Home Again and all is well!

It's good to be home again. The sheep are all doing well, the goslings are starting to honk like grown up geese, and the garden is growing well with all the rain that has come through lately. I'm so glad to have my husband take care of the animals so I can get away sometimes. The one thing he doesn't do is water plants - oh well, my peace lily has come back to life with a good drink.

I had a great time at the Midwest Felting Symposium, it was absolutely perfect. Thanks to grant funding, I was able to take five full days of classes this year. *

I was happy with the projects I made, but I still have lots of work to get some of them finished. Every night when I got back to the hotel, I would put them on the couch and photograph them. here is a shot from my last night at the hotel..Day one was a dyed, felted, stitched, and over-dyed shibori scarf...Day two was several felted paper transfer resist dyed samplers...Day three was a wool painting...wet and needle felted.Day four was a needle felted German Shepherd...it was a small class, so we had a whole day of SINCO's undivided attention.
This was the only day we didn't have to do the strenuous process of felting and fulling the wool. But it was still a lot of work getting our dogs looking somewhat like real German Shepherds. I still need to finish the paws on mine.
Day five was a felted embroidered bracelet which didn't get embroidered before it was time to go. There will be time for that later.
I had a very nice hotel room, complete with a sink, fridge and microwave. I was even able to connect my old laptop to the internet.
Thankfully, I met Tricia and Skeeter at the hotel during breakfast the first morning. Since I had gone all alone, I was glad to see them and other felters at the same hotel. Tricia and Skeeter were so nice to let me tag along to dinner with them too. Here we are in the felted jewelry class with instructor, Annemie Koenen, on the right. Annemie was such a patient and fun teacher. Everyone was so friendly and willing to share their knowledge of felting. I wish I could have cloned myself and taken more classes! Susan McFarland did a great job of organizing. The food was really good and the whole event was so much fun. I'll have to save my pennies to go again next year!

*This activity was funded by a grant from The McKnight Foundation through the East Central Arts Council/East Central Regional Development Commission.