Dye....Not My Bag

I may do many things well, but dying fabric is not one of them. I do some anyway, besides the odd white outs with bleach. I free-hand-cut this tree shape out of paper last week. My first test, with bleach no less, did not work. So I am trying this. The dye is this stuff because vinegar is about as 'acid' as I wanna trip on. [panic attacks have been known to leap out and stop me in my tracks because of stinky stuff] The 'fabric' is cotton batt. So far so good. The sun is actually doing it's thing to it....lets hope I don't kill it later.
A ruler. Yup. As many of you know, Stephanie is my RocketScientist. I was getting things out to begin working on a quilt for her when I came across this ruler....now does that look like a spaceship or what????

Trip Tic Prairie

So the blocks are done. 2 of the 3 yarns are crocheted for borders, are 'felted' and in the dryer. The Buffalo block is smaller, so I will add more of the crocheted border around it. Not sure how the arrangement will be, or which direction for that matter.

Yesterday's Pictures

I may be on the mend, or I may be just getting worse, either way I am at a cusp. Thank you for the wishes of wellness!

But, all sickly things aside, I wanted to give a little info to the pictures in my last post. The Rubik's cube....Steph was using embossing powders for the lines....then she decided to cut out all the 'negative' spaces....then she decided to add the colors behind....then she added it to a card shape....then she embellished the card....[this is where you insert our family phrase, "and then?"] I believe these are supposed to be grapes the birds are messing with.

The statue is of Columbus, in Spain, that Stephanie took a picture of while there, last summer. She has it MySpaced and it has since become a 'joke' between friends.

I'm Tic

i hab a cole. didn't even know i was looking for one. steph made these. did i already show you?

Memories...Or my version of The Wall Of Weird

Warty Mammal commented that the dryer looked nice, without being too orbital friendly, and that let to a memory....

Once log ago.....Once LONG ago, before cats wolked on keyboards....WALKED...damnit....we had a washer with a window and our boxer, a dog formally named Prince, would sit in front of that machine, hypnotized by the whole thing going round and round.

Now that was dedicated Soap watching! I would show you a picture, but it's on stuff formally called Paper.

New Dryer ---- Old Log Cabin

My laundry room at the moment. With it's new dryer. The old was 'burning' white clothes, well mostly the white ones. The spots really look like someone left the iron on, on it. Anyway, Dan decided we needed a new one, as we were going to Lowe's anyway, let's take a look.

So we looked, and kinda liked one of the white generic machines. Then I ducked down the clearance aisle, and look what I found....a Champagne colored dryer with all the bells and whistles and a price reduced 600$.....SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS OFF....wholey shit! On top of the credit card deal Lowe's has going right now [no interest for 6 months from date of purchase, which was were hoping to get for the deck materials we need] I was a happy camper. Stephanie said later "Why did you get such a fugly dryer?" For some strange reason, I like the color....maybe it was the price tag that made the color so nice.
I have finished the butterfly block for now and am working on the log cabin. I have only a tad more stitching to do on the sky, then it will be ready to rest until I have the borders made. My plan is to crochet the borders from wool yarn and felt them, like I did once before...and can't find the picture of....here's the yarn...that I got here.

Then maybe I will pull this one out to re-do....

Or maybe take this one off the design wall and quilt-embellish some more.

There is also a quilt for Steph I want to start, but that will involve the sewing machine. This other stuff is hand work.

Have you seen the Princess?

I have. I have been seeing her around lately, and googled her for more...above is the cover of a book that we no longer have the inside pages to, but I saved the cover....???

Hand embroidery, this started me on my voyage of mattresses.

On a blog.

And from the Moda Fabrics site...

From Google search, way cool!

In more embroidery....

On silk!!!

and on a scrap booking site....which there are probably zillions of!

Warning.....Armed Cat

But first for your viewing pleasure......the Butterfly block in progress.

I made 'woven' leaves. That was a lot of fun! I did them on a separate piece of fabric and appliqued that to the block.

I think I will add some beads too.....

And now for the picture I warned you about.....The Armed Cat.

Also....

Today is Summer Solstice, longest day of the year for us. I love it!!!

And it's Fathers Day! Happy Fathers Day to all those Dads I know.

The sun is shining today here in the Puget Sound, at least in my part, which is all that really matters to me. Right?

Disappearing Pix

Some pix weren't showing up, so here they are again, with a few other. These were from pix emailed to me. You should be able to click and enlarge....The people in them are my MIL {white hair} FIL {bottom rt.} Most of the family. The bottom left....the tall guy next to short Steph has a great expression on his face!!

STAT

That means "sit on your ass and drink tea."

Mom had an appt. on Wed. with the Nephrologist. [kidneys] That day her potassium was really high and Dr. Kidney Bean was jumping around like a steroidal flea, said Mom had to have~boing boing~ another blood test~ boing boing~ STAT ~ BOING~ and we were to wait for a couple of hours for the results because they were~boing boing~ STAT.

We did the blood test and went home.

We are still waiting for the results. STAT.

The Store....

This is Rosedale Market here in Gig Harbor. It was once called Templeton's [store] and at that time it was used in a movie....starring Jennifer Lopez.

Right now it is just a small local store, and both my girls work there. In this picture is only one of my girls, though, the chick in the black apron that is hiding her big belly that is incubating HER chick!!!!! That is Ashley in the "deli" section of the store. They make sandwiches to order. Yum!

We have these small stores tucked in around the area, usually in a very old building or converted house. Do you have them in your area? Berkeley didn't have these, just a couple of large grocery stores. So I didn't grow up with the 'local store' in that way.

So, Vicky, done any needlework lately? Why, yes I have. I just don't have pictures to show for it. I am doing some embroidery on a 'big shirt' I wear. The facings were always flopping out and I hate that, so I am stitching them down.

Other Blogs and Hummingbirds

Ok, so Jude blogged a picture of a map she has saved from 1963! A world map of the goat population. Jude loves 'dots' and the goat map is definitely dotty. I, on the other hand, love maps, even really odd ones like this. I am also curious, so I googled 'world map of goats' and didn't come up with much on maps & goats, just goats. But I did find this, the "First Published Map of World Happiness" yes siree, it is all there in red yellow and orange, except for a few areas in gray who didn't want to have their happiness mapped, where to visit for happy times! Tough luck Disney, you aren't singled out this time.

And here are 2 pictures I have managed to get of Hummingbirds holding still, yup, sitting around doing nothing. You saw it here first folks...maybe.
Above, tree in my MIL's back yard-ish area. [woodsy place behind her apt. building] Below, on the fence in our backyard.

Great Idea, Dorothy!

Dorothy left a comment that I thought should be shared here because it's a great idea!!!!

I saw a tutorial once about attaching things to fabric. You need strong thread (floss?), a small 4 hole button and superglue. Thread the button crosswise, leaving 4 long tails - one from each hole. Keeping the tails free, superglue the button to the backside of the "thing" then pull the tails through your fabric and secure with knots.

I think this is a fantastic idea! I have to remember this one for sure! I also need to update my glue drawer, and get some of the other choices there are for different surfaces. Super glue has not been a real winner around here, maybe we don't hold our tongues right....I know I can find a button or 2 to use, even if I have to 'borrow' one from a shirt.

Stephanie

Front Page for the Guestbook

Update to add: Phyllis asked if this had been a surprise, and yes it was. I didn't have it quite finished by Sunday to include in the guestbook for all to see. But I did have it done enough to show Ashley before the shower, when she could sit down and go over all the things on it. She has the guestbook now, and I am hoping to get that back so I can add a few more things to spice it up a bit...I realized the edges where the holes are are boring!!

I made up a quilted page for the guestbook I made for Ashley, for the baby shower. The pictures are bassawakwards, but if I mess with them, you can't click and enlarge to see closer, or bigger.

Ashley spelled out in beads, the hand is ASL letter "A", and since Ashley took ASL in high school....and since this is all about Ashley.
One of the beaded creatures Stephanie made years ago. They are slowly getting used on quilts. This back pocket is from a pair Ashley wore, of course.
I 'hung' a pair of earrings on the belt loop, but didn't get a really good shot of that. The dice beads are from our road trip to Las Vegas a few years ago.
The "5" is from a girl scout uniform, or rather, was supposed to have been sewn to a uniform. Ashley did the small cross stitch patches years ago. The purple pin reads "I do Whatever the little voices tell me to do". Ashley had those pins all over her purse one year.
The tassel is the HS colors, as you have seen on Stephanie recently.
The whole front. The metal "Ashley" is from one of the wood stoves of the same name, not sure where I snagged that from, but it was during our mountain living days {Sierra City, CA, in the Sierra Nevada Mt's.} Rocks and seashell {blue mussel,Mytilus edulis} are from road trips to the beach. I forgot to add a bitty piece of driftwood!

Construction of this~~~ I hand quilted a piece of batt to the blue fabric, folded it in half, chopped off a bunch to get it to binder size, and then went to town! Somethings should probably also be glued.

Baby Shower

This is my middle child, my first daughter, the one having the baby I have spinning in the sidebar.I love the symbols on this outfit!
Gerbera Daisy's, Ashley's favorite flower.
I was trying to take a picture of a house and it's yard....Driving and picture taking don't mix.
My MIL's cat, Missie. I know I haven't shown nearly enough cat pictures....gee...over the course of this blog, really.
May have to go looking for other cats.

Please Sign the Guestbook!

I have known for a long time that I would be making the guestbook for Ashley's baby shower. I finally did up the pages yesterday....

I saved things from ads, torn children's book pages, pictures from an old rubber stamp catalog, all things Ashley.
I even saved the plastic CD packaging disc thingie and glued bits all around it. {I should have put it on a brad, but I don't have any that size, if they make them that size.} That was a big hit.
And Ashley's first embroidery!

Caffeine Free Pizza

I love it when we mess things up. Ashley wanted me to write it on the list....CF Pepsi that is.

Men Shopping for Girls

Well......first I will start with this pin. I sewed through it! Oops.
Ben went to Goodwill and got things for his girls [kids clothes half off today!]. He got them lots of summer stuff, but I had to take a picture of these 2 dresses...I love them!