Excited about this year ending!

Is there anyone who isn't excited about this year ending? I certainly am, although I suspect we're in for at least another few months of anguish and turmoil.  Meanwhile,  I might as well document what I've been up to.

• 

  This'll be a great blanket,
  not a great photo though

  I'm trying to get a double wide double weave twill blanket on the loom. I'm using a beautiful Targhee cross yarn made from Timm Ranch wool that I got from Meridian Jacobs. I put a test warp on the little loom, then wet finished it by dunking it in the sink and swishing it about; I ended up with 25% shrinkage in length and 20% in width, but the finished fabric is smooth and warm and yummy. Right now I am struggling to get a warp on the loom; there are too many other things grabbing my attention, and it's a big project; but I'm almost done putting the 800 ends through the heddles. I will have to re-beam it after threading because I did stupid things.
  
• I signed up for an online Overshot class in January so will be putting a warp for that on the little loom in the next week.
• I'm slowly making my way through cute little adventure patches for my niece and her family on the embroidery machine; I've been doing that while threading the loom which may be slowing down both projects.
• I also used some of the info from a Craftsy class to practice doing repeating linked designs on the embroidery head. It's fussy but I have two matching panels that I'll use on a future bag.

• 

  Another pile of quilt blocks 
  ready to be put together

  I sewed all the blocks together for a quilt I started awhile ago; I've got the borders/backing ready to go but will put it off until next quarter.
  
• I've got most of a 4+ ounce of wool/silk spun into singles; it's a purply brown colorway. I have another braid of the same and would like to weave it into yardage for something wearable.
• At night, I've been working on the Double Your Pleasure Cowl. I've misplaced the pattern and have been working from Kris's snapshot of it... Of course I did not read it carefully so have been skipping what may be a key step, but I've been consistent so I'm not pulling it out. It is possible that it's done by the end of the quarter,
• I tried to start some mittens, thinking they would be a lovely treat for friends moving to Canadia... but after 3 tries I could not get gauge, so decided to finish the cowl before coming back to the mittens.
• I put the dry wall tape on the sides of the mosaic table substrate and glued them down with thinset. I'll need to lightly sand this all to lay flatter but am all ready to start mosaicing the new poppy table for the bbq area.

I've also been spending a lot of time exercising, working in the garden, and cooking, and am finding myself missing studio time. I think I felt more productive when I had quarterly goal! So I'll be going back to that in Q1.

Q3 2020 finished things (9)

Here we are again at the end of a quarter. I confess that I find the EOQ exciting and the push to finish the "almost done" projects is amazing. I oddly do not find it stressful. Here's the list:

• The evil eye mosaic is done, and I grouted the color stick although I'm not convinced the grout will stay adhered to the piece. I think it's fun to see the color stick in this plant on the deck.
• Finished the woven jacket with knitted sleeves.
• Wove two ikat scarves.
• Made masks:  2 pink ones to match the ikat scarves, and two testing out some methods. I'm only counting Masks as one item regardless of how many I've done. Otherwise it feels ridiculous.

• 
  I also bought a new sewing machine with an embroidery unit. I confess I was a little confused when I brought it home as to what I'd do with it. So I enrolled in an online class and learned all kinds of things while making this tiny 20" square wall quilt! This lead to a bunch of exploration on line and a list of new techniques that I want to try. I'll explore this more in another post.

I also finished two major pieces:

• The woven jacket with knitted sleeves.
• The Festivus quilt. I'm trying to figure out when I started it and I've determined it was before 1995, based on the completion date of a smaller quilt I'd started about the same time. I'm going to guess '93 or '94, probably the former. It's gorgeous and I'm thrilled with it. I'm going to leave it on the bed for some time even though it feels a little early for Christmas...

I have partial progress on some of the other goals.

• The table design is done; I have all the glass, and the substrate is ready to go but it's been too hot or too smokey to want to work in the garage bay.
• I explored doing Zentangles on fabric using fabric pens from Sharpie and using gel glue resist. I need to have a dye day to take them to the next step, and this will give me the info I need for the Number One shirt
• Make masks for family in Utah: what can I say, they're partially sewn together. I'll get on it. 
• Trial another shirt pattern (Patternworks Akita). The pattern is printed and taped together. I find this an unpleasant process. So now I need to trace off my size, make a muslin, etc.. It's almost time to start trialing vest patterns instead.

No Q4 goals yet, I'll give some that thought and publish later in the week.