Big Snow (for Tennessee)

 They began closing everything down around noon, before even one flake fell. But by 4ish it was coming down densely and it just piled up beautifully. It's great not to have to drive in this stuff.  This amount of snowfall is quite unusual for this far south, and so we celebrate it while it lasts. The weather report says it will warm up by Sunday and this should all disappear. In the meantime the dogs are befuddled and wimpy, not venturing out of the shoveled driveway. It's like a fenced in front yard!

Dave got out around midnight, since he doesn't sleep much, and shoveled the drive. I am supposed to get our car's emission checks today. As if! So he wanted me to be able to get out onto the road. It ain't gonna happen.

 Wimps.

 O dear, I spoke too soon. There goes Tony out into the street, unaccompanied! But he turned tail and came running back just as fast. His little feet got wet and he began to shiver almost immediately.

 Chummy says, "I can hold out for a bit longer". Tony stands there trembling. It's time to run into the house.

The pink sky signals 'sailors take warning'...yeah, I guess. The quilting ruler tells the tale. Seven and a half inches. Wow!

Windy Ridge

 

Windy Ridge

Hand dyed cottons, commercial cottons, fused, machine quilted and mounted on painted wood panel. 11x14" $100 Email me.

 

The weather  has been nasty for us the last week and it finally broke. Not that the sun came out but the temperatures came back to a decent 40ish degrees and it stopped sleeting and raining, for a while. Long enough for us to grocery shop and walk the poor incarcerated dogs for a long long smell-a-thon.

There has been a lot of sitting and knitting going on and I can tell I also need to be walking more and eating less. Hmm. 

Our neighborhood is growing by leaps and bounds and we have many more almost finished houses to investigate. It's fun to walk through the rooms and imagine what they will look like finished. 

We keep thinking that we have more room than we need and that the upstairs will eventually be too difficult for me to scramble up to and use. But if we downsized anymore, where would all our stuff go? So nevermind. I am happy to stay put.

I am seriously thinking about the garden and have already sprouted some basil in a window box. We have a south facing window and it gets plenty of light, for basil at least. We plan on getting another truckload of mulch and mushroom compost and that will have to be spread and it'll be good to do it while it is still chilly. Dreaming of Spring...

Inspired

Liz Heywood - Southampton Strippy
I saw this quilt on Pinterest, where I spend the first seven or eight hours of my precious day, drooling. Something about this quilt got to me. No way would I have thought to use that main colored fabric in any of my work, but here it works so well. Brown, gray, dark blue with shots of yellow,, gold and orange. Those inserted rectangles are just great to break up the space. 
So I am trotting up to the studio and pulling out the most  unlikely fabric to try this out. Stay tuned.
+++++++
Here's my version. 22x33" Hand dyed cottons, fused and at this point unquilted.
I was happy to use fabrics that have been long sitting in the stash, neutrals, both lights and darks, combining them with a few brights.

Budding #2

Budding #2

Hand dyed silks and cottons, fused, machine quilted and mounted on painted wood panel. 11x14" SOLD.

 Made by request for Donna.

 There has been a question about hanging these panels. The back of the panel is an open framed box. I would suggest tiny screw end eye hooks and wire or fishing line to string through the eye hooks. Command hooks for the wall. 

Mitered Diamond Q&A

Hi Melody!!

Just discovered your blog!! In complete drool mode over your Mitered Poncho and Jacket.

I am getting up the courage to try modular knitting…. a little intimidating… but what amazing results.

Can you help me understand how you pick your colors? I am color- ignorant… definitely. Do you use a color wheel?

Thanks!Angie

Dear Angie,
No I don't use a color wheel, but I do make samples. I find two colors of yarn (they don't have to be the same kind of yarn or the same weight) and knit them into a diamond or triangle and see what they look like. Since I have been making jackets for other people I let them decide which combo they like.

Here #4 turned out to be a bad choice, since the multi-colored yarn has so many colors and only a tiny bit of the aqua in the main solid skein. This sample also lets me know what size the finished product will be and if the gauge is good for the needles and yarn I am using.

More information on mitered squares and diamonds is available here:

http://fibermania.blogspot.com/2007/01/straight-skinny-on-mitered-squares-my.html

Mitered Diamond Jacket #15

Malabrigo Rios and Silk Garden
This is a second requested jacket for Judy and it was again so wonderful to knit with great yarn.

Minimalist Quilting

 

My friend Mary has the new book by Gwen Marston called Minimalist Quiltmaking. I saw the quilts and got all excited and had to try my hand at the concept. The designs of the quilts were very direct, unapologetic and strong. I loved them. Bold color and shape, with interesting straight line quilting made a big impact. 

 My version is 16.25" x 18.5" and is hand dyed cottons, machine pieced and machine quilted.

Budding

Budding

Hand dyed silks, cotton sateen and various cottons, fused, machine quilted, mounted on painted wood panel. 11x14" $100 Email me. SOLD.

I had been saving that piece of silk for. ever. and finally decided to use it. I cut it in half first and then inserted a piece of sateen with vibrant red hot colors. What am I doing? Ackkk? But I just kept building and decided after a while... that I had an exciting background! Gulp. 

What goes good with orange-y red? Purple. So strips of purple were applied and then the dots of color and voila! It's amazing how bits of fabric can make me so happy.

Framed Kisses

 

Framed Kisses

Hand dyed cottons and bits of silk, fused, machine quilted and mounted on painted wood panel. 11x14" $100 Email me. SOLD

 When I begin to make a piece like this or any of them this week, I have no plan in mind, other than perhaps a color that I want to use. But design or layout? Nope. I just find fabric shapes and put them together and see what looks good with what and then start fusing them to my teflon sheet. Sometimes nothing happens and I put the fused pieces back in the drawer and start again, or cut them up and use a part. 

What does happen is the exciting part for me. Something begins to look like a composition, or a design, and I can tell from that where to go next. 

I do rely on my doodads of course, the Xs, dots, lines, triangles, but those come at the end of the layout. It's very important that I find a piece of fabric that has life, like this background red-orange-yellow sateen.  It makes the piece.

Delphinium Patch

Delphinium Patch

Hand dyed cottons, fused, machine quilted, mounted on painted wood panel. 11x14" $100 Email me. SOLD

 One of my favorite color combinations is purple and green, especially in the garden. I am going to try growing delphiniums again this Spring. I have only had success with them for one season, even tho they are perennials. Perhaps my sunnier yard will make a difference.