New mystery quilt.....

.......from Quiltville.com is up and running strong. The Quiltville mystery list has been incredibly busy with all the chatter from everyone who is busy sewing, sewing, sewing. As for me.....well, I won't be participating in this mystery. It has come at a not-so-convenient time......fair time. Opening day for our local fair is this Friday.......which wouldn't be a huge factor if I were not incredibly involved in the fair itself. As luck would have it, I was able to land a superintendent position at my local fair (wool department) so things start up early for me. While the fair runs 10 days......I'm there for at least 14 days. Between all the prep work, set-up, and tear-down......well, it makes for some very long days. Which means very little time for pretty much anything else. Of course I thoroughly enjoy the fair itself and my days do by rather quickly. Looks like we will have wonderful weather for it, too.....which is always a good thing. :)

Looks like the summer temps have pretty much left us for this year and we have moved right into Indian Summer. Lots of lovely sunny days that aren't overly hot. Thankfully I was able to finish washing up all the fleeces I needed to before the weather cooled down. This summer I washed 13 Shetland fleeces, 2 Karakul, and one Llama fleece (from my guard llama). I look forward to spending the winter months playing with all of this wonderful fiber.

See Ewe at the Fair!!!!

Quilt Show Weekend

It was quilt show weekend here. Yea!! I look forward to this show every year. I'm talking about the Buggy Barn's annual outdoor quilt show. This was its 12th year. I've attended every year....with the exception of the first year. I've had quilts in it every year except for two. Now this isn't a show for those who like to have their quilts judged.....or expect ribbons. This is one of those shows where the quilts are there simply for people to enjoy. There is no judging....no ribbons. Just lots of very pretty quilts hung in a very rustic setting......in the middle of wheat fields.

While the show was amazing as always, there wasn't near as many quilts this year. And there weren't near as many people in attendance either. Could have been due to the rather wet weather we have had lately. Yesterday was beautiful! Nice warm temperatures......lots of sun......and the usual breeze. There was just enough breeze to make the quilts flutter prettily.....but not enough to where there wasn't some "still" time for picture taking. The folk art/antique vendors had some very pretty things for sale....although there weren't as many present as there were last year. Of course this could have been due to the weather as well. Or the wild fires. All in all it was still a wonderful day. I did some shopping and came home with a new pattern by Jan Patek ......"Pomengranates & Berries". Also bought a new book by Black Bird Designs......"In Full Bloom". I simply love their designs.

The pictures above are of the quilts that I have in the show. I took tons of pictures. To see more from the Buggy Barn's quilt show, simply visit my webshots albums. Look for the album labeled "2008 Buggy Barn show".

Newest Yarns

I decided it's time to start sharing pictures of some of the yarn that I spin. I spent the past week plying, plying, and plying some more. Here is the end product from all that spinning. :)


The top picture features the following yarns: the light colored skein (looks white, but is really a creamy white) is Cheviot. The one under it, the one that appears to be light tan in color (which it actually is), is North Ronaldsay. The two gray skeins are Gotland. All are wool.....just different breeds of sheep, that's all. I purchased the roving (washed locks in the case of the Gotland) from a supplier in England. Was not disappointed at all either. I thoroughly enjoyed spinning each type of wool. They all made some very lovely yarn. Now to find the perfect projects for all of them.

The bottom picture is of hand-painted Polypay/Romanov X yarn. It was hand-painted last summer and spun up into a very lovely sport weight yarn. I have the perfect lace shawl pattern for this yarn. Just need to finish my Heather sweater first. I would rather not have more than one knitting project going at a time......although it can be rather tempting!! Especially when I finish spinning a lovely yarn.

Wonderful story behind the Polypay/Romanov yarn. About 3 years ago I saw an ad in a local paper for raw wool. It had the shearing date and price per fleece. I think they were asking something like $10 per fleece. Keep in mind that raw fleece (straight off the sheep) is usually sold per pound. So to be able to pay per fleece was an incredible deal. So I called ahead and had them put four fleeces aside for me. Told them that I was a spinner and was looking for "spinning fleeces". Went up on shearing day to pick up my fleeces. What an amazing sight!! There was something like 200 sheep being sheared that day. The pile of fleeces was simply astounding! Thankfully there was someone there who was familiar with spinning and had been kind enough to hand pick my fleeces herself. I was more than happy to hand over my $40 and take my new acquisitions home. I had originally planned on having these fleeces blended with the fiber from the latest shearing of my angora goats at the local fiber mill. For reasons I can't remember now, the mohair ended up being given away ( I think there was something like 9 pounds of it). The Polypay/Romanov fleeces were taken to the mill and processed by themselves. Turns out the fleeces were large ones and I ended up with about 20 pounds of sliver roving when it was all said and done.d That's a lot of roving!! At first I did try to sell some of it.....but there wasn't any interest. So I've been slowly making my way through it over the years. I think I have about 2 pounds or so of it left. It has been tons of fun to dye and hand-paint. Plus it spins up beautifully. Drafts very nicely (and very evenly). Knits up wonderfully and felts very easily. The funny thing is that while I will be very happy once it is finally all spun up....a small part of me will miss having it around. It's just been here for such a long time.

Fiber Fun!!

It's hard to believe that it's been over a week since my last post. Life has sure been keeping me busy lately. Although.....I did find some time to play. Pictured above is the results from my day of fiber fun. This is all from my one sheep, Tristan. He has some very beautiful fiber that is so incredibly soft to the touch. It goes from a light gray (almost white) to areas where it is appears to be almost black in color. So this variation lends to some beautifully dyed fiber with lots of wonderful shades. Usually I just keep this fun stuff for my own personal use and will sell the raw fleece (right off the sheep). This year I'm doing something a bit different. This year I'm actually offering up my beautifully dyed fiber for sale....along with washed natural colored fiber. I get so many positive comments on projects made from my dyed fiber that I decided it's time to finally make it available to others. Besides it might actually put a bit more into the sheeps' feed fund....which can't hurt any.....especially with the rising cost of hay these days. My fiber can be found on my etsy site - MadeForEwe.etsy.com ......so plesase visit and take a look.....and share with a friend.

Dyeing fiber isn't the only thing I've been playing with. My spinning wheel has been getting quite the workout lately too. Not only did I finish spinning up the hand-painted Polypay, but I am slowly making my way through balls of singles that have been waiting to be plyed. So far I have all of the North Ronaldsay finished and ready to be used in a future knitting project. The last ball of Gotland singles is now on the spinning wheel being plyed. The rest of the Gotland is just waiting for the twist to be set....then it, too, will be ready for knitting. After the Gotland is all plyed I have one ball of Cheviot singles and then two balls of the hand-painted Polypay singles that will need to be plyed before playing with something new.

I have also been washing fleeces. So far I have washed 3 fleeces (out of 15). My new outdoor sink has just been set up and is now ready for use. I can't wait to give it a try! I've been using my bathtub to wash fleeces in....at least this year anyway. It's been working wonderfully, but I'm a bit concerned about clogging the pipes. You just can't always catch all those stray little pieces of wool that then end up going down the drain. So it will be nice being able to wash my fleeces outside and simply let the water drain into a flower bed. It has been fun washing fleeces though. They have been washing up beautifully and it just makes me want to spin even more. I think this is the best group of fleeces I've gotten off of my sheep to date.

Of course all this fiber fun means that my quilting has been languishing a bit. Haven't sewn a single stitch all week long. I did start on two new embroidered denim pillows though. Although all I've managed to get done so far is the embroidery. Haven't even started on putting the pillows together. While I may not have done any quilting lately, I have picked up my knitting needles. Although not quite as often as I would like. I have started on the right front panel of my lace sweater. I have about 30 rows done so far. This isn't one of the quickest projects I have done, but, then again, I haven't been getting in as much knitting time either. I'm still enjoying it and that is all that really counts. :)

A Pleasant Afternoon

I was able to spend a very pleasant afternoon in my sewing room today. And even managed to get the upper left corner of my civil war quilt done (pictured above). Yea!! Looks like my "quilt wall" has finally crumbled. I guess that what happens when you download a new quilt pattern or two. :) Pam Bono has a really nice free pattern at her site http://www.pambonodesigns.com/ . Now that my motivation has returned it's time to tackle the other quarters of this quilt. How fun!!

Quilting isn't the only area in which I've made a bit of progress lately. I actually managed to squeeze in a bit of knitting time yesterday in which I finally finished the left hand side of the lace sweater I've been working on (for way too long!). I just need to put the live stitches on a piece of waste yarn and then I'll be ready to cast on the right front side of the sweater. I'm real pleased with the way it's turning out though. Can hardly wait for it to be finished so that I can enjoy wearing it. :)

Civil war quilt

I seem to have a hit a wall with this one. Was all excited and couldn't wait to start it. Spent days cutting everything out and then sewing up all 162 blocks. Even started sewing blocks together.....and got a few rows done......then I hit the proverbial quilt wall. Don't know why. I simply adore the variety of fabrics and the way they look together. The sewing is easy....the pattern simple. I even have a pair of blocks under the presser foot on my machine.....just waiting for the next pair to be sewn. The quilt is even hanging on my "design wall" in my bedroom so it's the last thing I see at night.....and the first thing I see in the morning. You'd think that would be enough to keep me going on this one.

Yes, I know the quilt is large. Too large, in fact, for my design wall. The quilt will have to be sewn in quarter sections and then the quarter sections sewn together. I think this may actually be one of the largest quilts I have ever made (115" square when done - without borders)......and that in itself is a nice challenge. Maybe it's just that there are too many other things going on in life right now and it's sucking all the quilt motivation right out of me. Which is highly unusual. When things get stressful I usually turn to quilting (or knitting...or spinning) to bring a bit of calm to my life. Oh well. Whatever it is, I hope it passes real soon. I would love to get this to where it is a completed top if nothing else by the end of the month. There is an outdoor quilt show at the end of next month that I would love to put a couple of quilts in....and they still need to be finished!

For those of you who might be interested in the pattern, here is the pertinent information. The pattern is called "Past and Present". It was designed by Amy Walsh of Blue Underground Studios (blueundergroundstudios.com). It can be found in the February 2008 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. While the pattern is simple it called to me. So this project started out as a way to use up the small collection of civil war reproduction fat quarters I had. I was going to make a lap sized quilt, but discovered that I had enough fabric for a king size (or so I thought at the time). It wasn't until I was half-way through with the cutting that I discovered that I really didn't have enough fabric for a king....or anything larger than a twin for that matter. Since I really didn't want to put all those extra cut pieces into the scrap bin it was easier (and way more fun) to simply shop for more fabric. I think there is somewhere between 40-50 different fabrics in my quilt. As far as I know all are civil war reproduction fabrics.

Fall wall hanging

Here is a picture of my fall wall hanging. It doesn't have a name yet simply because I haven't a clue as to what to call it. I opted to go with leaves and berries in the outer border. Really love the way it looks. Plus the bird on top is a cute touch. There is no pattern for this little quilt. I had some left-over blocks from another project and simply put them together in a pleasing manner. The applique in the outer border was a "as you go" type of design. It's glue basted in place in the picture. I will start stitching it all down tonight. I hope to have all the applique done and the quilt ready for quilting in a few days. It just all depends on how much free time I have.....and how many disruptions (or interruptions) there are.



Spent the last couple of days bringing in hay for the year. Last year we brought in 3 ton and ended up having to buy another ton and a half come February. This year we opted to bring in 4 ton. With any luck it should last the sheep at least 8 months.....if not a bit longer. Bucking bales definitely lets you know exactly how old you are! Thankfully these were relatively light bales......65-70 pounds each....with the occasional "heavy" bale. Those were rolled, not carried, into the barn.


This year of bringing in hay was a rather unique experience. We were actually able to see it in the field before it was cut. I had never seen alfalfa in the field before and was surprised to discover that it is a rather pretty little plant that gets purple blooms on it. After the field was cut and baled, we spent the first day of bringing in hay going out in the field and loading it up on the truck. We had never loaded from the field before so it was a new experience for us.....and a rather tiring one. We brought two ton in this way. We were going to bring in all four ton but wanted to make sure the sheep liked it first.....which they did. The second two ton we opted to have delivered for a small fee. We figured we would have spent the money on gas for the truck anyway, so why not give our aging bodies a break and simply have it delivered. It was brought in on a harrow.....which is something I have never seen. I don't think I could describe it even if I had to. All I know is that the harrow is set up to pick up the bales from the field....stack them on the back of the harrow......and then unload them without any physical labor. The machine does it all. Plus you can simply drive it to wherever the hay will be stored. It was pretty neat to see. I'm thinking we will be buying from the same grower next year and hopefully he will be willing to deliver our hay again using the harrow.

Hay around here is at a premium and is relatively hard to find. It's not that less people are growing hay. It's that more growers are finding it economically feasible to haul their crop to the center of the state so it can be shipped overseas and sold.....pretty much leaving the local buyers in the lurch. The growers that are still willing to sell to local buyers have raised their prices to a ridiculous level making it quite difficult for some people to even afford hay. The "stories" going around about people leaving or selling their livestock is unbelievable. I've even heard of people taking their horses up into the forests and simply letting them go because they can't afford to feed them anymore. The livestock auction has been exetremely busy and I've heard that horses can now be bought for as little as $20. I've even heard that the places that usually buy horses for "other uses" have more than they can use and are no longer buying. As for cattle and other livestock.....well, you really don't hear a whole lot about their plight in this time of ridiculously high hay prices. I think it's horses that are being affected the most. I'm just thankful that I can still afford to keep my small flock of sheep in hay. It takes 3 ton of hay to feed one horse for a year. I'm feeding 21 sheep and 1 llama on 4 - 4 1/2 ton a year......just to give a rough idea of how much a single horse requires......and this came from a long-time horse owner. I know I was just floored when I heard how hay is needed just to keep one horse. I do hope that hay prices come down and that more of the local growers will keep their crop here instead of selling it overseas. It doesn't seem fair that so many should suffer just so a few can benefit. There has to be a middle ground somewhere. Let's just hope it is found real soon.