Almost Done

This is looking pretty good and looks like I will finish it in time after all. For a while, I thought this might become a Valentines Day gift in February...

Yet to be done... the label and facing! I use Powerpoint to make my labels..It's fast and easy. Not only can the label be created and printed on fabric in 15 mins. or less, the saved slide of the label becomes my permanent record of finished quilts.

Decisions Decisions

Quilting an exquisite and fairly complex pattern of images on a cotton drapery fabric is a fun challenge. I'm certainly not getting bored with all the variety I see in the original overdyed cloth.

Here's a printed area of stacked leaves ( color in pic is a bit brighter than reality... I hate that.) .
For this design, a simple inside outside line of quilting to reinforce the look of leaf edges seems to work for me.
There is so much activity (multiple/varied images on the original fabric) that sometimes a simple 'knock down' of the background is enough to show off the important images that I doubt I will quilt at all lest they be large and beg otherwise.

The Big Boys are BACK!

EEK! I thought we might get through this season without bears visiting our front deck (common in years past) ... but no such luck..... As hibernation time nears, a large hungry adult ("no not the one in the closeup photo") has returned to our canyon looking to fatten up before the long winter sleep. 2 nights ago... he roamed around the house looking for food... last night, he stepped onto the roof from the sloping adjacent hillside. I'm such a chicken ( smart chicken tho)! I definitely won't go out at night for a while!
(c)FYI this is not my photo and is not available for commercial use/artistic interpretation.

Workin' on it!

I've been busy busy but am trying to get some progress on this overdyed piece that will become an oversized table runner.

I have only just begun, but I'm workin on it.

Correcting An Irregular Over Dye Project

Well I didn't dye this piece to begin with but I have and occasionally do dye work. in this case, I bought this over dyed 100% cotton upholstery fabric that I wish to turn into a quilted gift table runner piece.... BUT... after I got it home, I found the over dye was most irregular in one corner so what to do? First for perspective,,, the original background for this piece was a soft blue and pale yellow. You see a bit of the yellow here and there. Here's one section of the already dyed fabric.

Well I 'm a bit mad at myself for not photographing the irregular area BEFORE I started this fix effort.... but here is the back side of the irregular area where some rather strong blue still resides.

There were choices on how to fix:
a. over dye again ( a bit challenging unless you dye all the time and can predict the value outcome. Also a big setup/cleanup project)
b. Overdye with inks.... I could do it in a method similar to item c. ...... It's just that ink all and all for big backgrounds is a little more costly than item c below.
c. 'Paint' the heavily water-misted background with a slightly watered mixture of matching transparent paint ( ala Pebeo Setacolor transparent). So that's what I did.... followed by drying/ heat setting using a dry iron on a cotton setting. Heat setting makes it permanent. Whoala!! Done in minutes!!!!

It's now ready to be prepped for quilting.

Great Turkey Day

The food was great, family likewise!!! My 6 year old great niece wrote her first play for her immediate family to perform. How wonderful.

Well it was her first play.... I needed an autograph! A pie plate seemed a fine place for an autograph.

Well we're at my "all man" nephews house where his wife (not pictured) had given him an apron. Like the ruffles? The ONLY reason he would put this on for me for a photo is that I am his aunt who cooked the turkey, stuffing, and gravy and he felt a bit beholden. He's not too happy huh? Posing with him, my niece.. the one with the turkey hat. I've always kidded at Thanksgiving.... " Have a turkey, don't be one." I guess my niece never got the message. :-) The names have been omitted here to protect the guilty! :-) Such a great family ... Lucky me!

Bye Bye Birdie!

Oh heck.... last year at this time I posted a "before" photo of a very angry looking live turkey. This years post is what I HOPE my turkey looks like tomorrow. My family comes from Oklahoma farm stock so Thanksgiving is all about comfort food. This ofcouse includes a good cornbread dressing with lots of sage, creamed corn, etc etc. My hubby will make pies. How lucky am I?! Have a great day all.