Tour de France = Tour de Fleece

 Stage one of the Tour de France began yesterday, August 29--just a little late posting about this-- this year has been crazy as you know.  Usually Tour de France is early in the summer but was postponed, as many other events.  

We as spinners like to 'run' this race in the hot days of early summer, but here we are going into September.  Jump on board--spinn as much as you can, as often as you can--doesn't matter if it's just 10 minutes every day or every other day--JUST DO IT!  And if you can, watch come of the race as you treadle.  

I find myself treadling harder and faster as some of the stages of the race!  Funny, how you can get caught up in the action!  Here are couple of things you can do with your spinning--check out Tour de Fleece on FAcebook, talk to other spinners, show your progress and if you want play bingo

Some of us spun during the regular scheduled time of the event, even though I like watching the race on those days (actually, I would watch on the recap times).  Above all--enjoy your wheel and your fiber!

Let's Cool Off...............................With Snowflakes!

A snowflake table runner sounds perfect this time of year

and Kathy Schmitz has giving us some nice stitching techniques

to use to make a lovely piece to grace our table

Using simple stitches, adding buttons, and beads, you will create a quick

snowflake--First, you whip stitch the small circle to the medium circle--then

embroider the two before stitching them onto the large circle.

Snowflakes in nature are not regular, so if you make a small mistake, it's okay--

just eyeball the stitches and circles.

You can find Kathy on YouTube

Dream Trip!

Have you been? Do you want to go? Is AQS on your bucket list?
Paducah!!! 




This is just a small taste of what you'll find when you attend!  I wish I'd taken more money--there are shops everywhere!! I mean everywhere!  And you can find quilt leaders everywhere! Everyone is sharing and assisting you in your dream trip!

Keep your fingers crossed that we can attend in 2021!

Happy Birthday Dr. Dawn!

This little girl melted our hearts day after day!

That little girl is now a successful woman

and she still melts our hearts!

Happy Birthday Dr. Dawn!

 

Harvest time!

In our area of Texas Hill Country, it's time to harvest the grapes! If your winery is plush with money, then you can use one of these machines--

So many of the wineries in this area are small family owned vineyards, so they use volunteers to walk through the vines and clip by hand.  Early morning around sunrise, we don our hats, gloves and grab our shears--off we go!

 Semillon grape was our first pick of the morning.  Each row is marked at the front with one of the markers--so we wouldn't pick the wrong rows.  Of course, it wasn't hard to  decide either--as the nets were taken off!  The nets are placed over the ripe grapes so birds will not eat those nice juicy bites.

These little clusters grow around anything in their way--not easy to find their fix state.

These are Tannat variety--so lovely!

Found a bird's nest among the vines--with couple of Tannat grapes!

Hubby is in the background working his row--look how long those rows--

it seemed the rows just got longer and longer!

Okay--after 5 hours, we had harvested 5 tons of grapes!

Must wait now for the juice to become wine!

BAM!! It’s Autumn!

Time for another sewing adventure--yes, it feels like Autumn when you

roll out these colors.  You can join in on this free mystery on Facebook page

of Fort Worth Fabric Studio/Absolute Autumn

This is their kit--but I chose to  use my own fall stash--and there

is lots of it!  I love Autumn/Fall.

 First block--always love Maple Leave patterns!

Second block--Acorns!  Yay!

Third clue = Sunflowers--all 8 blocks of them!

The last clue--soon there will be the final layout suggestion.

I saw this pumpkin table runner on the cover of  "Quilter's World"

fall magazine--love pumpkins!  This pattern is called Pumpkin Patch! 

I'm on the lookout for other fall related patterns--

About Time!

This book has lingered in my stash basket for ages--let's not count the number

of months--it's just one of those 'aged' projects or UFOs if you prefer.

Quiet time was spent as I stitch--this 'lock-in" pushed me to find something

to do with my time and hands.

Completed all the embroidery on the blocks this week!  Just need to do

the interlacing stitches between the blocks, add borders and we're good to go.

I liked doing all the blocks--at one time, I ran out of black thread & had to

wait for an order to replenish my stock

I cheated at times for the small pieces--used a permanent marker to

fill in--e.g. light bulbs on Kingle block, lights in Village, etc.

Doodle Cloth

Do you Doodle??  

YES!  There are videos for doodles!  I usually doodle if my brain is in overload or someone is lecturing--it's a way to not think about what your fingers are doing.  But, my doodles don't look like the above!

IN hand embroidery, a doodle cloth is usually an extra piece of fabric that you keep on hand,
to practice embroidery stitches on before you apply those stitches to am embroidery project.  A good idea if you are a beginner and want to see how your stitches will look.

REasons for doodle cloth:

1. Practice makes perfect
2. A doodle cloth saves your project
3. A doodle cloth creates a record
4. This doodle cloth can become a project!

And it opens up possibilities for endless projects--one stitch becomes another stitch and so on and so on.

I love these handy ways to learn as you stitch!

Star Gazing .....................

Did you step outside your door during the lovely darkness to view the Comet Neowise--

We did view the comet couple nights--to us it was faint because we

have some city lights obstructing the sky darkness.  But, it was fun to

look for it--I have an app on my phone--Sky Guide--which helps locate

the constellations and the best way to view this once in a lifetime event.

While looking for the comet, I saw a couple of shooting stars!

Good luck in my book!

Here is Stargazer Shawl to knit with the event--you can locate this free pattern

here

The solid bands of stockinette show off the nuances of the colorway you’ve chosen, like the night sky once your eyes adjust to the dark. The simple stitch patterns allow highly variegated yarns to shine. And just like a shooting star, this asymmetrical, one-skein shawl will be done in a flash!

Now, to decide on the colorway and yarn to use on my needles.