A different fiber art

I had the great fun to join a couple of friends from my old workplace at the Sisters' Quilt Show today. They had been in previous years (they are quilters), but I had never gone. It was a good opportunity to catch up and see some beautiful work..

The first things that caught my eye, though were not quilts, but wood carvings. Absolutely stunning work:

 The different colors are primarily in the wood itself (except for the manes and tails, which were stained).

And then there were the quilts - I don't know how many there were, but they were everywhere. Hanging from buildings, many hundreds, I'm sure! Here's a sampling (with some detail shots):

I really love the starry night one - I'm contemplating (urged on by one of the friends I was with) doing a dye series based on fine art paintings. I currently have one color-way that is very popular (Water Lillies) that is based on the Monet painting. I need to search out some others.

Just before I left to hike back to my car (the traffic was really nuts, so I just parked about 1/2 mile from town and walked in), with the thunderheads building, we saw this lovely:

 Now there's a color-way! The lighter areas in the wings are actually a lovely butter yellow - the compliment of the flowers. I'll have to work on this one!

I have been knitting, and completed a shawlette by Romi Hill, her Maia from the Pleides e-book. I used some 2-ply merino superwash fingering weight yarn that I dyed. This shawl calls for knitting in beads. I didn't put them all in, and had a heck of a time finding the "right" ones, but the turquoise crystal beads that I used work very well, I think. They also give a really nice weight to the edge of the shawl. It was very easy to block - I just patted it out on a couple of towels - no pinning needed!!

I think I'm hooked on these little shawls (I'm working on another) - they're perfect for the ADD person that I am - highly visible progress and very fun to knit!

Unfortunately, the progress at the loom has stalled, but I'm working on getting unstuck...