Styled for Pencils

This will probably be the last of the bag posts for a bit .....I had this small piece of felt that I really liked a lot - but could not figure out what to do to make it useful. Finally, the idea of a pencil case hit and ta da ! here it is. It's 3.25" X 8.25" (8.25cm X 20.95 cm). The lining is another piece of my hand dyed. I like this little bag ...good thing I save my smaller pieces. Now I have an idea of how to use even the smallest leftovers - still have to play around to see if it will work.... Happy Weekend to all and to all a good day (or night as the case may be!).

It's A Crazy Bag

This is my Crazy bag. It's 13" X 8.5" (33.02cmX21.59cm). I wasn't sure what I thought of it while I was working on it and I am still not sure what I think about it ! It's different than the others - I played with the addition of some funky yarns and, of course, I added beads to both the body and the sides of the braided handle. I does have a certain something I suppose. It has to grow on me - or maybe on someone else ! The lining is from a piece of my hand dyed fabric - done some time ago - but it certainly seemed to fit the crazy colorful attitude of this bag !

The Blues Have It

This IS a bag that I like. It's 9" X 5" (22.86cm X 12.70cm) and is just a happy little bag I don't generally use a lot of blue - but these colors just sang out to be felted . The lining is simple- blue dots. I used some hand made beads on the zipper pull. I am going to have to be replenishing my fiber supplies soon ... since I have several large bags in mind for the next next rounds. I keep wondering what size is the best to make - but it seems like all sizes will work - for different things. What do you think?

A Sherbet Bag for Winter

Thankfully, I am feeling better than yesterday. Not yet 100 per cent but up and trying to get stuff done. I have finished three bags that I had been working on. Some of you may remember this piece in an early renditions. I finally got it quilted and beaded. So here you see both sides, the lining and two close ups. This was not one of my favorite when I started it - but it has become one! Hope you like it too. It's 6.5" X 8" (16.51cm X20.32cm)

Migrane Today

Not much to say today. I came down with a wicked migraine and have been abed all day. Tomorrow will be better - lots to do before I get back to the work-a-day world on Wednesday. Bart has been snuggled up next to me - keeping me warm. I'll be much perkier in the morning.

The quilt above was a gift to a friend's daughter for her college graduation.....wasn't even finished in this photo -but it has a lovely,warm fleece backing and my friend Keri did a super job on it with her longarm.

"Creative Felt" : My Article Is Published !

Sue Bleiweiss, editor of Fibre & Stitch, afforded me an opportunity to write my first ever article about my passion for making felted bags. Her invitation came just at a time when I was longing to try something a little bit different. My article,"Creative Felt", was written for the current issue of this wonderful e-zine and Sue decided to release the issue early- today! If you are not familiar with this fabulous e-zine publication - take a look. Sue offers lots of great free projects on the website & the zine is filled with great articles that are certain to get your creative sparks flying.I had to chuckle as I re-read what I had written - my bag styles have already changed somewhat - maybe that is what evolving is all about huh? Most of the bags I make now are somewhat larger - and can comfortably hold knitting, sewing tools or even act as a purse. I continue to be obsessed with wools & felting. I enjoy finding new ways to use the luscious wools that I now get to "pet" so often. Working with Sue and Terry was a rewarding, fun experience! I may have the writing bug now ! I think what I REALLY need to do though is get back to some quilting !! That's the thing I like about making my bags - I get to quilt them too -so I don't have to feel that I am abandoning my first love of quilts!

Curled up Cats

A cool night. Everyone is snuggled in their beds. How in the heck do they manage to fit into their beds in such a perfect round?! Cleo, above, decided that she wanted to get up to have her photo taken. Bart, in the second photo, can barely fit in the bed - he's a big boy. Odie, the angel of them all, took umbrage at being so rudely awakened. I suppose at almost 19 he deserves to be peeved when he wants to! They certainly can make you smile !

Post Prandial Rambling

I think I knew, in the back of mind, why larger families can sometimes be a good thing. Goes along with the concept of many hands make light work ideology. Rent a family on holidays?! Thanksgiving dinner was delicious - and thankfully I have LOTS of leftovers - but I had to question if TWO days of cooking was really worth an hour and a half of snarfing! I may even have to have DH warm his own leftovers this evening - as I am feeling a distinct aversion to seeing the stove today! I have a great stove (last year's acquisition) that has the added benefit of having a second (albeit small) oven. I seldom use it except at Christmas time for cookies ( ye gads baking will begin again soon!) Yesterday, I was happy to have the second oven- since I needed to find room to bake the home made dinner rolls ! I love baking - breads, cakes & cookies - but have never been as dexterous with my repertoire of entrees. If only we could eat only bread and cheese ! Today, I am going to relax. Perhaps go to the annual Artisan's Fair in town - but that will be the extent of my non creative activities. I hope to actually s-e-w today!

The quilt in the photo above is a queen sized one I made some time ago. I gave it to a friend as a reunion gift.

Blessings & Thanks

My cacti have all decided to add their thanks with a profusion of glorious blossoms. I don't know why these plants make me so happy - but they do.

Amid all of the savory scents & delicious meals that we are cooking up for this wonderful US holiday, I send you all thanks for your friendship and good will and blessings for another year full of promise and creation....and heck it's not even New Year's yet !! Have a great day -full of thanks and gratitude- no matter where in the world you are !

Apple Cider Brined Turkey

You can double click on the photo to make the recipe readable!

Happy Thanksgiving to all ! Thanks to each of you who takes the time from your busy day to read about me very small corner of the world. Your comments sometimes are the motivation I need to keep creating !

Monday, after I got home from my mainland jaunt I picked up our free range turkey and got in to brine.The recipe I use is from Cooking Light magazine some years ago. I have made it every year since. It makes an awesome, moist turkey as well as the best gravy EVER. I make the recipe pretty much from the instructions but I cover the bird with cheesecloth and baste it very frequently during the roasting - and also use a meat thermometer. A friend tried this recipe and ,alas,ended up with a dry bird - so I really think the thermometer and basting are important. I always buy an extra large turkey - just to make sure I have enough leftovers !

The rest of tomorrow's menu : a Red Zinfandel Cranberry Sauce (also compliments of Cooking Light), sweet potatoes (whatever recipe strikes my fancy), green beans (not the casserole), and a Ginger Glazed Pumpkin Cheesecake.....yes, it really is a great dessert - as good as it sounds!

From the dictionary: Thankful, adjective : grateful, appreciative, filled with gratitude, relieved.

No matter which country we live in I think we can can all be thankful; appreciative, grateful and filled with gratitude that we have family, friends and the ability have the makings for a fine feast. Hope it will be a wonderful day for you all!

Oldies but Goodies

My mainland jaunt was exhausting yesterday. I got up late. Posting every day must be making some of friends check on me since I have gotten two calls this morning wondering if I was okay - since no new post was up yet! I have been thinking about what in the heck to write about - the end of the month of daily posts is approaching and new topics are getting harder to come up with. That being said, I like posting as often as I can come up with something to say - it keeps me on my toes! So y'all won't be off the hook at the end of the month!

I have not posted photos of too many of my older (i.e.within the last 5 years or so) quilts. Most of the quilts I made until 2003 were all bed sized .. and I continue to make bed sized quilts as well as art quilts and felted things! I like using my quilts and I like to give bed quilts as special gifts. The quilt in photo above is a full size quilt - made all in batiks with a lovely light wool batting. It was a speical quilt for me and I was so pleased to be able to give it to my friend's daughter for her 30th birthday. She seems to enjoy it-and best of all, she USES it - the best thanks of all !

BaaBaa Black Sheep

It must sometimes not take too much to make me want to dance a happy jig. Last August, at the County Fair, I bought some wool to spin or felt. One of the bags is in the photo above. A deep black (lower left corner) wool from Our Lady Of the Rock Monastery. A friend and I split this bag. Additionally, I bought a bag of lovely brown wool from the same monastery as well as a fleece right "off the hoof" - from a shearing demonstration that was given. I thought it would be fun to make something from this lanolin rich wool for next year's fair.

The question was - how in the heck to get this stuff cleaned enough to spin or felt - especially the "off the hoof" fleece that was laden with more than lanolin! I knew that I did not have the knowledge or the space to really do a decent cleaning job myself, nor for that matter, did I have the desire! Luckily, I discovered a great place to do the job - in one of my favorite states too - Montana. It's called Thirteen Mile Lamb and Wool. In September I shipped off the wools - stuffed rather indiscriminately into a smallish square box. Last Thursday I got it all back in a BIG box. WOW! Is it beautiful! I was - and still am - astounded at both the quantity & the quality of the wool. A whole different appearance from the outbound stuff ! Thirteen Mile did a wonderful job of cleaning and carding & the wools are now gently made up into beautiful roving ready for spinning or felting. What I was especially surprised at was the quantity. I thought I would lose far more in the cleaning and carding process than I did. I ended up with a bit over twelve pounds (5.44 kg) of beautiful, usable roving. The softness and warm smell of this stuff makes me almost giddy ! As I said, simple pleasures for simple minds I guess !!

Friends To Sew With

Yesterday it rained heavily for most of the day. A good day for a few friends to gather and sew. No planning involved. No stress. There were Christmas-y things to be made for loved ones, a block that needed to be completed for a retreat early in the year, embroidery to be worked and a bag that was screaming to be beaded (mine). Our hostess with the most-est made a wonderful carrot-ginger soup (since some people -me- are just NEVER together enough to make their own food ahead of time!) and introduced us to a Japanese delight called Royal Milk Tea. Those of you who are tea drinkers (especially those who like milk in their tea as I do) will swoon for this product. I had to go straight to my friend's computer and locate a source for this product - since her supply had come to her straight from the land of the rising sun - no locally available refills available. She was kind to share here limited supply with us ! We talked about recipes from a great cookbook called "Simply Classic", by Kay Baxter, editor. We talked about life as "midders" (not young - not old). We talked about what we have been doing - or not! Yesterday was a rainy day that was filled with the warmth of friendship - it was a very good day.

This is a wonderful quilt that was brought for our small "show'n'tell". It was made for a grad daughter - who I think will be thrilled! We all marveled at the cool chevron borders and the wonderful corner blocks with zebras, giraffes,elephants and lions. Oh My - what a great quilt!

The Week's Felt Fabric

The new piece above is LARGE. It's 19" X 36" (48.26 cm X 91.44 cm). I tried to make three more or less distinct areas that would will coordinate with each other- since I plan on making several bags from this piece - well - two at least. So this piece, along with the piece below are my projects for this weekends. I did finish the handle for the last bag - and like it very much - will post a photo of it completed - along with the the fun lining too - this weekend. For a person who does not use a lot of blue in their work - this sure looks like a lot of blue felt to me! Hummmmmmm.. Happy weekend to you all.

Mipam - A Very Thoughtful Video

I found this from reading Jenclair's blog on Tuesday. I found it to be very meaningful. It takes a few minutes - so sit back, really listen to it and enjoy! Have a great weekend .

Threads- A 'Wonderfil' Addiction

I have a new addiction. Another addiction. A fine obsession that adds to my overall enjoyment of this "quilt-full" life. Thread. I suppose I could blame it on my friend Sarah...since she became an addict long before I did. I resisted for quite awhile- thinking that I might make poor use of the vast array of beautiful threads that there for the purchasing. Now that I am besotted with FMQ however, I have seen the "thread-full" light and joined the 'joyful threads' fans of the world. I am a huge fan of Superior Brand threads and have used them for some time now and will continue to do so. Recently however, thanks to Sue B , I have been trying out Wonderfil threads. What a pleasure! I did not order a full range (who but Croesus could?!) so I can't really speak to ALL of their threads at this point, but I like what I have tried a lot.

Wonderfil's 'Invisifil' is a 100 wt. fine polyester - similar, in my opinion, to Superior's Bottom Line thread. I use these a lot since they let the lining fabics on my bags shine on and help create a great texture on the surface of the wool felt. Silco (with some great blues in the range and a nice variegation), Mirage ( I love this one!) and the Rayons are my favorites thus far. Very smooth. Great colors. Wondefil also offers these nifty things called WonderGuards (similar in to "Hugo's Amazing Tape"). They work really well to tame slippery(not slithery) threads. The Customer Service at Wonderfil is great and they are a real pleasure work with! I can see so much more thread in my future --- between Stewart Gill paints and the wonderful world of threads (especially Superior, Wonderfil & Isacord) I may have to go back to work full time again! No no ! Cancel that thought! Don't want to have to do that !

Wonderfil Rayon Thread & A New Bag

Most people who know me know that I am not a big fan of pastels. It's not that I don't like pastels - in fact I wish I had more of a sense for pale colors than I do. It's just that whenever I try to do something in more muted colors - I always seem to have add "just a little punch" of color and it turns out brighter than planned ! This bag was another attempt at using softer colors than usual. I almost never buy pastel color threads either and I am not, for some odd reason, a huge fan of variegated thread.I DO use them at times.I DID, however, happen to have a lovely selection of Wonderfil Rayon threads in some beautiful pastel variegated shades. Perfect! The colors slid onto the felt beautifully and the variegation was perfect for my taste - as well as for this piece. It's a beautiful sewing thread, slippery without being slithery,that adds just the right highlights for your work.
I still have to braid a handle for this bag - so will update when finished. It is lined with an equally soft cotton of fruits - this bag reminds me of cool sherbets on a warm summer day !
So - here are both saides of the bag and a close up of some of the quilting. Hope you like it!

Pay It Forward- What a great Idea !

A simple concept. It's sort of a random acts of kindness sort of thing. Apparently it has been fliting around the blog-o-sphere for some time - but as usual I am late on the uptake ! The first three people to leave a comment on my blog, telling me that they too will Pay It Forward will get a handmade gift from me. In return, you agree to post the "Pay It Forward" message on your blog, and do the same for the first three people who comment on yours. I am carrying on this blog tradition thanks to Gunnel.

I will send a handmade gift of fabric, an art card or something else special -to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog and join this exchange. I don't know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within six months! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. I will need mailing addresses and will let you know that you have "won"....so please be sure that you leave me an email address. I hope that you will all consider this Pay It Forward challenge. It seems like a wonderful idea for those of us who read each others blogs and are able to have a little window into the lives of people who could, if they were closer, so easily be our friends ! I never thought that I would enjoy blogging so much but I have "met" some wonderful people this way. Blogging has helped me overcome some "web paranoia" and has also allowed me to "get to know" some wonderful people.

Black Walnut Dye

I began today's adventure with my dyepot. I used a modest amount of the black walnuts since I had not odea of how many/much I would need. I have a good amount left so no worries about wasting them. I may never understand the wonderful world of uploaded Blogger photos. Although the browns are not really deep -towards black- they most definitely ARE much more saturated then these photos indicate. The resulting browns are more like the pot they were dyed in ! It was a very gray day here too - and so I expect that the camera used it's built in gray card to make it all look more gray then brown....oh well. There will be more photos and more experiments!

I decided to keep it very simple and used what I had at hand. Plain, unbleached, non-PFD, muslin. I also decided to try the first batch with no mordants. The walnuts (hulls and nuts) simmered for about 1/2 hour & then I added my first piece of dry muslin - see the middle photo below. Then I tried both less and more time in the dyepot. These photos look gray - but they are brown really. The results are a really nice suede brown (taupe kind of) color. I think that I could have really gotten a good saturated brown had I used more nuts which would have resulted in a stronger dye bath.
Of course I had to try some tie dye - now I remember how fun that is to do !
Below are two pieces that, once again are brown, not gray. The one on top was loosely wadded up and loosely rubberbanded - but the rubberbands broke somewhere in the process. The one on the bottom was folded and wrapped more tightly. I really like this piece and wish I had used a larger piece of fabric.



The piece below made by spreading wet fabric across a piece of "water" glass that I had spread with discharge paste & brayered. The fabric on the right had full strength discharge paste and the fabric on the left was made with diluted paste & it also lay on the glass a shorter amount of time.
So now my questions are:
1. How would PFD fabric affect the dye?
2. How many more walnuts would make a stronger dye bath?
3. How much more time in a stronger dye bath would it take to make a rich almost black dye?
I am looking forward to more experiments now and will have to unearth my PFD fabric to see how it reacts with the dye. Lots of fun today !

New Experiment: Black Walnuts

What humble, even ugly (once fermented a bit) these fruits these are! My favorite tree in front of the Courthouse where I work is a grand,quite old, black walnut tree. The fruits have intrigued me over the years so today I gathered up a very large (Hefty XXL size) bag of the hulls and nuts. Over the weekend I hope to experiment a bit with the dye. I understand that it can yield an amazing range of colorfast browns, golden browns, red browns & even black and gray - depending on the mordants used. A humble fruit with a long history for providing dyestuff. More when I have results ! If anyone has any ideas about using these wonderful hulls let me know! I am planning to try different mordants:ferrous sulfate, alum and, of course,plain.