Final thoughts of the Quilt & Fiber Art Show

This is the finished product!  I almost forgot to take a picture, as you can see we started to take it off the loom while finishing the crocheted slip stitch across the top.
I wish I had taken more pictures of my great friends that helped me to show off their talents of the Fiber Arts. 
Nancy offered her expertise at spinning, Judy showed expertise at an almost lost talent of tatting & her latest knitting project.  Lynn has many talents, she shared her lockerhooking demonstration & finished project and her current Inkle loom work in progress.  Dave shared many of his talents for all those coming to the show, Great Wheel spinning, drop spindel, his rug punch work with wool & fabric and his diverse knowledge of many, many Fiber Arts and the history. 
Dave's most recent adventure is quilting with historical fibers and themes, I've added some pics. of his work below.

Mother Bickerdyke Quilt

Below:  Civil War photo Quilt & Artifacts.

notice the artifact at the bottom of each picture.....neat.

above pic. is one of the woman who fought in the civil war.

above pic. shows another woman who fought in the civil war.

~works of talent~

Osnaburg Quilt & Fiber Art Show

Thought I would put in a quick blurb about the Show.  It has been very nice weather, thank goodness no humidity in the air, as we are demonstrating in a building with no air conditioning, just some good ole fans.

To my surprise, my woven scarf has taken the Judge's Choice Award. :)

My sister's quilted wall hanging received the Judge's choice.

This is day two of working on the triangle loom.  We haven't been working on it continuously and it will be finished on day three, the final day of the show.

Working some kitchen towels on the loom.  I dressed it for four towels, I've made two so far.  Don't expect to finish them at the show.  Makes a nice addition to the show of what you can do and for those looking for their new hobby...

This quilt won Best in Show.  I like the contrast.

One of the quilts that I liked, it didn't win any special awards, I just like the Americana style.

...another quilt that I liked.  I admire the work, I just don't have a desire to make one.  I would rather get my hands in some wool.
Will post more pics. after today, the final day of the show.
....thats all for today.

Dye Day :)

Saturday was dye day at our Guild Meeting, The Algonquin Spinning & Weaving Guild.  Once a year we have a dye day and create some beautiful  colors and just have a good time.

This was part of a dark fleece that was overdyed with "tomato", a color of dye made by country classic, this came out beautiful and will really show off  if spun in the lock.

more beautiful colors. Notice the roving on the left, this multi color can be accomplished as shown in the picture below.

setting the dye on the roving was accomplished using an electric skillet.....how awesome!
I didn't take pics. the whole day, but believe me more beautiful colors were created in this skillet.

This was created by sprinkling some additional color around the fleece while in a dye pot.

Pink too!!  Can't wait to see when Alli gets this spun up. 

This is where the fun is.  Creating all these fabulous colors, can't wait to see the final products.  The weather was very hot Saturday, but it wasn't that bad in the building we were in.  Mike the grounds Manager had a door on either end of the building open which created a draft through the building which was much appreciated for our dye day.

Millie, one of the Mill cats couldn't resist helping us with the wool.  We have several resident cats at the Algonquin Mill.

Quilt & Fiber Art Show.......

Another deadline to meet, lately I have been putting myself to the test of time and deadlines.  Saturday I  warped my loom to make a scarf that I finished today.  This will be entered in a local quilt and fiber arts show in one week.....yikes!  Nothing like pushing the envelope.  Oh, and I still have a denim rug to finish!  Three more rows to crochet and run through a few wash cycles to get it to fray.  I will post pics. when I get that one done, for now some pics. of my scarf.

The finished product a 7' long scarf!

Close up of the pattern.  I used up what I had left over from making another scarf a few months back, I just changed up the pattern to use more of the light colors.  Really enjoy making scarfs on the loom.
 

Great Lakes Fiber Show Results

It has been a week since the Great Lakes Fiber Show.  We had some really warm weather, but it wasn't bad in the buildings with the breeze.  This year I had entered two fleeces and two skeins of yarn.  My good friend Dave Lewis beat me out in the fine fleece division, I have a Whistle Stop ram with a beautiful black fleece, but I do not have coats for my sheep so every little piece of VM shows up in the beautiful black fleece.  Although it will all come out between the washing and carding.
My dairy rams fleece is a medium fleece, 36 micron, although it is 6.2 SD, 16.8 CV, 10.8 CEM.  This fleece received 4th place in this class.  Will be washing this fleece soon, want to dye it at the next guild meeting (June meeting is dye day).

I entered two skeins, I took 2nd place....again in the fine two ply class.  I chose my Whistle Stop ewe's fleece for this skein, her Comfort Factor is 90.2.  I didn't get to watch the judging as I was helping with the fleece competition, but was told the judge kept commenting on the elasticity in the skein, wish I had taken a picture, my skein was at least 5 inches shorter than the other skeins, but when held in your thumbs, it would stretch out.......I think it was that wonderful fine crimpy fleece that I have kept out for myself to spin!

The other skein I entered took 4th place, I spun a fine 3ply yarn, prior to the show this skein had already been labeled as the "skein from hell", of course I was last minute spinning to enter both of these skeins, but while spinning this one it broke and I couldn't find the end to reattach the yarn and continue spinning, I ended up cutting the yarn, putting it on two ball winders as it ended up being cut in half, respinning it to put it back on a spool, then splicing the yarn to reattached where I had cut it.  I needed all the yarn I had spun, since I had pre-weighed the wool and needed every little bit I had to meet the weight requirements for the competition. 

I did get to meet Garrett Ramsey at the show and of course we spoke shetland. 
http://www.ramsayfarms.blogspot.com/
It is nice to get to meet other shetland breeders :)

I came sooo close to coming home with another sheep!  How close??  We went over to the sheep barn at 2:30 on the final day to say we would take him and they had left at 2:00 to head back to Oregon:(
It was a nice blue faced leiceister (sp?) ram.

These pictures were favorites at the show, everyone wanted to know how I got them to line up :)

That's all for now.