I finally finished the panel to cover my shelved fabrics. I wouldn't have bothered if my fabric did not face a window at a 3 foot distance. I just pieced together blocks. They didn't have to match. I found some pre-cut white print fabic stips to use at sashing, which worked out well because they brought the blocks up to the correct size. I had a bunch of 2 1/2 " strips that came in a fabric kit. I had no intention of ever making the kit. I bought it for the other fabrics, taupe fat quarters. I added that strip on the bottom as an afterthought as it fell about 3/4" short. I have since taken it off, and I think that I will set the top lower on the wood, and it should be fine. One project down..

UPDATE: I took that black and white pieced strip off of the bottom. I mean it was ugly enough already. What I did instead, is hang those nifty removable hooks near the top of the shelf, and put loops on the backside of the panel which helped the panel hang lower at just the right length. Plus, it will be easier to remove and replace now..

JUST CHECKING IN

I hope that everyone is having a great weekend so far. Let's see, I am still folding fabric, and I have some projects to work on. It is a never ending winter here. I wanted to go out to a quilt show on the east side, but I doubt I can find anyone to go with me at this late date. In the past, I wouldn't have thought anything of jumping in the car to go by myself, but, I guess it just isn't that important to me right now.
Yesterday, my daughter and I spent the day together. We usually go to the movies, but there wasn't anything out. So we did some errands, went to lunch, and rented a couple of movies. Body of Evidence (I think) and Miracle at St. Anna. The first was okay, it had Leo DiCapprio and Russell Crowe, about a CIA operative on the ground in the middle east. The other was a story about a group of black soldiers in Italy in WWII which was very long, and fairly boring, and if Meg hadn't looked interested, I would have popped it out of the DVD. I'm still not entirely sure what the point of the movie was.
So now I'm trying to decide if I should get out in the cold and do groceries now, or wait. If I don't do it now, I won't do it at all. Darn. I have to get dressed.
I will check back if I do anything interesting!

2 inch square and two 1 3/4 in squares. Fold the smaller squares in half to form a triangle, raw edges to the outside and you have a little pocket for the quarters.
Ready to quilt.

This neat little invention is what has kept me away from the computer all weekend, and helped me be more productive in the studio. While I was IN the studio that is.
I got a new cell phone with internet. So I know when I get an email, and I can read or not and delete it. This keeps me from sitting down at the computer for my email, and then getting drawn into being here for long periods of time.
First, I worked on a miniature round robin quilt. These are the fabrics that I am using.
Then, I got the pattern together for a quilt with horse blocks for a friend that is having a baby. This is the background fabric for the blocks.
This is a kit I bought some time ago. I didn't even remember that I had it. I came across it when I was bring some things upstairs. It is pretty simple, and the pieces were all pre-cut. I bought it to make for my husband, who has collected the state quarters. This little quilt will not look as tacky hanging on the wall as one of those wooden things with the quarters stuck into holes.. but it will still hang in his office. I am going to make it to hang vertically with the quarters at the top and the stripes below.
I enjoyed my weekend off, I wish that I had more time, but it's back to the office tomorrow. I should be in bed now, instead of doing this, I guess I lost track of time. I have been working with just the light over my sewing machine, and candles in the window to my left. It is soothing and I enjoy being in here. I put in DVD's and sewed. I have watched, Appaloosa, (boring) the Changeling (long but good) Season one of Terminator - Sarah Connors Chronicles ( you already know I'm a nerd.) And I went to see a movie this weekend Madea goes to jail.. or something (my daughter wanted to see that one) it was mindless, but okay.
I hope that you all have a great start for the week!

UPDATE: OSCARS WHERE HAVE YOU GONE ATTICUS FINCH?

FIRST SWEATER UN DONE

I got the first of my sweaters 'done' today. The machine made sweaters are proving to be more difficult for me to deal with, but the sweater that I made is all unraveled. I switched to a shorter center section for my Niddy Noddy that produces around a one yard length for each complete wrap. It is much more manageable.

Here is the pile that used to be my sweater

I let the yarn soak in "Soak" soap for an hour or two.

All of the yarn of what used to be my sweater is now hanging in the basement. The original idea was to put cans in the bottom of the yarns to pull them a little taunt. I found that too much of a balancing act. I thought of my seldom used pattern weights, and my shower curtain rings that I used to hang rulers etc, in my old studio. Viola' works great. I put them on the most crinkly, because I didn't have enough weights for every hank of yarn.

SHRIMP ON THE BARBI

We went to Outback tonight. Meg and her fiance were there. She ordered a salad and "Shrimp on the Barbi".. when the waiter brought it, there were shrimp lined up on a plank of rye bread. Meg didn't understand what it was, she thought it was a steak. She said to the waiter, "I only wanted the shrimp, I didn't want the barbi".. The waiter started laughing, along with the rest of us. The girl really needs to get out more.

RECLAIMING YARN

I recently decided to unravel a sweater I started many many years ago. It was an Aran cardigan made from wool I got from Ireland. I plan to wash the yarn and re-knit the yarn into something else. Probably another, more elaborately cabled sweater for myself.
I remembered reading something about re-claiming yarn, so I found the website
http://chaoticcrafter.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/reclaiming-yarn-from-a-thrift-store-sweater/
After reading this, I decided to stop at Goodwill on my errand run this morning and see if I could find anything. I found this;
Which is a wool/angora/cashmere blend
and I found this wool sweater;
Now I have 3 sweaters to unravel. I stopped at Lowe's to buy what I needed to make a "Niddy Noddy" (don't worry, until yesterday, I had never heard of it either.) to wind my skeins.
As you can see, my yarn really needs to be soaked well with water, after that, you hang it to dry, and put a can of soup or something like a sling in the bottom to pull the yarn straight.
I will show you the next step when I get to it. In the meantime, have a great weekend!

SILK COWL

I made this cowl out of leftover silk. It's a little too large, but works fine, and was a fun knit. I think I will make a smaller one next time, and use worsted weight.

Nothing going on. I'm up and off to work soon. Did not get a lot accomplished this weekend. I spent a couple of days using up the rest of a ball of silk yarn knitting a cowl. I'm looking for my buttons, and then I will show it to you. I decided that I brought too much upstairs, so I put it all in a container OUTSIDE my studio, and will start bringing it in when I know where to put it. I just have too much, and I need to trim it out of my life.

My friend Bev is the coordinator of Ohio's Home of the Brave, that makes quilts for the families of fallen Ohio military. She sent me a quote that I would like to share with you. I believe this is the heart of what our crafts of quilting and knitting should be.

When your talent intercedes with human need,
you have found your purpose in life.

FIRST MONTH PROGRESS

I feel like a knitting slacker compared to the likes of SOO , but this is my first month progress on my daughter's wedding shawl. It is an easy knit, as lace goes, I just can't sit and knit all day, and I'm not lightening fast to boot. But I will keep plugging along and hope for the best.
My friend TERESA is planning a big new studio. She is researching some alternate ways to put fabric on shelves. Vertically is one of the ways she came across. I thought that this was an interesting way to do it.. I'm going to give it a try. I think there might be some problems associated with it, like what to do if you don't have a full shelf. I put a bookend on the second shelf stack to hold the fabric up. One of the good things about it is you only have to shove the rest of the stack aside to get to the piece of fabric that you want. Maybe easier to pull a piece out if it is vertical, instead of having the weight of the other fabrics on top of the one that you want. I still have lots to fold and weed out of my collection.

I added another movie to my list. TAKEN= was action packed, good against evil, not for the peace loving movie viewer. But since I am an evil conservative with a male dominate movie viewing gene, I loved it.