I spent the last week working on a painting project. Several years ago I painted a team logo on a couple of flyball boxes. The dogs have worn out the last boxes and a couple of new ones were needed.
I always find painting relaxing. Of course if they keep asking me to paint these boxes I am going to have to create a screen so that I can screen them and get them done more quickly.
This is a project that has been waiting to be finished for a while. I am really into texture and color. When the quilt guild I belong to decided to host Jennie Rayment for our lecture and class for the month, I decided to sign up. It was a very interesting class.I used some scrap fabric that was probably not the best choice, but I am still happy with the results. Dark fabric doesn’t show the shadows as well as a light fabric might.
Robbi came to speak at our quilt guild last month and to teach her Free Expression Buffet class. We got to see a history of her I wanted to take her class because I heard her classes are fun and I already had all of the supplies I needed for the class.
I was commissioned by Bill to create a triptych for his office. Actually it started out as a single panel, but as the discussion progressed it turned into a triptych with a single color connecting the panels visually.
Last week was a productive week for projects. On Sunday we had an Easter dinner for some of our friends. We needed to have room to seat 11 people. Our dining room table seats 4. This proved to be a small problem. A six foot banquet table and 3 sheets of plywood, joined together with our existing table, created a 12 foot long table, no more problem. Continue Reading »
Well, It has taken almost a year, but the BOM that I finished the blocks on last March is finally completed. I have set a goal for this March to finish 4 projects. I have quite a few unfinished projects in my closet that are all more than a year old and that is just not my style. I finished several a few months back when I was working on the charity quilts, now I can cross one more off my list.
I used my hand dyed fabrics for all of the blue and green fabric in the quilt. The black was a very low quality black on black fabric from a chain store. I really liked the design on the fabric, but I will never purchase that grade of fabric again. It was horrible to work with. It stretched with every opportunity. I used liberal amounts of spray starch, which did help, but it was no match for poor fabric.
I decided to set the blocks off center from each other, since matching seams with this fabric was such a chore. I also decided to sprinkle a one inch square of each of the colors used in the quilt around the outside border. I think it adds a fun touch.
This is just a sampling of the dye run that I did this week. I was asked to create several fabrics for a fall themed project. The person wanted a collection of gold and brown fabrics. I think fall colors include golds and browns, but also burgundies, oranges and purples. I was very happy with the colors I got and texture of the colors. The client was pleased with the colors as well and ended up purchasing a few extras.
As some of you know, I have decided to try to improve my health. The first step is to lose some weight and increase my activity level. I am not doing a great job on the increased activity level, but I am making progress on my weight.
I have been roughly following my old weight watchers plan. For the most part I have giving up all soda and switched to mostly water. I have also severely cut way back on all simple carbs. That means very little bread, pasta or rice. As those that know me will attest, that is the hardest part.I have always loved breakfast, but I have found that I am very limited on what I can eat for breakfast that will take me till lunch. For a while it was an omelet every day. The only problem is it takes me about 20 minutes to get one made and cleaned up after. Some mornings I just don’t have that much time. I found a recipe for egg casserole that I have adapted to my tastes and it reheats nicely in the microwave each morning. I make it in the evening and eat it for the week. It works well for me and I can modify the ingredients for variety.
Egg Casserole
6 servings - 4 pts/Serving
3/4 cup Eggs (2 eggs + 3 whites)
1 1/2 cups skim milk
3/4 cup bisquick heart smart baking mix
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 medium onion, chopped
16-20 ounces Spinach or broccoli
3 slices Turkey Bacon (optional)
4 ounces part-skim chedder cheese
1. Thaw, rinse and drain broccoli.
2. Put 1/2 of spinach in 11×7 glass pan sprayed with Pam.
3. Put all of cheese on top of that.
4. Put remaining spinach on top of that.
5. Wisk eggs, milk, bisquick, onion, salt and pepper
6. Pour mixture over spinach in pan.
7. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.
8. Cut into 6 pieces when cool.
My mom had been teasing me that she wanted the polka dot tote that I made last summer, so I gave it to her. I loved the tote. It was a great size, but I wanted one made of my fabrics. I knew as long as I had the other one, I would never get around to making one to replace it.
I was attending the Ricky Tims Seminar and decided that I really needed that tote to carry my materials, snacks, water and an umbrella. So, 2 days before the class I set out to make a new Professional Tote.
I went through my stash of hand dyed fabric to find large enough pieces that would coordinate with each other. I didn’t have anything as big as what the pattern called for so I started breaking up the pattern pieces into smaller groups. I ended up using 4 different fabrics. The most noticeable difference I made was to make all of the outside pockets out of different fabric than the outer fabric. I think it added a lot of interest to the bag.
I also decided that for this one, I wouldn’t include the middle pocket on the inside of the tote. It seemed I always wanted to put something in the bag that was wider than one side of the tote. Of course, for the seminar, we had a lot of paper, having the center pocket would have been very nice…. No problem, I’ll just make another one with a center pocket.
The bag worked great for the seminar. I was very pleased that I stayed up late the night before the seminar to finish it.
My sil needed a lap quilt this year, so it was a good excuse to make another rag edge quilt. I really love to make these. Especially since I purchased the die cut machine to cut and fringe the squares.
One of the best parts about making the rag edge quilts is that I get to dye flannel. I have a really nice, heavy-weight flannel that takes the dye just wonderfully.
This quilt was going to be all pinks and purples. I dyed up a nice assortment and then started playing around with them to see which ones I liked together. This is one of my favorite parts of dyeing fabric.
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