Recent projects and Korean dumpster diving with friends

My mother in law is visiting and I haven't had much time to devote to personal sewing. I did want to share a small table runner that a friend pieced and I recently finished quilting. When it is completely done it will be donated to a fund raising event on base. I'm still an amateur at the quilting process but I did see improvement from sewing the first star to the last.

The other project is a mitten that I have been working on and off on for months and struggling to finish. I'm torn between just letting it become some sort of art piece and working on its mate so I have a full pair. The yarn is a cashmere and wool blend, very soft and densely knit. This was also my first pair of adult mittens. I wanted a challenge and I got one. It wasn't very difficult to knit, just tedious.

I am so glad most my friends are free spirits at heart like me. After knitting group last week my friend C and her husband were giving me a ride home. We barely pulled out of the alley when I spotted a stack of mannequins lying in the middle of the road. I questioned aloud whether they were for trash pick up and C responded they probably were, proceeded by "did you want one?". Without hesitation we stopped the car and I rushed to the stack and grabbed not one but TWO mannequins- a male and a female. Arms were falling off as we shoved and pushed them into their small Hyundai. 

When we got back into our driveway I decided to stick them in the back of J's pick up truck for him to haul upstairs before he headed to work in the morning.

Gunther and Frida

In their former life they were models for Puma in an athletic wear store. Now they guard our apartment hallway Home Alone-style. 

J asked if I expect to ship them back to the US with the rest of our stuff in a couple of months. Truthfully, if I can't find a good sewing related use for them I will re-chuck them. But for now I consider them a part of the family.