It's That Time Again!

 Yelp!  It came quickly; or so it seems!  There it was--right in front of my face--Tour de Fleece! beginning July 5-- Someone posted, teams were being formed, instructions given—oil those wheels, prepare your fibers, join a team or not, create a challenge for yourself; think of any obstacles that you might face as you begin this journey of spinning your way into history!

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I have my handy dandy little traveling bag for fiber and of course, my lovable spindle included.  I opened the bag (as if I hadn't seen inside for months), there was the silky smooth luxury fiber that was spun some time ago--balled straight from the shaft.

The lovely colors of the silk fiber doesn't come through with a camera lenses--

you can barely seen my adorable spindle.  I must have 100 spindles (I kid you not) but this one is my favorite!

trust me, this is a bright color

Here is my handy dandy bag that contains two hanks of bombyx hand dyed silk--no, I didn't dye it.  

We did dye silk roving many moons ago--but that story is for another time==back to the bag--I received from my not so loved sister-in-law.  I thought to myself, what am I going to do with this!!

wonders never seem to amaze me--my brain kicked in and low and behold--a solution to carry my precious spindle and silk fibers.

And if you are working with silk, be sure include hand lotion--you think your hands are smooth as 'silk'--ha ha--those little rough nicks of skin catch in silk!

And here we are again!

 We've been on the road--traveling to visit with second daughter in Colorado.  How nice to see her and enjoy some cool weather..  Afraid we ate all the wrong foods, enjoyed rich comfortable leisure---making it double hard to come back to 'normal' life.  Since we did a road trip by car, we could stop along the way to see unusual sights--there is a road that bends when you reach New Mexico and from that bend in the road you see the whole Colorado front range--what a sight!  Snow capped mountains!  Cue the music--Ah, Rocky Mountain High!

Now, here we are--trying to settle back into a routine. not fun!  I want to continue in vacation mode; alas, there is unpacking to do, laundry, check out the mail, friends calling (that's nice, they missed us!) 

Visiting our Daughter's house, renews my mind of the quilts she treasures as they adorn the walls.

I forget about the ones that were gifted; always happy my handwork is enjoyed.

At Christmas time, when the family has gathered, I lay out the quilts made in the past year or two and offer them to whom ever wants to give them a home.  

This quilt was made through 'The Quilt Show"--remember that it was a monster to tackle, but so worth the challenge; especially when I see it displayed in her foyer!

In her guest bath she has my hand spun, handwoven hand towels--made from natural cottons.

I love drying my hands with this luxury!

Gives me pleasure to see and touch them!

As I sit in a hotel room, I work on my hat knitting--couldn't find the stitch marker but did see this piece of plastic; worked great for a marker.  Finished the hat too!  

Playing Catch-up!

 After I found the quilt patterns and fabric cut for BH ( Bonnie Hunter) quilt, I set to work to tackle one. 

This one is 2018!  Good Fortune from her China trip!

Since I’m behind doing these blocks, I’ll use BH 18 as leader-Enders. 

Block 4-5 are to be Christmas fabrics and Block 15 is using my hand dyed fabrics—here we go—trying to play catch up!!

One down!  I wasn’t too sure my choice of color placement would work—looks ok to me though

Sew With Me is my Christmas quilt—

Another Christmas block

One of 25 blocks used in BH’s 2018 mystery quilt 

Block #2 is here —excited to

Combine them for the quilt top!