I'm typically pretty good and writing a regular blog post but I've been absent the last couple of days... I was busy getting ready for my very first wholesale show that I was in this past Sunday and Monday.

One of the items I was offering at wholesale prices was my Chunky Beaded Bracelet. I whipped up a bunch of different ones in different color combinations to prepare for the show. I'll be posting some that I did not sell throughout the next couple of weeks.


I set up in my living room so I could comfortably make the bracelets instead of in my cold basement workshop.I have a problem deciding on just a few colors so I decided to make some of almost all the available color combinations! It was more fun that way :) Here is a picture of a few of the bracelets that I put together before the show. They still need jump rings and lobster claws but I did manage to fully complete them all in time.

I'll be doing more posts about the lessons I learned from doing a wholesale show throughout this week.

I am also going to be busy getting prepared for the hand-dying workshop that I am teaching and organizing for this upcoming Saturday. If you're interested it's not too late to sign up!

Today I'm going to talk a little bit about my "Squarey Quilt" (actual pattern name is 'Window Panes' but I've always called it my squarey quilt). I RARELY keep things for myself. Initially I was going to make this quilt for my brother (sorry Brian) but I just fell in love with it and had to keep it. Unfortunately for my brother, he has yet to get a quilt. (Waiting for him to get married or turn 35...)

The pattern called for black background fabric...since I can never follow a pattern or recipe (never ask me to make bread) EXACTLY...the first thing I altered was that I was going to use dark blue as my background. Once again, I headed over to Diane's basement and I dyed my fabric. I dyed the dark blue and some other various colored fabric.

When choosing the other fabric, I chose from some fabric that I had dyed, some that Diane had dyed and some commercial fabric. I love mixing hand-dyes with commercial. I just think it gives a quilt an amazing look.

Once my fabric was dyed and wash out. I started to cut my fabric for the quilt and piece my squares together. We have a King Size bed so the end result for this quilt was going to be quite large.

Have I ever mentioned before just how much I LOVE color. I love all colors and I especially love putting them next to each other and combine them with colors one would typically not think of to combine. Two of my favorite color combinations in this quilt are the toned down lime green with the navy blue and the lovely orange with the blue. I just think they look absolutely fabulous next to each other!

When I was done with the top of this quilt I sent it off to my aunt-in-law, Barb to quilt. She did a fabulous random pattern with a swirl in the center of each square. It is absolutely perfect for this quilt. To save myself a head-ache I also just had her use one of her large pieces of fabric for the back of the quilt. I just sent her the top and she took care of the rest!

When the quilt was returned to me I bound it with a variegated binding that I made from the left over pieces of the squares. It tied the inside and outside together quite well.

I am still in love with this quilt and am so glad I never parted with it!

I have chosen to enter my woven quilt into the virtual quilt festival because of a few reasons:

1) It took me four years to complete it
2) I love the color
3) It's a technique you don't see very often!

I hope you enjoy reading about this quilt! Since publishing this post, I did decide to remove the beading and I entered it into a quilt show. It was really fun seeing my work hanging up for everyone to view and people were amazed that it was really woven!

I also was a guest blogger for Quilting Gallery and I wrote: Woven Wonder - a Tutorial? if you are interested in reading more details as to how I completed this project.

I also hope you take some time (I think I've become obsessed with looking through the quilts) to see everyone else's work...there is some Amazing talent out there!

- update 4/19/09

My first step was to dye really long pieces of fabric that I would have quilted together by Barb. I headed over to Diane's basement, cut long pieces of fabric and dyed away. I had a lot of fun!

Barb decided to host Easter at her house that year and she was kind enough to let me try out her long arm quilting machine. Now THAT was a lot of fun! I think I quilted two of my panels together for this quilt. Barb did the rest of them.

A year later, I finally pulled the quilted fabric out of the bag and cut strips out of them. I then bound each edge of the strips and started to weave. Once I had it together how I wanted it...trust me, it took quite awhile and a little help from my hubby to have it square...I loosely stitched each intersection together so it would keep it's shape while I was binding the outer edge.

Now that the whole quilt was bound and put together I cute out my loosely stitched intersections and realized that it just wasn't going to stay together. Every time I pulled it out of the bag I spent an hour re-laying it out smoothly...hmmmm...how could I fix this? I sent it back to Barb and she quilted at each intersection. Doing this helped to keep the quilt in the square shape but kept it's 'woven' quality.

I have started to embellish this quilt with beads several times. My latest plan was to embroider it with circles of beads...I'm now thinking I may not even do that. I might just take these beads off as well, and use it as a quilt.

This quilt is amazingly warm...it's two quilts put together...AND it's reversible...both sides are equally cool!

I would love to hear your opinion about whether I should do the beading or not do the beading.

In the end, I think it is easier and less time consuming to just suck it up and match my corners!

On Monday, February 23rd, Diane and I decided to do some fabric dyeing. I have a custom order for seven different shirts/tanks/rompers for one family and I was going to fill that order. As I was going through our white clothing inventory I discovered that I was ONE large t-shirt short…so, it turned out into a ‘just for fun’ dyeing day.

I am trying to increase my fabric stash because I have all the ideas for art quilts in my mind and need to have a wide variety of colors for these projects. Since I own/operate an apple orchard my first art quilt is probably going to be some sort of orchard image which means I need lots of different browns, greens and reds. That was my plan along with a few bins of fun! I have included a picture of one of my fun pins here! Don’t worry I’ll make sure to take a few ‘after’ pictures of the fabric and post them later so you can see what that bin made!

Dyeing in the middle of winter is nowhere near the fun as dyeing in the summer. It’s also a lot more difficult to ‘see’ what you have done. But, it’s still fun and I really enjoy dyeing. My favorite part of it is that I go into it with an extremely laid back attitude. All the bottles of dyes just sit in front of me and I just mix a little of this and a little of that and go for it! I have a fairly decent knowledge of what colors I’m going to achieve by mixing certain things but I never know EXACTLY how it’s going to turn out or the pattern it’s going to make on the fabric.

Diane and I have gotten much more efficient in dyeing as well. We used to put each item in its own bucket or bin….we have learned that we can get a fairly decent variety by putting many fabrics in one bin. I think I had six bins that I dyed that day and still a few individual buckets. I was dyeing hats and I was being a bit picky that had a certain ‘look’ about them.

I was almost about to tell you our process of dyeing (what we do first, then next and to finish it up) but I realized that’s why you are going to sign up for our 2009 Summer Dyeing Workshop on June 20th! We will teach you the ‘formula’s’ for dyeing in the morning and then teach you the more creative side of dyeing.

One thing I will say is that HEAT is extremely important in our dyeing process…which can be hard to come by in a cold basement in February. My husband has built us special insulated box that hooks up to our outdoor woodstove. Pex tubing coils around on the inside of this box and super hot water flows through it to heat up our fabric. It fits LOTS and LOTS of bins and buckets! It is amazing!

Diane gave me a quick ‘sneak peek’ at our fabrics yesterday and I am so excited to start ironing! (Trust me…that is HUGE for me to say…I HATE to iron, but that’s how you can really see just how amazing your fabrics are). One washout is complete…lots more to go but hopefully I’ll be able to post some end result pictures next week!

STAY TUNED…

Yup! It's time to get ready for the 2009 Summer Dyeing Workshop Sponsored by Quilts By Barb!

Once again it will be held a Lapacek's Orchard in Poynette, WI. Hopefully we will have a wonderful and gorgeous day for dyeing and will be able to do it out in the sun and on the lawn...otherwise we'll be in the spacious shed.

All of the details on the dying day can be found at: http://merr.com/users/lapacek/dyeing_day.htm or just go to http://www.lapaceksorchard.com/ and click on the '2009 summer dyeing workshop' link.

I'm going to use this blog to tell you a little bit about how the day actually goes, show you examples of things you can accomplish in one day, post pictures of quilts we have made from our hand-dyed fabrics, give you ideas for clothing dyeing options, and hopefully we'll hear from some people that have attended the workshop in the past!

Today I'll tell you about what you can expect in the morning (I'm hoping Diane will comment to let me know if I am accurate or forgetting something).

When you arrive at the orchard you will sign in and pick up your 'kit' for the day. We will have a small 'shop' set up with more pfd fabric, articles of clothing, dyeing supplies for you to take home, etc, that you will be able to look through as you eat your muffin or donut (not sure what we'll have just yet...I'll keep you posted).