Tropical Colors on Deep Blue Sea Pillow

This is the finished pillow. It measures 14x14. I don't usually use much blue, but this hand dyed color is called 'deep blue sea' and I think it sets off the bright batiks perfectly. I had to add my favorite little bird in the corner. I think my next pillow will be geometric-circles again- using wool, silk,and the batiks. I'm also thinking of doing one with embroidery and all crocheted flowers. Also need to finish some pincushions and maybe some floral crochet bracelets for summer. I found out from Lisa Swifka, organizer of OWOH, that there is going to be an article about the OWOH event in Somerset Studios ' Artful Blogging" magazine and that the pincushion I offered for my giveaway is going to be included. It should be in the summer issue that comes out in May! Back to sewing!

Group eyeglass cases

Another use for the abundant amount of hand dyed wool I have. These work up fairly quickly and I can do the crocheted flowers and as little or as much embroidery as I want. I might add buttons or beads to some of them. I have added fleece to the inner lining to give it some padding.
The batik appliqued pillow is underway, I'm doing the blanket stitching now. Slow work,but relaxing. I also just picked up 'A Homemade Life' by Molly Wizenberg and plan to spend some nonstitching time reading it. She writes the blog 'Orangette' at www.orangette.blogspot.com which I stumbled upon by accident and just love. A great food blog!
Hopefully I will have the pillow done by my next post. All these things are available at our etsy, artfire,1000market, and lollishops sites.

batiks

My order of batiks arrived yesterday, such gorgeous colors! I use these (plus some silks) for the appliques on pillows,etc. I have a pillow in mind- a pretty deep sea blue hand dyed wool for the background and appliques in all the yellow and orange batiks.I am not much of a 'blue' person, but my favorite colors of yellow and orange go so well with it I use it when I can. My other plan is for a simple, pieced table runner that I hope will somewhat resemble an enamel on copper piece I recently saw. Beautiful! My problem is getting started. I hate to cut into such gorgeous fabric until I'm absolutely positive.

OWOH winner

The OWOH giveaway is over and what fun! I want to thank everyone who participated and those who visited my blog. Big thanks to Lisa for all the hard work sponsoring and organising this event. The winner of my pincushion is Niki at Nostalgia at the Stonehouse. If you haven't seen her blog you must take a look, especially if you love a vintage cottage look, which I do. I have included her in my Blogs I Like on the right sidebar so just give a click. Again, thanks! Debra

Crochet Tutorial

My current project is a crochet tutorial on 1000markets in the Village market blog for next week. I custom made this bag for a customer awhile back and thought I'd make a smaller version I can put up for sale. Crochet and embroidery are two of my favorite things to do and combining the two makes for wonderful results. I'm going to give the instructions for two of the simpler flowers including materials used on the Village blog.Check it out next week by going to www.1000markets.com , click on markets and visit the Village or just click on the Village badge on the right sidebar here. Hope everyone is enjoying the OWOH event, I've visited lots of blogs I will be returning to and thank everyone who has left a comment on mine. Such fun!

One World One Heart Giveaway

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I am participating in this year's One World One heart blog giveaway. Leave a comment on this post (and this post only) for a chance to win the handmade(by me) pincushion above before Feb. 12. Giveaways are happening all over- there are already over 600 participants from all over the world. The only requirement to enter is that you have a blog and you can leave a comment on as many as you like! Click on the One world one heart logo above to see the list of participants or go to www.oneworldoneheart.typepad.com. By the way, the pincushion measures 4"x2" and is made of hand dyed wool. Good luck!

New Venues

Finally through with Christmas, retail has been dismal. We have spent alot of time joining various market venues online and are really excited about them. We have been on etsy for some time now and have recently joined lollishops, artfire, and 1000markets. They are recent startups so time will tell. I am especially thrilled by 1000markets www.1000markets.com , in particular the 'market' we are in,The Village www.1000markets.com/groups/village . The whole site is beautifully laid out and easy to navigate. About the photo, this is our shop here in Minnesota. Needless to say this was taken in July. Nice to look at now while it is -20 degrees outside.