Fabric Picked for the Mystery

I have picked out my fabric for the Bonnie Hunter Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt. I have done the last two as mystery's and I did the Roll Roll Cotton Ball after I found them all over the internet over Christmas 2010. If you do not know about the mystery go check it out. I have a few friends and family that are also doing the mystery with me. I think I may have my mom hooked too. She will be a few days behind as she is not home to pick out fabric, but she will catch up by step 2. 

My fabric is all Batik. Some are hand made soy wax batiks, like the top pink fabric. I hope the orange and pink are not to close together. I may pull a pink with orange one yet. I have also thought it would be cool with Black instead of the light neutrals. I will think about it over night. 

I did not make a post about the soy wax I made this Sept. Here is my stash of soy wax batiks. Not all will be used in the mystery. But some will. Like the Greens, Blue, Pink and Orange.

Here is the set of dots made with a mini Ice cube tray. I love these little uneven dots. 

I love using the old metal potato mashers. They hold the heat so well and the wax moves nicely into the fabric. The best part of soy wax Batik is I can wash out the wax with hot water and soap. This is so much easer that the bees wax or other waxes. The other kinds of wax need heat and ironing and solvents to remove the wax. Not soy wax. I may never do the other wax batiks again.  

More and different potato mashers. 

This fabric was a pink dyed fabric that I used soy wax on and then dyed blue to get a purple. The pink remains pink were the wax was. Love this little basket weave pattern. 

Well back to work so I can start the mystery on Friday morning with every one else. 

Saturday Browns

We are so White around here. We have had tons of snow fall. 

I got a bit of brown sewn together and then worked at the the Black and White fabrics too. 

This is all I got done for the real RSC2013 projects. 

I have been sewing mostly on my older singer. What a great work horse. These scraps have been helping me with the next new project. 

I have been cutting brown strips. I have been a little distracted and not just using scraps.

Log cabins. I just love them. It is keeping me out of trouble well I wait for the next Bonnie Hunter mystery to get started. Funny how just before the mystery starts I just want to sew so badly. I get tons done on some other project before hand. 

This is a great brown quilt I got quilted for a customer this week. So much brown this week.

As this month the colour for the RSC2013 is Brown you get to see my Brown Dog Lex. I just love this photo taken by Darcy Evens at the Dock Dogs event this past Aug. My T-Rex Dog. 

There is more scrappy Browns over at Socrappy.

Winter Knitting

Well we are cold and winter here. I had a little need to knit. I have to be careful and not do to much knitting. My wrist ends up bugging me if I knit to much or knit with too much grip. My grandmother Manuel taught  me to knit. I still have that very first bit of knitting. It was a blanket for my Barbie and I gave it to my son for his GI Joe. It is the perfect army green for GI Joe. 

Well here is a new scarf I just got done in time for Finish It Up Friday. I used two yarns, one a warm fuzzy  Variegated one and the other is a eyelash yarn. Warm and Pretty.  I am planning to make a couple for Christmas this year. I have started the next one in pink and white. 

Appliqué Finished

I got the machine quilting done on this big appliqué quilt for a customer. I just love this quilt. I helped her track down a few of the monthly patterns. It is a pattern from Quilter's Newsletter magazine. You get the patterns over a few months and she was missing some. 

I love the bright colours she has used. I used stippling in the background and curved echoing on the baskets. I also did some echoing around the appliqué. 

I kind of laughed when one young family member was saying she had to work the next 16 days in a row. As a long arm quilting working at home I find myself working very hard over Oct, Nov and the first few weeks of Dec. I thought 16 days? Well I took 5 days off at the beginning of the month and one day for a dog trial but then the rest of the month is work. I am in for 18 days in a row, then I get one day off again. Not complaining I love to work at home.  Well back to work I go.

Lots of Machine Quilting

I have been busy machine quilting for my customers. This one is a sampler that I was to keep a little bit simple but I did a little more. She was so happy with how it turned out. She is past neighbour from back when I was a kid. She found out I was quilting and she needed some quilting done. So nice to find out what they have been up to over the past 20 yrs.  

There were a few places that I just had to do something more than just stippling. 

Love how this block turned out. 

I did a few feathers in the larger triangles. 

Must go do some more. This is the busy for Christmas season. Looks like I will have not trouble finishing very thing for Christmas. I always do it is just a madder of how late I have to stay up to get it done. 

Design Class

I have been away at Class all this past week. It was in a design class by Anna Hergert. I love Anna`s work and have wanted to take a class from her for a while. My mom, Betty was able to take a five day design class from her a few years ago. 

Above, is one of the silly moments of our class. I got wearing my moustache for Mo-vember and the bottom of my box as a hat. I would be so mad if someone else posted this bad photo of me, but I need to laugh at myself a little. 

I have ended the five day class with a plan to finish a hexagon box. I still have tons of work to do on this box. There is a ton of hand sewing to get the sides of the box together. I hope to get more stitched tonight in front of the TV. 

Here is the box top. It still needs lots of work, but you get the idea. The black is ultra suede and will be fused to the top of the box. Then there is a side part to the box top. It was this piece that looked like a moustache. 

The box is to be like my Secret Garden and the rod iron gate to keep it in. 

I was inspired by a garden book I had, Garden Mania.  I found these illustrations of gates by Jean Le Pautre from around 1660`s who had an Italian teacher. He was French and may have been around to work for the French King Louise the 14th. It was back when Versailles was being build up and the French Royal Court was moved to Versailles. I am sure it was a very good time to be an artist in France. Some of his etchings  have been the gardens of Versailles. 

Here is a Hexagon design I worked on but made some changes too. 

I played with different options for the side of my box. You can see I was inspired by the squares and circles on the side of the gate for my first two ideas. They did not relate enough to the top design. 

This was another design option I worked on. It is based on a square. 

Here are some of Shelia`s hexagons she was stitching. Her designs were all based on the hexagon. 

Here is one with the stitching done. 

This one is Janet`s design. She was ready to do the stitching at the end of class. 

Because my box has to be hand stitched I am adding this post to Kathy`s Quilts and slow stitch Sunday

Workshop all week long

I am at a workshop all week long. It is a design course. We are learning so much but we are so tried at the end of each day. No time or energy left to make a good post and no photos to show you yet. Most of the work is still paper so far. Maybe by the end of the week. 

The piles of Brown, Pink and Red are a new project. Log cabins. You will have to wait and see. 

Brown November Saturday

Sorry for the  fussy photo. I wish I had taken a photo before the rows went together. 

This is a very very old UFO. One of my oldest UFOs. I did a row by row and a class with 3D trees way back in 1998. I also added the dogs maybe in 1999. Then I took another class on UFOs and dug out some of these rows and blocks and started to put them together. Well then it sat for 10 plus years. 

Every once in a while I dig it out. 

I once put it on my UFO list then forgot what project it was because the name was just old UFO. I could not find it at one time. 

While I took it to retreat last month and did some work on it.

 I wish I had taken a photo at the start of retreat. 

Well here is mid way. 

Here of some of the browns. A brown dog made years before Lex my brown dog came in to our lives. The brown Bear and bears paw blocks. The the sweet little brown log cabin blocks. I got this row together at retreat. Before retreat they were only blocks. 

At the end of retreat mostly in rows. 

It is almost square. I do not want square. I think I would like a few more rows of simple patchwork added in. Maybe two 6" rows like the snails trail but add them in above the tigers and under the Zebras. And not snails trail again but maybe geese or mountain blocks. Then it would be 12" taller then the width, say 62" by 74" with out boarders. I am sure I will add boarders. Maybe dark blue, brown?

Brown ?

November ?

(sorry it is white here tonight)

While my plan for Brown this month is to work on some of the needed rows. And they will have some Brown scraps, maybe some green and red and Blue. But Yes Brown Scraps!

I have added this to the Linky party over at Soscrappy.

You can go see what other are doing for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013. 

Ok if this month is brown, You will have to see some Brown Dog photos. I have lots. 

Lex and I at Dock Dogs this past August. Photo by Darcy Evans.