Hawai'ian flower blocks

I saw this in a Martha Stewart Magazine--however, I've changed it a bit.
She says to just use heavy paper and acrylic/fabric paint.
I used freezer paper, cut the flowers and then ironed it onto white fabric.

I then used alginate and mixed it with some dye and salt. I added enough water to make a thick, soupy mixture and sponged it onto the fabric inside the stencils. There was very little bleeding under the edges of the freezer paper. Next time, I will make the mixture a bit thicker, more like jelly than gravy.

I put it outside to dry faster, then brought it back in and ironed it to set the dye. Then I proceeded to rinse it out with a garden hose on a wire mesh (in this case a chick cage). I chose to do this, because I knew I didn't want the fabric touching itself when it was being rinsed.

I found out a few things that I will do next time:
1. Always rinse with the dye paste side down--the paste will rinse out easier, instead of sitting on top of the fabric and subsequently lightly dyeing the white surround.
2. Make sure that the whole piece to be rinsed is supported flat--unlike the bottom sample in the above picture. The dye will bleed down with gravity and water.
3. Make sure that your freezer paper is securely adheared.

The above picture is the blocks drying in the sun, draped on the porch benches. Overall, it turned out pretty nice....can't wait to do some more with my Mom this summer! And then quilt them. Maybe even do a whole cloth.....somehow.

Quilting in the summertime.

Front of Ed's quilt. Pieced by my mother. Quilted by her and Reno.

Back of Ed's quilt.
Front of RobO's Sealife Quilt. Pieced by my mother, quilted by myself.
Back of RobO's Sealife quilt.
Front of Wizard of Oz Quilt. Painstakingly pieced by my mother, quilted by visitors to Broken Wing.
Back of Wizard of Oz Quilt. This is the campfire (FARR!) quilt.

odds and ends

This is a log cabin quilt that I started over 10 years ago. It was my first "real" quilting class, the top and the quilting have been finished for at least 9 years, but, Mom and I couldn't ever find the binding or the time to finish it. So, here it is finished. And I do still like it. I wish that it was a bit bigger (it's made for a supersingle waterbed which is not my bed anymore). But, it is quite pretty. The backing is this all over white on white pattern. Mom took 10 1/2 hours to quilt it at Butterfly Quilts in Billings...They are no more--we think the machine is in Absorkee now. Anyway, you can see in this picture, why it took 10.5 hours--following all those little bitty details in the flowers. But, it turned out very nice--it's the first and only quilt so far which has an all wool batt in it. Very nice. I'm sleeping under it right now, in August.
And, this is my too much $$$ acquisition. But, I like it a lot. I am not going to refinish it. The reason why the bottom right drawer is different is because it was broken, and my dad remade the drawer. When he took off the handle, it said patented 1897 ( I think). Pretty cool! I like how the drawers are all uneven and the wood is different colours... inside the drawers were newspaper liners from 1936 through 1968. The Independent Record, of Helena, states in its headline on December 12, 1966 "Hoffa's Jury Tampering Conviction Upheld". "Ike's Gall Bladder Out" is right underneath that next to "B52 Bombers Hit Pass in North Vietnam". And, some superfluous basketweaving. This came along with the map case, the three trunks, the ladder, the chair, the mirror, the various assortment of odds and ends that we picked up at that auction The (very large) box of basketweaving stuff was $2.50. And, this is what I've started so far. I took basketweaving classes in the mid 1980s at the Wyoming Fiber Affairs. So, no, this wasn't a "college basketweaving class". I actually do know how to do it.
This is the mirror in process of having it's ugly red stain removed--the oak underneath is very very pretty, and why someone would put that red over it, and so sloppily, I don't know. Anyway, it is finished now, and it's hanging in my room. I think it measures something like 18 x 40 ( I hung it landscape).

turkeys and lace

Here are pictures relating to the last two posts. Froggy and Fishy are featured here, looking at the top of the quilt I am working on. I need to do two more of the component swaths to get it to be the size I want and then it needs sashing. This is a close-up of the pieces--I still think that Pamela's is a little more crazy--sorry Pamela, I do have big chunks to sew on part of them.
And, this is Red's fleece, spun at lace weight--it's a 2-ply. The pattern is from Victorian Lace Today, by Jane Sowerby, which proves to be an excellent collection of modern-day translations of Victorian Patterns. This pattern is the Holly Berries with fir cone lace border from Weldon's, 1895. It is so pretty, and it feels so nice. Red was one of my sheep in the 90s. She was showed in 4-H along side Nuthin' (her buck, named so, because he was found in a hole on the desert and he was all of nothing he was so small). I am sure that there are remnants of her descendants in the flock now. And, this is the newest happening at Broken Wing. The turkeys hatched in the incubator yesterday. Awful gangly things. Sorry to say, that they did not make it through this morning--we don't know why...but, we tried...

sawtooth quilt pictures

Here is one picture, more to come, now that I've figured this out--right now, we're going to town. So, I'll be back soon!

red and white sawtooth / rick rack

It is finally back out of the shoebox it has been in for at least five years. This will be the end of my fifth year in Florida, so yes, five years. However, it still holds the same pull as it did before, especially now that it's coming together. I love this quilt. I love what it will be. And it just keeps getting better. The little sawtooth pieces were the hardest part, and those were already finished, waiting patiently in the box. Now they are out, and sitting, waiting for me to put them together with my Montgomery Wards Signature sewing machine. This machine was my great grandmother's "brand new sewing machine". I need to do 2 more swaths of the pattern, so that they cover the pillow part of the queen size bed. But those will be an easy project for tomorrow morning.

It seems as though I cannot figure out how to upload pictures from this computer. Being that I am not all that computer savvy, I will just upload with my phone, next time I go to town.
Wow, that sounds pretty country, and yes, it is, quite. No cell service here, and barely 26.4 Kbps. So, all you get is to hear about my quilt in progress.

And, I must make an addendum to the last post, seeing as how I'm typing: That quilt was the first project on the NEW Gammill. I have done many quilts on long-arm quilting machines. They were just all completed before I started this blog thing. I should really take pictures. Anyway, more to come, later. There's a bunny in progress and some really really really pretty lace with "berries" on it, made of handspun lace-weight, in Red. Well, really, it's natural white rambouillet, but it's Red's fleece it's made of. Red is long passed now, however, she was a good sheep, and a good mother.