A little bit......

....a little bit of sewing happening here but not much. Did did come up with borders for 2 sides of the sample blocks to make them placemat size. They will have dark purple binding, it's already sewn, ironed and ready to go.  I now have 4 placemat tops set aside to quilt later on.  I've figured out my fabrics for the second part of the quilt workshop but now I'm questioning myself on what goes where.  For the immediate I'm back to making blocks for the teal quilt top for our guestroom bed.......I'm sure that will be set aside again soon to work on other projects. 

Snow off and on here the past couple of weeks, has been some on the valley floors but mostly a bit higher in elevation, enough to mess up driving on the passes to the north and south of our valley, and then many feet higher in the mountains, that is great thinking ahead to fire season. 
 

Paper piecing......

 Last month I signed up for a 3 day paper piecing quilt class at Stitched on Second in Gold Hill. Friday was day 1 which was to learn the technique. Here is my block from that day, it's made up of 4 smaller blocks. The pattern is out of a Carol Doak book, the instructor provided it. It's fittingly called 'Cindi's Block'.  It was suggested that we should make 4 more big blocks and use them as the center of a baby quilt. I have no use for a baby quilt and I don't have a use for a wall hanging in these colors (I was working from bits of stash fabrics). I have decided to use them to make a set of placemats - I will add borders to 2 sides so I end up with a rectangle. They will be bright and cheery to use on the deck table once it's eating out weather. 

I'd love to be working on this over the weekend but the weather is nice and we need to get the plum and apple trees pruned - 2 plum trees done yesterday, will do the apple trees today. Did grapes last month. Roses still to come sometime in March. And it's getting time to think about the garden. There has been lettuce, spinach and chard growing under ground cover all winter.  It's amazing how much we have growing on a city lot - more than we ever had when we were on acreage. 

Day 2 & 3 of the workshop come in a couple weeks. We have homework to do - buy our fabrics, cut out paper patterns. I already bought my fabrics but need to decide what will go where.  The pattern we'll be doing for those 2 days is called Arizona Cactus - more complicated and includes curves.  

This month was a bad one for me to sign up for a class but I'm so glad I did - I love learning new!  I'm really enjoying the paper piecing. Of course I 'had' to buy a lightpad from the quilt shop halfway thru the day.  I have a tiny lightbox that I bought for who knows what over 25 years ago but it can't compare to a lightpad that has cutting mats that fit on top and it's big too. And I even got a carrying bag. Added benefit of being so flat to store, it won't take up much space. Every new technique comes with a new set of tools that must be added to the cupboard!  

This photo has been sitting on my desktop for quite a while now, since right after the last post when I was weaving it. I couldn't capture the iridescence in this scarf and the sequins don't sparkle as much as in real life. As I said in my last post this is my guild challenge - use gold to celebrate my guild's 50th anniversary. 

 I originally thought I'd weave a second scarf but then came to my senses and cut this one off to finish it. Since I'm no longer selling my handwovens what would I do with 2 scarves with sequins, even if I did use a different weft. I suppose I could have rethreaded to a different draft but still, I just don't need more scarf inventory, still have quite a bit from my selling years.  Instead I tied back on and am weaving using different variegated tencel wefts to create fabric to make notecard inserts. I will use notecards......I'll be using a dragonfly punch for the cardstock. 

It's snowing this morning - so nice to see some snow. It won't amount to a whole lot by the time it's over but it's covering the ground and is so pretty even though it's still dark out. 

Sparkle.......

It's not evident in the photo but those are sparkly holographic sequins in this tencel scarf on the loom. The Saturday Handweaver's Guild will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and our challenge for the year to weave gold. Hopefully there will be an exhibit along with other celebrations. 

At first I was going to weave this with gold warp & weft but in my sampling it looks so flat so I started trying out different wefts. I really like this greyed teal weft. I put enough on for 2 scarves, still trying to decide between a few colors what color the weft will be for the next scarf. 

This is plain weave with double weave pockets that I slip each sequin in and then close them up on the next shot thrown. I made some scarves many years ago using this technique. This scarf will have a repeat of 5 rows of sequins on each end. For a conference exhibit (2001) on recycling I wove fabric with bigger pockets and slipped small circuit boards in them. This is a 6 harness weave. At some point I'll need to figure out how to weave a fancy twill with pockets........I'll add that to my very long to-do list. 

I tried out 3 different styles of gold sequins when sampling. They all happened to be from my way too large stash of specialty sequins. These are square and holographic gold. I buy my sequins from Cartwrights Sequins. I don't know if they still have these, haven't explored their website in quite a while since I have such a huge stash in a multitude of colors, sizes and shapes. 

This project is a nice break from working on quilt blocks. I've made 40 of the 72 needed - they are slow going. I'll get back to them sometime this week. 

Spinning.......

 I got back to spinning before the holidays......not spending a lot of time spinning but I am spinning.  I'm working on some merino/tussah silk/tencel blend dyed by my friend Whitney of Twisted & Dyed Fibers. I got the first 2 braids spun and finished plying a couple nights ago, last night I wound the first of it into a skein. Two more braids to spin. And no, I'm not sure what this will grow up and be, will start thinking about it once I'm done and see how many yards I have.  I'm spinning it between a lace and fingering weight. I tend to spin fairly thin, will have to concenrate on spinning a little thicker after I finish this because I find so many patterns I like that require DK or worsted weight yarn. 

Sox on the needles

Last year I think I only knit one pair of sox, or maybe I finished a pair from the year before and then knit another pair - can't remember right now.  Recently I decided I need a pair of black handknit sox so went searching through my stash and found this fun black yarn with specks (will take the 2 skeins I have). I haven't gotten very far and they'll be a long term project to cart along with me places......although it would be nice to wear them this winter.........

Still working on quilt blocks - think I have 34 now, not sure how many I need, at least 60 but probably more. I'll figure that out shortly.  I've been listening to the audio version of Outlander's book 7, An Echo in the Bone while I stitch. I downloaded it from the library so only have so much free time to listen to 46 hours, I 'think' I'm going to finish before it disappears from my Kindle. 

I've signed up for a quilt class in Feb/March. It has points and curves so I'll be learning new stuff. It's been so long since I've ventured out for any kind of class or workshop - I'm so looking forward to it.  I have finally gone back to my weaving guild meetings as of this past Saturday - nice to see many who I haven't seen since the start of covid.  I did wear my mask though with illnesses on the rise in our area. 

Wall pouches

I made a few of these wall pouches for gifts this year. I'm pretty sure directions for this project were in an email from Bernina with a link to the Bernina site. 

These two are in my sewing room on the wall behind my machines.  The pouches are made using 4" embroidery hoops and pouches sewn to fit.  I've hung them using Command hooks. 

 Here are two that I hung next to the Macomber loom. I already had the little basket that I made years ago - it's job was to hold bobbins but it was always overflowing with empty bobbins, bobbins with bits and newly filled bobbins for the current project.  With the addition of the two pouches I've got them all covered now. 

I'm still working on the quilt blocks shown in my last post and will be for a while - it's slow sewing.  I've now got 15 blocks sewn. I'll probably be in need of a break soon so will think about what to put on the loom.........or get off the loom as there's still a 3 scarf warp on the AVL............

A better year......

Yes, I've been a terrible blogger by not posting.  I just haven't done much that I feel like sharing, or am just not in the mood to post......such is life. 2018-2022 were struggles with family illness/death, moving my mother twice to more care within the last 1 1/2 years, several hospital visits for her, but I'm determined 2023 will better. Christmas week we got my mother settled into the memory care building of her retirement community - she likes the smaller community so it will be a good move for her. The last straw in assisted living was her brawling in the dining room - a little dramatic but pushing someone with her wheelchair was her demise. Have to laugh about it now. 

When I had time in the fall I was working on gifts but alas, I forgot to take pictures of them so I could share them here.  Oh well.....some sewing, some knitting, some cross stitch. I'm still working on cross stitch in the evenings - I've been shopping in my own cupboard for small kits, many Shepherd's Bush, that I bought years ago. 

The past 2 years or so I've been collecting small bits of fabric for a quilt for the guest room bed.  It's a trundle bed but I want the quilt to cover the entire bed when the lower bed is brought up.  I started on it 2 days ago. 

Here are strips of fabric cut at varying sizes from 1 14" to 2".   There are 38 different fabrics plus the dark charcoal gray background.  I'm afraid tables in the sewing room will look like this until the project is finished which means I won't be working on any other projects at the machine until it's done - basically the thought of packing it all away to work on something else is overwhelming.  I'm hoping I have plenty of fabric, I've only cut a very small amount of it so far. There were 3 other fabrics I had but they got culled for being too gray. 

Here is the first block.  It actually consists of 4 triangles.  It's around 13".   This is sewn on paper to keep the bias edges from stretching out of shape. I've pulled the paper out from behind the charcoal gray but the rest will wait until it's sewn to squares around it. 

And this is what it looks like when 4 blocks are finished (16 triangles) - it created a spider web of sorts, an octagon. I'm loving the look. I looked at 2 different patterns, one in a magazine, one a free pattern online, to come up with my final design.

I will try to do better posting and I actually may have some fun projects to share since I know 2023 is going to be a better year - I'm determined to have more time to spend being creative.

I wish you all a peaceful and safe new year. 

 

Pick up stix...........

A friend asked me about how to do pick up letters using the article in the Winter 2022 issue of Little Looms. I bought and downloaded the issue and set to reading the article, very confusing. But my biggest confusion was in that there were two projects for bookmarks using pick up on the inkle loom.  I mistakenly assumed both articles used the same technique so warped up the loom for the first article. I've done inkle pickup in the past but the instructions for these were so confusing for both the pebble weave pickup and the letters - very wordy but not a good wordy. Maybe I was just being dense..........

Luckily, I finally noticed that the bookmarks she wanted to weave, above, were a different technique. Easy peasy as the pebble weave look is made by the color order, not by pickup.  Only the letters/spider are pickup.  So, I cut off the other warp and rewarped for this project. 

Here's my quick sample where I was getting it drawn in to the correct width.  I did 3 more letters after this fairly quickly.  It's fun. The only issue I see is that there are long floats, see the bar on the H......and there are fairly long floats on the back. Will be just fine for a bookmark but wouldn't be good for something like a strap.  I'll have to go back and look at pickup I've done a number of years ago to see how the floats look on that. I need to draw letters on graph paper so I can design other words to weave on this warp. I'll be getting together with my friend this weekend to show her how to do the pickup. Will be fun. 

 
 

Once again..........

Once again I haven't posted in a long time.  I just don't feel like I have much to share.  But I am working more on creative projects than I had been but most are holiday gifts so I can't share them here right now.

We needed some new pillowcases for the beach cottage so I whipped these up last week - two of each, ready to put to use next time we're on the coast. 

Yes, the photo is sideways - have no clue why, sometimes happens when I use my phone.  

I went to the Hugo Quilt Show the beginning of the month, always fun as it's mostly an outdoor event. I always buy raffle tickets and I won a big basket filled with kitchen/grilling related goodies. Very fun. There are many things we'll use, some we won't that will be passed on to others. 

I started spinning some lovely hand-dyed fiber, will share when I get my Hansen e-spinner out again. It's having a slight problem Sam needs to figure out - the foot pedal isn't working. Luckily, I can turn it on with the switch so it's still quite useable. 

My brother arrives from the east coast today for a visit - he's sitting in Denver waiting for his second flight as I type. I haven't seen him since before covid so I'm really looking forward to his visit.

Will try to post more of what I'm up to again.

 

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

 A big thank you to Susan of the Thrums blog for posting this plaited twill and herringbone draft she got off of handweaving.net . Her baby blankets are so beautiful. My towels are much plainer as I want to weave many colors. I used two different off whites in the warp, one of them a barberpole of two colors of off white.  I love this draft so much I'll probably weave something else in it soon, maybe some table runners. 

I've also been working on small cross stitch projects in the evenings but can't show those since they're gifts. Actually, I shouldn't have shown this towel pic above as most of this warp will end up being gifts.  I'm getting close to starting a quilt top for the trundle bed in the guest room/office but need to finish all holiday gifts first. 

Fire season isn't over yet, not sure when it will be but we have had some rain which has given some relief on the fire front. Unfortunately, it's been in the mid 90's and dry again. The next two days will go down to the mid-70's but then temps back up to the upper 80's/90. I am so ready for fall weather, hoping it happens soon. 

I really haven't had anything to share lately, kind of still in a funk, and just not doing anything I think is share worthy.  Maybe that will improve, maybe not but I can't worry about it. I do appreciate all who check in when I do post..........

Seas the day........

Many thanks to all for letting me vent on this blog about the fire, it sure helps my mental health to be able to do that. The fire is still raging this morning, more resources arriving all the time. Having 100 + temps does not help with the fire fight.  Friday a dry front is supposed to come through with added winds - not a good thing. The smoke yesterday was in the highest hazard level, this morning a bit better. This fire won't be out until fall/winter rains but hopefully it will be contained before too many more losses.......hope, hope...........

I don't think I ever posted these cross stitches that I finally got framed.  I stitched them quite a few years ago, just hadn't added charms. A couple months ago I added the charms and stretched them over foam core and took them to Michael's for framing during one of their 70% off sales. I love how they turned out - they're now ready to hang at the beach cottage.  Not sure if the charms are easy to see in the mermaid piece, they're all different. The matt is actually silver - love the way it turned out.

I love the shell piece  - the charms on this one are all cockle shells.

And then there's this sweet little piece, looks big here but it's really very small. It's hard to see but there are pulled threads in this one.  I'm pretty sure all three of these will end up in our bedroom as other walls are pretty full but the bedroom walls are lacking.  I still have many cross stitch pieces done over a span of 30 years that need to be up on walls, on pillows, whatever - maybe this winter I'll figure out what to do with them all even if it's giving some away because I have nowhere for them. 
 

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

 'This' is a warp of some holiday towels that are on the loom right now. it's an undulating twill that many made candy cane towels out of several years ago.  They're fun. 

'That' is the forest fire that is ravaging in our area. I thought we might make it through fire season this year without a major/mega fire but not so lucky. On July 17th we had a lightning storm come through parts of SW Oregon - our county alone had 58 fire starts the last I knew. Almost all of them were put out quickly, none remain a problem except for the Rum Creek Fire up river from us. It has now made national news programs. 

It's in very steep terrain, very dangerous for fire fighters, one died there last week. They are working on putting in fire lines and contingency lines but most of the fire fighting efforts are by air because of the terrain - bombers dropping retardant and copters dropping water. There are crews of structure protection fire fighters working on protecting homes. The evacuation orders go from 1 - get ready, 2 get set and be ready to go at a moment's notice, level 3 go now you are in grave danger and you may not be able to be saved.  There are all 3 levels on this fire encompassing a huge section of the county. For how far the fire is we are still seeing level 1 approaching where we live which is on the outer western edge of the city of Grants Pass. Levels are changing constantly - first change for the evening just a bit ago added more area near us to level 1. Governor Brown ordered the Conflagration Act on Saturday which brings more resources to the area and yesterday declared a state of emergency which brings even more resources. Some are already arriving, hope they continue to come in to help our area. 

We already have a fire plan in our house - our GO bags have been packed most of the summer and are on the floor in the bedroom to grab and run, rolling carts sit near paperwork that could be thrown in quickly. We have friends in towns just to the east who have offered us refuge if we need to leave. Two vehicles have full gas tanks. I could make light of it and say it is what it is but I can't - I get very anxious over fire and I'm not doing well, I'm very scared for those closer to the fire including many friends, I'm very scared for the fire fighters, I'm very scared for not just my city but others in the fire's path and I'm very scared for us.  Please send positive thoughts our way, we need them right now with temps around 100 forecast for the week. 

Frayed........

Yes, that's how life feels at times - frayed. But in this case it's a baby/toddler blanket made with recycled blue jeans. I used 3 different sheep fabrics from my stash on the back. I love the way it turned out but I'm afraid this is the only one I'll be making, snipping all those layers took forever and really ouched my arthritic hands.  I'm not sure what I'll do with this if the local foster kids organization doesn't take it with other donations from our local sewing guild. I'm not sure why they wouldn't like it but who knows. I'd make this again using something other than jeans fabric, something soft and easy to snip like flannel or cotton. Anyhow, it turned out really cute and would have been a much quicker project had it not been for the heavy jeans.  I need to come up with some other projects to use up the rest of those jeans. 

Last week the extended weather forecast showed the temps going from 110+ to the low 90's, upper 80's this week........well, it was wrong, once again.  Upper 90's, 100's later in the week. We are in extreme fire danger from now until fall rains. The fire in Northern California is close and we're getting socked in with smoke. I've really grown to hate summers. Our first 10 years in Oregon wasn't bad but each year we have more and more days over 100 and fire danger is worse. it doesn't help that our AC is limping along and the house is warm and stuffy - new HVAC system on order. I'm on my countdown to the end of fire season. I use the end of September as my last day although that's rarely it but hopefully we've at least had one rain by then - 60 days to go.......

 

turn your head.........

Going to have to turn your head to see these towels.  Have never figured out how this happens when I use my phone for photos - I even took the photo twice holding the phone different for each picture and both turned sideways.  

Anyhow, so I have done a little weaving, not much but a little - 10 towels on this warp.  I do have 2 more projects in the planning stages to get on the loom.  I went shopping in my own cupboard in the sewing room to find several small cross stitch kits - been stitching on those in the evenings while we watch tv - they will be small holiday gifts. 

I've cut out squares to make a toddlers blanket out of recycled blue jeans with different sheep fabrics on the back side.  I need to google how to make it - it will have raw edges and will get washed so they fray. I have plenty of jeans but not sure if I'll make more than one of these..........

Hoping others are keeping cool enough in this heat spell. We were already in the process of getting bids on a new HVAC system when our AC went out yesterday.  It's limping along today with the outside unit being continually misted to keep it cool, not sure how long it will last, if it will even last the day. (hmm, wonder what our water bill will be) I think it was 111 yesterday, today the forecast is for 113. Dry thunderstorms are in the forecast for the next several days - not a good combination with how dry the vegetation is and this heat - additional fire strike forces are now in the area in prep for a possible big fire. We have had numerous small fires in the region, all human caused, morons......

I know I haven't been posting much at all for a long time, I guess I just don't have much to show or share.......not sure when that will change but I'll post when I've got something. 

 

Struggling........

I'm really struggling with coming up with posts for my blog. I'm still not very productive and I'm still not really motivated to do much which includes taking photos. I decided since I had taken these photos that I should force myself to post.

I am weaving a bit again.  It's really hard when going from weaving to sell to just weaving for myself or gifts or to learn something new..........just not as much drive.  I saw this draft over on Susan's blog recently - she wove scarves using it. I thought it might make a nice table runner for our dining room. I like it just fine.  I wove 2 others using different weft colors to use as gifts. 

I just took this warp off the loom and washed it. This undulating twill was being woven by many weavers a couple years ago. I wove it using 10/2 perle cotton to use as the fabric for our holiday cards this year.  I like it so much I may have to weave myself some towels.  Of course I have very little white and red 8/2 unmerc. cotton in my stash which covers 2 walls in the studio from floor to ceiling so I'm going to have to place an order. I suppose that means I'll order some other colors I'm low on at the same time. In the meantime I'm winding a warp for some turned twill towels. Hopefully before fall I'll have a number of warps woven for gift giving. 

On another note I've been so depressed since hearing the official Supreme Court ruling although I could see it coming. I know abortion is a heated topic and I respect other's views but that doesn't mean I think it's right to take away a woman's rights - yes, I am pro-choice and always will be. I will hope that Oregon will be a refuge for those seeking abortions and nothing changes that. How horrible to be setting back a woman's right to choose 50 years. What will come next because something isn't directly addressed in the constitution???  Nasty comments on this subject will not be posted, I will trash them. Respectful comments are welcome.  And that's all I'm going to say on the subject even though it will be on my mind every single day. 

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...............

Yet another........

 Yet another throw size quilt top finished. Hard to see but it has a 5" white border, it will get a navy binding after quilting.  Next up in the queue is baseball theme with light tan background and medium brown accents. 

On the high seas.......

Another throw size quilt top ready for the long arm quilter. This one is all sea themed fabric. it's hard to see but there's a 5 1/2" white on white border around the outside.  Once quilted the binding will be red.  Now on to the next one.......another sea themed but will have navy as the accent. 

 

 Here is the first quilted throw top finished, it's ready for the long arm quilter but I think I'll wait until they're all done to deliver it. The background looks pink in the photo but it's really a pale lavender. It's a fun and quick quilt pattern called Fast Lane. Love these Kaffe Fassett prints. Next up is a sea themed quilt top. I grossly overbought my background and accent color (lavender & dark purple). I wasn't following the pattern exactly for the sizes they made so I had to figure out how much I needed on my own and obviously rounded up a bit too much. Live and learn..........

Life in the fast lane.........

 I'm attempting to start on some holiday gifts which will include some quilted throws. Here is the start of one using Kaffe Fassett fabrics in my favorite Fast Lane pattern. I'm using a pale lavender as the background and dark purple as the accent color - both will be used again in the borders and binding. Very cheerful project to be working on. 

Up above my 'design board/drape' is a framed double weave pick-up piece I wove years ago. There are two layers of fabric woven at the same time on the loom, one over top the other.  Working from a graph individual threads are pulled up from the bottom layer and pushed down from the top layer to create the design. It's very time consuming but it's a technique I've loved doing over the years. 

I'm trying to knit in the evenings again like I used to. I'm working on a simple shawl I've worked on off and on (mostly off) for several months. So much better for me to work on something while watching tv in the evening rather than just sitting and watching like I've done much of the past 2 years. Maybe life is getting back to normal...........

Cheerful.......

Very cheery socks started yesterday.  as tempting as it is to just keep knitting away and finish them quickly I'll be saving them to work here and there when in a group or waiting somewhere. This yarn came with another small skein to use for the heels and toes. Good to get back to knitting.........

 

A bit of stitchin'

 A bit of stitchin' today on the embroidery machine - tshirts for a Mother's Day gift.  I think my mother will love these. Don't these colors make you think spring?!!! 

MIA

 It was time to take down my shamrock flag but too early to put out the bunny/tulip flag so this afternoon I whipped out a heart flag in support of those in Ukraine who are living in the most horrible of situations - my heart goes out to them. It's not even quilted - just a single layer of piecing. 

I've been MIA once again. Since my last post we practically packed up the entire house and stored it in the garage so the majority could be painted and then get new flooring. At the same time we updated the guest bath which we luckily got finished up before family visits the beginning of April. All we have left in the house to do is painting and new flooring in the master bedroom and bathroom - that will wait until we're up for another mess.......and we're not just updating our bathroom we're gutting it.

I'm hoping now that we've finished working on my cousin's house, which sold a few weeks ago after spending the better part of last year working on it........and now that we've gotten part of the work done here at our house that had been put on hold 2 years ago.........and are working on getting the garden beds ready, that there will be more time to be creative. I've been wondering how I ever wove, sewed, spun, dyed, or knitted all day because the past couple of years I was lucky to do anything creative and fun.  I think that light I'm starting to see at the end of the tunnel is no longer the train rushing toward me! 

Hopefully I'll be posting more in the future as I get more time to be creative. In the mean time I wish you all peace and send big hugs to those in Ukraine or who have already fled the country. 

All in an afternoon............

 Last month in my zoom (ASG) sewing guild meeting one of my fellow members showed a number of mini-quilt wall hangings she had made over the years. Most involved objects attached to the mini-quilt. Immediately the wheels started turning and I thought of this cute knitting 'goddess' that had been hanging in my studio for several years. I went through my fabric stash and found 4 different satins and a silk, just small bits of each. It's hard to see the woven patterns on the border and binding but they are satin and are different. I learned to have patience sewing with slippery, fraying fabrics but all turned out well in the end. I'm hoping the ribbon the 'goddess' is hanging from holds up over time......I did put some dots of glue on the knot to keep it from coming undone. Did you notice I'm using an old metal knitting needle for a hanger?  This was a very fun project. I'll be looking at little 'things' differently now wondering if they could be made into a small quilted wall hanging. 

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Olympics, I've been dvr'ing all the curling and watching it here and there speeding through the commercials. I am not a sports person but I got hooked on curling several years ago and it hasn't let up. It's a little bit of an overload right now but I need to get my fill as there's very little curling to be found on tv the rest of the time. While some will be watching the Super Bowl I'll be watching curling, doesn't matter to me which country is playing............my favorites so far were the Italian doubles team who won gold in doubles, she especially was incredible. 

In progress.......

 Why in the world do some photos taken with my phone turn out sideways when uploaded to the blog??? It looked fine on my computer so I was sure it would be fine here.  Anyhow, just turn your head to the right to see it the correct way. 

Anyhow, this is what I've been working on the past couple of days - a small wallhanging. I bought this pattern and the fabric for it probably around 10 years ago. After making the sheep wallhanging kit that had been hanging around for years I decided to do another project that's been taking up shelf space.  This was really fun. All the fabrics were fused to the white background using fusible web. The black lines are fusible bias binding that comes on a roll, I had 2 sizes - 1/8" and 1/4".  Next up is machine quilting but it will have to wait until I buy some spray quilt adhesive, so I don't have to put pins in it...........and I need to start packing up much of the house in preparation for new floors and painting. Not looking forward to packing up stuff and emptying closets but it will look so nice once it's all done. We're doing everything except the master bedroom and bathroom at this time......holding off on those as we're going to gut that bathroom and totally redo it. 

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

The other day I decided to put a towel warp on for some Valentine towels. It's hard to get away from production weaving but then I also won't spend the time warping for just a couple towels.  I compromised and put on enough warp for 8 towels.  I'll keep a couple for myself and eventually gift the others.  Of course, I probably won't put them out to use in February as I have to pack up much of the house in order to have new flooring installed and painting............will be living in a disaster zone for a while. 

A friend gifted me with a mini-charm pack of already cut squares, 2 1/2" square.  She also gave me some fat quarters. Yesterday I had planned on weaving but ended up going down the rabbit hold playing with the 42 little squares. 

I ended up making a tote bag.  I mean, everyone can use another tote bag especially when we have to bring our own bags to shop with. If I'm buying fabric or clothing I don't want to put them in the same bags I use for groceries.  I used all 42 squares on the front of the tote, one of the fat quarters to frame the squares..........

 .........one fat quarter for the back and then 2 fat quarters for the lining.  I just happened to have some brown webbing for the straps in my stash.

So on to fabric shopping - in my local fabric store all the ladies I've encountered that work there wear those little clear masks that sit out in front of the chin & mouth.  I mean, what's with that???  What good do they do???  And they cut fabric so slow when all I want to do is get out of there. Good thing I rarely go in that store.....I wonder how many others rarely shop there these days because of this.  I want to support local businesses but not compromise my health doing so.  And it's not just that local store - we found the flooring store staff and customers weren't wearing masks, same at the door store and many other stores in town. We rarely go in stores but the past few weeks we've needed to and are shocked. We do have an indoor mask mandate. Our region has low vaccination rates because people refuse to get vaccinated, they also don't want to wear masks.........so the rest of us pay.  I'm growing very weary and very irritated at how inconsiderate others are. And I'll stop at that because I could go on.......and on...........

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!!! 

Socks finally ready for feet.........

 These socks are finally ready to be worn.  I started these sometime last winter from a skein of sock yarn gifted to me by a friend..........then they got set aside as with many things this past year.  I pulled them out recently and finished them up.  Now I've got a pair of brown socks, which I needed.  On to the next pair to go on the needles - bright cheery colors. 

3 posts in 6 days

 Oh my gosh - 3 posts in 6 days. This is unheard of in my life this past year. I'm trying very hard to get my life as close to normal as it can possibly be. 

Here is the quilt I started working on the other day. The center square is a printed panel, the rest is pieced. It's 30" x 40". It's really not wonky shaped, that was the way I hung it on the pretend design board and the angle I was at taking the photo.  I've found some fun sheep fabric in my stash to use for the backing, it's all ready to go as is the batting. I don't like doing the actual quilting but for something this size that may hang on my studio wall or be gifted as a baby quilt (if I ever know anyone having a baby) I can manage to do simple quilting on my machine. 

I've now pulled out another wallhanging quilt with seashells that I think I bought 9 or 10 years ago. I may start that after I get this one quilted..........or who knows, maybe I'll get inspired to weave first. 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. I finished up gifts a bit ago but now I need to go deliver them all.  It was so much easier when I was seeing friends at guild meetings and my spinning group but I'm still not attending either in my effort to stay safe. 

Piecing the bits & bobs......

 

I'm having trouble getting motivated to start on a new project in spite of the very long list of projects I have to choose from. A couple weeks ago I saw this quilt kit on the shelf, it was bought a number of years ago as a pure impulse buy because the sheep and fabrics were just so danged cute.  It's a wallhanging or baby blanket size. I don't know yet if I'll have enough wall space in the loom room or sewing room and I don't know of anyone having a baby so it may be put aside for a future gift or it may be donated. In the meantime it's the perfect project for me, no designing or thinking required just cut the fabric and sew according to the directions. 

The last month or so I've been spinning and finally spun up my 12 Days of Christmas fiber from Inglenook Fibers from last year. Rather than spin it all as one project I've spun them separately. I used 5 of the 12 fibers for the above skein, it flows from light to dark. There's a picture of a braid that was a companion roving so I plied with that and then spun the extra skein of just companion roving. I haven't measured the yardage yet to know what it will grow up to be. 

And then with 6 of the 12 fibers I spun this skein and plied it with a companion roving and spun the remainder of the companion roving to make another small skein. Once again, I haven't counted up the yardage so not sure what it become.  If you were paying attention you would say, wait a minute, she only spun 11 of the 12, yep, that's right, there was one that just didn't fit in with either grouping so it will get added to a blending board project someday in the future.  I didn't sign up for the 12 Days of Christmas spin-a-long for this year, figured since it took me a year to spin these I'd skip this year.

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. 

 

Finally finished..........

I'm not sure exactly when I started my hexxie quilt. Perhaps toward the end of 2019???  I can't remember and don't feel like going back in my blog at the moment to see if I can find the first post about sewing those little hexxies together.  I know I learned how to do them in a free mini-class at the Rogue Valley Piecemakers Quilt show in May of 2019.

So here it is finally finished.  It's afghan size. It's all beachy fabrics in seaglass colors and coral with seahorses in the center of the hexxie flowers.  It's not evident in the photos but the background hexxies are a white on white beachy print. The binding uses all 9 sea glass fabrics.

Here's a close up of the quilting.  I had it quilted by local long arm quilter who did an incredible job. It's not an all over design that was computer driven, it was human driven, flowers in the hexxies, feathers and such in the background. I was blown away by the quilting job. I would love to give the quilter's name out to give credit where it's due but I'm not sure if it's ok to put that on my blog so I won't. I'm very conscious of other's privacy and anyone who has read my blog for a while knows I never put photos of others, mention names unless linking to a website, or even put photos of myself up here. 

I have to say I loved hand-sewing all these hexxies. I can see more english paper piecing in my future although maybe next time a wall piece with different shapes, a more contemporary version of the traditional.