Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Weekly Update

Quilting Updates: If you are looking for updates on the Orange Crush mystery quilt......here it is. Haven't touched my mystery quilt since I completed step #2. Got distracted by other projects. Mostly applique projects....so I haven't spent much time in my sewing room. The applique projects are coming along nicely though. I pulled out a kit I had purchased who knows when because I needed something fun to do. Turns out the kit was short on fabric (which I was not happy about)....and it was a block from Robyn Pandolph's Botanika patterns....which tickled me to no end, especially since this quilt has been "talking" to me since the first time I saw a picture of it. After some searching I was able to locate the complete set of patterns (and for a very reasonable price, too)....which I then purchased. Yea!!!! And a new project was born.

My Baltimore Bunnies quilt began talking to me again. It has kept quiet for quite some time now. I pulled out block #6 and hope to be starting on that soon. It will be a nice break from the Botanika blocks.....which are large (20" square designs) and have lots of pieces. I hope to have all my Baltimore Bunny blocks finished up by the end of summer....if not sooner.

I do hope to get back to my Orange Crush mystery quilt soon. I've been downloading the clues and love the way things are coming together.

Knitting Update: Completed the knitting on a second "Little Slip of a Thing" bag. That's been done for well over a week now. Just haven't felted it yet. Maybe sometime this week. I did purchase a wonderful new book - "A Fine Fleece" - and have been swatching for a sweater from it. I'm using a Shetland lamb's wool/kid mohair blend yarn that I spun up a couple of years ago. The yarn is so lovely that I was saving it for a special project....which I found in this book.

Spinning Update: Haven't been spinning on a daily basis like I was hoping to do. It's been basically whenever I can fit a few minutes in here and there. So not a whole lot has gotten done. I am still spinning up the North Ronaldsay on my Sonata.....and have started spinning up Gotland on my Prelude. Both are spinning up very nicely and will make lovely yarn (possibly dk weight).

With spending the past week shearing, free time has been rare. Thankfully most of the flock is now sheared. Only two left to go.....and these two are just being stubborn. Well, they will soon join the ranks of newly sheared just as soon as I get my clipper blades sharpened. Of course this year's fleeces are just lovely and I can't wait to start washing and carding them up.

4 comments:

  1. Wow, haven't you been busy. How lovely to find some older projects that you are keen to finish. I saw a sheep shearing demonstration on Sunday and was amazed at how much wool came off one little sheep.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm still amazed at the amount of wool that can come off of a sheep....and I've been shearing my own fiber animals for years now. My hubby was commenting on that all week long...."Wow! That's a big fleece!" All I keep thinking is "Wow! What beautiful yarn that will be!!" :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. We lived on a huge sheep/wheat farm in outback Australia in my early childhood & I had my own pet lamb, one that turned out with black in the fleece very unusual for merinos.I "sold" the wool from this fleece to my grandfather in exchange for child's size saddle!
    I think you have waaay more differing projects than I could keep up with. I would have even more UFO's.
    Roslyn

    ReplyDelete
  4. Roslyn, what amazing memories you must have growing up on a sheep farm in Australia. I usually sell most of my fleeces. Helps pay for their hay for the year. I'm hoping to keep most of the fleeces this year though. I would love to be able to say that I have spun up at least one fleece from every sheep I have. Besides they are all so pretty!

    I do have quite a few UFO's. Not as many as some....but enough to where I'm trying to get them into finished quilts.

    ReplyDelete