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......

Making progress......

It feels good to get to spend some time in the studio again. There will be disruptions throughout the year with some house renovations but for the most part I'm getting back to spending more time being creative........hope I didn't jinx it by making that statement........

Today I did some photography work - here are the latest towels to come off the loom, they are now listed in my etsy shop for sale. I hope buyers like them because I sure do, so much so I may end up keeping a few for myself.

I also took photos of these scarves, they've been waiting in the wings since spring but when we started packing up the other house getting it ready to put on the market they got packed away. Now they are up for sale in my etsy shop. Making headway here and there in the studio and it feels great.....

Next up is to pull out some 6/2 cottons for towels, I don't often weave with this thicker cotton but it does make a nice thick and thirsty towel. Would love to use it all up and empty that section of the shelf to make room for the cones of chenille I brought back home from the beach cottage. So, new project planning coming up next.

Last February I joined in on a quilt project from Sew Cute quilt shop in Dillard, it's between here and the coast. Each month for 9 months I religiously picked up my packet, the first month also included the booklet and some templates. Did I start any of these, heck no, I didn't have time..........I was getting a house ready to put on the market and packing up much of my studio so it showed better. So, a year late I will be starting it - whoo hoo.  I'm not going to get obsessed with working on it all the time, will just do it here and there because I want to have plenty of time to weave, spin, knit, sew, etc.

Stitching along..........

 Since I sold out of a few embroidered towels this past week I decided to do some stitching yesterday. These heart towels are back up in the shop again in addition to two other heart towel designs. Yes, I'm thinking of Valentine's Day.....and ahead to St. Patrick's Day......

This shamrock towel is for sale but I need to do the photography work for my etsy shop as I stitched it on a different towel than last time. Some other shamrock designs to be stitched today. Hopefully this week with the torrential rains coming to an end early in the week I'll have some good light for photos. Mind you, I am not complaining about the rain - we really need it but it could be spread out a bit more, there's widespread flooding at the moment. As my friend JoAnn says it's raining pitchforks and shovels.

Paradise lost.......

I got an email from my local ASG (American Sewing Guild) about making quilt blocks for quilters who lost homes in Paradise, CA (just down I5 from us here in Southern Oregon) in the raging fire late last year. It's being coordinated by a quilt shop that I understand was in Paradise but is now in a different town. There was a pattern included although one could make up their own house block designs as long as they were a 10 1/2" square. We were to write somewhere on them with fabric ink inspiration, our names and town. Here's what I came up with using fabrics from my stash - 4 blocks. Now I need to get my blocks to someone so they can be mailed with all the others from our area.

I was wondering why all of a sudden the birdseed in the round feeder was disappearing quickly. A squirrel has found us - I hadn't seen any in the yard until this last week. Bailey hates squirrels so this new development should be interesting once he figures out those squirrels he thought he left at the other house have sent their relatives here.

He got tired of me watching him so turned his back on me. He better watch that tail because this feeder is low enough that Bailey could reach it.

Inglenook Fibers almost finished......

Here is my Inglenook Fibers 12 Days of Christmas fiber all spun up. I plyed it with solid colors from my stash. I wish it could have all fit on one of my big Hansen bobbins but it didn't so two skeins it is. You can see where the gold picks up on the upper skein from the first skein on the bottom. I don't know what the yardage is yet, will figure that out after I block it.  I say it's almost finished because it won't be finished until I come up with a project and knit, crochet or weave it. I'm pleased with my decision to spin solid colors to ply it with. Interesting color progression from spinning one packet after another.......don't know if I like it or not, only time will tell...........

A bit of fibery fun.....

Got started weaving on the towel warp - only two towels woven though as we had to take advantage of beautiful afternoon weather to prune the small area of grapevines we have. Perfect cheery colors for winter weaving.


Day started out below freezing with freezing fog but by early afternoon it was warm and sunny, warm enough for no jackets. Grapevines hadn't been pruned in who knows how many years.....one of them supported with posts and wire as it should have been....the other had grown into the deck railing and fencing, never had any kind of traditional vine supports. We fixed that putting in posts and wires and after trimming winding remaining vines on the new wire - hopefully it will do well. Fruit tree trimming will be coming up soon, most probably next month. That will be another huge job as those 2 apple & 2 plum trees probably haven't been pruned in many years. Already seeing new buds on the rose bushes and trees - it's only January!

I finished plying the lime/purple spinning. I haven't blocked the skein yet, nor measured how many yards I've got yet. Not sure what it will grow up to be, will go on the shelf until an idea pops into my mind.

Tweet......

 My feeders pull in lots of little birds like chickadees, pine siskins, finches and the occasional big stellar jay, but the other day I saw a bird I didn't know on the suet feeder. I asked my friend and big time birder Yvonne what it was as looking through the bird book is overwhelming to me and even then I'm most often wrong.

It's a starling. I see starlings in flight but have never seen one close up, I didn't realize all the colors and spots in their feathers.  I am loving having feeders at this house - at our previous house the bear could get the feeders no matter how high we hung them on cables between trees.

Finally heading back to the loom

 Yesterday I spent part of the day winding a 12 yard towel warp. It really pushes my lower back to wind this much on the warping board so I took frequent breaks. It feels good to finally be getting back to the loom. I may also warp the AVL in the next week.

 It's now wound on the back beam awaiting threading of heddles and sleying of the reed - but I'm so busy the rest of the week I'm not sure when that will get done. This warp was originally going to be white, black and blue but then I decided it needed to have a lot of color for foggy winter weaving. It will be a basketweave and twill design.

I went through my stash and found colors, blended other colors, to spin to ply with the Inglenook 12 Days of Christmas fiber. Should be interesting to see how it ends up looking when plied - hopefully it will be a success.

Inglenook Day 12

 I'm behind again - here is what the day 12 fiber looked like......

…...here it is spun

Inglenook Day 11

 I forgot to post this yesterday after I spun it 

Only 1 more day, today, left. My plan after that is to spin solids from my stash to go with all these to ply with. I've already got the majority of them together, just waiting to see today's package to finish them up. In the meantime I'll keep working on the lime/purple roving.

Inglenook Day 10

 Here is day 10 - I'm loving this 'soft' colorway

 Love it spun up too

Sunrise this morning was spectacular although this photo doesn't do it justice

Inglenook Day 9

 Here is day 9 of the Inglenook Fibers 12 Days of Christmas spin-a-long

 I really love this color with all the bits of color in it

Here's what else I'm spinning since the 12 days spinning is only a half ounce a day and I'm in the mood to spin. I spun a bunch of this yesterday at my spinning group and will work on it in the evenings. My plan is to ply it on itself but now I wonder if I should ply it with a solid color, like the purple......still have another 4 oz to spin so I have plenty of time to give it thought.



Inglenook Day 8

Inglenook Day 7

Inglenook Day 6

 I'm halfway done spinning......

 ....here's what day 6 looks like spun

Yesterday Bailey was getting tired of me taking pictures of fiber and the wheel and not him, he was happy finally getting all the attention. He's got a new Buster in his mouth.....a stuffed golden retriever that's almost as big as he is.......old Buster is in the mortuary. Bailey doesn't kill his babies but does constantly have them in his mouth so a favorite such as Buster eventually is pretty thread bare.

Inglenook Day 5

 Day 5 spinning done early this morning...…..

….turning towards a golden brown...….so far the colors are not what

 I envisioned from the graphic the fibers are based on...….but they're still lovely.

Inglenook Day 4

Day 4 of the spin-a-long

Here it is spun up on my electric wheel

Spinning has commenced.....

 I started spinning the Inglenook Fibers 12 Days of Christmas spin-a-long fiber. Day 1 is very black with bit of color...….

 …..Day 2 has the same bits of color but is a charcoal gray...…

…...Day 3 is moving into the greens...….

Day 4 spinning will have to wait until tomorrow as I can't/shouldn't open up that packet before day 4 is actually here......well, I could as no fiber police are going to come and lock me up but I'll keep with the program and open and spin only one packet a day. 

Inglenook Day 3

Here's Day 3 of the Inglenook Fibers Spin-a-long. I may start spinning today as I've come up with a plan.  I'll take a little bit of each piece of roving and mix it with the next days to make a smoother transition although the transition is looking pretty smooth right now.

Inglenook Day 2

Day 2 of Inglenook Fibers Spin-a-long......still going to wait for a few more days to see what the color progression looks like to decide how I want to spin this.

Inglenook Day 1

This was the inspiration for Inglenook Fibers 12 Days of Christmas Spin-a-long for this year.

And here is Day 1 - today, Christmas Day.  I'm not going to start spinning it yet as I want to see a few of the packages and the progression of the colors so I can come up with a spinning plan. This will be great fun.

Happy Holidays

Happy  Holidays from my home to yours

Festive.....

Festive wear for dog walking. I knit the rolled brim hat a couple years ago but never wore it because I wasn't sure if I'd gift it or keep it. I decided I needed some mittens to match so I found some red wools in my that matched pretty good. I'll wear this set on morning walks when I'm in a red mood as opposed to the purple mood. Tomorrow morning will definitely be red as it seems very festive.

Nesting

Today was a much needed day of nesting here at home. The only time I left the house was when we took Bailey for a walk this morning. Have I said how much I love this neighborhood for walking? It's the best. There are some hills but they're good for us.......

I sewed up some valances for my studio spaces. Here in the weaving room I made a short little valance from cute llama fabric from my stash. The fabric makes me smile. Yes, that's a ladder in front of 'Rose Lane' on the side yard..........we've got to find a place for it so I don't have to see it out my window.

Here's the sewing room valance - it's hard to see in the picture but the fabric is a print of thread spools, also from my stash. Really tough to see but there is a cow out the window.

And I couldn't stop sewing so I made covers for my 3 sewing machines (the ones that stay out). For the back machine, the serger, I used the same spool fabric as the valance. The front two machines are in a graphic lettering fabric, also from my stash. The left machine is the little Brother embroidery machine - when I need the Bernina serger I just change places with it. The machine on the right is my Bernina regular machine. I did hang a couple of things........maybe tomorrow I can hang the rest of the 'stuff' for the weaving and sewing rooms and gradually move into the rest of the house. It's about time to get artwork on the walls instead of them leaning against the walls.

Mittens

I decided I needed a pair of mittens for when walking Bailey. I have a knit rolled edge cap I wear that's in shades of purple so I checked my stash for a matching wool - yep, that huge stash had exactly the right color. Instructions were a bit of a challenge but then what is one to expect from a free pattern - in the end I figured them out.  Next up is to make a pair in reds to go with a red handknit cap I've got - those will have a bit longer ribbed section and maybe a stripe or two.