Good Fortune for 2019

First of all I would like to wish all a Happy New Year and Good Fortune for 2019!

This is the earliest I have finished (at least worked on) a Good Fortune clue this year. I only did two sheets worth - but until the reveal and I decide how to use the pieces I have made - I did not want to make a lot of strips.  Although I think they could be used in other quilts.

I have enjoyed the past month of working in my studio and restarting my blog. Having to write something every day has forced me to make time to work in the studio on quilting (for the most part) and not let the farm continue to take over my life.

2019 - Balance.

Not only work but play.
Not only fiber but fabric.
Not only stress but peace.

Day 24 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge - the last I will link to. In 2019 my goal is to write between 2 and 3 times a week. I will be curious to look back in December next year and see how I did.

Pieced!

A very productive day in the studio - the pillow shams are finally pieced and ready to be quilted!

I plan on quilting them on New Year's Day, for what every you do on New Year's Day is what the year will bring. And I would like the 2019 to be a year of much quilting.  I have new rulers that I purchase as part of a grant I was awarded from our local arts council and have not yet been able to work with them.  I acquired a ruler foot for my Bernina in January and it has seen very little use, so hopefully this small project will get me going.  

Day 23 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge - again I missed a few days but December is a hard month the try a daily challenge. That being said, I am enjoying documenting my progress in my studio and hope to continue - if not daily, several times a week next year.

Pillow Shams for Seasons of the Mountains

With the end of the year rapidly approaching and our January guild meeting not to far in the distant future, I decided I needed to get back on the pillow shams needed for the raffle quilt that should have been drawn for in December but was delayed do to our epic snow storm. (Thank goodness, as the shams where not even close to being done at the beginning of this month.)

The raffle quilt is constructed with 8" finished log cabin blocks with an occasional applique block and starts at the bottom with fall colors then moves through summer, spring and winter until at the very top of the quilt is the sky.

I decided to continue the sky in the pillow shams and have the central portion just about constructed. I scaled down the blocks to be only 6" finished as they are better fit for size required.

I need to add the corner setting triangles but plan to applique snowflakes on the upper, larger ones.

To make it the correct size, I will probably add some type of simple border.

Then to quilt it and sew on the back.

I have plenty of time - right?

Day 22 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge.

A Little Bit of Good Fortune

After two days of family time, I was able to get back in the studio today for a short while. I have been working on straightening up and am slowly making progress. I also worked on Bonnie Hunter's Good Fortune Mystery - clue number five.

I had to play around with several different rulers as I do not have her Essential Triangle Tool to get the half square and quarter square triangles to work out with the strip sets dimensions given in the clue. Again I didn't make a huge number but hopefully will have made enough different pieces to make at least one block when it is revealed.

I also sewed a few half square triangles from the left over bits - if they don't get used in this mystery they are at least made.

And of course just because I needed the same number of neutral and orange quarter square units with the orange to the right or to the left - I sewed a few the wrong way.  I can always use them if I need to make more of this particular clue when I decide what I am going to do with these pieces.

Day 21 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge.

Anything Goes

I am starting to work on an three dimensional art quilt* for the Anything Goes exhibit at the Ashe County Arts Council gallery in February. I have made three-dimensional quilts before but have never been completely satisfied with the end results. The last one I made was an epic fail - but made for a good laugh. I was restricted by the hanging requirements of a traditional quilt show and the weight of the piece on the front pulled the piece out of balance.

This time I hope by making a piece for a gallery, I can play with the hanging method as well as the actual piece itself. 

I started making a paper model yesterday and did some rough watercolor pencil work on it today. I am trying to have two different views of the mountains - one in spring and one in the fall. Depending upon where the viewer is standing will dictate the season they see.

Spring

Fall

Front View

I still need to do a full sketch of the mountains and I plan to do a small mock up in fabric to test out the hanging method. I hope by starting now I will have time to do some playing and not just rush to finish a piece for a deadline.

Day 20 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge. I missed yesterday - but as I have now written more posts this month than in the previous five years - I think the challenge is working. A habit is being developed!

*This project is funded as a cooperative venture of Alleghany Arts Council, Ashe County Arts Council, Watauga Arts Council, and Wilkes Art Gallery with support from a Regional Artist Project Grant of the North Carolina Arts Council, a Division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resource.

Finding Balance

It has been awhile since I choose a word for the year - Nina Marie Sayre reminded me of the tradition in her Off the Wall Friday post this morning. I have been thinking about what word should be my focus through 2019 and I think the word is Balance.

Balance - a condition in which different elements are equal or in correct proportions.

This is something that has not be in play for the last few years. We moved up to NC and our farm in 2015 and since then my artistic endeavors as a quilter have been limited and always on a time crunch. I felt that I could not slow down and enjoy the process of making art. I used to journal and draw every morning and that has gone by the wayside.

This year has been especially stressful, as between my daughter and I, we have participated in 40 different events - from quilt shows to farmers markets to teaching at my local guild. As we are still in the process of developing our product lines and processes - every week seem to be a mad dash to get ready for the next weekend.

We will start the grind again the March of next year and I hope between now and then that we will be able to have a better starting inventory so that we will not feel as pushed every single week.

I want to quilt more on a regular basis. 

I want to travel both by myself and with my husband of (gasp is it possible of  37 years!)

I want to spend some time enjoying the 30+ acres of our property - we have an amazing place here in the mountains - with a wonderful waterfall that I just want to sit by and find Balance.

I want not to work every single waking moment of every single day.

Today I took a picture of my studio -

as you can see I have a wonderful space to create and it is an absolute tip. Almost every flat surface is covered and to work on any thing at all you have to move something out of the way. After I took this photo, I started to clean up and that is what I will be working on until the first of the year. 

The holidays start today with the Winter Solstice and Jeremy (weather permitting) is coming home tomorrow, so it will be difficult to find more than a moment or two to myself. But if I can get my work space straight - maybe I can start the year off calmer.

I nearly deleted this post and then thought - not all blog posts should be about the wonderful, successful projects but sometimes show that angst that goes on behind the scenes.

So here it 2019 and Balance! 

Day 19 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

Knitting Miss Moxie

Our neighboring alpaca farm had a very special alpaca girl that they lost to cancer earlier this year. Adrienne and I were very close to her as we spent the first night of her life helping her owner tube feed her as she had some issues nursing at first.

Adrienne had spun her first fleece and used it to design and knit an amazing double knit pattern Porg that is for sale her Etsy store. She still had a few skeins left and I used them to knit a hat (Bankhead) and a headband (Heartsome) for Miss Moxie's owners. 

A pair of bittersweet Christmas presents.

Day 18 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

Struggling

Again only about an hour working in the studio on sewing - and not even quilting at that. The kitchen curtain was up on deck today as it is going to get cold (and a little snowy) Friday night. Now it only needs a little hand work and then it can be installed!

I finished the headband I was knitting last night and really like the  pattern Heartsome - unfortunately I will be tinking the bind off and doing the one recommended in the pattern.  I used a suspended bind off but it is not quite stretchy enough. I needed to look up how to do Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy bind off, but my Cast On Bind Off book by Leslie Ann Bestor (highly recommended) was a the studio, so I just took a chance that the bind off I normally use would work. It didn't.

I will take pictures of it tomorrow when the light is better. It is getting gifted tomorrow so I better get to it.

I have a feeling I won't get much time in the studio tomorrow either as we are visiting our neighbor alpaca farm and going to the laundromat to do some heavy items that my washer just can't handle.

I need to figure out a better schedule so I can have more time in the studio and I can wrap up some long standing projects and get working on a piece that will be displayed in our local arts council's gallery in February. I know what I want to make and am working out some of the logistical details in paper before I start creating the piece in fabric. 

I think all I want for Christmas is extra time in the studio!

Day 17 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

Amazing What You Can Do in Less than an Hour

We had another beautiful day - sunshine and fairly warm - so washing and dyeing fleece were once again on the top of the to-do-list. Yesterday we started dying JDub's fleece in our tanzanite mix.  This morning just as it was put on the drying racks it looked like this:

After a few hours in the sun, it is very fluffy and ready to move the the next stage of processing: carding.  Adrienne and I will fight over who gets to spin this, I think.

I also wash some of our silver grey alpaca Smudge's blanket from this year.  He doesn't work well on his own as yarn, but has a wonderful color that we mix with our fawn Rio's fleece to make our Marble yarn line. We also use his fleece in a lot of our felted items.

This afternoon after Micah and Rio's annual vet visit - they needed a few routine shots and a once over that they both passed with flying colors, I actually got in the studio for almost an hour!

I worked on Bonnie Hunter's Good Fortune Mystery clue number 4.  It has been a while since I did any foundation piecing on paper that wasn't paper piecing a specific pattern. It went very fast and I have 12 pieces to add to the other clues. 

Tomorrow is supposed to be our last sunny day for awhile - possibly snow on Friday night. So I will try to wash some more fleece and hopefully will get more than an hour to work in the studio.  What I really need to do is clean up in there - between quilting projects, curtains, fleece, rearranging for a new cabinet, and wrapping Christmas presents - it is a bit of a disaster. 

Day 16 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

You Can't Make Progress if You Don't Show Up

So I did get in the studio today - but not to work on any projects. All I got done was packing some etsy sales. I wonder why it takes so long to finish projects and this month of writing blog posts has given me a big hint - I actually spend very little time working on what I want to do!

The studio isn't very far from the house, but with limited heat and a very dark walk to the building, I rarely work after sunset.  Besides by the time we have feed and watered and put the thirteen chickens, four alpacas, two donkeys and one spoiled rabbit to bed for the night, I am usually done!

The weather has improved a great deal, so I did get a little fleece processing done. I wash and dry all of our alpaca fleece outside - so warm (ish), sunny days are very important and this year they seem to be in short supply. We are dying the remaining fleece from our vet's alpaca JDubs (a light to medium fawn).  The first color we worked with was tanzanite.  We dye our alpaca in a crock pot to maintain the heat over a longer period of time to help set the dye.

Tomorrow I will rinse this batch and try to get another two or three washed and dyed.  Our weather is supposed to be good through Wednesday night.  My goal is to have all of this year's (and last year's) fleece washed before next shearing season - the first of May.  I have to take advantage of every good day between now and then if I have any chance of clearing the backlog.

Besides that and running errands (they never seem to end) I managed to bake three different kinds of cookies - Spritz, Snickerdoodles, and the ever favorite - Chocolate Chip.  They won't last long - especially when Jeremy gets up here for Christmas this weekend.

Day 15 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

Melting and Preparing

We have finally started to see some serious melting from our storm last week.  This  is the first day that the donkeys really ventured very far from the barn. The picture was taken first thing in the morning and by afternoon, most of the hill side was bare of snow.  

Time in the studio today was spent working on the curtain for the kitchen - almost done.  I hate making curtains and every time I make one, I swear I will never make another.

I started gathering orange/yellow to use for clue four in Bonnie Hunter's Mystery. I hope to get some done on it tomorrow - but we lost a lot of gutters on the buildings and I might be in outdoor construction mode tomorrow.

Day 14 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

A Missing Day and A Few Gift Bags

I missed writing yesterday - errands took what little time I have in the studio at this time of year.  But today I managed to a few hours to work on a small project. (I have way to many projects going on at the moment - and the studio is in an absolute tip as one project gets pushed back to work on another.)

Today I made a few gift bags to contain alpaca dyer balls (an environmentally friendly version of dyer sheets.)  We plan on listing these on our Pendle Alpaca etsy store tomorrow - just in time for the final push to Christmas.  We will have our dryer balls available as single, sets or gift wrapped - so if you are looking for a practical gift for that hard to buy for person - this might be just what you need.

We will have several different fabrics available for the gift wrap option.

Day 13 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

Chevrons and Bonus Half Square Triangles

Another week and another clue in Bonnie Hunter's Good Fortune Mystery.  This week was about Chevrons and bonus half square triangle units. My chevrons turned out fairly well

as did most of my bonus half square triangles.  I need to adjust a little on where I sew to get a bit bigger on the squares - they will work but need a little more wiggle room.  I would rather trim down a bit than worry about being to small. Curious to see the layout of the quilt that will be given in a later clue.

Day 12 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

Still Here and a Little Knitting

We are still fighting the historic snow fall in Western NC. We ventured out today to get a few supplies for us and the animals. Schools are going to be closed again tomorrow and my guild meeting is cancelled so the project I needed to get done by Thursday now has a deadline in January. 

So it is on the back burner and a little knitting has occurred. I have two small Christmas gifts to make for some special people out of some very special hand spun alpaca yarn that Adrienne made.  I have finished the hat using the pattern Bankhead on Ravelry.

I have picked out the pattern for the lady of the pair - a headband called Heartsome also on Ravelry and plan to cast on this evening.

If it all goes well they will be delivered early next week.

Day 11 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

A Slow Melt

The snow is slowly melting - and Chris manage to move the cars down the driveway a bit. My car looks a little better than this now but still has about 15" on top.

We don't need to go out for anything - living as far out in the country as we do, when a big storm is predicted we always have plenty of food and supplies in. We have kept our power on this time and between animals and quilting and knitting and Netflix have had plenty of to keep us occupied.  It is just the fact that you can't go anywhere that starts the cabin fever.  

I worked on a practical (and long put off) project today - roman shades for our kitchen window.  The kitchen has no heat except for the stove and we lose a lot of heat out the back window. I have had the fabric for 3 years so it is well aged. I didn't quite get them done but should tomorrow.

Day 10 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

More Quilting, Less Snow

So the snow storm finally ending this morning. Over the three days we ended up with 18.5" of snow and the area set a record for a December snow storm. It will take a few more days for things to return to normal, including caring for all of our animals on the farm. The donkeys are walking only in the paths we have made.

Miss Sophie says hurry up, I'm ready for some hay!

Although it makes everyday life tougher - it sure is pretty.

I was able to work in the studio for most of the afternoon and made good progress on the log cabin blocks I need for the project I am working on.  I hope to finish them tomorrow and work on sewing them together.

This is Day 9 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge. I am glad I am working on this, even though at times it is a pain to get pictures edited and think of something to write. 

Lots of Snow and a Little Bit of Quilting

Last night around 9 it started to snow. And it snowed and snowed and snowed.  The last measurement we took before dark today had us at 15.5" of the white stuff. Rotary cutter rulers make very good snow measuring devices.

The road side barn is just about buried in the snow.

I managed to work a little in the studio on the project that is due this week (if we have our meeting - nobody is going anywhere around here for awhile.)  I cut a few strips that I need for some log cabins and took one round off of some already made blocks (they were 8" finished and 6" will work better for this layout.)

Hopefully I will spend less time taking care of animals tomorrow (3 trips up our hill today in the heavy snow just about did me in) and more time in the studio.

Day 8 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge.

Waiting for the Big Snow

Well everyone is tuck in for the night. Now we wait. Chris put up a measuring stick so we could get an actuate reading of the amount of snowfall from the big storm headed this way. If you look closely you will see it is from the now closed Hancock Fabric stores.

If we keep power, I will be sewing all day tomorrow as the fabric I needed to finish a project for Thursday (gulp) arrived in the mail today.  Fingers crossed that the lights stay on!

Day 7 of the of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge.

Road Barn in Snow

One of the pieces I have on display at the Ashe County Arts Council is our old road barn in the snow.  This piece is based on a photo taken in the summer.

The pieces are limited to 12" by 12", so I have had to simplify the quilt and remove things like gates and old wheel rims.

I started with very basic shapes fused on to a semi-solid white background.

Then I added a bit more detail in the snow.  Our county is one of the major producers of Christmas trees and greenery for the country - so I added a few trees and a wreath.

Some simple machine quilting* and a frame from old barn wood made by my husband finished the piece. 

I am linking this post to Off the Wall Friday and is day #6 of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge.

 *This project is funded as a cooperative venture of Alleghany Arts Council, Ashe County Arts Council, Watauga Arts Council, and Wilkes Art Gallery with support from a Regional Artist Project Grant of the North Carolina Arts Council, a Division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resource.

Just a Few Half-Square Triangles

I managed to get to Bonnie Hunter's Good Fortune Mystery today - for about 45 minutes.  I am planning to just do a little of each clue and hope that I can at least construct one or two blocks by the end. They might just end up being some orphan blocks or put into something else.  It is at least getting me to the sewing machine!

This is day #5 of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge. 

A Little Yarn Among the Quilting

Six of the reasons I haven't had much time to quilt as much as I would like lately are these guys:

The alpacas are Micha, Rio, Smudge and Speed Bump and the two donkeys are Miss Sophie and Jasper.  We got the donkeys about two and half years ago and the alpacas have been on the farm two years and one day.  Although none of them are terrible time consuming to take care of, they do dictate a schedule to our lives as we feed and water them twice a day.  

The other part of running a fiber farm that takes up a great deal of my time is handling the alpacas fleece.  We shear in early May every year and from our four boys get about 25 pounds of fiber that is turned in to everything from dyer balls to yarn.  After sending out our first fleece to a mill to be processed, we found that it is more cost effective (and satisfying) for a small farm like ours to process it ourselves.  It has been a learning process but I think we are finally getting our routine down.

One of the most enjoyable parts of working with the fiber is spinning. Below are two yarns I spun earlier this year:

Schist - a 50/50 mix of Rio and Speed Bump

Jade - dyed Rio

This is day #4 of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge.  I hope to be able to get in the studio tomorrow and quilt some before our big storm arrives this weekend (they are saying we might get up to a foot of snow and I have limited heat in the studio - so I might be doing a lot of spinning and knitting in the house starting Sunday!)

Augustus

The second rooster portrait I have on display at the Ashe County Arts Council is Augustus, named for Augustus Fink-Nottle in the Jeeves and Wooster series by P.G. Wodehouse.  He is a d'uccle and has beautiful orange and brown feathers.

He is the smallest of our roosters but has the biggest attitude (and the biggest voice - he loves to crow morning, noon and night.  It is a good thing we live far out in the country!)

His quilt was made using some hand painted shibori fabric I made several years ago and machine quilted in a similar manor to Emerson's quilt.  

I plan on making more quilts using our chickens - each one has a very distinctive personality and I hope I can convey that in fabric*.

*This project is funded as a cooperative venture of Alleghany Arts Council, Ashe County Arts Council, Watauga Arts Council, and Wilkes Art Gallery with support from a Regional Artist Project Grant of the North Carolina Arts Council, a Division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resource.

Trying to Start a Habit

I am trying to get back to quilting (and blogging) and decided to join the group at Chereyl Sleboda (aka Muppin)  site to do the 31 day challenge,  I count yesterday's post as number 1 and this is post number 2.

I had planned to show pictures of a new fabric purchase (you never have what you need in your stash) but unfortunately the quilt shop I was near today is closed on Monday.  I spent the day driving and shopping and am just too tired to come up with any exciting.  I forget how busy it can be off the mountain.

Emerson - A Chicken Story

Back in the spring of this year we added thirteen new members to our menagerie on the farm - a set of bantam chicks. Not ones to do anything in an easy way - we did not get them from the local feed store but instead ordered them through the mail.

One very cold and snowy day in March, we got a call from the post office to come and collect our new babies.  I named this little guy Emerson from one of my favorite book series the Amelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters.  He had the lightest coloring so was easy to identify from all the others. 

Of course I took a chance that he would turn out to be a rooster as it is very difficult to tell little boy chicks from little girl chicks.

Chickens grow up very fast and by mid summer he was looking more like a boy.  He is a cochin and sports very beautiful feathers on his toes.

This is what he looks like now that he is all grown up:

Since he will never be a chicken dinner, he had to become a quilt!

He was appliqued 

and then machine quilted on my domestic machine.

I recently was award a grant* to purchase thread and rulers to use on my domestic machine,  It was really wonderful to be able to go to this basket of thread to get just the right color to make Emerson come to life.  

He is currently on display at the Ashe County Arts Council gallery  as part of the Tree Fest show. I am linking this post to Off the Wall Friday by Nina-Marie.

*This project is funded as a cooperative venture of Alleghany Arts Council, Ashe County Arts Council, Watauga Arts Council, and Wilkes Art Gallery with support from a Regional Artist Project Grant of the North Carolina Arts Council, a Division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resource.