Lynn Carson Harris

Halloween Elf

Here is our little Halloween elf.

I made the top from B's old terry/velour bathrobe using Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern. I also added some pink braid from my trim collection. 

The pattern for the hat is Lyalya Hoodie by Natalia Schaffer. (knit earlier in the year and blogged here.)

Pretty close to the design she imagined, I think. She is thrilled with the soft, warm top. 

 

The Delightful Melody Miller

The delightful Melody Miller again had my favorite booth at Quilt Market. Here she is with her husband, Greg.

In addition to her new fabric designs for Kokka, she featured her new book,Ruby Star Wrappings which she co authored with Allison Tannery.

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There were projects from the book and vintage goodies sprinkled all around the booth.

 

 

 

 

 

Ruby Star Wrapping is all about how to creatively, and beautifully, wrap gifts in a sustainable, eco friendly way. The book covers all sizes, shapes, and types of gifts. The projects are presented as little recipes that can be made to fit any gift. The directions are minimal and leave the details to your own imagination. That's just what you need when you are using found, saved, and thrifted materials for your wrappings. All of the projects are made with recycled materials and can be used again. You can read what Melody has to say about the book here.

The beautiful photographs in the book were taken by Melody's husband Greg. Allison's husband, Blake, was the art director. It is a wonderful collaborative project.

I sat down with the book last night and ended up reading it cover to cover - from the dedication all the way through to the end. Ok, so I didn't read all of the directions but I thoroughly enjoyed Allison's introduction to each project.

Miss P likes it too. She has looked through it and marked her favorite pages. It inspired her to make a few felted balls from some wool yarn and dig through the button bin this afternoon.

Architextures - by Carolyn Friedlander

I'm back from a whirlwind trip to Quilt Market in Houston. I have LOTS to share with you so expect some market posts in the next few weeks. I have a number of new books to read and review for you as well as some fun new fabrics.

Today, I'll start with the HOTTEST thing I saw at market, Carolyn Friedlander's Architextures line with Robert Kaufman.  Debbie and I gasped when we walked into her school house presentation and saw the box of mini samples they were giving away. We snatched some up as quick as we could!  It's a good thing I packed those hexy papers for the plane so I could start sewing with this right away.

I think these fabrics are super awesome, they are great together and I can see them going in many different projects as a texture print or blender. The landscape drawings, the topography maps, the ledger print.... It is all to die for! 

I also purchased the block of the month pattern for her Local quilt. I hope to teach a class for this when Brenda open's her brick and mortar Pink Castle shop.

I loved Carolyn's booth set up too.

Look at her cute shirts quilt. I love the way she used the reverse side of the fabric for the inside neck part of the shirt. So clever.These prints really draw you in for a closer look at the quilts. 

Do you see the quilting in this border? It kills me dead. So. Very. Good.Carolyn was also sporting some great clothes made from her fabrics. I stopped by each day to see her new look. These fabrics will really be great for just about any project. I can hardly wait for YARDAGE. I know I'll be stocking up!

Flashback Friday

1969 a family day hike on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia.

Houston Bound

I'll be sewing hexies on my flight to Quilt Market in Houston today. Woo hoo. 

Have a great weekend!

Wordless Wednesday - the favorite colors edition

Flashback Skinny Tee

P is a skinny girl. Seven years old and all of 40 pounds. Usually when a shirt or top fits her in the shoulders it is way too short and doesn't even reach the top of her pants. Not a great look. So, she usually wears shirts that look a bit big on her. 

Enter Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern. It seemed like this pattern was made for Miss P. I cleaned out my dresser on the weekend and found an old shirt of mine that P liked. We cut it down and made a great new shirt for her. This is the first shirt that has actually FIT her in years! She loves it.

The pattern is super easy and I was able to keep the existing sleeve hem and neck finish of the original shirt with careful placement of the pattern pieces.

She likes the top so much that she had to wear it for the rest of the day - which was spent threshing the black beans that we grew this year. 

A few weeks ago we pulled up all of the black bean plants and wrapped them in old sheets and put them on our upper porch to finish drying (we didn't want the beans to fall from the pods into the garden). Yesterday was the perfect crispy warm fall day for threshing.

First we wrap a big bundle of plants in a tarp. Then, P's favorite part, we thwack it with a stick to pop the beans from their dry pods. 

Then we pick out all of the plant parts making sure there are no beans left in the pods.

What is left on the tarp is a pile of black beans mixed with chaff.

On a breezy day we will pour this mix from bucket to bucket and let the wind carry away the chaff and we will be left with black beans to store for future meals.

Yesterday was a perfect fall day!

I also found the perfect pattern for the top of P's Elf costume for Halloween! She'll be a skinny elf in a Skinny Tee!

Flashback Friday

1974. I have no idea where this dull looking campground is.

Point Me - FINISHED

Here's the finished king size Point Me quilt.  

I'm thrilled with the quilting on this one, it was a great quilting plan for my domestic machine. A also think the organic nature of the quilting compliments the minimal design of the pieces flying geese section of the quilt.

It is so big that I can't hang it on the line or have someone hold it for photos. 

D helped get it spread flat and squared for trimming when he was home on the weekend. We lined up the quilting lines parallel to the floor boards and then did some 3,4,5 triangulation trickery to get the bottom and top perpendicular to the sides. I used the carpenter's laser level to help mark a straight edge on each side. 

Finished size: 108 wide by 101 tall.

Halloween is Coming - are YOU ready?

I'll need to take a break from this new solids project...

to work on this Pink Elf costume for Halloween.

I'm glad P has such a clear vision of what she wants her costume to look like!

Pink Pixie Hat - check
Pink pants - got 'em
Blue slipper shoes - borrowed
Pink elf top - I need to make that.

I only need to make ONE part! Yay. 

Are you making any costumes or other special projects for Halloween?