Spinning.....and other things

Here are pictures of my felted squirrel. I call it my "nighttime squirrel" because when you press its belly it plays Brahms Lullaby. :.) The body is made from grey Norwegian.....the tummy is Karakul.....and the tail from a strand of Suffolk and a strand of eyelash yarn held together. The Norwegian and Karakul felted beautifully!!!! Definitely a wonderful combination of fibers to use together in one project. The Suffolk....well, let's just say that it's now on my list of fibers not to buy.

The nose on my squirrel was needle-felted on using black llama (from my big guy) and then the facial features were also needle-felted. Turned out way cuter than I thought it would. :.)

Besides spinning (of which I've been doing quite a bit lately), I've also gotten back into my quilting. Below are pictures of a quilt that I finished recently. All done in "winter" fabrics (I refuse to call them Christmas fabrics simply because that means I can't keep the quilt out past the holidays) with a snowflake backing. The pattern is my own drawn up in my EQ6 program. The piecing is simple (which is something I really needed at this time) and the quilt can be made using half yard cuts (which is something I seem to have quite a few of). The quilting was kept simple as well. I did a 3" diagonal grid using variegated thread and a serpentine stitch. This is one of my favorite all-over quilting patterns to use. It's easy to mark the diagonal grid using my hera marker and the serpentine stitch gives it just enough motion to soften all those straight lines. I've currently got a small quilt on the machine that I'm practicing a new technique of machine quilting on. I used the left-over blocks from this quilt (I had a couple) to make this smaller quilt. I'm thinking I may use it as a table topper once it is all finished......or let my miniature schnauzer use it as a snuggle quilt. It all depends on how it turns out. :.) It's been such a long time since I've done any free motion machine quilting........so I'm trying to re-learn that while learning a new technique. Probably not one of the smartest things I've done. :.) But I am determined to do both tolerably well and have a nice pile of quilts that are just perfect for practicing on. So with any luck it will all work out and I will once again be comfortable doing free motion quilting.