Mystery Five-0 :: Do you like mystery quilts?

 

We’re Part of Mystery Five-0!

The excitement is building! We’re thrilled to be part of the Mystery Five-0 program and can’t wait to reveal the theme for this year’s mystery quilt adventures.

The team at Mystery Five-0 have invited us to a Theme Reveal Party, just around the corner, where we’ll learn the theme for the upcoming mysteries. Trust us—this is going to be a thrilling journey for quilters everywhere!

Stay tuned—YOU could be part of this mysterious and creative experience starting this July! Keep an eye out for your exclusive invitation to join the fun.

Are you ready to solve the mystery with us? Let the intrigue begin!

I can't share too much yet, but we are participating in a very fun mystery program this year. You can participate if you are local AND if you aren't. Sign up information will be available soon. In the photo above you can see the clues I received in the mail for our Shop Owner Only Theme Reveal party. The shop owners got to open the clues during our Zoom meeting. It was so much fun!

Personal Sewing :: Side Two of the Project

 I'm making progress on the second side of my little hexagon bag project.

For this side I decided to just applique the hexagons down to my linen base in a pattern. I have more to add, but this is as far as I got yesterday afternoon while watching the NFL playoff games with my hubby.

I took a photo of the pre-made hexagons and the embroidery floss my friend gave me. I wish I had thought to take of photo of the hexagons before I started using them! They looked so pretty all laid out in rows that it took me a while to be able to use them.

If you missed my first post about this project you can view it by clicking the following link: Personal Sewing 

Personal Sewing

 Every January I like to try to make something just for me. So I started this little project. It will be a zippered bag when it grows up.

The hexagons were a gift from a friend from several years ago. She went to the big quilt show in Tokyo, in 2019 I think. She purchased these pre-made 1/2" hexagons and few small pieces of Japanese fabrics and gave them to me. I have 100 of these little hexagons and I'm finally using them! This is side one of the bag. I'm not sure what the other side will look like just yet, but I'm working on it.

I pieced the hexagons together, pulled out the papers then appliqued it to a piece of linen. There is a piece of fusible fleece on the backside of the linen. I quilted through the two layers and added some embroidery too. The colored embroidery thread was also part of the gift she brought me from Japan.

I'm just playing with no real plan, just doing what feels right in the moment.

How to Make a Basic Bowl with Rope

 I've been trying to do more video content but I don't really like to be on camera. Editing the videos is a learning experience and time consuming. I am getting better but I never thought I'd be filming and editing videos as part of my job. You just never know what skills you'll need in life!

I made a video demonstrating how to make a basic bowl with rope. It's kind of a mini class. It's not perfect, but I think you can get the idea and learn something which is more important than perfection. Because I show you a lot of things in the video it's what I would consider a long video - about 36 minutes. I show you everything though: how to start the bowl, how to change rope colors, how to tip up the bottom and make the sides of the bowl and a loop finish. I also share some tips and tricks.

The video from YouTube is embedded below:

If the video above doesn't play for you, here is the direct link to the video on the shop YouTube Channel: Rope Bowl Demonstration from Alamosa Quilt Company  If you go directly to YouTube via the link would you consider subscribing to my YouTube Channel? It would help my rankings on YouTube to get some new subscribers.

I am using two colors of rope that I sell in my shop. My favorite rope to sew with is the 3/16" diameter rope from the Mountain Thread Company. I carry several colors of it as well as the natural color in my shop. Click the following link to check out the rope sewing supplies I have in stock: Rope Sewing Supplies from Alamosa Quilt Company

Crimson Tweed is Done, Done, DONE!

 As most Sue Spargo projects are, this one took quite a while. I've been working on this for about four years. The hand quilting alone took a little over two years, but I really only got to work on it on Thursdays during the hand sewing group at my shop.

I included lots of close up shots of the finished quilt below. 

The pattern is called Crimson Tweed by Sue Spargo. The pattern book is discontinued and I have already sold my personal copy of the pattern to a customer who wanted it. An internet search might turn up a couple copies of the book from an individual who is selling their personal copy or from a shop who might have a copy or two still in their inventory, but I don't have any copies of the pattern book any more.

If you get your hands on a copy be forewarned that this pattern is from 2010. At that time Sue Spargo was not doing as much embroidery on her designs as she uses now. Most of the embroidery I did on this is my own design. There were about 10 of us at my shop who did this project together. We all took ideas from each other and shared lace, buttons, beads and other embellishments within the group.

Crimson Tweed Update

 On Thursday of last week I put the final seed stitch, which is how I hand quilted this, in my version of Crimson Tweed.

I've been working on this for quite some time! I started quilting it in October of 2022. I worked on it most Thursday afternoons at my shop during our Hand Sewing Group. Sometimes store sewing took precedent and I had to get it done instead of working on my Crimson Tweed, but I tried to not let store sewing get in the way very often.

The last step is binding, a label and a hanging sleeve. I have the binding fabric picked out and cut. The plan is to get this finished soon and ready for hanging up in my house this year during the Christmas season. 

When I do my final post on this project I'll take some close up images of it so you can see the details a bit better.

Dip Dyed Rope Bowls

 I did a little experiment last week. I bought some liquid Rit dye from the grocery store along with a bottle of the Rit dye Color Fix. I followed the directions on the bottles and dip dyed a sewn bowl and some loose rope.

Here is the bowl before dyeing.

I used an old bucket to set the bowl and loose rope in with the dye. Then I set them in the sun in my backyard to dry.

Here is what the bowl looks like after it dried. 

Then I made another bowl with the dip dyed loose rope.

On this bowl I tried out a different finish than I've used before. I just finished the bowl then cut a 1.5" by 3" piece of cork and folded it over the end of the rope. I made sure it was evenly folded over the edge and topstitched it down.

I'm not a big fan of dyeing fabric myself. I love the finished product but don't really enjoy the dyeing process personally. Dyeing rope is about the same, but much easier than the methods I have tried for dyeing fabric. It took about 2 hours of dyeing time, most of which was spent waiting. I would guess there was an actual 30 minutes of true work during the 2 hours. Then it took a few more hours of drying time, again, no actual work, just waiting patiently to handle my dyed stuff.

But wow, I love how both of them turned out!

If you would like to try this out and you can't get the supplies locally, I do have all of the rope, rope kits, and a rope sewing book listed for sale on my website.

Rope Sewing Supplies from Alamosa Quilt Company