Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Progress but still under pressure


The deadlines for me to finish stuff before August 1 are looming fast. The countdown is 17 days that I will be home between now and then. I finished the SAQA 12 x 12 piece. I have to add a label and figure out what size sleeve to attach to it. I am not thrilled with my quilting but I do not have time to start from scratch. I have always been my own worst critic so I am just holding my breath and sending it out into the world.
I also got my Journal quilt started. I have never done one of these before but I am going to have fun with it even though it is a serious piece.
Over the weekend I finished the veil for my daughter's wedding. It is a double veil with the edges encased in ribbon. Don't think I will do another one of these. I also got my mother's old pearl necklace restrung and knotted. Ok, so it only took me 5 tries. I have never done beading before and there is a learning curve especially since I am a perfectionist. Sitting in the wings is an onyx and gold necklace I broke ages ago and keep forgetting to take in and restring. I should be able to do this one in less than 5 tries.... one would hope!
On todays agenda is over dyeing a linen skirt for my Aunt. She got some sort of spot on it, tried to get it out and was left with a white spot. I am hoping that linen behaves like cotton. I am slowly getting organized for my Carol Soderlund class at QSDS. I leave on Friday. I will do some more work on the JQ. I still have pesto to make before my basil plants get wild. They are getting out of hand.
This was the latest visitor to our garden. We are not suppose to have squirrels here in Arizona. I think he got very lost. Now I know who has been eating my tomatoes. He waits until they are just ripe and grabs them! My roses are having a 2nd bloom. The lilies are almost done. The lavender blooms all year here and is spreading like crazy. I am going to have to figure out how to divide it in the fall and find a place to put it. The white garbage can needs to go!
Back to work for me.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Funky Dye Day



I just got some of Hoffman's Lawn PFD fabric and is it yummy feeling! I decided to play today. I had a yard piece from my last dyeing batch that I hated and was going to overdye next time I pulled the dyes out. Since I was experimenting anyway, I decided to play with some of Elmer's Blue Gel. I "drew" designs on the outcast fabric last night and let them dry. This morning I sprayed dye over it all. The result is quite funky. The 2 sides are different. The image on the top is the front side and the image on the bottom is the backside! Wild. I love it. I think this one is a keeper.... although I could get my arm twisted.
I am adding a bunch of new pieces to my other blog. The lawn fabric is soft as butter and the colors come out really rich and there is great color saturation. Did I mention I hate ironing???

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Not having fun!


I have been working on a piece for SAQA that was going very well till I decided to quilt it this morning. The quilting is nothing to write home about but I really screwed it up with the color. If I had just used something neutral, it wouldn't have been so blatantly bad. I am going to just start over. Thankfully, it is a small piece.

I also finally set up another blog to sell some of my hand dyed fabrics. It is called Fields of Color and you can find it here.
I have to take pictures of the rest of it. I just got a tripod which has made it a whole lot easier for me. Now to just do it!