March 2009

Sewing has eaten my life the past few weeks.  The Side Project is over now, so I can get back to doing regular stuff.

I made a series of wristlets/bags/wallets to sell.  I plan on posting them on etsy soon, but here are a few:

There are quite a few more, but I always get impatient uploading photos onto wordpress.

Want to see what else I’ve been working on?

Okay!

I exorcised huge amounts of stuff from our apartment.  Including, but not limited to, dust bunnies, dirt, fabric, yarn, books, and other junk we don’t need/use.  We’re hoping to have a garage sale with Matt’s brother and sister-in-law soon.
In the process, I switched our bedroom and workroom.  And then yesterday I found some great linen curtains at Savers for $10!  That’s kind of a great deal.

Also, I took ridiculous amounts of pictures of our cats.

Aren’t they cute?

And I also am growing a tiny garden in my kitchen.  Mustard spinach, lettuce, carrots, and basil.  Here are some of my tiny sprouts.

First of all, I want to say that I discovered this awesome tutorial on cleaning your sewing machine.  I’ve had my sewing machine for about 4 years now, and I have never cleaned or oiled it (yeah yeah, I know.  Bad me.)
It was so satisfying to clean it out.  Chunks and pieces of lint were literally falling out of the bobbin thingie.  It was ridiculous.  And awesome.  So go clean your sewing machine!  Mine is so quiet and smooth now.  Mmmmhmm.

I don’t know if anyone who reads this is a facebook friend, but I thought I’d announce that I am on facebook hiatus.  My account has been deleted.  So far I haven’t missed it that much.  I’m not sure whether or not I’ll be back, but we’ll see.

Okay on to the fun.

I’ve been sewing my butt of lately in preparation for the Side Project on March 27th.  I’m going to have a booth there hawking my handspun yarn, perhaps some felt projects, and my newest endeavor:  knitting bags.
Bags/purses are one of my favorite things.  I find myself buying them often; always in search of the *ultimate* bag.  One that can hold my purse things, my knitting, reading material, etc. with ease and style.  And since sewing was one of my first loves, I’ve dove into the world of handbags/knitting bags/bags of all types.

This one needs straps yet and the lining sewn in, but I am very pleased with it so far.

The leather I use is all 100% recycled from leather coats and jackets.  I am super excited about this one.

This is my second experiment with painting on leather.  It is an octopus wallet:

I am very excited to try some new images for wallets.  I have been very inspired by vintage flash tattoo designs (see the last post with the small knitting pouch).

I have one more that I am working on currently, but it’s not nearly in a presentable state yet.

If you are interested at all in supporting me and other local artists, and you live in the Eau Claire area, please come to the Side Project!   Friday, March 27th, 6:00PM, Harvestime Church.  $5 Admission- it’s a small price to pay to see a TON of unique musicians and artists.
Whatever I don’t sell there will be listed on my etsy shop.

It’s been a pretty busy week.

No spinning, really, but I have been doing a lot of sewing.  I’m making a bunch of knitting bags/purses/pouches/etc. to sell at my brother-in-law’s music and arts festival – The Side Project.  I will post more information about that later.

The most exciting thing I have today is the hat I just finished.  It’s the Three Tams pattern on knitty.  This is actually my second hat; the first one was identical except the colors were inverted.  I gave it to my sister.

Right now it’s blocking on a plate.  And when I tried it on earlier, it definitely is silly looking on me.

Here is a sneak preview of what I’ve been working on sewing-wise:

I’m thinking it will be a notions bag or something.  It’s going to have a strap eventually.

Painting is definitely not my forte, but I like how it turned out.  I have a thing for vintage tattoo designs.

Then there’s this guy:

It has one side for knitting projects, and one side for purse stuff.  Perfect for me.  Why should I carry around two bags?

This one is just kinda mini, and it matches my purse.

And this is a little notebook that I bound and made a matching leather cover for.  I use it as my planner: