The Tour Continues....

After the first full week of the Tour de Fleece (TdF), my second “bump” of Full Circle Roving is finished. 

This was my exhausted wheel, Stanzi, a Kromski Sonata, who was ready to ply after a night’s rest. Here’s a look at my progress. (Notice she has her back to the TV. Guess she can't bear to watch the Tour de France!) First the finished “singles” on two bobbins:

Then the plied yarn, ready to put aside for the blanket I plan to weave.

Quilters, don’t despair. I managed to find some time to work on the second appliqué panel for my Delectable Pathways Quilt. I think I’m officially halfway done with the appliqué panels.

The colors aren't entirely accurate. The flower that appears to be navy blue is really more like a royal blue. (The blue part is right, at least.)

The quilt was designed by Mary Sorensen, and I’ve been watching her DVD, “Learn to Love Needleturn.” It’s not only a good review of the class I took with her at the Utah Quilt Guild’s “Quilt Fest” several years ago, but I’m learning some things I’m pretty sure weren’t covered in the class, but perhaps were covered in the more advanced class, which I was unable to get into.

Common Threads celebrated July 4th with an informal meeting at my house. Joanie and Kathleen came, and Georgette brought her sister by to say hello. Joanie is working on the second bear for the Mother Bear Project. People make knitted bears for the organization. The bears are sent to comfort children who are affected by HIV/AIDS in emerging nations. So far, 89,300 bears have been donated, according to the website. The bear’s an easy pattern, if you have some knitting skills, and can be knitted with yarn scraps. I plan on making one or two bears, and maybe some others will join Joanie and me.

I finished Pillow covers #1 and #2 of the class project for my “Floor Loom Weaving” class from Craftsy.

I’m finding the Craftsy classes a good value, especially for someone who lives a long way away from stores that offer classes. Currently I’m hard at work on Pillow #3 for the class project. I’m on the basket weave part, which starts the pillow cover. Then I can choose for myself which patterns to use, how big to make the stripes and what colors I’ll use.

In adorable grandchild news, Soren turned one year old on Friday, and we had a Skype session. He's holding back on teeth and walking, but he's making up for it with being very socially advanced and swimming like a fish!

Not enough cuteness? Here’s a recent photo of cute Daphne:

In other family news, DS2 is working on a new film for Laika. Here’s the trailer for the film, “The Boxtrolls,” coming out October of next year (2014). DS2 is a technical director for Laika, but he's better known as Soren's Daddy.

What's on my needles: The Lantana socks, The pants to Daphne’s Bunny Suit half finished. (Picture next week, I hope.)

What's on my loom: Craftsy Class Project, pillow #3, working on the basket weave.

What's on my Featherweight: Piecing the strips to go with the hand appliqué. (Working on second appliqué panel.)

What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving “Caramel.”

What's on my iPhone: Finished Cotillion by Georgette Heyer and Magic’s Pawn by Mercedes Lackey from Audible, both very good. Then listened to And Then You Dye by  Monica Ferris. Now listening to another Heyer novel, The Reluctant Widow. (Love the humor in her books! Lots of audiobook listening while spinning this past week.)

What's my app of the week: Snapseed app for iPhone. Good for processing photos right on the iPhone.

What's in my wine glass: Fisheye Chardonnay, 2012, the big bottle. Good, as always, although Chardonnay isn’t one of my favorites; this one is pretty good. 

Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the MacBook, using the iPad or iPhone for photo processing. Some photos taken with iPhone. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.