Just My Luck (not)

Thanks for all you kind comments for me yesterday, after my fall. You will not believe it but now I have the flu. I can not keep anything down. I hurt, look and feel like the undead. I guess I am in for a few more days of rest rest and more rest. No sewing today, I do not feel good enough. Now you know it is bad.

Enjoy the photo of Lex, my Chessie. Last month we had a photographer come and take photos of our agility dogs for the wall were we train. I just love the big brown dog. We have had so much fun learning agility together. He will keep me company as I get well. Sleeping at my feet, even now.

Sunday Flowers

I had a very busy couple days and really need rest. Yesterday I fell backwards on the ice, like a cartoon character, two feet flying up in the air. Well I fell on my back and hit my head backwards. I did not sleep well and I am hurting today. I do not like to complain but I am feeling old and bruised. I am sure I feel better in a few days. Nothing broken, lucky this time.

I sat around lots and got out some hand stitching. I got three little Hexagons flowers done. In part I am working on them for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013. I started with some blue ones last August while camping.

 I have added this post to Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday link. Go see what others have been working on by hand.

This is the tin box lid I use as a tray for these little babies. I expect I will  get a few more done before the end of the month.

Pinky Scrappy Saturday

I have always loved Pineapple log cabin quilts. I started to see a few rainbow log cabin blocks over at A Quilt and a Prayer Blog. I just loved what she was doing. I had to make some too. I got two blocks completely done and started two more.

It is just so cute. They will finish at 6" and the pink blades are 1/2" finished. I can use the 1" strips or larger. I am also using Black Kona cotton for my triangles.

I started by drawing it out on graph paper and making a few copies. It is paper piecing so it goes slowly but wow!

Do not forget to check out Soscrappy's link for more pink scrappy goodness. And for more about the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013 check out the RSC13 link. Please join in the fun. Next Saturday is the last pink Saturday but you can hop in at any time. Maybe just make one block each month. 

I have inspired my mom to start. She is sorting her scraps by colour and is planning to do something Rainbow. She travels and her sewing is not so consistent. But I hope to show off some of her blocks now and then too.  

This week I also got done two Crumb (poverty piecing)  block at 6". I did some 4" block last year and man these seamed so big. I had to do lots more work to get the extra 2". I think I like 4" better. We will see if I do this size or go back to 4". Also, I am unsure of the black and white part from a Cat. It sticks out.

I got 14 spools done this week. I think I am up to 26 pink spools this month all in Pink. If you do not know about the spools leaders and ender challenge you should go see Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville. I started last them summer.

Here is Lex on a walk. Lex and I have had a very busy weekend. First we had a workshop in agility with Kathy Keats Friday night. We just loved it. Then we went to our agility league Saturday morning. And after that we went to Dog Docks for the afternoon dip in the pool. We did three actives in 24 hours and got 6 hours sleep. We hardly had time for eat. I will be going to bed soon.

Finished Fabric Friday

I got my snow dyed fabric washed out and photos taken. I had nine 1 meter pieces of fabric but really did not like one. It still needs washing out. Here are the eight finished ones. 

I have used Kona PFD fabric to dye these days.

I swirled this one in the snow before adding snow on top or dye.

 Not crazy about the one above, may over dye it or just chop it up.

I have added this post to Crazy Mom Quilts,  and Richard's Linky #50's and Confessions of a Fabric Addict

I love this blue one.

I have a very busy weekend full of dog related actives. Tonight I have an Agility workshop with an out of town teacher, Saturday is the last day of Agility fun league and then I may go to Dock Dogs at the Pet Expo. Not sure if I will enter Lex or just go and watch. My dog habit is costing me so much money I am having to buy less fabric.

Snow Dying

As we have had a little warm spell and the snow was melting yesterday. I thought I would snow dye some fabric.  I also got the timer to work and took a photo of myself knelling by the fabric.

It was sunny and warm yesterday, just look at the great blue sky we had. No sun today just grey.

I hope this one turns out. I placed the fabric with a spin and have laid out the fabric with a plaid like pattern.

I am off the wash the nine pieces out now.

I have added this to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday and Needle and Thread Network WIP Wednesday.

Pink Scrappy Saturday

I finally got to do some patchwork sewing on Friday night and some late today. So I got started on my Pink scraps. I am planning to do the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013. I did great at keeping up last year. Please check it out and join me on using up the little bits of fabric.

I came across a row by row this fall and kept it in mind. It was week #2 over at Bee in My Bonnet that I found the butterflies. I love adding in White as my background and keeping the body of the butterflies in black. I really love Row 4 Apples and cores. I will have to find some way to use the apples.

I got 20 done. I thought I would start with the butterflies because they use large pieces of fabric. The Butterflies measure 4 1/2" unfinished.

I have also done 9 spools. I started this midway thought last year. They are a leaders and enders challenge from Bonnie Hunter.

I have added today's post to Soscrappy Linky Party.

Design Wall Monday Easy Street

I have been able to keep up with the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Easy Street even if I did not post much the past few weeks. To see the Monday Linky party that Bonnie is hosting Click Here. I know there are a few in other colours. I just love the colours she used and was not going to change it. I now wish my grey was darker. It would show off the chain running thought the quilt better. My aunt used very different colours and used Black not grey. So her chain really shows. Her web site is Smiley Quilter. Seeing my aunts quilt makes me what to change my four patches all to black and not grey. What do you think? Should I fix it? It is a small fix and I would not have too many blocks to unpick to get it fixed.

I have also added today's post to Judy's Design Wall Monday Linky Party.

I am still machine quilting my show quilt. I plan to get it done and photos done so I can enter it in the Canadian National Juried show. I have to get my entry in the mail no later than Friday. I will be doing tons of hand stitching tonight and the next two days. I can not show you the quilt till I know if it got in or not. Sorry.

Pink Scrappy Saturday

Happy New Year everyone. Today is the first Saturday of the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge for 2013 over at Soscrappy. I am jumping in and doing the Rainbow Scrap Challenge again this year. I just love it. This month our first colour to work with is PINK. I got my scraps sorted well last year and I have to keep on top of it again this year.

This past week I just spent a little time cutting and preparing kits for some Pink spools (to the left) then I have a block in mind that needs 2" squares and Triangle so the stacks on the right are sorted out with that in mind. So far I have not sewn any patches yet.

I have been very busy this week. We cleaned many parts of the house and took bottles back, a load to good will and a load to the dump today. We still have more to get out of the house. I also have been machine quilting my entry for the Canadian National Juried Show. A photo and entry is due very soon. I hope to be done the machine quilting on Sunday and start the binding by Monday and be ready to take photos by Thursday at the latest. Sorry I can not show you.

I have also been working on the Easy Street Mystery with Bonnie Hunter. I just had to do it. I love the colours that she was using this year. Here are my piles of yardage.

And here is the box with all my units done. I got this far by New Years Eve and was able to sew a little more. There is a link on Monday to show off how far we all got. I will have some blocks done to show off.

Christmas Gifts Finished

I got this done on Christmas morning just in time to leave for a family dinner and gift opening. It is a table runner I made for my mother in law. I used a block from a book from Laundry Basket Quilts called Friendship Strips and Scraps. There is a wall quilt in the book that uses five of these blocks, I just knew it would be cute as a runner. I am very pleased with it.

Here is a detail of the machine quilting I did on it. Most of the fabric I used is batiks.

I had bought this hand made bowl at a craft fair in November and picked out the fabrics to go with the bowl. I had pulled my mother in laws name for Christmas this year and I think she was very happy with her gift.

I have added this post to Crazy mom quilts,

I tried something new this year. I made candied orange and lemon rinds. They were a hit. I just love them. Sweet yet bitter at the same time.

Sorry I have not posted much this month. My camera went smashy smashy about two weeks ago. I did buy myself a new one. I have not done much of my own sewing this month. I quilted for customers like crazy, sometimes late into the night and I had a few dog trials on the weekends. I am going to start step 6 of Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery tomorrow. I think I am cough up on it.

Marbled Fabric Done

Last Friday I got together with my surface design group and we marbled fabric. We had to do some prep work a head of time. I soaked and air dried the fabric a head of time. Then when we got done I have to let my fabric air dry and then hand wash it and dry again. I found it hard to get the Methyl Cel out and had to wash a second time and dry and iron it. Took me all week to get it done. So busy machine quilting around here.

This piece was a pale purple and got blue and white marbled paint. I love the feather work. I used an old hair pick to make the lines and pull the paint around.

This was a pink snow dyed fabric to start. I make a white dot then added the bright pink paint in the center. then when it spread a little I run a single pick down the center the one time. And Hearts!

These next two were green dyed fabric. I love the dyed fabric better as it adds to the rich layers of colour on each piece.

I used a old roaster to hold my Methyl Cel and then floated my paints on it. I precut my fabric to fit. Most measured 10" x 14".

This was a white cotton with the blue and white paint. there was some older paint on the Methyl Cel that also came up on the fabric but it adds to the piece.

The fabric started out as a orange brown hand dyed. I added some bright pinks and black and more brown on here. Can you see I just loved the pick patterns I could do. Many of the ladies were in love with radon dots and blobs, some with or with out pulling the pick though.

This was the first piece to see if my paints would float or spread too fast or what they would do. I had to thin down many of the marble paints I had. I also tried Golden liquid acrylic paint. We all found it to be one of the best to work with. I loved it so much I bought some Golden Liquid Acrylics. I hope to play with marbling again over the holiday break.

I have added this post to Crazy Mom Quilts

I am off to machine quilt more. Maybe tonight I can work on the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Easy Street. I still have not done step 2 yet and step 3 came out today.

Lex and I did Ok at the weekend trail. We passed three out of 8 classes. The second day he was leaving the ring with out me. We have two classes on Sunday this weekend. Hope he can stay and work with me.