Steam Punk Lone Star, and other finishes

Gosh, It's been so long since I last blogged that I'm not sure I remember how!  My summer was busy with the usual garden tending, kids' swim practices and meets, and holding the fort down while my husband worked with the summer's wildfires.

I did get a lot of sewing in though, and thought it'd be easiest to do a big recap post and see if I can jump start my blog up again!

My latest finish just got quilted a week or so ago, now that the weather is getting cooler.  I took a class, in Walla Walla, WA, called 2 + Two by Colleen Blackwood.  I knew it was going to be for my youngest son, and asked him what colors he wanted, knowing that he really likes these lone star quilts.  His response was "all black".  Ha!  Challenge accepted!

I deviated a bit from the pattern's last piano key border, because I only had the black and script fabric left.

For the star, I quilted gears on the center.

Then pulleys, sin waves and a ring of fire for the borders.  It measures about 85" by 85", and is already being used on my son's bed!!

Below are some other finishes, including my swap block quilt, which I finished just before our May Quilt Show, and 2 queen quilt tops that I finished, a "Square Foot Garden" quilt made with some orphan quilt blocks I'd made a while ago, and Tula Pink's Space Dust pattern, which I made as part of "Quilt Dad's" Space Dust Quilt Along this summer.

If you have a keen eye, you'll notice our redone deck.  We kept the base, but put up a new railing.  Besides visits from family and a wee bit of local travel, our summer was mostly spent at home.  The most exciting news was that my oldest son qualified for the US Swimming Federation National District Swim meet.  He had to have a fast qualifying time for most events, and swam in 4 Freestyle events, placing in the top 12 for 2, and top 25 for 2 more.  This kid can swim!  He also got his first "real" job life guarding at our local public pool!  I'm a proud mama!!

My other pursuit has been sewing with plenty of Pendleton Wool, making and selling lots of goodies, including these beer growler bags.  I'm stocking up my Etsy store for the holiday season, and crossing my fingers!

I hope you all had a fantastic summer!!

Pouches and Purses

Here are a few pictures of my latest endeavor.  I've been busy sewing up lots of lovely pouches and purses made with wool from our local Pendleton Wool Mill.  I don't know why I didn't start making these long ago.  As with many things, sometimes the most obvious thing is beyond our vision.  It took the closing of our local quilt store to force me to expand my sewing horizon.  These lovely purses are a joy to make, and are proving to be much more popular than quilts or quilted goodies.  I am still getting some patchwork in here and there, but for the first time in years I am actually making a wee bit of money selling the wool purses and such on my Etsy site, as well as to local friends, family, and shop owners.  I have even been in contact with a small business counselor to explore possibly making something out of this!  Wish me luck!!

Odds and Ends, and a Happy New Year

Gosh it's been a bit since I last blogged.

I hope all of you had a great holiday season!

My sewing and fiber endeavors have included lots of wool pouch making, a little bit of crochet, and diving in to the City Sampler Quilt in between my batches of bags.

High school swim season, the holiday preparations and a house full of kids and a (sick) husband has also kept me busy.

My wool pouches sold OK on my Etsy shop, but sold well here in town at our local art center.  I've been selling them there as fast as I can make them, which is fantastic!  I think I may be on to something! The Pendleton Wool Mill makes wonderful fabric.  The hardest part for me was to spend that initial money to buy the first few yards of fabric, but now I'm hooked!  I love sewing with this fabric!

That leads to my New Year Resolutions.  I looked back at my resolutions from last year, and this year they are much the same... get better at computers, try to figure out where I'm going with my sewing, and to keep healthy.  Last year we got a year long gym membership, and it was one of the best things I've done... I managed to work out 2-4 times a week all year.  I feel better, look better, and have had very few colds this past year.  I did manage to finish quite a few quilts as well.  In fact, I only have a few tops that need finishing.

One new resolution I'm going to have this year is going to be very hard.  I'm going to try hard NOT to join any quilt alongs, contests, swaps, or to start any quilt that isn't my own design.  I figure this will really help me spend more time taking my next step to evolve my sewing endeavors.  I did spend a lot of time learning EQ7 this past year, and it's finally starting to pay off as I feel more and more comfortable with it.  It's kind of all starting to click.

Anyway, I hope all of you had a great past year and are planning some good things for the year to come!!

Lots and Lots of Zipper Pouches

After making my Pendleton Wool knitting caddy, I had some scraps that were left over.  I made a little zippered pouch for myself, and one thing led to another. I had some Japanese Echino fabric in my stash, and decided to make a few more out of this, as well as another piece of wool that I bought at our local blanket mill.

When I posted picture of them on my personal Facebook page, I had requests for 6.  Our local art center said they'd take some too.

So... I've been busy making lots and lots of zipper pouches.  I have some in my Etsy shop, and hope to continue making more and more at least through the holiday season!  If they don't sell, guess what my family will be getting for Christmas LOL!

Repurposed Pendleton Wool Knitting Caddy

My friends at the Pendleton Center for the Arts came up with this idea, as well as the vintage yard sale knitting caddy.

It's no surprise, that in a town famous for it's wool, there are more than a few knitters.  One of these knitting friends had re-purposed a knitting caddy for herself, and had a few extra yard sale finds, but decided that she'd rather knit than sew, so she handed them over to me.

A trip to the Pendleton Wool Mill led to the purchase of this beautiful fabric. It was so hard to make that first cut, but after careful measurement, I deconstructed this "dated" bag, and used it to make the new pattern to reconstruct a new one.

I wish I had taken a few more pictures.  The hardest part was taking apart the wooden frame to thread the new bag back onto.

One of the best things about these woven wool fabrics and patterns is that there is a "mirrored" image on the back.  It's 2-sided.  I decided to show this off on the other side of the bag.

Because I'm not a knitter, I decided to list this in the Art Center's gift shop.  If it sells, maybe I'll make some more!

With Christmas right around the corner, and not only the wool scraps, but some outgrown, worn out kids' blue jeans laying around, I further re-purposed these into a Christmas ornament.  I'll be making more of these to sell too.

On another note, I did finish a wonderful quilt for a special friend for my October "A Lovely Year of Finishes", but want to keep it secret until my friend receives it, which will be in a few weeks.  Since she's on the Internet, I don't want to take a chance by posting it here, but will in a week or 2.

Pendleton Postcards

Now that my garden is dying down (literally), I finally have been able to get back to my sewing machine!

A few months ago, I decided to try to sell some postcards at our local art center.  My Kindle cases just haven't been selling well lately.  I'm not even relisting them now, waiting instead to list them closer to Thanksgiving and the holiday season.

The postcards were sold out in just a matter of weeks!  So I'm making up some more to take over there.  As typically happens, I ran out of material though (fusible interfacing, and the backing fabric).  If these keep selling, I may have to start buying materials in bulk, as it's sometimes hard to get what I need in a small town, but I should always have a constant WONDERFUL supply of beautiful Pendleton wool, made right here in town!  Yes, I'm very lucky!