What's up with this?

I've not written a blog post for two days!  I guess I've not been doing much to post about.  Yesterday was spent with our daughter-in-law and granddaughters.  Emily loved her quilt.  When Fred was sitting on the floor in the play room playing Chutes and Ladders with four-year-old Lily, Emily drug her quilt into the room, wrapped it around her and sat down by "Papa".  It made my heart sing to see that.  All three of the girls' quilts were stretched out on the floor - it was great fun seeing them together.  (Lily's quilt is here, and Sophie's quilt is here.)  Now that Emily has hers, I guess it is time to start working on twin size quilts for the others.  Joseph, Sophie and Lily all have twin beds of their own now, and their baby quilts don't come close to covering them any more.

I had a great time last weekend at the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival.  I'm sticking to my "no buy" pledge as closely as I can (I've cheated only a couple times!), but I had to treat myself to some beautiful fiber.  It is pastel colored - very hard to find - Shetland from Spor Farm in Oregon.  Their fiber is fabulously luscious and priced really well.  These braids - 4 oz. each - I bought 3! - were marked down.  I'm making a 3-ply yarn which will probably be a shawl.  If there is enough I will probably make socks too.  I love how this is looking on the bobbin!

I also bought a very tiny beaded purse - really a piece of jewelry.  I wanted to buy one at our quilt show, but she didn't have any colors that spoke to me.  I was so surprised to find her at a fiber festival - with some new necklaces!  I zeroed in on this color right away.  I will wear it around my neck whenever I'm doing hand sewing, as my thimble fits nicely inside.  I have a very nasty habit of losing thimbles.  I use inexpensive Dritz thimbles for applique but my hand quilting thimbles are sterling, expensive, and hard to replace.  I tested this at quilt group tonight when dessert was served, and my thimble fit nicely inside when it wasn't on my thumb.  Isn't this pretty?!  I love how the blue beads sparkle and shine.  You can see the little flap that closes the top of the purse.  I feel quite elegant wearing this!

I don't know why I keep getting that shadow in the bottom left of my flash pictures.  I wonder if I need a new camera?

My class on Saturday - Knitting Ergonomics - was really great.  A tremendous amount of valuable information was fit into 3 hours by Carson Demers.  If you are a knitter and/or spinner I highly recommend you take a class from him if you have the chance.

My class on Sunday was not, unfortunately, a valuable one.  At least I got in some spinning time, which I always enjoy.  That's when I started spinning the newly purchased combed top you see above.  I spun some this afternoon also - it is so relaxing and meditative!

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Gratitudes:

1.  A lovely weekend spent with friends and luscious fiber.
2.  Another magnificent sunny, warm day.
3.  The beautiful pink blossoms covering the dogwood tree in our front yard.
4.  Every one of our beautiful family members - I love you all!