Pillows everywhere

I am on a pillow making roll.  The first one I made for November, Be Thankful has been very popular.  I even had several people ask for a pillow in the same colors but with their child's name on it, of course no pumpkins.  I decided to do some for Christmas.  Each pillow is my own design and uses my hand dyed wool.  All of these pillows are the same size so all you have to do is slip the form out from the back and put your new cover on.

Santa and his sleigh on red.

Santa and his sleigh on white.

Holly Jolly with red jingle bells in each coner.  

Trying to expand

Sometimes it is hard to do it all!!  Work has been keeping me extremely busy, our school is in the process of getting all new technology and since I am part of the technology team it is taking a big part of each day.  I have also had a really bad cold, I hate having a cold!  At the same time I have been working really hard on my website and trying to get the word out about  my wool business.  I have a second blog that is strictly wool related, which is what I want to get away from on this one and get back to posting about quilting.  My other blog is over at Piginablanketwools.com, I would love for you to go over and check it out.  If you will check it out, leave a comment there and blog about it you will be entered to win a kit from my store of your choosing,  (except for the Snowbound Kit).  Leave a comment and blog about it by Tuesday November 4, election day.  Can't wait to read everyone's comments.  I am really anxious to do some regular quilting.  I have two quilts that I started this summer and would love to finish, in addition to all of the other UFO's in my sewing room.  I am also trying to clear out some items that I know I will no longer use.  I have been through all of my quilting books and cleaned those out.  I used to give them to Goodwill, now I am listing them on Amazon.  I didn't expect to sell any of them, but have been pleasantly surprised at the number I have sold.  I am also cleaning out my fabric, I have more fabric than I will ever use in three life times.  I have started listing some of it on ebay and again have been pleasantly surprised at the amount I have sold.  My new motto is "Simplify".  

Wool Give Away

One of my very first wool projects was a pincushion. Pincushions are really easy to make, they  are quick to make and are useful.  Visit my new website Pig in a Blanket Wools for some of my hand dyed wools and some of my wool kits.  Leave a message  about your favorite wool project for a chance to  win a  Primitive Gatherings Pincushion pattern and a kit featuring my hand dyed wools along with the necessary thread and even a needle!  If you have never worked with wool, let me know why you would like to.  Can't wait to hear from everyone.  You have until next Monday to leave a comment.  Thanks. 

September, already???

Where did the summer go?  I guess technically it is still summer, but I have been back in school for  a  month so to me summer is over with.  I have been keeping busy at work getting back in the groove of school.  I have also been trying to do some projects for fall, one thing I  am working on is a  wall hanging for fall.  This is a wool qpplique  pattern that I started on a couple of weeks ago.  Hope to get it finished soon.

Check it out.

There hasn't been much sewing at my house the last month or so I have been knee deep in wool, literally.  As most of you know I started dyeing wool a little over a year ago and decided that I am going to try to turn it into more of a business.  Welcome to Pig in a Blanket  my online store and blog for all things wool.  I am really excited about this.  I finally decided on packing for my charm squares, love my twill tape with Pig in a Blanket printed on it.  I finally got my labels and bags for my pre-cut circles and scrap bags.  After going to the Sue Spargo workshop several weeks ago, I decided they was  definitely a market for pre-cut circles.  I hope I am right!

I have already had success with the wool scrap bags, if you are into wool applique or hooking you can never have too many wool scraps.  Please take time to check out my store and see what you think.  I am sure that I will be making some changes to it and trying to make it better and definitely adding product to it.  I wanted to go ahead and take the plunge and get some things out there and see what the response was.  Wish me luck.

Birthday Give Away

Every year during February I host a special give away to celebrate my birthday.  This year I decided to do a wool give away, since I have spent so much time in the last year thinking about wool, working with wool, dyeing wool, or packing wool up for shipping.  I found this great pattern from Primitive Gatherings for  a penny pillow.  I have one ready to applique, you can see it in the photo below.  All of the wools are my own hand dyes.   I always have some type of hand work that I can do at night while I am watching TV with my DH.  For years I did counted cross-stitch, I still enjoy it but don't do it so much.  After counted cross-stitch I went to stitchery, like Crabapple Hill, that is still probably my favorite.  I have a Christmas Crabapple Hill pattern that I am working on.  Recently I have been doing either applique or wool applique.  Wool applique is so easy, you don't have to turn back the edges.  Love it.  I have this pillow all ready to go along with one that just has stars on it.

To enter the give away all you have to do is leave a comment about your favorite kind of hand work. If you want an extra chance to win just become a follower, for another chance blog about it on your blog.  If you are the winner you will receive the pattern and  all of the wool that you need to make plenty of pennies for this cute pillow.   All of the wool is hand dyed and treated so that it will not fade.  The only thing you will have to supply will be the back ground for the pillow. I will announce a winner on February 15th.  Good luck.

Snowy Days Revisited

Back in the summer  I started working on this wool applique project.  It was one of  the projects I had prepared to work on while recovering from my foot surgery.  I finished three of the blocks then my ADD kicked in and I put it aside to work on something else.  Well today while working in the sewing room I found it and decided that I really needed to finish it.  I have already completed the fourth block and have the other two ready to stitch.  One reason I really want to finish this is because all of the wools that I am using are my own hand dyes.  (I am still having so much fun dyeing wool.)  Hopefully I will be able to get the other two blocks done and get it finished before winter is over with.  Wish me luck!

More Wool projects

Pumpkin wools

 Since I have all of this wool I am trying to find projects that I like using wool applique.  I love anything that Lisa Bongean does and I recently purchased her book, Autumn Gatherings.  There are several patterns in it that I would like to make, but I decided that the first one I would try is the Pumpkin Bed Pillow.  I went through all of my "pumpkin" pieces of wool and picked out 7 pieces for the different pumpkins, some greens and browns for the stems, leaves, and the vines. 

The pumpkins ironed down, ready for stitching.

Starting to stitch the pumpkins down.

This is a project that I just finished for Pat over at Silver Thimble.  It is a mantle scarf with snowflakes.  I really like the way it turned out.  The background is a dark blue houndstooth and all of the snowflakes are off white.  She will be offering a kit soon on her website.

Busy Day

 

Today was a super busy day for me, I am still getting over my foot surgery and just received my first really big order for my hand dyed wools.  I have been so excited about this, thank you Mary Jane and Pat!!!!  I have had so much fun putting this order together and creating these wonderful colors of wool. I created 37 different pieces of wool in different shades and textures.  I have so much fun doing this, I feel like a made scientist when I am dyeing wool.  It is actually very restful and relaxing.  I imagine the different things that people can create with my wools.  This order gets shipped out tomorrow and I so hope that Mary Jane likes it.

Box 2 of wool

Ugh!!

  I am so bored!!! I can't believe that I am saying that!!  I never get bored.  Since my foot surgery last Thursday I have had to stay off of  my foot and for the first time today it is driving me crazy.  I have plenty of handwork to do, but I am tired of sitting and doing it.  I have read an entire book today and worked on three different handwork projects.  I finished two of the Snowy Days blocks.  The snowman you see here.

This is Block A,  with the name Snowy Days.

A close up of Snowy Days.

I really like the way these blocks are turning out.  I hand dyed all of the wool that I am using.  I can't wait to get the rest of the blocks finished, however; that will have to wait a while.  My sewing room is in the basement and I am not supposed to go up and down steps yet, so I will have to wait a while before I can get the remainder of the blocks ready.   I have also been working on the wool applique for Comfort and Joy and the red work stitchery for  a Christmas quilt that I am working on.  I go to the doctor  tomorrow to get the bandages off and hopefully will be able to start getting around better.  Wish me luck.

Now that school is out I hope to finish start (and hopefully finish) some projects.  I have been a wool dyeing fiend, and have actually used very little in projects for myself.  This is the first time that I have dyed wool for a specific project for myself.  I saw this pattern online a few months ago and ordered it know that I wanted to make it with  my own wool.  The first thing I did was dye the background pieces.  It is so much fun, putting in a neutral wool in a vat of dye and watching it change colors!!

This is the first block that I started, I love the blue hounds tooth for the scarf.  I can't wait to find the other colors that I want to use for each block.  Watch for my progress on this.

An explosion of wool

One reason for my absence in blog world is the explosion of wool that has happened at my house.   Over the last few weeks I have been oh so busy dyeing wool.  You can see that I have pretty much covered the color spectrum, all the way from pastels to dark orange and red.  Last week was a great week in the wool business, Saturday I had to make deliveries to several different stores in the Atlanta area.  That normally isn't much of a problem, however Saturday the traffic was awful and I do mean awful.  I knew that I had to go to Marietta and since there was construction on 285 I decided to take 85 that was a mistake, 85 was completed closed had to backtrack, get on 285 sit through that road work, then to 75 where they were also doing construction.  Finally got to my destination, only a couple of hours late.  I hate to be late.  I was so over the traffic that I decided to scrap my plans of doing some shopping and going straight home.  I did get some sewing done, more on that later this week.

Wooly pocket finish



Pocket Full of Posies



While in Ellijay for Pat's retreat one of our projects was this cute wool bag,  when I first saw the pattern I knew I would definitely make it.  This would be the perfect pattern to use some of my hand dyed wools.  The applique flowers worked up really quickly, but I couldn't finish it at the retreat because I didn't take the right kind of interfacing with me.  Of course when I came back I put it to the side with the intention of finishing it the next week, well that didn't happen.  I finally finished mine last night.

Here is my version of the Pocket Full of Posies bag.  There is also a needle keep included in the pattern, haven't made it yet.  I plan on using this for some of my smaller sewing projects.  If you are interested in the pattern you can get it from Silver Thimble Quilt Co.or from Fat Quarter Shop.  You can also check out my etsy shop for a kit to make the bag.  You can purchase it in different color ways.