Happy Halloween!

For many years it was a tradition to decorate a full size Christmas tree for each holiday.

It was a challenge to decorate one for Halloween as I did it for my young grandchildren which ruled out anything scary.

Eventually I gave it up as it was way too much work. The biggest part was changing the lights for each tree. I did luck out on the Halloween and Thanksgiving trees as I just turned the face on the jack o lanterns to the back and I had pumpkins for Thanksgiving.

It’s About Time–Another Ice Tapestry Finished!

I have been so busy knitting and doing other things that this piece was just waiting for some hand sewing.

I finished it yesterday.

Each one is so different, even though there are some similarities among them.

I couldn’t duplicate them if I tried.

Again, the colors that have red in the mix take top billing as they are the strongest.

Another Throw In Progress

I’m sharing a work in progress.

This is a section of the afghan/throw I am currently knitting.

I love the relaxation of knitting. I use a simple garter stitch which is the easiest way to knit. It also makes a very warm cover.

When I knit these if is a great exercise using color.

This group of yarns are the ones I will be making my next choices from. The blending and changing of colors is what makes these so gorgeous.

Each one uses at least 50 different yarns. This is the 4th one I have done recently.

I purchase no new yarn to make them. I often use up small balls of yarn left from other projects. I also pull orphan balls from my yarn collection.

I start with a group of yarns in the colors I need for the color scheme I plan to make. As I work I go through my yarns and add whatever it seems to need.

Years ago when I put all my yarn in my first yarn cabinet, an old post office desk, my son came in and looked at the beautifully arranged yarns by color.

He said “Mom, and when are you going to knit?”

My answer “What, and spoil that beautiful arrangement?”

But I do knit and use the yarn. I know have a second yarn cabinet which is really a china cabinet. Almost all my yarns are now visible, with the exception of some bins in the bottom of the second cabinet holds odd or small balls of yarn.

I have made a major dent in my yarn collection this summer, so much so that I have a display of some colored glass, along with the yarn in the china cabinet.

Round Square Basket

I decided I needed to knit yesterday and wanted a simple project.

My decision was to knit another one of the square baskets with the turn down cuff like I had previously done.

I selected two of the same balls of yarn with a questionable amount of yarn on each.

The yarn was a thick and thin yarn which was quite different than what I used for the last ones.

I knit the “square” part exactly the same as the last ones.

When I finished that part I realized I would not have enough yarn to do the cuff.

I did some purling and ribbing and then bound off tightly.

I ended up with a round, rather than square basket, and I am pleased with it.

The way I knit I never quite know what I will get and that is fine.

My Own Personal Afghan/Throw And Two Others

I scrunched this up so you can see all the colors together.

This view shows it spread out as flat as this type of knitting allows!

It is very soft and fluid.

I decided to knit this one for myself after knitting the two for grandchildren earlier this season. I found them so soft and warm on my lap as I was knitting them.

I also love making color changes to make a pleasing finished project. I have an extensive collection of yarn so I don’t have to purchase any yarns as I work on these. I usually start with a general idea of the colors I plan to use and take out all the yarn left from other projects.
I continue adding more yarns as I go and as I find it necessary. I have made a dent in the amount of yarn I have this summer.

This is the one I knit for Cooper in his favorite colors.

I knit this one for Heidi and Nate. I chose turquoise and blue Caribbean colors. They spent their honeymoon in the Caribbean.

This will be timeless as turquoise goes with every color there is.

I enjoy knitting these and enjoy giving them to people who I know will use them and love them.

Time Spent With Heidi And Nate

Sunday evening I had dinner with my granddaughter Heidi and grandson in law Nate.

After dinner we came back her and Heidi showed Nate around the house and then we spent time in my studio where I shared my recent work, etc with them.

Nate and I are on the same wave length when it comes to art. Heidi and I are on the same wave length for many things including color! I started playing color with her when she was about a week old. I disagree when people say babies don’t see color as she could arrange colors at a very young age and knew the names of some unique colors.

The lighting at the restaurant was not favorable so the picture is not the greatest but they are.

New Ice Dyes–Different Designs

When I have smaller pieces of fabric left after using the large pieces for the major work I like to experiment with different arrangements with those fabrics.

These are two of them.
Although I had no intention of the pieces having so much red type colors this is what happens as red has a tendency to overpower all the other dyes.

This is part of the serendipitous happening with ice dyeing.

No More Ugly Duckling Fabric

I have resolved this piece I showed last time by adding other fabrics to make a cohesive design.
I have also done some of the quilting.
I’m pleased with what is happening.
I still have work to do on it, but I’m seeing it is going in a good direction.

Ice Dye Differents!

The current group of ice dyes left from epic failures and some that I am starting to see the beauty in.

When I first finished pressing this one I was not impressed. As I am playing around with it with other fabrics on the design wall I am starting to see real beauty.

This is another one I was not impressed with at first. The more I look at it the more I see. There is great value variation and a lot of neat detail. I have no idea what I’ll do with it but that is nothing new when I see newly dyed fabric.

This is one of the ones I consider least successful. I hope someday you look at it as a finished work of art and say “And she didn’t consider that successful?”

So those are a few of the recent batch I dyed.

Simply Joyful Returned Home

It has been a little more than a year that his quilt has travelled the country.

I am always so happy when my creations return home safely.

It was quilted by Angela Walters. She does an amazing job choosing quilting to complement the design of the quilt.

This is what I said on the original blog post when I created this.

This is the most recent quilt I have designed for Robert Kaufman fabrics. It is 56 inches square.

It uses fabrics from the Harlequin collection designed by Debra Lunn and Michael Mrowka.

When I get a collection of fabrics I let them tell me what they want me to do.

This is a simple quilt to construct but the fabric arrangement is what makes it work. I did try some other arrangements and the quilt just died.

The fabrics will be available sometime after quilt market in your local quilt shops.

The pattern will be available from Robert Kaufman.

This would be easy enough for a beginning quilter and also fun for a more experienced quilter.

Some of you may wonder why I am creating quilts with commercial fabrics. When they ask me to create a quilt I will only do it if I am inspired by the fabric.

The fabrics Michael and Debra create are the most exciting fabrics I have seen in a long long time. They WORK!

Ice Dyeing Experiments

I have been doing some experiments with my Ice Dyeing.

I tried several fabrics I have not used before.

I feel some of them were epic fails.

I will share a few of them here that I am pleased with.

I have some I have to press and evaluate yet.

I did a lot of experiments trying new folds. This is one that I am pleased with.

This is a larger one that I did not fold.

This is a smaller one that I did not fold.

You will see there are none of my signature Ice Dyed Tapestries in the group.

More to come in the coming days.

Throw Back Thursday–Gone But Never Forgotten

We never forget the places we spent time as a child.
Both my grade school and church were razed a long time ago….

Although this photo was taken in 1944 I didn’t attend school here until later.
I went to school there from the 4th through the 8th grade. The school had 6 rooms at the time so some rooms had more than one grade taught by the same teacher.
The school was torn down to make way for a Sears store as the city moved out into the county. It has taken years to find a picture of our school and I thank a friend for sharing it.

This was the little white country church we attended. It was almost across the highway from our school.
I can remember it like it was yesterday. The wooden pews where we sat for church and then broke into groups for our Sunday school classes, the bell in the tower, the balcony and the light above the altar that never went out.
When this was torn down to make way for a business the church built a new building that people call “The Flying Saucer Church” as that is what it resembles.
It is a shame there was no way to preserve this building as it was so classic and historical.
Progress is not always good.