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.

Lazy daze

Do you ever have those days when you just don't want to do what you're supposed to? I usually fight the urge to do close to nothing, if I do give in I beat myself up for it later. Well, one of my goals this year is to give myself a break. So, today was supposed to be a day to wind a chenille warp and weave some scarves that will later have silkscreen discharge designs on them. The other day I had cut off some lengths of different colors of chenille to try out the discharge paste on, you see, each color discharges to a surprise color. Today I did steam iron those lengths to see what colors emerged and decided 4 out of the 6 colors would work nicely for this technique. But that's as far as I got. Instead I did laundry (so did get something done), did some picture taking of scarves for my etsy shop, made a fire, put on the movie Eat, Pray, Love and sat down to knit. What a luxury! I never sit in the living room during the day!

I finished up my beanie hat, fingerless mitts and scarf for winter beach walks - I think my color choice looks like it goes well for walking on the beach.

I got another pair of sox started - these using some merino/angora blend from my friend Margie's german angora bunnies (Raspberry Farm Angoras) - Margie also dyed this yarn. It is sooo soft.

I've got the handwoven table runners sitting by my chair to hand hem this evening. Looking forward to having those done for the exchange so I can move on to other projects.....as if I don't move on to them anyhow!

Lichens

Have been enjoying looking at these every morning when Bailey and I go for a walk. It was sunny yesterday afternoon so I decided to go take a picture of them. The colors would make for a beautiful scarf.....will have to think on that one day.

Decisions, decisions........

I'm starting to think about the first quilt top for the beach cottage. It's so hard, maybe it would be easier if I were following an exact pattern and trying to copy something close to that pattern. But I know how to make a log cabin square so that's what I'm going to do, no pattern to tell me how much fabric to buy so I over-bought but I would have probably done that anyhow and I don't want to have rules that I feel compeled to follow. This is just a fraction of the fabric I've bought. I'm auditioning these for the log cabin squares, my  6 lights, my 6 darks and my center square in coral. I'm thinking of pulling randomly from a pile of light strips and dark strips to create the squares rather than having them all look identical. I do have many other darks but no other lights so I'm not sure if I should try to find more and add them to the mix or what. I have many medium colors that won't work for log cabin but will show up in one of the other quilts. Still not sure on the coral center square, I suppose I might end up having to make up a block to see how I like it. Any advice is welcome. So, these fabrics will sit and marinate for a bit because in the next week I've got to take my Bernina in for it's yearly maintenance - I don't want to miss getting it in on time because if I do it every year on time it's only  $39.95 plus I get 15% off in the shop for the entire year.

Hemming Tulip Table Runners

I thought I'd share how I hem towels, runners, etc. I learned this technique from Marcy Tilton during a weaving guild presentation, Marcy also lives here in Southern Oregon, just a few miles down the road from our previous home, in this home I'm around 40 miles north of her. It makes for a beautiful hem.

I made myself some file folder 'rulers' per Marcy's instruction, cutting them the length of the file folder in numerous widths. I then mark on each one how wide it is, punch a hole in it and hang them all in the sewing room on a metal ring. Over the years I've only replaced these once, they last a long time. Excuse the stained ironing board cover - it's fairly new but it doesn't take long for it to become stained....and we have really good water coming from our well.

For this runner I decided I wanted a 1 3/4" plain weave border on the end of the runners so I turned the runner over, laid the 'ruler' at the bottom of the tulips, folded over the hem once and steam ironed

Next I turned under the raw edge and steam ironed that too

Then add the pins and it's ready to hand hem

Here is the stack of table runners waiting to be hemmed

For lack of anything else to show......

For lack of anything else to show for my day here are the two table runners I managed to get woven, just like the ones from yesterday only different colors. Somehow I managed to let 'life' get in the way of weaving, need to go back and revisit my goals for the year....... On a positive note, I love the soft pink with pink tulips.

All in a day's work..........

In-between other chores today I finally got to sit at the loom for a bit. Remember that warp I put on a week ago Monday? Well, finally I tied on and started weaving the tulip table runners, am hoping to get more time to work on other color combos tomorrow, maybe some pink tulips, maybe some yellow.

Here are those socks now that they're finished and off the needles - they'll be packed up and mailed off to my Aunt Ilene in Michigan, my father's brother's wife. Her feet are freezing up there. Will be working on some more for her after I knit up the Poems yarn (below) for a knit hat and fingerless gloves for myself to leave at the beach cottage so I'm prepared for chilly walks. Think I'll start these this evening.

Beach Cottage is coming along......

The beach cottage is coming along....thought I'd post a few pix from this past weekend. More decorating to be done, much furniture to be painted, many pictures/prints need framing so they can be hung on the walls, and hopefully I will get sheer curtains with seashells & starfish ordered this week. We're furnishing it on a shoestring, most furniture was found at antique shops at good prices, only a few new pieces.

 Guest room bookcase - a small, not so subtle hint as to what guests should be doing at the beach cottage

Found this fun shelf and what are actually Christmas ornaments at a new shop in town

 Shells on a little table in our bedroom

 and more shells and seaglass on the lower shelf of the little table

 Found two of these shelves for the bathrooms - they will eventually be painted

 Great large glass dish that will eventually have some sand & shells displayed in it. Right now some glass ornaments I found are residing in it - they will hang in our bedroom window after I get the sheers up. Not sure where the cute little beaded copper otter ornament will reside - just loved him.....and all ornaments were on sale.

 Living room - really wanted the white couch but decided with Bailey the golden retriever it was best not to go with white, well, since the khaki couch is now covered with a quilt for Bailey I guess I could have gone with white......oh well. Love the Kathy Ireland area rugs we found.

 Here's another larger Kathy Ireland area rug. You can barely see the ugly chandelier because it's hung so high it doesn't show. Eventually we'll find the perfect chandelier and fix that problem at the same time. Both of these rooms will look much more comfy once the sheers are hung.

Tea cup collection that belonged to my Aunt Fran, a couple of my teapots on top and my miniature teapots mixed in with the teacups. These teacups were actually belonged to Fran's husband Dave's mother. His family didn't want them back after Fran passed away so my cousin Jim asked me if I'd like them - they're perfect at the beach for tea parties. Eventually this piece of furniture will be painted - maybe one color inside, another on the outside.

And one outside shot. We haven't brought our extra outdoor furniture to the beach cottage for the deck yet so Bailey and I were outside laying on the deck in the sun Saturday and spotted this little nest up high in the tree. It's really tiny, only a few inches across, up way too high for me to get a really good look. Can't wait to see what bird will be laying it's eggs in it this spring.....that is if I can see once the leaves are out. It was a beautiful weekend on the coast - fog and cold weather here at home, sunny and mild at the coast.

More fabric added to the stash

Theresa and I met up in Ashland on Wednesday for some fabric shopping and lunch. Both fabric stores in town were having their annual January sales. We also found some great clothing finds at Kixx which we both found out was a favorite clothing store of both of ours.

Some fun fabrics to add to the quilts for the beach cottage. More lights and darks plus a couple more for the first quilt which will be log cabin....which means more fabric to wash and iron before getting started. These are from Quiltz, great fabric store full of quilting fabrics and a number of surface design supplies.

And here are some fun cottons from Fabric of Vision that are planned for this Marcy Tilton Vogue Pattern. Of course I have some other fabrics, indigo patterns, that have been slated to use with this pattern and they're still sitting in a basket waiting to be sewn. Think I'll sew that jacket first to make sure I want to use these more expensive fabrics for the same pattern, if not I've got a couple other really great simple jacket patterns waiting in the wings. I love the way owner, Sandy, folds the fabric cuts - makes me smile.

So the big problem is now how do I fit sewing in my busy schedule in-between all the other fiber arts that I really want/need to do!!!

Spring on my mind......

Spring is on my mind, not that I mind the winter rains but I love the spring flowers. Daffodils come up here, the ones the ground squirrels haven't eaten, since the deer leave them alone but I love tulips and miss them in my yard.....there are actually 6 of them planted by the former owner that as soon as they appear the deer snatch off their tasty tops. Yesterday I put on a 5/2 perle cotton warp to make some tulip table runners for a holiday table runner exchange. I'm calling them Easter runners since I always think of tulips at Easter but being a spring flower the runner could be used all spring long, not just for a holiday. This picture is from one I happen to have, new warp is on the loom but not tied on the front beam yet, weaving will commence soon. This draft comes from the mongraph by Nellie Burnham called Handwoven Overshot Figures on Eight Harnesses. I love this monograph, such fun designs but many of them would take many more pedals than I have on my loom so I use Tim's Treadle Reducer to quickly figure out the easiest way to treadle, usually pressing down on two treadles at a time in a few spots.

Local Bounty......west side

Following Theresa's lead I'm chiming in with some of my favorite local businesses. I'm located not too far to the west of Theresa, on the western most front of the Rogue Valley.

I have to agree with Theresa, Rogue Creamery has the best cheeses. They used to be located here in Grants Pass but are now in Central Point, they do have a booth at our local grower's market which runs from March-December. All the cheeses are yummy but the award winning blues are my favorites.

Taylor's Sausage is actually located 30 miles south of Grants Pass in Cave Junction where we lived for 11 years before moving to our current home on the north side of GP. They raise the pigs for their own sausage and it's wonderful. The country store also has other varieties of meats and groceries. I get a lamb processed by them every fall, they do a great job.

Now onto sweets. Cary's Toffee is incredible - the best toffee I've ever tasted. They have a storefront full of the most yummy chocolate covered toffee's with windows into the factory so you can watch the toffee being made. When my neice Charlotte sent me 'Flat Stanley' her school project (many of you I'm sure are familiar with Flat Stanley) we went to Cary's - they let me bring Flat Stanley into the production area and we took a picture of him with one of the workers, FS was wearing his hairnet.

Marshmallow Heaven is my newest find. They are located in Rogue River, I found my supply of them at Sandi's Candies in Grants Pass. One of these gourmet marshmallows atop hot cocoa can't be beat.

Tussie Mussies of Williams makes one of my favorite hand lotions, I love the delicate smell of it. I've had a hard time finding it locally lately other than online but I understand that another wonderful shop in the area may be carrying it in the future - Unique Lee Yours. Lee of Unique Lee Yours has a wonderful cross-stitch shop on the north side of the city of Grants Pass. Nice stock, can order anything you'd like, and Lee is the friendliest and most helpful shop owner not to mention a real sweetheart. I only wish I had more time for cross-stitch so I could shop there more often, right now the projects are piled up, need more hours in my day!

And finally another animal organization. Theresa mentioned Dogs for the Deaf in her post. I can't let this post go without mentioning Canine Angels. Sandy and her puppy raisers and trainers train dogs to be placed with children as assistance dogs/companions. There aren't many organizations that provide assistance dogs to children, most are for adults. This is one of the causes I donate to personally and our local spinning group collects cans & bottles that go to a local elementary school to add to what the kids collect to donate the proceeds to Canine Angels.

So, this is a bit  of the local bounty on my end of the valley........hope you enjoy looking at the sites, and hope you decide to try some of the local goodies.