Trying my hand at natural dyeing.

I have been dyeing wool for a couple of years now and decided to try doing it using natural ingredients.  Last weekend when DH was in the mountains he collected me a bag full of an assortment of maple leaves.  (that is love, when your DH picks up leaves for you).  I have been doing some reading online and have a few books about it.  It is  a lot more complicated that using chemicals.  There is no way that you could duplicated a color from a natural dye.  I put the leaves in a huge pot covered them with water, boiled them a couple of hours, then let them sit over night.  The next day I put in a yard of off-white wool, did lots of stirring the first few minutes, let it simmer for 45 minutes.  After letting it cool, it when in the wash then the dryer.  This is not at all the color I thought I would get but I love it. Can't wait to try something else.

Decorating, Me?

 I am not much for decorating, I never have been,   However, this fall I decided I needed to step it up and change things around in the house.  Nothing major just a few fall touches to start out with.  New candle holders from Michael's filled with beans from Kroger, pumpkin scented candles from Target, and a white ceramic pumpkin from Hobby Lobby.  If nothing else I shop around.  This is on the sideboard in the dining room.  Not much but it is a start.











I also finished this pillow, I think it is from a Primitive Gatherings book.  I did the front of it last year and had just never finished sewing it into a pillow.  This is going in our bedroom.  I don't know if I will get anything else done for fall at least I did a little.

Sewing at last

 On Saturday I was finally able to sit down at my sewing machine and do some sewing.  I pulled out a kit that I bought about 12 years ago, Magic Carpet Quilt.  The blocks are very simple, a large square with sashing and corner stones.  I have about 7 more blocks to make.  It will probably end up as a donation quilt.

I also put the binding on a "cowboy quilt".  This fabric came from a vacation in Golden, Colorado about 10 years ago.  I think it will be my new car quilt.  DH likes the car to be cold when we are traveling, I always keep a quilt in the car to  keep from freezing.







Saturday was a banner day in that I did some sewing and my October Quilty Box came.  This is only the second one that I have received, I signed up for a  three month subscription.  Don't know if I will renew, but so far I am pleased and it is nice getting a surprise in the mail once a month.

Coming up for air, finally!

When I made the decision to transfer to a new school in the spring (and I do mean a new school, it wasn't even finished yet) I had no idea of the amount of work it would entail.  I knew that I would be busy, but had no idea just how much work.  I love being in a  new school, setting up a new media center, helping set policies for the new school, but I come home exhausted every  day.  Sewing has almost become a thing of the past.  I would love to come home one day and just sit down at my sewing machine and sew away.  I have been doing some handwork and reading about sewing.  I discovered a new book that I am in love with, Old Quilts New Life by Sarah Fielke.  There are 18 different quilts that have been reproduced once fairly closely to the original and once in a truly modern version.  This is one of the first "modern" quilt books that I really like.


I have managed to almost finish this wool table topper.  The only thing left to do is put the backing on and stitch around it. This is a pattern from  Primitive Gatherings and my hand dyed wool.

Love my pumpkins.

Want wool??

Check this out, a Woolie Bullie Box for only 50.00 an almost 75.00 worth of wool.  Each month over at Piginablanketwools.com on the 19th and 20th of the month you will have the opportunity to order a Woolie Bullie Box, Each month you will receive different goodies, this month, the first month I am letting you know what you will get:  Wool Applique Folk Art by Rebekah Smith, a Buttermilk Basin pattern and kit, a Woolie Bullie ( a charm pack of 8 different wools), a needle threader, plus a full 16 ounces of wool scraps.  This is a great buy, Quantities are limited.

Recognize these?

 If you have ever participated in a BOM from Homestead Hearth I am sure you recognize these little beige and red plaid bags.  For a while there I was getting several of these each month, it was more like a BOW.  I still have several of these that I haven't completed.  After finally finishing my string pieced blocks I decided to find something completely different to work on.




I pulled out a box labeled Halloween 1904, I found a receipt in one of the bags dated from 2010.  I think it is time that I finished this one, it probably won't be finished for Halloween at least not this year, but I will have a head start on next year.  I had to search through all of my boxes to make sure that I had all of the BOM bags.  I finally found all of them and have started the first two blocks.

Out of my box

I saw this quilt pattern in a magazine about three years ago and for some reason it talked to me!  I was surprised because  most of the quilts that I am attracted to are much more traditional.  This quilt is also paper pieced which I have done before but not to this extent.  There are nine blocks and I can't even get them laid out in my sewing room until I move some things around.  The blocks are huge, about 30 inches square.  I started this quilt shortly after finding the pattern, three years ago, today I finished the last block, now to get the rest of the paper off of the back and get the blocks sewn together.  I have three of the  blocks together, I couldn't wait wanted to see how they were going to look.