Thursday, January 23, 2014

Thread love and dyeing fun

Good morning friends,hope that you all are staying nice and warm where ever you are at.I just about froze my backside off ,out feeding the animals this morning.With the windchill we are at a balmy 0*,not much fun to be out in.If the wind was not bad enough my water had frozen at the barn so that meant packing lots of  buckets from momma's house.Thirty or more goats, a pot belly pig, several chickens can drink a lot even in cold weather.All is good though because so far they are all handling  the cold well. I know that it is even colder in many places so I will try not to complain. 

The title of this post is thread love ,so I guess I should explain it a bit.Many of you talk of about fabric addiction ,but mine is  thread.I can't help myself ,if I could I would have a room full of thread.My favorite has to be embroidery floss ,although I always find myself walking up and down the isles of yarn and crochet thread in stores.I can't crochet or knit but I still have to walk up and down drooling and touching the beautiful colors and textures .LOL! Hubby just stands back watching and shaking his head.Good thing he is a patient man.

I bought a floss lot off from ebay.It had been cut and packaged for kits but for the price I could not resist it.I knew that most of the colors were not my usual choices but I was thinking that it would be fun to  dye them.

 This is the way it arrived.Lots of floss but it needed to be separated out into individual colors.



 This is after several days of separating into individual color piles and  then twisting into 20 yard skeins.Such wonderful goodness.


 While the colors are pretty as they are,I usually like darker shades to work my punch needle projects.Yep, you guessed it...time to drag the crock pot and dye out.Hubby was really shaking his head (you'd think he'd be used to these things by now) and saying wouldn't it be easier just to buy the colors I like.Of course it would but it sure would not be as fun.LOL! I used Rit dye in dark brown,tan ,scarlet and some custom mixed colors.Now these colors I love,just wonderful in my opinion. 

Won't these be nice for Fall projects?





 I think when it was all tallied up I ended up with something like 389 skeins of floss! Yippee! I still have more to dye and I am thinking of doing some with black and maybe gray.Should be fun.Some skeins have already been used in a few projects that I will share later on.I have been watching for more lots like this,it is a lot of work but the reward is awesome.

Off to work on another punch needle project.Stay warm and safe friends.Blessings,Jen

Monday, January 6, 2014

Wonderful gift in the mail!

A snowy good Monday morning  friends! It is bitterly cold here in Kentucky today.This is supposed to be the coldest that this area has seen in almost 20 years! It is pretty outside with  some snow on the ground,would have like to see more snow and less frigid temperatures.I have spent the last four days trying to prepare the critters for the negative temperatures that arrived last night.It is going to get worse as the day progresses.The bitter cold brought the need for extra bedding and wind breaks for all the animals.I pray that they will make it through okay as well as prayers for folks that must be outside in such conditions.

I recently was blessed to win a beautiful ornament from Laura  and it is gorgeous! Laura is super sweet and very talented,please click on  her name and check out her blog.You won't be disappointed.Laura also has an Etsy shop Rhodes Creations Etsy so be sure and stop by there.The ornament is a quilted ball ornie and before I show you the pics I will tell you they did not do it justice.Laura not only sent the ornament but she included a sweet tag and a Joy to the World Cd of Christmas songs. Thanks so much Laura.

I chose the ornament " Down on the farm" and I love it ,the colors are perfect for me.





Because it is so bitterly cold I now have a temporary house guest.After much thought I felt it would be safer to bring Tumbleweed into the house rather on chancing him getting his ears wet and possibly losing them to frostbite.He is such a sweet tempered bunny and loves to be held and petted. He still has some growing to do as he is not a year old yet.English lops are well known for their great big ears. Oh and don't mind the towel he is sitting on, it is not dirty only stained from me dying some floss.LOL!



Gretchen is reminding Tumbleweed that he is only a guest and that she is momma's baby! LOL! 

Well my dear friends I hope that you all have an awesome day.Stay safe and warm! I plan on doing my outside feeding and then snuggling down with my girl Gretchen .It is just that kind of day.Hugs,Jen