Catching Up!

 

I decided to do some dyeing this past week while my husband was away.  I was anxious to try a new technique I saw on FB.  It seemed it would be less work than some of the other techniques I use in Ice dyeing.  

The technique is to apply the dye directly to the fabric, sprinkle some soda ash on top and then cover with the with the ice.  The tshirts were first soaked in soda ash solution for several hours and then dried before applying the dyes.

Hint -- it was probably not less work and I am not sure I am crazy about the results but it was worth a try.  There was so  much dye used that the rinse out was a super pain!!  Bloggerf is not behaving and keeps losing my pictures and making all my text get underlined and changing colors!

This was an attempt and vertical stripes but not very successful.

This was probably the one I liked the best of the bunch!

A slightly more successful stripey one.

Not too bad but still not there!

This and the next top were both finished from the same flowered fabric and I have a lot more but will use to back one of the quilts.The third picture is the fabric I used,

These are more of the wonky log cabin blocks and I am seriously getting sick of the blue strips I have!!  I decided to use some of them to make a large tote bag which is pictured below.  Because I don't have a great cutting surface here, it was touchy but I got it done and it is practical.  I will probably quilt the bag if I do another one,  I certainly have enough of these blocks!

Back to doing a quilt as you go quilt.  I am further along now and used a medium blue for the sashing and the binding.  The back is really pretty cute but find this a little too bright even for me.  As I mentioned before, I am sick of these blue strips and still have a large bag filled with them!

Snickers Bar Cookies Recipe - So I Won't Lose It Again!!

My husband found this recipe on the old company website many years ago and it is one of my favorites for times when I need a dish to pass.  I can't make them for us as I would eat them all and even freezing them didn't prevent that!!

"Snickers" Bar Cookies

Ingredients:

•  bag choc chips
• chocolate cake mix
• 14 oz caramels
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 cup peanuts
• 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk. 

Melt caramel in the sweetened condensed milk. Mix cake mix and melted butter.  Bake half of this cake mix and butter in the bottom of 9 x 13 pan for 6 min at 350 degrees.  Spread choc chips, caramel mixture and peanuts on the top of this.  Then add the rest of the cake mix concoction on top.  Bake 20 minutes -- check that cake mix is cooked.  

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What To Do With 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 Strips!

Well, this actually uses not only those 4 1/2 in strips that I had a ton of, but also uses 2 1/2 in shite squares and 6 1/2 x 2 1/2 in pieces.  I have made several quilts from these 2 blocks which I illustrated in an earlier blog.  I will put borders on this and it will end up about 40 x 60.  I will quilt it down in the south when I get there.

 
These next two are the so-caled potato chip blocks and are made totally of 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 strips.    These will end up as 40 x 40 for the neo-natal quilts.  Super easy block to make.  These are totally scrappy!

This one hasn't been sewn together yet and I will rearrange a couple of the pieces!

We had a great RAFA meeting this week with Joyce Martelli teaching us how to make origami books using  2 5 in pieces of cardboard, 2 pieces of 7 in square fabrics and 3 pieces of paper 8 1/2 in square. It was great fun!!  Here is mine done and expanded up.

Here it is all closed up.  You can put pictures in or writing on the surfaces.

I had to share this fantastic felted piece that Demaris did of her cat! It even has some cat whiskers which she saves when she finds them!

Quiltfest -- Genesee Valley Quilt Club Show for 2024 - Part 8

I think this will be my last quilt show post.  I wish I could have taken pictures of all of them as it was a spectacular show.  This and the next quilt were by Ruth Ohol.  She, like Chris Wickert, has won many prizes in national shows.

These next three quilts are by Susan Wolak. There was a 4th but somehow I can't find it now in my pics.  These were beyond spectacular!

 

This was by Susan Floyd.

This was by Susan Whitney.

Unfortunately, I don't know who did this beauty.

I also don't now who did this fabulous album quilt.  My apologies!

This was done by Vicki Tinkus.

Last is my 1920s Farmer's Wife quilt.  I had four others in the show and kept looking for the last one (this one) and it was in the last row and was the last quilt in the row!  As it was so big, I hadn't gotten a very good picture of it before the show.

Quiltfest -- Genesee Valley Quilt Club Show for 2024 - Part 7

This beautifully executed quilt was done by Marilyn Clark,

This art quilt was done by RAFA member Marie Peek. 

This lovely quilt was done by Mary McEvoy.
 

This was by Mercele Jackson.

 

This art quilt was done by Nick Williams who was instrumental in organizing this wonderful show!

This quilt was done by .Mary Randall  Of course, I love all scrappy quilts.

This quilt was by Patricia Fuhlweiler.  Magnificent!

These next three quilts were done by Patricia Otake.

A Break in the Quilt Show -- More Stack and Whacks

I am continuing to find uses for all those stack and whack blocks I made before heading north.  As of today, I only have one more batch untouched and the fabric to cut up some more but that may have to wait for a while.  Quilt show pictures will continue tomorrow as I still have quite a few and there were so many wonderful quilts,

I have enough of this fabric to make a least two more stack and whacks and trying to decide whether I will or just use of the fabric as backing! 

This was my original thought about how I would arrange these octagon stack and whacks but the finished size of each block was only about 4 1/2 inches so needed another plan.

I decided to go with blocks on point with sashing between to give it more width.  I will still need borders though,

Unfortunately, I had all the sashing cut and the top assembled before I discovered this pretty awful error on the right hand side,  A lot of ripping out seams and I got it straightened out today,

All fixed and corners done using the quarter square triangles that I had cut too small for the sides -- my error from a couple of days ago and finally used the faulty triangles.  it definitely will need borders though to make it a decent width and that has been a conundrum,

At first I thoght i would go with the bright pink next to the green and then more white.  It didn't work for me so decided to use a very narrow (1/2 in) wide pink, then a 1 in bright yellow and then will probably do white.  I cut the fabric but don't add borders until I have done the quilting of the middle

Quiltfest -- Genesee Valley Quilt Club Show for 2024 - Part 6

This quilt and the next were by Lou Anne Manning.  Just gorgeous!

This one was quilted by Carol Manning who had her own gorgeous quilts in the show.  I suspect they must be relatives!

The next two quilts which were also among my favorites, were done by Maggie Judd.  Isn't this beautiful -- the pattern, the colors!!

The next five amazing quilts were all done by Marilyn Springer.  Just wow!