One more name completed, and I am in love

Just finished "Donner" only 5 more names to go. Trying to decide if I want to do "Rudolph" in the same blue/grey shades or if I want to do it in red, all of the background fabrics are different shades of greys.  Red would definitely make it pop, but don't know if I want it to pop that much. This is part of the Dash Away All quilt.  In the pattern the names were regular needle turn applique, but I decided to do mine in wool.  I am also going to do the branches in wool, the rest of the quilt will be cotton.

Donner is ready to join his friends.

Now for the I am in love part, I am so excited to have discovered this starch, actually I didn't discover it my friend Margo do. She had Publix order her a case, I am so glad that she did.  I purchased one bottle from her, and I already know that I will be getting more.  Absolutely love it.  This is what I used when cutting and pressing the pieces for Clue 1 of ORL from Bonnie Hunter.  This made the cutting and sewing so much easier. 

Two new table toppers

 I picked this table topper up from my friend Leisa last week, she did a great job quilting it.  I usually make big quilts, but my last few finishes have been much smaller.  I bought the kit for this table topper about 15 years ago at a quilter's garage sale.  I thought it had the pattern with it, however, it was just a photo and the fabric.  Luckily it was easy to figure out without the pattern.  I did make  a change, The holly leaves and berries should have been needle turned applique, but I decided to use wool.  I also added the rick rack on all four sides.  Love the way it turned out. 

This table topper was made from a pattern in a Country Threads charm square book from several years ago.  This is the second one I have made by this pattern.  I like it because it isn't overly Christmas, just wintery, and I can leave it out after Christmas.  I am slowly getting out all of my Christmas decorations.  Hope to have everything out by the end of the week.

Oops, forgot to announce the winner

I apologize for not announcing the winner of my wool giveaway on Saturday.  All of this snow and bad weather has just messed with my mind.  I enjoyed reading about everyone's favorite kind of handwork.  The winner of the wool and pattern is Michelle T.  Michelle email me your mailing address and I will get it in the  mail to you.  Thanks to everyone who replied.  Watch for more wool news soon.

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.

The Flu is no Fun

Having the flu is definitely no fun.  (especially when you got your flu shot and didn't think you would get it.  I hadn't been feeling good for  a few days, then on Sunday my temp went up to 103.  I could not get warm, I had two flannel quilts and a regular quilt plus the heating pad and was still cold.  On Monday I went to the doctor and heard the dreaded words flu.  I felt better so I decided to go to work today, that lasted until lunch time then I had to call it a day and come home.  Hope I can make a full day of it tomorrow.

Having the flu has also put a damper on my sewing room cleaning.  I even thought up a new project; an off white table runner with different shades of pink and red hearts.  I don't know if I can get it finished in the next month but I am going to try. 

Snowy days blocks finished

Finally finished my Snow Days blocks.  I love the way they turned out, can't wait to get them put together.

One more block almost finished

Frosty nights is almost finished.  Had hoped to finish this  block today, but got sidetracked doing other things.  DH is out of town and in addition to working on this block, I did some yard work; not much because it was rather chilly today.  Also did some prep work for Thanksgiving, this year for the first time I am cooking Thanksgiving.  It is our year to celebrate with DH's family and his mom always cooks.  I offered to cook never thinking she would let me, to my surprise she did.  I am excited, this is my first turkey dinner.  Thanks to the Pioneer Woman I think I will be successful. 

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!

One finish, one start

It has been a busy week, the end of the 9 weeks and lots of wool dyeing.   (plus a nasty stomach bug that was no fun).  I finally finished the pillow that I was working on with the pumpkins.  I thought I had a photo of the finished pillow but couldn't find in on my computer and currently am too lazy to get up to take another one.  I really like the way it turned out.  I am definitely getting into this wool thing.

 While at Tiny Stitches on Saturday delivering some wool, I picked up the new book Bewitched Threads.  It has  several different projects in it that I would love to make. The first one that I decided to do was this crow Halloween pillow.  The background is a silk noil, which I just happened to have some left over from a garment that I made a few years ago.  It is quilted in a simple cross hatch then the wool is appliqued over it.

So far I have the background, the crow, his purple hat, and the pumpkin read to go.  Maybe I can get it finished before Halloween.  Wish me luck.

Getting back in the groove

 

 A couple of weeks ago, when I made a wool delivery to Tiny Stitches I found a book by Lisa Bongean  that I didn't  have, Autumn Gatherings.  There are lots of great patterns in this book, for both quilts and wool applique.  I found a couple of quilts that I have put on my to do list, don't know when I will get around to them, hopefully sometime soon.  I also found a couple of wool applique patterns that I wanted to do.   Since it is easier for me to do hand work I have actually started on one of them.









This is the pattern that I decided to start on, it is a full body pillow pattern for a bed.  I love the dark brown flannel that I found for the background, for the pumpkins, the vines, leaves and the stems I am using my own hand dyed wools.  Here are the pumpkins and stems.

 

 

Finally started adding the vines and the leaves.  Can't wait to finish.

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.

Slowly back in the groove

 Wow, this has been a really busy week.  My DH had back surgery on Wednesday, everything went well.  He went into the surgery thinking that he would have to have a fusion, thankfully he didn't have to have a fusion.  Overall he is doing well.  I took three days off to help him out, and he really hasn't needed that much help which meant that I could get a few things done that I wanted to.  I did some wool dyeing.  Love the reds that I came up with.  I also had time to get  my etsy shop up and running, I only have a couple of items on it, but check it out, Pig in a Blanket Wools.

Also did some mustards, or golds.  Love the plaid one!!

I have also started working on a penny rug, this is my first penny rug.  I was inspired by seeing the one that Sarah was making last week at Thimbles and I thought I can do that.  I have plenty of little wool pieces and I really like doing this.  I think I might make some coasters like this later.  I really just like putting all of the wool together and seeing what color combinations I can come up with.  This is a Primitive Gatherings pattern, don't remember the name of it but you could find it on their website. 

Latest Wool Applique Project

Pat, over at Silver Thimble Quilt Co. is one of the most creative people that I know.  She designs quilts, table toppers, tote bags, writes books, and is our fearless Thimble leader, and is a wonderful friend.  Last year I teamed up with her to put together a wool kit for her pattern Snowbound, it was a tremendous success.  I wanted to use some of my wools in another pattern of hers and decided on Glory Garden.   I am stepping out of my box and using really bright colors of wool. 

I decided on a pale blue and white stripe for the background and really bright colors for the flowers and the stems. So far I have just pinned the pieces down and have them ready to stitch down.  Can't wait to see how this looks. ( as you look at the pattern above, this is the next to the last row with the basket in the middle)  Check out Pat's website for more info on her patterns.

Downton Abbey and Applique

 It has been a marathon of Downton Abbey at my house yesterday and today.  Since I  had foot surgery on Thursday and have to stay off of my foot there isn't too much that I can do.  I got into the Downton Abbey craze a little late, so I have been behind on the episodes.  I am almost caught up after the last few days.  I absolutely love this show.

Along with watching TV I have been doing some of my wool applique.  I finished the first block for my wool wall hanging that I am working on.  Love the little buttons that I found for his eyes and for the scarf.  Hope to finish a couple of other blocks in the next couple of days.  I have another wool project in the works, one that I am working on with Pat over at Silver Thimble Quilt Co.  Watch for news about that.

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.

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. 

Chilly, my first wool project

I don't know why I am just now discovering the joys of working with wool applique.  I have friends that have done this for years, I always thought it was beautiful just had no desire to do any.  Until now!!  I am so getting into this, even dyeing my own wool.  ( and selling some too!!).  While in Houston a couple of weeks ago, I found this wonderful book that had some great projects, both wool and other.  I really want to make the quilt shown on the front, but decided to start with a wool project.  I decided on the door hanger, called Chilly. 

Here is the background with my basic snowman.

Here is the finished product.  I did make a couple of changes, the pattern has the year on the tree to the left and black dots instead of buttons for ornaments.  I decided that I didn't want the year, and to use purple buttons to match the band on his hat.  Can't wait to ge this sewn up and on the door.  If you are interested in a kit for this project check out my etsy store.  Here is the link:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/114307069/wool-applique-kit-for-chilly    (The  kit  has the wool to make the pattern as it is in the book.) 






The back has a snowman too!!

Here is the pattern from the book.