Finished needlefelted postcard

Remember the needlefelted postcard I made at a guild meeting last month? Well, I finally figured out how to frame it. Of course I couldn't find the perfect frame so I bought a plain white one, painted it and then stenciled on it using Shiva Paintstiks - I love the way it turned out. Then I needed a way to sign the piece, keep in mind the felting is postcard size. So, I pulled out some black wool felt that I could stitch my name and the year on using my trusty Bernina. After much test stitching where I had to relearn how to imput the text.......correctly! I was ready to stitch on the black wool felt. After that I stitched my piece onto the wool felt using clear sewing thread. I'm happy with how it turned out.

My friend Pat who was one of the program leaders for this project last month gave me a piece she had felted that was also an ocean theme. I finished hers the same way, it turned out great. I can't wait to get over to the beach house to hang both of these on the wall........hmm, where will I put them......

This is not weaving related but it's food related and that's always important. A few years ago I submitted a recipe to Taste of Home Healthy Cooking for a soup recipe contest. I got a letter saying my soup was in the running but then I didn't make the cut to the semi-finals. Too bad since it involved cash prizes! But then last year they published it in the magazine........all I got out of that was an extra issue of the magazine. But in yesterday's mail this beautiful cookbook arrived. At first I was dubious thinking they sent me a cookbook on speculation that they expected me to pay for. But no, there was a letter with it telling me it was a thank you gift and that my soup recipe is on page 53. So if you ever see the cookbook look up my Pasta Fagioli recipe. I made it up several years ago after analyzing the Pasta Fagioli at Olive Garden - I think mine is much better!

First rag bag sewn......

Phew, I got the first of the rag bags sewn this morning. I'm hoping the rest of them go quickly now that I'm over the learning curve. My first error was in figuring the strapping, I was thinking I had enough strapping to go around the bottom of the bag - uh, oh....no way.....but the straps are sewn on securely and very strong the way I did them. I decided I wanted to line them to make them nicer looking and more serviceable with a couple pockets, lining material also from the stash cupboard, hoping I'm making a dent in those leftovers but not so sure I have yet. So the size bag I'm making will make a great knitting/project bag, spinning bag, farmer's market bag (it is machine washable) or just all around nice big tote bag. It measures 17" tall by 16" wide and has a box bottom. Sure hope they eventually sell or everyone I know will be getting one for Christmas this year!  Will post pictures of more as they are sewn, another red, two purple colorway, two pink colorway. And I'm thinking I'll put more warp on to make other colorsways, heck, I've got plenty of fabric leftovers to use up.

No brains required........

I'm kind of loving this mindless weaving for tote bags, just cut strips and weave.......suits me just fine for right now.......will get back to more structured fine weaving after I rid myself of some of this cotton stash.........

Stash busting....

I'm hoping this warp and a few more are stash busters. I have tons of leftover cotton quilt fabric from projects over the past 30 years that I'd like to recycle into something useful and that will free up space in the fabric cabinet. So, I'm weaving rag fabric to make tote bags out of. Got the warp on the loom today for 6 of them, 2 in pinks, 2 in reds, 2 in purples....got this first one woven, don't think it touched the stash in the pink pile.

More socks off to Michigan

I finished up another pair of sox that are headed to an aunt in Michigan in the next day or two. Yarn is more Opal from my stash, don't ask which colorway, label already in the trash. Trying to decide what's on the to-do list for today - need to organize mess of knitting supplies so I can start a shawl out of handspun that I recently swatched for. Need to put another coat of paint and maybe some paintstik embellishment on some frames for needlefelted postcards. Also would like to start planning/warping for rag weaving for tote bags..........want to get rid of lots of stash of leftover cotton from quilting projects and such.......it's taking up lots of valuable space and  I'm doing nothing with it. Also have tons of plastic bags from Ashland Bay roving deliveries that will be recycled into woven tote bags similar to the one I made myself last year. Want to knit some beaded bracelets that friend Kathy taught me how to do while at Sewing Expo which will lead into knitting a scarf with bead accents that Sewing Sunday friend Barbara gave me the pattern to.....leftover size 6 beads from bracelets will be used for scarves. But what is first on the list........maybe another cup of tea.......

Goal met.....

Friday goal was met, didn't watch a shred of the news, felt much more relaxed and at peace. Visited with fiber friends that came to shop roving, enjoyed it very much....did this and that, had a couple fun movies on while doing 'stuff' and realized if I needed a weather forecast could easily see it on my homepage, no need to put the news on.....besides our local weather folks are often wrong so why bother......

Friday's Goal.....

As I sit here this evening I've made a decision that for my mental health I can't wake up another morning to the horrible news happening around the world, Japan foremost on my mind. My goal for tomorrow will be to not watch a shred of news. I know the updates will be heart wrenching, there will be more Saturday, but at this moment in time I can't take one more morning of my chest tightening and feeling like a full fledged anxiety attack will do me in as I listen to what has happened while I slept. I'm not burying my head in the sand, I'm just taking a little breather from it.......something those across the ocean cannot do. My heart breaks for all in Japan living with the aftermath of the quake, tsunami and continuing horror of a possible nuclear meltdown.

May the embers from the open hearth warm your hands,

May the sun’s rays from the Irish sky warm your face,

May the children’s bright smiles warm your heart,

May the everlasting love I give you warm your soul.

In the pink.....

In the pink today......weaving pink, that is. This is not the best picture of the warp I put on the loom this morning but it was one that the pink sparkle showed a bit in. Hopefully I'll get this warp woven and off the loom this afternoon. I'm working on my guild challenge that's due at the June meeting. We're to weave fabric and cut into it.....see, a lot of weavers, in my guild at least, are afraid to cut into their handwoven fabric so it's a challenge for us all. In addition to cutting into the fabric an idea was suggested to construct bras, wild & crazy bras that could be used as an exhibit during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October) at a local hospital, cancer center or such. I'm not sure how many will actually do this since that idea has been downplayed as some members aren't excited over it. Maybe my challenge will be the only one! But I hope not. So, I am weaving pink, very pink, rayon/cotton fabric with pink sparkles to construct my bra.....and it's going to be blingy, very blingy once embellished. Sure hope it's not terribly hard to construct a bra.......

Japan........

The Japanese weigh heavily on my mind, I knew it was affecting me but hadn't realized just how much. It's becoming difficult to sleep or to focus during the day thinking about the horrors they're experiencing over there......the loss of loved ones, homes, entire towns, drinking water & food shortages and now the prospect of a nuclear nightmare. I'm not glued to the tv watching it all unfold but one doesn't have to be, even just a short time updates one on everything happening. I looked for a beautiful picture of Japanese cherry blossoms to post so there was something lovely from the country to see rather than what's shown in the press but I couldn't hit the copy button. It certainly puts life in perspective.......the silly things we all worry about on the daily basis seem so unimportant when these things happen or when those close to us are dealing with horrible illnesses or loss.

On the local tsunami - we had several calls asking about our beach house on the Oregon coast - it is fine. We bought up the hill from the harbor and beach knowing that tsunami's can be an issue, I had read about the big on in Crescent City, CA in 1964 caused by the devastating quake in Alaska. We haven't heard if there was any damage in our town and probably won't know anything until we get the local paper on Friday. There was quite a bit of damage in other harbors south of us and in Crescent City, once again.

Today is my spinning day, getting together with all my fiber friends is always a good thing, good for the soul, good therapy for the mind and heart......

Sewing Expo - Whoo Hoo!

I have not posted to the blog for a while because early last Wednesday morning my friend Kathy and I headed up to Washington for the Sewing Expo. We were Sewing Expo virgins! What a great time we had, we both decided we would definitely go back. We did way too much shopping, not only at the vendors at the expo but also on the trip up and back home, staying in Portland one night to make sure we didn't miss out on shopping. I signed up for 9 different 45 minute seminars: Slinky (sewing on slinky fabric ala Chico's travel clothing); 2 handed fair isle knitting (no floats on the back); thread,needles & tension; fabulous floor mats, solar blueprint dyeing, sew like a pro; coats made easy, expressive sweatshirts. The Saturday night event that we bought tickets for was Ricky Tims, composer, story teller, quilter - he was so entertaining. So now on to the things I spent buckeroos on. I got pictures of most of it, a few items are gifts so can't post those.

Some of you remember my serger had been acting up. It was an inexpensive one I bought back in 1989 that worked great for 20 years and now no matter how I much it's adjusted it just won't serge right. I took it in for service and fixing and it's still not right. So, do I throw more money out the window on trying to fix it or just buy another inexpensive one - this one was only $179 in the Hancock Fabrics booth - I couldn't walk away from it. Funny, on the side it says Japanese technoloday, Made in China - kind of scary. Can't 'wait to get it out of the box and give it a try.

I bought quite a bit of the slinky fabric in black, a bit in red for making pants, tops & jackets along with patterns made for it from MacPhee. Not sure when I'll get to these.

More stencils in my favorites; gingkos & dragonflies along with lotus blossoms and shells.....as if I don't have enough gingko stencils......but these are different sizes

New patterns

More new patterns, a purse and two seashell wallhangings to make for the beach

New books, these look fantastic

Sheep fabric I just couldn't resist, bought coordinating fabrics to go with, probably for a big tote.

Chiffons from the Vogue booth (oh my gosh, the low prices!) to use for tops

Gingko fabric.....for whatever

Rayon Batiks for tops & pants, some bought at the Sewing Expo, some from FabricDepot on the trip home

More rayon batiks and some fun gingko buttons

And yet more rayon batiks - when am I going to do all this sewing???

Blue grey chiffon for a wrap, silk to stash for dyeing for lining for handwovens, lots of webbing in different colors to use for straps for rag bags - goal to get rid of all those cotton quilt leftovers by recycling them into tote bags. The chiffon and webbing came from the Mill End Store in Portland- wow, what a great store!

Oh and then there was a stop at Shipwreck beads on the way up - way too much fun, so many beads, so little time. Some novelty yarns to knit beaded bracelets with, friend Kathy showed me how. A small cone of mixed yarn from Yarnia in Portland for some fingerless mitts.

Oh, and I didn't put any pictures of my treasures from Ikea - I've got their catalog, looked at their goods online but had never been there - oh my gosh, the place was gigantic! What fun to go through, and had to have some swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes for lunch.

An afternoon of sewing...

I got the second top/jacket started late yesterday afternoon, got back to it this afternoon and have finished it up. I'm much happier with this one than the ginkgo one, happier in my sewing job that is. I learned alot on the ginkgo jacket, as in many steps that were ignored in the directions. I came up with my own way to handle the front facing and points at the bottom that turned out very professional looking. I put side slits around 6" up the side seams in, took more fiddly time with hemming but worth the end result. I also used two different indigo dyed cotton fabrics, I had these in my stash along with two others I chose not to use - bought them for a different jacket pattern, very happy with them in this one. I'd like to add some cording embellishment with dragonfly charms but that will wait, the dragonfly charms I have in the stash either aren't the right size or color. I have this over a natural/light tan colored t, don't seem to have a long sleeve one, maybe I can still find one in the stores before all the winter clothes disappear. These tops/jackets incorporate two of my favorites - dragonflies and ginkgos.

What I did today........

So, this is what I did today - I sewed the "Keshy Jacket" pattern. I had this great ginkgo fabric in my stash from who knows where, finally it got used. I love the jacket itself, the fabric and pattern were a challenge. The rayon fabric was very slippery and unraveled easily, although in the end it drapes beautifully. The pattern had 'minimal' instructions. I did fine with these minimal instructions until the last step when I sewed on the front/neck facing - there was no way to finish the point at the bottom of the fronts. The bottom hem was already done.....according to the instructions. I pulled out a similar commercial jacket I have to study the way the points were handled on it, totally different and not doable on this jacket but after much thought I figured out a fix by ripping out part of the hem. Now on the second one I know how I'll handle this last step.....still not sure how the designer handled it because there is no diagram or instruction. So, I'll wear this now with a long sleeve t....in warmer weather I'll wear a tank top under it.  Now back to the studio to cut out fabric for the next one. Next jacket is in two different indigo dyed cotton patterned fabrics, hopefully it will be a much quicker sew since I'm over the learning curve. There is something to be said about commercial patterns with their step by step directions as opposed to independent designers with minimal instruction.....but then some of these independent patterns are just so darn interesting looking.

Still here......

I'm still here.......spent a long weekend on the coast in sunny clear skies while back here in the valley it was chilly and snow showers in the morning. I'm back just in time for a big storm that's supposed to hit us tonight, tomorrow into Friday - big dumping of snow if we believe the weather forecasters. Wind is picking up, a couple snow showers so far........I'm ready to snuggle in for the next few days.

Yesterday afternoon I started a big tote bag, finished it up this afternoon. It's going to be a great bag for conferences to load up with all I need and to put brochures and such in that I pick up at booths. It was a bit hard to work with because I used heavy weight interfacing on both the lining and the outside fabric - I wanted it to be strong - believe me, it is - I can carry bricks in this bag! The inside has a zippered section on one side, two pockets on the other side and then I added a couple clips to hang keys or such on. It took much longer to make this bag than I expected, hopefully the next one will go much faster. And I definitely will be making another one - am thinking I'll raid the boxes of old blue jeans and piece them to make another one. The pattern also includes a smaller version that can be used as a purse, think I'll make one of those at some point too. This would be a great pattern to use handwoven fabric on - I'd probably use it along the top yoke as a decorative accent rather than for the entire bag....great use for leftovers from other projects. Oh, the pattern is called "Mailsack" by Pink Chalk Studio. I bought it at my local Bernina store, Top Stitch.

Gingkos, leaves, dragonflies, oh my!

Wednesday I decided to silkscreen discharge paste onto the latest chenille scarves, then yesterday, while snowed in, I hit them with the steam iron to pull the dye out, got them washed and this is what they look like. Unfortunately from this picture you can't get the feel of the rayon chenille, you also can't see the red scarves very well - they are stunning but more subtle, red has been my most popular selling color for this technique with black a close second (the ones on the right aren't black, they're a very dark carbon grey).

The past two days I also weighed, tagged and bagged up at least 40 pounds of Ashland Bay roving for my etsy shop. Kind of a boring job but ok when watching a movie or dvr'd shows. Got a pair of sox finished up and ready to mail to Michigan too.

So, yesterday we had a snowstorm that wasn't forecast - there was a forecast for light snow, nothing much at our elevation but lots in the mountains. Well, we woke up to 6" and ended up with 8" of heavy snow.....power blips all day long, loss of internet for hours and I wasn't going anywhere as I had planned. In town they had a dusting, those of us just a bit west and north  of the city had 6-12". Sam drove up and down the driveway (1/3 mile) in his 4wd truck last night with hopes that I could get out today. Bailey and I walked it this morning and the worst hill and curves are looking pretty icy but I'll give it a try in a couple hours and keep my fingers crossed that I don't slide off down the ravine. I'm not sure but I'm thinking once I hit the road it will be fine.

Just step away from the needle..........

At our Saturday Weaving Guild meeting two fiber friends of mine presented a program on needlefelting postcards - the theme was to be a fuzzy valentine but I instead chose to bring ocean colors/charms for mine. Remember this is just postcard sized so it's small. We started out with a piece of commercial felt and then needlefelted on top of it. I brought a felted piece of handwoven in greens & purples I had in my stash to use as my background and then needlefelted some other colors on top of it. So, today I did all the embellishing of charms, beads, pearls, embroidery - I spent the better part of the day playing with it......as if I didn't have other things that I should have been doing.......but what the heck, this was fun! Finally I did have to move on to something else, I had to say to myself "just step away from the needle...." I had done enough, it didn't need any more embellishing. Now I need to decide how to display it, it's sitting on a piece of burlap that's auditioning for the role of background. I want to sew it to something, burlap, linen, felt, or something else, then stretch it over foam core and put it in a frame. I wish the seaglass, embroidery, beads and other details showed up better in a photo........

It's Friday already???

How did it get to be Friday already?! I didn't get nearly as much done as I would have liked. On the weaving front I've been weaving solid colored chenille scarves, 3 warps so far, numerous scarves, so they're kind of boring to show on the blog. I'll show them once I get them silkscreened with discharge paste and finished, definitely will be silkscreening ginkgo leaves,  some other kinds of leaves, maybe dragonflies, not sure yet.

I work on knitting socks here and there in the evening or while at meetings, first sock done, second is now started using my friend Margie's blend of merino/angora/nylon from her own german angora bunnies. Margie also dyed this yarn.

A box from Amazon arrived this week, my usual Christmas book shopping for myself only I was late getting to it. I've got another order ready to go as I've seen a few more books I absolutely need. I can't give reviews on all these books because I haven't had the time to open them up. But take a look at what's new out there. I'm not a huge rag rug weaver but occasionally do like to weave a rug so I had to get this new book.

I saw a review on this book and knew I needed to add it to the sewing room since I'm determined to get back to sewing more this year. Theresa got hers before me and says it's definitely a keeper.

I loved the first Knit Kimono book and saw some pix from this one so knew it was something I would use. I have actually looked through Ocean Breezes, my friend Margie (angora friend again) has it, some very fun scarves in it.

Even though I haven't figured out what I'd do with art yarn I think it will be very fun to spin so I'm branching out. It will probably be hard to let go of wanting my handspun yarn to be perfect but it's time to step out of the box and spin something spontaneous and fun.....will figure out what to do with it later!

Love and buy all weaving books so this was a must.

And this is for light reading, very light. I've read all the others in this mystery series set around a gal that owns a needlework shop. Very light, fun camping or beach reading. I also love the tea shop mysteries by Laura Childs, new one coming out soon.

New etsy shop

My cousin, Claudia, from up near Seattle just opened her etsy shop - I hope everyone that reads my blog takes a minute to check it out. I love her journals and the game tile bracelets are very fun. The shop is called WasNowCreations. This is her quote from the shop announcement: "I look for old castoffs (WAS) and transform them into cool new handmade stuff (NOW): Scrabble tile bracelets, vintage game board books, tuff cuffs, and more."

Wensleydale roving on sale

I've just put my hand-dyed wensleydale roving on sale in my etsy shop, it can be found quickly by looking at the sale section of my shop. It's now 25% off. I don't sell as much of it so I'd like to clear it out. Wensleydale is very fun to spin, the sheen is incredible but the downside is that it's not soft next to the skin. I'd use it for outerwear that won't touch the skin (a jacket or vest perhaps), although I've used it in socks and have loved it, it wears like iron, also would use it for household goods such as rugs (very strong) wall hangings, etc.

I'm in love.....

......yes, I'm in love, it's a spring, flowers blooming kind of love, I'm in love with this fabric! I bought it yesterday at my Bernina store, Top Stitch. I was there for a Bernina Club class but just happened to get there a bit early to buy this fabric that I saw a few weeks ago, but yesterday it was on sale plus my usual 15% off. When I picked these 4 fabrics out I had no idea what I'd use them for but I had to have them. Then, I saw this bag pattern. The example in the store was much nicer looking because a more solid fabric was used for the band and bow - the picture above it all just kind of blends together. So, this is what this fabric will eventually be made in to........with leftover fabric to use for other small projects. Doesn't it look like the perfect summer bag?!  I have too many sewing projects in the wings and no sewing time at the moment plus my machine goes in for it's yearly maintenance in a week so it will be gone for a couple weeks. But this bag will be all sewn up in time for summer. Now I just need to remember to take the sample down at the store and see how long those straps really are, I definitely want shoulder straps.