Whip stitching through the mountains

Stage 16 and 17 took us through the Pyrenees and I'm finally over the half way hump on my top. At least the centre. Now that I've got a whip stitch groove going, I'm thinking of adding more hexxies around the perimeter. But we'll see.

TD - Fabric stage 6

TD Fabric - stage 6 - the strip stitching of hexxies continues....

In other news...

Who knew that summertime could be such a hot bed of activity in my quilt-y world. Firstly it seems almost all of my LQS are offering discounts on fabric. Some as high as 40% off - granted you have to buy a metre or more - but none the less that's a great deal. 

Nextly (is that even a word?) I've been taking another beginner quilt class -  this time with the primary objective of learning more about my new sewing machine. The first thing I've learned is that as much as I love it - it's h e a v y and b i g and not at all p o r t a b l e ... 

Well that's all for now folks! Keep on stitching!

TD - Fabric'12 stage 3

I've finally started sewing the hexxie strips together. Almost finished joining strips A&B.

Fibre Week 2012

So last weekend I was away ... as in " away from it all." I packed up all my cares and woes aka ten bags of much loved books and magazines which I've been desperately wanting to destash - threw my trusty 1960's folding bicycle  aka "the Cinzia Creamcycle" on top and headed towards Olds College to  wrap myself in 4 days of fibre-y goodness... Fibre Week!

This is my Fibre Week 2012 pictorial (with a smattering of narrative here and there) as sometimes a picture really is more than a thousand words... 

Meet Michelle - also known as spindleprincess on twitter. She's an Olds College Master Spinner graduate and instructor. When she isn't travelling, teaching, blogging or spinning - she organises all the submissions for workshops for the upcoming Fibre Week. She must be doing a marvelous job because Fibre Week has been growing by leaps and bounds recently with attendees coming from all over North America - and even further (more about that later).

This is Jen. She too is a Master Spinner graduate and instructor. She has been teaching the prelude to the Master Spinner program "Beginner Spinning". This is where future masters and enthusiastics are hatched. She feathers their nests with loads of ideas, skills, and fibre samples - then gently pushes them off the edge to watch them take flight... and most of them go directly to the merchant mall. Where they buy loads more fibre and bid on fleece (because no beginner spinner can have enough stash).

There were a wide variety of classes this year. Everything from japanese knitting, lace design, humble hook crochet,wool judging and felting to spinning & meditation. I think I must have been focused on felting this year - as most of my pictures are from these classes. (Above is the Pug Purse).

Lots of great hand felted purses came out the "Here's Looking at You" class by Tracey Kuffner.

"Illuminating Ideas In Felt" by Sharon Costello also resulted in many glowing faces (excuse the pun).

Below  is  Frazzlehead's magnificent "hair tamer" which she designed from her "coils & beehives" yarn which she spun last year. (Not sure who would want to tame a mane like that - it's spectacular!)

As many of your know - I have drifted a bit to the dark side (as in hand stitching and quilting) and lo and behold looked what showed up! This is a terrific quilt made by Kathy (below).

She related that she found a batch of tea towels she thought were perfect to make a scrappy quilt - so she just decided to  in her words "whip something up." And so she did.

This is a closeup of the quilt front and back. (Give it a double click so you can get more details of the towels).

I started this post with "Fibre Week has been growing by leaps and bounds recently with attendees coming from all over North America - and even further."  And here is a little story. This is Karen Workman (above). Prior to May 24th of this year - I really didn't know who Karen was. One day I opened my inbox and found an email with the subject header: "Volunteer." Now normally I might think this is something that has slipped through my SPAM filter - but it was right around the time when I was setting up the Fibre Week Volunteer roster for this year. (I am the FW volunteer coordinator).  Soooo - I held my breath - clicked the button - and prepared for the Trojan Virus of Doom to erupt or discover that a relative who I just spoke to is being held hostage in a foreign land and needs me to send him all my credit card information.  Well was I wrong! Enclosed was a lovely email from Karen offering to volunteer. She had never been to Fibre Week before - but just happened to be visiting Canada from her home in New Zealand.  Well what a stroke of good fortune. And as even more luck would have it - we were in need of a keynote speaker (due to unforseen circumstances). And Karen gladly stepped up. As it turns out Karen is already an established feltmaker in her own right. And she treated us to a wonderfully entertaining, insightful and enlightening presentation entitled  " How I sold my Landskin Wrap for $2000" 

Above is just one of Karen's magnificent felted pieces. It has reminded me why I saved all my felting books from the "Great 2012 sheepless books & Magazines Destash".

And last (but certainly not least) Fibre Week is an embracing environment where people share their knowledge and passions freely with others. The pave ways, decks, solariums, condos and dorms are  awash with positive energy. It is much more than just a conference - it truly is a retreat.

Many, many thanks to everyone who attends and supports Fibre Week. My special thanks to all the volunteers new and experienced who help each year - it couldn't be done without you!

My good morning view - handmade pottery yarn bowl by Heather Edwards - wrapped in a hand knit woolen embrace shawl by Deb - a perfect beginning and end to my everyday.

Weave, spin, knit, dye and sew - happy!