I finally finished the top today. I auditioned pieces of material for a border around the bronze and came up with a really nice one of boysenberry and basic blue (ProChem) but the piece wasn’t big enough so I dyed a larger piece last night and then added the borders today.

Bug jar quilt front, handdyed bronze and boysenberry/basic blue mix borders.

The bronze borders match the brown in the background material of the jars and this is the same material I wrote about a couple of posts earlier. The idea is the jars are sitting in a pantry. The purple went well with the bronze and the black with the purple.

I have additional bug fabric that could have gone for the borders but I figured it would look too busy so I’m saving that material for the back of the quilt which I hope to finish tomorrow, then I guess I’ll quilt it on Friday. I was trying to figure out how to quilt around the jars but it’s going to look funny on the back so now I’m thinking to just go simplistic and do an all-over meandering stitch and that way the quilt will be reversible and the back won’t look funny with misplaced quilted jars on the back. I’m thinking lime green for the binding.

I hope to get a better picture once it’s all done as the lighting was poor in the kitchen as its dark and gloomy outside. The quilt is even more vivid in person.

Karen

I’ve been working on a few projects lately and finished one over the weekend. We have a lady at church who is very talented and aside from being a great singer and musician she also does puppetry and one of the puppets she uses is called Miss Ewe.

I have a book that I recently aquired a few months ago called Tea Cozies and while flipping through it I found Miss Ewe and decided to make her to give to my friend.

“Sheepish Look” tea cosy pattern by Caroline Lowbridge from the book “Tea Cozies”.

I’ve also been working on this project, which is supposed to be a surprise for my daughter so I’m only posting part of it and will post the finished product after the baby shower this Saturday. I don’t think she reads my blog so Jen if you’re reading this don’t.

Project teaser.

And of course being proud grandma I get to post pictures of my new grandson and so I thought this one was very precious that his mom took.

Baby Chase.

I guess that’s all for today.
Karen

I’m a grandmother.

Jen and baby Chase.

Karen

Just a quick post. Yesterday I needed to dye a piece of fabric to match some commercial fabric I had on hand that I wanted to use in a quilt so I got out my swatch book – the one with all my colour gradations of the various dyes. Low and behold there it was bronze, who would have thunk bronze would be the match but it was so I dyed up just over a metre and was so tickled to have it turn out the proper match that I just had to post.

ProChem’s bronze and commercial fabric.

I’ve done this several times where I’ve gone to the swatch book and made a match and every time I think it’s so neat that I now have this ability.

Karen

Well I finally sewed together all the squares in my swirl quilt and all that needs doing aside from actually putting it together and quilting it is to put some kind of border around the squares. I’ve decided to piece together a border of plain blocks made up of the other swap technique fabrics in my stash. I’ll probably do that after I’ve put together some kind of quilt for my new grandson that is due to be born in the next week or so.

John holding quilt over deck railing at back of house.

The swirls that make up this quilt were some that I had done myself but most of them were done by other ladies from my fabric dyeing forum in a swap exchange. For a block swap everyone does up the required number of squares and then sends them in to a hostess who exchanges all the blocks and mails them back out to the participants. This way you can dye up say 14 blocks in one colour pathway and then receive back 14 different coloured blocks.

I didn’t want a black quilt so had a hard time coming up with a good colour to match all the squares. Call it lack of imagination but I went with white to frame the squares (there were different sizes) to 15 inches and then a narrow band of light baby blue to tie them together. Black would have been stunning but the blue and white will match the guest bedroom and my bedroom for that matter better.

I also had my Knitpick’s order come in on Friday so thought I would post a picture of the colours that I bought during their recent lace sale.

Knitpick’s “Cloud Alpaca” in the colour Peppermint. I waited 9 months for this yarn to be restocked.

Knitpick’s “Shimmer” in the colour Hush. This is an alpaca silk blend.

Knitpick’s kettle-dyed “Shadow” in the colour Eggplant. Shadow is a 100% merino lace weight wool.

Knitpick’s kettle-dyed “Shadow” in the colour Altitude.

All the yarn together in a stack.

I already have some lace weight yarn waiting to be worked on but since I’d waited so long for the peppermint alpaca cloud to come in and it happened to be right when the other lace was on sale I decided to go ahead and buy some more since the shipping was the same regardless of how much I bought.

The lace yarn was quite reasonable ranging from $5.49 to $2.99 per 50 gram skein. Needless to say the peppermint alpaca was not on sale seeing as how there is such a great demand for that colour. Still, all in all if you figure you need anywhere from one to three skeins of yarn for a lace scarf or stole then you can make one of these projects for under ten dollars. Of course finding the time to do it is another thing but I’m thinking Christmas is a reasonable time frame. I guess another problem would be giving up the project once it’s made.

Karen

I haven’t posted in a while. I have been working on a quilt top recently. Its made up of tie-dye swirls that I’ve made myself and some I received in a couple of swaps. I was almost done but wouldn’t you know it I goofed on adding some borders so now find myself picking out half of those. There is something to be said for sewing one row at a time instead of doing everything at once. If I’d done that I wouldn’t be at the point I am at the moment. Anyhow I’ll blog the top once it’s done.

I’ve also been doing some canning and making jam. I’ve decided to make some baskets for Christmas this year with different varieties of fruit and I even found some Christmas lids to go on the jars.

Blueberry jam, strawberry jam, peach jam, bumbleberry jam, and canned peaches.

Not a great picture with the window in behind but you get the idea. I’ll have to make some peanut brittle and cookies to put in the baskets as well when the time comes.

Edited to note: Bumbleberries are a combination of fruit in this case blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. I guess the tern is either local or Canadian, lol, I didn’t realise.

Karen

Well yesterday I spent about six hours sewing, something I haven’t done in a long while. My youngest son was on his way back to McMaster University and engineering. He belongs to the redsuits and part of his duties is to help out during frosh week with the first year students and help them get moved into their dorms…well that and partying and having a good time.

He stands about 6′ 3″ and his suit wasn’t long enough in the torso for him to wear it comfortably so this year I managed to make some adjustments before he took off. I picked apart the waist and added in a good five inches and then sewed on some badges he picked up while trapsing around Japser National Park and Vancouver with his buddy this August.

I’ve blogged this suit before when I added some shibori and tie-dye fabric to it the first year. Here’s what it looked like first year:

Dan’s redsuit from first year, front view.

Redsuit back view.

Here is what it looks like after the adjustments:

Dan in redsuit at front of house, black waistband inserted with badges.

Back of suit.

Not only did I attach the black waist but I re-did the black lettering on the legs which was beginning to fray and come off. I used “steam a seam2″ and I’m hoping that they will hold as I didn’t leave enough time to take apart the leg seams and zig-zag down the letters.

The suit still looks a bit bare but maybe some more black lettering with his name on top and some other stuff? LOL, that’ll probably wait until next year at the last moment as well.

Karen

Well I’m back from vacation and a good time was had by all. Thought I’d post a couple of pictures of my most favorite place to be in Vancouver and that’s the Spanish Banks. Think of Vancouver as being in the centre of a horseshoe and the spanish banks along the one side of the horseshoe.

When the tide is out you can walk out from the shore about a kilometre or so and the sight is phenomenal. I always love going there and if I only had one spot to visit this would be it.

Starting out at the shore of the Spanish Banks, Vancouver, Canada.

Looking out to the middle channel from the shore.

The beach is a popular place for dogs and owners so the shore is divided into an area for the dogs to play.

Looking east along the tidal flat to the city of Vancouver.

Starfish stranded at low tide.

Yours truely, its all about the tie-dye.

In front of a harbour signal light.

Close-up of the above shot standing about a couple of yards in front of the signal light.

Dead crab.

Looking back to shore from the edge of the channel at low tide.

One more picture of another harbour light that marks the opening of the channel into the Vancouver harbour. At this point the tide has turned and is starting to come in and now it’s a race back to the shore before we get stranded.

Back at the car, big owie. As we were rushing back to shore I turned back to see how far we had come and ploughed into a log mid-stride. You get submerged logs from the logging industry spotted along the coast and ships and boats really have to keep an eye out for these hazards. This log reminded me of the ones you see along the roadside as telephone poles. It was partially submerged and I didn’t see it until I was on top of it. I had a choice of either falling face forward or twisting backwards which I did but unfortunately my leg brushed up against it as I fell. LOL, I hadn’t planned on taking a swim.

Another favorite spot of mine is Granville Island. It’s an artsy spot with lots of little craft shops and a wonderful market that has the most yummy fritters full of apple or raspberry filling. The amazing thing about these fritters is that they are huge and one fritter will easily satisfy three people and they are made fresh on the spot. Another favorite shop is of course Maiwa that sells all the dye supplies that a person could want.

Maiwa also has a shop where they sell clothing and linens and while I was there I bought a pillow case that I became enamoured with. Lol, I admit to buying it so I could try and figure out how to do the same process at home…well that and it was gorgeous.

Pillow from Maiwa.

Flip side of the pillow.

Close-up of shibori work.

I have an idea of how the pillow was made but I’m not positive so if any one has any ideas let me know.

Karen

Well I’m off to the airport in a couple of hours and from there to vancouver for ten days. Will blog when I get back, everyone else have a good summer/winter?

Karen

I’ve had a few requests for where I got this tool. I replied individually like I normally do to posts then it occured to me that I could save myself some trouble if I just post the link online.

I bought this tool a couple of years ago while on vacation in Vancouver at a shop called Maiwa and they carry quite a few supplies from Japan. Unfortunately the price seems to have gone up from the $19.95 I paid to $39.95. I thought I’d post a few pictures so people could see what the tool looks like and whether or not they want to spend that kind of money on such a small device. I believe this is the same as the “shibori kit” but maybe people should write and ask before ordering.

Disassembled tool.

Needle tip.

Tool clamped to bookcase.

Box view 1.

Box view 2 showing different tying techniques.

Box view 3 with picture of tool and price.

Instructions in Japanese, English instructions are provided as well I just don’t know where I’ve put them.

Karen