Big Adventures

Plus - a goofy bear, a free pattern for a felt heart garland, and an adorable set of monster pouches

Last week I wrote about the joy of singing in a group while in Portland, Oregon.

Singing Out Loud

What I didn’t mention was that we were in Portland looking at homes.

And we found one!

And we’re moving in March!

***insert flailing Muppet arms here***

I’m so excited I can hardly stand it!

We’re going to be in the heart of my favorite neighborhood, just steps from a terrific park, streetcar lines, excellent pizza, and more.

I’ll be able to walk to the grocery store!

A few decades ago (!) I lived in Frankfurt, Germany for a year and I loved being able to walk or take public transportation to everything. I’m so excited to be able to do that again!

This is a big adventure in so many ways. I’ve never lived on the west coast, and I’m excited to learn about new plants and new animals. Even the same animals sometimes are different in new places. I’ll never forget being in Austin and hearing flocks of grackles in the trees. They sounded like monkeys! I asked someone what they were and I was stunned. There have been grackles everywhere I’ve ever lived, but I had never heard them make that sound before!

And how about the magic of seeing my first scissor-tailed flycatcher? (Also in Texas.) Just a few states away was a bird unlike any I’d ever seen before. What will a whole other coast be like?

There will be new National Parks to visit. New cities. A whole different ocean.

When I fly I’ll be going through different hubs. But there are also trains that will take me to lots of interesting places!

Portland has lots of funky small theaters (live and movie) and also gets touring Broadways shows. We’ll be able to walk to professional soccer games (men’s and women’s) and we already found an amazing board game cafe.

And, of course, there’s Powell’s - the world’s largest independent bookstore, a place where I could happily get lost for days. We’ll be able to walk to that, too.

So, so much to be excited about!

But first. . .

Packing and moving.

We’ve already been working on decluttering, and my studio and office are next.

That means I’ll be having a sample sale soon (hopefully the first week of February?) and also selling some other supplies, including fabric bundles, and maybe scrap bundles too?

The fabric bundles will be fabric from my stash, so pieces large enough to fold. But I also have a LOT of smaller scraps, all sorted by color. These are all toss-in-a-basket size, so not quite as useful - though they’re exactly what I used for my Backyard Birds quilt and also the Controlled Chaos quilt and this easy QAYG scrap quilt, so maybe I’m speaking too soon.

If there’s enough interest, I’ll add them to the sale too.

So, getting our house on the market, packing everything we own, and driving 4-5 days across the United States with a dog who hates being in the car. The next couple of months are going to be a lot, but then. . .

Adventure!

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How I’m Spending My Time 

At Work. . .

The Bryce Bear pattern is available in the shop! You can watch a little time-lapse video of his assembly here.

I just love his lopsided, goofy grin. ❤️

Behind the Scenes. . .

We finished Season Two of Only Murders in the Building and can’t wait for Season Three!

I’ve read a few books in the last couple of weeks, and The Winter Garden Mystery was my favorite. This is the second Daisy Dalrymple mystery and it was even better than the first. Light, frothy jazz age fun - exactly what I was in the mood for this week!

If anyone wants to friend me on Storygraph (where I track my reads), my username is wendigratz.

Oldies but Goodies - and SALE

See the oldies but goodies (and what’s on sale!) from week four of the year here. This is my favorite - at least for today. :-)

Such a great way to use small scraps of felt and thread.

Sale

The Week 4 archives post has a mix of tutorials, free patterns, and patterns for sale–and it really is fun seeing a progression over time. Use the discount code 4COCOA for 20% off any patterns linked to in the post. Here’s what that includes this week.

Partner Sale

Redbubble sells my art printed on everything from phone cases to stationery, stickers and shower curtains. They’re having a huge sale this week - 25% off everything. Shop here.

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Awesomeness from the Community

Look at these adorable pouches that Nancy made with the free Gobbler pattern! I designed the pouches to be long enough to hold pencils, but they work great for lots of things. Have a peek at the comments on Nancy’s post to see all the ways people are using them. 🙂

Head over to the Shiny Happy People group on Facebook to see what people are making with my patterns—and to ask questions and share photos of your own projects. It’s my favorite place on the internet!

I hope you have a fabulous week!

Best,
Wendi

PS Look at this AMAZING three-dimensional embroidered piece with moving parts! People are so wonderful. 🥰

Have a fabulous week!