All Spun Up

Remember the wool I bought at Sew EXPO?  This is the core spun yarn that I made from the first batch of that wool, and is how I plan to spin the remaining batt.  I don't have a pattern picked out yet, but will decide when I'm ready to make something from it.

Share the Warmth!

To help celebrate their 35th anniversary, Martingale & Company wants to inspire quilters and crafters to help others and make 3,500 quilts, blankets and throws, donate them to charity, and then let them know.  They are encouraging guilds to participate as well, and will be awarding prizes to 35 individuals and one guild, with the drawing on December1, 2011.  For more information, click on the logo below, or here.

If you have a blog, they would appreciate you sharing the challenge with others, and have this downloadable logo and link to the information page for the program.

Sew EXPO

I had so much fun, hanging out in the Quiltworks Northwest booth at Sew EXPO this past Friday and Saturday!!!  I signed books and demonstrated how to use the quilting disks that I use, called Grip and Stitch, from my friend at Clever Craft Tools, which they were selling in their booth (Gathering Fabric also carries these disks).   She has a new company, and is busy building the website, but you can drop her a line and I'm sure she'll get back to you, asap.  Here's a picture of them with the package cover:

I don't have pictures from the show (wish I did), but I did take some pictures of some things I purchased.

First off is Ricky Timm's hand dyed fabrics.  His fabrics are gorgeous, and although I do like to dye fabric myself (my boys now have their coffee maker and other food things in that room, so I don't dare get out the dyes for fear of contaminating their food), I'm happy to be able to purchase such beautiful fabrics!

Of course, I also bought a couple cotton batiks for quilting:

I even found a couple totally gorgeous rayon batiks in the Indonesian Batiks booth, which I plan to make either light jackets, or tops from:

Cheryl Kuzcak, owner of Paradiso Designs, was also in the Quiltworks booth this weekend, and her purse designs are all so beautiful, especially when you see them in person.  I had already purchased her Anna bag pattern at fall market, and added Xine and Carry-All to my collection.  As usual, they look much better in person, especially Carry-All, which I would not have purchased had I not seen the beautiful version she had in the booth.  In fact she sold so many that she sold out of that pattern on Friday and I had to wait until Saturday to buy my copy!  She uses faux leather and nice, heavy hardware, so I made sure to get some to make my bags.

I was happy to see the Carolina Handspun booth, because I bought a black / multicolor fiber batt from her when she was at Madrona Fiberarts, and spun it up into a beautiful corespun art yarn.  I wished I had more, and what do you know, but she had another in her booth, which I brought home with me:-)

Now I'd better get to work and make something!

Sew Expo - Puyalup, WA

If you're headed to Sew EXPO in Puyallup, WA this week, I'm going to be signing books and demonstrating machine quilting in the Quiltworks Northwest booth on Friday and Saturday, from about 10am till about 3or 4pm.  They will have half the quilts from my book in their booth, and the other half are hanging at their store in Bellevue.  If you miss the show, you'll be able to see the quilts at their shop for the first three weeks this month, and then they'll be on their way to other shops. 

Come by the Quiltworks Northwest booth and say hi, have me sign your book, I'd love to meet you!

If you're wondering if the Flower Show Quilts will be coming to visit a shop near you, the trunk show schedule is on my website.

Weaving - largest project I've attempted!

I'm designing, and weaving some fabric that will cover acoustic panels.  I guess I should really say that I'm altering a M's and O's kitchen towel pattern from Handwoven magazine - widening the design and using boucle threads, that wouldn't usually be used for this type of weave (because my husband likes the texture).  So far, I've woven a test piece that is large enough to cover one of the smaller panels.
After washing, the fabric feels wonderful, but the fabric blends into it too much, even though the colors work.  Weaving with thread colors is almost like mixing paint colors, with the weaving pattern letting more or less of the different thread colors show.  So far, we like the pattern, but the colors need to have more contrast with the wall.  

To save some time, I made the first warp a half yard longer than I needed, so that I would be able to tie the next warp onto it.  You can see the remainder of the first warp threads tied loosely in front of the reed, and the next test warp hanging in front of the loom, ready to be tied on.  This time I'm using one of the original colors, and the rest are lighter or darker than I used in the first sample.

Making Progress

Sorry I've been away from my blog for a while.  I've been working, and taking some pictures, but very behind in posting....  I'm trying to make up for it with this l-o-n-g post, containing quite a few pictures:-)

I've made progress one the purplish mitts, even though I only work on them while waiting or on road trips:

I've begun working on the Oatmeal Cardigan from Spin-Off Magazine (I think it's in the Winter 2009 issue), although I'm using Cascade 220, instead of handspun.  I did spin for the sweater, but chose the wrong kind of wool, and it's not as soft as I wanted to knit the sweater with, so will be repurposed into something else (eventually).  I've started twice, two different sizes, same size needles, and am still pondering whether to knit the smaller one (my preference right now), since the other is huge on my arm, or to try again on smaller needles (I'll probably continue on the smaller one).

Last year, I diligently collected the patterns and instructions for the Snowbound BOM from Bunny Hill Designs and tried to start, but life got in the way and I had to set it aside.  So..... I'm diligently working on it whenever I have time to just sit and work while watching TV, and I'm making good progress, with many blocks appliquéd, more in progress, and others prepped and ready to work on.  Let's start with my portable appliqué basket containing the prepped blocks:

Here are the blocks - so far:

Madrona

My Madrona quilt is now hanging in the Madrona Digital showroom!