Updates

One of my original thoughts about this blog was to help me finish my UFO's (unfinished objects) in the various crafts I do.  Knitting, spinning, counted cross stitch, embroidery and quilting.  I also do crochet but don't have any UFO's there.  There are some hardanger projects too.  Anyway, my oldest is a project of embroidery - placemats and napkins to embroider and then finish the edges.  That is still the oldest.  #2 is a quilt.  I bought the kit for the Lone Star (star pieces only) when traveling through Colorado in the late 70's.  We went to Quilts and Other Comforts in Lakeland.  This is hand pieced with a little machine work attaching the filler pieces and border.  I'm hand quilting this in one of those pvc frames.  So here's where I am:

 What you may not be able to see is how far I am.  The diamond pointing upper left is about half quilted, going around clockwise  to the one on the bottom right - all of that has to be quilted and then the blue border.  I can only work on this during the winter/colder months as it is too warm to have this draped on my lap the rest of the year.
DH is going to his kayaking group's final blast today and camping overnight (well that's the plan).  That means I can sit and quilt all day long and see what I can finish on this.  
I do want to mention that this is very well traveled.  Colorado through Yellowstone to Washington then AR, TN, AR, TN plus moves within those places.  During all that time, 2 diamond pieces were lost and they have been replaced with a pale yellow.  You might be able to see them on that upper left diamond, on the left side.  One replaced a dark blue piece and the other replaced the wedgewood colored block.
When the quilting is done, I'll have to get some material to make the bias binding then sew it on - by machine on the front side, hand on the back.  I'll get it cleaned and it will be finished.

I'm watching DH getting stuff out to his truck - you'd think he was going away for months rather than overnight - about 15 miles from here.  I was amazed that he has never been camping.  I thought someone raised in a rural setting would have done something like that.  I was in Brownies and Girl Scouts and our troop leader was a very outdoors person.  We canoed and camped - even in winter when we ended up being snowed in.  Today's equipment is so much nicer than what we used.

 In other fiber news, I finished some more yarn and got it all washed.  I took photos of it outside.  To the left is ASU colorway Enchanted.  It's alpaca, merino and silk.  The sparkle is the silk.  This is a 2-ply.
Below is the Down To Earth colorway - also ASU.  It's a 3-ply and is all wool.
Next one down is a shot of all the fiber I washed and dried.  The one on the very left is 100% Polwarth (wool) and is Navajo plied or chain plied.  To do that, you start with a loop and pull the free end through then ply those three strands to make one.  It sounds strange but is a nice way to preserve the color changes.

 The greenish is also one with a lot of silk in it.  That is also a 2-ply.  It's a lace weight so can be a small shawl or something like that.

Another shot showing the chain plied yarns.

Next Saturday is Fiber in the Boro in Murfreesboro.  I'm so going to enjoy myself.  I plan to stay all day and spin.  I'll also have a chance to visit with a friend from Chattanooga, Craftygirl83, who owns Unwind Yarns.  She'll have a booth and it will be nice to see what she has now.  I've knit with one of her hand-dyed yarns before and it was great.  She's had to change suppliers so I'll probably get a skein to try out the new bases.  I hope to get some silk bricks as I love spinning them.  I hope to take photos too and will post those afterwards.
Until then, enjoy!