Asheville Winter Retreat

Beautiful blue aquatic colors
Colors of Monet...
This young lady was a true artiste!
Laying out the green
Like a fresh summer garden
Check out their gorgeous flowers!
Tiffany was a joy to have in class!
Melissa pleased with the results, rightly so!
Sam admiring his perfect geode!
Melissa's beautiful wool geode slices
Melissa wearing her awesome Needle-felt Cloak
Wow, I can hardly believe it's been 2 months since our fun Winter Retreat at Biltmore Square Mall in Asheville hosted by the Friends and Fiberworks yarn 'n fiber shop there, seems like just last week I was up there with all my fiber-holic buddies! I guess I better get some photos posted before Summer Retreat sneaks up on me, lol! We had such a great time as always, I feel like I'm getting to know my local felters and it's always fun sharing what we've been doing since we last got together. This time we had some new classes; the first day I taught a Spiral Leaf Bracelet, as always, my students had their own unique ideas on how to personalize their designs; one clever lady was going to use hers to enhance her nuno-felted scarf, and with another student we were actually able to divide her bracelet into 2 sections so she could share one with her sister! We were so busy I didn't get to make pictures from this class, bummer.

Our Nuno-felted Scarf class turned out some gorgeous artsy scarves as always! I brought a variety of photos for inspiration for the girls, and they just took off after that. Each scarf turned out totally different, even with the different colorways, their own take on design was very unique as well. I know they'll enjoy wearing their silk 'n wool scarves for years to come!

I was so blessed to have a great roommate for the retreat, Kathleen Taylor, author of several books on knitting, felting and also mystery novels. She and I had a bit of free time on Saturday, so we zipped over to Biltmore Village for a bite of lunch and bit of shopping. Of course I had to browse Bellagio, a most awesome boutique of wearable art, and the home dec shop next door. We dined at a little restaurant nearby, and the food was to die for: a yummy panini, a little green salad, home-fried sweet potatoes with homemade tomato preserves that were just out of this world! Then of course we had to stick our head in the yarn shop there, I found some pretty fibers I "had to have" and a cute Asian coin purse for my daughter's impending birthday. Scooted back to the mall in time to set up and teach our late afternoon classes, I had the best gals for my Wet-felted Flower class! We had a great time chatting and the girls made beautiful flowers, here they are in all their glory. Next day I only had one class, the wool geode, and we had a great time there too. Sam and Melissa are both natural felters and made perfect geodes, here they are "before", and Melissa's "after", isn't it beautiful? And Melissa was sweet enough to wear her Needle-felted Cloak to show me that she'd made in our Summer Retreat class, didn't she do an amazing job! I love seeing the awesome creations my students make, sure makes me proud of them.