I don't usually post pictures of work in progress, but here's something I've been working on for a little while. I found this cute dog's photo on Flickr and asked the owner of the photo if I could use it for my art course. He very kindly agreed, and writes: "This is Sam. I met him on a walk in Carpenteria, Ca. No wonder he's happy, his owner is a nice lady who adores him, takes him on coastal walks and he gets to chase Frisbees and get all the belly scratching he desires." The photo fits the bill for this exercise, which is to find a picture of an animal with its tongue out and try to capture that. The title of this photo on Flickr is "The Complete Definition of Happiness." It makes me smile to work on this cute face.
Here is my latest project, a quilt called Stars Around the Garden. I joined a block of the month thing at my local quilt shop, Gathering Fabric in Woodinville. We pick up a pack for one block each month, the idea being that by the end of the year, we should be well on our way to a quilt top. There are 14 stars, so packets were made up for the last 2 blocks, which I have. The fabric group we're using is called Madeira, by Blackbird Designs (Moda). Here's the pattern and some of the fabrics.
Here are the first two blocks. It's going well, but I gotta say, the seam ripper is my friend. But no big deal, I'm finding these blocks fun to make, and I like the variety of blocks.
Here is some recently plied blue-faced leicester from Squoosh, in a colorway called Taffy. It was about 4 oz. and spun up to be about 250 yds. Very easy to spin. The top ball I plied with more twist than the bottom, and it appears to be slightly darker. I'm still experimenting with all these variables.
Does anyone have any ideas on what I should make with it? I'm really undecided at this point.
I got right into another spinning project, this one 6 oz. of wool with some firestar from Homestead Wool & Gift Farm in Wisconsin. The sheep who donated the fiber is named Happy, a Romney/Lincoln cross, and this color certainly is very happy. It's also easy to spin, although different from the BFL as it's pin drafted, and the fiber has some lanolin in it. Here's a swatch I made to see what it's going to look like:
The colors in the roving are really loud and bright, with some neon looking bits even, but the result is much more subtle. I love learning all this stuff about fiber.
