Dyeing, Crochet and Quilts

Somewhere in my blog readings I learned about Tumble Dyes, and of course I wanted to try them.  You don't have to pre-treat your fabric (soak in soda ash).  The bottle reads "non-toxic, washable, ready to use, water based, easy clean up".  You just shake the spray bottle and go.  Once your fabric is dry you heat set, an iron will do.  I haven't washed any of my experiments, I don't think I'll use this on any quilts that need to be washed.  The top right is my sample card of the colors I bought, I used a paint brush on dry fabric.  On the left (orange) is one I sprayed on a white on white printed fabric.  The bottom piece shows where I used a leaf stencil, the one on the left bled some so I used a dryer brush on the right leaf.

This is a larger piece I did.  I started with wet fabric, sprayed different colors on it and let it dry flat.  The wet fabric had some wrinkles in it and the dye does some migration which caused the ridges

In other projects, I crocheted these darling booties.

And I entered 2 of my quilts in the Northwest Washington Fair this year and got blue ribbons on both of them.  They give out a lot of ribbons, there are lots of categories.  My Zinnia quilt, which for some reason I've started calling Dahlia, won for Adult Division, Small Machine Quilted, Machine applique.

My house quilt won for Adult Division, Small Machine Quilted, Group quilt.   The house blocks were a prize from a raffle at a quilt retreat.

Out with the Old

It's time for new Garden shoes, notice the duct tape covering the holes.  Hopefully this more expensive brand, Boggs, will last longer.

 I'm crocheting these flowers and putting them together, not sure what the end result will be, but I'm loving the colors.  I ordered 15 different ones from Knit Picks.

 Spring has been slow to arrive to the Northwest, but we've had a few sunny weekends.  These are plants in the bog that are showing life, in the background there is a rhododendron, candy tuff and heather.

 Wild bleeding hearts, always a lovely surprise

 I have lots of flower buds on my various lilacs, looks like this could be a banner year for the blooms.

And the dandelions are blooming too!

Some Projects

I have started a lot of projects recently,  few have been completed.  Here are some that are done.

This baby sweater was a kit that I purchased a year ago from Knit Picks.  I don’t have any intended recipient, it will go into my “hope chest” for now.  It needs buttons to be completely finished.

 

I’ve had fun crocheting doilies for rocks.  This is the nicest one I have around now, I tend to give them away as they are completed.  They look neat if you have a bunch of them grouped together so I’d better get some more done.

And this is a new distraction and great way to use up fabric scraps.  The bowl was created by wrapping strips of fabric around a rope, coiling it, and sewing it together by machine with a zig-zag stitch.

2008 Knitting

A Mosaic of most of my knitting and crochet projects completed in 2008, just for fun

New Hat

I wanted to make a hat that Matt would like, so I decided to just wing it with crochet and add ear flaps.
It's a success, he likes it! Dave wants one too. I think the ear flaps are a little big, but it's still wearable. My timing is good, as it's been cold and snowy this week.

My handsome boy!

Sunday Update

Milo loves climbing in this large bag of fiberfill stuffing. He digs in, kneads and purrs contentedly. Yes I worry about suffocation and keep making more holes in the plastic bag. I guess I should just move it but it makes him so happy.
Sophie is having some "corporal cuddling" from Kim, the expression on her face was priceless. Amazingly enough later in the day when I was sitting on the couch crocheting, Sophie crawled up on my lap and napped for about 30 minutes. A very rare occurrence.
This may be my last bouquet, a storm has blown in so I'm not sure how the plants are faring. I'll have to venture out this afternoon and see if there is anything left to take to work.
These tiny zinnias are just so cute, don't you think. I'm already planning when to start my zinnia seeds next year and have a spot in mind that will get lots of sun. When I went out to a local farm this week to buy the cucumbers for the pickles below, I wandered through their field of flowers, lots and lots of dahlias, which are probably my second favorite cut flower, but I'm going to concentrate on Zinnias next year.
Here's is my pickle production. These are Cucumber Chips, more a sweet pickle and are just quickly put up in the refrigerator. The recipe is on the Boxx Berry Farm website. You have to scroll down the page to get to it.
And here is my latest scarf, very quickly crocheted. Margaret, it's very narrow, about 4" wide by 52" long. Do you like the ladder in my studio? DH has been changing my light bulbs to compact fluorescent to save energy.

Amigurumi - 1st bear

My first projected completed, just hours before the graduation party.

I had such fun taking this bear around and posing, here he is with my I-Pod.
The sun came out briefly, so we have bear, scarf, rosemary and thyme. And wet knees from squatting down to take the picture.
Next we have bear and scarf on the rocks. Sophie kitty came to look. Gives you a size perspective.
Bear, scarf and turtle on the pond deck with pots.
Other than the rhodie and bedraggled poppies, this is the only thing blooming, a new perennial that I think is call Wahrberg Daisy. Click to enlarge to see the rain drops on the petals.
Current status of the lupine. You might remember it from last year, it grew one huge flower stalk and a few others. This year it looks like I'm getting lots of smaller stalks. These leaves are also very good at capturing the rain drops.

New Tangent

Here is the completed scarf, I did it very quickly.

I was doing my usual "winging it" method, it's crocheted lengthwise so I chained a bunch, draped it around my neck to determine a good length and then took off. It really should be longer but if it isn't wrapped around more than once will be OK. I ran out of the crimson yarn I was using and got a differnt one that I used for the fringe. And now I have extra so I'm thinking of making a matching teddy bear. These are my new book purchases, with 40% off coupons of course.
And some sale/clearance yarn for these toy projects, lots of neat textures.

So many projects, so little time.