Hot Air Balloons Wall Quilt

Hello hot air balloon lovers! While the Balloon Fiesta is over here in New Mexico, I do have this hot air balloon quilt that I made that can fly high on your wall all year long. Made with batik, hand dyed and commercial cotton fabrics. 

The quilt measures 19 3/4" x 13 1/4".

 

For sale in my PayHip Shop under Wall Quilts. Thanks for looking!

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Portable Pockets a New Pattern From Around the Bobbin

Hello my sweet friends and followers, Around the Bobbin has just released a new pattern called Portable Pockets and I was delighted I was able to test this one. Or should I say three as the pattern includes 3 sizes.

If you pop over to Lisa's Blog, you will not only see all the tester's versions of Portable Pockets, but Lisa lists lots of ways you can use these adorable zipper pouches. I might also add to her list of 12 suggestions, that I would use a Portable Pocket or 2 to hold some of my knitting tools to be easily found in my larger knitting bag. 

Lisa also includes Bonus instructions for adding a waist strap to the large size pouch to turn it into a waist bag too. Or you could add a wrist strap or a cross body strap if you want to also. Such a versatile little bag(s)!

Plus the pattern is on sale for a 30% discount, use the coupon code PP30.

The coupon code is good now through Sunday, Oct. 23rd, midnight CST.  

Here are my 3 Portable Pouches in Batik fabrics inside and out, plus there are mesh pockets on the back of the pouches too!

Small-medium-large Portable Pockets, each with a zipper pocket on the front. You can add a keyring if you like to the tab on the left size, which I did on the small size.

I love this batik fabric and I made each size with a different colored zipper that picks up the colors of the batik print.

The back sides of each Portable Pocket have a mesh pocket that is divided in half.

 For the small size, I added a Kam snap instead of dividing the pocket as I thought it would be too fiddly and too small to get your fingers in those pockets in order to get out what was placed inside, so by adding the snap, the pocket can open fully to retrieve the item(s) inside the small size mesh pocket.

Interior batik fabric.

And when not in use, they nest inside of the larger Portable Pocket.

I know I will find lots of useful ways to use these Portable Pockets. They are quick and easy to make too. I cut all 3 and sewed each step one after the other so all 3 were done at the same time. 

Happy Sewing!

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Scaredy Cat Churn Dash Quilt

Hello my pretties and to all of you cat lovers, Halloween aficionados, scrappy quilt appreciators and Churn Dash quilt block admirers. Welcome to the GG&G Blog Hop (aka Gremlins, Goblins & Ghouls Oh My), hosted by Joan of Moosestash Quilting. Thanks for hosting Joan!

I didn't get too mysterious or creepy or spooky, but I did use a scaredy cat and Halloween colors.

I created this quilt using Crafter's Edge die cuts of squares, rectangles, and half square triangles. Then I added the appliqué black cat in the center of the large Churn Dash Block. I added a folded inner narrow border of green and then the outer border I created by sewing scrappy black pieces around a 1" green square until I got the size block I wanted for the border.

Here is my Scaredy Cat Churn Dash Quilt~

This is just the top I laid out on my floor.

Here is the quilted and finished quilt with black binding. 
This quilt measures 35 3/4" wide x 36" high. The Churn Dash blocks are 6" square, with the large Churn Dash measuring 12" square. The cat is 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" at it's widest and tallest parts.

I actually made this quilt last year and never posted about it, so this blog hop was the purrfect (I couldn't resist) time to get this quilt posted on the blog and participate in the hop too at the same time. I used Crafter's Edge 1/2 Square Triangle Die Cuts, Square Die Cuts and Rectangle Die Cuts to create this quilt.

Here is the full schedule of GG&G Participants:

 

Monday Oct 17

Just Let Me Quilt

For the Love of Geese

Patchouli Moon Studio (meow, that's me)

Inflorescence

Scrapdash

 

Tuesday Oct 18

Creatin’ in the Sticks

Quilted Delights

Karrins Crazy World

Quilt Schmilt

Selina Quilts

 

Wednesday Oct 19

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

Just Sew Quilter

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Words & Stitches

 

Thursday Oct 20

Songbird Designs

Ms P Designs USA

Lynns Beauty

Time4stitchn

Crazy'bout Quilts

 

Friday Oct 21

Pinker n' Punkin Quilting & Stitching

Just Because Quilts

BeaQuilter

Pieceful Thoughts

MooseStashQuilting

Now for sale in my PayHip Shop. 

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Gremlins, Goblins & Ghouls Blog Hop: Starts Monday 10-17

Hello my Pretties, it's time for the GG&G Blog Hop, starting Monday. Joan of Moosestash Quilting is hosting this creepy Blog Hop. 

Come hop along and see all the Gremlins, Goblins & Ghouls, but only if you dare!!!!

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Handknit Shawl (or Scarf) in Bright Variegated Yarn

Hello sweet Autumn lovers. I just love the change of the season and the cooler weather especially, don't you? My daughter, grandson, one nephew and I all have Autumn birthdays (2 in October and 2 in November). Plus here in New Mexico is the annual Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta (last 2 days are happening now), the Wool Festival (that was last weekend and I bought a lovely bright turquoise yarn there), and there the arts and crafts fairs start happening, which is always fun to browse and see what they have. And of course I know so many people who just love Halloween! I love all the Halloween quilts and such, but just never really got into the spooky spirit of it all. We don't get any trick-or-treaters here where I live, so kind of pointless to decorate for it. 

My sweet garden statue is a bit too slender of a model for this shawl, but I hope you get the idea.

Back side of shawl.

Back to the cooler weather that I mentioned. Since I love to knit, I also love wearing knit socks, scarves, shawls, cardigans and sweaters (just not all at the same time, lol!!!!). Scarves and shawls are my favorite things to knit as they don't have to fit like a sweater or a pair of socks, so I can really enjoy the knitting process. I have knit a ton of scarves and hats over the years and have donated a lot of them too at Christmas time. Some of the best things that I have knit I would like to try and sell them (to justify buying more yarn, lol), so I am adding a few handknit items to my PayHip Shop. Knitting by hand certainly takes a long time and the best quality yarns and fibers are very expensive too! But for me it's also a labor of love, plus I cannot keep everything I knit as I am running out of space in my home, lol!!! So I will offer a few scarves and shawls for sale from time-to-time in my shop. I cannot earn anything for my labor, since it takes weeks or months to complete knitted projects, so I will price the knitting to recoup the cost of the yarn plus some extra. 

The Shawl measures approximately 66" wide x 23" high.

Laid out across the back of a garden chair to show the shape and the knitting pattern. 

Placed on my fence to see it a bit better too.

So with that in mind, I have this lovely shawl, which can also be worn as a scarf too, for sale in my PayHip Shop. I knit the shawl from what is called a Cake Yarn that has long yardage of one color before it changes into another color, so you end up with very wide stripes. In the case of this shawl/scarf it is knit with short rows to create the interesting design. The yarn is 10% Alpaca which gives it a very soft buttery feel to the touch, the rest is acrylic. 

I recommend hand washing using just hair conditioner when it needs it and squeeze the water out (never wring handknits), then wrap and roll in a towel to remove as much excess water as possible. Lay the shawl onto a dry towel and move and pat it into shape and leave to dry. Hair conditioner (use the best quality with natural ingredients), not only cleans the knitwear, but adds softness too. Since this shawl contains some animal fiber (Alpaca), it also adds back the natural moisturizers that animal fibers naturally have. You need to condition leather (shoes, furniture, bags, etc.), so it makes sense to do the same with your animal fiber knits. I have washed my knits this way for decades and they feel much nicer! Plus, after I am done knitting something, I will do this before I block the item into shape, so this shawl has already been conditioned.

Doesn't she look like she is in heaven with this shawl wrapped around her?

Thanks for looking at my PayHip Shop and I hope when you are needing a gift that you remember to check the inventory I have in my shop. 

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Lots of Items Listed for Sale in my PayHip Shop for the Holidays and Beyond!

Hello my sweet followers. I have been listing at least 5 items each morning to my PayHip Shop. Some are quilted items, some bags and I also have pdf patterns as well. A little something for everyone, lol!

I hope you will stop by and take a look and tell your family and friends about my shop. Some things I have listed on sale for a limited time. I will be listing more items each day until I have listed all of my inventory on PayHip.

I quit selling on Etsy quite a while ago for several reasons. I was so busy sewing the 116 Sew Powerful purses I made to donate last month during their Sew-a-thon, that I didn't have time to start adding items to sell in my shop until this month. I do have Halloween wall quilts and runners if you need a gift or want to decorate now. I know that might be too late for some of you if you decorate early. What doesn't sell will stay in my shop, so maybe next year? Anyhow, I would love it if you would at least take a peek. Thank you so much!

All of my handmade items are lovingly made in my smoke free, pet free, perfume free home. I know a lot of people with allergies these days and I want to assure you that I don't have any of those things that could affect you or the recipients of your gift giving. 

Think about holiday gifts or decor for your home, everything would make a wonderful gift for a friend or family member or when you just need to give a gift to someone else, like a teacher. 

If you see something on PayHip (or here on my blog, Instagram, or my Facebook page) and would like it made in different colors or a different size, etc. please feel free to contact me and we can discuss it. I am happy to do custom work for most things. 

Everything is handmade by me in New Mexico.

Thank you & happy browsing!

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Sew Powerful Purses #191-216 for 2022

Hello my beautiful sewers/sewists! Well the Sew Powerful Sew-a-thon is over! I am exhausted! I sewed 116 purses for the Sew-a-thon and a total of 216 purses for the entire year. Yes, I could still sew more purses the rest of this year before the year ends and I might do that, but I also need at least a month break from sewing them as I want to sew other things instead. You can check back here at the end of the year and see if I sewed more than 216 purses to donate to Sew Powerful.

These are the last purses I made for the September Sew-a-thon, which total another 26 purses. My final total for the Sew-a-thon is 116 purses made in September for Sew Powerful. During September, I also tested 3 bags for 2 designers, fell on the hard floor hurting my back (it's still sore) and took a couple days to rest from the fall. And I still made 116 purses during the month! 

I still need to work on the notecards that I made to include in each purse too. So I will do that this month so I can send off these purses. One woman in the Facebook group made over 200 purses! Wowzer!!! I feel like a slacker compared to that, but this wasn't a competition and I didn't really make a goal like some people did. I cut 113 kits in August and was hoping I would get all of those sewn and I did. I needed my September project for Crafter's Edge, so made a purse of course, using a hexagon die cut. I made 2 more with the hexagon die cuts (last 2 purses I made) on the last day of the Sew-a-thon. If I participate in the Sew-a-thon again next year, I will cut kits out months in advance so it won't be so overwhelming.

Here are the last 26 purses I made:

I made 2 more purses using the Hexagon die cut from Crafter's Edge for the African women/children fabric and sewed batik fabrics around the hexagons. The African fabric print and the coordinating print fabric that I used for the body of the purse were donated by Karen H. Thanks again Karen. I love how these came out!

I also want to thank all the people who donated in my name to Sew Powerful during this Sew-a-thon. You made a huge difference in the lives of these girls in Zambia. Together we are Sew Powerful! Thank you!

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