Anita & Bill Abroad

Today we're taking our first trip to Europe (actually to Germany) and it's very exciting. The Passports are with us, the house sitter is settled, and we're hoping our backs hold out with all of the lugging of "stuff" we're about to do. :) Winter travel is a lot more bulky than the summer type and our suitcases are stuffed.

We're off to see our son Bryan at his Army base in Germany. If I can post from Bry's computer (a super heavy duty laptop that survived the Afghanistan sand), I'll do it; otherwise there will be a good post when we get back. Let's see how many fiber art photos I can take in Munich, Schweinfurt and the castles we visit.

TTYL

A

Circle Quilt continued

Well, I picked out my circles for this quilt and have them pinned to their blocks. This will be my handwork project while we're traveling in Germany soon. This will be a basic background sample for the Asian Circle Quilt class I'm teaching in January for the Cotton Patch Quilt Guild in Athens, GA. The class is based on Reynola Pakusich's book, Circle Play. Reynola's book rates as a 5-star on amazon.com and I totally agree. It's one of my best design books.

During December I'll make some other samples to show different backgrounds and circle choices.

Fiber Arts Alliance Felting

I drove up to Asheville, NC on Tuesday (a 3+ hour drive) with my friend Sylvia for a class and the regular meeting of the Fiber Arts Alliance. The FAA has branched off from the Asheville Quilt Guild and its focus, of course, is fiber art. So far I have introduced three of my friends to the FAA and we all agree that it's well worth the 6+ hours of driving on the 1st Tuesday of the month to get there.

This month Nancy Bruce (right), gifted yarn dyer and needle felter, gave a one-hour class on dry felting and then gave a wonderful program on

wet and dry felting at the FAA meeting.

We each got a wonderful kit full of colorful roving, yarn, goat curls (curly goat fur), felting needle, hand-dyed cheesecloth and silk and other assorted goodies. Nancy had beautiful samples to show us, and unfortunately I forgot to take photos of her larger wet-felted pieces.

Here is my project...

A good time was had by all! Thank you, Nancy.

Houston Int'l Quilt Festival

Did anyone out there see my quilt hanging in the Quilts of Valor Foundation booth at the Houston Int'l. Quilt Festival this past week?

Felted Pincushions

I woke up today with a need to make some felted pincushions. I used directions from the Internet that my friend told me about (there was a $1 fee at the site for the directions which was more than reasonable--leave a comment if you'd like the website address). The directions called for using roving for the entire ball, but I had just bought some beautiful roving and didn't want it to be hidden inside a ball forever, so here's my tip (original to me as far as I know)...

I use Hobbs wool batting in my quilts because it is very fluid and light and quilts like a breeze. I have lots of small pieces of the batting leftover that I hate to throw away, so after reading the Hobbs bag to see if the wool would felt, I cut those leftovers into 1" strips and rolled them into balls to make the center of my pincushion. I then layered thin whisps of 1" wide roving color over the balls until they were covered with color. Next I felted them.

This motley crew was my first try...not too bad, but a little bald in spots...

...so I added more roving to the outside of each ball, made a couple more balls, and knotted them into a pantyhose tube...

...and came out with this good-looking bunch of wool pincushions. Fun!

Tomorrow is the Fiber Arts Alliance meeting in Asheville, NC, plus a felting class with fiber artist and yarn-dyer Nancy Bruce. I'll have to ask Nancy what she thinks of my idea. It seems to have worked out fine, but she'll know if it's a solid idea.

Circle Quilt Beginnings, Yarn Fun

Today I sketched and then laid out the background for a blue, black and brown circle quilt. Using smallish pieces of fabric, I folded them as needed and pinned them to the design wall to check my colorways and layout.

I like the way it turned out. Now I'll cut these folded pieces into the correct sizes and sew them together as my background.

Today, Main Street Yarns in Watkinsville, GA had a grand opening for it's new yarn dyeing studio and offered demo's. The yarn was soaked in vinegar-water before dyeing, then we were able to dye a hank of yarn with acid dye and a sponge brush. It was then microwaved to set the color. After a good rinsing the yarn is hung out to dry. Beautiful!

These are some hunks of roving I purchased at the yarn shop today which I hope to used to make felted pin cushions. The dark ones are yummy merino wool, and I hope to dye the light one sometime in the near future.

My latest scarf is nearly finished. It's simple but the colors are beautiful and will go well with my winter coat. It's great to have a small project to work on in waiting rooms...my method of "recycling" otherwise wasted slots of time.

Yankees in the South

Bill and I are northerners by birth who have chosen to live in the south because of its moderate temperatures and warm people. At this point, I have lived in the South for a total of 12 years and Bill, 8 years. I was Bill's translator for our first year of southern living when we made friends with Ann and Greg, our Mississippi friends, among others. Over the years some of our southern-born friends have given us books on "speaking southern". Today has been one of those beautiful blue-sky days in which we have thoroughly enjoyed living in Georgia.

We took a drive through horse and farm country today to visit Washington, GA. It's a charming town with a beautiful downtown square, and as we discovered, some history.

Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, carried out his last business as President in Washington, GA before the South surrendered at Appomattox.

Not far from Washington was the Watson Mill Covered Bridge which is still used as a one-lane bridge.