My favorite month!

OOOOHHHH! I am really excited that my favorite month is approaching! I love October because it means that Fall has really come! The warm fall colors, the crisp cool air, dry earthy smell of leaves, pumpkins, long sleeves, nip in the air that makes me want to eat soup, Halloween! I love fall too! I was a very spoiled southern girl and lived seven years in the Blue Ridge Mountains! I miss it terribly! The colors of the leaves are unmatched (ok! maybe Not in such grand scale) in the piedmont of NC. It is still hot here, just dead leaves, no real color yet. I want to see this:

To be more exact this is the Linn Cove Viaduct that skirts around Grandmother Mountain near Boone, NC, boonejag75 took the image. 

I went to the farmers market here in my city in a sweatshirt on this past cool Sun morning. (Today it is all most 90 degrees). I bought wonderful fresh crisp apples.  The entire time I was there enjoying the fresh produce I was thinking of these images. Soft green mountain leaves turning shades of fire and embers. I hope that I will get to visit soon. Unfortunately it is quite a haul up the mountains.

Inspiration

I found these images of hand dyed fabric on flickr. I absolutely love both of these images. The second is from lovefiber's blog. I am bummed that we didn't dye more fabric when I had it set up. I really, really want to make a quilt out of the hand dyed fabric. I am delighted by the soft, warn, warm and used feeling that the hand dyed fabric gives to the quilt.
I really loved the mountain landscapes, I reminded me of my original inspiration for the king size quilt. By the way I haven't touched in months. This is so amazing to me. The depth that the hand dyed fabric gives to the rather non-dimensional piecing is incredible. I hope to create more things like this soon.

Gettin' There

Here are my projects from the weekend.  I had camera issues...I couldn't find any batteries. There was an entire drawer filled with dead trick batteries. As soon as I thought I had two that were working, the camera would turn off. I had to charge a group overnight so, I could take them this morning. Sorry the light is not that great we have rain clouds outside. So here we are today, later than I promised.

Here are the curtains that I made out of the tie-dyed fabric. I love the color that fills the room when the sunshines through. 
The first shot is with no flash. I like it better because it shows the translucent quality of the fabric. The lower shot is with the flash. I was hoping that you can see the varation in the fabric dying. I love love love the color.
Here is my Dad's quilt which is still very much a UFO that is taped to the office door. I am really hoping that I can get it done soon. I don't have much more creative work in order to complete. I want to put a star in the right hand top corner and make a embroidered label for the back.  Of course, the dog has to get in every photo. She loves the camera, she comes running to me when she hears the click, click. I think it is hilarious.

Tying up odds and ends

I spent all day cleaning and sewing. No real finished projects to share. I finished hemming the tie-dyed panels for the curtains. I do not have hooks to hang the rods. I love the panels, I can't wait to get them up on the windows. Since Fall is sneaking up on us I want to be able to open the windows without having them uncovered. I never like for folks to be able to see in. I have plastic blinds now and hate them. I can wait to soften them up.

I finished my forest of trees. I am trying to figure out how I want to place them on the quilt. Hopefully, I will have my forest pieced together as well as my curtains hung tomorrow. I have the day off of work!

Clothesline shot of fabric dyeing!

Here are is a shot of me and my GF dying fabric. See previous post. The colors were so much more vibrant at first. They definitely faded as they dried in the sun. Please don't be confused by the small prayer flags in the back right.  You can tell why my hands were purple for days, those are my hands in the edge of the shot.

Lots of Trees!

So I decided to make a forest of trees for Christmas gifts. Well, I guess that makes them really Christmas trees. I have been contemplating for months of gifts to give for Christmas. I would Love to make them all handmade for the immediate family at least. This presents somewhat of a challenge, because of the eclectic bunch of taste in the family. I also have many more people to make gifts for since I got hitched. I would love to make handmade gifts for all, but there never seems to be enough time for what I normally want to accomplish.  I have utilized many blogs and flicker images to compile ideas. Thanks! 

Eventually, I came across a great idea of these scrappy trees. (Sorry, I don't know who to owe credit to.) I had tons of scrappy green to use up. I liked the idea of making the trees A. Because they are more versatile than Christmas Trees. ie: use in the fall B. My Dad loves trees C. My Dad has requested a quilt and I wanted something that I could use his shirts and my creativity in. D. No pattern/templates required and finally, E. I love trees. My first tree turned out OK. A little wonky! (yes, that is a technical term!) I made a handful more and liked them even better. 

Overall, I am very pleased with the result. I am hoping to use the design idea in other gifts as well. Hopefully, I will have enough time off of work to complete all my grand plans for Christmas gifts. Unfortunately, I will not be able to share my gift ideas in fear that they would see. 

Fabric Dye

Well, I had a wonderful labor day weekend.  We were fortunate enough to have very good friends come to visit. It was also hubby's birthday weekend. At the last minute, I decided that I would want to do something crafty outside with our friends. I made hubby take me down to the craft store. We miss gaged the amount of time that I would take us. The actually beat us there. 

I ended up getting three colors of fabric dye.

 I have tied-dyed a few times, but I was never too thrilled with the result. The men did not want to really participate. I should have guessed. My GF and I produced some real works of art. I had a bolt of  cotton that I planned on making curtains out of. I thought I would be nice to bring in more color. I picked Black which looked slightly Purple, Orange which was yellow and torquoise which looked slightly green. I seems hard to judge the color on the box.

 I dipped just the ends of some of the bigger panels of fabric in the dye for the curtains. The graduation of color is beautiful especially on the Black piece. I had black dye on my hands for days.(I can never keep gloves on) Some smaller pieces we twisted and rapped in rubber bands and experiemented with color. Unfortunately, my GF took pictures with her camera of the finished product hanging on the line. I just have my freshly ironed pieces waiting for the sewing machine.

I  can't wait to do this again and make a quilt out of the difference shades that you get in the colors. I think it will be absolutely beautiful. 

Recycled bags

OMGosh! I had a million grocery bags under the kitchen sink.  I had seen this blog about crocheting plastic grocery bags a while back. I thought about the image the entire time we were in the process of moving. (Note to self: Blog about moving tips, I have ample experience) I cut bags into loops then daisy chained them together. Then used a HUGE ("M" I think) needle to single chain stitched them into a basket. I loved how expandable the bag was when I finished and it fit into the crate of dish towels. Now, when I need a dish towel I wont get a plastic bag stuck to my wet hand. This is a really great project for kids too. The daisy chain is super simple and using the fat needle is easier for the little hands. I could have varied the bags from different stores to create a pattern but, I stuck to the same old grocery bag.

I had a handful of other ideas that you could use to recycle into yarn. Like blue jeans, paper, linen, salvage edges, ribbon, VCR tape. Oh, I am sure I can come up with other applications. I like this concept more and more. 

Desk Acessories

Look what I made for my new sewing desk. I recently moved and it took me awhile to get my craft/sewing/office space set up. My hubby is going to grad school so he got my old desk with a spiffy new executive chair. I got a door, a very large solid wood door. I made legs and have been getting it all set-up recently. 

I recalled seeing awesome blocks/storage on Oh, fransson! I kinda altered her easy directions to suit my desired outcome. I have tons of old blue jeans so I recycled the pockets on the front. I made two of the same size. I have attempted fabric storage boxes before however, they were not what I expected. They were way to floppy despite the extra thick batting. Oh, fransson! suggests using pelltex. After a long search in the newly remodeled fabric store I found this prized material. I was astonished at the price, but felt in the long run that it was well worth the purchase.

I went ahead and made a matching pin cushion with little pockets for my desk. Can you guess what my color scheme is. I looooovvvvvvee black and white fabric prints. I would buy them all if allowed. The red help ties together my red stapler and other office accessories.

Yellow Summer Skirt

I have been wanting to make more clothes. I went through a phase in High School where I made clothes. I mostly made summery tops and a few skirts. One of the skirts I still wear and get many complements on. I think that is much simpler to make skirts than most think. I have a 4-paneled skirt that my great-aunt made years ago. I think it is most comfortable thing I own. I wanted to make more like it. I found this beautiful yellow poplin and decided it was destined for a skirt. I bought too much fabric of course and will have to decide on another item to make with it. I found simple instructions years ago to make a 6- paneled skirt. I had copied them down in my notes. I ended up making a template and cuting six from the poplin and six shorter ones for the lining (an old yellow bed sheet) and sewing them together. My waist measurements were a tad big so I added elastic waist band and gathered it mainly in the back so that the front would be smooth. I wanted to add pockets but totally forgot until it was all stitched together. I will make another soon, but with pockets. I have not hemmed the skirt yet. What do you think?

Crochet summer afghan

I have had a very bad stomache virus as of late. I have missed quite a few days of work and spent many hours in bed, siting on the couch and toilet and sleeping. I got majorly bored by the fourth day and started in on a crocheted afghan. I have always wanted to make one with a really big fat needle. I found one the other day at Michael's, I was not looking for this item, I was just drawn to it. Well, I took me only two days to complete the twin size blanket. I absolutely loved this yarn and have held onto it for a couple of years. It was nice to get a UFO done.

This is not the best image of the size or the pattern but it shows how big the needle was. It has been nice to snuggle up in while being sick in the summer. Not to heavy or thick.

Rainy Craft Day!

I have started a few projects recently. The weather has been so pleasant and warm it makes it hard to stay in doors. I have planted herbs, flowers and veggies out side. The weather suddenly changed yesterday with lots of rain and a cold front. My nose is actually cold. I was wearing skirts and tank top the last two weeks. Oh well, I did get things accomplished in doors yesterday. I cleaned the house (Well, hubby did most of the dirty work.) His family is coming for Memorial Day weekend. 

I pulled out a paper flower kit, that my Mom gave me for my birthday, and sat down for a couple hours in the afternoon. I ended up making five flowers. The kit had really great directions, but of course I ended up making my own petal patterns.  This glass vase was sad with out flowers, but looks lovely now. You cant see from the pictures, but my living room has oranges in it so it coordinated nicely. Awesome gift Mom!

However, I did end up making a pretty mess as well!  FYI Vacuum the floor after this project, NOT before.  The paper petals are rapped onto metal florist wire with floral tape. The tape is really tricky. It is not particularly sticky or strong.  I had to start three flowers over again after the centers popped off. My hands actually ached after finishing. I would not recommend this project for any one under 15.  It is tedious and time consuming. The out come and reward is awesome and beautiful. The would be beautiful in pale color schemes as well. I might make some another rainy day!