Category Archives: Fiber

Quilts & Towels

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Today was short projects day (or at least that was what I meant when I started the day). After all, if I am engaging in avoidance behavior there is nothing that says I can’t be productive while doing so. I am not the only one so inclined, Kris informed me that her house had never been so clean as when she was working on her dissertation. Therefore I am in excellent company.

First there were the Llama faces.

small one, bigger one

which will go on stuffed llamas. I have had the fabric and pattern for several months.

Next, there was this totally insane sleep mask (which I never wear but I know those who do) which just seemed like a great way to test out embroidery files from that particular source.) the good? Well digitized. The bad – totally inadequate instructions ( never, ever, have instructions that say essentially – you know what to do…. since if I was absolutely sure, I would not be reading the instructions. What was not obvious was the finishing process – opposite of many other companies. This is actually better – if you know to place the backing on top, sew the last color, cut and turn inside out. Which leads me to ribbons placement. Me? Elastic would make more sense.)

Halloween Sleep Mask

At the same time as starting the above (which, at 52K stitches was not going to be completed for a while), I decided to get serious about a quilt which is still shy the quilting and binding.

underlying fabric is a hexagonal color gamp

which meant a bajillion pins and a few bleeding fingers before I could start.

Hours later (which included breaks, breakage, bobbin winding and the clipping off of dozens of little threads –

 

And, as if that were not enough –

a set of towels which will be presents in a couple of weeks –

three flowers, hand towels

and a set for us, since we aren’t going anywhere for a while.

as close as I am going to get

Lighten Up

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glow in the dark –

and that is dog as well as flamingos. Dani says it isn’t really a harness – just LED bands that continually change color which is a really good idea when your dog is rather hard to see in the dark. Unlike the flamingos – it doesn’t take solar energy to activate her brightness.

and I added McBeth to the t-shirts completed so far –

aka – literature

Bearly there

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and before you make any comments about Golden Bears – yes I know this bear is not brown. Get over it.

Jacket back

What else?

My backer kit from the PDX Broadsides kickstarter arrived.

Relatable Content

This is a Filk/Folk group from Portland Oregon which I first heard at WesterCon a few years ago. I have a number of their other albums (electronically from BandCamp). The best track on the album is Rewind. I suggest you take a listen. Not that thrilled about the rest of the tracks – excellent quality, I am just not in my 30s. The t-shirt is from an earlier album/track Ultimate Riot.

two shirts and an owl

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or should that be owl followed by shirts? Nah, the shirts were completed long before dark when I started on the Owl

Feeding my puzzle addiction, I discovered a new purveyor of wooden puzzles. This particular manufacture has only a few available, and, as it turns out, they are made in China. Less expensive than the US made ones certainly. But the quality of the puzzles is certainly not the same standard. The owl wasn’t all that difficult to assemble, but the pieces didn’t fit as smoothly as I would have liked.

unique pieces, but no whimsy ones

The shirts – the theme today was books.

there is the elegance of reading

Books & Roses

which didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped

and then there is the reality of what is appealing to certain members of the family

the front still in the hoop

the back just prior to finishing

and before you scratch your head – the clothes pins are to keep excess fabric out of the way and avoiding it being caught either under the hoop or in the stitching area. I know this because…..Both shirts still need to be washed and a few threads trimmed. It is all progress as I am working my way down my bin of “garment blanks.”

We had a break in the middle of the day – I had a sewing machine in for service. George proved that his feet are up to par since he drove both down and back. Remember that we have a standard transmission, so if he was going to have foot pain, I am sure that it would have been triggered by the drive.

Fairy Girls

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Done!  Well almost. Mostly? Quilted anyway

The embroidery had been finished for a while. It was just tackling the quilting.which I did by the “quilt in the ditch” method, carefully outlining each square.

closeup of quilting around each square

 

Since there are six girls, each done four times each with rows of blank square between, could be considered a lot of fiddly work

the whole quilt, done but still pinned

the backing is bright – Perhaps too bright? Anyway – it is a soft and lovely polar fleece which just asks to be be cuddled.

the back, polar fleece

Now, to see if I can get the Eldest to turn the edges and sew the binding for me…..

Organizing space

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I am not going to provide a picture of my upstairs studio/craft/sewing room prior to my recent organizing and cleaning spree. Let me just leave us with – it was not pretty. I was able to walk through the room, sort of. Other than the fact that all the items in the room are actually in excellent condition and useful, it could have been a demonstration for an episode of craft-hordes.

I have supplies for: quilting, sewing, cross-stitch, machine embroidery. Oh, and knitting and spinning. Does that sound like a lot? I never think so until I write it all down and look at it. Familiar with the abbreviation “SABLE?” Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy. You get the idea. If I devoted all my time and effort for the next, oh, let us say 10 years, I could not complete everything on my “want to do list.” Practically speaking, it means that I need to hone down that list, share supplies with others so that I don’t feel guilty, complete all those UFOs and otherwise develop a more realistic view of what I can manage.

Right. And then there are those two papers which are hanging over my head….

Back to the more fun of creativity. End of last week and over the weekend I spent time cleaning and organizing. Dani helped me move several boxes of cables, electronics and “who knows what” down to the garage. I relocated the contents of one cupboard and proceeded to fill it will all the hard copy audiobooks which freed up some shelf space. Taking the time to put all the embroidery threads back into their boxes – I marked the top of each in order to better locate particular colors –

thread box

That was the easy part. More complicated is the fact that the room is upstairs with a ceiling that slants on both sides (if I can locate a picture of the room before the 2014 renovation. For whatever reason – most of the photo links vanished when I imported  ww.proseknitic.de to this site about three years ago. One more thing on my “todo list” – find those photo archives, upload the photos and activate the links…

anyway –

looking toward the door

and toward one of the two windows

I was delighted to find that there was still a nice hard wood floor in reasonably good condition once threads, debris, and the occasional spot of temporary adhesive had been removed (hint–it isn’t all that temporary when used as manufacturers’ recommended amounts..)

Among the projects completed today are these –

Robo Warrior

Once Upon a Time

they have been added to the Georgia bound box leaving me only short 1 item….

Oh, right. we made the run to UCSF this morning. In spite of leaving home at 0800 it took barely more than an hour including a coffee stop at Peet’s. The secret was to drive by the North Berkeley BART and pick up a ride share passenger. This meant HOV lane and reaching the Embarcadero Exit 25 minutes after leaving the house. The rest of the time was devoted to wending our way through the traffic choked streets of SF without getting back on the freeway.  Everything went excellently, George was able to walk from the car up to the clinic, around while up there and back which meant the old wheelchair has been removed from the back of the car and is now residing in the garage. Next week should be the last of the 2x/week visits.

And then there are flowers

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I have this sewing machine that is also capable of embroidery. Over the last two years I have accumulated various assorted items (towels, t-shirts, napkins, placemats, quilt squares) that are all lacking in “that special decorative touch.” To add to my insanity, there are a couple of websites (EmbroideryLibrary and UrbanThreads) that sell professionally digitized designs that stitch out perfectly.

You can see my dilemma, right? Besides the-oh so tempting sales, there is the occasional design that just announces that it perfect for [fill in name].

Which lead this afternoon to knocking unannounced on a Alison’s door with yesterday’s stitching project.  This particular flower has a special meaning for her. And I could happily decrease my stack of towels by two.

This evening I completed the next two projects on my list-

They should be in the mail to Georgia later in the week. After that, I need to plan for my next victim. I have been told this is all “creative procrastination”. Oh, those outstanding papers. Right. 1 August start; expect whining.

And not a flamingo

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Inspecting the invader

The Eldest is amused, but not enthralled by my flamingoes. She has an extensive side garden but has given me the evil eye when ever I have suggested “improvements.” Apparently, our tastes don’t exactly match. She is also the cat mom to Onyx and Ghost. When I saw this particular item while flamingo shopping, I just couldn’t resist.

Passing both the sniff and taste test (Cat Scan), I still don’t think this particular solar beastie will stay in the house.

Otherwise, I added a bit of color to my sewing area while planning my next embroidery projects.

except that it is!

Today it is trains

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My mind is blank, or rather, I am drawing a blank when trying to figure out whether or not I accomplished anything todayNo trip into SF.

No knitting. But dishes.

Errands – oh, right – Post Office – mailing out packages to Georgia and Ohio. Picking up pizza and fresh fruit at the grocery store. Driving to Richmond to pick up one son and getting backing fabric for the little girls quilt.

Otherwise? Trains –

the program list on the sewing machine

which

looks like this in progress

and winds up being a series of train cars –

along with the engine

on hand towels for a young man who keeps informing everyone that he “is the engineer.”

Too far to the game

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Since yesterday was a holiday – the waiting room at UCSF was jammed to the gills with both the Friday and Thursday patients. Since there was little to no traffic, the drive in went smoothly, the clinic was running at full speed and we were able to get out of San Francisco before what would normally be Friday afternoon traffic.

I was tired when we got home. Heading upstairs to finish off (finally) the one quilt, I pulled out the stitching and redid the quilting.

all but the binding

 

and then I moved on to this –

another Liberty Puzzle

with a lot of fun pieces

and decided I was just too tired to think about going to a baseball game. Sent off a message to a fellow member of the group that I wouldn’t be making the game. Then I pulled up At Bat (the app) and sent her off a second message. She concurred as well; Seattle was just to far to go in the next 30 minutes….

Monday morning traffic

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Sucks at the best of times. This morning was not one of those. In the future, I think there are two choices – either get on the interstate at University Avenue, work my way over to the left hand HOV lane and drive faster than a crawl. Or.. take the frontage road all the way on the Bay side to Powell Street and get on the freeway there which is just at the start of the maze and just short of where the HOV lane dumps in from the northbound branch of 580. I did the worst – got on in between University and Powell which meant there was no chance at all of getting safely across 5 lanes of traffic and having to spend more than 20 minutes crawling along between two freeway entrances.

The only good thing was that once we were past the start of the congestion we were able to access the right hand HOV lane and literally flew along the right fly-over looking down with sneers at all of those sitting in stopped traffic. HOV here is 3 people in the car which should explain why I had Noah up and about much earlier than his normal routine. Him getting sleep was much less relevant to me than shortening our car ride by an hour or more. Once past the toll plaza, the traffic wasn’t all that great but moving is much better than creeping or standing still.

I have finally figured out UCSF’s parking ramp. Having also appropriated Alex’s old wheelchair from its (final-not) resting place in the garage where it was stored just in case anyone would need it again, we made fast work of getting from the garage to the clinic. Yes, George can walk but he still is having significant foot pain so why would we make him hobble?

Appointment went well. Number of meds is not going to decrease anytime in the near future. OTOH, it is obvious that the stem cell transplant has taken hold.

I managed to finish embroidering the last of the little girls onto the quilt top.=

color gamp 3×6 embroidered

now it is just a matter of the backing, quilting and tossing it over to Shana for the finishing.

 

and yes, there is knitting

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since it is something I can pick up and put down whenever there is an interruption.

Last Friday, when I stopped at Avenue Yarnshttps://www.avenueyarns.com – I decided to buy another ball of some kind of cotton that would be easy and simple. Katia Yarns produces this lovely Fair Cotton Craft. One ball makes a number of simple items, scarves and small blankets being among them. (Free Pattern on their website, you just have to hunt inside the pattern for your particular language since they have produced a “one pattern for everyone and every language.”)

147 stitches

 

across and a simple increase/decrease that reverses with 10 stitches between each repeat. Each color appears only once with the majority of the yarn being a basic natural. Size 3.5mm needles and I was all set. Task list, yarn, headphones, audio book….

 

 

D-1

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Shall we just ignore the As pitchers yesterday who managed to blow up, magnificently in extra innings.

George was looking much better today. Even a small break from the chemo does wonders for his energy level. He doesn’t look any different; perhaps a bit more color since his hemoglobin level is higher than it has been in months. But otherwise, he just looks normal.

I made a detour to Berkeley this morning to discuss next year’s teaching schedule at Cal. I guess I am making a commitment to be around, at least for spring semester. (But hello, the best TAs are in the fall anyway..) Dani (Daughter #2) came over to spend time with her dad while I was out. Then there was the side trip to Oakland. According to our NYC crew, the TV cameras pointed toward RF 149 more than once. That would have been the highlight….

Tomorrow is transplant time. From what we know, the stem cell donation arrived from Germany.

Butterflys Surrounded

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8/9 plus sashing

Still working on that last square. but have the first six sewn together and sashing prepared for the remaining sections. After looking at the polar fleece I had been planning on using, which was more butterflies, I decided to be sensible and picked up some solid aqua (JoAnn’s seems to always have a sale) .

Once I have that last square finishing, it will be a simple matter to run the quilt lines. Then it looks like the Eldest will finish the binding. Seems like she has a friend who had a lovely girl child end of March …. everything does find the proper home, doesn’t it?

Butterfly Quilt

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I have kept thinking that there had to be a way to incorporate machine embroidery in quilt making. Rather than spend hours putting little pieces of cloth together in order to make squares. Instead, I should be able to spend hours changing threads on the sewing machine in order to embroider on a square.

Ok, it made more sense when I first started thinking about it.

butterfly

 

and I found all these lovely butterfly patterns. Plus, bright colored flannel with butterfly for sashing.

7/9 squares complete

and, of course, the three butterfly ballerinas. I wish I could say that the last two butterflies went as smoothly as the rest of the squares, but no. Which is why they aren’t yet completed.

Doilies

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#50 cotton multi-color purple thread

yes, I can embroider a doily with the machine. Stitched on wash-a-way stabilizer, each takes about an hour (+/-) with the bobbin filled with matching thread since obviously both sides of the doily will be visible. No clue what I am going to do with them, but a whole lot faster than crocheting or knitting…..

Embroidering

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Probably I should have spent more time today studying than I did. But I had signed up for a software class (embroidery) a couple of weeks ago. First I had purchased the software. Ravelry is dangerous. People give you all sorts of good ideas, many of which wind up being money out of the pocket. In this case, it was an excellent idea. Several days later I received a class list from Dublin Sewing Center. My new software had a class listed for today.

There is always a challenge, teaching a class on software. First you have to hope that everyone in the class understands how to do the basics on the computer they brought. Sadly, if you have 15 people, there are going to be some in the group who don’t. In this case we had about five. This included some with challenges involving inserting, opening and copying files from a flash drive.

The class was still worth it. There were a lot of things I probably could have figured out on my own (if I had thought about them, or read the manual rather than just looking a few things up).

Since I have been home –

dish towel

t-shirt

and flour sack towel

The flour sack dish towels are easy, the t-shirt is black and I will replace the photo when I have a picture in daylight.

but it is 2030 and time to get ready for the morning….