Saturday's Smile!!

Let's See Now - Today is My Birthday . . .

and I think there is only one good thing about having your birthday 2 days after Christmas year after year after year!!  And that is that the year I was born I was a tax write-off for my parents without all the expenses of having a kid for an entire year!  Other than that, not so great!!  LOL!!

But seriously, I can hardly believe that this is the first day of my 74th year on this planet.  Remember when we were young we thought 73 was ancient!!  Not so much now!!  But it is amazing to me how much energy I have (between naps), how mobile I am (with a few creeks here and there) and how good life is!!

It's fun to think back about all the stuff that went on all through the years - the good, the bad and the special moments tossed in for a bit of flavor!!  In fact, I just woke up from my nap and I didn't want to because I was dreaming about the boy I so loved in high school (and deep in my heart still do)!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas or a wonderful holiday that you do celebrate!!  Thank you to all of you that come and visit me each Saturday for a dose of happiness and smiles!!  And so . . . . . . . 

TO ME!!

Saturday's Smile!!

 

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

 

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Ice-Dyed Projects!

I am having so much fun dying all kinds of fabric.  Now I am starting to make some goodies with this gorgeous stuff!!

First, a friend of mine has a new walker and she had a little metal basket that kept falling off when she closed it up to put in the car.  So, I put together a cute, usable bag for her.

I also dyed some little onesies and they turned out pretty cute!

Then I cut up some of the dyed fabric and made some different blocks but they were not too exciting.  I think I have decided that the fabric needs to stay in larger pieces for the most part.  Cutting it up seems to take away the overall beauty.

Well, they say you are never too old!!  So, I decided to try something new.  I applied for the position of the Oregon Territory Sales Rep for :

and I got it!!  We received our training via Zoom yesterday and today; I got my sales tools via UPS this afternoon and I am going to see my first quilt shop on Tuesday after the three day weekend!!

Looking forward to a new season my in life!!

For the love of blogging, see you next time!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Veterans' Quilts, Ice Dying and Lorelei

This has been a good week!!  Our Guild is working on the last Alaska Veterans' quilt.  We have been making quilts for almost 2 years for Alaska's Healing Hearts Retreat and the gals at Guild are ready to move onto a new "cause".

This last one is going to be gorgeous!!  Sally was the host for this last quilt.  Guild members make the blocks, she will assemble the top and I will quilt and bind it.  These are the 5 blocks I made for the quilt.

These next pictures show part of the ice dying process ~

The picture below is where I added the dye BEFORE the ice.

And then here are the other 3 containers with ice first and then dye sprinkled on top of the ice.  I wanted to see if there was a difference in the end result using the two different methods.  

After washing out the dye on all the pieces, it seemed like the piece where I sprinkled the dye right on the fabric and then the ice on top was not as bright as the other pieces.  It seemed a little dull.

And here is this week's progress on Lorelei ~

Continuing weekly progress can be seen HERE.

For the love of Blogging, see you next time!!

Saturday's Smile!!

 

Friday Progress on Mini Lorelei

If one is a die-hard counted cross stitch person, they would have a special counter or software program that counts each stitch so one can see EXACTLY how many stitches they have completed.  Well, that's not me, so I am looking at approximate numbers!!

This week I have completed approximately 1,400 + stitches in total. 

That makes approximately 62,000 give or take left to go!!  See the weekly progress HERE!

I can hardly believe that I made it this far!!  Go, girl, go!!

Also, here is a peek at some the dying going on around here!!  I decided to cut the fabric into Fat Quarters before dying so that each Fat Quarter has it's own pattern.  But there will be 4 coordinating Fat Quarters in each group.

In the picture above I have only shown 3 FQs in 2 different sets.

For the love of Blogging, see you tomorrow!!

I'm Off to See the Wizard!!

 The ice dying wizard, where I learned how to ice dye!!

These first two pictures were my first attempt.  I dyed them both in the same batch with the same dyes, and although the colors are the pretty much the same, there are distinct differences!!  I fell in love!!

In one of the YouTube videos I watched, the dyer said not to use too much ice, so I cut down on my ice and I got too many big white blobs where the dye did not reach because the ice melted before it could penetrate all the layers of fabric.

This next one, I folded the fabric instead of scrunching it up into a little pile.  I did not like this result as well.  It looks more like tye-die and I am not trying to get that effect.  I like the more mottled look of the scrunchy piles.

For the most part, this one is gorgeous except for the 2 BIG areas of white.  I scrunched this piece but I think the piece of fabric was too big, and again, maybe not enough ice.

Still working on those white or lighter blotches .

A couple of scrapes I threw in.  One of my favorites is the one on the left.

I was really lucky when I somehow ran across this fun technique of dying.  I had done some low emersion dying when I lived in Logan, UT and I still have all the dyes and supplies (that I was actually able to locate in all my boxes of stuff)!!  Otherwise, I would not be able to enjoy this new sport right now.

If you like the look of this dyed fabric, check out YouTube.  Lots of videos.  Well, off the dye more fabric and to play bridge this afternoon.

For the love of blogging, see you soon!!

Saturday's Smile!!

All ChookyBlue June SAL Blocks Done!!

And still time to work on my July blocks!!

All of them with pretty good points!!

I have also promised myself that I would ACTUALLY start and FINISH one of the many Heaven and Earth Designs counted cross stitch patterns that I have purchased over the past few years!!  I think it is sorta like quilting: one hobby is to buy the fabric and patterns and the second hobby is to actually make something!!  

So, I decided to do the Mini Lorelei.  Here it is how it will look when it is done:

Here it is as of July 21, 2022, the day I started it (yesterday).  As of July 21, 2022 I have completed 225 stitches in about 3 hours.  Only 63,275 stitches to go!!

For the love of blogging, see you next time!!