wolves, cats, & owls...

These funny wolves with hearts are  now downtown in a cool little shop called "Imagine."

And these two soft wool cats joined them, just in time for Valentine's Day...coming soon.

I was fooling around with some felted wool and decided that it would make a fun bird purse!

May do some embroidery on the wings...but a fun new project.

Actually the owl started it! This is an owl purse...the top opens between the "ears".

Made many hearts out of some ethnic embroidered fabric. Small, medium and large...some are now in a shop in Santa Barbara, and some for gifts...

And this amazing antique quilt came from my neighbor, Sharon. She found it at the bottom of a box given to her by a 93 year old woman and many of the things were from her mother! I love the colors and nice feather stitching. Some of the fabric is very thin and coming apart, but over all very lovely.

Back to finishing up some more hearts for Santa Barbara and Solvang and getting ready for our Workshop in Oaxaca!  

Busy stitching....

Still busy making things for our workshop in February. These are some necklaces made from a Japanese scarf that I found in my fabric basket. I cut out the flowers and made a "yoyo" and stuffed it with cotton and did a little tying and stitching with embroidery thread. The leaves are from the same fabric.

Four little pouches for necklaces and a background piece that may end up on a bag of some kind.

Another bag made from an old needlepoint piece given to me by my neighbor, Sharon.

And while trying to do some uncluttering  I found this velvety piece that I need to finish up and make into a bag. I started this so long ago I don't even remember the year!

So now I need to get some more hearts made for the shops I sell in.

 Just started working at the Art Hus in Solvang. Lots of fun handmade art and crafts by local artists. come visit us if you are nearby!

Stitching away...

I'm back! We had a little excitement here on the mountain. A big snow and hail storm came through  before the New Year and lightening hit the transformer near us and took out our electricity, internet and  fried our land line. We were off on a visit to see my relatives up north and missed most of the drama. My son convinced me we didn't need the phone anymore since we all had cell phones so I had to say good bye to my old phone number. 

But I still have been busy stitching away and preparing for our upcoming workshop in Oaxaca. We are now full with 10 adventurous souls who will spend a week in sunny Mexico making bags, totes and fiber jewelry and seeing local artists, shops and sites. 

I made this bag with some fun vintage pieces. The bottom was a table cloth and the top piece was from a quilt. 

This one will be similar to the one above, still working on it ...

A fun little drawstring bag...maybe to hold some stitching projects...

another bag...may do some stitching on this before we are done...

Two little bags to hold a Kindle, plus a heart from an old quilt...also still finishing up a padded pouch for my new ipad mini  (my Christmas present) .

Last week Syd and I got to spend some fun time with Pam Garrison, Charlotte Lyons, and Rebecca Sower who were preparing for workshops in Los Angeles at French General. They rented a cute cottage in Carpinteria for a few days and we painted, laughed and went out for some Mexican food for dinner. Too much fun! Wish they all lived closer!

We have two remodeling projects going on here now. A bathroom and kitchen. So life is interesting, and noisy, dusty and full of decisions. But someday it will be done and things will be back to normal.

In the meantime I will be stitching and hooking and keeping busy.