Black beans.......who knew?

I recently found out you can dye wool with black beans and it comes out BLUE!  It sounds like it's not very colorfast and you need to make sure to not let the beans touch the yarn/wool.
Love the colors people are ending up with.

I have the beans and my knitting group is ready to give this a try.

Went for a walk around the lake and thousands of geese are flying north. Spring looks like it's coming early. My free time will be coming to an end once it's gardening time.

I agreed to participate in a challenge with one of the quilt guilds I belong to. Garden theme. 24 x 24" max, must use the 4 charm squares and beads included in the kit. It also recommends a gsrden visitor.
Hmmmmm..... I'm thinking stumpwork raspberries and a needle felted mouse. Or a yellow and black spider. Ha ha!

They also have another challenge that requires using a free pattern and two crayon colors.
For this one I'm thinking of the theme a good day gone bad. I really like this pattern from McCall's quilting. It's free. And pretty.

A good day gone bad would go from a really nice quilt to all the horrors that happen when quilting goes bad. It will be fun to use imagination with this one.

I almost have block 1 done for my Biggs quilt.
Once this is done I have to get back to the Seuss quilt. I also have to figure out what to take to the upcoming retreat.
Probably bags of wool I need to prep for washing. And a quilt project. Or my spinning wheel. Not sure.....

Projects, projects, projects

Our knitting group has a monthly get together. We usually meet at one of the member's houses.  February is always at Bonnie's and we celebrate the Chinese New Year. (She is from China)  It's a little late this year but that's OK. It's always a good time and the food Bonnie makes is wonderful.  Sigh, I'm gluten and soy free.  I may have to bend the rules a little tonight. I'm also sugar, dairy and starch free and low carb. I won't be eating any of the strawberry trifle I'm bringing.

I am bringing little gifts for the group so if you are in the group, stop reading!









I found this idea online.
I thought it was purty darn cute. Easy too.

My MIL agreed to help with my son's quilt and embroider the bear prints.
She does beautiful work and I think was excited to help with her grandson's "award winning" quilt.  I'm thankful for her help because if it was just me, it would take MUCH longer.

I'm also working on the first block of the Just Takes Two Benjamin Biggs quilt. It was a free block of the month from Sentimental Stitches & Dear Jane.
Here is the original....

I'm not crazy about all the rosebuds in the corners.
I liked this version better...

My inspiration for my colors came from this stunning quilt...

So, here I go....trying to get just one block done. I modified it a bit. As you can see, I incorporated the rosebuds into the main block design. Now I just have to figure out exactly how I want the stems to lie. As they are? Interlocked? Hmmmmm.....
(The white is my freezer paper pattern lying on the back side of my rust colored fabric.)

I am also excited to learn about the cool purple colors you can get when dying with black beans. I just finished shelling my beans. Can't wait to try this out. Hopefully in the spring.

Last Monday I went to a quilt guild meeting with a friend and the speaker was Karen Kay Buckley. She was very entertaining. Her slide show included a few pics of her fabric stash. Here is one of several walls.....

She said it is not hoarding if you are organized. I laughed about that. I keep my fabric in tubs. We sometimes get mice from the nearby fields in our basement and that unfortunately is where my studio is. (We live on an acreage so there are lots of mice)
I don't want to have a heart attack by discovering a nest of mice in my fabric.

One of the quilts she brought was a beautiful medallion design that has wonderful transition in color values. Inspiring.

I also have to come up with a plan for another wall hanging. This one is for my father in law. He likes cars. Chevy's.  I hear he really wants a 1937 pickup truck.  We certainly can't buy him one so I thought a two dimensional one made out of fabric would be OK. (It has to be red)  I bought some fabric and have been looking at pics.
I think it will be fun to do.

Peg Pennell thread painting class

I am inspired by artists who use fabric and thread as a medium to create quilts that look like paintings. So when I saw Peg Pennell was offering a class on thread painting, I couldn't resist. Here is the example she had for the class.
I didn't realize it was so large!  It has both beads and heat set crystals.

I was unable to find any floral fabric that inspired me.  Then I came across some Dr. Seuss fabric and BING!
The creative juices started flowing.   My project would include truffula trees.

Now to see if I can do the free motion quilting and not screw it up.
I decided to glue it all down and not use pins. I always end up sticking myself with pins.  Having to switch out the different colors of thread is a pain in the butt but I look forward to seeing the final product.
There are 14 total in the class and it is fun to see all the different directions each person has taken this project. Lots of fun, creative ideas.
Tomorrow we go back for one more day of great company, fun conversation, creative inspiration and quilting!

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I went to the second and final class. Took most of the day to sew down all or most of the pieces. Ugh!  All the color changes.  I did get to start the fabric painting.  I am technically challenged when it comes to making straight lines that curve to the left. Ha ha!
The orange truffula tree turned out pretty much as I wanted it to look.
Have to go over the yellow one. Don't like it. Not enough comtrast.
Peg also went over how she does beading. I think I will like doing that in some of the flowers.
There is still plenty of opportunity for me to screw this up.  Lots more free motion sewing to do in too many colors.
The background will be challenging for me.  
I'm not a confident stippler.
This is only my second free motion project so I know I shouldn't be too critical on myself. (It's hard not to)

Here are some of the other projects. 

So many clever ideas. 

It is fun to see where everyone takes the same assignment to.  

Many fun and different directions. 

The challenge was to get them all done by the June quilt show. 

(Maaaaaybe I can meet this goal.  Have to get Ryans quilt done!)

B-day gift revealed

I started this project back on November 4th when I asked a friend of mine to pick out a sheep pic.  Of course she picked the most complicated one.

She had loaned me her wool combs and it came to me that I could make her a new protective sleeve for them for a surprise birthday gift.  The original sleeve worked buuuuut, I had other ideas.
I haven't really done any leather tooling since I was 14.  I did a little instructing when my son was a cub scout and our den made bead fobs but this would be something much more complicated and involve hand sewing!
Here is the original sleeve.  Nice but (kind of boring).

So I made a pattern from the original, then visited Tandy leather for the first time in YEARS.  I went on black Friday and scored fantastic deals on leather and additional tools I needed.  The guys in the store were sweet and very helpful.  I watched some you tube videos on sewing and tooling and jumped in to tackle this new challenge

I ended up cutting the sleeve narrower than the fabric one.  After I had already sewn the sides.  Grrrrrr.  I decided 3 snaps gave it more bling than one.  Then found out I should have dyed it before I sewed it up.  (Oh well, it worked)  I just smashed my dye soaked çloth down inside the sleeve repeatedly until it was well covered.

Tooling was what I remembered it to be.  The pic was really small and hard to bring to life.  Then the snaps ended up being crooked.  Grrrrrr.  Overall it turned out to be something I felt OK giving to my friend.  (The middle snap almost made me redo it all)

Best of all the sleeve fit like a glove.  Funny, it ended up being about the same color as the original.

Now, the candied lemon slices I made earlier were also for this friend.
Her kids threw her a party which was for her 70th birthday.
I made white chocolate cupcakes with lemon curd filling and whipped white chocolate frosting with candied lemon garnish.  I also made red velvet cupcakes with chocolate gang he filling/topping and cream cheese frosting with chocolate mint hest garnish. I surprised her with tiramisu cups garnished with chocolate curls.  Here is a pic showing an example of each one.

I did sample some of the ingredients to make sure they tasted OK. I had to test the mascarpone custard several times and yep, it made me feel sick. No sugar or carbs for me.  (Insert big sigh here)

My sweetie helped deliver them and set them up.

Then we enjoyed the conversation we had with friends. It was nice to be inspired to ride my bike more this year. My sweetie seemed to enjoy talking about how fun Ragbrai is.  (It is such a fun ride!)
Then watching the b-day gal enjoy the company, conversation and gifts from friends was wonderful. It was a nice mix of family and new and long time friends. What a nice way to end a special day that started months ago for me.