MY FAVORITE QUILT

I thought I would post an oldie but a goodie ( no, not a picture of me). This is a picture of the quilt that means more to me than any other quilt I have made. It is my New York Beauty called, "Out of the Darkness, Into God's Light". I made it a couple of month's after I nearly died from an infection in my heart. When I got out of the hospital, I couldn't remember how to do the simplest thing as far as quilting goes.. Then it seemed that one day God turned on a light in my brain, and gave me the ability and the idea for my quilt. When I made it I felt like I was driven. I finished it within 2 weeks of starting it. I even found a psalm that I wrote on the label that explained the quilt perfectly. It was Psalm 13:28, which reads, "You, O' Lord keep my lamp burning, My God turns my darkness into light." I really felt like God had led me out of the darkness.. I survived something that I should have died from, and I was given back my ability to make a quilt. What more could I ever want?

A NEW FAMILY MEMBER

We have added a new family member. Her name is Lily, and she is the first on the left. In the middle is Claire, and then Sam. My 80 year old Aunt acquired Lily when she was visiting Ohio a couple of months ago. She took her home to Florida and decided that she was too old to chase around a little puppy. My daughter happened to be flying down to visit her grandmother, and she happily brought Lily back with her. Lily is supposed to be a Shih Tsu. She is either a really badly bred ShihTsu, or a mixed breed. The pic doesn't show that she is really cute. And she is very smart, which gets her into a lot of trouble.

A friend asked me if I like to blog because I don't write everyday anymore. I told her that I love my blog. I just have a lot of non-quilty things going on with my husband being in an out of the hospital. Not fun stuff to write about. I am in the dumps.. can't get motivated.

I have managed to get the teddy bear quilt quilted, and I still have to do the binding. I think I will get it ready, and take it with me when I sit with Bill in the hospital on Monday.

I am still working on my mini pineapple. I still have about 23 more cream pineapple blocks to make. At this point, I really need to finish it by the end of the year.. but I don't know.

I took my Pfaff for a software upgrade and preventive maintenance. Yesterday, I had a creeping muscle spasm in the left side of my neck extending to my shoulder, and today my left hand.. mostly the lateral 2 fingers have been numb and tingling.

Bill is home all day.. something very unusual. I don't think he has ever used any of his sick time. He hardly ever uses his vacation time. So when I drag in from work, he wants me to watch tv with him upstairs.. kind of cuts into my sewing room time. I think I will open the upstairs sewing center and work on my pineapples.

I'm going up for the night. I hope everyone reading this is well.

Wow!

Well, I have to admit, I planned the back for a quilt, and now I have to design the front. I discharged this piece of black RJR. It discharged to an orange color. I overdyed it fuschia. Turned out very nice. I like it. Almost too much to ruin it by quilting it..

I Dyed Yesterday

Can you believe that I let the entire summer go by and I didn't do any dyeing? Yesterday my Twisted Stitcher group got together and dyed fabric, and did some bleach discharge. I was out of my element with the dyeing. It was decided that we would do dyeing in big buckets. I like it to be more exact, and I prefer low immersion dyeing because I like dark, strong colors. I really enjoyed doing the bleach discharge, and subsequent overdyeing. my favorite piece was this one.

It started off as a piece of black Kaufman Kona. I laid a cotton crocheted doily in the center and sprayed with bleach. Then, of course, it went into bleach stop. It bleached to a dark gold. I washed it, and then I overdyed it with orange. I scrunched it into a jar of orange. I am happy with how it turned out.

This is another favorite

This is the same fabric with branches of Wisteria laid on it and sprayed with bleach. I pretty much like it the way it is.. I have thought about overdyeing, but, maybe I will make some more.. without wisteria, because I don't have any... I also have to find some more doilys. I had a bunch that my grandmother made.. they must be around here somewhere...

Pacific International Quilt Festival

I am so excited. My quilt Skeletons from my Closet was juried into the Pacific International Quilt Festival!! If anyone reading my blog would like to take pictures of it hanging and email them to me, I would be so grateful.. Happy dance!

Shout it Out

Live and learn. I started making this block before the fiasco with my bleeding flying geese mini, so I didn't understand the concept of how important it is to pre-wash hand dyes. Even if you DID dye them yourself! My friend gave me a sample package of Shout Color Catcher to use on my mini when I finish quilting it. In the meantime, I finished yet another hand applique block in my little Hawaiian Sampler with an un-washed hand -dye on white (smart huh?).. I decided to rinse it because their were little spots of glue that came through to the top of the applique. I rinsed it in cold water and it bled. So I opened that little package of Shout Color Catcher and swished it and my block in a bowl of cool water.. It seemed to have worked. There is a little stained fabric, but you have to look closely. Most of it seems to be to the back of the applique. Otherwise, the block looks clean. I will try it on my mini. If it works, i will let you know.
I finished the center portion of my hand-dye pineapple. Now I am trying to decide on the border. I started making 20 pineapple blocks.. but as I go along.. it seems less and less an option.

Many Hands Make Light Work

My Aunt Betty made hundreds of these simple little bears out of cotton to give to emergency workers for children. About 3 years ago, her daughter and I came to an understanding that I would make a quilt for my aunt using her bear pattern and some of the fabrics that she used to make the bears. In return, my cousin would knit a shawl for me.. I gave up knitting and everything else I did for quilting. Anyway.. I messed around for a couple of years, I would think about it once in a while, but saying it was on my back burner would give it too much importance. Finally it got ridiculous the time it was taking. I made a shameless request for help from my guild. I told them if they would come an help me put the quilt together, I would buy them lunch.. and we would have fun. We did have fun, and lunch.. and got the quilt top done in about 3 hours. I can't tell you how relieved I am to have this project almost finished. And I am glad that my Aunt will have it in time for winter.

WHAT A MESS!

For a long time I have wanted to have my computer in the same room as my sewing machine. When it became more apparent that no one was going to move out and give me my room with windows.. and I found out that all that was needed was to have our network cable moved over to my room. I started moving things.. I had to move out my desk/bookshelves, which was a mess because it was loaded with books. My room is a disaster area, but after I go to Joanns for their notions sale, I am going to organize everything.

My sewing machine is here ... somewhere