Yarn plus Kool-aid equals

Do you remember when I told you about dying yarn with Kool-Aid? I used 6 packets of non-sweetened grape Kool-Aid for this result. I am half way through the second sock.

The funny thing is it smell SO GOOD as I work with it -- just like grape kool-aid. I did rinse and rinse and rinse so I don't understand the aroma. Is it power of suggestion?

Easy waffle knit pattern: knit 2 rows, k2,p2 on 2 rows and repeat.

Gobsmacked

Truly. CarGuy asked for a new quilt.

Now you need to understand that in the past when I have offered to make a new quilt for him he retorted that "this old blankie is just fine". Well, he recently purchased a new chair and has asked for a new 'blankie'.

I know the size: 54x84. It can't be flannel; I have tried that and it stretches too much and he popped the quilting stitches. It needs to be fairly easy and quick. O fun! I get to make a brand new quilt for him.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Amy, Park City Girl, started it, this Blogger's Quilt Festival, and I am #456 to sign up. Surprisingly, it was quite easy for me to choose my favorite quilt.

In 2004, I participated in the IQA (International Quilt Association) Journal Quilt Project. The guidelines were simple: quilt size was to be 8.5x11" (like a journal page), any technique as long as it was the 3 layers of a quilt and you had to make one a month for nine months at the end of which choose five to send to Houston.

This quilt has always been my favorite. I interpreted an old photograph of myself holding my 6-month old son. The original was a 3"x5" faded color photo given to me by TheKid's godmother.

I used the right side and other right side of fabric for my jacket . It was also my first attempt at foiling (see my mirrored glasses?). To get the wispy layered look of the 1970's hair I used snips and strips of fabrics covered with yellow tulle and stitched down with free motion quilting.

Allergy Eyes

I've been MIA -- laid out comatose on the sofa with an allergy attack compounded by a virus I picked up somewhere. I am somewhat better, but the eyes now have it. CarGuy said I looked like I had been on a two week bender. At least on a bender one would have some semblance of fun. The doc gave me a nasal steriod spray to reduce all the membrane swelling and redness that I will have to use for the next month. Did I ever tell you I was highly allergic to trees? I'll spare you a photo.

The "A" Word

This was one of those "what was I thinking" purchases. You know the ones; on the clearance shelf at the local hobby and craft store, priced at $25.00. It is a whole cloth applique quilt kit that is a poly/cotton blend. Everything is included except the embroidery floss. I bought two, but have since given one to my SIL. (Hi SIL!)

Several years ago another one of these kits was purchased at a local flea market; this rose kit was half finished so I proceeded to complete it -- all by hand. This iris quilt is not going to be done by hand like the rose quilt. No way. The amount of time and the inconsistency of the printing on the applique pieces in the previous applique quilt cured me of that idea. So an entire weekend and 5 evenings have been spent tracing the applique pieces onto a poly stabilizer so I can try out a technique learned in a class by Kelly Gallagher-Abbott. This technique is very similar to the one that Sharon Schamber uses in her book Piece by Piece Machine Applique.

I am being fairly laissez-faire about this quilt because, frankly, I am using it as practice. It will incorporate a new machine applique technique plus it will be machine quilted. The quilting design is pre-printed on the whole cloth background and is actually for hand quilting. I am going to do it by DSM and hope the blue dots of the quilting lines wash out.

The next step is to create the more than 200 applique pieces using a combo of fabric and the stabilizer.

You will be kept apprised of my progress as I bounce between this project and the commission quilt.

New blog template

If you read my blog in a feed like Bloglines or Google Reader, you will not have noticed that I changed my template. I've been working on this off and on for a while. Lost all my widgets and had to put them back so I totally redesigned. So go on over to my blog to check it out.

Tell me what you think.

Quilt of Valor

As a member of a small quilt group, The Material Girls, I coordinated an effort to make a quilt to contribute to the Quilt of Valor Foundation via Alycia. The members of the quilt group are, like most groups, of varying skills. A Disappearing 9-patch was the perfect solution. Or so I thought. I forgot about the hand piecers, and so those squares were re-enforced by machine. I ignored the various sizes of things when trimming the blocks in order to be able to get this done in time to hand off. One of our members does long arm quilting and volunteered to quilt it and used a star design on her Statler. I learned that explicit instructions must be given when working with neophytes.

All that said and done, it turned out well.

Retreat Prizes Galore!

Retreats are so much fun! The guild I belong to puts on a spectacular retreat with lots of door prizes and goodies. Here's a list of what I garnered:

• Quilter's Dream Poly black craft size batting
• Thimbleberries Melon Slice Kit. Funny story about this: today I went into the quilt shop that donated the quilt and the owner said that when she got my thank you note she laughed because it was funny that out of all the women at the retreat I was the least likely to want a Thimbleberrie. But I think it is cute! Can't wait to make it up.
  
• a little kit for a wool sewing kit shaped like a pear
• a pattern from Bonnie Jean Rosenbaum -- Cabin Rose. I looked for it online but could not find a link. She must be a somewhat local designer as she is from New Mexico.
  
• Mary Englebreit note cards, sticky notes and a magnet
• a Colorbok note pad
• Post-it notes
• a very large chocolate bar, gone now
  
• retractable tape measure
• and a gift certificate to a gift shop in a nearby town.

And then the other night at the guild meeting I won another gift certificate. I need to go buy some lottery tickets.

Flip-flopping Along

I promised more on the flip-flops that garnered the second place prize. Here they are! Brand new pink flip-flops but the fun fur yarn came from the stash. I did not think there would be enough to make it & nice thick but it turned out there was almost 2 whole skeins!! wound up in that ball. So I just crocheted around the strap. At the last minute I pulled a pair of hand knit socks from my suitcase, stuffed them full of plastic bags so it looked like there were feet in the socks and put them 'in' the flip-flop.

I'm baaack! Retreat Report

I've always liked that line from "Independence Day" : Hello, boys! I'm back! But in this case I think it should be Hello, girls!

Remember in my last post, I mentioned that it was snowing? Just a wee little storm that closed all the Interstate highways in Colorado. I could not leave when I had planned on Friday, because I had to wait for the main north/south highway to reopen.

The rest of Friday was spent trying to get my Featherweight to work. It worked at home before I left, but the minute I got to Wyoming it did not want to work. I was almost in tears and about ready to head back home (45 min drive one-way) to get my Bernina when a very kind quilter next to me loaned me her Featherweight. She was using her other machine since she was going to spend the weekend machine appliqueing. Thank you, Patricia!!

Saturday, my roomie and I were very rudely awakened. Whoever had the hotel room the night of the blizzard had set the clock radio for 6:00am. Deb and I sat bolt upright in our beds at the sound of a male voice quite loudly exclaiming for us to "STOP! Stop..." blah blah blah. We were still asleep and thought there was a man in the room. When we realized it was the radio we started laughing and LOLed off and on all day about it.

I worked on the commission quilt and got two of the three rails in the rail fence sewn together. Then I got 30 of the third rail sewn on and realized that I had a problem. I had mis-cut all the rails in 400 blocks. Yes you read that correctly: 400. I spent Sunday morning removing the third rail and now I can cut down all the rails from 2.5" to 1.65". Ackkkk. It will change the size of the block but I won't have to redesign the quilt and then go through the approval process again. I can slip on more borders and nobody will be the wiser. We'll just keep this between you and me, ok? I modified the pattern to use a charm pack and didn't really think it through, I guess. But all is fine now.

I did get something done, though. I got the QOV for Alycia bound and labeled. It is now washed and I am making a presentation case for it. Plus I won second place for my decorated flip-flops. I'll show you those later. The retreat's theme was 'tropical' and we were to wear a flowered shirt for the group photo. That's me front row center in the blue-on-blue Aloha shirt.

All-in-all, I had a wonderful time. Lots of goodie bags, lots of prizes, lots of talking and laughter and lots of camaraderie.