A NEW HOBBY ?

During the last five days, the big craft fair was in town.
On Friday I spent some time demonstrating machine quilting while others were demonstrating hand quilting at the frame at our guild booth:

It was very interesting, just busy enough so that I could spend time with each interested person.
Of course I visited our LQS which had a booth as well but I did not buy anything there this time as...
I was looking for the place where they were selling spindles and it looks like I found it!
I spent time yesterday and today trying to get the hook of it. I spun some yarn and made some 2-ply.

And you know what, I love it! Even if I still have a lot of progress to do before I can spin some sock yarn (my aim!) it is not that difficult and very calming.

Now I will dye the good wool I bought and see if I get a finer and more regular yarn.

I wish you a very nice week with maybe something new to try?!

WORKSHOP RESULTS

Here are the results of last week´s workshop on scrap quilts:

One student decided to stick to one block and nearly managed to finish a top:

I like that one a lot and I hope I can see it when finished.

At the moment I am knitting that sweater on very fine needles (for a sweater!) and it is taking its time. I want to finish it soon because we have just the right weather for it now; sunny and chilly.

Next week the local huge hand craft fair is in town for 5 days. Our patchwok guild will be there too and I will demonstrate on friday morning machine quilting in the hall nr. 7 from 9.00 to 1.00.

Do please come and say hello (this especially for those of you overseas, come on I know you can make it!!)

I wish you a nice week with a lot of sunshine.

BUSY, BUSY

I don´t have much time this week for blogging.

My workshop on scrap quilts is tomorrow and I made some more blocks to show. I don´t intend to make a quilt out of those ones, they are only to show the students the construction of the blocks and the importance of colour placement or the lack of it!

I hope we will have fun!

On the knitting front I made a scarf and nearly finished the socks to match.
This was the first time I knitted the NORO yarn and I like it a lot. To knit the scarf and the socks I only used two skeins ( one multicoloured and one brownish). The yarn is a bit pricey but the results are very nice I think.

If the weather stays so mild, I will have no excuse on Sunday not to go in the garden and say hello to the lovely (!) bunches of nettle growing busily in every corner!

Have a nice week.

FIRST SIGNS OF ..........SPRING!

The daffodils in the garden are growing, today I saw some blue sky, I think spring is not far!

I am busy preparing my workshop on scrap quilts for saturday in a week.
These are the blocks I have made so far. As you notice, I chose my best looking fabrics!

I want to show the participants that even with challenging fabrics, one can sew a nice looking top.

I must mention Bonnie´s site which inspired me a lot to prepare the workshop.

I also dyed some more yarn: the first two are lace yarns and the third is merino/linen. The others are normal sock yarns
Tomorrow we have our monthly quilt group meeting. Something I am looking forward to.

I wish you a nice time too looking out of the window for more signs of spring ( or for autumn for the ones down under!)

STILL WINTER

I won´t bore you anymore about the murky weather we are still having here! You know how it goes by now: snow, ice, ...

So I tried to do something against it: I knitted a beret for me ( my DH has already got one) and my DS does not want one!
That´s the Relm Tam from Knit.1. I knitted it with the left-overs from the cardigan I showed last week.

And I finished my Marlene socks from the same magazine as mentioned above.

The yarn is 100% Merino wool and very warm.

Yesterday my DS and I dyed some more sock yarn. This is a great way to learn a bit about colour theory. Take yellow and blue to get green is simple enough but it becomes a bit more complicated when it goes to how to transform a yukky brown into a warm caramel brown!

Pictures of the results next time.

I learned today that I will teach a workshop on scrap quilts in two weeks time. So now I have to sew some sampler blocks and work on the course of events, busy week ahead!

I wish you a nice week with a lot of time for crafty projects.

WOOLY TIME

This week has been quite busy and that´s why I did not post earlier.

In between I could squeeze some sewing and I made a little purse/pouch for my mum. She wanted one for a project at her quilt group. I hope she likes it.

As the weather is still so cold (see the snow in the background!) I did some knitting too. Another top-down cardigan with no sewing involved, apart from the buttons. I found the pattern in a knitting magazine called knit.1. I have some yarn left and so I am knitting a slouch out of it from the same issue. I am knitting some socks too from that magazine so you could say it was worth the buy!

I will show pictures of those 2 projects next time.



I dyed some more yarn too. I tryed to get more masculine colours this time, except of course for the purple/orange one!

Tomorrow I will give a workshop on machine quilting and I hope to show the results next time too.

In the meanwhile I wish you all a nice week-end.

LUCKY WINNER

We have a lucky winner: Joyce! My DS put his hand in the bag and out came this piece of paper.

I will send Joyce some fabric as it seems that she loves them!

I want to thank you all for the nice comments you left on the last post. I hope to keep on sewing, knitting and reading lots of blogs for many years to come!

Last week I went to Ursel´s LQS. It moved to a bigger, brighter, nicer location with lots of big windows. If only I did not have to go to work, I think I could visit the shop everyday!

Anyway, of course I did not leave the shop empty-handed. I plan to make a it-bag (!) out of that lovely fabric.

Tomorrow is our monthly quilt group meeting. I hope to see many nice works there.

If only the snow would stop! You know what, I think I am getting allergic to snow! And in Australia it is much too hot. I wish I could send Carol some snow flakes with her yarn!

I wish you a nice week with mild weather!