BBQ Contest a Success!

This past week-end we competed in one of the most respected and larger BBQ contest in North Carolina. Teams from as far away as Pennslyvania, Florida, Virginia, Alabama as well as North and South Carolina were there. In fact there were 63 teams all together at the Hog Happnin' in Shelby, NC. We love cooking at this contest because it's for a great cause and some of our family members live right there.

So the results (which can be seen at the Hog Happnin' website) are - drum roll! We, the "At Ease Moonlighters" won 7th place in the Chicken category and 10th place in the Ribs category. And out of 63 teams, we were 4th overall! That overall ranking is our highest so far!

He are a few pictures of the team and spectators in action:

Don, the Pitmaster, and Jonathan, the "Roady" as he called himself preparing some meat for the cookers early Friday afternoon.

After getting our meat onto the cookers for the competition it was time to entertain a few of our friends and family who were willing to come out on a chilly Fall day to show their support and enjoy some food. We had Ribs, Early Autum stew, Dutch Oven Potatoes, and an assortment of desserts. (Sorry forgot to get pictures of the food.)

Here's Faith insisting that she walk with her Mom, Rachel's help. And the good news is that Faith loves Barbeque!

Here's Faith's dad, Jason helping to put the finishing touches on our ribs that we were serving up Friday night.

The real action is Saturday morning. Here's our Roady's wife, Beth pitching in to prepare the garnish in our turn in trays. This is a very important job since one of the criteria that judges look for is appearance.

Here Don and Matt, one of our fans, and my brother, check the meat on the cooker to see how it's coming.

One of my responsibilities is to be sure the entries are put in the trays and everything looks just right for the judges.

Here is Elise administering wet paper towels to keep our finger prints off the boxes! A very important job when it comes to crunch time, because we only have a 10 minute window to get each entry turned in or we're disqualified.

Here's Beth after she turned in her sauce entry, our last entry of the day! She's speaking for us all! We're always relieved to see that last entry turned in on time. Sauce is an extra auxillary category and for the past two years we've let Beth mix up a concoction of her own. This year her entry came in 10th out of 41 entries! Way to Go Beth a top 10 finish and in the top 25%. We just hopes she can remember what she did for next year!

Digital Scrapbooking

I've completed another page for my digital scrapbook and I've added a link to the gallery where the pages can be viewed (under "Links" on the right). These pages are at a very low resolution and look much better on my computer. Eventually I'll actually print them out, but for now, they are in the computer.

And The Answer Is...

A couple of days ago I posted some granddaughter pictures and asked if anyone could pick out her favorite toy at my house. Well my daughter reminded me that I haven't posted the answer yet and she was correct.... It's the cat toy! Aunt Beth was so sweet to buy our new cat, Molly a toy when she was here. It's very shiny and makes a crunchy noise. Unfortunately for the cat, she didn't like it at all. She refused to even touch it and ran the other way when we throw it to her. It was laying on the floor when Faith came over and she grabbed it up and started squeezing it. She giggled and immediately loved it. Now when she's here it's the first thing she goes after in the whole pile of toys and she carries it around in her little hand when she's crawling. She plays with the other toys, but that cat toy is always close by. It's funny how the kids love the darnest things.

Here she is on the move and you can see the little cat toy in her hand. She's become very good and crawling and holding onto that toy at the same time!

Busy with Granddaughter Things

If you go to www.mombrinton.com you can see that Faith, Rachel, and I went to a local pumpkin patch (Carrigan Farms for the locals) and took pictures (over 800 or so) and Faith loved it! She really didn't like being picked up out of the pumpkins when we were ready to move to a new location. That's probably why we ended up with so many pictures! While she's pictured with a long sleeve shirt, it was actually over 80F here that day. We had a day or so of cool weather and it's back to higher than normal temperatures. (Great dyeing weather if I could get some time.) We also finally had one very brief day of one and off rain showers the first one we've had since August I believe. Everything is very very dry around here with the lakes and ponds very low.

I've also been working on digital scrapbooking. I'm trying to learn how to do it and all of the lingo that goes along with the hobby. To see my first page, go to Scrapgirls.com Use this link, because typing it in will only take you to the website in general. The link should take you to the gallery that I've registered for where other digital scrapbookers post their pictures. It's a page I made using only free items from the scrapgirls website and the little bit of Photoshop Knowledge that I have. The page is about a new outfit that I made for Faith. It's suppose to be a light jacket for when we do get some chilly days around here. It better not go straight into winter!

What I've been doing with my time --

I've heard from some of you over the phone that I don't have anything new on my blog. Well.... This is part of the reason and I'll try to post more things in a couple of days or so that will explain what else I've been doing. I have not been making new art or dyeing or discharging fabric. But I have been sewing a little, and loving my family a lot.

Here's our girl when I got to take care of her for a couple of days last week and I got to take care of her again today!(She's actually napping as I write this.)

"Oh Grandma, is that the camera again?"

Yes, she's pulling herself up now very easily and regularly! That means being sure everything is out of the new arms length. She's been crawling for sometime and has that perfected. Which makes for very interesting playtimes at my house! I use the furniture and various stools and rubbermaid containers to keep her in a fairly contained area, but there is one area I leave open to get in and out for myself and we always have to have a big discussion about that spot before she gets herself busy working with her other toys. She's a very serious worker and I'm thinking an executive level position someday for her the way she's very happy handling paper, magazines, and cards.

Here is Faith taking a short pitstop from her playing to give herself some juice. It's a cup with a soft flexible straw that folds back down into the cup. Wow! So many new things since mine were little 25 years ago! How did they ever survive? I just love seeing the new gadgets and toys. You'll notice some of the old standbys that I saved from when my children were little. I put them away carefully to use when I had grandchildren, and Yay! now I'm getting my money's worth out of those for the second time around! There are a few new toys as well, who can resist, certainly not a grandmother! Every toy we've purchased so far (I think) makes noise and requires a battery to operate it. Most have come with the batteries included because that way they make the sound while on display in the store. The battery compartments all have screws to keep them shut so kids don't swallow batteries, now that's a good idea, but my tip is to check to be sure you've got a toy with the batteries already installed or otherwise install them before you give it to the child because it takes a while to get those batteries in with all the screws! And children can grow very impatient waiting for us old folks to figure things out!

Now if you've read this far here's a quiz for you! In the picture of Faith taking her juice break, from all the toys can you pick out her favorite one to play with when she comes to Grandma's house? If I've already told you verbally hold off on answering and let the long distance readers see if they can guess. Put your answer in a comment and the winner gets a big Yay Woo! Way to Go! for your efforts.

7 Months and Growing Fast!!!

My stint at taking care of Faith seemed to fly by! My goodness where does the time go? I certainly can understand the Bible when it says that to God a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day! That's eternity waiting for us and as we grow older I think we begin to understand that God has a whole other way of looking at time than the way we humans do! It seems when there are children involved time just spins on it's end!



So here is our precious granddaugther at just over 7 months old and she is developing a strong personality for sure! She knows what she likes and she doesn't mind indicating her desires or lack of desire when it comes to some foods!

She just keeps getting more and more fun! She's sitting up very well on her on and I think on the verge of taking off crawling and oh my watch out when that happens! She's very good at reaching out and grabbing things and I knew the day was coming when I'd have to hold her without wearing my glasses so for a while she may look a little fuzzy to me, but that's ok. She's also feeding herself finger foods and they've certainly come up with many new things in the 25+ years since I was raising babies! No longer are there the plain Cheerios, now there are special baby puff cereals and they actually taste pretty good. She even got to nibble a little of her Grandfather's BBQ Ribs (her mother is the one who fed her that by the way) but she did wrinkle her nose a little. We're not exactly sure how to interpret that, but I'm sure she'll be a good southern girl and learn to love BBQ Pork Ribs and all of the other things her grandfather cooks up.

New Resident at the Harwell House!

Yikes! I didn't realize that it's been so lonnnnnnnnng since I posted on this blog. Well I never promised to be regular about it, but if you want regular readers I guess publishing on a regular basis would help! I'll certainly try to get some new things up here very soon!

I'm using Photo Shop Elements 5.0 to edit my pictures and I'm not really sure what I'm doing so... I'm trying to make the images smaller in file size so they load up quicker. If you have trouble viewing any of the pictures please email me and let me know!

So here is our new resident - Molly the Watch Cat! She comes to us via our son's house around May or so of this year. She was one of two cats in their house and after a new baby and moving to a very brand new house (you know the new house smells...) she was a bit stressed out. Let's just say she was having bladder issues and this was not going over too well with our son. Rather than ship her off to complete strangers, I (Debby) insisted on having her move in with us. She was very scared at first, but after Don sat and talked to for a couple of days while he was here, she especially warmed up to him. She's now pretty much the ruler of the roost. Here she is sitting at her post holding down the fort, or rather the junk on Don's desk in his very clutterd office, a cat's heaven, she just loves all the stuff to investigate, chew on and toss around. This cat does not have claws and it's a good thing, she can really use those paws to bang on the door if she wants to go through. She even chases small balls if you throw them and she happens to be in the mood to play fetch (the "being in the mood" definitely makes her a cat!)

New Fabric and T-Shirts

Warning! High Fiber Content in this Post. Those not interested in fabric and dyeing may want to only look at the pictures.

I finally got a chance to start putting into practice some of the things I learned in my Dyeing to Discharge Class. It took about a week to get my supplies and then another few days to find the time. I always find it's best to immediately try to practice what I've learned in a class so that I don't forget what I did. Here are the results of my solo operation.

First the fat quarter samplers. All were various commercial black fat quarters (that were labeled.) All were folded pretty much the same way and discharged in bleach. I used an assortment of dyes to overdye after the discharge was complete and washed out. I did keep a record of the dyes, but discharging is not an exact science.

#1 - Yellow and Red overdyed

#2 - Yellows, Reds, and then Blues overdyed

#3 - Reds and Blues overdyed

#4 - Yellows and Blues overdyed (looks like slightly burned wood)

I was a little surprised at how much black was retained in some of these. I had them in the bleach about all the same amount of time and they were basically bundled the same way. But the fabric was different and I that apparently was what made the difference. The thinner, more light weight fabric discharged much more than the more tightly woven one. That's why it's good to keep things labeled.

Then I did my first discharged t-shirts. I've always been impressed by Carol Soderlund's t-shirts and now I have some of my own. My children think I've reverted to my high school days in the '70's and I have to admit they are bringing back some nice memories and yes I do have memories. I was only a flower child, didn't do the drugs at all!

All of these shirts started out totally black. I then discharged them and then over dyed them to give them some color.

This was fan folded on the diagonal and then rolled up in a coil. The bundle was then discharged in bleach and left bundled for the washout and overdye application.

This shirt was fan folded from left to right and then fan folded again lengthwise. That gave it the cross hatching that is best seen in the lower right corner of the shirt. It was overdyed with reds and blues. When I was done, I really thought it would mostly be purple and black. I was surprised to see how much of the colors did not blend. I applied the blues first to give them a head start into the fabric, but the reds still got in just as much.

This was my first attempt at pole wrapped shibori. I wrapped the bottom on first and ended up at the top collar, folding the sleeves in as I rolled. I then scrunched all the fabric together and applied rubberbands. I expected the bottom to be darker and thought it would be more of a gradual change to the top, but it's a bit more abrupt than I wanted. I still like it, but next time will try to roll the shirt on a smaller pole (this was a 4 inch diameter) and have the lines run more diagonally for a different look. The colors came out amazingly well! I applied the yellows in the middle and mixed the yellows that I used. Then on each side of that band I applied the reds and the final outer layer was the blues. Again I was very surprised to see that the blues and reds didn't blend as much as I thought they would. I was expecting much more purple. So I think I know what I'd do differently next time and just need to experiment some more.

On the Go All the Time!

After coming home from a fun filled week of discharge and dyeing fabric my next weekend was back to Barbeque! Don and I attended a cooking class up in the NC foothills taught by Championship Cookers, the Texas Rib Rangers! It was a great class and we learned lots of great tips and tricks to get some great tasting BBQ in much easier ways. This team is always at the top of every contest that they compete in and they also vend at most competitions. Here's Don carefully adding our brisket to the cooker for the 8 to 10 hours of cooking that is needed to get it nice and tender.

That's Don in the red shirt and yes those are umbrellas that the men are holding. It rained most of the day, but that didn't stop us for a minute. Barbeque is always cooked rain or shine!

Here's is a close up of the pork being put on. It also has to cook for about 6 to 8 hours. Later on, we added chicken and ribs as well. I was the only lady in the class besides the teacher and Don was the envy of the class because I was taking careful notes on everything while he listened carefully. I was getting offers to purchase my notes before it was all over.
Unfortunately I may have done too well of a job, because in July we're now scheduled for another class out in Kansas City, MO. No BBQ widow here, I'm included in all the "fun!" Really it was a great day and we learned a lot too!

More and More Fun Everyday!

Having been gone for a week, I was very surprised how much Faith has changed in just one week. She's getting more fun with each day. She is on a new and improved schedule which means being awake and active for 4 hours straight and then down for a couple of two hour naps. With a four hour time slot to fill the smart thing for grandparents to do is go out and buy a mega playset apparatus!

It was a hit! Purchased from a second hand shop, it was in brand new condition and even had extra toys that interchange. The best part was that we didn't have to put it all together. I downloaded the directions because it is suppose to collapse for easy travel (or in our case storage) and wow it saved us tons of time with all the parts that had to be screwed together and what not!

With her Mom and Dad at work, here she is busy doing her own daily work. She takes some things very seriously and trying to get one of the brightly colored toys to mouth is one task she is relentless about. There are lots of bells and whistle on this thing literally and we all, Faith and Grandma and Grandpa have lots of fun discovering what each thing will do.

Days 4 & 5 of the Discharge Class plus Home Again

Well I made it home very safely and without event. I had a very pleasant drive down from Ohio. The driving time is about 6 1/2 hours, but when you've worked hard all week that meant making several stops along the way and taking a couple of naps to keep me going (winding roads through West VA mountains can be a bit hypnotizing.)

I didn't get a chance to post pictures for the last two days of the class because it actually took two days to complete the projects. It was a three step process and rather than rushing around and trying to finish, I just finished it up on the last day. Here are some pictures and if you are really interested in fabric and dyeing you can email me privately for a link to the full photo album at Kodak Gallery.

There are basically two methods to discharging, one using household bleach and the other using a chemical called thiox or actually, Thiourea Dioxide. It's all a bit more techinical than that.

I took 8 pieces of fabric and using the same code, I dyed up a set of each family from Carol Soderlund's book of colors. (For those who took the class you would understand, others don't worry about that detail.) I used number 356. After I got the sets dyed, then I folded them with a fan fold and then folded them in quarters and put on rubberbands and clips to hold them in place. I then discharged one from each set with bleach and the other one from the set with Thiox. I wanted to see what the difference would be. After the discharge took place, I neutralized them and left them folded and bound. I then over dyed them with various colors. This part I didn't keep constant because by this point we were using up the existing dyes and I didn't want to remix any. I might redo part of the experience and use the same overdyes to see what happens. But with discharge and overdying, it is very very unpredictable so the results may or may not be repeatable. Just enjoy the outcome!

This is Earth 356 discharged with Thiox and then I think some red and and golden yellow over dye.

This is Earth 356 discharged with Bleach and then I think some fuschia and and sun yellow over dye.

It was a great class and Carol Soderlund really knows her stuff when it comes to dyes, over dyes and discharging! She takes time to test various aspects of the process to find what is predictable and what might be more trial and error until one gets a feel for how to manipulate the ingredients to get individual outcomes. Nancy Crow's Barn was great, but I think ProChem was just as good and a bit cheaper. I just chose the barn because it's closer and I could drive up thus not having to pick and choose what to take. I was able to throw it all in and go.

Well that's all for now. Back to daily life and chores. We are perhaps heading out to a local Barbeque cooking class this week-end so from dyeing and discharging to cooking barbeque in one week.

Discharge Class Day 3

Day Three in the Discharge Class was fantastic! At first we were making samples and then processing things, but today we got to unfold some of our pieces and it was wonderful! Discharge is not an exact science because you're dealing with commericial fabrics and then the timing is an issue. I was not too hopeful that anything beautiful would come from all of my work when I left on Tuesday, but then when we unwrapped our bundle packages it was a wonderful surprise to see the results!

Here are two of my favorites and to see more, send me an email and I'll send you a link to my Kodak Gallery album.

Well that's all for tonight, it's midnight and for those of you familiar with Carol Soderlund's classes, I need my rest to keep up with her pace!

Discharge Class Day 2

We worked hard, and still not too much to show yet. Things take much longer with discharge than just dyeing. There are many more steps involved in the process. Today we worked with pieces that we had applied Potato Dextrin to the night before. Then today we either applied a bleach discharge or dye paint depending on what we had chosen. I chose one of each. This was very labor intensive. We also folded and manipluated fabric for discharge. Discharged then and then applied another layer of dye. Those we get to wash out in the morning to see our results.





This is my one piece that is finished and it's just a trial using the potato dextrin and then applying a thickened discharge solution, both were my first experience with this process and I have a fairly good piece that might be hard to see on the computer. If you click on the picture you might be able to see the crinkles which is the effect that the potato dextrin produces. This was just a sample, so hopefully I can work on the technique to inmorove my skills.

This was originally solid black material that has not turned a brown color.

That's basically it, and not I haven't had any time yet at all for sightseeing.

Another Workshop

I have a very wonderful husband who encourages my hobbies and art and this week I am in Baltimore, Ohio taking another class on dyeing, but this time we also use chemicals to take the dye off the fabric. So yes, I spent time and money last fall taking two classes to learn to put dye on the fabric and now this spring I'm taking a class to learn how to take the dye back off the fabric. The class is being held at Nancy Crow's Barn Nancy is one of the pioneers in the area of Art Quilting and she does wonderful art quilts. She is actually in our class as a student herself and she is so friendly and wonderful to talk to!

The other wonderful thing about this trip is the place I'm staying. It's an old silent movie theatre. The lady who owns it renovated it into a place for her to raise her two school age children while worked down the street and they could walk back and forth to school. She remarried and she and her husband continued and still continue to renovate and make improvements. Her husband, Bill Morgan, is also an awesome photographer. Click on his name and that takes you to his website. Then click on the menu button on the top left and go to "our theater home" for pictures of this place. It's really unique and I'm glad I chose to stay here. It's only open to the students taking classes at Nancy Crow's Barn and only during the few weeks a year when Nancy Crow is offering classes. Great choice for me even though I am using the bathroom located down the hall, but it reminds me of Europe!

Ok, so for pictures go to the links. Now I'm heade off to sleep so I can get up early and put in a full day of dyeing and un-dyeing!

Pleasantly Surprised!

I belong to two Quilt Guilds, the one in Mooresville that meets during the day (there's also a night guild that I haven't had the chance to attend yet) and the original one that I joined down in Charlotte that meets at night. I entered a quilt last year in the Charlotte Show, but didn't win anything. It was a goal that I had set for myself to enter at least one quilt show. Well I entered two shows and won ribbons at the second show in Mooresville. I entered again this year in Charlotte, but I was not able to attend the preview party when they call out the winner's names and the they come up to get their ribbons (had to work.) I then couldn't get to the show on Friday due to grandmother duties, so finally today, Saturday I had a chance to go to the show and I was pleasantly surprised to see a second place ribbon hanging on my quilt!

About 24" x 30" {I think, I can never remember}

Hand-dyed fabric (purchased prior to Carol Soderlund's Class),

Fused Applique, Painted, Machine Quilted

(Note: That pink and blue stuff at the bottom is the back of the quilt on the otherside of where mine was hanging.) It was entered in the Amateur Small Art Quilt category and that's always a interesting category, but I guess it was the right one for this quilt.

I was very surprised and very pleased. It will now go back to Jason's Office and retire from shows. I might make another one based on this idea and make some improvements. Jason asked specifically that it not have too much quiting in it, but I think perhaps I'll try it again and add a bit more quilting to see how that works.

Lastest Endeavor

This past week-end the surface design group met and we experimented making felt. I was not expecting to really enjoy this technique but went anyway. Wow was I surprised! I'm hooked!

We started out with Wool Roving that we ordered as a group. I brought some frilly yarn to add in.

The technique is in the fourth edition of Quilting Arts Magazine and was very easy. We pulled out strands of the white and layed down a base. Then using the dyed Wool Roving we pulled out strands and layed those across the top of the white base. After that it was sandwiched between fabric, pinned and then thrown into the washing machine. During the wash, the wool fibers grab and lock into each other creating the felted piece.

I loved it! It's a little thicker than I would probably normally want, but I think it turned out very well for my first piece. I've already ordered more wool and hope to make some more pieces. While I can't dye fabric while I'm taking care of a three month old baby, I can do this, it's not messy at all! Also great project for children to do. If you can use safety pins, you can do it. And I actually talked to the lady where I order the wool, www.outbackfibers.com and we discussed trying the same technique without pinning it. So I've got some more experimenting to do with this! Next month, we're going to make more felt using a different process.

Grandma Keeping Faith

I started taking care of my granddaughter, Faith on March 5th full time. Well almost full time. On days that I can't do it, her other grandmother fills in. She's a delightful little girl and very easy to take care of. Although she is very easy, I have forgotten after 25 years or so how time consuming little ones can be. But as she's getting use to being here she seems to be less trouble with each day! Maybe it's just that I'm figuring out what to do for her. At first I thought she was very picky, but now it seems she's satisfied with most anything. I am very privileged to have the opportunity to take care of her and thankful that her Mom and Dad are sharing her with me! Thank you Rachel and Jason!

And of course while she's here, Grandma can't resist the opportunity to get out the camera and have a little photo shoot. She does smile alot, but it's very hard to take pictures and get her to smile all at the same time. She does the most smiling for her mother, but I was able to catch a few good shots.

Here she is a 3 months old.

The outfit was adorable. All matching, hat, clothes, socks and fancy black shoes. She's growing very quickly so we have to grab these shots very fast while the outfit still fits. I think she wears a hat very well, it seems to suit her.

Stenciling Class

I also went to a two day stenciling workshop in Charlotte, NC. Janet Lasher taught the class and it was a great opportunity to learn some techniques for making stencils to use in dye painting fabric.

WARNING: The following has lots of details on dyeing. Skim if you're not interested and enjoy the pictures.

I was a again a bit lazy so I tore my fabric (a messed up piece that I had dyed, but forgot the soda ash I think). So I tore the fabric into four pieces and layered them on top of each other. I was just going to do the top piece and catch the dye that went through with the other layers.

Here is the first piece:

Then Janet saw what I was doing and suggested that I lay the stencil on the second one and make a pattern. (She didn't know that I was only making one piece.) So I followed her suggestion and got this piece:

You can see where the stencil from the first piece showed up on the second cloth and then I made the pattern.

Now the next two layers I'm not totally sure which order. I wasn't really planning on doing anymore, but Janet was there to recommend do the next one. I was getting tired, so the dye paint when one a lot quicker and much more freely.

I think I like this one the best. Again you can see the pattern that resembles the previous one that was on top and bled through to this layer.

And this final one just had the paint slapped on to cover it up. I was ready to finish up at this point. I think I could add some more layers to this one in the future. Right now I call it "Ode to Janet" because I think it's colors she would like.

I learned tons from this class! I love the stencil making techniques and I'll always layer my fabric so I get several companion pieces of fabric or varieties to use. The way it seeps through to the next layer and leaves a mark was great.

Photography Class

Along with quilting, dyeing, rusting, etc... I also signed up for a 6 week photography course that meet on Tuesday nights and concluded March 13th. This was a great opportunity for me to use my new camera and be a little more creative with picture taking. If you want to see the full portfolio email me and I'll send you an invitation to the Kodak Gallery album. Otherwise here are a few samples of what I did for the class.

All of these pictures focused on the use of color.

This one is an interrupted pattern. The rows form a pattern and the brown interrupts it. I had to buy a bag of candy to do this and then not eat it! Very difficult!

This is a daffodil that was blooming down here in North Carolina. I used a selective focus to purposely blur the background and therefore drawing attention to the flower. The yellow stands out.

This last picture was taken while I was waiting to meet someone for an interpreting assignment. I think it actually was taken with my older camera, a point and shoot that I carry with me all the time.

I just love the colors of a good sunset.

Surface Design Group

First of all, I'm sorry that it's been so long since I last posted something on this blog. I had a disclaimer paragraph for my first posting, if not seeing something new on this blog everyday is annoying then please reread that post and accept my aplogies for not updating this blog on a more regular basis. Ok, now that's over, here's what I've been up do.

I began attending a Surface Design Group in Charlotte. We meet once a month and I went for the first time in January. Everyone is so creative and are excellent sources for inspiration and information! I always take lots of notes when I'm there.

(WARNING: Skip to after the picture if you don't want to read details on how to make the scarf.)
Our meeting in February was about ways to make fabric have a rusted affect. Two ways were demonstrated. The first one involved painting objects with a metal type paint and after it dried we sprayed on an oxidizer. All of the supplies can be purchased at Michaels and the process was nice, but not sure when I'll use that technique. I'm sure I will though sometime. Then we did another method on a silk scarf. We used fine steel wool (purchased at Home Depot/Lowes). We pulled off strips and dipped them in White Vinegar (must be white, not apple cider). Then we layed those strips on the silk and folded in accordian fashion, putting another couple of strips on each layer. That was all. Then I left it sitting outside for a week. (It spits and spews rust particles and vinegar so therefore outside is best.) I loved this technique! I'm all for the short and simple methods. (Do I sound lazy?) After the week, I poured out off the vinegar, rinsed off the old rust particles and then washed it in the washing machine with synthropol. (Can add hair conditioner to soften up if needed.)


(Click the picture to enlarge.)
I'm going to try this again. Next time with dyeing the fabric first and then putting the rust on afterwards. Also may prefer a more random pattern so I'll try laying the steel wool on a little differently.

What I've Been Doing

I can't believe that it's been so long since I posted on this blog. My mother usually ask me when I'm going to put up something new, but even she hasn't done that lately. Hopefully you saw the granddaughter's picture. She's growing very quickly of course! Beginning in March, I'll be taking care of her during the day while her mom goes back to teaching 3rd grade for the remainder of the school year. It will be a great to spend time with her, but it's not going to be easy for her mother who will miss her terribly during the day! Thankfully it's only for three months and then there will be summer vacation for them both.

So let's see. January 28th I went to a Shibori Class for a couple of hours. We looked at various ways to fold and manipulate cloth to get designs when we dye. This comes from ancient Japanese traditions, but we adapted the methods so it's not so time consuming. It was great fun!

I first folded the silk scarf and then rolled it. I used both dyes that were available and dipped in one side and then the other. I really like the effect. The scarf is about 8inches wide by about 30 inches long.

I have also started making Journal Quilts. This is inspired by my friend from the September Dyeing class, Sarah Ann Smith from Camden, Maine. She is just so encourging and anxious for everyone to succeed in creating art. (There's also a link to her blog on the right.) She participated in a Quilt Art Journal Project and from this project a book was created. Sarah has several of her quilts in the book and I actually got to see a couple of those quilts in person and up close at the Dyeing class. The principle is to limit the size of the quilts and in my case it's 8 1/2"x11" and to try things out that you perhaps would not want to try on a full size quilt or perhaps have not tried at all yet. Some people have themes for the entire year, in my case I do not or perhaps my theme is "Get Her Done." My goal is to make one Journal Quilt each month and to push myself to try new things. I see myself as a novice so while I might just be trying something out that other folks have been doing for ages, it's still exciting to me. I'm amazing myself at how things have turned out so far.

I had no idea where to begin. I hate cutting up really nice cloth, but I had some hand painted stuff that was horrible so that problem was solved. I started out with a fat quarter (18"x22") piece of cloth that I painted last spring with setacolors. I had never worked with those paints before so I produced a couple of duds in the beginning.

Here's the cloth before it was cut.

Not a pretty sight so I first cut it up in four equal (sort of) pieces.

One piece became the back ground fabric for my January piece.

I experimented with using cloth that was not cotton for the appliques. I had never included noncotton fabric in a quilt before. I liked the results, but the edges are a bit ragged. Also added some beads for a little added sparkle. I practice free form quilting motifs using a varigated thread and for the most part that turned out well. I named this one "Splash".

Then I used that same hand painted fabric for the February Quilt, but this time I cut it up. I have several books on curve piecing and it seems each one has a different technique. I decided to try my own thing and sort of used a modified Ricky Tim's Cave Man technique. This is just cutting with a rotary cutter without a ruler. All the seams in this quilt are curves or originally were curved at some point.

It's not named yet, but I like the cold feeling of it. February was actually much colder here than January. (I'm open for suggestions.) I made blocks and stitched those together in a groups of two. I then cut those across, all the time using wavy lines. Then I added white fabric in between the strips. The white is a noncotton, (not sure what it is) sateen type of fabric used for wedding dresses. It is very lovely and after it was assembled I changed the way I was going to quilt it. I was originally going to quilt each section individually, but the white seemed to want flowing lines that carry on from the colored strips so that's what it got. I technically haven't finished this piece. I zigzagged the edges, but I think it would help to have some silk type cording to put along the edges, that for me was a first, they are deliberately not straight. (I've had non-straight edges before but that was usually not on purpose.) Beads may also get added to this piece. So it's technically finished in February, but it's really not finished until I say it's done. Oh I feel so free in making these little quilts, what fun and isn't that the purpose of art.

The surface design group that I started going to back in January is going to have a challenge. It too is going to be 8 1/2" x 11" but we are going to have to pick a predominate color chip out of a bag and use that color. It's to encourage us to work out of our color comfort zone. I'll post a picture of the color, but I almost feel I'll be cheating because regardless of the color I get, I'll have my giant color book to use to dye fabric to match that color chip, so no shopping for me and I should be able to see what colors will go well with it. I'm looking forward to putting that big book to use!

I'm also still sewing baby room items for Jason and Rachel's house. They should be moving in very soon, a week or so. I have got to finish up some window coverings (not sure what they're called, shades maybe.) Then maybe just a few more odds and ends and that chapter will be closed.

So that's what I've been doing. I'll try to keep you more up to date, but when you're on a roll it's hard to stop and get the pictures edited and on to a blog.

Happy Valentine's Day

Faith is getting cuter every day! She can really smile and carry on for us and especially for her mom!

She even was wearing a special dress with hearts on it for her Valentine's Portraits. There's nothing better than a happy baby and she certainly seems very happy and content!

Movie Recommendation

I'm not usually in the habit of strongly recommending a movie. Movies are like food, so many different tastes. When I do step out with a recommendation, it's really rare.

After renting two duds, I finally hit jackpot!

The Duds:
"Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest" - too boring for me and too hard for me to follow, waste of time (thankfully it was free);
and an even worse movie, "The Break-Up" - this was just horrible, the couple argued the entire time and then went their separate ways. That's the entire story line and yes I ruined it for you. Trust me, I did you a favor! (Luckly it was also free for me.)

But then I got these two fantastic movies. Don's been out of town for a Kansas City Barbecue Society function so I was left to myself and I picked out these two. (Not free, but they were both worth it and I have them for a whole week, so I can watch them again.)

First there was "Mozart and the Whale" - a great movie.
The short description is that it's "a heartwarming romance about two people with a form of autism called 'Asperger's Syndrome'" Although it's a romance, it's very thought provoking. Makes me wonder how we actually determine "normal." And do we even have a right to define that word at all.

The other movie, that I would certainly recommend for guys and gals is "An Unfinished Life". I thought it would be more of a chick flick, but with Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, and Jennifer Lopez it was a tough call. This movie is a must see for everyone, Fantastic! It's a story about a family that is dealing with some losses in life. The scenery alone is worth it, the symbolism was awesome, but the message is one everyone needs to hear. The DVD is wonderful. There are special features and the one on the training of the animals was fascinating, you definitely want to watch it after seeing the movie.

Both of these movies were PG-13 and of course that means the language is not what I would prefer, but if you can get past that .... The only other thing about the movies that was a little difficult for me was that sometimes I had to rewind to catch what was said. Is my hearing going? Maybe it's just that surround sound stuff we have here in our house.

Let me know what you thought!

So there you have it. You may not agree so strongly with me, but I don't think you'll regret renting these.
(Mom, they're on your list.)

Sewing Lesson #2

We have just finished our second item in the sewing lessons. Well actually three items. A pair of culottes (skirt), a t-shirt with two appliqued hearts that match the culottes, and to top it off, a matching hair scrunchie. It took us three one hour sessions. I wasn't so sure about the striped fabric, but this girl knows her style. She wears it well and it turned out very lovely. She did at least 95% of the work herself. Not bad for 6 1/2 years old.