DAY 7 & 8 2013 TIAS by Sherry Pence

Love the different techniques, Floating Rings and Onion Ring. A great learning project.

A beautiful "L"!! (:

 Day 3 & 4. I blocked Day 3 so it was flat and not cupped. One can see the importance of having all picots the same in the beginning. Interesting pattern!!! (: 

  

 

Isn't this a pretty Heart or maybe a Balloon.... 

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta starts Oct 5-13

 

Sherry Pence has started a "2013 TIAS" (Tat it and See).  Day One  is very easy but you must know how to do split rings and use a Picot Gauge. You can purchase one or make one from a DMC plastic thread holder and put them on a ring. We are to use size 20 thread and my color is Lizbeth 679, Lime Green. The pattern is written out and also has a  diagram, very easy to follow. Visit Sherry's blog for more information and joining in the fun... www.LadyShuttleMaker.blogspot.com

Vest and Shuttles

It is growing and beginning to take shape!! I now have 35 large Rings and 28 small rings. It takes 1 hour to make one large ring.  The DMC pattern is All Rings and I made modern day changes so there are less threads to tie in.  It all starts with a small ring of 4 petals not connected. The small ring connects to the larger rings and it is also the start of the outside large ring of 12 using SSSR. For more information on the SSSR you can read about it on the June 2 post.

The vest is on top of a rug I had woven back in the 70's.

Why Shuttles?? I recently purchased the "fake Mexico" Aero and very disappointed. It is NOT USABLE.  The hook is on the side where you pass through the threads, it is not on the side where  the bobbin goes.  If anyone does not want their German Aero I will gladly take it!!  The new Aerlits are nice but slightly bigger and does not fit in my hands as the Aero does.

Hand Quilting

Last week I hand quilted this block on the Snowman quilt using a square hoop. I have a Q-Snap frame and it takes more time to snap it together. Spending a whole day trying to snap one side an idea came forward.  Plastic....why not soak it on Hot Water to make it pliable. It helped but why bother when you can just sit down and move the hoop in any direction sitting in your recliner with less frustration.  Hope to finish the other end this week. I quilt an hour after lunch while Tazzie pup takes her nap.

Tucumcari Flood

Woke up to see water every where, sounds like Niagara Falls!!  Even woke up all the bull frogs!!! Ribet..Ribet only they have a deep, deep, rumble. LOL   This is the drive out to the main road and water right up to the asphalt.  We needed rain and been in a drought the past 4 years. This will help a lot just wished it had not come all at once.

Watching the bridge. This is a new bridge built about 10 years ago but never know with this much water if it will stand up to the pressure. Look at the sign and that is about the amount of water that is in this creek.  The rain stopped for the day after  raining  2 nights and a day.

Tatted Wheelbarrow filled with flowers

 The tatted wheelbarrow is filled with silk ribbon flowers. The flowers on the right are daises worked in  Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery using  pistol stitch and french knots. The bunny on the left is satin stitch. The pattern for the daises and bunny are by Rosalie Wakefield. She has a neat way of making the Turkey Stitch and easy so it will not pull out. It is in her book, "An Artist's Garden". The butterfly is by Helen Stevens using one strand in a long and short stitch. I could not find orange rayon floss and white rayon will not dye. See photo below. The silk ribbon always dyes beautifully. So I used DMC cotton floss. I have 2 books and a DVD on Helen's patterns. These are beautiful and easy to work up. Everyone should have at least one of her books. I dream someday to do a large work of her patterns. This is added to my bucket list!!!

Melons, melons everywhere!! They have produced well and have been on a melon diet for the past month. That is humans, dogs, goat and chickens. Cat won't eat them!! LOL 

These went into a fruit cocktail. It is melons, strawberries and pineapple with a syrup of sugar, orange juice and pink lemonade. Froze up 20 quarts and will be delicious during the winter.

 

Scratch board, Tatting and Silk Ribbon

 We were given a scratch board at Art League for our project of the month. I decided to do a peacock using a sharp knife to sketch out the design.  I just laid out the peacock feathers and need to finish off the matt board. Might print out an all over design of peacock feathers on cotton or silk. Then glue it to the matt board.

Nancy Tracy has begun part 1 of a doily.  It will be an oblong doily and looking forward to part 2. The pattern can be found at www.be-stitched.com

One of my favorite motifs on a crazy quilt is Jane Eborall's wheel barrow (www.janeeborall.freeservers.com) . It is ready to be filled with silk ribbon flowers. 

 Here is some silk ribbon I dyed. It has all the wrinkles pressed out and some of it has been rolled on a TP holder. The holder is wrapped with acid free paper.  The fun is about to begin stitching silk ribbon flowers and bugs...

Works in Progress

The compass center is finished and sewen to the background fabric. The triangles are ready to sew.  This will be a good 2 year project for me. The block of the month is a 1790 Marriage coverlet titled, "Love Entwined".  It is beautifully designed out by Esther Aliu. For more information please visit Esther Aliu's blog, http://www.estheraliu.blogspot.com

 

I was not happy with the points on the first compass. The more I fiddled with it the points started to go missing. It makes a nice design for a bag.

 

Easy Street was started in January and finally started to put it together. However I have one glitch...The 15 inch blocks were a might too big for the other blocks. So I have to rip them apart and resew the seams 1/8 inch smaller. These 3 rows fit beautifully.

 

 

This is my noon time hand quilting project. My dogie, Tazzie, takes her nap and I quilt. One side is completed and the top I am working on is almost finished. Goal to have to done by Christmas. Hard to see but the center section is all quilted and ready to move to the next section.

 

One of my flower beds. The yellow coreopsis are going to seed. I have been collecting the seeds for next year. They do brighten up the garden!

The fruits of our labor. We had 5 muskmelons all ripe at the same time. This one is a 6 ponder! Lots of zukes and cukes. Picked all the big heads of cabbage and now eating the little ones (side shoots). Tomatoes are slowly getting ripe.

It has been almost 4 years since we have had RAIN, beautiful rain. Tonight I filled up two big rain barrels and 6 - 5 gal buckets. Water everywhere.  Hopefully the drought in the Southwest is over.