City Sampler Blocks FINISHED, and Distaff Day

Here they are!  My big goal these last few weeks has to get all 100 blocks from Tula Pink's book, City Sampler finished, and here they all are!  I'm just waiting on the sashing fabric now, which got stuck in the Midwest because of weather.  I was hoping to finish the top this week, but it may be next week or later due to the delay.  I'm pretty thrilled though!! It'll be King sized when it's done!

I also got to celebrate Distaff Day at our local art center with a group of wonderful fiber art ladies.  Distaff Day was a new term for me, but it's the historic day (in Europe?) where women went back to work, after the Christmas Season.  Plough Monday is the men's equivalent.  The distaff is the staff that raw wool was help on while it was being spun into thread or yarn.

Spinning is very new to me.  I took a drop spindle class at the art center, but really haven't done anything with it, but this fun afternoon at the art center has me rethinking!  There were so many wonderful spinners there, many from places 30-60 miles away. I left, only after making a New Year's Resolution to learn how to knit.

The handmade socks alone are enough motivation to get me going!  Aren't they beautiful?

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!!

Final Sea Stars!

I recently finished up my final (I think) Sea Star / Lucky Star BOM.

Here they are all together!

I'm hoping that after the holiday season, I can sew them up into a quilt top!

I'm contemplating making another star to replace the hot pink one.  We'll see...

Winner!

It has truly been so much fun to read all of the comments this week for the wool pouch I'm giving away.  I wish I could give one to all of you!  I had 114 entries!!  I think that's got to be a record number of comments for my blog!  Thanks to all of you!

The winner, as selected by a number program, is Tasha.  Her comment really cracked me up:

"This is fabulous! I'd use it to store emergency please-stop-throwing-a-fit-in-public items. Okay, I mean candy."

Congrats!!

Sew Mama Sew Give Away Day: Wool Pouch, Made With Pendleton Wool

This week, Sew Mama Sew's blog is hosting their annual "Give Away Day"!  It's a chance to enter to win many supplies and hand made items, and to find new blogger friends!

I'm giving away one of my wool zipper pouches, made with Pendleton Wool, made right here in town!

The case is about 8 by 5 inches, and would be great for storing chargers, or cosmetics.

They are made by me, and are also currently on sale in my Etsy shop.

All you have to do is to leave a comment below telling me what you'd use one for!

You'll need to enter by Dec. 13th, by 5pm PST.  I'll draw a name that night, and get it in the mail by the following Monday.  Please have a way to get in touch with you, and good luck! I'll be accepting International entries as well.

Be sure to click over to Sew Mama Sew's blog to see all of the other goodies that people are giving away.

Cloth Napkin Tutorial

Over the week-end, I made up a batch of new cloth napkins for our family.  They were really quite easy to make, so I thought I'd write up a quick tutorial.

I personally like my napkins on the bigger side, so I started by cutting out the main fabric into 15 x 15 inch squares.

I had some shot cotton in my fabric stash that is a bit thinner than regular quilting cotton, and cut out 1 inch strips of this, joining them all together at the ends to make a continuous strip of the 1 inch wide fabric.I'm sure you could also use regular cotton for the edging, or even linen.

Once again,

15" x 15" main napkin fabric

continuous 1" narrow strips of "binding" or edge fabric.

On the back side of the main napkin fabric, I sewed the 1 inch strip all along the edge.

The corners, I treat as you would a quilt binding, stopping a quarter inch from the end, leaving the end of the needle in the fabric (or not), folding the corner up creating a 45 degree fold, then sewing down the other edge.

Then I flipped the napkin over, and folded the edge of the binding edge over to meet the edge of the seam, then the whole thing over to the front, or a double fold hem that encloses the raw edges.

Then it was just a matter of stitching a decorative stitch with a contrasting thread color onto the top!

Here's how I mitered the corners on the front:

And finally, here's what the back looks like.  It's actually more of a facing than a binding.  I think it's much easier.

Enjoy!

Stray into Crochet

I have always admired hand crochet and knit work, but my multiple attempts at knitting never got very far.  I recently started one of Craftsy's classes, the "Crochet Lab", and I think this is finally sticking!!

Best yet, crochet, unlike knitting, doesn't seem to aggravate my wrists and hands.  I plan to take it easy, but I'm thrilled to finally have found something to do with my hands while I watch TV, or wait for kids in school parking lots or dentist offices!

A knitter friend of mine recently told me about Portuguese Knitting, which is supposed to be gentler on your wrists and hands.  I may have to give that a try too.  Has anyone here ever tried it?

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving, and are enjoying the season!