Rose Festival Craft Village

Come visit me at the first Rose Festival Craft Village, hosted by Handmade NW. I will be there on Saturday, May 30th and Sunday, May 31st from 11am-11pm. The Craft Village is located at Waterfront Park in downtown Portland, Oregon. Just look for all the rides as you get near the river into downtown. Hope to see you there!

Hand Embroidered Neck Tie

I have fallen in love with hand embroidery! What a fun way to spice up a men's work shirt, jacket or vintage tie!! I love the patterns on retro men's ties, but had not found a project that allowed me to use them... until now!! I take old neckties and add a little flava by hand embroidered fun images. So far I have tried a robot, a map of Oregon (my favorite state), a gnome and a sugar skull. I ask my husband for his opinion on each design since he is a guy and lets me know honestly whether he thinks a guy would wear one or not. (Apparently a sock monkey would not be manly enough, unless he was holding a beer... Who knew!)

Recycled Sweater Rug

This recycled sweater rug is my latest project. I have been wanting to make something with recycled sweaters again. They make great mittens, but those are so seasonal that I wanted to try a new project. I really enjoyed making this rug and so much was learned. I will have to experiment using different types of sweaters that are in different stages of felting. When I sewed the two pieces together, then tended to pucker up. Possibly using a longer stitch and not pulling the fabric will help solve this problem. I added a piece of a non slip pad to the back (like what you would use under a rug or in your dish cabinet), so that it would not slip on a smooth surface. The piece of non-slip pad I used was not wide enough, so I had to piece together two pieces. Not the best solution, but it works for my first attempt. I think my next rug will be larger using long strips of sweater to make a striped pattern. The possibilities are endless!