Artsy Fartsy Rope Bowl

 I had fun making this artsy fartsy rope bowl. This bowl took the longest at a little less than two hours - only because it involved a little hand sewing!

Those round curly ques (discs) stayed in my brain from the last bowl  and I went for it on this bowl. I wanted a small fruit bowl for my Thanksgiving table to go with my brand new vintage linen tablecloth. I picked out some purple fabric scraps, some purple shades of thread and started sewing.

I wanted to make those discs and either have them flopping randomly around or...
I put in two and didn't like the contrast thread on the one side so I elected to hand-sew them down.

I used small scraps of fabric  - about four inches long by one inch wide. Between organically thinking when to add a fabric scrap and when to add a disc, I was pretty engrossed. I guess I could have done a normal flat-side bowl and then sewn the discs and attached them later, but I am loving the totally organically placed 3-D discs and the whole vibe of this bowl.

I think if I were to sew the discs separately, there would be a temptation to place them evenly  and it wouldn't be as awesome.

I used Ace Hardware's 7/32" thick clothesline. It's got a braided cotton outer surrounding a polyester core. I used a size 14 sewing needle with zero problems. I also cleaned out two more spools of thread as well as five bobbins on this bowl.

This is the same clothesline that Pencil Girl uses to hand-dye rope for me.

This is how I worked the bowl. I used a neutral thread  on the top and colored threads in my bobbin. The great thing about these bowls is you don't really notice the stitching and they are seriously forgiving if you wander off. All I see above is the random color fabric stripes.

I also wanted a shallow bowl. Once I reached 4 inches in diameter on the circle, I tilted it as straight up against my machine as I could for about 10-15 rows. Then I let it drop a bit to make the sides be wider. If you tilt it straight up and over your machine you get straighter sides. At the end I was actually tugging it down to get those sides to widen out.

Once I decided to finish with an extra large disc, I threaded a sewing needle and hand-tacked the discs down flat. Easy peasy.

You could make a dog dish out of this. The discs really show off here.
I definitely had a preference for the discs to be inside the bowl although that was not in my dream design. I find these very freeing. And, like I've mentioned before, very satisfying to be able to finish something stunning so quickly.

I have a trick to get the wrinkles out of tablecloths. No ironing either. Wash/Rinse your cloth and let drain in washer until it's damp. Spread over your table how you like it centered overnight. A little dampness won't hurt your wood table and the cloth dries beautifully with no creases.  If you can wring water out of your cloth, it's too wet and you might damage your wood. Damp.


***To change subjects -- are you tired of these rope bowls yet?Here's a video of Canby, shot by a local resident with a drone camera.
Titled Ode To Canby
by Josh Lee Kwai
Shot October 24, 2016

It starts off with the school fields, Wait Park, Willamette River, Fairgrounds, Canby Cougars (High school sports teams), High School, Flower Farmer Train, Dahlias (Swan Island), Ferry across the Willamette River.

Installing A Zipper On A Small Pouch

LAST DAY to ENTER ---- And if you're looking for my SewMamaSew giveaways this week (open until May 16 - friday):
SewMamaSew Giveaway #1 is here.

SewMamaSew Giveaway #2 is here




The Stitchin' Post in Sisters, Oregon just sent me this video on a different way to install a zipper on a zippered pouch.
Cool.
Might try it on my next one.

Tie Dye Birthday Cakes

The daughter came back from Europe straight into another year older.
I saw this Duff's Tie Dye  cake mix at Target and immediately had to make this cake for her.


The color dyes are fabulous. They bake nearly true to the cake box art.


I made the Camouflage Cake for the other child back in February.
These are simple cake mixes.
You divy up the batter into small bowls, color them, plop them in the cake pans.
A little messy. But easy clean-up messy.

Real simple Buttercream frosting.
Added some bling.

Found a setting on my smarty pants phone -making the cake a cartoon-like image.









Very tasty.
Very tie dye.

Although I can only taste the frosting because of my food sensitivities.

The plate was designed and made by my daughter. It is now the designated  cake plate.



In major marketing genious, Duff's made youtube videos if you think making the cake is difficult!

My Second Kid

My kid.

Finishing up his 2nd year of Pharmacy school. Next year, he's headed up to OHSU (Oregon Health Sciences University - Hospital).
He's president of his class and this is his second video. This one is for recruitment.

Incredibly proud mama.





Here's his first video - earlier in the year.

OSU Snow Day

Huskies & Husqvarnas

As an eclectic collector of all things Alaska and Airplanes, I was blown away by the scope of this project.   Pendleton Woolen Mills shared their share of this (gonna be) classic Canadian Pacific DC-3 Yarn Bomb.

Canadian Pacific DC-3 Yarn Bomb from Tyler Kuhn on Vimeo.
{{If video won't load - just click on the link above.}}

 ***borrowed form the Vimeo site:

""Canadian Pacific DC-3 Yarn Bomb

by Tyler Kuhn Plus 1 week ago / via QuickTime Player /

Creative Commons License:

by

nc

nd

Knitting for History: Yarn Bombing the DC-3

On Saturday August 11 the Yarn Bomb Yukon Collective, in partnership with the Yukon Transportation Museum and the Yukon Arts Centre, broke a world record by creating the world's largest transportation yarn bomb. A dedicated team spent months knitting over 6000 square feet of blankets and sewing them together into giant pattern panels. Then on the fateful Saturday they came together to install their creation on Whitehorse, Yukon's historic DC-3 plane (which is incidentally also the world's largest weather vane).
The purpose of this interactive public art project was to transform a historic aircraft into a large scale public art project, to foster an appreciation for fibre arts, and to teach the lifelong skills of knitting and crocheting to adults and children. Once the project is complete, blankets will be donated to local charities and shelters.
The giant yarn bomb will be installed and on display for the public to appreciate until August 21, 2012 at the Yukon Transportation Museum (goytm.ca).
The Yarn Bomb Yukon Collective actively promotes fibre arts through yarn bombing inanimate objects and offering workshops on fibre arts and yarn bombing to the public. We are based out of Whitehorse, Yukon.
To learn more about us please visit:
yarnbombyukon.com/
Don't forget to follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
facebook.com/yarnbombyukon
#yarnbombyukon
And if you want to see some stills from the project, look here:
akstudios.500px.com/yarnbombyukon/
Shot on a Canon 7D, Canon 20D and GoPro Hero2
Lenses:
18-55 F2.8 IS
70-200 F4 L
Music:
Huskies & Husqvarnas
Tim Hus
Huskies & Husqvarnas (2006)
itunes.apple.com/ca/album/huskies-husqvarnas/id322672533

""

The questions you gotta ask yourself while watching is, "How did I miss this catchy song?
"...where huskies & husqvarnas are the tools of the trade..."

More on yarnbombing

And a little more:

When Oregonians Travel To Sweden

I thought I would introduce you to how we travel.

I'm one of the few people I know who knows where all the fabric stores are in Maui. Other people stay at the resorts and soak up the sun and the MaiTai's, but I freckle and there are days when I cannot spend all day in the sun. The answer to how much rum one can drink has been answered but how much fabric one can stuff in her suitcase has not.

My husband has been a good sport about these non-touristy explorations. When I went to Ireland a few years back with my little sister, we stayed at a hotel right next to the Sewing & Knitting show in Dublin. I booked the hotel because it was near the show, which, coincidentally was during the time of our visit.

Our upcoming trip to Sweden & Finland is based on - 30 years ago, I was an exchange student to Finland. Last year, at my high school reunion, I realized I am never going to have the money to go back and I needed to figure out a Visa moment.

My friends there are finally on the internet  more (very expensive for personal use) and I have a plan of staying with one friend at the beginning (Goteberg) and another at the end (Helsinki).

After months of planning (dang airline travel sites), my husband finally jumped on board. He's going, but he was making me crazy with his non-involvement.

He has decided he wants to look up Stearman owners.

Turns out the guy who owns one near Stockholm has a camera mounted on his wing and has a ton of video on Youtube (look up  Kenneth Öhrn and Stearman).
He sounds fun and since I've seen all the sights to see in Sweden, barring the new museum dedicated to ABBA, I say, let's go vacation flying.

I'll get payback when my sole reason to visit Rovaniemi, north of the Arctic Circle and home to Santa Claus (joulupukki), is to visit the Ottobre store. Serious women's sewing design patterns.

Here's a Stearman flying in Sweden:

And another vid:



And because we wonder how much avgas costs in Sweden. . .

Pilots Without Pants

Here's a silly video that I swear is true. On my pinky finger, Cross it, hope to die, whatever.






Buy yours now.

Button Stars

Via Pendleton Woolen Mills; via Anastasia Zhuravlena

"We ran across this fun stop-motion video made by Russian animator, Anastasia Zhuravlena dedicated to all the buttons lost in the metro. Starring all the notions in your sewing kit, we can't help but watch it over and over!"

This video starring all of the notions in your sewing drawer;