Q1 2018 Completed Things (4)

Feb: Pale blue pajama top, just waiting for night time!

If you know me, you'll know that that I never feel like I'm doing enough. This blog is one way for me to visually see some of what I'm getting done! I'll update this post through the year (in quarterly bites) to show what's getting finished, as it gets finished, using small photos if it's pictured elsewhere in this blog.

Esalen Mosaic Landscape

January: Nothing finished all the way in January... lots of work done through.

February: Lots of work, again, primarily in quilting, sewing, and knitting. For finished projects, there's this pale blue all cotton flannel pajama top; I used Tumble Dye spray dye on the flannel to get the gradient affect; it's subtle and I love it. It features both flat felled and french seams, as well as a Hong Kong finish on the lower hem and double binding on the sleeves. The collar seam is enclosed using a facing-less technique that was a little fussy but effective. I'm wearing this all the time.

Small Navajo rug, now in the collection of my DH...

March:   I completed the above smallish mosaic at a Wilma Wyss workshop at Esalen; I've treated the grout so it's now suitable for hanging outside.

And I finished this little mat from a Navajo Weaving class with Lynda and Barbara...

And Yay! I finally have a pattern that will work for my sleeveless summer top. I cut and sewed it today out of come cheap (but cute!) sale fabric from Joann's; it's got typewriter keys all over it and I want to call it "My Sister the Author". Since it worked and got DH approval for cuteness, I'll cut and sew the same out of some lovely batik he brought me from Indonesia. Then I'll have two super cute and unique summer tops to add to my wardrobe.

Olympics and the report from Stitches West!

This weekend was the big Stitches West show... I took 3 classes and tried to avoid buying things in the marketplace.  Here's a synopsis.

Thursday, I took a class in Kivrim style card weaving from John Mullarkey. If you ever have a chance to take a class from John, do it! It was delightful AND I learned so much! And wove a short band! Turns out this particular pattern is not that difficult. I'm suspecting with a little concentration, I could possibly be a card weaver...

The Tam class was very useful. As always, I learned a lot from Candace Eisner Strick.  I won't post another Tam photo until it's done. Candace is the author of Knit My Skirt, so I showed her the skirt I made from a knitted shirt that was WAY too big (see my 11/27/16 post); she was very entertained.

The Bohus class didn't yield much more information than the class I took from Susanna Hansen... I did finally buy the Poems of Color book, and a background color for a sweater. I had hoped to design a Bohus inspired yoke myself but I'm thinking I'll see if I can adapt something from Poems of Color, and save my designing energy for another project.

A small number of fiber items managed to come home in my market bag...

On other topics, we have been watching a lot of the Olympics! Hurray for the Women's XC relay Gold!!! I've been knitting primarily on my skirt, since I can pretty much do that without looking, and I've made Olympic level progress!  Maybe I'll measure it. I am now thinking it might be ready to wear by summer.

I also finished my Pajama top for my sewing class; my denim yarn still needs blocking; and my quilt blocks for the Clamshell quilt are all together!  I'll put most projects on hold for a week or so; I'm heading to Big Sur for a 5 day mosaic intensive in a week, so will be trying to wrap up some garden projects before I leave.

A Little Bit of Everything!

With two college classes and all the other classes I've been taking, it's been busy. I'm feeling a little recklessly hectic! I'll try to catch up on the highlights here...

My denim colored singles are now all 2 ply yarn. I need to wet-finish it and I want to try steam blocking it; then will publish photos. I've done so many demo days on this yarn, I've got basically two different weights... At this point I'm debating whether to pin weave it into a shawl, like I'd originally thought or weave a blanket out of it for the TV room; the colors match in their perfectly. Pictures will come once the yarn is wet finished.

Stephenie Gaustad's workshops were stupendous. The first day, we spun wool and talked about spinning for weaving. I learned the basic characteristics of a good warp (it can't drift, not one little bit) and how to figure the sett for a yarn. Apparently there's this formula called the Ashenhurst formula, which relates the yards per pound (YPP) to the number of warp threads per inch for a balanced weave; Stephenie says it's spot on about 90% of the time. I'm so excited to try this! The second day was cotton, linen, ramie, etc... I can spin cotton a lot better now.

Clamshell quilt color layout

I took a Judy Niemeyer Quilt class at Scruffy Quilts in San Mateo; what a lovely little shop!  The class was one Sunday near the beginning of January and another Sunday about a month later. I worked very very hard at getting almost all of the blocks done in time for the class so I could get instructor help with the color balancing the layout. The other student cancelled at the last minute so it was just me and the instructor; she not only helped with my layout, but also did a lot of the repetitive tasks for me. Thank you Gretchen! It's like getting a bump up the hill on a bicycle. I've still got a long way to go but I'm so much closer...

Speaking of classes, my two academic classes are Intermediate Sewing and Fashion Illustration. I'm loving the Intermediate Sewing class... Our first project is a pajama top, which I'm making from light blue flannel. I bought some spray dye and darkened the hems. It's either going to look great or look silly; we'll see.  I've started working on the second project, which is a sleeveless shirt; I've been looking at this for some time and I'll be able to get instructor help to fit it! The pattern has a number of necklines and sleeve lengths, so if I can get one to fit...

Time for Tams!

We had to do an exercise for class that involved a closet clean out. I've done this recently, before we moved... and probably still could clear out more but I'm pretty much there. So I used it as an exercise in determining a personal style, then identified holes in my wardrobe. I like the look of a skirt, jeans or slacks, paired with a shirt and a short jacket or a shawl, leaning towards art clothes. I also decided I can't slouch around in sweats every day, and made a resolution to try to look nice when I leave the house. We'll see how that goes.

On the knitting front, it continues to be a slow slog on skirt, I'm ready for ball #3. I also cast on and knitted the corrugated ribbing I wanted on a tam for a class I'm taking at Stitches.

These want to be my spring garden

Finally, I took a one day class on planting for the spring garden; these are food crops that will be harvested before the summer crops go in. I'm going to try covering them with a cover cloth to see if I can protect them from the rodents. Meanwhile, the peas are decimated but the Brussels are finally sprouting; they're so darn cute, and who knew they'd be at the bottom of the stalk!

What's up next? Honestly, at this point I'm just staying ahead of what's due! But having a blast doing it...

Team Over Committed...

No pictures today, just a good dose of insanity! 

I've been looking at my schedule and realizing that I am overcommitted for the first half of the new year. Here it is, all in one place, in black and white.

Weekly commitments: 2 knit meetings, and 2 classes at the local community college: Intermediate Sewing and Fashion Illustration. Yoga twice a week and a standing hiking date.

Monthly commitments: Weaving Guild meeting, Weaving Guild board meeting, Spinning Guild meeting, and I'm assisting teaching 4H kids to weave. I've also committed to occasional spinning demos at Deer Hollow Farm, and I've been hosting a Card Weaving Study Group, assuming I can find a different night for it... I'd also like to join the local garden club to see if I can figure out my rat problem.

In addition to this I've signed up for the following:

• 1/7 Judy Niemeyer quilt class part 1
• 1/20-1/21 Two all day Spinning classes with Stephenie Gaustad
• 1/27 Gardening class
• 2/4 Judy Niemeyer quilt class part 2
• 2/22-2/24 3 knitting classes at Stitches
• 3/4-3/9 5 day mosaic class at Esalen
• 3/23-3/25 Navajo weaving
• 4/6-4/8 Knitting retreat
• 4/17-4/22 Kathrin Weber weaving/dyeing workshops
• 5/18-5/19 Rep weaving workshop
• 5/31-6/12 Italy weaving workshop
• 7/6-7/27 Tour de Fleece

On top of all that, i'll be planting and tending a spring and summer garden, while filling the house with hand-hewn textiles and mosaics. And work through some of my quilting stash to make some charity quilts. And make chocolate covered chocolate marshmallows. 

This is going to be fun!!!

Judy Niemeyer quilts and mushrooms!

I'll end this year with three photos.

I've been working on the blocks for that Judy Niemeyer quilt; I'm a little more than half way and trying to finish it up before I take another class building on the same techniques...  Here's part of what I finished this morning.  When I sew them together, the blocks will be 16" square.

Next are the fabrics for the class next weekend.

And finally, meringue mushrooms I made. Making these (or any meringue, really) was on my cooking bucket list. They were absolutely adorable and totally yummy, although a close inspection would indicate perhaps I need more practice with a piping bag. I took a small box of them to S and to P earlier this week when we had lunch in Carmel Valley, so now there are none left... So sad...

Happy New Year to all!

Quilt in progress

Quilt to be

Mushrooms, made from meringue

Fishy!!!

I've been wanting to make this fish since I bought a book containing the pattern (I'll edit the post with the name, I promise!) at a little quilt store in Queenstown, NZ.  I've been afraid of machine applique forever, and even cram-dyeing the fabric and putting all the supplies in one bag did not cause me to get over myself and start it.  Until last week.

When I put Fishy on the dining table he looked tiny! Fish is approximately 40" long and about 12" wide; technically it's woven, and then quilted. Do I need to make a larger fish, a humongous cotton representation of all the ones that got away? Time will tell!

I promised the final picture of my dress; here it is, all ready for presentation to the class. Too bad it's two sizes too small for me (at least); but it did fit the model, and that's what counts.

On other projects:

• I'm still listlessly knitting away at skirt... it's slow! And I'm bored of it. It may need to rest for awhile.
• I brought out the quilt I started in February, and finished another block; it took me a while, and I ruined a small bit of it, as I'd forgotten the method. I think I've got it down now, so more blocks to come before the end of the year!

Food wise, I've had 3 adventures...  I made a duck, andouille, and shrimp gumbo combining a recipe from Epicurious and a recipe from Paul Prudhomme; I decorated cookies with my knitting group at S's house and learned all about edible spray glitter; and I made 3 batches of macarons one afternoon with my friend J and managed to get her to take them all out of my house!  It was perfect. I'd like to combine my new-found love of edible spray glitter with macaron making...

I'm looking at 2018 goals for the studio and other than getting the new loom up and running, I'd like to be more focused, and finish some of the long standing projects hanging around in boxes and bags, as well as work through some of my stash. Most of the cabinets are a little tight, and this should help. Towards that:

• I'm taking another Judy Niemeyer quilt class (clamshell) out of my hand dyed fabrics.
• I plan on starting the Persian Dreams blanket out of primarily stash yarn; I'll need to order a background color to be consistent.
• I'd like to make some quilts (mostly baby and toddler) for donation; I've already identified a stack of free patterns I would enjoy, and a couple of locations where the donations would be welcome.
• I've got my list of currently planned or started projects as well;  I'm still looking at it. 

Yet Another Green Object (YAGO)

Isn't he cute? I call him Yago.

I'm helping a friend, C., with a group of 4H kids who want to learn to weave. This little guy is representative of what they did for their first project, which is stick weaving (we used straws).  This, by the way, would be a great project for kids of any age!!! The kids' weavings were much cuter, and theirs had googley eyes instead of button eyes.  This week, we're doing circular weaving on old CDs.

Very little else has been going on other than preparing the house for holiday guests and a small holiday party for DH's workmates. This did force me to straighten the studio and get rid of more boxes; I'm down to two boxes, I think... It's starting to look like a place I want to be.

Loom with a view

Other than that:

• I finished my final school project, a shift dress with low French darts (photos when I get it on the model)! Sadly it's a pattern-size 10 (class requirement) but if it were my size, I'd like it enough to wear it. 
• I finished a doll that I found partially finished in a box I unpacked (you can just see it by the spools under the window in the studio picture).
• I'm knitting away at my skirt which may be finished for summer 2020.

And I attempted to get organized by making a project list which gets eerily bigger every time I look away. I'll let you know how that goes.