Merry Christmas!

The Latest

First of all I must apologize once again for the stellar pictures.....The last month has been such a blur I seem to rarely have the patience to dig out the camera especially when I have the camera phone in my pocket. A poor excuse. But there it is.

The mystery from my last post turned out pretty well I think.

I had hoped to knit these guys all their own winter wear ....but instead came up with a creative alternative.  SOCK toes! :)  (The blue scarf IS hand knitted and the other scarf is felted.  That's where the handmade stopped.)  The snowmen with 3 "balls" have removable heads for that secret post Christmas candy stash!

In the midst of the Christmas preparations Layla had a cyst removed from her tail.

She is not very happy with me.

I take her with me in the car this time of year to save her from having to spend the day in her crate.

But leaving her in the car she gets bored....

Hence the cone of shame.

We found out today the cyst was benign.

The BEST Christmas present ever!  She is such a faithful friend.  And will be 12 in February!

The house is coming along!  You can see them working on the siding here.This picture is only a week old and they have already dry walled the interior!

It's time to start doing my stretching exercises for all the painting I need to do.  It was a trade.  I paint.  And we can afford new storm windows for the old section of the house.

Here you can see the side of the studio.  Soon I will be able to wander out any time of the day and jump right into work.

I can hardly wait!!

Saturday's Craft Show

Anyone in the Fredericksburg/Richmond area?
Come to Montpelier Center (17205 Mountain Rd, Montpelier, Va. 23192 for you GPS lovers) in  western Hanover County on Saturday from 9 to 3.

The show does not appear on their website but I'll be there! So come on over and say hullo! It promises to be a beautiful day and I love to meet blog followers.

Shop Local Saturday!

SO Busy

Time is just flying by....My mother always said that the older you get the faster Christmas comes.  She was (IS) right!

I have been so busy.  Making pots, weaving on my looms, thinking/worrying/obsessing about the house and balancing all the other stuff in between.  No matter what I do the time seems to slip by, I manage to get most of what I need to do completed and the house is slowly coming along!

 

I am doing a show at the Montpelier Center in Hanover county VA on December 1 (9-3).  I don't know what to expect.  I was invited, which is nice.  But it is a small show, the booth fees more then reasonable and all the fees are going to a family who has recently lost their mother/wife.  So even if the sales are low I feel ok.  BUT that means working to have enough stock for the POSSIBLITY of a great day (it's all about the possibilities in life right?) and for all the holiday shoppers.

 

These face yarn bowls sell surprisingly well.  Who knew a weird sense of humor was so prevalent in the fiber world!

 

But I would not feel complete without my black sheep.

 

 

Lots to get glazed............

 

More work to process.  Feeling the time crunch!

 

 

Any guesses?

 

Finally weaving with my handspun yarn.  The yellow is commercially spun, but I decided I may run short of the handspun and had to supplement....

 

Yarn for sale!

 

Layla at the bank.  Before the drool ran down the side of my truck.  The ladies at the bank really spoil her with cookies.  She even expects them to come out of the ATM.

 

 

 

 

 

Foundation poured!  You can see the shingles for the new roof.  They started the roof yesterday (Saturday!) and will start framing on Monday.

 

We've had a few unwelcome financial surprises on the home improvement front.  The city required a storm water diversion plan.  Which has cost us over $5,000.  Money we were hoping to put aside for the other surprise.  It seems the current furnace may not be efficient enough for the added space.  Despite what the inspector believed.  (Note to self.  Call in a HVAC specialist on every older home purchase.....) 

 

But we are pushing through and hoping to keep all other unwelcome surprises at bay.  I don't have a picture but the studio is getting its new green siding. 

 

That makes me happy.

 

 

Success!

What a weekend. 

 

It actually began on Friday with the First Friday art openings in downtown Fredericksburg.  It is the Fredericksburg Spinners and Weavers Guild's 30th Anniversary.  To celebrate we hung a beautiful show in the gallery at LibertyTown Arts Workshop.  An AMAZING show that should not be missed if you are in the area.  I had two pieces to contribute (the black and green cotton chenille blanket I showed in process in previous posts was a miserable failure. So you won't be seeing that.)

 

 

Woven by me with wool.  And then felted slightly in the washing machine....

 

I wove this of cotton.  Two different greens in the warp, and a black weft.  (I'm testing you Tracey.)

 

A needle felted witch by my good friend Barbara Posey.  She ended up with a basket of wool twizzlers before the day was done!

 

This is one of my very favorites.  This picture does not do the beautiful colors justice. I believe this is a boundweave technique.  It allows you to do more hand manipulation to create amazing patterns.  VERY time consuming.  Way to go Janet!!

 

 

 

 

This brilliant piece is by my friend Lynette Reed (she uses my handspun in a lot of her work.) She is a woman of many talents. Weaver, painter, illustrator, fiber artist and also the planner of this fantastic exhibit.

 

Coiled koi fish mobile by Lynette. 

 

This is part of the retrospective wall, showing the results of a project where every participant shared a bit of handspun; then created a project with their collection of bits and pieces.

 

Knitted Shawl by our illustrious treasurer Anne Nourse.

 

 

After mixing with art lovers and then spending some time spinning for the crowd in my studio, I headed home and was in bed by 11:00 since I had packed up the truck earlier in the day for Fall Fiber Festival!

 

 

 

I left the house Saturday morning by 6:45 am, wondering if this was REALLY what I wanted to be doing??? Picked up my friend April who came up from NC to help me....but we didn't have room for her to stay with us in our tiny rental so she stayed with another friend....(we had to borrow chairs too since we have no idea which box ours are in....this show was really a bit of a community effort!)...and off we drove to Montpelier Station, about an hour from Fredericksburg.

 

 

Unfortunately I took no pictures.  The big vendor tents are often too dark for my camera, and we were so BUSY.

 

The weather on Saturday was gorgeous.  I managed to run out and get some of Carpe Donut's amazing organic cider donuts and then hit the ground running.

 

At one point we had a line out my booth and down the aisle!  A show like this one makes all the hard work worth it.  I admit as an artist my ego needs some petting and a successful show is the just the right medicine.  And nothing makes me happier then to be able to create pots that satisfy me, and then see them enjoyed and purchased by so many pleasant fiber folk!

 

By the end of the day April and Greg and I were amazed and POOPED.   AND a big surprise!  April had submitted one of her own felted creations into the judged competition and won first place in her category!!

 

These pictures really do not do her dragon justice. He is breathing raging orange fire!

 

All this.

 And we still had another day!

 

Sunday started out with pouring rain (literally as I stepped out the door and headed to the truck the skies opened up....) but after that it was one of those beautiful (to me anyway) misty cold days.  Sales were a whole lot lower then Saturday but everyone was still so pleasant and INTERESTED.  I love that we had very few people just walk by our booth without a glance.

 

The funny thing, (this is evidence that stating your intentions has great power) first thing upon rearranging the booth on Sunday morning (I had had to run by LibertyTown Saturday night to pick up more pots!) I said that if the two biggest pieces were to sell, and very little else I would be happy.  And you know those two pieces were gone by the end of the day!?!

 

By 4:00 we were tired and ready to go.  Packed up in 30 minutes and were out of there before any serious rain.

 

And now it is Monday.  I am home considering unpacking the truck, packing up yarn bowls for a consignment order at the local yarn shop, replying to a show invitation that was offered on Saturday and just basking in the success before plunging in and starting the making process all over again.

 

I am so grateful.

Fall Fiber Festival!

This weekend is my big show of the year. Fall Fiber Festival at Montpelier Station here in Virginia.  Rain or shine.  (It's been a damp week....) This is such a great festival.  It began as solely a Dog Trial event and the festival has grown up around it.

 

Now there are vendors of all types of fibery goodness, supplies for making, animals of all sorts and good food too.

 

Come see me! The Festival runs both Saturday 10-5 and Sunday, 10-4.  $5 per person.  I'll be in Tent 2, booth number 3.  And while you're at it pick up a couple of yummy donuts from Carpe Donut! mmmmmmm!

 

 

 

A Couple of Plates

Fall Fiber Festival is next weekend! My pots are made. Will spend the week organizing and making sure I have all the required bits and pieces. I still have not done enough shows to have any kind of rythm or system.   Everything seems to be pretty spread out between our rental, the shed out back and LibertyTown!

 

 

Studio Update

I know I promised pottery pictures next...but I woke up with an awful migraine this morning.  Managed to finish up a weaving project at LibertyTown, with an October 1 deadline (more about that later,) and that was about it.

 

Here it is while I was in the midst of it.  This project was much harder then I remembered (I've made two others in the past.)  Especially with all the interruptions that come with weaving in public.  Cotton chenille is very touchy...and the minute my mind wanders, it usually is followed by a half hour of UNWEAVING and trying to figure out where I am in the pattern.   I still have to work the fringe and then I will post a finished picture. (really.)

 

 

On the way home from LibertyTown I ran into the post office to drop off a birthday surpise for my Shepherd Friend in Vermont (you know who you are!) and stopped by The New Old House.

 

No one was working this morning.  Which is a result of all the work that has been done that doesn't require a permit.  We are in waiting mode now.

 

But LOOK!

 

 

 

And NO SNAKES.

 

Spent the rest of the day in bed with a heated bed buddy on my head.

 

For Tracey