Gearing up for Mighty Tieton

November 29 - Dec. 1  we will be at the Mighty Tieton Holiday Show.  We're gearing up with felted wool, wool balls, pin cushions, and assorted treasures.  We're really looking forward to the trip.  We've set up a 10 X 10 sales space in a spare room, and we're working on making a great display.  Each year we learn a little more about how to travel to shows, and create vibrant displays that share the thrill we get from wool felt.

Today I started with some felted orange hand-dyed wool with fringe.  We picked up the fabric from Pendleton Woolen Mills outlet store in Portland, OR.  They had bins of light-weight blanket remnants with a square-on-point pattern woven into the wool.  My Etsy partner, Finch, hand-dyed the piece a vibrant orange.  It has a wonderful mottled affect.

I played with quite a few  color combinations including this set of cream, aqua and orange.  I knew it wasn't right when Finch compared to the the colors of the Miami Dolphins.  After ruling out most of my felted wool stash, I realized another texture might be a better counterpoint to dynamic orange.  I decided to introduce cotton.  I landed on this circles print from my stash  - "Native Arts" by Robert Kaufman - and I was set.


Last week I went to the Northwest Quilt Show in Portland Oregon.  Eight hours total drive time and a couple of hours on the show floor.  But it was worth it.  The quilts were inspiring and the vendors were great.  I splurged on the  Sue Spargo book, Creative Stitching.  I was dying to give some of the stitches a whirl.  And this project created the platform.

Although the iPod sleeve was looking great with its funky fringe folded down and its wild base, my theory is "enough is never enough."  So I set to embellishing.  I love how it turned out.