Everybody loves these bags

I've been asked multiple times for info on where I got my rice bag pattern and kits and so I'm documenting it here so I can give people a link or copy and paste the info... I've made two now and have pieced together the pieces for the next two.

Komebukuro are bags traditionally used to take offerings (usually rice) to temples on festivals; they're often pieced together and decorated with embroidery. 

I saw a pattern and kits for them at Sew Creative in Ashland, Oregon; it's a lovely little quilt store on the main street.  My friend P. and I both bought the pattern and kits for the bags. 

The link to the kits is here https://www.sewcreativeashland.com/collections/rice-bag-kits

The rice bag kit claims to come with enough fabric for three bags, and enough twill tape to for the ties on one bag. I found that it was easy to get four bags out of it, but I used denim for the bottoms of two of them; I pieced the bottoms for the other two out of offcuts. I think you could get might be able to get pieced bases for all 4 bags? But cut the pieces for the sides first.  (It's also possible if I cut thoughtfully and used denim for all the bottoms, I could have gotten 5 bags). You can order more twill tape at a reasonable price from Sew Creative or sew straps from cotton fabric.

They also sell a Creative Kit which has fun ribbon, some fun accent fabrics, buttons, etc... I found that one was good for 2 bags. If you have a deep fabric and notions stash you can probably skip this.

The pattern calls for sashiko thread (I have none) but says embroidery floss is a good substitute (I have lots) so I used embroidery floss and had a lot of fun with it.

You also need iron on fleece and some interfacing; 5 9x9 blocks of each. The pattern class for specific brands/weights but I don't know if it matters much. The lining seems tooo heavy with interfacing but too light without.

I used quilting cotton for the lining and added a zipper pocket on the inside; I might put a slip pocket in the next two bags.

There are a bunch of patterns on the internet and on Youtube (google komebukuro or japanese rice bag), so it's possible you don't need to order the kit from Sew Creative; I didn't look at any so can't offer a recommendation. I do like the weight of the fabric in their fabric kit; it's heftier than quilting cotton and it makes the bag look more substantial.

Everybody loves these bags!

Mid January

It's mid Feb and I've mostly been doing other things... but on the art and fiber front:

Working away at knitting a blue cashmere sweater.

Nearly done getting the loom set up to weave the carrot towels...

Made all the blocks for two more rice bags and need to start embellishing them. I ordered (and received) another embellishments kit with cute fabrics, fun ribbons, etc... 

I printed 12 postcards with snowflakes in an ombre blue. Artistically, I'm somewhat offended that I associate winter with snowflakes, having always lived in an area that has no snow. Anyways, I am very pleased with the outcome, and I feel like I got the Ombre right, but here are some issues:

• The lino I cut was slightly smaller than the post card so a bit didn't print. I ended up using the paper cutter to make the cards a little smaller.
• I wasn't sure how to handle the flake coming in from the left and I think it looks a little awkward.
• The proofs (like the photo below) came out pretty well but printing on the watercolor postcards was a little trickier. My prints aren't coming out clean and looking at common guidance on Reddit, I think the issue is lack of pressure; so the thickness of the paper is inhibiting proper printing pressure? I'm looking at presses. I may try wetting the paper first. 
• To fix the inking issues above, I ended up covering a bit with a brush. It was tedious and unsatisfying.
• I did overink the plate and one point and that's hard to undo. I had to scrub the lino with water and soap and start over.

I'm tagging the cards with this and sending to friends/family; the first run is 12 but I think I'll aim for 20 for a February card. If you're reading this and want to get a periodic postcard, PM me your mailing address.

Inspired by my sister’s awesome Christmas cards from long ago, I took some classes in linoleum block printing and have been sporadically playing with it ever since. For 2025, I want to improve my artistic and technical skills by making 6-12 prints, each featuring a technique I’d like to learn or practice!!

What’s the fun in making a couple of prints and putting them in a drawer? Instead I’d like to print postcards and send them to my friends. What should you do with them? Keep them as long as they spark joy, then joyfully put them in your recycling bin. If you’d like to offer artistic critique, it would be very welcome!!

For this inaugural card, I’ve worked on more precise carving, gradient ink, and better printing techniques.

"Artist's Proof" for January

Q4 and 2024 Finished List (10/29), and December cookbook challenge

First, the cookbook challenge! Last night I used the Santa Fe School of Cooking Flavors of the Southwest recipe for Lamb Adovada with chipotle sauce and carmelized corn... The recipes serves 10, so I used 1/3 of the meat it called for, 1/2 of the marinade ingredients, but made full versions of sauce and the corn. I served it with roasted fingerling potatoes and a beet and apple salad with a lime vinaigrette, and a 2016 Sea Smoke pinot noir. The lamb was from Dixon, which probably has  the best lamb in the region. DH declared it restaurant quality (which made me smile). We both felt the sauce and corn served 4, the lamb was about right for 4 servings as well. Note that the sauce does not need the extra chipotle that I added.

A quick mention of bread and all things wheat... I not only made sourdough for Christmas Eve, but also cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning! Two issues... I screwed up weighing the flour (don't judge me) so had to eyeball the appropriate amount; I think I added too much; the buns were just slightly dry. Second, I missed the part of the recipe that said to leave them out on the counter for 2 hours after sitting in the fridge all night, but managed to leave them out for 45 minutes and we just had breakfast a little later.  Everyone went back for seconds! But sadly, I feel like I'm suffering from the wheat, and need to kick it out of my diet for a few weeks to check. I think the right solution is to keep using this wheat, but not on a daily basis; maybe a couple times a month?

On to the list of what I've accomplished this quarter...

Done:

 

Six of the unfinsished objects from my list (UFO's)

• The tote bag from the embroidered pieces I made a few years ago, now proudly transporting groceries for K.C.
• 3 purple ikat towels.
• Those two hand towels (of four) that I made a year or three ago but never hemmed? Yep, they are hemmed and on the shelf waiting for guests.

Some new stuff:

• Komebukuro #1 and #2
• More cards for Christmas, same tree as before, and a few more Zig prints
• The Weave-In runner

So 10 things this quarter and a total of 29 for the year. I may have to stop counting each towel, they're quick once they're on the loom and it feels a little like cheating?

What's up for 2025?

• More cookbook challenges: I need to keep my head in the cooking game to not lose my skills; plus it's just fun.  I'll keep baking bread, just not as much.
• More physical effort; I need to be in better shape, and some weight loss would be good too. Having a e-bike makes riding from the house possible, and DH found a lock that makes leaving the bike to go into a shop or cafe possible; this'll let me run some basic errands on bike. Did I mention 90-120 minutes of exercise makes me sleep really really well?

  

  2025: year of the busy hands

• German. I'm enrolled in German classes.
• More printing: I really like printing! What's holding me back is art skills.  I am finally ready to admit that not making art does not make for better art. I've made a list of things I want to try on linoleum block, and plan on making a series of post cards to send to friends. 
• In 2024, I made a goal to make some things for fun and give them away. A scarf and a baby blanket went to charity auctions; another baby blanket found a baby; two towels went to friends. I'd envisioned a box of thinks that I could pull from when needed (ha!). I enjoyed making and gifting, so expect more of it. 
• Finish more of the unfinished projects, and make sure the list is up to date. First up, a vest that ONLY needs seams and buttons.
• Weave up some of the free 10/2 cotton (more on that later).
• Mostly, stay busy and keep my head out of the political news.

Best Bread yet! A Festivus Miracle

Something just worked... I'm thinking it's a Festivus miracle. Crumb was open and full of small to medium holes. Tasted great. I think a little more rise would be better but I'm very very happy.  

UtOh, Oven...

Purple towels done, and two have
found their forever homes

The bread I posted the photo of? I thought it was pretty successful, but it didn't have the big holes and didn't rise as much as I'd hoped. I also thought there might have been an issue with the oven, so I bought a thermometer... Yep, it's not heating right and honestly I'm surprised that the last bread was even edible. It *should* get fixed tomorrow, December 23rd, otherwise I need to rethink my Christmas menu...

I finished weaving the three purple towels (playing yarn chicken) but managed to have enough warp left to weave 4 inches or so extra... I'll put that in my bag of small bits that I might one day make small bags (or komebukuro?) from. 

I think I've detailed the dyeing issues... to add to that, I'll say that tieing a 2" resist alternating with 2" color doesn't give very interesting shifted patterns. So I'll spend some time thinking about what to do next, meanwhile I'll get some other projects done. 

I did notice that I had only one treadling error that I didn't notice and fix while weaving, but there were a number of issues with skipped threads, and a few selvedge issues. Honestly, I'm a better weaver than that but I missed having something on the loom so much that I just sped through it without thinking. One of the 3, I'll keep, and I have a friend with a purple kitchen who will get another... The third will go to my buddy P; I showed it to her at knit night this week, mentioning I don't know anyone whose kitchen was a good match and she would like one. 

The runner for the Weave-in is going well; I'll do a seperate post on that.  I've warped for two runners (a test runner, and one for that weekend); here's a preview of the color work section. I'm also winding a warp for towels with carrots on them for a charity auction.

Weave-in runner sample started!

Some Pozole recipes

I found this in my drafts... I was looking for these recipes! I'm pretty darn happy with my pressure cooker, and who doesn't like pozole?  Posting this so I don't lose them...

https://www.simplyhappyfoodie.com/instant-pot-posole-pork-stew/

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020110-pressure-cooker-chipotle-chicken-pozole

https://blog.williams-sonoma.com/instant-pot-chicken-posole/

Because Pozole isn't particularly photogenic, and I'd like this post to have a thumbnail, here's a linocut by the Australian artist Dorrit Black, a little wonky in the frame.

Some Bread success!

Bread is looking better

I've been talking and reading a lot about sourdough recently... It's starting to make sense. I baked this loaf yesterday! There was definitely oven spring... It had not risen enough and was a little dense, but it's tasty and I'm happy with progress!

What some of the books/websites  are suggesting is to keep a large active pre-ferment going at all times so that you have the 100-200 gm of starter ready at short notice. The Perfect Loaf recommends a much smaller starter (less waste!!!) and an extra 8-10 hours to build the pre-ferment.  He also has a recommended timeline that suits me better...  There were a couple of issues. I was halving the recipe and I think I got the water wrong; the dough was much too dry, so I added water until it "seemed right". The bread kept it's shape when I took it out of the banneton (at first) but I wonder if under-hydration caused it not to rise as much... 

Another issue was that the oven never reported it was at temp (450 F). Did it hit that temp? I have no way of knowing.  Also, I had the raw loaf out of the fridge and waiting to go in the oven... and waiting... and waiting... So DH ordered me a thermometer and I'll be able to test it. I also suspect the dutch oven wasn't warm enough. 

I didn't do the November cookbook challenge. The recipe I picked called for preserved lemons and mine smelled funky... I ended up making a Rick Bayless Chicken Escabeche recipe. I've repurchased preserved lemons and will go back to the Moroccan cookbook in January.

December's cookibook is Santa Fe School of Cooking Flavors of the Southwest: I've already cooked the Black Bean Soup (added extra chili). Very tasty and fast in the Instant Pot.

Komebukuro #1

I've also finished the second rice bag (Komebukuro). It's very similar to the first rice bag but I used a lighter weight lining without interfacing, and added a zipper to one of the lining pieces. I have all of the instructions and pieces in a box, at some point I'll have to decide whether to make another one or two.  This is the first one; the second one looks very much like it and currently holds my knitting in a very stylish fashion.

The purple towels are off the loom but not hemmed yet. Both looms are currently naked! Oh no! I'm hoping to get projects on them this week.