Sunday, November 13, 2011

Quilt Display at Barn

This is a beautiful display of Pennsylvania quilts, many from the 19th Century, that were on display at a recent barn show. The show was to raise monies and awareness for land conservation in Bucks County, PA. Old Pennsylvania barns are becoming rare in our county as age takes it's toll on these amazing structures.  I had a booth at this event and across from my table was a knitter and next to my table were two New York designers creating Fascinators. We all demonstrated different techniques. There was a wine-maker in the center hall, fly-fishing demos, an apple pie bake-off and a wonderful jazz quartet playing in the barn during the event. A fabulous fall day in the country!

Green Crochet afghan

This is a simple, truly quick afghan to make. I am certainly a beginner when it comes to crochet techniques. Tomorrow this piece ships to my uncle in Virginia. He will be 90 on Wednesday and if there was ever a true gentleman, it would be him.
Vanna White came out with a 9 afghan pattern book several years ago. This is one of her patterns and it uses a size P hook and two colors of yarn in the hook. The colors for this piece were determined by skeins I picked up at a thrift store.  Due to the large hook, the piece can be crocheted quickly, but using two yarns at the same time, the piece is also warm.
I now have an ecru one in the works for my Mother, using 9 different shades of ecru and ivory yarns. Hopefully it will get to Texas before Christmas. If you can purchase yarn at thrift stores, grab those skeins. The older lots of yarn are a nice weight and quality.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

FREE FREIGHT WEEK through November 6, 2011

It's a FREE FREIGHT Week at RibbonSmyth!
Perfect time to grab a few embellishments before the holidays and we pay the freight on any order of $25 or more. All US orders ship via first class with delivery confirmation. Global orders are shipped via airmail.

This photo features a button collage created for an ArtBra titled "My Father's Ties". The bra is covered in a base of navy/gold/ivory silk pieces from men's ties. I made this piece in a remote area of New Mexico and forgot my needles! Closest store was a 45 minute drive down a mountain and lucky  that my Mother found a small sewing kit. All the glass pearls, beads and buttons were stitched over an intersection where several pieces of fabric intersected. Stacking beads and buttons in small clusters "anchors" a design. I layer the collage embellishments over simple seam treatments.