M-A-N-Y many years ago I took some college classes in weaving. I recently ran across several projects that had been long stored and thought I'd share them.

This is a kilt I made for my hubby in his family's tartan (Royal Stewart). I wove 6 yards of fabric, designed and made the kilt.

There was enough yardage left that I made a miniature kilt for our son (about age 1) and this neck scarf for my father-in-law.

My weaving was back in the day when long skirts were the thing. I made this houndstooth weave for my mom.

This skirt I made for myself - plain weave with a border of pattern weave at the bottom.

I made baby blankets for each of my kids but don't have either of those handy to show. I do have this wall hanging that I made with 100 handmade brass bells woven in.

I do still have a floor loom but have not had a project on it for at least 25 years. So many hobbies, so little time.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

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Oh, the joy of looking through huge boxes of old photos with adult children! Many memories, laughs and stories later, I pulled out a couple of art projects from 'w-a-a-a-y' back to share with you.

More than 30 years ago I made this wall hanging for my folks. It is an image of Multnomah Falls in Oregon. I wrapped a metal hoop with yarn then used a needle to string a warp of yarns vertically. This became the base for a tapestry weaving for the background. The falls themselves are in freefall made of a slub yarn. The trees are made in a rag rug style by tying tufts of yarn onto the base and then trimming them to shape. The bridge - an iconic part of the falls view - is crocheted.

Sorry about the quality of the photo as it is a digital pic of a printed snapshot.

I used to do a lot of weaving back in the 70's and may show some more of those projects along the way. I still have a few of them after all these years. I still have my floor loom, too, but haven't had a warp on it since about 1983!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

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Halloween has come again and we were off the other nite to a costume party. We always try to go as a 'couple' with costumes that are tied to one another and this year was no exception. We decided to go as Shrek and Fiona.

Hubby shaved his head for the green face paint and I made him 'ears' of green felt mounted on a green child's headband. Tan pants and black boots were topped with a white long-sleeved tee. He wore his belt on the outside and I made his cut-down vest out of an old black sweatshirt. I cut away the sleeves and neck and shortened it before  binding all the edges with bias tape. The ends of the bias tape were used to tie the vest closed.

I made more of my costume by using a satin fabric to sew a dress based on a pattern for a peasant blouse. I simply lengthened it and then used some decorative trim as a tie to create an empire waist. I created the headpiece by coloring the stones on a child's crown with alcohol inks (they started out purple) and attaching the 'ears' made from green felt with hot glue. I sprayed red coloring in my hair and used green face paint (horrible stuff - always turns out blotchy). Simple black shoes were all that it needed for completion of this outfit.

Happy Haunting!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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Anybody should be able to hear with forty-four ears!

I got FORTY-FOUR EARS OF CORN in my garden. I've mentioned before that this is the first time I have grown corn and I am totally jazzed that this crop came out so well. I blanched it all and froze it on the cob. That's the way we like it and it will be great having corn on the cob all winter long.

Yummo!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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I harvested my first plant of purple potatoes! I had no idea what size they would turn out and I was excited to see that they are at least as big as the russets. Not sure how I will be cooking these - first I have to admire them for a few days, though.

Aren't these awesome?

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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Wow! The whole summer flew by and I forgot to show the progress of the garden.

So much of the produce has come and gone that there is not much to show at this point but we are still eating from it and a few things are just coming into their own. Tonight we had spinach, beets, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions and potatoes from the garden for dinner. I have white onions in the crisper, too.

The deer ate the strawberries right down to the stems and the blueberries produced two berries this year. No raspberries at all. None of the garlic came up. Lettuce did well but the deer snacked on that, too. Radishes did like every year - about half a dozen created radishes and the rest went right to seed. A re-planting did even worse with no radishes produced at all. Green beans did good, peas did fair and sugar snap peas did dismally.

Successes are green onions:

Beets:

Carrots:

Potatoes - this is the first time I have grown potatoes and I planted three kinds: purple, Yukon gold, russet:

Tomatoes - I planted two regular and one cherry tomato plants. They are not loaded but all have a few fruit and they are just starting to ripen:

and, finally, sweet corn - this is the first time I have grown corn, too. It is doing GREAT!

Look at these cobs!!!

We'll be eating on this garden for quite a while yet.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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Just ONE (OK, technically 4) more Christmas project to share.

First up is the set of ornaments I made. I got the idea for these from one of the blogs I follow and actually bought the balls to make them with. I started with 6 red satin-glass balls, used glue dots to adhere a grosgrain ribbon around and attached a square of gold metallic cardstock to cover the seam. The center of the buckle is colored in with Sharpie marker. I did not have any black ribbon so I colored some cream ribbon with black alcohol ink.

The rest of the projects involve food - for the Christmas brunch we went to. I got the idea to make cucumber cups from a magazine but changed it up by peeling mine and making a filling of spicy crab salad for the filling. The centers are scooped out to make the cups.

Then from Google Images I got the idea to arrange the veggie tray as a Christmas tree. I used cauliflower for the snow, snap peas for the trunk, broccoli for the tree and decorated with yellow bell pepper strips, radishes and black olives. I shaved carrot over the top for color and served two kinds of dip in hollowed out bell peppers.

I made a wreath for the fruit tray using cantaloupe, honeydew, and pineapple rings (cut in half). The pineapple centers each got a grape and the spaces between these got half of a strawberry. I cut slices of the cantapoupe and carved them to make a bow for the center.

Still eating leftovers...

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:00 AM PST

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This year's garden was a dismal failure! I attribute this to the cold and wet spring that lasted through June. I did have success with beets and cherry tomatoes, with sweet onions and green onions. Everything else either came up and had a weak production or the seeds didn't even sprout.

For example, here is a photo of my entire carrot harvest.

I scrubbed them and grated the whole lot which made enough for 12 loaves of carrot-pineapple bread.

The photo also shows the beet harvest minus the two I pulled earlier in the summer. These were some tasty beets, too. I boil them in the skins, plunge into cold water, slip the skins, slice, saute in butter, season with salt and pepper. Just like candy!

Next year had better be a good harvest or I may have to give up on the whole gardening 'thing'. Either I'm not good at it, the oak barrels are not suitable, or it takes more time/attention than I am giving it. Since none of those variables are going to change I have better things to do with my energy than fuss over vegetables that don't want to cooperate.

Stay tuned...

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:00 AM PDT

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Another year, another garden.

A couple of new things this year: I put in both sweet onions and white onions in addition to the green spring onions. And for the tomato selections I went to a high yield cherry tomato, a roma, and an heirloom mix. I am going to try growing the larger tomatoes in the hanging planters I've seen on TV. For the time being I have them in starter trays and will move them once they are established plants.

As I was weeding the barrels in preparation for planting I was fascinated by the way each barrel has it's own little specialty in the weed department. One barrel is heavy on the thistles, another has these weird weeds that 'pop' and spray seeds when you touch them. Then there are some kind of vines that have purple flowers and a real sticky stem, and in yet another barrel there are milkweed. I've found grass in some, too, but the most FUN is finding the walnuts from across the road that the squirrels have buried in the soil. A few of them sprout but most are just hanging out. This year I found three of them.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:00 AM PDT

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I have this little voice in the back of my head that insists it is cheating to call it gardening if you buy plants half grown and just put them in the dirt. Even more so if flowers are blooming in your garden at the moment you cover the roots with soil!

Alas, I have delayed so long in planting my garden this year that I stooped to the depths and bought tomato plants to plop in the ground. I'm SO ashamed (but hopefully will have tasty tomatoes out of it).

However, the rest of the barrels (11 of them) have been planted with their little seeds in the manner of proper gardening.

I planted on Monday afternoon. Here on Thursday afternoon I have three barrels sprouting.

Here's the spinach:

The lettuce:

and the radishes:

Yeah, I know they're small - but for only three days old...

The other thing is that they look pretty much the same. Good thing I labeled the barrels:

I did all the lettering with a chisel point marker upside-down leaning over the barrel! Pretty good, huh?

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:00 AM PDT

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This last weekend was a ladies event at church. I was asked to do the decorations and chose to do an 'apple harvest' theme. The fabric was from JoAnn Fabrics, the candles I had left over from a previous project, and everything else (frupt, plates, wreaths) was from Dollar Tree!

This is the centerpiece used on 8 round tables: 

This is the backdrop for the food table:

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:00 AM PDT

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Hubby and I have been playing with blocks! BIG blocks. After living in our house for over 18 years we finally decided to put in some landscaping in the front. We started last weekend and finished this new flowerbed today.

I will be planting ferns in back, hostas in the center, coleus in the front. We want to have some color and it is in perpetual shade - all seasons and all times of the day. I still have to research the best time to plant all of these, but when the time is right WE ARE READY!

Ddd studio3d@ccwebster.net

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 7:36 PM PDT

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TEXAS CAVIAR

2 15-oz cans black eyed peas

1 15-oz can black beans

1 15-oz can yellow niblet corn

2 small cans chopped green chilies

1 15-oz can white shoe peg corn

1 16-oz bottle Italian dressing

1 bunch spring onions, chopped

1 bell pepper, deseeded and chopped

2 jalapeno peppers, deseeded and chopped.

3 tomatoes, chopped

Drain & rinse all wet ingredients, combine with chopped ingredients. Pour in dressing and mix well. Marinate at least overnight. Drain and serve with tortilla chips. Makes 3 to 3.5 quarts.

Ddd studio3d@ccwebster.net

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:00 AM PDT

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