I never introduced you!

to the new creature in the shop....

Isn't she fantastical?

The Halls are Decked

Lindsay and I decorated the house today!  Tree from the Plumas National Forest - thank you family for cutting it for us!  Hand spun trim w/tinsel.  Made a garland: Juniper, Redwood, Toyon & Magnolia.  Handmade stockings.  Handmade village church from mom.  Banner from Moda Home and a Dala Horse.  It's going to be a good Christmas this year.  Now the four of us are basking in the glow of the Christmas tree drinking hot apple cider.  Joy.

Spinning out of Control

Hello T3 readers! It's Hannah writing to you today. I've missed you all so! I'll be returning to the Thimble here in a few short weeks for winter vacation and am quite excited to see you all. Come on in and say hi to me!
(Most of) the family and I spent our Thanksgiving at our Cabin in Downieville. It's so quiet and cold and peaceful, and it's a wonderful place to take some time and learn something new. Mom and Lisa brought the spinning wheel for me and taught me how to spin! I'm so excited! Most of you know that I love to sew, and I've been experimenting with some paper crafts and a little embroidery lately, but I felt like it was time to branch out and learn something new. And now, I'm hooked on spinning.

Attempt #1. White Corriedale plied with brown Corriedale...I think (remember, I'm new to this).

Bobbins, Blue Face Leichester, and I spun that blue/purple/green yarn as well!

An action shot!! Remember, the Thimble teaches spinning lessons occasionally. Visit the lessons page to see scheduled dates, or give us a call!

Goals

Over our Thanksgiving holiday I have two work related goals.  To repurpose our ever expanding collection of vintage linens into Christmas stockings, tree skirts, totes, etc and to sew myself some new clothing which will also be test sewing for our upcoming beginning garment construction classes.  Here is the start of the linen extravaganza:

I am extremely pleased with that first stocking.  What do you think?

Delivery!

We are very excited to now have Lotta Jansdotter's new fabric collection - Echo!!

A Renewal of Vows

Mom and Dad renewed their vows up on a lookout point backed by the Sierra Buttes this past Saturday.  It was a snowy, rocky adventure getting to and from the point but the point itself was absolutely gorgeous and there couldn't be a more perfect place to celebrate their life together.  I don't yet have the photos from the photographer but I thought I would share a few of the photos that I took.

In classic Mansfield-Family tradition mom's dress is handmade only mom took it a step further and even made the fabric!  It's almost entirely nuno felted with silk/cotton voile and white merino wool.  Family heirloom laces and trims were felted right in.

Jill made mom's jewelry, Lisa kept us all very well fed and Ben played the guitar and Daniel, in the High Hand Flower Market, did the flowers. It was a lovely day with lovely people - I can't wait to share the professional photos with you!

Yay for walls!

Dad and his crew came in last week and whipped out some more walls for our little shop.  They will hopefully help in keeping the heat in the shop this winter plus they gave us SO much more room to hang our fiber art pieces.  A BIG thank you to Scott of High Hand for doing this for us.  We're one step closer to having a ceiling and being climate controlled - woo hoo!  :-)

Introducing Marilou Moschetti

We are thrilled to announce that Marilou Moschetti will be joining us at the Thimble to teach a 3-day workshop November 4-6.  She will be teaching a technique that we have never had taught at the Thimble - Nuno Felting with Prefelted Batts!  Her work is gorgeous and we can't wait to soak up some of her 16 years of experience with felting and training from some of the innovators of Nuno Felting!

Class Details:

Nuno Felting a Vest or Fabric with Marilou Moschetti - Friday, November 4 6:30pm-9:00pm, Saturday & Sunday, November 5 & 6 9:00-5:00.

A materials list will be available upon registration.

Pre-requisite: 8-10 hours nuno felting experience.

Instructor: Marilou Moschetti

Class Fee: $250

Embedding Stones

Last Tuesday was our Technique class for embedding stone during wet felting.  One of my students makes glass beads and she brought her "seconds" (I thought they we GORGEOUS!) and she imbedded those instead of the boring half-marble-fish-tank-marbles we were using.

Another student embedded these - don't they look like a kind of under-the-sea fried egg?  I LOVE them!

And these are the two that I played with during class.  

So much fun!  Hope you can join us for the next Technique Tuesday class!  We will be working with Silk Hankies this coming Tuesday.