She who has the biggest stash...

Thanks to Jen's brilliant suggestion, she, Cara, and I seriously augmented our craft stashes today at the Salvation Army Fabric Fair. The long cafeteria tables were piled high with fabric, yarn, notions, and other craft odds & ends, and we politely elbowed our way between fellow enthusiasts to sort through the goods. Huge lavender Hallmark shopping bags given out at the door gave us ample space to hoard our treasure. It was kind of addicting and hard to stop gathering, but the prices were great! I got about 2 dozen different fabrics and a bunch of vintage patterns--all for $50.

stretchy bag

I finished my everlasting bagstopper that I started when we were camping. I modified the pattern to make it a little smaller. I was slightly freaked out by how big the bag was going to stretch.

a little dishcloth

This is just a little Mission Falls cotton dishcloth. You may recognize the yarn from the sunhat posted last spring. It was well worth weaving in the multiple ends.

(pinecone denotes scale. Hint: it's a little pinecone.)

A noble cowl

Last night I finished the cashmere lace cowl that I've been working on for the last month. I love the fluffy warmth around my neck, but I'm worried that it's a little too wide and a little too short. I might frog back and pick up the pattern for another repeat.

It was supposed to be 11 inches high and 11 inches in diameter. I think it's more like 8 inches high--even less when the edge rolls.

Room to craft

Ever since we bought our house in July, I've been very excited about my new craft room. Of course, for the first six months, the craft room proved to be the "room full of junk from the move that I haven't quite sorted yet". With several concerted bouts of cleaning, the room is finally becoming usable, and visions of craft projects are dancing madly in my head.

The craft room came with turquoise walls and white trim, which I've decided to keep. It's a good happy color. Recently I also decided on this carpet from FLOR. It's called "Needlepoint Stripe" (in "Ginger"). It's kind of like a favorite handspun yarn made into a rug--perfect for a craft room.

throw pillow

Today I made a throw pillow, finally, with fabric that I bought in January in New York. It's inspired by these pillows from Room & Board, but my version was much cheaper : ) It was really nice to use my sewing machine again after about a year-long hiatus!

Pillow in process.
I cut two squares of the brown linen fabric and cut one into strips on a 45 degree angle. Then I pinned the strips in place and sewed loosely across at a right angle to hold them in place so that I could remove the pins while I did the final top stitching. My fabric was a fairly loose weave, so I opted for top stitching about 1/4 inch in from both sides. I was afraid that a single seam down the center would allow too much fraying. At the end I ripped out the temporary holding thread. Voila! Pillow!

Done! and on its intended chair.

The back side of the pillow is purple fulled wool with a hint of neon green in the cord that catches the button.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope everyone survived the holidays and had a good time with family and friends. I just wanted to share a little stocking cap ornament that I made for a friend's son's first Christmas.