Whoa! I'm spinning again !!

This is Merino/silk blend that I handpainted last year and never got the time to spin. Chocolate brown and Cherry red colorway.


Unspun


Spun

I bought some fat quarters from a new online store here in Elk Grove, CA TheQuiltShoppe.net. She doesn't have an actual storefront. I'm quite impressed with the service. I didn't need to buy the whole bundle and only needed 8 FQs of each collection. I emailed the owner, she got them cut for me, nicely bundled and ribboned, and got them right away! Reasonable shipping charges too. I really liked the Surf and Sand collection (I'll turn them into purses) and Sandy Gervais's Red, White and Bold set.

Here are some of the covered journals I made last Christmas, all of which sold.


Same with these calendars...


...and the checkbook covers.

New 2 Me yarn

This yarn might have been out for a while but I just purchased a batch from Ashland Bay in OR. It's called Panda yarn, fingering weight sock yarn -- 60% Superwash Merino, 30% Bamboo and 10% nylon. I searched Ebay but couldn't find it. There were several Panda brands (acrylic and wool) and some wool bamboo but nothing similar. Quite surprising (maybe I just didn't go a good search).

This is what it looks like undyed:



And here is what it looks like dyed with acid dye. It came out soft with a slight sheen to it (I'm guessing the bamboo content) and dyed really well. Each skein has approximately 430 yards, weighs 4 ozs. I'm dyeing up some more and will put them up in my Etsy shop. If you want these first 3 skeins, each is $15.00 plus $2.00 shipping via USPS First Class mail. The undyed skein (I have several) is $9.95 per 4 oz skein plus shipping. Just send me a comment and I will email you back.


purple,cherry red,Brilliant Blue

And here's a close up:



To follow- I'm knitting up a sock with Panda.

Website of the day

I came across this site yesterday (don't remember how) but she has some beautiful knitting patterns to share.

Slumberland.org

Check it out.

I'm starting to handpaint some yarns again! woo hooo!

more pics to come

Happy New Year!

My last entry was Nov 27th, 2007 and it's about time I posted a new one.

Sometimes, I feel like I have to have pictures to post an entry. I have a lot of pics but they're still in the camera. Uploading the pictures is a major pain because of my connection, yadda, yadda.

I spent the last days of 2007 sewing bags and more bags. The orders haven't stopped even with the gift giving days over. I have learned so many different techniques from patterns I bought that I'm able to use them to design my own. I'm getting better at this bag making thing. NOTE: I am not infringing on copyright rules. I know better being a knit pattern designer myself.

I also finished knitting and pattern testing a new Hand Jive knits shawl pattern for Darlene Hayes. I finished it just in time for her to take it to TNNA. I have been doing this pattern testing thing for her for quite a while now and should have learned that it doesn't work to cram. But somehow, the adrenaline rush of trying to finish something with only a few hours to spare works for me, he, he.

I love stars

Here is a small wallhanging/sampler I designed for Christmas.


3 of the stars are from the spiral bound calendar called 365 Quilt blocks a year and each measured 12 inches. The center block and the one on the bottom right are from Marcia Hohn's Quilter's Cache website, another favorite of mine.

Last shop hop, I won a set of 5" Christmas charms and didn't know what to do with 36 squares. So, I made a table topper.

There was no specific design in mind. I just made hourglass blocks, sewed them together, added borders and appliqued stars on the corners.

With the ton of 5" charms I've accumulated, I figured I can make a quilt out of them. Another fave star block of mine, the sawtooth star. Each block measures 16". This one should go fast.


I'm making crumb squares out of scraps.


more later...

I have bags coming out of my ears...


This little make-up case below,is the result of sewing together 1.5" squares. Yeah, I don't throw scraps away. I use them as "leaders and enders". By the way, Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.com, one of my favorite websites, ever, has a tutorial on crumb piecing. Don't forget to read her Leaders and Enders tutorial as well.



PinkChalk Studio has a pattern for a NoteTaker folio (for sale). It was very easy to follow. The big one's for me, and the little one is for Emily.


Inside the big NoteTaker


and here's the smaller one


HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!

Here's the banner of the month for November from Pearl Louise's club at Thimble Cottage.

And here are more bags




some little make up purses

Currently working on...

and this, The La Borsa bag


and the Purple Patchwork purse


and some knitting:


my own design


I'm off to sew some more.

Here's the progress of my Dutch Treasure quilt, a design by Jacqueline DeJonge. It's coming along. Notice the masking tapes? I've found that the white closet doors are perfect design walls. I have to figure a way to put up white flannet without making it look messy.

more later.

Here are some other stuff I'm working on. This is the Sept BOM at the Carol Doak group in Yahoo. This is paper-pieced. I find myself now leaning towards paper piecing than doing the traditional rotary cutting process, even if the block can be rotary cut.



This is my X string quilt project. The pattern is from Patchpieces.com (for sale pattern). I'm finally making good use of my strings and scraps.

This kept me busy the whole month of August. Hubby and I replaced the carpeting with hardwood flooring. Pergo, that is. People said that it's a weekend project and that it's as easy as snapping on the planks. They lied.

Snapping on is not that bad but they didn't mention the measuring and the cutting and making templates to fit around the nasty old doorjamb to the closet, or our weird shaped and slanted walls. They don't make square or rectangular rooms anymore.

I also discovered that my husband is a perfectionist and I'm not. My motto is " Do it right the first time AND do it in the quickest possible time".

We finished the family room, living room and dining area. Whew! Even my craft room is done and all my fabrics and yarns in their own shelves and containers.

I also found out that I enjoyed going to Home Depot, Lowe's and Ikea. It was scary. I started hanging out at such places and actually loved every minute of it. My husband worried that I might take over his favorite stores. I tell you, I didn't visit any quilt stores during this period.



Here is the picture of the mystery quilt class I took at Country Sewing. The name of the quilt will remain a mystery.

I have always been a voracious reader. But I've neglected reading since I got hooked on knitting and lately, quilting. I started reading again. I remember reading the DaVinci Code in one day. I've gone back and checked out lots of books from the library that some of my librarian friends were surprised to see me--lol!

Here are my fave authors:

Sandra Brown
Linda Howard
Dick Francis
Dean Koontz

Some of the books I refuse to read:
All the Harry Potter novels


I used to love Stephen King but I find his newer novels freaky and weird.

The library is also a good source of quilting and knitting books.

My husband and I are almost finished putting in Pergo flooring in the family room. VERY HARD work but we saved lots of $$ in labor cost. Next stop is the living room and then, my craft room.

Thus, I've neglected my quilting.

Aww, geesh, it has been over a month since I last blogged. I've missed reading what everyone's been up to.

I finished a Mystery Class at Country Sewing Store in Elk Grove and what a blast it was. It's a Debbie Caffrey mystery quilt called Monkey'n Around, or something like that. It's a 6 hour class done in one evening, from 5 pm to 11 pm. And they provide dinner too as part of the class.

There were about 25 quilters in all, plus 6 or so ladies doing the pressing. Some run around picking up sewn blocks and squares, dropping them off at the pressing stations and bringing them back to the quilters. All we had to do was sew, sew, sew. We ran out of time but still got to see the finished mystery. I ended up finishing my quilt at home.

I wonder if I can show a picture?? It's a mystery quilt and I'd hate to spoil the surprise for those who might be doing it elsewhere. Debbie's mysteries are sold nationwide to quilt stores. I'll find out.

Knitting season is coming back and I will soon be doing items for Yolo Wool Mill. The owner has just sent me more yarns. Yummm.

Quilting Anniversary

I started quilting last July, 2006. So, how far have I come along? I remember starting with totebags and purses. I still have my first attempts. Eventually, I progressed to Traditional quilts, rotaty cut and machine pieced. My first and second quilts weren't perfect but we're still using them.

I have taken lots of classes. They're not cheap but oh so worth the investment. You can tell yourself that you can learn them from books. Or you might be quilting for years and therefore don't need take classes. But.... there are so many "new and improved" techniques that you can pick up. I say, don't get stuck in a rut. Classes are so much fun to take.

I crave new things. I want to learn more. One of the quilting techniques along the way was Applique. Thought it was hard. Not!

Another one that scared me was Paper Piecing. It is a little hard and fiddly but I love it now. You can definitely say it's addictive. Like potato chips.

Just last week, this was what I was working on:



A watercolor quilt, quilted as you go. I found this quilt book at the library called AWASH WITH COLOR by Judy Turner. The blocks were quilted as you go, and used lots of strips. Then, the blocks are sewn together with sashing. Lots of handsewing. You have to know how to put the colors together, though.

Next, I want to learn Landscape quilting. There's this Nancy Zieman book called LANDSCAPE QUILTS that I just bought. I will soon be painting with fabrics.

A new obsession

Paper piecing or foundation piecing. A new technique I learned by myself. I am not surprised that I am once again addicted. It's all I've been working on these past few days. I do plan on taking a class on it because I know there are a lot of tips I can pick up and learn. But I know some of the rudiments and basic steps. Here's a sample I'm working on.



These are still just bits and pieces and blocks with tiny post-it notes with numbers pinned on them. The pattern is by Jacquelin de Jonge of the Netherlands, called DUTCH TREASURE. It's from the Summer 2007 issue of American Quilter magazine.

Here's a real stashbuster: I made a little table topper out of leftover triangles, squares, strips, etc. Made some pinwheels and framed them.



...And made more pincushions. The latest Quilts and More magazine has a cute square one.



The one with the pears went to Frieda and the flowers went to Angela, my best quilting buddies.

Quilt Rush 2007

It's been a month since I last posted! whew! Life got busy. My best friend from college came for a visit for a few days. I haven't seen Norie for about 25 years with her being in the Philippines and me here in the US. How do you cram 25 years of memories into 3 days? Seing her again brought me back to the late 70's, four memorable years of dorm life together and the hectic studies at the University of the Philippines. Those were some of the best years of my life.

Following Norie's visit was the Quilt Rush here in Sacramento. My first time to experience one. I dragged my hubby and 2 younger kids and we visited 14 quilt shops here in Sacramento all the way to Chico and south to Modesto and Stockton.
Here is a before picture of the quilt blocks from each shop. It is now finished and quilted (picture to follow).



I picked up some pincushion patterns along the way:



And finally, a wallhanging from a pattern from the Pincushion Boutique, one of my favorite quilt stores. This is called Wanderlust.

Penny rugs and wool dyeing

I have always been intrigued by Penny rugs, so, while at Joann’s, I bought this booklet.


I don’t know of any local sources here in Sac for small pieces of wool felt. Joann does carry some wool felt blends (35% wool/ 65% rayon) manufactured by National Non-wovens Co. I bought some black and while yardage.

Being familiar with handpainting and hand dyeing wool, I experimented. Here are the results:


I used Rit dye since it colors wool, cotton, rayon and other natural fibers. Not acrylics, though (which of course is not a natural fiber-lol!)

I cut the white wool felt in smaller pieces (fat eight size) and soaked them in warm water.

I heated about a gallon of water and added about ¼ cup of Glauber’s salt (kitchen salt works too). I think the purpose of the salt is for an even absorption of the dye. Simmer.

Then, in about a ¼ cup of warm water, I dissolved 1 tsp of Soda Ash (powdered laundry detergent works as well). BTW, all these ingredients can be purchased at Dharmatrading.com. They also have the Procion MX dyes used for cotton and rayon fabrics and yarns. Rit dye , however, is easily available anywhere.

I measured some Rit dye , maybe 1 tsp (depending on how dark you want the color to turn out), and added that to the simmering water/salt solution. Mixed it real well until all powder is dissolved. Then, I added the soda ash mixture. The fabric goes in after that.

At this point , the water should be hot. You can turn off the heat. Leave the fabric for about 30 mins to an hour and watch it absorb the color. My fabric shrank a little bit (that’s the wool!). I rinsed it in warm tap water and hung it outside to dry.

Very important note: The dyeing implements I use, pots, measuring cups, spoons, etc. are separate from my cooking utensils. I purchased a stainless steel pot from Walmart for this purpose. The bigger the better. Thrift stores have lots of them, cheap.

This mini quilt is from a class I took at the Pincushion Boutique in Davis, CA, taught by Lisa Fletcher. Lisa also teaches at the Country Sewing Store in Elk Grove. Her classes fill up fast! This is a lesson in free motion quilting using your darning foot. In May, I'm taking her other class, Walking Foot wonders.

The blue lines are from the Mark-B-Gone pen which will wash away. What an excellent way to learn how to quilt your own creations.




This quilt is a pattern from the Pincushion Boutique called Stairstepper. The center used only 9 fat quarters (FQs). My Emily loves this one because the fabrics have dog designs on them.