Right turn again!

My poor sewing machines have been sitting unused for entirely too long. They were screaming at me to come do some sewing…so I did!

My niece is having a baby this fall so I thought I’d make her a quilt today. I gathered up all my bright “baby quilt” fabric scraps.

Turns out I have a ton of them. Didn’t know what I was going to do but I thought strips would make it easy. I spent much longer than I thought I would have to on that task.

Also turns out that a ton of scraps makes a ton of strips! I probably have enough for a full size quilt, AFTER making the baby quilt. Sigh…there will never be an end to scraps, will there?

Sewed the various widths into strips with blue spacers and sashing and threw it up on the design wall to see if I liked it!

Yep! This will work just fine. Spent a surprisingly short time sewing it up–and the machine was humming, so it was happy, too.

Hooray! Baby quilt top done!

I see some things in the picture that I could have done better, but once that baby is cuddled up in it, design doesn’t matter!

I’m going to plan on getting it quilted right away, rather than procrastinate. That will also make my machine happy and I’ll be humming along, too!

Where’s the bling?

Oh, we are still FAR from being ready to add the bling!

This weaving business takes a long time…much longer than I thought it would. It goes even slower than a snail’s pace when you have to stop and think about what you want to do next! I’m making progress, though it still looks pretty rough!

I’m using more of the silk fragments than I thought I would initially and there is still a long way to go. Do I love it? No, not yet, and maybe I won’t, but I’m getting a whole lot closer to liking it a lot!

Weaving on!

Started playing with the weaving project, hoping to make it better! I moved the horizontal weaving strands closer together and scrunched the scarf parts a bit closer together. I still plan on fanning out the ends of the scarf to show the embroidery.

And I want the shiny rhinestone and pearl trim on the other side, but the beads may or may not end up there. I won’t know that until I make the fabric beads and start adding them.

When I went looking for my silk scraps to add to this, I found a whole skein of recycled sari yarn, plus a bunch of it that I had pressed flat to use in another project.

This is what I should have started with! But I’m not starting over now…no, no, no. I will use some of it to weave variety into the background.

I also moved the previous woven strands even closer together. Oh, man–I have a LOT of weaving yet to do before this puppy is done!

However, I certainly will not run out of silk bits from which to make those fabric beads!!!

I think I’ll go with more conventional materials for a practical sample for the kids. Pretty projects will still be very possible with sturdier materials and a smaller frame! They only have an hour a day for 10 days and have several other projects for other teachers, too.  Yep–simple and pretty will be the way to go, but I WILL  finish this one for ME!

 

Changing direction

This summer I will be teaching at Blue Lake again. Middle school children, fiber arts. I love doing this and I have my major project for them all figured out. It’s time to make a sample, because if I expect the kids to do it, I’d better be able to do it, too!

My material choices were made for me, because I decided to use the items we received from Kathy from India.

There are no process photos, because I just started making it, without thoughts of a camera. Basic process is to string a frame for weaving and create a background upon which to showcase the beads and trim…

Strung the frame with recycled silk yarn…two errors here. The yarn is kind of thin and not very showy and it’s also not very strong. I ended up being concerned the whole time that it would break. Second error in the plan is that the loose weaving of the yarn that I had decided upon simply isn’t enough! It looks haphazard and wimpy rather than the strong statement that I wanted it to make.

Here’s what I have so far. There will be bling added with the trim and beads and fabric beads that I have yet to make, but in coordinating colors from silk fragments that I have.

Possible solution? I will scrunch the scarf part down a bit and add more—lots more!–to the weaving. What have I got to lose? I may even weave in some ribbon and some other strips of silk.

More to follow on this one…

Things are getting done…

…but they aren’t sewing things! I have a bum shoulder right now and lots of outdoor work to do, so it’s been slow going.  I had some rocks and dirt to move, and I was lucky enough to get a neighbor boy to come do manual labor for me. Should be done with rocks, dirt AND mulch tomorrow. Then I can sit down and watch the grass grow and throw a few stitches into fabric!

I did get the Shreds piece finished.

This is upside down from my original intention, but I like it better with things growing up rather than hanging down. I ended up with these two as my favorite leaves.

And I was totally entranced by the iris blooming in the garden.

They went from buds to blossoms overnight. Now, all my iris are gifts from other people’s gardens and I’m never organized enough to mark the colors and separate by color when I move them. However, this entire bunch is my favorite yellow so I must have been organized at least on one planting day!

So beautiful!

Yes, indeed–today’s inspiration!

KEQ–making beads

Our meetings are not nearly long enough to make tons of beads! We needed more time! It’s lucky for us that the clay making didn’t happen, because lack of time would have been utterly frustrating!

Apologies to Denise in advance…my pic of her beads did not come out right.

We made small beads, wrapped around toothpicks and slightly larger ones, wrapped around straws.

Carol was experimenting with glued and wrapped threads.

I was looking to make larger beads and wrapped some around dowels, but Sharon made a large one AND got it all decorated and fancy. Beautiful!

We tried making beads that started with cotton balls or balls of polyfil. I got that orange and blue one done that was in the first picture. Kathy ended up making hers flat, more like a hexie.

Trish made some very delicate beads. She referred to the white one as a wedding bead!

She also brought some show and tell. We have a challenge going to use a scarf, trim and beads that Kathy brought us from India. Mine is still planned out in my head, but Trish and Kathy both have theirs done!

Details

And Kathy’s…

I definitely need to make more beads…because even with all the ones I’ve purchased, the ones I make myself will be special. And maybe even fabric coordinated with the pieces I’ll create!

Keepin’ on…

Very little time for sewing this week, but I grab a few minutes here and there. That’s how I’ve always worked on my projects and eventually they get done.

Adding beads to the leaf piece…no more words needed…just pictures!