LUKE HAYNES Pendleton Wool Quilt

I missed Luke Haynes at Pendleton Woolen Mills store last week. I don't know how I forgot, but when I stopped by on Friday I saw the quilt he and made out of Pendleton Wool. If you are in the shop look up. I was in the shop to find some more wool salvage to crochet. I made my largest rug to date, it's 54" x 64"....about 4 1/2 ft by 5ft. Not bad..it's heavy. I have gotten down to the last few balls of salvage and needed some filler. I didn't find anything that struck me in the wool salvage bins but I did get some wonderful cream wool from the scrap bin. It's $5 a pound for end cuts and scrap. I found some nice plaids, a lot of cream and some wool/linen burgundy (it will make a nice shirt for my husband for the holidays). I spent $30...not bad for a shirt and enough wool to make a simple blanket.

That brings me to selling...I finally got some items up on Etsy. You see a link to shop on the right...MarciCupcake is the Etsy shop. They make you come up with a name and I have yet to really decide on what to call brand? Company? not sure what I'm doing yet. I want to make things and we do not need all the things I can make...so that is where the shop idea came in. A friend of mine convinced me to screen print some tote bags and that really started the whole idea of a business for me.

I do need more time to myself so I can finally complete the Alabama Chanin Facet's Skirt. I stitched it all together and then cut it out as a reverse appliqué. The pattern is so dense that really I should have done a appliqué, cutting around the printed parts design. That would have also added another shade of burgundy to the skirt. I did add some beading to the centers of the large facet design. I think the all over effect is nice, there is a little shinny part everywhere you look. So this makes number 11 Alabama Chanin skirt and I have another one planned from some very large tee shirts I got last summer...they are 6X.

A Scrappy Quilt & Another Rug

Sunday my Husband left to go camping, leaving me with the house all to myself. At first I wondered around trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to sew & I have about 10 patterns that I want to make but I was unable to pick one. I get a little overwhelmed some times and have a hard time making choices. I remember seeing this quilt on flickr and I thought I would just go to my studio and start sewing fabric together, I have a very large fabric scrap bin. About 4 hours later I had made twelve blocks that are 12.5x12.5. I now have 20 blocks and I'm out of my funk. All I have to do is sew the blocks together to make the top. I think I will make the backing a solid piece as the front is all over the place.
Monday I started the Pendleton White Rug (it's really red, green, yellow, black and white…but I call it the white rug). I really like this rug more than the others that I have made. I think it's because the scrap was larger, thus making the rug much thicker than the others and the colors are so nice and bright. The rug was made from Pendleton Wool scrap that is currently on sale for 1/2 off through the month of September. These rugs are sooooo easy to make, Pendleton offers classes to make the rugs. The class is about 2 hours long and you will leave with a lovely handmade wool rug. What more could you want for the coming winter months?

Home Accessories

I have been a little busy lately. I've been trying to make several of these Pendleton Wool Rugs in an attempt to sell some on etsy. I figured that I need to make about 15 rugs so I can have a full page of items. I love making them but have become bored after making only seven rugs. 

I started to make this blue quilt for my sister when she got married last summer but found out from several family members that my sister does not like the color blue. So I set this blue quilt aside and made a different quilt top for my sister and her wife. I have not finished my sisters quilt, I have to get up to Modern Domestic and use the long arm quilting machine. But I really wanted to finish a quilt this last week, so I pulled out the small blue quilt to see if I could get it done on my home machine. I feel good about finally completing this blue quilt.  

Pendleton Wool Pizza Rug

I washed the wool rug and it felted up nicely. I'm working on my second rug but have to keep the cats away as they love the wool, the rug and the moving ball of scrap. 

The scrap looks like this when you buy it, kind of scruffy and like it will fall apart. 

When it's washed with Murphy's Oil Soap it felts up nicely. This is after just one washing. I understand that after 2 or 3 washings it will felt even more. 

A close up o the rug, you can see the stringy fibers have felted together.

 I added the blue & white scrap as the last ring hoping to add some color and interest…it's my first one so I think of this as a test run. 

 

It's kitty tested and kitty approved!!!

Quilt!Knit!Stitch!

I attended the QKS event at the Oregon Convention Center on Friday August 15th. I was in a fashion show with about 7 other ladies that had made dress from Mary Adams book "The Party Dress". My husband attended the event and attempted to take some photos. I love my husband but he is not a photographer. 

There were a couple of Mary Adams dresses on display at the event.

A very blurry photo that my husband took as I was twirling in my Party Dress

All the ladies that made a Party Dress at one of the workshops that Mary taught in Portland a couple of years ago (Mary is in the center wearing all black). She is offering the class again at Mill End Fabric Store August 23 & 24, 2014. 

I arrived early because there was a class Pendleton Woolen Mills sponsored demonstrating how to crochet a wool rug from scrap that the mill use to toss in the landfill. Her rug was above was beautiful. Mine below looks a little like pizza. 

 I have always loved braided rugs and recently tried to crochet a rug from fabric scrap. The results were not what I wanted but I would not give up. In the class the woman talked about how to make all your stitches very loose. As someone that has crocheted in the past that was very confusing. Today I went to the Mill and bought some of the scrap for $2.10 a pound. The scrap looks a little strange, it's very loose and frays easily. I bought a lot of gray, blue and black scrap. My understanding is once you wash the rug it felts up nicely. I will be cool to say it's a Pendleton Wool rug that if you put it in front of a fire it will not burn, it's a natural flea repellant and it's totally washable!!!

 I see several of these small rugs in my future, the one I made took me about an hour to complete.