When is Wool Felt?

When is wool felt? Not to be confused with fulled, which happens when you take a woolen sweater and throw it in hot water and then in dryer--you get a fulled woolen sweater. No, felt is like a hard wool product. In our weaving circle there is a gal who loves to felt and she's good at it too! She can take wool roving, lay it out into a nice soft mat of nothing and then put all her power behind the wetting, rolling, sanding (yes, she uses a sander) to achieve a fantastic felted piece of art.

Here is member Kate admiring the table covered with wool 'fluff'. Antje takes this wool fluff and creates this masterpiece. Simply amazing! Here are a few other things that she has made with wool 'fluff'! Wonderful houses in the night. Or how about these whimsical creatures?
And Christmas trees
and a lovely butterfly, a gift for a small friend.
Yes, in the hands of Antje, wool fluff definitely becomes felt alive!

Sights of Old Mexico

Standing in the middle of Progresso Bridge with Rio Grande River flowing freely under, we pause at the boundary marker before proceeding into Old Mexico. We choose this location to cross as we can park close on US side to walk the short distance to the markets. In the days of old, beggars would stand on the Mexico side near the river and yell up to passerbys to throw down some money. Now, the Mexican government has enclosed the bridge and made it almost impossible to throw anything down. At one spot we saw the dirty face of a youngster as he poked his hand through a small crack in the concrete break. How he managed to stand under the bridge is anybody's guess! Armed vehicles and soldiers greeted us as we walked onto the main street of Nuevo Progresso. In one way, it was a calming feature to see as there has been many times of trouble for Mexican citzens in recent months. We felt well protected! A common site when we lived in Venezuela.
Sandbags piled high and screen netting concealed soldiers behind their 'bunkers' at the foot of the bridge walkway. But, a few steps away from this, we found sidewalks busy with activity as vendors promoted their creations (most likely from China)

The colors of small trinkets for sale--"only one dollar, miss" the street vendors say.
The favorite selling feature this visit were these woven bracelets with names. This fellow was madly weaving away on a special order.

This lady was stitching away on her colorful project as she worked her sunglasses booth. Here you could even buy DVD copy of the new movie "2012", all in Spanish, of course! Young lads wearing white lab coats were hocking available services; it seems you could visit the dentist and have a pedicure and manicure at the same location! Folded magazine pages create interesting purses. The vendor demanded one dollar before he would let me take his photo! Guess he has to make money somehow.

Travelogue

Okay, there are days when we travel to interesting and quaint places. And there are days that we visit repeat places but it doesn't matter where we travel we always find something unique and unusual. We can't number the times we have traveled to Rockport, TX area but have never visited the Fulton Mansion,which is an 1870s French Second Empire Historic House museum constructed by George and Harriet Fulton. It is a wonderful and unique site for its unusual construction method, modern mechanical systems, and architecture.

Too bad we arrived past the last tour, so didn't see the inside of the mansion and hear the history. Maybe next visit we'll arrive before 3 PM. We did relax on the fishing pier outside our hotel. At sunset and
at sunrise.

Lookee! More Quilts!

It was Quilters Day! A grand day! A Lovely Day! And the viewing was super as usual. Not only did we bind five quilts for Binky Patrol but we also had interesting fall dessert: Pumpkin Bread Pudding. Well, you know quilters make good cooks and we have to eat. The bread pudding was delicious.
Now, what can you do with this fabric?

One of our quilters, Linda, took this fabric and stitched up a One Block Wonder and wonder we did! This quilt won honors at Kansas county fair. It takes top awards in our group!

Here is closeup of quilting pattern on small quilt that is gracefully lying across the sofa back.
Another creation from the talented hands of Linda. She is also finishing up the binding on this Christmas quilt. We'll see it fully 'exposed' soon.


Brenda is displaying her latest addition to her Christmas collection. The quilt top and backing are heading to the hands of our long arm quilter. We are truly lucky to have two long arm quilters in our group!

Here is Karen's completion--what wonderful colors! She is going to add numbers on the snowball blocks for added feature.

SALUTE!

Yes, Salute! to all those who serve in the military! Salute! to all those who have served for our country! Salute! to all those who will serve! You are special!

Quilts! Quilts! Quilts

When our group of quilters, The Expatchers, gather there is a display of finished quilts. Here are just a few samples of our talent!
One Block wonder! Cut from one fabric! Not on my agenda!

Sampler quilt made by member Camilla, who will soon be moving (temporarily) to Mexico. Yes, we say temporary as she will 'be back'. Camilla is our quilt mom; keeper of records, announcer of meetings and special events--what will we do without her?
School house quilt that was worked on during our tenure in Venezuela.

The following are made with love from Grandmas for their grandkids.

We are a productive group as we not only make quilts for our personal use, we also make many charity quilts each year for Binky Patrol . Each time a quilter unfurls one of her treasures, we are amazed at our accomplishments. Many didn't learn to quilt until we started meeting in Venezuela. We were learning from each other, although we had a couple of members who had quilting in their experiences. Our gatherings continue, even though our expat members come in and out of the group. We are still learning from each other and sharing our common interest--we have a bond--we are expats and we love quilts!

Join in on the Fun!

Join in on the fun of learning an applique technique by doing this lovely Joseph's Coat Quilt Along. Visit Don't Look Now There is a super tutorial on drafting the pattern as well as the placement of petals and how to handstitch each in place. Take a peek and come join in on the fun. Whenever there is a blog that is hosting a special event, usually the link will be along the side of this blog. Another special event is the Cross Country Christmas Blog Hop

where 12 designers are lined up to give a different project each day November 9-20--Wow! great American designers offering a free design--Are you going to join in that fun? The only problem--there is no certain blog that will host this, but you must visit the different designer on their day to pick up the design. Okay, it takes some time to visit but you can do it! Join in the fun by visiting their website--just gotta love the internet!!