More Yummy Colours

I made some more eye candy today. I got the slow cooker dye vat out and dyed more hand-spun yarn today. This time the dye of rhubarb leaves and ferrous sulphate ( a type of iron) produced a deep olive green. It is really gorgeous!! Yummy!!

Don't worry I bought a new slow cooker for our food!

Some of the sage green yarn - rhubarb leaves and copper sulphate.

With the dark olive green yarn - rhubarb leaves and ferrous sulphate.

All the colour samples together:

olive green

sage green

yellow

white (natural yarn colour)

New Brew

Trying out a new dye recipe. Last month I tried dandelion flowers which gave an earthy yellow colour. Now I'm trying rhubarb leaves. This one turned out in another earthy colour, this time a sage green. The dandelion and rhubarb leaf dyed yarns go nicely together.

In the pot nine days old (no, just hours old!)

The olive green yarn drying with spray bottle provided tension on the yarn so it dries straighter.

Some of the dyed yarns that I have couched (sewn) on to fabric.

I boiled up a mush of rhubarb leaves for dye.

We have a vast supply of rhubarb leaves!

Milestone Gone

The sandbox is gone. Not just any 4 X 4 foot square sandbox. I'm talking a volleyball court sized one!

Don used the tractor to take away buckets of sand from the backyard. The "sandbox" has been there since the kids were little. It housed the play structure, trampoline and eventually became the sand volleyball practice site.

This sand area has been sitting idle since the kids left home (5 years now since Leah went off to Winnipeg). It became a weed box. I tried to keep it weeded, but it really became a chore.

It is hard to see a stage of your life gone. Sigh. Having young kids lasts such a short while. (Never thought I would say that. Crying baby stage seemed interminable!!). But now I wish I had enjoyed it more. Hindsight. Always 20/20.

Don taking away bucket loads of sand.

The plum tree that Mom and Dad bought us at the time of our wedding (31 years ago) had to be taken out.  It was broken in the centre and rotting.  Too bad.  Guess even plants have a life span.

The yard looks very different.  We will have to sow this area to grass.

Clear view to the garden from the deck.  Where the plum tree used to be.

Retreat at Zeghers Inn

Four of us crazy quilters got together to sew. Marj Helped Annette and I design and begin sewing quilted jackets. She is amazingly talented at this and once was in the business of jacket making. She currently is sewing one for the Hoffman Challenge.

Annette's jacket is in teal, green and purple. It is going to be stunning. She had taken apparel design courses and is a great seamstress! I can hardly wait to see it when it is done!!

My jacket is earthy tones from yellow to burgundy, green and brown. I got the front sides fully designed and was able to get the fancy work on some of the front right side pieces done. Phew. This is very time consuming!

Yvonne worked on a quilt that Jo-Ann had pieced for Sam. Jo-Ann is super busy right now and can't get around to sewing. Sam graduated from High School yesterday and Yvonne agreed to quilt it so that Sam could have his grad gift. It is gorgeous, but weighs a ton due to the very heavy and fuzzy backing material.

Marj worked on free motion quilting her challenge jacket one day, then worked on donation quilts the second day. She had some great fabrics that went together very nicely and will be great donation quilts.

Annette modeling the back of her designed jacket.

One front side is almost ready to go too!

Yvonne quilting Sam's grad gift from Jo-Ann.

Marj whipped up this quilt top in a couple of hours!

The design for the front of my jacket.  (It is a swing style coat).

One side of the front is laying together.  

More work to do on the burgundy and beige pieces.

(Sorry, this is hard to see with the burgundy tablecloth as a background.)

Jo-Ann's nine patch pizzaz quilt for Sam.

Wedding Vows

Angela and Kevin exchanged wedding vows today. What a gorgeous day.

Heather waiting for the groomsmen to arrive.

The men arrive in Vicki, Rick's (father of the groom) classic car.

Angela and Kevin exchange vows.

Enjoying the celebration.

The newly married couple.

Murray and Lila, father and mother of the bride.

Grad 2013

I attended the grad march for the TCI grads of 2013. This gang was my last class of grade 9 students to teach. They are and were a lively, chatty bunch! Looking good gang!!

Fish Tank.

I am finally shutting down my 100 gallon fish tank. I have loved having it for over 15 years. However, with travel and other fibre interests, it has taken a back seat.

Would anyone like this tank? It comes with filters, heater, stones and replacement parts for filter. I also have eight fish (headlight, tail light and black skirt tetras) and amazon sword plants. You will need to act fast for the living fish and plants!! Let me know.

The fish and plants found a home.  Thanks!!

Fish tank with no water, gravel, fish or plants.

Gravel on a blanket outside to dry.

Blue Hills Fibre Festival

I headed to Shilo today to attend a fibre festival. There were many vendors selling yarn, roving and fleece, as well as knitted and woven items. There were workshops going on to learn how to spin using a drop spindle, how to prepare fleece and how to dye yarn. All very interesting.

I took two spinning wheels with me in hopes that I could get some assistance on how to set them up and get them working properly. The Made-well manufactured in Sifton, given to me by my aunt Vyra, was tight and difficult to treadle. With the help of a couple of people we were able to set it properly and now it treadles smoothly.

The other wheel a Louet, I borrowed from a craft guild in the area, worked well once Don did some minor repair work. At the fibre festival I got some instruction on how it works.

A fibre artist showing how to use a triangular weaving loom.

Two sisters (Ray's nieces) who sell alpaca goods.

One of the younger generation getting a feel for the wheel!

Yarn dyeing workshop in progress.

The weaver, now spinning from her own alpaca fleece.  

Her spun yarn is so fine you can barely see it going to the wheel!

New Car and MPQ

We arrived home from Mesa safe and sound. I took Yvonne to the Toyota dealership for her to pick up her new car. It is a Venza in a gorgeous bronze colour. She loves it and so do I!!

Our last MPQ meeting of the season had Coreen Zerr as the guest speaker. She presented a trunk show of many of her quilts. I had seen many of her art quilts which are gorgeous, but had never seen her more traditional quilts which are also spectacular. Great to see her again!!

Yvonne's new car!

The happy driver.

Coreen speaking at MPQ meeting.  

(Her sister-in-law, Phyllis, is at the side.)

Coreen's quilt - Celtic Knots and Whiskey Hearts.  Gorgeous!!

Another one of Coreen's beautiful traditional quilts.

Last Full Day in Mesa

For our last day we decided to do some touring north of Mesa. We drove to Saguaro Lake. Stopped and took some pictures near some saguaro cacti. It is very tricky to walk in the desert as it is full of prickly plants that reach out and jab you!!

We continued our drive to Fountain Hills. It is a very beautiful community surrounding an artificial lake with a huge fountain that goes off on the hour. We missed seeing the cannon waterfall shoot up but got a look at many of the art statues in the area. One we really liked was a bourse made up of all kinds of metal parts - ice box, hand mixer, hubcaps, etc.

Then we continued on to Scottsdale where we had lunch at Sweet Tomatoes a salad and soup buffet. We visited a quilt shop (mediocre) and a consignment clothes shop full of designer clothes. Amazing what people will buy, and equally amazing what the will put up for sale. There was even a locked glass case of original Chanel clothes!!

For our last supper we went to the Cheesecake Factory. We shared meals so we could indulge in dessert. Yummy!!

Canyon walls just before Saguaro Lake.

Looking down on Saguaro Lake from the coffee shop.

Posing by the saguaro cactus.

The saguaro cacti are in bloom.  Here is a close-up.

Desert landscape - teddy-bear cactus up close, mesquite and saguaro cacti in the background.

Horse art sculpture in Fountain Hills.

A refreshing lunch spot.

High end consignment clothes.

Dessert at the Cheesecake Factory.  Yummy!!