Oxbow Working Group

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Several of the BAMQ members working on making our own versions of the Oxbow Tote, got together for a little mini sew day to work on our bags. It was so fun to see where everyone was in the process, some just beginning to cut it out, some doing the very last steps. It was also great to see the fabric and webbing choices, all so different. 

Working in a group setting is so helpful, especially if you're all working on the same project at different stages of completion (and bag-making mastery). It also can mean that if you forget something crucial, someone else will let you use some of the interfacing they actually remembered to bring along. Thanks, Sue! Reminder to self: Pay It Back!

I was really happy to get to work some more on mine and to advance several steps through the pattern thanks to the help of seeing the steps either done, or being done with my own eyes in person. Sometimes I think that's how I learn best, because video classes aren't always shot exactly well. Not commenting on the Noodlehead one that comes with the pattern which I still need to watch. Another note to self: watch the video!

Wool Plans

 

One of the places we checked out in Portland was the Pendleton Wool Mill store.They had a very nice traditional Pendleton design painted on the outside, very eye-catching.

We were stopped in our tracks by this enormous and gorgeous wool quilt .

I found some great wool in the header bin, about two yards worth for $9.

Buy 1 get 1 Worm Free!! I think these are the edge trimmings, basically the wool schnibbles.

The worms bins were fascinating, and they had examples of rag rugs made out of them. It made me very sneezy there was a lot of fiber floating around in the air.

I knew I wanted wool to make a messenger bag style purse from a Charlie’s Aunt t pattern I bought last year. I snapped a picture of the back of this pattern (I think it’s close) to get the yardage requirements.

Here’s the purple and green wool I found in the headers bin. My plan is to machine wash it (on purpose) to felt it so it’ll be sturdier. But I have to read the actual pattern first. I may use the stitching and color changes in the design of the purse.

Just Barely A Box

 

My final subscription box for the Pink Door Fabrics Tula Pink club arrived. The box itself was still barely still taped together on all sides, yikes! I was a little worried for the contents inside.

But everything was safe and sound, and there's as usual, a whole lot of goodies. This is the newest Tula Pink release of Full Moon Forest II line of fabrics along with all kinds of coordinating stuff. I love the Emperor's Wheel pattern example done in these fabrics.

The coordinating Tula Pink solids are great. and the webbing has a beautiful tree print on it.

There are a lot of FQ's and it's always so hard to untie these beautiful rainbow bundles.

A Bob-Sled was the most clever new notion I've seen in a while. It's a bobbin holder that has a little front part (like a bobsled) that lifts up and you can put needles in there. So cute, and I love the Deco-Bob pre-wound coordinating threads included.

A Tula Pink neon pink bee key fob, Renaissance Ribbons sampler pack of the coordinating ribbons,  and a long 72" of ByAnnie zipper with contrasting hardware.

An interesting bag pattern, 1"hexagon papers and these clever plastic mini bolts for organizing fabric. They included an idea of making feature parts of the fabric you'd use for the bag out of hexies which I thought would be very cute. Especially with using that printed webbing and color coordinated zipper.

The Tula Pink solids are really nice color choices.

A better view of the print FQs, quite a wide variety of big and little prints. 

A lot of these will be really easy to use in block making.

And the more interesting detailed prints will be used elsewhere in bigger pieces.

I like the inclusion of the light greys and white prints too.

On Tabby Road

 

Another fun box arrived from Pink Door Fabrics chock full of the latest Tula Pink re-release or "Deja-vu" of a previous line. Several of my faves from Tabby Road are included, like the cat food cans print and as usual lots of other fun stuff for making a bag.

The FQ on the bottom is one of my top 5 favorite Tula Pink fabric designs. That giant stripe is going to be quite hard to use as just another fabric in a quilt. Several of these FQs have super strong patterns that are challenging to use. I don't feel it with the included pattern of kitties in cups, so I'll have to come up with something else for these. Maybe I'll combine them with the Best Besties? Cats and dogs and other animals all combined, why not?

I really like these coordinating solid fat quarters, such a nice cheery palette with good names: Freesia, Taffy, Key Lime and  Julep. The DecoBob Wonderfil coordinating thread is going to work really well with these fabrics. 

The bag pattern this time is a By Annie pattern called  Hot and Heavy, an iron carrier or a purse? Looking at it more closely, this would actually make a pretty good purse. There's webbing included in Disco Stripe, two By Annie zippers in an incredibly deep hot pink, and iridescent zipper pulls and D rings to complete the bag. 

A Visit to Sew Creative

 

On a trip last week with DH, we stayed in Ashland, Oregon and walked around the very cool downtown. We were desperate for a bathroom opportunity, and lo and behold, a quilt shop appeared. I knew they'd have one, I don't think I've ever been in a single quilt store without facilities. Sew Creative is a really nice shop, they had great selections for all types of fabrics and many clever fat quarter presentations. Like the plastic sushi container filled with FQ's above. DH saw these at the checkout and grabbed this one insisting that I needed to get it. Apparently the shop owner is big on recycling and takeout sushi, so she recycles these perfect containers to make appealing FQ combinations.

Some of the pieces were even rolled up just like sushi which was super cute!  They also had packs of FQs tucked into painted metal cages hanging all around the store. They turned out to be suet cages that are supposed to be squirrel proof. This was a very clever marketing idea to go with their new BOM quilt Sweet Tweets which involves appliquéd and embroidered wool birds.

It was very fun to unpack this tray of goodies. And there was no sushi fishy smell at all. I would imagine they get run through the dishwasher or something like that. I love when business find ways to reuse plastic containers in such a clever way.

And then there were the bag patterns! I saw a bag designer on offer that I'd never come across, Charlie's Aunt - Vintage Sewing Patterns. Not that I'm claiming to be an expert or anything, but I have recently been on an extensive quilt shop trip with friend Jaye who is a literal expert on all things bags. I couldn't resist and chose this one because they had one made up in a great combination of solid wool. I love the angles of the flaps, those intriguing layers, the size of the bag and the three buttons. And yes, I'll admit, the beautiful leather gloves and cool coat on the model. I really like the sun hat pattern that Charlie's Aunt sells on Etsy.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I took inside the shop, obviously in the bathroom. But is this not the cutest re-use of wooden spool and a piece of a vintage advertising ruler?

Buying Spree the 2nd

Continuing on with yesterday's buying spree post. Over on the Oregon coast we first stayed in Newport, there only one quilt shop to visit, Quilter's Cove. I thought I'd found two different rainbow ombre digital prints, but instead they are both the same colors, ie the whole rainbow. I wish I'd unfolded them both in the store to check, but I still really like this fabric, and I have 2 yards instead of 1. I also picked up a new marking pencil, the Ultimate Marking Pencil, which looked interesting. I'll post about it when I try it out.

There were several more quilt shops that were on our list for the Oregon Coast, but they happened to be closed on the days that we were driving through. Next time we'll check the schedules I guess? 

Our last shop in Oregon turned out to be Kruusn Quilt Designs and Retreat Center in Coos Bay.  I found the other ombré metallic confetti colors I needed to do the V & A Ombré Triangles pattern in their Ombré Room. How fun to have a whole room full of ombré options. I was even happier that they were all on sale. And then there was this cool black and white celestial that turned out to be glow in the dark. One of the people working there showed us a fabric rope bowl she'd made with this fabric, sewn together with glow in the dark thread. It was super cool!

South of Eureka, California is the small town of Fortuna, we found Springville Quilt Barn. What a great selection of fabric, old and new Tula Pink, Tilda and Ruby Star Society. Fun fun fun. It was hard to pick. I settled on the two Ruby Star Society fabrics, the coppery goldfish on navy and the butterflies on bright yellow background. Then there was the Tilda, I found some Fat Quarters that I liked.

This particular selection of Tilda Chambray was irresistible. And I think it will go well with the Bloomsville group that I bought earlier this year. Now to find a pattern to use them all on.

And would you look at this wonderfulness?! Here's a solid that has the manufacturer and color name stitched right into the selvedge. Why is this the only one I've ever seen???

And finally we went to Stitch, in Ferndale, which was a really terrific store, I found all these goodies. Trying out a new thing, the Odif 505 Fabric Glue Stick, their basting spray works really well, so let's see if the stick version does. A Simply Moderne magazine that had some really interesting quilt ideas in it. A new-to-me Bloc-Loc, the Half-Rectangle ruler.A Hemingway Pouch pattern and a green zipper for one, I've seen these in person and they look great and useful. Some rainbow LOVE labels, sale pencil shaving orange fabric, a tiny black and white print, two calm celestial prints and a couple of fat quarters that I liked.

A Box of Roar!

I was so surprised to get my Pink Door Fabrics subscription box in the mail yesterday. It's got Tula Pink's latest line of fabric designs, Roar!, and all kinds of accompanying goodies. A Sew Sweetness pattern for the Allium bag, along with the hardware to make it. As well as a nicely sized zip-up bag to put it all in until I get it sewn. When I heard the fabric line was called Roar!, I didn't read the description, instead I guessed that it would be lions, etc., but nope--it's dinosaurs. A good surprise, as I like dinosaurs too.

There's so much fun extra stuff, that sticker is cracking me up, and I love the really pretty coordinating ribbons.

How fun is this hardware? Dinosaur pulls!

A lot of the prints together, such a variety of types of prints in various scales. It's going to be fun to come up with a good pattern to use them all.

A picture of just the main Dino prints, there's all of your favorites, T.Rex, Triceratops,Pterodactyl with lots of cool plants surrounding them.

Again, a very nice accompanying selection of solids.

Not going to lie, I'd wear a skirt made with this print. Or it would have made amazing curtain's for my kid's room back in the days when they were Dino crazy. I guess it'd be a pretty great pillowcase fabric as well. All sorts of uses for this one. There's another color way of the same print included that's pinks and oranges.