Saturday, December 27, 2014

Snow!!!


We didn't have any for Christmas, but got plenty today. Things look real pretty around here. Postcard pretty in places.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Happy Holidays!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May your holiday be filled with lots of love, laughter, and joy.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Taking a Breather

Amidst all the holiday gift making craziness there was a small space of calm. This was spent making a winter themed pincushion for myself. It's not real big, but it gave me a much needed breather from all the gift making and allowed me to satisfy the overwhelming need to make something just for me.

I had a bit of fun with it and embellished it with Swarovski crystals.

The gift making is coming along. I had to re-evaluate my to-do list to see which things I could get done and which would have to wait. Not the easiest thing to do...especially when I feel the need to make everything that was asked for. But it's done and I don't feel so hurried now.

Here is the wall hanging I made for my mother. Just need to get it ready for mailing. It's a simple quilt but I think she will love it because of its gardening theme....and she's really into gardening. Plus she will like the crystals I embellished it with.

Along with all the gift making I managed to squeeze in time to make a few fleece throws for my dogs. I ended up making four of these in all. I love fleece throws for the dogs! There's no worry about raveling of any sort. They wash up nice. The dogs seem to really enjoy using them. Plus I can have them out on the furniture and they look nice.

Spinning has been non-existent since the gift making frenzy started but here are a couple of photos of yarn that I finished before the craziness started.

2-ply core spun suri alpaca/ bamboo blend with a commercially spun over twisted shetland yarn for the core. Turned out really nice. It's a bulky weight yarn. Super soft to the touch.

Shetland/Huacaya alpaca blend. Light fingering weight 2- ply. Was hoping I would have enough for a lace project I want to do but I don't. I'm about 100 yards shy. This will be put aside until spring when it will be warm enough for me to wash fiber outside.







Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Baking, Sewing, and all Things Between

Pumpkin Spice cookies freshly drizzled with hand made frosting.

An army of pins from the latest completed Christmas gift.

The last few weeks have been busy. My sewing machine, serger, and CSM have been working overtime. Five sets of pillowcases, two pincushions, one decorative pillow, 10 pairs of socks, one scarf, and one wall hanging have been completed so far. Left to do:  one king size quilt, two scarves, four pairs of socks, leg warmers, boot cuffs, convertible mittens, and something special to celebrate my youngest daughter's first wedding anniversary. Will I get it all done? Only time will tell.

In the midst of all the endless holiday sewing and such a new roof has been put on our house. New skylights and vent covers as well. My poor dogs! They did not take kindly to strangers being on top of the house. Lost close to a week working on holiday things with that. It was so worth it. I love the new skylights and the new roof is so pretty.

The sheep and camelids are all doing fine. The lambs are getting so big! One ram lamb was spoken for shortly after he was born. I have someone who wants a ewe lamb out of my ram and the other ram lamb is spoken for if I can part with him ( he's a real sweetie and looks like he will stay black). That would leave me with one ewe lamb for myself. Not sure how I like that. Guess it's a good thing Max, my ram, has started "wooing the ladies". Hope the ladies find him very alluring and lots of lovely lambs are born in the spring.

Cookies and pies have been made. Tomorrow morning will be spent cooking turkey and the fixins. The afternoon will be spent enjoying all that has been made and family that has come out. Tomorrow night will be spent cleaning up and feeling a bit sad over the family that has gone. Lots of cooking and cleaning for a relatively small window of time spent with family.......but it's so worth it!

Happy Thanksgiving to all that celebrate the holiday. May you enjoy the time spent with family and friends.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Gray Days.....

.......are absolutely perfect for fiber play, whether it be fabric or fiber. There has been plenty of gray days here lately. Last week was spent with the sewing machine. The end result is a 32" square flannel wall hanging. The "applique" is actually a panel that was cut apart. All the flannel for the top, plus the binding are Buggy Barn fabrics. I bought the kit at this cute little quilt shop that I stumbled upon a couple of weeks ago. The store front is only open two days a week, but the website is really nice ( http://www.quiltedposies.com ). Well worth browsing.  :)  I even spent time embellishing it with swarovski crystals....which doesn't show up very well in the photo unfortunately.

This week I'm spending time with my serger. I'm working on pillowcases for Xmas gifts. Completed two sets yesterday and hope to finish up the rest today. It's been quite some time since I've played with my serger. I forgot how much fun it is to use.

Of course the fiber critters have been loving them. Gray days means rain....which means green pastures....which means lots of browsing enjoyment for everyone.

Raven and her ram lamb. He was born the 30th of September. He's a big boy! The pasture they are in is much greener than what the photo suggests.

Gracie and her ewe lamb, Hope. Hope was camera shy....Gracie was not.  :) Hope was born the 16th of October. She is a very pretty little thing.

Carrie and her twins. Her ram lamb is very friendly. It was hard to get a photo of him. Her ewe lamb, June Bug, is not as friendly as her twin but she is slowly learning that I'm not such a bad thing.  :) Raven's ram lamb is in the back. All the lambs play together. It's lots of fun to watch.

Everyone in the back pastures is enjoying the late grass as well....which is good since today is another gray rainy day.




















Friday, October 24, 2014

Finishes

Haven't had a lot of finishes when it comes to quilting. Looks like that may be a thing of the past.  :)  The other day I stitched out a sample embroidery ( in preparation for a new quilting project) and then decided to embellish it with swarovski crystals using my new "toy". Loved the way it turned out! Instead of putting it aside to collect dust I actually did something with it. It's been sandwiched, lightly quilted, and framed. It will make a wonderful gift for my mother.


This afternoon I finished putting together the quilt top that I've been working on for the last couple of weeks. The photo isn't the best but it allows you to see the size of the top (about 80" x 95"). Now to dig through my fabric stash for a backing. I'm thinking scrappy....large scrappy. Would be a great way to use some of those pieces I have absolutely no idea what to do with but can't seem to part with. The binding will be the same as the inner border so no worries about fabric clashes....which is always a good thing.  :)

I'll end this post with a photo of Moose. He turned 3 months old yesterday. It's hard to get a nice photo of him these days. If he's not sleeping he is constantly in motion. This was taken seconds before he pounced on one of the weenies. He's getting to be a big boy.  :) He's nearly housebroken and listens pretty well....when he's not "talking" back to you. He's pretty verbal.  :)




Saturday, October 18, 2014

Quilt Show Saturday!

Today was a wonderful day. Started off with breakfast out...which is always a nice treat. Browsed the Bead Stampede. It's exactly what it sounds like.....a bead show. There were beads of every color, shape, and almost every size. I say almost every size because the one size I was looking for wasn't to be found. The vendor was either sold out or simply didn't carry it. Oh well. I know my local bead shop will have what I'm looking for. It's a nice excuse for spending the day in town shopping.  :)

After the Bead Stampede we went to the quilt show. This is the largest show in the local area. It's hosted by what is probably the largest guild in the area (something like 500 members strong). There are about 500 quilts in the show itself with many, many, many more to be seen....vendor displays, special exhibits ( like the Hoffman Challenge quilts), and quilts for sale. There is a large selection of vendors to visit. The show is held at the fairgrounds and fills 3 bays of the main building. It's big! For our local area anyway. My hubby and I like to break up the viewing of the entered quilts by browsing a few of the vendors. Makes for a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon.  :)

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the entered quilts. I opted to leave my camera behind this year. I did manage to take one or two before my iPhone died.  :) You have to be careful of what you photograph. Some of the vendors get really upset if you photograph a display. In fact it got so bad that now you aren't allowed to take any photos by the vendors and have to be careful of exactly where and what you photograph. It's kinda silly but it is what it is. 

The show itself was am-a-zing!!! Lots and lots of beautiful quilts to see. Lots of inspiration. Lots of "Oh my gosh! That's stunning!" Made me want to come and spend the rest of the day in my sewing room....which I will be doing. :)

We did make the rounds of the vendors...twice. Didn't find any fabric for the quilt I'm currently working on ( pictured below). I guess I will have to break down and spend a day in town visiting quilt shops. Sounds awful!  :)

I did bring home two new wool applique patterns....and pre-ordered two more. They will be mailed to me when they are released. I'm a sucker for anything with sheep, sunflowers, or snowmen. The patterns I pre-ordered are sheep and snowmen.

My hubby spoiled me with a new toy. It's a little soldering iron used to affix Swarovski crystals to quilts and various other things. He got me the beginners kit which came with the iron, various tips, container to hold the crystals and a package of crystals. Then he got a little wire brush for cleaning the iron and a few more packages of crystals. That was from one vendor. He bought a few more packages of crystals from another vendor. I can't wait to try it out. Looked really easy to do and will definitely add another dimension to my quilts and embroidery.

A sheepy note:  My ewe, Gracie, lambed late Thursday night. She is the proud momma of a beautiful little ewe lamb which I named Hope. 





Wednesday, October 15, 2014

On the Wheel

On the Sonata is a Shetland/alpaca blend - (Shetland fiber compliments of Boogie)

Which will be used for this...(swatches for a new scarf design)

On the Haldane Orkney.....hand combed Shetland (compliments of Trixie)

Sample skein

Not sure what this will eventually become. Her fleece is very soft and is spinning up fine. I'm separating the outer coat from the inner and then combing the inner coat. I find that I end up with cleaner fiber as opposed to running it through the drum carder. 








Friday, October 10, 2014

Baby Photos

Took my iPad out this morning in an attempt to get a few baby pictures. Not the easiest thing to do. The lambs are active and kept hiding....either behind mama or in the shade. The lambs are dark colored....two moorits and one black.

Here are all 3 lambs together. The ram lambs are the large moorit and the black. The other moorit is my ewe lamb, JuneBug.


JuneBug

Her twin...

The twins together.

I even managed to get a "lamb bump" photo of a ewe "in waiting". This is Willow. She should be lambing soon....or at least she has all the signs of lambing soon.

That's a large "lamb bump"!

While not the best photos at least it shows what is in the barnyard right now. I'm sure there will be cuter photos as the lambs get older. All 3 lambs were born September 30th....in the wee hours of the morning.


Edited to add an update on Willow:

Two days after this post was published Willow lambed. She had a very difficult time. Both lambs were lost in the process. 😪










Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Friday's Cowl with Matching Hat

It's been awhile since my last post. Things have been busy here with the arrival of new lambs. One of my ewes was a first timer and lost both of her lambs (one was still born and the other died shortly after it was born). It was a really rough few days with her. She was despondent and had simply given up. I'm sure it didn't help her any hearing the cries of the newborn lambs. While I was taking care of her two of my older, more experienced ewes lambed. One had a very big ram lamb. The other had twins...a ram lamb and a ewe lamb. All 3 lambs are doing very well. As for the ewe who lost hers....she, too, is doing well. With lots of TLC she came out of her despondent state, started eating, drinking, and interacting with the other ewes. She did spend a couple of days calling for her lost lambs but is now content just being with the other ewes. Still have a few more ewes who are due to lamb hopefully soon. Once all the lambs are here and things quiet down then I will spend time outside taking photos.

During all this I had released my latest pattern. It's a cowl/hat set. It was inspired by this lovely skein of blue Polwarth I had spun on my Haldane Orkney. 

The cowl turned out so pretty that I simply had to make a hat to go with (blue hat). 

Loved the way the two looked together that I just had to see what it would look like done in the same yarn (the first photo shows the cowl wrapped doubled).

Shameless plug:  the pattern is available for purchase on Ravelry, Craftsy, and my etsy shop. If you purchase through Ravelry it is half off until the end of the month.


Friday, September 26, 2014

Thursday, September 18, 2014