As regular readers know, one of my goals this year is to release my first retail pattern! I am pleased announce that is is now available. The Radiant Folded Star and Covered Box is inspired by a project that I did with my grandmother over 30 years ago.
This pattern includes full step by step directions for both a fabric covered box and a table topper. Photos of key steps make the pattern easy to follow.
Radiant Patchwork Folded Star - Holiday Table Topper
A huge THANKS goes out to Jen Lopez of Sew Fun for encouraging me and mentoring me through this pattern design process. Check out her site and all the great patterns she has!
Original Folded Patchwork Star Box
Here’s a picture of the original project that inspired this pattern – this is 30 years old and still looks as good as the day I made it. Thanks Grandma – I’ll see you at Thanskgiving!
I always have a few wool applique projects in process at any one time. I usually cut out all the wool pieces, get the embroidery floss, and the put everything in a Ziploc bag so it can be worked on later. They are great to stitch on in the evening when watching TV or just hanging out. As you can imagine, there are a few Ziploc bags sitting in my closet!
Sharon of Liberty Rose has a great idea for organizing all these items! This project notebook features wool applique on the front and inside cover (so you have a place to keep your needles and pins) and it pretty easy to sew together (I plan to post a tutorial about how to cover the notebook sometime before the end of the year). The notebook contains zippered pouches that are the perfect size for carrying all your project supplies.
Project Notebook
The notebook is standard 3 Ring binder. I ironed fusible fleece on my stitching fabric so that the cover is more durable (especially since it will be used a lot). I did some basic applique on the front and and inside cover.
Project Notebook - Inside
I didn’t go too crazy with the embroidery embellishments, since the main purpose is functional, not decorative. My embroidery time is better spent finishing up the wool crazy block that was started a year ago! A pocket on the back inside cover can carry larger pattern books that won’t fit in the pouches.
Project Notebook - Back Pocket
Now, when traveling, I just take out a zippered project pouch, throw it in the suitcase, and am good to go. Talk about Keeping it Thimble!
In other news, look for details in the next week or so on my first published pattern. In the meantime, here are some sneak peeks:
Just before Halloween, I planned a fun mini-vacation for the family. Statesville, NC was having their annual Balloonfest and it seemed like a fun event for a little getaway.
Gourds!
We got to Statesville on Friday morning and decided to take a drive over to Zootastic Park. This is a privately owned Animal with tigers, monkeys, snakes, and other exotic animals. It wasn’t crowded and we pretty much got a personal tour of the place.
Tortoise - Zootastic Park
I highly recommend this place, and it’s great for kids! After we left, we got back to Statesville just in time to see the Balloons launch for the festival. Balloon launches are usually done at 8am or 5pm as these times present the best lighting, weather, and wind conditions for a safe launch. As you can see, the sky was filled with balloons. My son was very taken by this and said they looked like “beautiful diamonds in the sky” (no, I am not making this up 🙂 ). He could hardly believe it when we drove right up to the field and could see everything close up.
Balloonfest - Statesville, NC
His favorite balloon was the Flying Purple People Eater. Although he noted that this version had more than one eye and one horn.
Flying Purple People Eater - Statesville, NC
We walked around the festival for awhile, ate some junk food, and listened to some live music. The next morning we went panning for emeralds at the Hiddenite Mine. This was a fun, but dirty activity. Essentially you are sloshing mud and dirt around in a sluice so that you can find some treasures. I had the best luck of the group and found some nice quartz stones. My son saved all of the large rocks he found – even the ones that were just rocks!
Highland Cow - Zootastic Park
On the way home, we stop at the NC Zoo. Since it was close to Halloween they were doing a special program about Vampire bats! We got to observe the bats in a dark cave (with infrared lighting) and also saw them drinking blood – from a feeding station not from a human!
All in all, it was a great way to spend two days – and fairly cheap as well!
I hope everyone had a great Halloween! I really enjoyed eating all of my son’s candy, and look forward to sneaking more of it now that he is in bed. We had a pretty rainy Halloween this year, so we ended up going to the mall for the main trick or treating. Everyone did a double talk when they saw this mini-reaper walking amongst them.
The Grim Reaper is ready for your candy!
I didn’t get a picture (wish I had been faster), but there was one little girl (probably around 2) dressed up like a flower princess and she was quite taken with my son’s costume. She kept smiling and laughing and wanted to come up and see his costume close-up. She wasn’t scared at all!
Even the Grim Reaper is not above the seatbelt law!
This year’s costume was fairly easy to make, but I finished it at 3:30pm today – just in time to go get the candy. I made his creepy black robe, and of course we bought the mask at the store. He was really pleased with his costume and how scary he looked!
Halloween is a week away and I still need to make my son’s costume. He is going as the Grim Reaper. He has no idea what the Grim Reaper does, but he assures me he will be a “nice” one. I am going to call him the “Grin Reaper” :).
The costume is basically a black robe with a hood. We will paint his face to look like a skull and he has a kid’s size scythe he will be carrying (to be honest, the scythe was the selling point of the costume for him).
In the sprit of the season I wanted to remind you that I have a free pattern available for a trick or treat bag. It’s pretty simple to make, and it makes a nice tote back if you do it in different colors.
The porch sale is finally over, and this is likely the last post on it for this year :). Thanks to everyone who came out to support us! It was nice to see everyone and meet some new people. I also want to give a big THANK YOU to Sharon Stewart of Liberty Rose and Lisa Treadaway of the Little Herb House for organizing the managing the show this year. They did a wonderful job and definitely made it easy for me to be a participant. We plan to be back next year!!
Here are a few pictures of my booth from the event. My camera didn’t really do it justice – but it looked beautiful in person. Sharon had me team up with two other ladies so that we had enough between us to put something nice together. Sharon also helped us with booth set-up and made sure everything looked nice and tempting!
Booth - Right SideBooth - CenterBooth - Left Side
Now that the sale is over, I should be able to get back to my regular sewing. I have some ideas for a few cute projects that I hope to share with you in the next few months.
This week, in the midst of all the preparation for the porch sale, I received a visit from the Great Pumpkin and his friends (courtesy of the little ghost in the burgundy blanket).
Pumpkin Invasion (with Ghost)
I was also able to get some Halloween decorating done in the house. I will post more pictures later, but here is what the mantel looks like.
This is the last week before the big Porch Sale in the Barn. I can tell you I will be happy and relieved when it is over! One of my friends is coming over on Tuesday to help me get everything priced and organized. I have been busy this weekend making a few items and am pretty happy with how everything looks – so I hope everyone else like them too!
Sneak Peak 1Sneak Peak 2Sneak Peak 3Sneak Peak 4
Also, for those of you who have been eagerly waiting for my first pattern (which I said would be available in September), you are going to have to wait a bit longer. Real life just has a way of side-tracking my sewing plans – so I had to put pattern design on hold for a bit longer. After the porch sale I should be back to my normal amount of “too much to do”.
It’s a busy week as I get ready for the Porch Sale on Oct 14th. Here are a few sneak peeks – as you can see there is still a bit of work to be done!
WitchesOdds and EndsMore Odds and Ends
I also got this steam press today. I used one of these a long time ago in a class and found it is wonderful for ironing interfacing onto fabric and saves so much time! Since I am making things in bulk, I need to find ways to save time.
Only two more weeks until the second annual Porch Sale in the Barn! It will be at the Little Herb House on Holland Church Rd in Raleigh, NC on Oct 14th and 15th. Doors are open from 8am – 5pm on both days.
Porch Sale In the Barn
I participated in this sale last year and it was a lot of fun. It will be much larger this year since we have more space and more vendors will be participating. I am in the midst of getting my stuff together for this year’s sale and I hope to put some teasers on the blog in the coming weeks. Just to whet your appetite, here are some pictures from last year’s sale.
Keep it Thimble 