn't get much sewn in class but I felt that this would go together fairly quickly so I have been working on it this week.
Here is my progress:

This is the pattern, it uses two jelly rolls or lots and lots of 2 1/2 inch strips.  Since I have plenty of fabric in my stash, I went with that and cut my own strips.

Here are some of my scraps.  I decided to do all batik, and my own hand dyed fabrics.  I have a LARGE jelly roll left of fabric I didn't use, so next time something comes around I'll have it ready.

We are in class with our instructor
Karen DuMont

Karen told us we could lay out the fabric pieces or brown bag them.
For those who do not know... you put all your fabric pieces in a brown bag, then
when you need the next piece you pull blindly from the bag.
My choice was to lay out my pieces.

This is how I have my sewing space set up to sew the braids.
The fabric swatches above each pile correspond
to the swatch that is pinned on each corresponding braid.
 I  quickly learned that I needed to put my piles
on a surface other than the sewing table, as I kept knocking them
off onto the floor, mixing them up.

Here are 8 braids sewn.
They will get trimmed after all the braids are done.

           

Here are two of the inner borders laid out.
I am in process of sewing all 4 inner borders.




Sew see you later,


Bette