More roof

Progress is being made on the new roof, & the weather has been grand! Warren claims the hat helps keep him cool. I'm afraid he may be frying his brain!

Eco dye results & free motion quilting

The quilt on Lily right now is being quilted "upside down". This is actually the back. It's a hand-dyed fabric done by Vicki Welsh. It's Fuchsia, yellow & orange, though the pink doesn't show very much in my photos.

I am dividing it up like a crazy quilt & doing something different in each section.

My weekend dying was mixed results. The piece of lichen dyed wool turned out pretty well, & the reflector that my DD Michelle gave me helped me get photo close to the true color. The wool was mordanted with Alum.

This next piece is silk that I used a Eucalyptus plant. It was a bit brittle, so I only got color rather than leaf impressions from it. I used vinegar for the silk mordant.

This next piece of silk is from Elderberry leaves.

The final 2 pieces are the rust dyed cotton that Anita Heady gave me. I used Elderberry leaves on this one,

& Lupin leaves on the last. The process didn't give me good prints, but it did cause changes in the color.

I'm not satisfied with this process yet, but will keep trying. I'm thinking my fabric dried out too fast, as well as the leaves drying too much too, because of the heat & direct sun the day I did it. It might be better to try on a cooler day!

Who's that up on the roof?

Well, we had a lovely metal roof, but the guy who put it up did it all wrong & it's leaked since they put it up. Yesterday Richard came over & with Warren's help they have ripped off the roof & the bad boards & will now be doing it right. I told Richard his new name is Holmes. The yard a bit messy, but once it's done right we can relax without getting dripped on any more! We also had the exterminator in to get rid of the carpenter ants that  were trying to move in!

I got this lovely card from my friend Kathy this past week. It's a sun print of strawberry leaves, & there is a little moon in the upper left corner that has an Angelina halo around it. She is doing a series of moon blocks, & this represents the Strawberry moon.

She also sent this cute book. It may become part of the bathroom library. It's full or short little stories & I love the picture on the cover. I'll read as soon as I've finished the other series I'm reading.

Calendar Girls Round 2 & Eco Dyeing

 These first 7 photos are for Jackie to see. The Calendar Girls met on Thursday, but Jackie was ill & couldn't come. These are our Round Robin after the 3rd round.

Mona shared an art quilt she just finished.

Rena just fot this back from the quilter. It was another group effort from one of her other quilting groups.

Carol has been playing with textures, starting with stuff from the baggie in my embellishment class.

the next piece she used oil paint sticks for the center design.

This 9 block quilt had really nice textures.

The veiws around Mary's house were beautiful. We had some fresh snow on Tuesday, 2 days earlier.

These were wild Lupin in the ditch by her house.

This weekend we had really warm weather. 80 degrees! I spent both days out on the deck.

The elderberry bushes are in bloom around the house, & giving off a Heavenly scent. They remind me of Lily of the Valley.

Warren has been doing some hard labor planting perennials & building a garden.

I plugged in my Kindle & listened to Harry Potter (I was very excited to finally be able to get the books on Kindle). I've reread them multiple times, & always wanted to be able to listen to them while quilting or dying fabric, or cooking, etc.

Today, after getting inspired by a new book, & a phone call from my friend Kathy, I decided to experiment with wool, silk, & cotton that has been rust dyed. I picked leaves from the elderberry bushes, Lupin, Lavender, clover, & Dandelions. The wool had been premordanted in Alum (thank you Kathy), the silk & used vinegar for mordant, & the cotton had been rust dyed then soaked in a salt solution, so I figured that was the mordant for those pieces.

I also did a pot of shelf fungus, which I simmered a piece of the wool, then put it into the glass jar, then added a piece of the rusted cotton fabric to the pot after the wool was removed.

Here are the pieces after steaming, that I wrapped in plastic wrap, & will wait a few days to open them up & see what happened.

Round Robin Explained & art pins

Tickets for the Double Wedding ring quilt are $1.00 each. If anyone wants tickets send me a check & I'll send the tickets. The drawing will be at our ALCQ show September 10, 2012.

 To answer Kathy's questiion on the previous post, I am re-posting this first round on the Round Robin my Calendar Girls group is doing. We each started with just s piece of fabric, the piece above is the fabric that my friend Mary Gerkin painted, printed & embossed in my Embellishment class. Our only rule is "ANYTHING GOES". We are doing whatever we feel like with each piece in turn. There are 8 of us involved.. Below is what I did with Mary's piece. I actually pieced the pieces on a layer of batting & backing, so the other quilters will probably continue to embellish this until it gets back to Mary. On Jackie's I just did a vertical row. We're letting each piece speak to us, & we'll do whatever we feel  like doing.

These are 3 pins that I made recently. This one went to Vicki Welsh.

This next one went to Kathy Jolman.

& the last one I kept for myself.

& that's the bear facts!

a view from my kitchen window!!

Fused Glass, summer plants, & Double Wedding Ring Quilt

My wonderful friend Mindy made this beautiful fused glass plate for me for my birthday. It has an iridescence that is difficult to capture on film, but I gave it a good try.

My DD, Michelle gave me this reflector/diffuser that helped a bit. I think I'm going to enjoy experimenting with this.

Out in the yard the Bleeding heart I planted last year in memory of my Dad is doing well,

& Warren has been busy planting new gardens.

I've finished quilting & binding this Double Wedding ring quilt that was made by my friend Jan Wills, & it will be our raffle quilt this year at the ALCQ guild show in September. Tickets will be $1.00 each.

This last little piece is round 2 on the Round Robin that I'm doing. The reddish fabric with the black figures is a screen print that Jackie Carley did. The letter print fabric is what Mary Gerkin added.

I added the pieces down the right side, using some of my own hand dyed fabric, & the print is a piece that Jackie gave me years ago, because she said she knew I would do something with it! So I did. For her!

Thanks for so many happy birthdays everyone!