Author Archives: Colleen Kole

Back Home Again


     Well I certainly shouldn’t have said anything about how easy our trip was to VT. The trip back home was a bad dream. No, a nightmare. When we got to the ticket counter in Burlington after waiting in line for 30 minutes, the agent said our plane would be delayed. My husband asked why it show on the board that it was delayed. Listen to this ANSWER:

The departure board is only updated on a monthly basis.

So why is the board up there and why are we-all hundreds of passengers -looking at this board-like morons-every time we enter the airport? To this minute, I can’t believe the answer. And then they wanted to re-book us-three days later.No other flights available until three days later.  Airline travel is just the pits. And the only way it will change is if we all stop for awhile in protest of the bad customer service you get these days. I understand why some things are done for safety’s sake but the rest is just stupidity of employees and airline companies. We missed our connecting flight and ended up renting a car and driving the last leg of the journey home. Very late.

Ok that was a big complaint. I am now ready to move on. A few more barn pictures for you which downloaded in record time.
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Blue skies.

I did finish this small piece while I was there. It is made from bits of recycled silks and hand dyed linen.I don’t particularly like it but sometimes you just need to finish the project!

Falling Leaves- approx 18×24.

That’s Pesto and she is one of the cows my daughter chose to show for 4-H this summer. And my daughter is so happy when she is working at the barn. I guess that makes all the travel problems worth it to see that great smile!
Happy Sewing, my friends!

Loose Ends

     I always hate the last day of vacation. I start to orient myself back to a list of what needs to be done before I leave. But I saved today to keep sewing. The weather has been relatively mild for Februrary in VT-and not much snow on the ground. I took about a two hour walk in the woods with my neighbor and her three dogs. One was a pup of four months and it was his first walk. I don’t know who had more fun-me watching him or him just running and then flopping when he was tired. Too bad I forgot my camera but my friend is hard enough to keep up with!

Lots of different things which are on my list today:

Working on beading-very pretty
Working on black and white -ugh
Missing the right color but have the right idea
Loving the beauty of the mountains and my scattered thoughts today!
Happy Sewing, my friends! Probably back on Friday as we travel home tomorrow.

Hearts, Pink Things and Things of Long Ago

     I had  fun rounding up this little Valentine’s day treat for you. Enjoy all the pretty things that remind me of the day.

Pink mittens and handmade hearts on linen
A heart bowl filled with bits from my Vermont Sunshine quilt
Handblown glass heart
Old thread spindles from the New England Mill
Vermont Sunshine and Wildflowers
Unquilted top-18×20   
Hope you enjoyed your day and were able to sow or sew a little love with your hands. It makes you feel better. Happy Sewing and Happy Valentine’s Day, my friends. Hugs!

Barns and Quilts

     I had so much fun yesterday and the day flew by. The kids and my husband went skiing and I stayed behind. Such a hardship it is having the whole day to sew! I had brought along a few new things. In January, I ordered  25$ of fabric from Frieda Anderson and then got a package of  48 5 inch squares for free. One of the fabrics was a beautiful one yard piece of hand dyed fabric which was multi colored. And  the 5 inch squares were bright.
     I wanted just to do a simple and bright quilt. I pieced for a long time and then the sun called me outside. I took pictures of the barns on my walk. My favorites from yesterday’s walk:

     A local horse farm. Love the sunshine and blue skies.

Mrs. Smith’s barn-my 87 year old neighbor who still mowes her own yard.
Typical Vermont barn -weathered
You have been very patient waiting for a quilt. After my walk, I just kept sewing. And this is my first project from this batch of fabric.
Unquilted top-Vermont Sunshine-20×39
A typical little ribbon quilt, isn’t it? A very happy little guy for a day in February. I needed just carefree and easy for the first day of vacation.
Ok-now dial up internet service has made me crazy uploading pictures. I must go to the library to do this. It takes about five minutes per picture! And weird things happen like pictures are getting all grainy.
Happy Sewing, my friends!

Arrriving

     We arrived in VT last night and traveled without one airline delay. I consider that a miracle. I am not sure I remember when that has happened. And we arrived in daylight to bright sunshine over the mountains. I came in the house and promptly fell down half a flight of steps. Oh well-so much for a smooth landing:). Nothing but a lot of sore this am. Won’t stop my day of sewing.

     I want to say hi to new people who are joining in the fun and reading. Thanks for the comments. I didn’t realize how much fun it is to get feedback until you started leaving me comments! I always thought that if I left a comment on someone’s blog I was being a bit of a stalker-but then -silly me-that is some of the purpose of all this-to get feedback and when someone else posts-it is for us to read….so I will be braver and leave comments. 
    I did finish my artist’s statement and label before I left. Now on to finish the piece-or start something new.

Happy Sewing, my friends!

The Beast is Done

     We woke up to a snow day from school today. Thank goodness. It’s just nice to get caught up and have no schedules to tend to.

     Well, I finally have my first finish of 2010. The recycled jean quilt is dones-completely done-to the trimming of the loose threads and placing of the label. Other than delivering it , there is nothing more to do to it. I never thought you could be traumatized by a quilt but it happened. It took a month longer than I thought it would-ok maybe three weeks longer. It’s done and I am singing and dancing a little happy dance. And you can too because the best thing is-you don’t have to hear me complain about finishing it ever again. I am ok with it and what’s important is that my son likes it and it’s for his class. So in the end -That’s all that matters!

It’s so big I can’t fit it all in. Walk With Me-60×90.

The best news of this process is my new machine and I have bonded. She earned her keep and survived working on this heavy denim quilt. So Clare-you deserve the honor of a picture here-

I did appreciate the longer arm. The dual feed system helped pull the bulk through and rode over all the seams. I’ll need to eventually get a different table and I think I will go with the Sew Ezi table . Yet to be determined but I don’t want to spend lots either.

A big sigh of relief.

Happy Sewing, my friends. I will try to bring my laptop with me-but we have dial up in VT so…I’ll hope for the best.

It must be used

    I continue to work on my project for the art exhibit coming up. I am enjoying the process. The artist’s statement definitely is the hardest part for me. I do have the rough draft done and will take one more look before I send it in.

     I also finished dyeing the rest of the floss. Since I had extra dye left over, I added some fabric in plastic bags. Not great results but not bad for the blues.

     The reds just were really washed out. Now, in all fairness, I used less dye for this than I  would normally. (1TB for 200ml water) But no matter  what I do to reds I always seem turn out coral or orangey. This time it was Fire Engine Red from Dharma. Anyone have a good red they can recommend? It seems to be elusive to find a good one. Not fuschia, not orange red but like a china red. Sometimes I stumble onto it but it’s always by some accident I can’t replicate.

It made a nice group though once I put it all together.

And now you can smile at me -because none of this is on my list.

Happy sewing, my friends!

Different but the Same

     I am being tugged between two entirely different things right now and feel kind of at a crossroads. I love quick improvisational piecing and the gratification of finishing a top. But I also love the satisfaction of handwork on a piece. Which we all know takes much longer. So rather than feeling as if it is a conflict and I need to choose, I am going to see if I could make it all fit together. Like the piece I made at Christmas time called Fire. But a little less fussy.
     Seems funny to take a class online but that’s how I learned to dye fabric so why not. No extra fees for staying somewhere and for food. So I signed up at Joggles for  Mark Making with Hand Dyed Embroidery Threads with Melanie Testa last week. I know, kind of impulsive, aren’t I? And there was a bit of eye rolling at my house when I told them I would be in the garage doing thread dyeing. Ok, even my  10 year old son said -I thought you could just buy it at Joanne’s-like hundreds of colors Mom-whatever….But I had fun.

You wrap your floss around little floss holders and squish it around in a plastic baggie. And you have beautiful colors.

I was afraid of making them too dark but now realize I must have some darker colors and some greens. Maybe some deeper yellows. I used cotton DMC floss, perle cotton and some yummy silk. This would be easy to do when you dye your fabrics.

So why dye my own floss? Because then  it’s my own colors dyed by my hand. So simple. Why don’t they get it? 🙂

Happy sewing, my friends-off to conquer last night’s list.

Catching Up

     Well I am very relieved to have my own laptop back! And working well. Lots of yucky things were going on but they seem to be resolved. And my mom did well with her surgery. No fun to have just one hand to use. She’s getting a teensy bit grumpy.

     I  have been having lots of fun playing this weekend. Paintsticks, dyeing, etc.

 Don’t panic really fits this week. I seem to have lots of pieces under way but not one finished. And I have a few deadlines this week. Ok that’s an understatement. Because I leave to go to Vermont on Thursday. I think I need a list.

1. Label for the Jeans Quilt
2. Finish piecing the barn top
3. three small works (take with me)
4. artist statement for show-DUE WED
5. Determine size I will use.(yes I have started it) DUE Feb 22

Oh yes and I must have food cooked/bought for three people staying here! Yikes…

     My sweet niece met me at her art school downtown and showed me how to mix acrylic paints to paint a canvas. I want to mount my piece on a canvas. It was hard to mix the colors(yah I think that’s why she is going to art school!) but kind of fun to paint the canvas. It’s down my basement drying and should be ready for me to work on once I get back from vacation. I owe her some paints now. She seemed to think my piece would be cool mounted on a canvas too. We’ll see if I can make it work.

     I am taking an online class and I’ll let you know about that tomorrow.

Happy Sewing, my friends. I am glad to be back.

You Can See The Moon

     Despite my post from yesterday, I had a great time when Paula  from PaulaArt recommended me for a Treasury at Etsy. It’s a means of putting together a group of items, displaying  them for a short period of time and having people vote on them quickly. Take a look at the Treasury West and see all the great items. You can then click on all the items and the treasury with the most votes gets to be on the front page of it-until the next round. So easy to get lost  there that it was nice of her to look out for me. Thank you Paula!

I just wanted something simple. Any suggestions for the edge/binding? It’s over dyed upholstry fabric so I think it will be too thick for a flat art quilt binding. It’s for a simple home.

Happy sewing, my friends!