FLEECE FESTIVAL…

OH MY GOD Fleece festival this year was AMAZING. Busy busy busy – I think I saw some shoppers who arrived at 8:30 in the morning and did not LEAVE until the show closed at 4:00. It gets better every year – more vendors of wonderful fibres and finished products – but mostly it is a supplies show so here are a few pix of the show and vendors. These were taken around 8:30 – a few hours later you would never have been able to take pix as it was so full of people with bags (and suitcases on wheels) full of purchases! For the next few days I won’t be posting much as I have a few family issues that are my priority right now. Will be back soon though…

STUDIO TOUR …

Our Studio Tour weekend could not have been better – the weather was glorious and that brought many visitors to our studios. It was a fun weekend of chatting with people who were visiting our location for the first time, reconnecting with folks who have been coming for many years and oh – having too much fun with my guest artists. I am so lucky to have found a group of artists whose work I love but also who are very special people.

Buttttt…did I get any hooking done – well!!!! not much! But I did finish off a purse flap. I had a ton of dirty worms (not those wiggley guys from the garden) and dug up a free pattern for a purse that Karen Kahle had posted on her Primitive Spirits blog some time ago, adapted it to my own purse design and hooked it. Today I finished it off. It is old and antique looking – kind  of like me! I found a lovely vintage crackly button that worked perfectly et voila –  a finished purse.

On Saturday I will be a vendor at Fleece Festival in Woodstock. This is a fabulous one day event – many fiber artists and vendors in one big location. So if you are anywhere near the Woodstock/London Ontario area try to make it to Fleece Festival on Saturday – hours are 8:30 to 4:00. There will be vendors of felting supplies (my good friend Wendo!), rughooking supplies, yarns and fibers – just tons of stuff.  A good place to treat yourself!!

Soooo, I won’t be posting for a few days but hope to have some pictures to share of FF when I get back…

AND LAST BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST…

Louise Bergeron’s extraordinary dolls – these really need to be seen close up so try to zoom in…

MORE PIX…

So this morning I am posting pix of Cindy Lanevilles beautiful mosaic glass pieces – many are upcycled antiques (do you think my junkin’ is rubbing off on people around me???)…

PLUS this morning I finished upcycling a drawer I had bought from Jillian – filled the top with a Little Scrapper rug (pattern bought from Kathy Clark of Briarwood Folkart) and the bottom with a cork board. I am sooooo pleased with the way this turned out that I may have to keep it :-)))…

HO HO HO….

More pix of my guest artists – Lionel Bedard whose turned bowls are like silk, Janet Whitham’s luxurious hand woven garments and more, Doug Purdy with his wonderfully funky primitive carvings, Steve and Karen Henderson with upcycled farm equipment for your garden or home, and … 2 artists yet to come!!!!  …

THE BIG DAY IS ALMOST HERE…

Weather is cooperating – we have only had to deleaf and deneedle the yard and driveway 2 times this week! No rain or galeforce winds to knock down the few remaining leaves we have. Yesterday after spending many hours moving the final furniture out of the living room, kitchen, dining room and porch I decided we needed to go for a long overdue walk – scuffed through the dead leaves and ohhhhh what a wonderful smell. Took me back to my childhood days – the days when we were young and had strong backs and actually raked leaves into a pile and then jumped into them! Well now we blow them into a tarp and I don’t jump into anything!!!! But the smell of dry leaves evokes all those wonderful memories.

So here are some pix of the start of the set up – Wendo Van Essen (our needlefelter) and my own hooked rugs. As more of my artists arrive and set up today I will post more pix so this will be a day of many posts!

NOPE NOT SICK!…

Oh it has been a busy fall. Our studio tour is next weekend – Canadian Thanksgiving – and we seem to have a ton of jobs to do to get ready – windows, gardens(not that the deer left much!), porches oh and lets just stick a little dyeing and hooking in there somewhere :-). But the falling leaves will cover a multitude of sins. I am a little worried that we may not have one leaf left on any of our trees by next weekend. So nope I am not sick – just have been busy busy busy.

Yesterday’s Cataraqui Guild of Needle Arts show was lovely. And YES YES YES I managed to find something to spend money on! Rosehaven Farm was one of the vendors with their lovely yarns and Small Investments (Beth Abbot) had beautiful little bundles of a variety of yarns and slubs and fibres – all good for adding to my stash (if not necessarily my hooking – yet!). I had good friends surrounding me as well – Wendo with her fun felting (who will be here for our tour next weekend) and Cathy of Baa Baa Bundles with her wonderful little packages of reclaimed wool and alternative fivers. Those bundles of silks and velvets were just flying off the shelf. I was amazed that Cathy did not chop up the top she was wearing as hmmmmmmmm it would have made some nice hooking (ideas Cathy?).

My yarn buys!!!…

Just heard from my friend Donna that there is a new place to go junkin in Kemptville – the Dusty Magpie! Oh oh – need to do something first with all my previous purchases but OHHHHH I did! I had an old painted cheese box that I had attached a hooked piece to so a little art and storage in one piece but while in Quebec junkin with my friends  Odette and Robert I found four short legs and this week Gord attached them to the bottom of the box and I painted and distressed them and NOW it is a footstool/storage/funky piece of art! One down, 20 to go!

We have had a little visitor on and off for the last few weeks. While Kathy from California was here she got the cutest shot of a little leopard frog who had found his way allllll the way up the steps to the front porch. He sat outside the door (needless to say he probably had heard from the mice that we invite our little critters in and feed them well) and teased the cats. Well, since then he has been back a number of times. I open the door and slide the screen across and there he is staring in as the cats stare out! Of course MY cats would not know what to do with a frog – if he hopped they would run off in the other direction! eyes bugging out and tails between legs!

So our Fall Colours Studio Tour takes place Saturday to Monday from 10 – 5 and do I dare say it is THE BEST TOUR (or does that sound somewhat biased) and I am so lucky to have 7 wonderfully talented artists here for the weekend. Once everyone is set up I will post pix to tempt you!