Ye Olde Oaken Cabinets

One of those chores that owners of oak cabinets face, especially if said cabinets are in the bathroom or the kitchen (I have them in both- what was the builder thinking!) is periodically refinishing the surface of the cabinets since moisture can make them a bit grayish and streaky...I hadn't done mine in a while and they were in sore need! I use a restorer called Howard Restor-a-Finish..you apply it with a pad of fine steel wool, wipe dry then top with orange oil wax...it took me two days, but I finished both bathrooms and the kitchen...owww! my hands are sore! But ye olde oaken cabinets look purty dang good...and I managed to not get any of the stuff in my fingernails. Most of the neighbors have replaced their cabinets (or at least the doors) but I have managed to keep mine looking good enough that I don't see the need to spend all that money to replace them...especially since the Howard stuff is relatively inexpensive and only takes a couple of days for me to do...

Ok..So I'm Late With This Meme...

From Shelina's blog
(better late than never, eh?)

Have You Ever?
1 Taken a quilting class
2 Paper pieced
3 Hand quilted
4 Hand pieced
5 Created your own pattern
6 Published a pattern in a magazine or book
7 Gone on a quilting retreat
8 Gone to a quilting convention
9 Met someone who wrote a quilting book
10 Combined your quilting with some other craft
11 Done any three dimensional quilting - like fabric origami
12 Made something using Thimbleberries fabric (no...and don't plan to!)
13 Made something using batiks
14 Dyed your own fabric
15 Made a landscape hanging
16 Made a New York Beauty quilt - does one block count?
17 Made a baby quilt (in process)
18 Made a wall hanging
19 Made a journal quilt
20 Submitted your journal quilt for viewing as long as viewing on the web counts!
21 Made a fabric postcard
22 Made a artistic trading card (ATC)
23 Exchanged artistic trading cards
24 Mailed your own postcard
25 Made a lap quilt
26 Made a twin size quilt
27 Made a full size quilt
28 Made a queen size quilt
29 Made a king size quilt
30 Donated a quilt to charity - no, but I worked on a charity quilt
31 Sent a quilt out to a quilter
32 Thrown away a UFO - no, but getting close...
33 Given away a UFO
34 Cut up a UFO and made something else with it
35 Ripped fabric instead of cutting it
36 Made a quilt exactly like the pattern, with no changes whatsoever
37 Done any Sashiko - didn't know it was Sashiko at the time though!
38 Quilted your own quilt
39 Did free motion quilting
40 Put any embroidery or beads on your quilt
41 Given away your quilt to a stranger
42 Swapped fabric
43 swapped blocks
44 participated in a round robin
45 participated in an ostritch round robin
46 kept a journal about your quilting
47 written a letter to someone who made an antique quilt
49 kept a blog about your quilting
50 participated in a gift exchange
51 sent a quilting random act of kindness
52 joined a newsgroup about quilting
53 made a quilt using a pattern from quilterscache
54 joined an online block of the month
55 made a block of the month quilt
56 subscribed to a fabric of the month club
57 bought fabric at an online store
58 bought fabric from ebay
59 own more than one sewing machine
60 have a room dedicated solely to sewing - no, but its close!
61 hide a fabric purchase
62 finished making a holiday gift before July
63 spent more than $200 in one quilt shopping trip
64 made a quilt using a book from the library
65 worked with someone else to make a quilt
66. joined a quilt guild - no, but in process of starting one...
67 become president of a quilt guild
68 taught a quilting class
69 helped someone else get the quilting bug
70 taught a child to sew
71 made a Dear Jane block
72 Made a miniature quilt
73 watch QNN - quilters news network
73 subscribe to a quilting magazine from your own country
74 subscribe to a quilting magazine from another country - bought a few copies though
75 buy fabric from another country
76 swapped completed quilts with someone else
77 asked for quilting help online
78 gone to a quilt shop to ask for quilting help
79 bought fabric at a local quilt shop
80 traveled more than 100 miles to go to a quilt shop
81 used nontraditional fabric for a quilt - something other than cotton or flannel
82 made a quilt using instructions given to you on a blog
83 make comments on someone's quilting blog
84 meet a quilter in person after only having talked online
85 had a quilting retreat in your home
86 own quilting software
87 made a quilt you designed on your quilting software
88 done any quilt research - history, interviewing quilters, etc.
89 had any quilt related subject published anywhere
90 donated a quilt to a museum
91 bought a quilt from a thrift store
92 made a quilt using fabric from a thrift store
93 made a quilt using photos
94 made a pastel quilt
95 made a quilt using brights
96 made a quilt using ethnic fabric from another country - African, Asian, etc.
97 made a quilt using leftover blocks from other quilts
98 had your quilt in a magazine, newspaper, newsletter, TV, etc.
99. submitted your quilt to a quilt show - no, but I plan to!
100. won any ribbons with your quilts
101 had more finished quilts than UFOs
102 made a quilt using reproduction fabrics
103 took a break from quilting that was longer than a year
104 made money with your quilting
105 had a job in the fabric / quilting industry

She's gone Beta, A New Kind of Blog...

<Cue Music>
Shes gone Beta, look at that Blog
Shes gone Beta, away from her roots
Shes gone Beta, a new kind of Blog
Shes gone Beta, here she comes....
</Fade Music>

(with appologies to Alan Jackson)

If you are using an RSS reader...sorry about the old posts being republished!

Heart's Garden

After I got bitten by the quilting bug lo these 4ish years ago now and came down with a severe case of quiltpox (quite incurable, yanno) my Dear Mamma asked me if I would like to make quilts for both my sister and me out of the scraps of materials she had saved from the clothes she made for us while we were growing up. Such a treat! I finished the one for my sister a while ago and started in on the one for me.
Here are some pix of the one for my sister:



















On mine, the front is appliqued hearts and to use up some of the material (the scraps fill one of those flip top plastic buckets and that's AFTER making the one for my sister!!) I am making a scrappy strip block...but as every quilter knows, even if you cut up the fabric into little pieces (mine are 9 x 2.5 inch strips), you can't get rid of it all!!! Scraps, when left touching in the scrap box, breed in the dark and there just seems to be more and More and MORE of them every time you look in the box!!!

For this backing I need 56 8.5 inch squares which get cut into two and sewn back together into 28 10.5 inch blocks....I have cut almost half of the squares and have not even made a significant dent in the stack of fabric...
Here's the setting of the front:

and the Bride Wore Sneakers...

It was a lovely wedding. The anti-rain dances, the good weather thoughts, my umbrella bags and everyone bringing an umbrella or raincoat warded off the downpour...at least where the wedding and reception were held! As we were leaving home and getting onto the freeway, a lovely rainbow appeared and the end of the rainbow was right over DS's house!

We had a few 'wardrobe malfunctions' - a button came off DS's tux - I sewed it back on, and the zipper on the Bride's dress refused to work...so they sewed her into the dress! Almost had a wedding malfunction - the minister forgot or was not told he had a wedding at 10am...so he was a few minutes late (actually a blessing in disguise! DD was running a few minutes late - she had the furthest to come and one of our ickiest freeways to navigate.) Backup plan would have had the organist, who is an ordained minister also, do the service but then we would not have had music! A couple of pairs of shoes got left behind - one of the bridesmaids and one of the flower girls (the shoes were in the same bag)...the bridesmaid's sister loaned her shoes and went barefoot (actually stocking foot!) and the flower girl went barefoot too...with her, you could not tell as she was wearing dark tights.

The Bride looked like a Renaissance Princess...but to be comfy, she wore white sneakers with sparkley silver trim!

I curled my hair and left the house without combing the curls...figured they would stay in better if I waited to comb them out at the church...when I got there, everyone said to LEAVE THEM ALONE as the curls looked pretty just as ringlets..so...that's how I went to the wedding! It did look better than the combed out job I had done for the rehearsal. They got droopier and droopier as the day went on...but I still have some curl and its more than 12 hours later! Medieval torture device did its job but by the end of the reception I was more than READY to ditch it - it got a little twisted and started poking!

I got a lot of people to sign squares - I have 21 of them - mostly couples or families. Only one of the children was interested in creating a square - the oldest of the flower girls - she did two - the first one she drew on the wrong side (it's such a cute drawing that I think I will trace it). On to making the wedding quilt!

Two sad things happened (that's life, I suppose) - the Bride's grandma had a minor stroke early in the morning and could not attend - I hope she is ok. I got to meet her at the rehearsal dinner and she is a lovely lady (blind, but knits up a storm - she had her knitting bag with her and was clicking away in the back of the church). And at the reception, my Auntie fell off the edge of the sunken living room and sprained not one ankle, but both of them(!)...one is less so than the other so she can kinda hobble, but my parents ended up leaving early to take her to the emergency room...sigh...

Here's some pictures:

Outside of the Church - you can see the clouds!

Inside the Church
The start of the wedding...That's DH and me leading off the procession.

The Unity candle ceremony.
The New Mr and Mrs!

Wedding Minus One!

Rehearsal went off without a hitch...The church is very cute! Dinner was delish...I wish my son didn't have to work - he missed most of it...

Here's the Groom's Cake...



I thought it was cute that the waitress put the candles in it...

Here is the basket with the wedding quilt squares ready for signing. I pressed one of my nephew's girlfriends into being the monitor of the basket (don't want the flower girls and ring bearer to get into the ink, being as its rather indelible by design!)



Today has been really busy getting last minute stuff ready...Dashed out to get my hair cut - the stylist put layers in the back and around my face which should make the curls look better. I tried curling it yesterday and though it had lots of body, the curls just fell out after an hour or so...The ends were frizzy too, so it needed a cut badly.

Had to Dryel the tuxedo...forgot that the last time DH wore it was for a film shoot and he and the actress were doing a swing dance and they fell on a concrete floor during one of the lifts...there was concrete dust on it and aggghhh - a little hole in the side near the stripe on the leg...out came the Bo-Nash for a quick repair job - unless you know to look there, you can't see it...but its probably time for a new tuxedo - at least a new pair of the pants!

Got a pack of plastic bags from the grocery store...just in case we have wet umbrellas (on the theory that if you are ready for it to rain, it won't!)...Keep up the anti-rain dances...it looks like they are helping! Its down to only 40% chance from 70%! Its pretty cloudy out there but its actually kinda pretty, so I hope tomorrow looks just like today. Thanks for all the good wishes!

Wedding Minus 2

Today is the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner...I am getting a wee bit freaked at how fast time seems to be flying by. Got the reservations in yesterday and ordered a "Grooms Cake" for desert - chocolate with raspberry mousse filling...

At last count, most of the participants are supposed to be there, bright and shiny, at 5 tonight. I still have a ton of stuff I need to get done - retry on the dress, make sure I have all the jewelry and makeup (have to BUY stuff as I don't have any on hand since I don't wear the stuff normally), do a manicure, figure out how to roll the hair, make sure DH's tux is all in one place and check to see if I have to Dryel it...

I did get the signature squares for the wedding quilt and the basket for them finished up yesterday. I took the advise of one of the ladies on the Delphi Quilting Forum - I cut the freezer paper larger than the muslin squares and folded the edges over so there is a frame around the blocks. That SHOULD keep them from having writing in the seam allowance! Have been looking at fabrics online for the rest of the quilt - its going to be a jewel-box pattern (I like it that the jewels look like a ring) - almost DDIL would love to have red and blue satin as the background and border fabrics...I really don't want to sew polyester satin into the quilt...I know there is a cotton satin, but nowhere that I have looked online has it...I am thinking now of getting some good quality cotton sateen sheets and dying them red and blue. If anyone has a lead on where to get cotton satin, let me know!

AND AGGGGHHH..The weather report for Saturday does NOT look good...At least a 70% chance of thunderstorms. I am wondering if I should even bother curling my hair...It won't make it past the front door if its raining...Sigh...May have to settle for the old standby ponytail! This is one time I really hope the weatherman is WRONG! I may end up wearing my silk pants liners under the dress if its going to be that cold! (its only supposed to get up to 68 degrees)

Oh...and a cool thing happened on Tuesday. I went to a party and one of the prizes was a box of scrapbooking stuff. It kept getting won by the guys who said 'Nah...don't want it'. Finally I piped up and said if no one wants it, they could give to me as my DS and almost DDIL are getting married this weekend and I could give it to them for their wedding album. So they did! And I will!

There's A Whole Bunch of Weirdness Going Round...

So...ya really wanna know my 5 weirdnesses?

1. I have never had my hair perm'ed or colored.
2. I have to have wool sox on at night during the winter. Can't sleep with cold feet or even cool feet - they gotta be warm.
3. I have to have my shoulders covered even in the summer. Makes for some odd looking arrangements of the sheet - top edge of sheet draped over shoulders, butt and legs hanging out...
4. I have 'purse-angst' - its gotta be draped over my knee with both my feet touching it when I am sitting down anywhere other than my house. This stems from a trip DH and I took probably over 20 years ago...we got onto the plane, he asked a question about who we were going to see first, I reached for my purse to pull out the itinerary and AGGGH - NO PURSE! I had left it on the xray conveyor belt...Fortunately, DH was able to persuade the stewardesses to let him off to go get it and they held up the plane for 5 minutes til he got back...I was a TOTAL NERVOUS WRECK!!!
5. I turn in circles when I sleep...left side, right side, tummy, left side, right side, tummy, etc...sometimes if the sheets are not tucked really tight, I get pleats in the bottom sheet. The only time I don't turn is if I have a cold and then I prop myself up so I stay on my back, but its not really comfortable...just keeps me from drowning...

I see Jane Ann hasn't done this yet...TAG!

QuiltPink

Yesterday, quilt shops across the US put on local events for the QuiltPink Day. My local shop invited us to create quilts out of blocks that had been created by customers over the last month or so. We arrived in the morning, set up our machines and went to it! Some of the ladies did squaring up, some did row sewing and some cut and sewed the borders. We had enough for 4 quilt tops and some extra blocks - there were some that came in too small which we turned into table runners - but we needed some extra blocks to finish off the 5th quilt...so some of us cut out more blocks and whipped them up. We got so into making more blocks we had enough for another whole top! Here are some pictures of the event:


We all got a QuiltPink bracelet (its really tough trying to photograph your own body!) She also gave us a card to hang in the shower to remind us to DO YOUR BREAST EXAMS!


This is the sewing area...that's my machine in the foreground. Next to me is my friend that celebrated her 1 year anniversary of her mastectomy the day before. My friends and I were there in honor of her.


More fabric! We made enough extra blocks for a 6th quilt top!


This was the lovely Chinese Chicken Salad that the shop provided for our lunch - YUM!! In the background are some tasty pink cookies.


This is the layout table. The blocks were all raw-edge stacked hearts made in the QuiltPink Moda fabric line.


Here's the first finished quilt top...isn't it cute? The shopowner is going to have them longarm quilted then all but one will be sent on to be auctioned off...the remaining one she is going to auction off at the shop....I will be stopping by to buy a ticket!

After the QuiltPink event...I went to the tailor shop in the same center to have the hem put up on my Mother of the Groom dress. The two ladies in the shop were so cute. One suggested a modification to the wearing of the dress that has me giggling - if you look at the picture of the back, there are two longish ruffles draping down from the back bodice. She showed me that if I pulled those ruffles up and to the front, they would make very cute 'sleeves'...I just have to find a couple of cute smallish golden pins or maybe one large pin (and fasten the other side with a hidden safety pin)...This makes the dress not look quite so bridesmaidsey...HURRAH! I pick it up next Friday on the way home from work.

Medieval Torture Devices and The Mother of The Groom Dress

My DS is getting married in 4 weeks...actually a little less than...4 weeks ago yesterday.

His bride-to-be has chosen fall colors for the wedding - burgundies and golds...
My last remaining formal that still fits is pale green...not at all suitable! I thought about dyeing it forest green which the bride-to-be said would fit in ok, but the bottle of dye said not for dry clean only fabrics..rats!

So off to the store I went. I thought I would start at some of the stores in the mall that we shopped at when my DD was in HS and going to proms. First store and I hit paydirt...well at least I think its paydirt - the bride-to-be still needs to check out the color and confirm its going to blend with the dresses she's picked out for the bridesmaids. Here is a picture of the dress (thats NOT me in it) in the color I bought.

Being of a certain age and given my propensity for NOT exercising the way I should, my figure is not definately not quite as toned as the model's...sigh. So I bought what I call a 'medieval torture device' - a tummy slimmer, 'guaranteed to take inches off' your waistline. This gizmo takes me at least 5 good minutes to fasten plus much huffing and puffing, but...it works and I can still breathe (eating may be another story!). I had to invest in a strapless bra too...imagine...I am this age and have never worn one!

To round out the day, I found a teenie dull gold handbag thats just big enough for the cell phone and a comb...and the requisite wedding hankie, a pair of flat-heeled gold slippers (due to a car accident a few years back, heels are out of the question) and a gold shawl to cover the shoulders. In SoCal, you never know what kind of weather October can bring...it could be blazing hot or chilly... Total shopping time: 1 1/2 hours..including standing a checkout lane that did not move for at least 20 minute (the others were just as slow...I think they were having a crisis with the cash register computers).
So...if the bride-to-be likes it, I have to find someone to make it at least 6 inches shorter...I don't know if I am up to stitching on georgette and getting it to lay flat!

Keep your fingers crossed for me that the color works out so I don't have to take it back and go shopping again!

Another Meme...

1. FIRST NAME? Suze.

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Susan Hayward.

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? 9/11/06 listening to the montage of the morning show program I was listening to the morning of 9/11.

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? I used to. Its gotten progressively worse over the years. I don't have as much control as I did unless I write really slowly. The computer does a much better job at calligraphy these days than I do.

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? Liverwurst with mayo, tomatoes and pickle-relish.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Yes. There have only been a few people I can't stand in my life.

7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? I have one...sometimes I even actually write in it. Reading my handwriting later may be tricky though. I prefer typing on the computer but that's not quite the same as a journal.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes. Still have all my parts except my wisdom teeth (they had to be broken out), the sides of my big toenails, some moles and a couple of nasty fat lumps...

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? For a million bucks...I might 'think' about it. My DD went bungee jumping last spring. She did not TELL us that she was going bungee jumping until she showed us the pictures a couple of months later...the pictures are priceless. She claims it was fun.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Lumpy Cream of Wheat with brown sugar and butter...definately OFF my diet. Haven't had a bowl in at least 5 years.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Not usually.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Not like I was...but I still tackle moving stuff that I probably should get help with.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Butter Pecan. Raspberry Sherbet. Lemon Chiffon. Pumpkin Pie - only available during the fall, so its a real treat.

14. SHOE SIZE? 10. Or 'canal boat' size...

15. FAVORITE COLOR? Green.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My immune system problems.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My grandparents.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Sure or post on a blog I read.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Peacock blue knit shorts. No shoes.

20. LAST THING YOU ATE? Steak and salad.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? An earthmover doing something to a neighbor's yard.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Green.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS? New mown hay. Chocolate.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My Mom.

25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Eyes. I dislike it when people will not look me in the eye...

26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Sure. Someday hopefully we can actually meet!

27. FAVORITE DRINK? Water. Diet Rite. Fruit juices...

28. FAVORITE SPORT? To watch - ice skating...to do myself - quilt wrassling.

29. EYE COLOR? Grey.

30. HAT SIZE? 7 something. I used to know in High School when I was in the marching band...but that's a loooonnnggg time ago now.

31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Nope...wore them so much when soft contacts first came out that I developed an allergy to the plastic. Sigh. Afraid to do LASIK since the doc cannot guarantee that my up-close vision would stay the same...I need that for quilting!

32. FAVORITE FOOD? Chocolate.

33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? Happy.

34. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Natural unbleached cotton. Very old T-shirt with a wild orange and blue design on the front.

35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Winter...can always put more clothes on, but its hard to get less than skin in the summer.

36. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs. But baby kisses are pretty nice.

37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Chocolate.

38. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? Just finished 4 of the 'Undead and...' Series - very funny. Just started 'The Shop on Blossom Street'.

39. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? It's actually a jar opener...it has the logo for the place I work's Diversity Council.

40. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? Did not even turn on the TV.

41. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Harp music. A breeze rustling leaves in the fall. Waterfalls.

42. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Like both.

43. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? Sweden.

44. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? I am a generalist - little of this, little of that. (I even have a Master's Degree in Liberal Arts)

45. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? On a Naval Base in Newfoundland, Canada.

46. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Got it from JaneAnn's blog, who got it from JenClair, who got it from Deb, who got it from....you get the drift!

47. NEWEST THING YOU'VE TRIED? Silk Ribbon Embroidery - and I LOVE IT! Expensive though...

48. ONE THING YOU'D CHANGE ABOUT YOURSELF: I really, really need to exercise more - always...that sounds like a tired cliche, but its dreadfully true. I keep loosing 20 pounds but somehow, when I am not looking, they sneak up on me and gleefully shout "We're back!" I might be able to outrun them if I would only exercise more...and keep at it.

OK...Tag, you're IT!

SRE Vest Progress

Here is the progress on my Silk Ribbon Embroidered vest. I am loving how this is turning out. I have a bit more stem stitching on the panel on the left and the panel on the right needs a bunch more flowers and lots more leaves and stems. I haven't started on the back yet.

I bought some material at the LQS the other day for the lining. The original pattern showed a dark blue vest with a dark blue and white checked lining. I wanted something similar but did not find a real checked fabric. The one I ended up with is sort of a check. I think its neutral enough to not detract from the flowers.

Answers to "What's that Lurking in My Kitchen Drawer"


1. Wavy French fry cutter - unused - making French fries at home is a major pain the the backside anyway and potatoes are off the low carb list

2. Fizz keeper for liter bottles - tried it once...but we drink up liter bottles so fast the soda does not have time to go flat anyway

3. Collapsible funnel - got this at the dollar store...nifty, but unused - I just don't have that many things to funnel...but I will use this one some day, I promise!

4. Opa's Antique German beer warmer - why its in my tool drawer instead of in my Opa's beer stein which I inherited, I do not know! Probably would make a nifty place to store waterproof matches

5. Cut and seal to make turnovers - useless - its supposed to make cute little filled sandwiches too, but that does a major waste on the bread slices

6. Honey dipper - also useless...honey usually comes in squirt bottles now and for a low carb family even that's off the list

7. Boil over prevention disk - unused...every time I boil something that could use it, I forget I have the thing

8. Mixer from a bar set - we don't drink so I use it to whisk small amounts

9. Tuna can drainer - worse than useless, makes a mess and then you have an extra thing to wash to boot..no idea why I keep it around..the can lid works MUCH bettter!

I think I need to send some of these things to the Goodwill!

Silk Ribbon Tips

These are some tips I learned from my silk ribbon class:

1. Use needles with very large eyes so the ribbon does not fray as much - we used tapestry needles for the spiderweb roses (less catching of the tip as you are weaving since tapestry needles are pretty blunt) and chenille needles for the other stitches.

2. Use pretty short pieces of ribbon... we used about 12 -14 inches only.

3. Thread your needle and pull thru only a couple of inches...pierce the end of the ribbon about 1/2 inch from the top with the sharp end of the needle and pull down on the long end of the ribbon to lock it in place around the eye of the needle.

4. Knots in silk ribbon can work themselves out as you are stitching or otherwise moving the piece of embroidery...the best knot is to pierce the end of the ribbon three times and pull thru. The teacher advised using a regular overhand knot for larger ribbon sizes (7mm and up) to minimize stress on the edges of the ribbon. You should lock the ribbon by stitching thru it, and always lock it when you tie off. Leave a bit of a tail also - ribbon cut too close to the knot can fray out...

5. Most embroidery stitches translate well to silk ribbon. In addition, we learned three different stitches that don't translate back to regular embroidery at all!

Ribbon stitch - used to make leaves - stitch up from the back, lay your ribbon out to where want the leaf point, pierce the ribbon with the needle from the top and gently pull thru..if you pull too hard, its just a straight stitch! As the ribbon gets close to going thru to the backside, the top edges will curl. Depending on which side you put the needle, you can get curls to the right, curls to the left and curls on both sides...Thing to remember is not to tug too hard...

Spiderweb Roses - make a frame to weave your rose that has 5 spokes...we thought it looked a bit like the little man in Hangman. If you are using 4mm, you can use the same ribbon to make the frame. If you are using 7mm or larger, use 4mm in a similar color to make the frame. Weave around twice in the center then pull tight to make the center compact...then twist the ribbon a couple of times before you start weaving...leave the stitches loose...weave around until you are reaching under the prior rows stitches to find the frame stitches.

FrenchKnot Roses - start out about 3 or 4 inches up from the surface, make your two or three winds around the needle for the french knot, then do a running stitch from side to side down the rest of the tail of the ribbon, poke thru and pull gently to form the rose. These are quick to make and so cute!

6. Silk ribbon flowers that get a bit squished can be revived by misting with water to fluff them back up. (I haven't tried this, but this was what the teacher passed on to us...YMMV)

What's that Lurking in My Kitchen Drawer?

Someone spilled something in the kitchen tool drawer (we aren't naming names here but there are only two of us and I didn't do it!) so I had to drag the contents out for a washing... Needed doing anyway since most of the stuff was dusty in addition to having something sticky on them. I don't do much fancy cooking during the summer - its just TOO DANGED HOT to get into recipes that require standing over a hot stove when your house AC does not work. Bring on the winter chill so I can cook again!
Anyway...I found some stuff in the drawer that intrigued me (probably why I acquired the items in the first place!). So, can you identify all these objects?*


*answers posted later...

Crazy Heart

I also did some crazy quilting during September. In a number of blogs that I follow, I kept seeing these really cool crazy quilt hearts. Seemed like an interesting shape for a crazy quilt block...so I tried one too!

This is the first cut at the heart...I looked at it for a few days and decided it needed more pieces and seams...

So...I added some more! This is after adding a couple more pieces of fabric and deciding what pieces of lace to use.

This is the completed heart. Some of the seam treatments were from the 100 Details that are being shown on sharonb's InAMinuteAgo blog...some are just what I thought looked like it belonged. My favorite is the caston flowers...those were cool to make!

I decided I will applique it to a background, sandwich and quilt around it and make a wall hanging...I need some help deciding which of the following backgrounds looks the best:

Red...or

Green...or

Gold?

By the by, most of the fabrics for this heart came from a lady on the About.com Quilting forum who was moving last month and wanted to get rid of some 'fancy scraps'...I decided to stick with mostly the fabrics that she sent me - the only extra is the coppery colored lame'.

In"Vest"ing in Silk Ribbon Embroidery

Another August happening was taking my first Silk Ribbon Embroidery class.

The class was listed as embroidering an apron - a velvet or denim apron. Now...I don't know about you, but if I wear an apron, it's to keep splatters and flour and stuff like that off me while I am cooking. I cannot fathom wearing a velvet apron with silk ribbon embroidery on it just for fun. So, I asked if I could embroider something else and they said sure..."some ladies embroider a panel to put in a wall hanging or a shirt"...I decided to make a vest - a vest I will wear! One of the ladies in the dyeing class gave me several large chunks of lightweight wool so I decided one of the grey pieces would make a very nice vest.

The store where I was taking the class is one of the only places I found locally that I can buy silk ribbon by the yard off spools. It was fun choosing which colors to buy. I took the ribbons home and wound them onto cardboard floss bobbins to keep them from getting wrinkled. Most of the ladies just brought the wad of ribbons as they were cut, but I wanted mine to be more under control.


This is the view of the classroom. The lady next to me actually was doing the velvet apron. I loved the fabric she had chosen for the strings and lining. The rest of the ladies facing this direction were doing shirts - either denim or white...One lady on the other side of the table was embroidering a peach colored moire silk panel.


Here is my vest front after the very first spiderweb rose! What fun!


Here is the right vest front after a few hours and learning a few more techniques. I need to put more leaves on to finish this side off and maybe a few more rosebuds. I am going to embroider both fronts and across the top of the back. I haven't decided if I am going to add pockets or not...If I do, I plan to add a bit of embroidery to the pocket placket.


Lazy Daisies and French Knot Rosebuds.

Stock, Spiderweb roses, French Knot Babies Breath, Lazy Daisy Rosebuds and Lazy Daisies.

I took this project in to show the ladies at work. The lady that runs the craft club said "I am going to put you down to teach those roses on next year's program"...more on that later as it develops!

Treasures

Another interesting thing (at least to me!) was I got together with my sister for a little one-on-one time. We figured out that the last time we did this, she was 17! In between, we have of course seen each other, but at family gatherings, mostly with the kids (between us we have 7). They are all grown and out of the house now-she's a grandma with 4 grandkids and another on the way....
We went to a flea market. Here are some of the treasures I found:

A cool embroidered purse, a fat squirrel to add to my largish collection of squirrels and chipmunks (been collecting since I was a kid), a handpainted jar from Thailand, a silk sarong from Tahiti (the top is too small for me so its going to get turned into silk ribbons!), a silk blouse that needs a bit of ribbon embroidery on the button placket (or it may get turned into ribbons too) and a baby book that any quilter would adore - for whenever my first grandkid shows up...whenever that may be! I also got a large brass hat and coat stand that my DH was looking for. Fortunately, it comes apart otherwise it would not have fit in my small car!

I don't have pictures of what my Sis bought - but she got a purse too - brand new with fish on it, a ceramic hedgehog (she collects small figurines and did not have a hedgehog) and a black stuffed crow for her DH who loves crows. One other thing I bought was a pair of fish earrings - thought about using them on a crazy quilt but they went with her fish purse sooooo well that I gave them to her!

This is my box of ribbons, laces and braids. Some of them I got at the flea market, some of them at a quilt shop, but most of them came from sending away to Wright's for their 'doll pack' of ribbons and laces - which came during August. I got a huge bag for $4 bucks - most of the pieces were well over a yard and I think there were at least a dozen pieces-I probably will never use up all of them! Some are very good for crazy quilting, some I will need to use a bit of imagination to figure out what to do with them! The lace on the cards is marked as 'vintage' and there is lots of it (and no - I did not pay $10 bucks). I think I will experiment with dyeing some chunks of the laces.

Chemistry Lessons for the Fiber Artist - Part Trey

One of the classes that I went to during August was Fabric Painting. This is the last in the series that we have been taking for fabric dyeing.


This is before we started painting. Note the spray bottles - these were very cool - you fill them with dye and pump them a couple of times and voila - pressurized dye! Makes three sizes of spray dots...

We did tree paintings...they looked way better while wet than after they were rinsed. Would have been MUCH better for these to have dried before rinsing...I think the colors would have been more saturated. None the less, I kinda like the one I did and may turn it into a pillow with thread painting on it..

Experimenting with dribbling and salt...




The reddish one in the foreground is mine...I sopped up the dye that was on the table from other pieces and came up with an interesting piece...layed rubber bands over it and use the sprayer to make a sort of mock batik...this is my favorite piece we did.




My favorite is on the bottom, the tree is on the top...the other two are ok..but look messy to me. I really should have gone for more of a Melody Johnson look...



We had so much dye left after painting our fat quarters that we dyed t-shirts too. This is mine with several of the 'off' colors of Dharma dye (Old Rose and Peach Fuzz). Off colors are batches that Dharma mixed up that didn't quite dye true to their expected result...so they sell them but once that color is gone...its gone! They had other interesting colors too - Muddy Elephant and Blue Breeze...
I need to do something to this shirt (besides sending it to the Goodwill). My DH says he thinks it looks like a slasher got to the shirt..he says its even too scary for me to use it as a nightie... Any suggestions?

Back to Blogging!

Sorry its been a longish time since I posted anything...have been busy and the machine that I normally use is 'on the fritz'...managed to get a few minutes to upload the pictures that have been sitting on my camera for the last month! So I will be doing a bunch of posts about what I have been up to during August.