Snow Day Sewing

We have had a fair amount of snow since the beginning of the year and it has been relatively cold as well. This means outside projects are not much fun at the moment and other than taking care of all the critters (alpacas, donkeys, chickens and goats) I am working inside as much as possible.  I manage to squeak about an hour or two a day to work on my quilt projects. 

I have been working on Bonnie Hunter's Unity quilt that she did as a mystery at the beginning of the lockdowns. Way back in March! I have finally finished part 4.

Because I have to stop and start working on projects to do other work and I like to multi-task projects - it can take me a time to finish piecing a quilt. I am also working on a quilt that I think I started in either 2013 or 2014 as a block of the month from Cobblestone Quilters Guild in Charleston, SC. I have 12 blocks but have divided it into two lap size quilts and I have started sashing the blocks of the first quilt. Of course I have a studio full of fabric - but do I have white on white (not a fabric I use a great deal)  to finish the half and quarter blocks on the edges. That would be a no. A good excuse to buy more fabric?

I cleaned up the studio and listed out all the UFOs, both large and small. This is the list of larger quilt projects that I have started and not completed. If they are not moving forward at the end of this year - I think they will need to be given to someone else who might get them done.

I am linking into Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday and guess what this is post number two of the year - as many as I managed last year - so one more and 2021 is ahead of the game.

Starting Again - One More Time

At the beginning of every year, I dust off my blog and resolve that this is the year I am going to update it on a regular basis. Every year since we moved to the mountains, this has lasted about as long as most resolutions last.  So one more time I am going to try to record my art journey. Living in a very small space on top of other people and having the slowest internet know to modern man, I have struggled to find quiet time to write and up load photos. 

The internet issue is about to get fixed - fiber optic cable is nearly installed!  I have straightened my studio area (fingers crossed - I will be able to keep it that way) and have a peaceful place to work. I hope these changes will allow me to be more successful. I love reading other peoples blogs - their art journeys, their trials and successes, and their everyday life. I want to join back in!

So - here we go:

The first photo is the pinwheel quilt I finished piecing way back in January of 2020 - I need to come up with a quilting design.

 

Next I am working on Bonnie Hunter's Unity Mystery Quilt - most everyone finished this in the spring - but I am only on part four. My daughter has claimed it and I have been working on the piecing.

Next is the start of Bonnie Hunter's Winter Blues quilt - just what I needed another project with lots of tiny pieces. But I have lots of scraps in the sizes and colors that this quilt uses - so it will be a leader and ender quilt for awhile. 

I am not working on any of my own designs at the moment - the farm and fiber business (Pendle Alpacas) are taking most of my creative mojo. But I hope if I start piecing and quilting again it will return.

A Bit of Progress and A Bit of Yarn

I have slowly been working on the disappearing pinwheel quilt over the last two weeks. I have all the sashing done and have the first borders and binding cut. A few piano keys have been sewn together for the second border and I hope to have a finished top by the end of the week.

I have also spun most of the merino roving into singles and could not resist plying the first skein. It is approximately 3 ounces and 125 yards. Unfortunately, I only have 5 ounces left so will have a little over 300 yards when I am done. Not enough for the pattern I was thinking of using. I will need to do a little pattern searching on Ravelry to find an alternative.

At the end of next week, I need to start working on products for our farm business but I intend to keep plugging away at a few of my own projects to get a little more balance in my life in 2020.

A New Decade, Old UFO's and a Bad Case of Startitist

A new year, a new decade and a very neglected blog. Once again I will try to record my fiber journey on a regular basis. We will see how long this lasts.

As the winter months are a little slower on the farm and business (Pendle Alpacas), I  hope to spend more time in the studio sewing and quilting for a change. I am trying to work on UFO's instead of starting any new projects as the number of works in progress would take several pages to record.

I want to finish a charity quilt that started out as a series of blocks made when I helped do a presentation for my local guild back in October on disappearing blocks. I worked with the pinwheel block and as I wanted to show lots of variations - I ended up making twelve blocks.

I plan on sashing the blocks and then adding a piano key border to make it a nice size lap quilt. I have started cutting out the fabric for the boarder - using the fabrics from the blocks. I managed to pull all but one the different purple print fabrics out of my stash.

Of course I have a terrible case of Startitist - new projects are beckoning to me. I am limiting that to a spinning/knitting project as it is too cold and dark to work in the studio after sunset. I have had this roving for several years and I think I now know what I want to knit out of it. So I will beginning splitting it up tonight and hope to begin spinning it tomorrow.

A River Runs Through On Display

I finished my quilt, A River Runs Through a few weeks ago - in time for it to be in the "Anything Goes" show at the Ashe County Arts Council gallery. It will be up until March 22, 2019.

Viewing Summer

A hint of Fall 

Both Seasons 

Viewing Fall

I am pretty please with how it worked. One quilt - several different views. I will make on another dimensional quilt in the future as - there are still some construction issues I am not completely satisfied with.

The last few weeks since the quilt was finished have been taken up with being sick (terrible cold), traveling to visit family, and working on farm related projects. The weather is starting to warm up here in the mountains so working in the studio is getting easier. I don't have any major projects planned at the moment - so I think the next few weeks will be used to finish up a lot of long standing UFO's and getting my garden ready for Spring.

I am linking up to Nina-Marie's blog. I would love to take her Open Access challenge - but for now I think I need to focus on finishing things before starting something new.

Fused

The last ten days have been all about fusing. Some fabric I fused in squares and then used them to create the summer palette for my A River Runs Through quilt. I soon found that although I like the look of a wide variety of fabric brings to the quilt - it was just taking too long and I am on a deadline.

 

Luckily for the fall version of the quilt I had several fabrics which have a wide variety of fall colors in just one piece and I was able to use bigger pieces and it moved along much faster.

I still need to add a row of trees as the very bottom of the fall quilt and then on to machine quilting. I had thought that I would slice these two apart and sew them together before I quilted but I am now thinking that I need to be able to see both color pallets and designs to be able to get the quilting right.

That means I will spend the next week quilting and then take a rotary cutter to each and cut them into 2 1/2" strips to sew alternating summer and fall strips. I hope I am brave enough to do that!

Linking to Off the Wall Fridays with Nina Marie Sayre. 

*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.

Working Title: A River Runs Through

I've been working on my quilt for the Ashe County Arts Council exhibit Anything Goes! and made good progress today. The quilt will be three dimensional and will actually be made of two tops pieced together before they are quilted. The general drawing for the piece has been made:

and I started pulling fabrics for the first on the two tops. I plan on using summer colors for one and fall colors for the other.

The quilt is going to be an impressionistic view of the New River that runs through Ashe County.  The New River is thought to be the second oldest river in the world and runs just down the road from our farm.

*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.

A New Year and Working a New Skill

2019 started with a little more farm work than I had planned. We had two roosters who decided on New Years Day that they didn't like each other any more and it was all out war. One of them has been relocated to our alpaca barn and is settling in nicely with the big boys. But setting up his new home and acclimatizing everyone has taken some time.

But I have been slowly working on the pillow shams for the drawing that will be held next Thursday. They are layered, the stitch-in-the-ditch work is done and today I started working with my ruler foot for the first time since early last year.

I purchased the ruler foot for my Bernina in January 2018 and did a little with it but never really had time to play. I am doing a simple linear ocean wave pattern in the log cabin blocks and finished about a third of each sham today. I plan on changing to a lighter color thread to finish the rest of the blocks.

I am using one of the Angela Walters rulers (Slim) that I was able purchase with my grant from the Ashe County Arts Council.* It was easy to use than the other ruler I have and I am excited to spend more time improving my new skill and use it on one of my art quilts.

*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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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. 

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.