The Beach

I was able to sneak away to the beach yesterday. 70' and gloriously sunny.

Chalk fabric

Giant industrial Singer

I chose my route to take me past Boersma's in McMinnville. One of my favorite fabric stores.

They do some serious long arm quilting but the have a treasure trove of sewn examples beyond quilts.

And the friendliest staff ever.

These weird jellyfish were washed up on the two beaches I stopped at. Very cool looking.
In a Star Trek way - want to see them on tv, not touch them with my bare feet.

Looking at Mo's Restaurant from across the inlet.

First stop was lunch at Mo's. Home of the best clam chowder ever.
Except, I have to eat plain steamed clams as I cannot tolerate too much wheat/dairy.
poor me, lol.

For Janine, an entire rack of postcards at the local Safeway grocery store.
A postcrossing bonanza.

Munra Point

Dear son, who has less than 25 days left of school for the rest of his life, decided to find Munra Point instead of studying on sunny Sunday.

Just east of Oneonta Falls, which is just past Multnomah Falls, is a very steep 6 mile round trip hike, bringing you out on top of the world Columbia Gorge.
{He did manage to throw some words together Sunday night to get a paper in for a grade.}

SewMamaSew Giveaway Day Spring 2015

 Welcome to SewMamaSew's Giveaway Day.

 
***GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED - Monday May 11, 2015

CONGRATS!!! to LEO of STRANDKORBTRAUM who said:

"hmmm not white - that's so hard to keep clean when it comes to bags - or mabye it's just me shleppign my bags along everywhere ...
hmmm dark green, may green and some sunflower yellow .."

I agree - the white would be a bear to keep clean. I already have plans to make this with different fabrics. -- Kathy

Thank you to everyone who entered. Its amazing to me that many bloggers who host giveaways have been harping on 'no-reply' commenters for the last couple of years and still - I had over 30. There is no way to contact you based on your blogger profile. Please google No-reply to find easy to understand fixes.  If you are reading this and you commented, please click on your name - which is highlighted - to see what I mean. You have to enable your email address to show.

This was another fun giveaway day with SewMamaSew and I loved all the comments.


I've participated since SMS started coordinating these awesome giveaways and I'm proud to offer up my recent sew. 

SMS is from my neck of the woods, here in Oregon.

 Marni Weaver of HaberdasheryFun recently posted an asymetrical bag tute on SMS.


I was drawn to the color blocking but not so in love with the white. Which you need to make those colors pop. I challenged myself to make the bag as directed and not deviate.

Those who know me are probably laughing in the aisles right now. I am an intermediate sewist and I always have to change something up. This took me about 2 1/2 hours to complete on Tuesday morning. It's a pretty fast sew.

Nice, clean color-blocking.

With very cool handles. I like this tote a lot. 
It's the perfect size for carrying library books, beach towels, stuff.
With stuff inside, it's around 12" high by 12" long x 5"wide.


A little about me: I've been blogging for a while now. I still  get a thrill when anyone comments and I've made some wonderful online friendships via blogging as well as physically met up with blogging friends. I was recently in Japan living it up in all the wonderful fabric shops (so cheap!)
I love to sew and I've mostly condensed my 'stash' into one room. I'll sew just about anything.

I live on an airpark. We keep our planes in a hangar on the property and can fly whenever the weather is nice. I've made the cockpit cover for our biplane as well as the luggage bin in both planes. You can get extra points in the giveaway by saying which planes my hubby and I own.

You can find me on Instagram (RocketGirl50), Pinterest (Katydid), Facebook (RunningWithNeedles). I'm even on Twitter (via etsy).    I don't require you to follow me or whatever - unless you want to. Then I'd probably do some weird happy dance.

I have an Etsy shop - RunningWithNeedles - where I hope to clear 1000 sales this year.

My giveaway is open to anyone in the world. International comments are welcome. All you have to do is answer my question.

***What color fabrics would you use?
 
I plan on doing some prints next time, adding pockets and doing the handles a little differently. Maybe some of those Cotton & Steel fabrics. If you happened to make one, maybe a link to yours.

Giveaway open from Wednesday,May 6 - Mother's Day, 2015.
I will choose the winner very randomly and post this bag to it's new home next week.



To see more giveaways, return to SMS for:

Handmade Items.
Fabric & Supplies.

85 Yen Tote Bag

 I found this piece (3/4 meter) for 85 yen when I visited my friend in Japan. She knows all the secret local yokel fabric stops in Japan. 

I knew I would make a tote bag with it and I sewed it yesterday.

I started with 17" squares and let my sewing  evolve with these free-style cut flower details.

I used a black pleather for the handles and cut the flowers from them. Once cut, I knew I wasn't gonna be able to sew them on - all those tiny curves... Then I decided to use double sided tape, still not quite right. Took a break and about half-hour later, it occurred to me to use buttons. No buttons this weird green (a little lighter than split pea). I finally found my covered button stash.  I'm very pleased with this detail.

 One slip pocket inside. Unusual for me,  I know.
I typically add three or four. This simple tote begged to stop at one.

I was thinking about some closure thingy,
but I'm not coming up with anything that won't ruin the simple lines of this tote.
There's a little Marimekko thing going on with the flowers.

My best thought is to crochet a chain of black and make a bigger covered button....
Or, I might just say, "It's finished."

May Flowers

Wow! All of my Iris's are in bloom at the same time.
They are my favorite flower and I've only come across two varieties of Iris that behave badly.

The photo -at top- is one of my faves
with variegated broad sword leaves and a beautiful blue-purple bloom.


 
This ruffled bearded Iris appeared one spring and seems to like my yard.

 Lots of Purple Bearded Iris hang out under the fir trees. The top soil is drier which the iris love.

 Way down my yard towards the runway is the remains of the Leopard's Bane and some free-wheeling California Poppies.

 I just love Iris's.

 Then I see the sweet Columbine starting to bloom and I quickly ditch the iris for these cutie pies.

May and June is when my acre really shines. I used to have a garden goal of being able to pick flowers any day of the year. I've moved on towards less effort in maintaining the yard. Even though  I have all-season color, these next two months are stunning.

Someone was re-doing their yard and tossed these beauties.
They quickly found a home in Canbyland.

I don't know their name and I'm much too lazy to look it up so I call them my Free Rhodies.

 The light was a little crazy this morning on this peony. It almost looks like frost tipping the blooms. It's just closed up against the cooler night air. Peonies are in their element in the late afternoon showing off their Scarlet O'hara hoop skirts at teatime.

 Hanging baskets on the patio - I hung them up today. I potted them up a few weeks ago and I usually set them on the protected side of the patio so the wind and weird spring weather doesn't mess with them while they get going.

I pot my own. Most of the baskets that are sold right now are already root-bound - which means more blooms to entice you to buy. -- Which also means that by July 4th, unless you water them three times a day, they will start looking very sad.

I like mine to look good in the late summer and I'm also quite lazy. I don't want to water more than once every day or so. Who's got time?

My pots are old Rubbermaid brand water reservoir pots. They hold a couple of inches of water for the roots to suck up on the hot days. These pots are more than twenty years old. Most plastic pots only last a few years before the UV (aka sunlight) rots the plastic.

 I bought this Stearman weather vane many years ago for hubbies birthday. It's made from salvaged kitchen aluminum tart dishes among other things.

 And look at those strawberries. Blooming crazy right now - berries 2nd week of June. Not the (CA) ones with white middles. Our Oregon Strawberries are red throughout and much sweeter.

 More Iris's near the patio.

Rusty trying to "STAY" so I can get a photo.

Off to my sewing room to do something - not sure what yet. Then to watch The Avengers this eveing at the movie theater.