I need no yarn, but you’ll definitely find me at Sit n Knit in Melrose on Sunday afternoon, helping Janet and enjoying the North Shore Yarn Crawl. Janet’s offering 20% discount on yarn and she has a lot of fun giveaways, raffles and goodies, so be sure to stamp your passport there!
On Saturday and Sunday morning, it’s time for the FiberCamp Boston. Can it be? I just watched the video we filmed for the first FiberCamp in 2009.
Really, the fact that there’s only 24 hours in a day is one of the biggest problems with Boston. Will I see you around this weekend?
Amble on over to Cary Hall in Lexington, MA for the Rising Star Quilters Guild for eye popping quilts, a boutique of hand made items, raffles and scavenger hunts. Truly something for everyone, quilt fiend or not!
Autumnal Stars is the large raffle quilt at the 2013 RSQ Show
I’m donating a mini quilt for our raffle inspired by a hillside town in Italy. You can also see my contribution to the “Two by Two” challenge (photos up next week, I hope!) Hope to see you there!
Did you catch it yet? It’s a total trip that I really dig. The Museum of Fine Art’s Hippie Chic fashion exhibit is a blast from the past.
The fifty-three outfits span the 1960s and 70s and are curated into five themes according to influence. The installation is super, complete with a juke box full of period music. Frequently, you can the view the garments from several angles which I appreciated. The enthusiasm of the time period radiated, as suddenly I loved the shag carpet in neon colors on round go go platforms!
Hippie Chic is on view until November 11, 2013, so there’s still plenty of time to soak it up. Meanwhile, the MFA web site has great features to whet your anticipation. There’s even a fab game (this coming from some one who would rather do just about anything than play games on her computer!) where you create your own album cover.
Judging fleece at New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival
At my first New Hampshire Sheep and Wool festival with Guido, I was shocked when he confessed a certain attraction to the idea of raising sheep. Why on earth would you do that? Raising livestock reduces your stitching time!
Not one year later, Barb Parry‘s husband told the story of the day his wife came home with animals to graze in the back yard. Hanging around fiber animals produces a contagious desire to care for them, I gathered. Flockitis?
While I am far from interested in becoming a shepherd, attending Lucy Lee’s FiberCamp 2012 talk made me realize that I did want a fleece. Now why on earth did I choose to go to that talk? That’s the fun of FiberCamp… you’ll never know what you’ll learn. No hurry for this fleece, just… when presented with the right situation, I wanted a fleece. Not flockitis, just a fantasy fleece!
The situation presented itself last fall in Wisconsin. I knew that one of my sister’s dear friends, Laura Stremick-Thompson was raising Shetlands on Blind Faith Farm. She and her husband acquired their first registered Shetland sheep in 2009. I thought they just planned on hobby farming. However, Laura and Jim expanded the flock, adding other breeds and crosses. Clearly, flockitis was in the air, as they witnessed the first lambs born on their farm in 2010. Their closed spinner’s flock now has 15 sheep, including primitive double coated and single coated Shetland, Shetland cross, Bluefaced Leicester/Icelandic and Clun Mule. As you can imagine by this list of breeds, Laura is careful and dedicated to her flock, hoping not only for quality fiber but high quality of life for her herd.
What a fluff ball, Rupert!
Stella won won first place in the Double Coat Division and third place overall in the Shetland category at the 2011 WI Sheep and Wool Festival, and placed again in 2012. Also in 2012, Rupert captured first place in the Shetland colored, double coat class. Two others received third place in their categories. Here’s Laura sharing the ribbons with her flock.
Last October, Laura had 2 Shetland fleeces left. The color ways of Spectacles and Buckaroo sounded good over the phone. Sight unseen, I purchased them and shipped them to Boston. Buying a fantasy fleece was too easy.
Buckaroo as a lamb
Spectacles a few months after shearing.
According to Laura, Spectacles gets his name not only from his dark eye marks, but for the spectacle he makes of himself! The fleeces were much better than my pessimistic, novice fleece processing expectations. So clean, so beautifully skirted and with nary a second cut, the bags of lanolin smelling woolliness waited through the winter. On a hot summer weekend, I put on my swimsuit and washed the fleeces in the bath tub. What a jolly time that was! There was great pleasure watching Specs’ fleece go from beige to fluffy white and the delicate grey patch on his back. Buckaroo wasn’t nearly as dirty, but carefully swishing the laundry bags filled with fleece was really pleasurable.
Buckaroo’s fleece, tawny and luscious, before washing
That’s not a shadow, that’s Spectacle’s grey markings
I took some of Buckaroo’s fleece to wet felt immediately for a quilt I’m making now. Wow, Shetland felts much more slowly than Merino or Silk. His fleece has a lovely depth that will be great for this series on childhood camping experiences.
I haven’t finished carding, but it will happen someday. Once combed, I have no idea what I will do with the rest of this fleece, but it makes me happy just looking at it around my studio for the time being!
After processing all of Buckaroo’s fleece, I felted a portion to use in art quilts.
BlindFaithFarm has a shop at Etsy.com. In 2014, they plan to sell roving. If you’re interested in fleeces, catch Laura at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival next weekend, September 6 – 8, 2013, where her flock’s winning traditions will hopefully continue. Laura can also be reached at laurast25 at wi.rr.com. You, too, could have a fantasy fleece!
Quilting simmers on the back burner this year as I pursue the last stage of the master knitter program. Without starting my tirade for more hours in a day, let me just say how pleased I was to participate in the Studio Art Quilt Associates’ exhibit at the 2013 Images Quilt Show in Lowell. Val and Michele led the charge as co leaders of the Massachusetts/Rhode Island chapter of SAQA. As the veteran event organizer, I can totally applaud and appreciate the time and energy dedicated to this exhibit. Thanks, wonder women!
The SAQA special exhibit called for three works made by the same person united by theme, techniques or colors. What a great opportunity to look through my quilts and complete finishing touches to one languishing! These were the 3 quilts I showed from August 8 – 10, 2013.
Entry Blessings, 2013
I originally put this quilt together for last fall’s Rising Star Quilter show, but was so unhappy with the work, I took it apart and modified the felted background, approached the appliqué in a different manner and requilted the work. The Arabic greeting wishes all who enter peace and tranquility. Besides the wet felted “cloud,” I embroidered the words on silk, adding a trail of sequins and beads. I tried to balance formality with irregular shapes… not sure if I got it right yet, but the felted cloud functions better than it did last fall.
Bright Skies II, 2013
Inspired by a baby quilt I made in 2003 (that hung on the wall and not in the crib, I hear), I dyed and painted many of the fabrics in both Bright Skies quilts during my days in Rome. Fabric, felted and knitted suns are reverse appliquéd to the piece. The lower right sun is simply a machine quilted circle… indicating perhaps new techniques I may incorporate in my quilts? This was my languishing quilt, as the top was completed in 2010.
Gioia’s Rainbows, 2003
Driving around the Castelli Romani in 1998, I came upon a most magnificent double rainbow. I made this quilt during my youngest daughter’s rainbow phase, but it sat in a drawer for a decade. I think it’s time to hang this quilt somewhere.
Are your eyes closed? Visiting the Old York Museums‘ 2013 decorator show house popped open my eyes. More than a dozen designers and landscape architects took over a waterfront property currently for sale. It’s an inspiring space, open to the public through August 15 (closed Tuesdays) in Kittery Point, ME. Compliments to all who worked to make this museum fundraiser a success!
Read highlights of the house in my blog post for Giardini di Sole. A lot of creative rethinking of space went into the decoration, and entering the house from the shoreline gives an entirely different experience (so smart, those designers!). There’s no photography allowed, so no home dec eye candy to share, just a garden view, peeking out from the grape trellis across the feng shui saltwater pool toward the cove. Do visit Secret Cove, if you can.
I can share my “Carpe Diem” decorating philosophy, however…
“Open Your Eyes: 1,000 Simple Ways to Bring Beauty into your Home and Life Each Day” was first published by Alexandra Stoddard in 1998. I hadn’t realized that my eyes had closed, but walking into my house after visiting Secret Cove sparked the annual retrieval of this favorite volume (I see it’s available in a digital format these days… hmmm!). I immediately tidied the piles of post that accumulated during our vacation and opened my eyes.
Thanks to Stoddard, there are 3 principals that I incorporate in my own home and studio.
Shake up your art and home dec accessories. We tend to no longer notice your great stuff if it’s always in the same place.
Decorate with objects meaningful to you. The abundance of coral fabrics, candlesticks and objects in Secret Cove was beautiful, but there’s no coral in Maine. If I spent much time scuba diving in warmer climes, such motifs might show up in my place (Such are home decor trends, I guess).
Consider proportion. How does your eye travel across the room? Slight changes can give your space a completely different vibe.
As these glorious summer days and nights keep us outside and away from home, there’s nothing like opening your eyes when you come back inside. Seize the day and make the most of your space!
