Do you find that when you finish a big project (like 80 Christmas postcards) that you are a little lost? That's the phase I'm in right now. In my sewing room I'm trying to clean up and get surfaces open so I can get out a couple of new projects. But yesterday I didn't do much of anything. Last night was our quilt club meeting and annual pot luck. Because of my allergies, I don't get to participate but I do bring my vegan and gluten free cookies. I have two friends who take all of the leftovers home to family members who are dairy-free. My holiday cooking is done!

Yesterday afternoon we went to a friend's house to pick up some wood. They had to cut down 3 HUGE trees earlier this year. Two were 150+ year old oaks. We got a lot of it in the Spring but decided to get another load. We are all set for winter fires.

In the evenings Chris' blanket is really coming along. I'm on the 7th ball of 11. It's 53" wide and 55" long at this point. It's my lap blanket while I'm working on it. I want it to be about 80" long so I expect that I will only need 9.5 - 10 balls total. This project will actually be done soon! 

The big view photo is really washed out so I took this one with a grayscale card and these colors are much closer to true. I absolutely love it. It's Cascade Cartwheel in the color San Diego. This might be done by Christmas!

My next sewing project will be a doll dress for Ella. I'm hoping to find a pattern that can use these 2 fabrics. The pink is a silk that Kim gave me and the silver is from Anne and is the same type of fabric that I used in the stocking postcard. These fabrics make my teeth hurt. I wasn't that kind of little girl but Ella will love it.

This is the last newsletter until after Christmas and I'm happy to introduce a new Stash Pack! Canyonlands brings forth the faded and dark oranges from the Southwest landscapes. I think Stash Packs make the best gifts. Each Stash Pack has 10 fat eighths of fabrics in a variety of color combinations and color texture. I love them for scrappy style quilts but I think most people use them for elements in art quilts. You can use them any way you want!

Here are 6 of the fabrics in this collection. Half of them are mottled and half are streaky. There are so many possibilities!

No matter what or how you celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful holiday. Enjoy some special time with family and friends.

I did it! All of the cards are addressed, stamped and on the way to the post office this morning. Christmas is basically done except for a few gifts for my SIL's grandchildren. Woohoo!

We had our quilt club sewing days this weekend so I spent Friday and Saturday working on these blocks. This will be another veterans quilt. I cut this quilt kit (and another just like it) earlier this year and I thought these would be great to have to work on during the winter months. It's the same pattern as these quilts that I finished in August. I like this block a lot so I can see myself cutting more of these quilts after I make it through the remaining 4 - 6 kits that I have left.

I don't have a progress photo of Chris' crochet blanket but I've passed the halfway mark and am working on the 7th of 11 skeins. I'll try to get a photo in good light to share Wednesday. We both love the blanket.

My next project is to make Ella another American Girl outfit for her Christmas gift. I'll be searching through patterns and fabrics later today after I run a couple of errands.

Today's inspiration comes to us courtesy of Julie Griffiths. She was inspired by the view of fire from across the lake. She sued the Marrakesh Gradient with a little bit of batik in her piece. Even the dark borders are from the gradient.

For sharing, Julie received a 20% coupon for the shop that's good for 3 months! If you have made anything with my hand dyed fabric I hope you will consider sharing it in the Customer Gallery.  The only rule is that projects have to be complete. It doesn't have to be made totally from hand dyed fabric, just include a recognizable amount. 

You might remember that several weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to do some testing of durability of acrylic value yarns. I just went through my stash and picked the yarns that I had on hand but I did also purchase some Mainstay and Red Heart since they are such popular value yarn choices. I could have added lots of others but I felt this sampling would give me a good idea of the durability of these yarns in general. I don't consider Vanna's Choice a value yarn, but I had just bought some on deep clearance and thought this test would give me a good idea of what to do with it.

Here's how the test worked:
I made swatches with 4 rows of double crochet using a 5.5mm (I) hook. 
I had a control set of swatches and a set that went through washing cold and flat drying, a set that was washed cold and machine dried and a set that was washed warm and machine dried.
I went through the cycles 5 times and the initial results showed that the washing temperature doesn't seem to matter, it's the dryer that affects the yarn. If you dry flat the yarn will continue to look and feel exactly the same as it did off the skein.
After the 5 cycles I decided to focus on dryer tests and to send the swatches through washing and drying 5 more times for a total of 10 dryer cycles. My dryer is set to hot.

Observations:

1. All of these yarns are really quite durable and held up well through 10 wash/dry cycles.
2. The softest yarns are Big Twist (Joann) and Pound of Love (Lion Brand). They are also the most likely to pill, especially Big Twist.
3. Most of then shrank a bit so I will always use a larger hook size to make sure that the resulting blankets/projects stay soft and cuddly. I tend to crochet tight anyway so I will use J or K hooks for my projects.
4. My decision about purchasing yarn, especially for donation purposes, will be price because I think all of these yarns performed well. I'll address cost at the end of this post. 

Here's a review if each individual yarn. The unwashed swatch is always on the top.

When I say a yarn is a favorite or least favorite you have to take that with a grain of salt. There's really not a ton of difference between most of them. That said, Big Twist is my least favorite. It's, hands down, the softest of the yarns I tested but it's also the most likely to pill. I wouldn't necessarily avoid using this yarn but I'd recommend not drying it in the dryer.​ You can see the pilling starting to form in the sample.

You can't tell from this photo, but I Love This Yarn (Hobby Lobby) shrank the least. The top swatch was the first that I made and I decided that I didn't want to make my swatches that big. I like this yarn a lot because it's soft off the skein and it stays soft through the wash. It didn't pill but I see evidence that it might after another 10 or so washes....maybe.  It's also one of the most expensive when not bought on the regular 30% sale.

Pound of Love (Lion Brand) is almost as soft as Big Twist. You can see that the stitches are denser after washing and it will eventually pill a little bit but not as much as Big Twist. Given the choice I'd probably choose Pound of Love over Big twist. In fact, I have yarn to make a gingham blanket from this yarn. I will use a larger hook size to accommodate for the shrinkage.

I have never used Premier Basix so I bought some to try a while back and haven't used it yet. It did shrink in both length and width. This yarn is going to make very durable projects. My washed sample actually feels a little stiffer than the original but that might be because of the shrinkage. My opinion is very neutral on this one. If the price is right, I'd buy.

So now I know why people love Red Heart. This stuff is super durable. I know that in the photo it looks like there was some shrinkage, but that's not the actual result. This didn't shrink at all. It didn't soften a lot after 10 washes but it didn't pill either.

Mainstay is Walmart's house brand that comes in a very limited number of colors. It did shrink a tiny bit but I think it's a little softer than Red Heart but just as durable. It's the best value of all of them and I'd be fine using Mainstay white, black and gray mixed with yarns from other companies. They only have about about 6 or 8 colors in total.

The surprise of all surprises are the Dollar Tree yarns. They are both by Premier. I think that Just Yarn is simply a lighter weight of Premier Basix and I like it much better than Basix. It's softer and more drapey but just as durable. The Just Active has some polyester blended in. It's soft like Big Twist but it looks just as good after 10 washes as it did off the skein. The downside of these yarns is going to be cost (based on the new $1.25 price point) and the small size of the skeins. But, yes, I'd buy them. It will be interesting to see if the skeins are made a little bigger with the new $1.25 price point.

Like I said earlier, I put in some Vanna's Choice (Lion Brand) because I had some. This yarn is more expensive than the others and the swatches show that it's a higher quality. It's a thick #4 (worsted) and you could use a J or K or maybe an L hook with it to make a nice drapey blanket. It would probably make a nice winter cardigan too. 

So, with all of that said and given that I make mostly donation items, I'm comfortable using any of these yarns except Red Heart. The only reason that I won't use Red Heart is because I had an allergic reaction to it once. Otherwise, it's a great yarn. I'd probably also avoid Big Twist because I think it's the least durable.
​

That means that price will likely be the determining factor when I buy yarn.  This chart compare the cost per yard for each of these yarns based on the full retail price on the day I prepared this chart. They are sorted on cost order. Mainstay is the least expensive. I Love This Yarn is the most expensive of the value yarns and I'm not convinced that most people would categorize it as a value yarn.

But I think it's a more realistic comparison to look at what the normal sale price is. I Love This Yarn is 30% off every other week. Does anyone buy this yarn at full price? I know I never do. Big Twist and Pound of Love are on sale at Joann on a very regular basis. Looking at the sale price, Big Twist and Pound of Love are the bargains and I Love This Yarn is also a bargain.

Check out the cost of the Dollar Tree yarns. They aren't expensive but they aren't bargains either! But if I did amigurumi, I'd buy the small skeins of this yarn all day long. It's a great way to get lots of variety of colors in small skeins.  

For me, I learned a couple of important things:
1. All yarns are of good quality and I can be confident using them for gifts or donations. I expect that I Love This Yarn (on sale) will become my go-to value yarn. It's great quality and soft to work with and Hobby Lobby is close to me. My Michael's is kind of a dump and Joann is a bit of a drive.
2. I now have a price point for comparing sale prices of nicer yarns. If there's a sale and the better quality yarn is in the .01 - .015/yard range, I'm stocking up! I did some of that during the sales at Lion Brand and JoAnn. For example, I absolutely love Lion Brand Anti-Pilling yarn and I bought a ton of it from Joann on Cyber Monday for .0107/yard, that was something like 65% off and in the range of Premier Basix and Pound of Love. I didn't mention Premier much. I love their yarns too but they haven't bee pushing sales as much as Lion Brand lately.

Some other yarns that I like and that I would consider mildly stockpiling if at least 40% off are:
Mandala Ombre - .0157/yard if 40% off
Vanna's Choice - .0176
Ice Cream Blend - .0082 - I picked up some of this on clearance at a deeper discount
At less than 40% off, I'm not interested unless I have a specific project in mind. This one lesson is going to save me from a lot of not-so-great sales in the coming months and years. I have put this chart on my phone so that I can have it as a reference if I'm out shopping and trying to figure out if a yarn is a bargain.

What do you think? What value yarns do you like best of you knit or crochet and what kinds of projects do you like to do with them?

All of the 2021 Christmas cards are done! With all 3 designs this year I started with a specific fabric and built the design from there. That's also true with this ornament arrangement.  I think that Paula Nadelstern's fabrics really lend themselves to Christmas designs so I use these fabrics almost every year. I made 30 of these cards so I started by cutting out 90 individual ornaments from pre-fused fabric and I found a beautiful teal silk for the background. This photo doesn't really do the silk justice.  

These were complex enough that I had to do some planning for the construction phase. I had to start with the big ornament. I fused and stitched that ornament and it's hanger before fusing on the 2 smaller ornaments because the oblong ornament overlapped the hanger of the big one.

On my sample card I first stitched the hanger with just a zig-zag stitch but it really wasn't heavy enough. I found this thread/yarn/whatever in the Cabinet of Possibilities. This is from Madeira and is over 20 years old. It was called Lame' and I have it in 6 colors. I rarely use it but sometimes, like now, I'm really glad I have it!

To make the hanger I doubled the Lame' and stitched with a zig zag from the edge of the card to the top of the ornament. 

Then I lifted the presser foot and used 2 tweezers to pull the loop up to the needle to create the bow.

Then I turned the card sideways to zig zag a couple of stitches over the bow.

Success! A bow!

Now I have 78 cards that need to get addressed. My goal is to have them all in the mail by Monday.

How cute are these? 
These are the December birthday cards for my friend and SIL. My SIL's birthday is December 23 so the 1 rule is that birthday gifts/cards cannot even have a scent of Christmas. I looked through some of my "special" dyed fabrics and found this bright, Springy one. I found a smile emoji silhouette online, cut it out and fused it on. I didn't even topstitch it. It didn't need it.

A couple of hours later I had 8 happy faces! 
​Meanwhile, I'm making good progress on the last set of Christmas cards. I'll be addressing all of the cards by Friday!

I'm so focused on making Christmas postcards that I didn't have time for a shop update so there's no newsletter this week. Instead I'll catch up on a crochet update. I started and finished this shawl Thanksgiving week. It worked up really fast. I made this to be a "wheelchair" shawl so it's purposely short and made to wrap around and stay on the shoulders.

​The pattern is the Dina Shawl from Cinnamon Stitches. I made mine a little smaller by chaining 72 stitches instead of the 90+ called for in the pattern.
The yarn is Mandala Tweed Stripes in the color Dragonfly and I used a 5.5mm hook. I made a couple of adjustments along the way but I mostly followed the pattern exactly and I used exactly 1 ball of yarn. Seriously, I had 10" left at the end.

I did need to block it but I did that by spreading it to shape on the floor dry and just spraying it generously with water.

This yarn was nice to work with and made a very soft shawl. I have 2 balls left and will make another donation shawl in a larger size to try to use up both balls.

Chris' blanket is coming along. I'm on the 5th skein of 11 (I think). It's going to be huge but it's really nice to work on, especially when I'm chilly in the evenings.

​Today's one goal is to finish the last of the postcards!

There's nothing going on around here except for postcard making. I had 2 more sets of Christmas postcards to make and 1 set of birthday cards. This is my second Christmas card design. I've been wanting to make a stocking design for a while and I found the perfect fabric in my stash.

This year I've taken the approach to start all of my design by finding something in my stash and building the design from the fabric. My friend gave me these 3 fabrics last year to make American Girl dresses for Ella. Honestly, I had forgotten about the but unearthed the bag while looking for something else. 

I don't have any in-process photos. I started these over Thanksgiving break and was heads down focused. I can share that this is some really sturdy fabric and it easily took the hottest iron setting with steam!

I made 24 of them and they actually came together pretty quickly in production mode.

Since finishing those I also made a set of birthday cards and I'll share those once I know that the first one was received. This weekend I started on the last set of Christmas cards. These are the most involved of the bunch.....of course.

Today's inspiration is courtesy of Ann Jensen. Her Honu pillow is hand appliqued with batiks on a gradient background. This gradient is Forest Canopy but it makes for some fine water too!

For sharing, Ann received a 20% coupon for the shop that's good for 3 months! If you have made anything with my hand dyed fabric I hope you will consider sharing it in the Customer Gallery.  The only rule is that projects have to be complete. It doesn't have to be made totally from hand dyed fabric, just include a recognizable amount. ​