Summer Back Pack

Not long ago I took the plunge and bought an Asus tablet. Although I love my Nook for reading books, storing recipes, files, etc it is a little small for reading e-magazines, web surfing or email. My Asus does those things wonderfully and so I wanted to take it on vacation. Well it didn't fit into my purses so I finally made a little back pack which was just perfect to use as I traveled hands-free through the airports on vacation. I'm continuing to use it whenever I'm out with my Asus or just need a small back pack so I can be hands free.

I used a a kid's backpack pattern from McCall's as it was the size I wanted and it was in my stash. I added an extra pocket at the back and a long fabric strap with a clip to hold my keys yet allow me to pull them and use without unhooking them. Picking the fabrics was one of the time consuming elements as I wanted to use my hand dyed pieces. Ended up piecing some commercial pieces to make the straps and commercial for the lining. Oh yes, added some extra pockets inside too. So overall I'm pleased.

Hope you're having a fun, colorful, creative summer! Or winter depending where you are spending it!

Back to My Roots

I haven't been into shows much for the past few years except for the occasional gallery show. However when this one came up and a clay friend who had done the show said how fun it was, I decided to apply. No tent needed and it's only one day. So Saturday I'll be part of Art Rock at The Armory in West Palm Beach!

I'm not limited to one medium so I'll be debuting some of the sewing I've been working on. In addition to mostly clay I'll take a few art quilts, cards, notebook covers, etc. My roots are in fiber and sewing so this should be fun!

Top photo are composition notebook covers using some of my stash. I have plans for some fun embellished ones hopefully to be made this summer. Next is a journal quilt that I almost left as a quilt but it became a journal as the size was perfect for the papers I had cut from old unusable letterhead.

I bought a deckle ruler which I really like for some of the edges when putting together a journal. And I still love those fuzzy yarns and trying out those fancy stitches on my machine!

 Now back to my soy beans and tofu .... I'm making "hiyayakko" (fresh cold tofu) to take to our book club meeting tonight. We read "Hotel on the Corner of Sweet and Bitter" so the food theme is Asian. Although I love fresh tofu I've not made this before so should be fun!

Have a great weekend!

Using My Workshop Fabrics

At Linda's dyeing workshop I learned about pre-reduced indigo! If your last dyeing experience was thirty some years ago like mine your indigo dyeing was more involved than what we did. The pre-reduced indigo available now makes it much easier to create your beautiful blue fabrics and yarns with no need for lye!

Yesterday I couldn't wait any longer to do something with at least one of my newly dyed fabrics so I chose the shibori stitched cotton that I had dyed in the indigo pot. I made a folder for a little yellow pad. I've been wanting something to take to meetings and to keep in my bag for school.

I started out writing down the measurements I was using but ended changing the design as I moved along so will include a little tutorial if anyone is interested when I make another. I'm sure the next one will be a little different as I try to improve it.

I'll leave with a photo of this little guy who visited our garden last week. I followed him and believe he may live under our house!

Flower and Fabric

Every few days I go blog hopping, soaking in the gorgeous hand dyed, stamped, painted, textured, eye candy fabrics. I dream and plan about when I'll have time to spread out yards of plain fabric and go to it! In the meantime I occasionally find a gorgeous commercial fabric I just have to buy. I add it to my boxes and piles of fabrics and every so often pull them out, admire and caress them as I think of all the things I could create. Then I fold them up and put them away. Last week I pulled out this beauty and took a quick break to cut a scarf length of fabric. This is sheer and ravels so I enclosed the edges with a French seam and I had an easy quick scarf that I wore with a white shirt and black jeans. It satisfied my fiber addiction for the week!

Like many of you I'm out in the garden this time of year. Actually down here I'm out more in the winter but with a new wild flower garden this year I'm been out more than usual. Here are a few of the wild beauties.

I've wanted to use one of my petal vases for our own cut flowers for a long time!