This and that.......

Yes, I rarely post anymore, I just don't feel like I have much share and just don't have much motivation these days to even take the photos. But here are a couple things I've been working on. 

Susan from the blog Thrums posted this draft. She wasn't sure where she got it from, maybe handweaving.net. I thought I'd weave a table runner project using it. This is the gray, working on a pale sage green now and will do a blue one. I'm using 5/2 perle cotton. I originally thought if I liked it I would put on a towel warp using this same draft but I'm not enjoying weaving it that much so I'll pass on towels. I do want to get a towel warp on soon, also a warp for our holiday cards which I've now picked a draft for.

I did some sewing - 17 tote bags for the Head Start kids. Our neighborhood group of the American Sewing Guild does quite a bit of charity sewing.  This is one of the groups we sew for.  We fill these with fun stuff we buy from grant money and deliver them at the holidays. 

Other than this not much to share, just can't think of much to say...............

ASG Challenge

Back in the fall my neighborhood group of the American Sewing Guild decided to do a challenge. It's so hard to meet only via zoom so this would give us all something to work toward together. We each put fabric of any kind and whatever else in a brown bag, all were delivered to my door, then all came to pick a bag up once I had them all. I took the bag that was left. We each were to put at least 2 yards of fabric in our bag and no pieces less than 10" x 10". Our finished items are to be shown at our February zoom meeting........which we had hoped by then we might be meeting in person but not looking promising. 

Here is what I got in my brown bag. Three pieces of fabric, a small piece of burlap, label ribbon, 2 kinds of lace trim and 4 buttons.  I was to use at least 50% of what I received and could add up to 25% of my own fabric. I had thoughts of a small art quilt wall hanging including photos of the coast but went another way.......I kept the idea of photos.

 Just an hour ago I finished my project, a tote bag.  The only thing added from my own stash was the fabric pieces made to go through the printer for my photos and peltex to stiffen the bottom of the bag.  I used up over 75% of the fabric I was given - the bubble fabric is the inside lining. I used both lace trims. I used the burlap. I added a little tab of the ribbon that said 'handmade with love'. The only thing I didn't use were the 4 white buttons. I hand embroidered 'Bandon' 'By the Sea' on the burlap, not the easiest thing to do. This will be a great tote bag to use while on the coast, especially since here in Oregon we have to bring our own bag or pay for a bag. It will be perfect for shopping trips to the quilt shops!!! 

This and that......

Yes, been gone from my blog for quite a while again. I mean, what do I have to say, not much done around here unless I count the major time sucker of working on my cousin's house (he passed away this past January).  It has just gone on the market, hoping someone wants to buy it because it's almost brand new again and is move in ready.  And no, I didn't do all the work by myself, my hubby did the bulk of it. Hoping this frees up more time in 2022 to spend on being creative. 

Just in the past 2 months I started spinning again occasionally in the evenings.  I spun up this luscious silk/yak blend.  It hasn't been washed yet and I haven't counted up the yards so have no clue what it will grow up to be. Right now I just keep petting it as I walk by.  It was a little hard on my arthritic hands to spin as it was so slippery. What has happened with that anyhow, arthritis has been gradually affecting my hands the past couple of years, feel like I'm moving toward getting old - yikes. I have some other skeins to share in my next post that were spun recently. 

Since I'll be having a bit more free time (at least assuming so) I pulled out what I got in the ASG (American Sewing Guild) neighborhood group's brown bag challenge.  This is what I got in my bag.  I'm starting to brainstorm on what I can create. Looks kind of beachy, doesn't it? Brainstorming seems hard these days, anyone else experiencing that? I've been having such problems all year focusing on being creative......or maybe it's just focusing in general.....yep, that's it. 

The past few weeks I've been collecting fabrics in grays and teals for a quilt for the guest room trundle bed. I'm going to make it big enough to cover both mattresses when opened up. A few more fabrics and I may be ready to start cutting and sewing. 

I'm hoping to get back to weaving in the near future, like not long after the holidays. I've focused on weaving to sell for over 30 years and now have decided to retire from selling - it's hard to make that transition.......but I'll eventually figure it out. 

Even though I've been in a funk for well over a year due to family issues I'm convinced 2022 is going to be better and am looking forward to spending time in the studio again. 

 

Thinking ahead..........

I'm thinking ahead to autumn..........or I could look at it as being far behind from last year.  A friend bought me this pumpkin wallhanging pattern and ruler christmas 2019. I had good intentions of making it to hang up during the fall months but as far as I got was to buy fabric. Yesterday I sat down with the pattern and took out some scrap fabric to try my hand at making one block. I've never sewn curves like this before. I did ok. My pumpkin isn't perfect but it's pretty danged close. The pattern is for a 36" square size but I'm going to make mine around 52"x72". I guessed at how much fabric I need, now I see I need a few more different oranges, I'm good on the neutral pumpkins.  I did not buy enough gray for the background so need to pick up some gray. It's amazing that the pattern as shown is exactly the colors I would have chosen since we have gray in our decor. I may have to resort to ordering fabric online as not all quilt shops are open at this time. But I can start on cutting out the neutral pumpkins in the meantime, but can't sew them until I pick up more background gray fabric as I'm sure I can't match what I have so will need to buy new.........except I'm busy for the next 5 days. My goal is to get this done and hanging by the end of September but who knows.......it's a lot of pumpkin blocks to sew and the current lead time on machine quilting here is 8 weeks. At least I'm starting on it.  

This week I worked on my community sewing that our neighborhood group does as part of the American Sewing Guild. I made a total of 19 tote bags and 10 fleece hats.  For Christmas we fill the tote bags with coloring books, crayons, treats, toothbrushes, toothpaste and a fleece hat for the Head Start kids in our town. Last year we also made them fun masks.
 

More charity sewing......

I finished up my charity sewing with my quote for 13 tote bags...…… only 12 seen here because I neglected to pick up the other one sitting on the ironing board. They're all ready for later this fall when we fill over 100 of them with goodies for Head Start kids for Christmas.

Now to sit and handstitch the back of the binding of my two afghan quilts while watching the Superbowl.…..

Community Sew

At our local American Sewing Guild meeting on Tuesday I picked up fabrics for our community sew projects.  In an effort to not clutter up my sewing room I'm working on those now in-between other things on the calendar.

I've made 17 polar fleece caps for Head Start - these will go in the tote bags we fill for the kids next November. Nice to get more than my quota done so early in the year.

And yet, another sideways picture from my camera - don't get it, doesn't matter which way I take the photo sometimes they turn out sideways, even when showing up correctly on my desktop - I've given up. I should always use the camera but sometimes it's easier to grab my phone that's sitting right there on the table.  Anyhow, here are 10 pillowcases sewn for a care facility here in our town. There is no deadline on these but I will get them turned in this next month.  I'll probably end up sewing more of these throughout the year.

Next up are 13 tote bags (my quota) for the Head Start kids. Hoping to knock those out in this next week so I'll be done with them for the year. We get a small grant each year to fill them with coloring books, crayons, pencils, sharpener, toothpaste & toothbrushes, Kleenex and treats......and the polar fleece caps.

Another project waiting in the wings is putting the binding on the two afghan quilts.  I took them to Jordan Quilts to be long arm quilted, lead time was seven weeks, they were ready in two, picked them up yesterday. Would like to get the bindings sewn on tomorrow so then I can work on handstitching it to the back during the Superbowl on Sunday.

If you've never checked out Jordan Quilts online and you're a quilter you should go check it out.  They have lots of free patterns and great video tutorials......not to mention a huge selection of fabric. If you sign up for the newsletter you'll get a mailing almost every day.  I am so lucky to have this shop just five minutes from my house.

I had planned on getting a warp on the loom this week but got sidetracked with these projects. There's always next week............

This and that........

 I finished the table runners from the ASG Make-It-Take-It day. The purple one was quilted stitch in the ditch and then binding sewn on - wasn't as happy with the odd angle mitered corners on my binding as I wanted.  When I got to the gray/teal runners (buffet & table) I was using different directions for the mitered corners and I'm much more pleased.........still not perfect but much better. These runners were also quilted by stitching in the ditch.  I had some 4 patch squares left so I made 6 quick and easy quilted mug rugs/coasters.

Now I'm back to working on the wall quilt for over the couch. It doesn't quite fit on my work table but not too much hanging over the front & back for the photo. Yesterday morning I just decided I had to quit designing and re-designing and just go for it so I started cutting out 8" squares. I  laid them on the floor and played with moving them around, some I never used. So now the background is sewn and is around 45" x 52", give or take. I had Sam hold it up over the couch to see if this size is good and it's perfect. Of course this is over the old couch - we're still waiting for the new sectional in a charcoal gray - looks to be another 2 months. 

Yesterday afternoon I drew out gingko leaves, some using stencils. This morning I scanned them in the computer to make larger patterns, printed and cut them out. Here the paper pieces are sitting on top of the pieced background - When I'm happy with the layout I'll use these paper pieces as patterns to cut out the gold fabric for the gingkoes. A couple posts ago you can see the gold fabric that will be the gingko leaves. I'm thinking I'll fuse them to the background and then do a narrow zig-zag around the edges, or maybe even just straight stitching - I haven't decided. I'll be doing some sampling before I get to that stage.

Originally I thought I might also do some stenciling with shiva paintstiks but I'm thinking not, I don't want it to be too busy, it's already got a lot going on with all the different fabric squares. I have no clue what type of quilting I'll do - maybe free motion???  I'll need to practice that if I go that way. Maybe in the free motion some gingko shapes???  I definitely need to get some feedback before I go any further.

In the midst of the sewing the kitchen was torn out on Monday. The fridge, stove and a folding table are sitting in it at the moment, dishwasher is in the garage. Much work by Sam this week replacing drywall where the old backsplash was removed and most of the wall came with it. Plywood to bring the floor up to the wood floor height under the cabinets as that was never done when the house was originally built, electrical work and plumbing work. There's still a little bit of texturing to be done on the walls, then we're ready for the new cabinets which we're hoping will be finished this week. After that the granite guy will be out to do a final measurement to cut the granite. We still need to pick out backsplash but we'll do that once cabinets & granite are installed - will bring home samples to audition when the time comes. In the meantime we're eating very simple meals, take-out or going out.

ASG fun

Yesterday was our local ASG (American Sewing Guild) chapter's Make-It-Take-It day. For a very nominal fee of $15 I could take 3 classes and it included lunch, not to mention getting to visit with other sewers/quilters in our region that I wouldn't normally see.

I pieced this runner. It's really long and will just fit on the buffet. I've already cut out more pieces to make a smaller runner for the table. It will still need to be layered with batting and a backing fabric and then I'll need to quilt it......most probably stitch in the ditch.

Here is the pieced runner top from another class. It's pretty small, not sure where I'll use it, maybe I'll make another one larger and use this one for a gift. This was called the easy peasy runner because it's ironed onto a grid stabilizer and then folded to do the stitching - very quick piecing technique. This one also needs batting, backing and quilting. The instructor for this project was the president of our local ASG chapter - big thanks to her for all her organizing skills and work in our region.

My third class was making these Swedish stars out of fabric strips.  A bit fiddly on the first one but then once over the learning curve it was easy. The instructor made over 80 of these for gifts - yikes - that's a lot of stars.

I haven't gotten back to that gingko quilted wallhanging I want to make - there just hasn't been time and I don't see much free time this week to work on that or finishing up the table runners. I did buy a few more pieces of mostly black fabrics that may replace a few of the others that I wasn't happy with in the mock up.

We've emptied out all the kitchen cabinets and are ready for kitchen cabinet demolition tomorrow morning. They have to be removed to get final measurements for the peninsula. 'Hopefully' the following week new cabinets will be in and the granite guy will be out to make the template for our countertops.  It's going to be a disaster in here for several weeks and probably some eating out.

Finally finished.......

Finally finished the tote bags for the head start kids. Some have appliques, some have pockets. I'm so excited to be ahead of the game with my charity/community sewing this year. I'm looking forward to working on some of my own projects next.

May your blessings out number

The shamrocks that grow

And may trouble avoid you

Wherever you go

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Hats for......

Fleece hats for the Head Start kids. In our neighborhood group of the American Sewing Guild we make little tote bags for the Head Start kids for the holidays. We fill the bags with a coloring book, crayons, pencils, sharpeners, tissues, toothpaste and brushes and candy/treats. This year we're adding fleece hats to the totes. I've decided to get my portion sewn early in the year rather than doing it later when I'm trying to do my own gift making. 14 hats sewn. Hoping to finish up tote bags soon.

Pillowcases for Paradise

Last week our neighborhood chapter of ASG (American Sewing Guild) got a request for pillowcases for those who lost so much in the fire in Paradise, CA this past November. I picked up some fabric at the meeting and whipped these 12 pillowcases up today. Someone from our region will be going down to Paradise to deliver them.

We have many new transplants in our region from Paradise. I mean, what do you do when practically an entire town burns down. Not only does one lose their home but they may have also lost a job. The new owners of our Grocery Outlet are from Paradise, they owned a Grocery Outlet down there, it burned. The formers owners of the one here were looking to sell so it worked out for them to move to our area.

This morning I got a lesson in pruning fruit trees and a side lesson on my grapes and roses. Many thanks to two friends who came over in the freezing fog to teach. I learned so much and am ready to get out there and work..........as soon as I won't freeze while doing it. There were places around here that had sun by afternoon but my house was not one of them, it was socked in all day. But I'll take it any day over what's going on in the Midwest and back east......

More charity sewing

Yesterday afternoon I worked at warp speed to sew up my quota of 10 small tote bags for our American Sewing Guild Head Start project. Kids will get tote bags filled with goodies at the holidays. Glad to have my charity sewing finished up so I can move on to my own projects not to mention finishing up organizing since we moved. Hoping to get art up on the walls soon.

A bit of sewing.......

I just finished sewing up 17 pillowcases for charity. Our neighborhood group of the American Sewing Guild sews pillow cases for a local care facility. I hope they brighten up some of those residents days seeing them on their beds........and having the beautiful fabrics under their heads because what I got from the guild was high quality fabric. I thought I was picking out enough fabric to do my quota of 10 cases.....well, there was enough for 17 so I just kept sewing.

Next up are the small tote bags for Head Start kids that we fill with goodies at the holidays. I feel the need to get the charity sewing out of the way so I can work on my own sewing and get back to weaving.

This and that........

Been missing in action again - I have been busy, just haven't had much to share.  Been busy unpacking the last of the boxes (other than holiday stuff). My two studio rooms are set up ready to work in - all that's left is to put some pictures on the walls in those rooms, and the rest of the house.

I went to the American Sewing Guild meeting on Tuesday and friend Kathy taught us how to make fun visors. I love it and will be making more.

I did sew bathroom café curtains. I have family arriving next week and figured they'd probably appreciate a curtain in the guest bath. The bath is ending up black, white and gray with bits of other colors due to the black & white marble countertops. It's hard to see this fabric but it's little dashes of gray and black on a white background. Ignore the filthy windows - we haven't had time to wash them since moving in this house and I don't think the previous owners ever washed them in the 4 years they lived here. 

Here are the cafes in the master bath toilet area. I had bought a vintage table runner to make them but then found this cute dragonfly fabric in my stash - I love it, it makes me smile. We will need these once the plum trees outside lose their leaves.

And here's the café over the tub area. it also has dragonflies and is a coordinating fabric to the other one.

We have a couple apple trees at our new place so yesterday I made spiced applesauce for the freezer - it is yummy. I need to make more as we have a number of apples. I also made an apple pie. When the fridge Pillsbury Crust in the box says 'best by July 2018' believe it. It's edible, especially with vanilla ice cream, but really the crust is past it's prime - pretty heavy, not flakey at all.

And this final picture is yet another fire but this is old news. This was from Friday afternoon looking out our back door. If I hadn't known exactly where it was I would have thought it was just blocks away - it was on the other side of town, which isn't far but not a danger for us. Since then a fire broke out not far from our old house (which we still own, another story) but not close enough to be a danger but it is a danger for many others including friends. I have heard of one house that burnt but there are apparently others, no official news on the numbers yet. Hoping they get that fire out within the next few days and hoping those I know and others still have their homes once the fire is contained. And then today when driving home we saw a plume of smoke close to the fire from Friday - sounds like it got snuffed out quickly.  I am so done with fire season this year - it gets worse every year. And the story on the old house which we still own - it was close to the huge fire which is now ok on our side of the fire but kept anyone from looking at it. Just this past week a few realtors were out with prospective buyers, unfortunately none of them were interested in our house.......but at least it's getting shown now that the fire is under control and we aren't socked in with smoke.....just need the perfect person for a really nice home to go look at it.

Bits & bobs.......

 Finally the quilt top I started a couple years ago made it to a long arm quilter in January - don't ask me why it took me so long to get it to someone. I took it to Sew Cute Quilting & Fabric Boutique in Dillard, OR - we pass it on our way to and from the coast. If it hadn't been that convenient it may still be sitting in the basket with the backing and batting.  This morning I got the binding sewn on - I love these little clips - so much easier than using pins on something like this.

 My mitered edges turned out great - I cut the corners  off the quilt so it wouldn't get stepped on as we walk around the bed. Here the binding is turned to the back ready for the final hand-stitching. Yes, I could stitch in the ditch and catch the backside of the binding but I really like not seeing that machine stitching in the binding. Once it makes it onto the bed at the beach cottage I'll take a photo again. It's hard to see in the pictures but the quilting is a sealife design with shells, sand dollars, starfish and kelp.

 I spent some time sewing yesterday making some snap bags. The tops have metal measuring tape inside the casings so the tops can be pulled out and snap back closed. These three go with a tote bag I made a couple years ago. I also made 4 more small ones in various stages of construction. I'll be leading our neighborhood American Sewing Guild group in how to make them later in March. I took photos along the way so I can give each person written directions too.

This painted silk warp went on the loom the other day but other than auditioning wefts I haven't gotten back to it. This is a dye job gone awry. I mixed that purple dye with varying amounts of gold dye hoping to get more of an ombre feel but it didn't come out as expected. So, after sitting for 2 years on the shelf I decided to just put it on the loom and get it woven. I've got enough for 3 scarves - I'll vary some wefts and also vary treadlings. I'm hoping once woven I'll like them better than I am right now........I could easily take that purple out of the warp, not sure I want to do that though.

 Today I spent a bit of time at the sewing machine appliqueing panels onto denim and sewing up some small totes. These are a community sew project for our neighborhood chapter of the American Sewing Guild. We'll be donating these cute little bags to our local Head Start program.

The bags will be filled with assorted items for the kiddos.  I think I'll make a few more as my contribution.......then I'll move on to a new project. I came up with a 'process' to streamline making these and can get them sewn fairly quickly now.

Air quality index is at 377 at the moment, hazardous.  Some spots in our region are getting thunderstorms, mostly thunder & dry lightning (yikes more fire starts!) but a few areas are getting some rain too..........we're getting nothing so far. I haven't been able to see the infrared pix of the fires close to us for the past few days, too much smoke for the planes to fly over.  I hate fire season.......

This and that.........

 Today I worked on another baby quilt for charity. The fabric was donated and was fun to put together, it needed some quilting in the center of the blocks so I quilted a star in each one. Very fun. Think I've done enough charity baby quilts for a bit........need to do some sewing for myself soon.

 Recently I silkscreened discharge paste onto a handwoven chenille scarf. I hadn't done this in a while, I did think to check my discharge paste to make sure it was still good unlike last time when it had lost it's umpf. The paste almost worked too good as it bled through to the wrong side so the backside of the scarf has ghost images of the gingko leaves. This has never happened before......but I'm wondering if maybe it was the different brand of chenille that was the culprit. The scarf is fine but I'm not happy with that happening.

Here it is finished. It's amazing how different brands of chenille will discharge completely different - usually I get a really yellow gold but this chenille discharged to a goldy/lavender.........it's very pretty......just different. This scarf is up for sale in my etsy shop. One of the pictures in the listing does show the ghost imaging on the backside if anyone is interested.

This and that.........

I finally found some time to do more dreaded photography work, otherwise these scarves would get moved from hanging over the back beam of one loom to another to get them out of my way. Now they're photographed, tags attached and hung with other scarves listed in my etsy shop.

Here is the second echo weave scarf - this one has a red tencel weft. I've been wanting to weave something in echo weave but hadn't gotten to it, always put on the back burner. Our weaving guild challenge this year is to weave something new, the perfect opportunity to make time to try it out. I'll show my two scarves at the June guild meeting.

I put a warp on the AVL for my original Iranian Tilework draft. I love this draft I created and hadn't woven it in a couple years. The iridescence in these scarves is incredible. They all have a fuchsia warp, above a dark teal weft........

..........here a gold weft...........

.....and here a lavender weft.

I sewed a couple more baby quilts for donation via the American Sewing Guild group I joined in March. These are a part of our community sewing. I'm not sure what I had in mind when I bought the sheep fabric many years ago - so far I've made two baby quilts and there's enough to make two more. The polka dot flannel was from the ASG stash.

The train flannel fabric and navy polka dot was also from the ASG stash. I've got a third quilt in the works, a simple pieced top in red, white & blue, but I ran out of my leftover stash of batting so I'll have to finish that one up after I feel like going to JoAnn's with my discount coupon.

There are days when I just don't think I can stand to watch or read the news. It's something new each day with this administration, I use that in very loose terms. And the news is not good, it's disturbing, embarrassing to our country and downright scary. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that 'he' totally implodes at some point but he's such a weasel he might 'do a little sidestep' and get out of it. Yes, that's from a song from the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, very fun movie, hmm, that would be much more fun to watch than the news..........

Pet peeve today - when people say 'you guyses'. Ok, when we moved to Oregon back in 1992 I noticed wait staff in restaurants would always address us as 'you guys'. Then it progressed to a plural  'you guyses'. I didn't realize guyses was a word, is it one of those new ones that I don't pay attention to???  Or is it an Oregonian word???  So, I'm used to hearing it these days in restaurants, store, coffee drive-thru but now I'm hearing it from our local newscasters........didn't they go to college??? didn't they take any English or writing classes???  Am I wrong? Is this really a word and I'm just behind the times?

Pillowcases

Today I squeezed in a little sewing time and made 6 pillow cases which are destined for a care facility in town - another one of the community sew projects for the local American Sewing Guild chapter here. It makes me smile to think the elderly or ill will have these nice pillow cases to brighten their beds. I haven't used my serger in eons so I had to figure out how to get it from a rolled hem back to the regular old overlock stitch. The serger made fairly quick sewing. I'm thinking I might have to make us some pillowcases in the near future.........

Back at the sewing machine............

Today I put together another baby/toddler quilt to be donated. I also had this fabric in my stash.........good use for it rather than sitting in the cupboard for another 10 years. It's hard to tell but those are little sheep on the farm in the small panels. I love the bright red backing and binding I used.

After making the quilt today I made a few of these caddies. I learned how to make them last week at the American Sewing Guild meeting, many thanks to Kathy K for leading us in this project. The quilted cover with pockets sits over top one of those $1 plastic standing picture frames. There are pockets on the front for sewing tools, pens/pencils, scissors and one pocket on the back that can hold a notepad or whatever. Today I made this one and two others, all gifts. I'm already making a list of others to make these for as gifts this next holiday season.