Studio located in Cleveland, NC. 704-528-4648 Judy@goneawaystudiodesigns.com Hours are by appointment only.

Category: dogs

November already?

Judy2 Comments on November already?

Again I find myself thinking……where has the time gone?  It seems like you miss a day here or there and the next thing you know it’s months later.  But that’s a good thing in some ways, a sign of a full life possibly?  Okay, that’s what I’m telling myself as I realize how long it’s been since I’ve updated here.

 

So many things have happened since my last post, mostly all good, We finished that bathroom remodel that took forever, and then I started playing catch up, then summer came and I spent as much time as possible in the sunshine.  It’s now fall and after a crazy October, life is settling in.  But instead of trying to catch up on the last several months, I’m just going to forge ahead with what’s going on now.  (You can catch up by following me on Instagram @jwsodypop if you’re curious).

Currently I’m bouncing back and forth between the office, customer quilting, making quilts for the family, and learning to weave.  I say learning to weave because I don’t believe I’ll ever have fully learned everything that can be taught about weaving, it’s a journey, just like quilting.

No pictures to show of customer quilts at this time, I have several in the lineup for overall quilting this month, but do have spaces open for quilts to be done before Christmas if you’re interested.

The weaving I can show, right now I have two projects going.  I’ve got a sampler in progress on the Leclerc Medico, a small 22″ wide 4 shaft table loom.  I’m using a cotton warp and a laceweight Alpaca variegated yarn for the weft.  This is to hang in the weaving room as a reference for what different patterns look like woven and whether or not I need to do a floating selvedge with a particular pattern (some need it, some don’t).

Sampler in cotton and alpaca

 

And I’ve finished some trial kitchen towels using Peaches and Cream as my warp.  It makes a nice soft, fluffy, absorbent towel, but does need care in handling on the loom as it tends to stretch. This is my favorite one now that it’s off the loom.

 

On the Leclerc Artistat floor loom, I’ve started a shawl.  I’m using a silk/merino blend for the warp, with a tencel floating selvedge.  So far I’ve used two different merino yarns in the weft, with a tabby tencel spacer between them.  I know, foreign language to some of  you, but the weavers out there will understand.  I’m working this at 28″ wide for an end width after wet finishing of 25″ (hopefully).

 

In the studio, I’ve been trying to sew, but I have three distractions  now:

Oscar (on the right) and Sasha (on the left) came to live with us and Casey (center) a couple months ago as kittens from the shelter.  You can imagine what type of kitten-proofing needed to be done, and is currently still being upgraded, as these little ones have grown and gained skills!  They keep me laughing and have integrated well into the family.  Last week the final hold-out on getting along, Ciarra and Sasha, came to terms with each other.  We now have a modicum of peace in this house.

And in spite of that, I’m making progress on my daughter’s quilt.  It’s been slow progress on this one, and has stalled progress on the other family quilts, but that’s another story for another day.  Not a bad story, just a challenging one, all my fault!  But finally the rows are going together and I’m back on track (I hope!).

The chickens are once again molting, the angora rabbits are enjoying the cooler temperatures we’ve had lately, and the dogs are settling down as they get older. So that’s an update for the beginning of November and I hope not to wait too long before I have another update to give.  Oh and this long time “right hand thrower” has learned continental knitting….. a game changer for me…… I guess I do have another update for another day!

You could hear a pin drop…….

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That was the state of the house and studio today.  You could have, at any moment in time, heard a pin drop on the wooden floors.

No, it wasn’t an emotional tension in the house issue, as we so often imply with that statement, it was reality. 

Twenty years ago when we moved into this house, we had animals.  At the time we had Siamese cats, and one dog.  And although they didn’t usually make a lot of noise, they were still there, in the background, padding from room to room, talking to and at each other (and at the dog) and making noise.

Over the years, we’ve had dogs in the house, sometimes as many as 5 dogs at once, so there was always the patter of dog paws, or the barks of play, or the grumbles of irritation when one was napping and another wanted to play.

But now, we’re down to just the two little ones, Ciarra and Nissa.  And usually this house is even noisier with just those two than it was when we had five dogs here!  They generate quite a bit of noise in their playtime.

Today they had their “spa” day at the groomer, and for the first time in 20 years I spent the day here working entirely alone, no dogs, no cats, DH gone to work.  And boy was it unnerving!  You could have, at any point in time, heard a pin drop on the floor.

So while talking with DH, I reminded him of the conversations we have had about how maybe one day we’ll be without any pets and the house will be quiet.  This conversation usually takes place as we’re trying to talk and the pups are playing loudly in a mock fight with each other.  And then I might have proceeded to inform him that such a day will never come!  I don’t like this much quiet!  LOL  I guess over the years I’ve gotten used to pets underfoot and making noise.  And while it was nice to get all the floors cleaned today without instantly having paw prints all over them, I think from here on out the girls will go to the groomer on separate days.  That way I get one of them home with me regardless of whether DH is home that day or not, and that particular dog gets an all attention on it day too.  Sounds like a bonus to both of us.

Thankfully the house won’t remain quiet for much longer.  By the time you read this, the  pups will be home from the groomers (and you know they are going to look SO CUTE for about 5 minutes before they get messy outside), and DH is on his way home for supper and in for the weekend, so the “quiet” of the house won’t remain for very long.

A New App and Renewed Intentions

Judy3 Comments on A New App and Renewed Intentions

Blogging has taken a backseat to living life over the last couple months. It wasn’t intentional, it just happenned. Slowly over time, one procrastination at a time, blogging slipped to the back of my plans. And then a few things happenned. DH gifted me with an iPad for the holidays. Syncing it to my phone installed the long forgotten because it didn’t work well on the phone iPad app. And I received a comment on my last post, which was apparently back in October, that made me actually look at the blog.

As there is no way to catch you up on everything that has happened I’m going to try to summarize.

Quilting. Most of the last quarter of 2013 was spent on customer quilts that were gifts, hence, no photo’s at the time.

Dogs. We lost two in the last quarter and now have only the two young ones. But they are a handful in themselves.

Rabbits. I now have 10 angora’s and am still running 2 meat rabbit lines. I am thinking of removing the meat rabbit lines as we don’t eat much meat here and I’m stocked for several months.

Chickens. All are healthy, although egg production has been extremely poor over the winter, as to be expected. I did add a rooster to the flock, a RIR (Rhode Island Red) and he’s a beauty. Funny how the male in nature almost always carries the more attractive markings, and yet as a society we put so much pressure on females to adhere to unrealistic cosmetic beauty standards. But that’s another discussion for another day.

Knitting. I spent lots of time during my winter break knitting and it was so relaxing! I even finished a sweater I had started almost a year ago! And it fits!

Spinning. Well it was non-existent while the tree was up over the holidays. The tree goes in the same corner, so the wheel went into storage for almost a month, and while it’s out, I’ve yet to return to it regularly.

That’s the update. Now I need to figure out how to add pictures to this post and then, possibly, the blogging may be a bit easier to schedule.

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