Finally........

 I finally finished the gingko wall quilt.  It's fairly large - approx. 32" x 52" but once up on the wall it's looking small for that big wall....and only a portion of the wall is visible in this picture. I need to re-hang art on the left side so there's not quite as much blank space. Maybe eventually get some other small art to add. The quilt matches perfectly with the linen charcoal gray sectional.

 I agonized over making this quilt. I'm not an art quilter. I'm not even a quilter. I piece quilt tops and have someone with a long arm machine quilt them. And I had no pattern to work from - I got inspiration from all things gingko on the internet.

Rather than put a binding on the quilt I faced it. For hanging I got help from a neighbor who is an experienced quilter. She suggested putting fabric triangle pieces on the back in the corners and a sleeve in-between and use a metal slat (not sure what it's called) to slide in those sleeves & corners. Sam drilled a hole with a slot toward each edge to slide over screws in the wall. It worked perfectly.


 I used gingko stencils as my guide for the golden leaves. I drew them on paper, scanned them and then resized them on the computer to make patterns. It's hard to tell but the gold fabric is a batik printed with gingko leaves - that was from my stash, the background fabrics mostly bought from Jordan Fabrics but a few picked up elsewhere. If you don't know of Jordan Fabrics it's a great online and brick & mortar store. So many online tutorials and free patterns too. What a treasure to have just a few miles from home.

I free motion stitched the gingko leaves using variegated thread. Then using a gray thread I quilted gingkos in the background and in some places echo stitched. On a small sample this was easy - not so easy on my actual quilt as it was a lot to work with at my machine, a lot to be able to move around under the needle. So, my stitching is pretty wonky, I was distressed seeing the quality of my stitching but once up on the wall it looks fine.

Will I do free motion stitching again?  Yes, but only on small items - maybe small art quilts, placemats, table runners - anything larger is too much for me with my machine.

Now that I've finished this project which has held me up in my creative life I'll move back to the looms and some other quilt/sewing projects.

(afterthought - noticed in the picture that the quilt looks like it's hung crooked - Sam used a level......I might have to double check it for level, if it's right then it's the couch or the floor that's off!!!)

Fretting over nothing???

I feel like I've been at a standstill trying to design a quilted wall hanging for over the couch. We have a big blank space that needs something. In our last house the couches were not up against walls and the major walls were all glass windows in the living area so nothing huge needed.


Today I decided I must start designing. I had looked at many gingko quilts online as inspiration.......I would have been really thrilled to have found a perfect pattern I could buy but nothing out there.

 

So, I bought the fabrics - all the blacks, grays with bits of light teal and gold. I just bought on speculation not knowing what I was going to actually end up using. I made color copies of the fabrics to work from and started cutting them up into 2 1/2" squares. I then arranged them on quadrille paper I had already marked out to represent 50" x 60". I tacked the photocopies down with a bit of glue stick.

My original thought was to use black for the gingkos which would then be embellished later with gold thread......but they were totally lost. I went to my stash of gingko fabrics, way too big stash, and found this gold so I photo copied it and cut out gingko leaves. This is now starting to look somewhat ok to me. Of course it will look totally different in real life as the 2 1/2" squares will actually be 10" squares so more of each fabric pattern will be showing. I won't know if I'll like that until I actually cut and lay them out.

Picture this over a charcoal gray sectional. The accent pillows that come with the couch have gold in them plus I've bought fabric to make more pillows that are in grays with golds, rusts and light teal. Hopefully the couch will be here in the not too distant future. We ordered it back in January but a month into waiting we were told the fabric had been backordered by the furniture manufacturer. It supposedly will be in sometime next month, we'll have the sectional in May......I hope the furniture store is correct about this.  It took us forever to pick out the fabric so we're willing to wait for it.

Should I just go for it???  The quilting I've done in the past has always been from patterns/instructions so I'm fretting over this. What's the worst that could happen??? I lose some hours and material - it's not the end of the world.  But I'll think on this for a bit and move on to something else. I want to weave another warp of rag table runners but these for our house - grey print fabric already bought, cones of yarn sitting on top of it to think about what I'll use for warp.  So, on to designing that - designing weaving comes much more naturally to me. And back to listening to the next in the Outlander series audio books - A Breath of Snow and Ashes - this one is 48 discs, I'm ready to start disc #3.

Ginkgo Shawl - Take 2

Take 2 on the ginkgo shawl - it dried in short order from the dry heat after blocking it this morning.  I like it enough to knit myself another one out of handspun.......after I spin the yarn. This one is really autumnal, another not so seasonal will be great. And I may put 3 ginkgo leaves in the border on it.  I'll definitely need to use a shawl pin with this in order to hold it so the ginkgo leaf will show.........I've even got a ginkgo pin I could use.........

Ginkgo Shawl

I wanted to finish the ginkgo shawl last night but just couldn't knit the last 2 rows and bind off - too tuckered out. So, this morning I did something so unlike me - I knit, usually knitting is reserved for evenings and knitting/spinning get-together's. I had a goal to get it blocked today as the temp would be 90 and very dry - the shawl will be dry in a matter of hours. I could have waited 'til the weekend when it's supposed to be 100 but then I won't want to be outside putting those blocking wires and pins in. I hope I love this shawl after it's blocked, I like it now but I want to love it. The ginkgo leaf is in the foreground, I guess I expected it to show up a bit more. I was picking autumn colors but I do wish I had picked colors closer in value. If I love this once finished I have plans to spin yarn to make another using plum and chartreuse.....unless I change my mind......which may very well happen......

This pattern is the Ginkgo Shawl by Connie Peng from yellowcosmo designs. It can be found on Ravelry and bought there.......I noticed it was $4 as opposed to the $6 I paid locally.....will remember to check on Ravelry first in the future. It was fun to look at others who have knit it and the color combinations they picked out. Some added more ginkgo leaves, which I loved. Some knit the leaf in a totally different color, loved that effect too. Ideas for the next one I knit...........

Ginkgo Shawlette

The other day I finished knitting the gold/brown shawlette so last night I started on this Ginkgo Shawl, pattern by Connie Peng, yellowcosmo designs. I'm using Madelinetosh yarn. It seems to be a very easy pattern, hopefully I'll still think that when I get to the border/ginkgo leaf. I'd love to knit this pattern again using some handspun - I have two colors in mind, a dusty plum and dijon.  I'm out of the Ashland Bay Plum in my shop right now so will have to wait to start on it after I get my next order placed. I'll have to check my stock to see if I've got any Dijon in stock right now.....if so, I can start spinning that..........

ACK!!!

ACK!!! Re-entry sucks. We spent the last week on the coast getting back late yesterday afternoon - on the drive home I was already getting stressed over my upcoming week and how much I have on my to-do list. If we lived over there full time would the craziness and stress migrate over there?  Or would it stay relaxing and idyllic?  To make matters worse I opened the big freezer this morning to get something out only to find the door not tight and the entire inside full of frost.......ack, I didn't shut the door completely before we left for the week. With all the frost I couldn't get the door closed back up so I chipped off all the frost from the edges of the shelves and quickly closed the door to deal with it another day. We did need to defrost it but I was hoping to eat everything out of it first, not have to take it all to the landfill..........


Anyhow, we had a great week getting lots done on the cottage (well, Sam got lots of remodel work done on the cottage), many walks on the beach, some reading, knitting, weaving and twisting of fringe of scarves and shawls. The weather was perfect - sunny and just warm enough to have windows and doors open.
 

I have some newly woven scarves up for sale in my etsy shop - another few of my original ginkgo draft. They all have a ginkgo charm on one end.

Here's the process of twisting the fringe, adding little silver glass beads along the way. I've shown my handy dandy hair twister in the past - makes such fast work of twisting fringes.

Here's that scarf finished. I can't begin to describe the sheen in these tencel scarves.

Here's another scarf - twisting fringe underway.

And here it is finished.

Rather than weave another ginkgo scarf on that warp I wove my vines & leaves draft, this one has tiny little gold beads in the fringe.

And here's one of the silver rayon slub shawls - it feels like 'butta'.  This would make for a great wedding shawl with a white gown with lots of bling.........it would make for a great shawl for any time, summer or winter.  I have another one that I used white for the weft but I haven't finished twisting the fringe on that one.

I spent time weaving while over on the coast too - this batch of towels came off the loom and were washed - they're now awaiting pinning and hemming.  I'm doing great with weaving up all my cottolin stash.

I also wove this warp while over there of checked twill towels in brown, some in red and some in a charcoal gray/green. These are now in the queue to be hemmed......it's a big pile now.......

I started another shawlette using some of my handspun - this is merino and soy silk.

Bailey wanted his pic up today to show what a great time he had on the coast last week - today he's totally exhausted sleeping the day away.........all that running and playing on the beach wore him out.

 

Outlander

Ok, I'm hooked - I've been binge watching the first season of Outlander. It's right down my alley, historically themed books/series/movies. I only have 3 episodes left - ack!  The new season will be out soon but I don't have Starz so I'll have to wait until it's out on DVD.  I've been ignoring the books so far but think I'll have to make a long term commitment to read all 8 of them as soon after I read the next books up in my Library2Go queue (digital library books).


So, while I've been binge watching Outlander I've been spending time in the studio. I twisted the fringe on 3 scarves, they're now waiting to be photographed. I also got both the Macomber and AVL warped up..........and then there was some down time when I was so mesmerized by Outlander that I just had to stop and watch it..........

I put on a rayon flake shawl warp on the Macomber. Here's the beginning of the warp where I'm testing out using white rayon flake as weft and the same silver rayon flake for weft that I used for warp. I'll weave a shawl of each as I like them both very much. This is an 8 harness twill design.

Here's the all silver grey shawl being woven.

On the AVL a warp went on for 4 gingko scarves as I'm sold out of them. These will be lighter colors to go with the season. I was trying out weft colors here and will go with the taupe, silver grey and mint green for 3 of the scarves. I'm thinking I'll switch and weave the final scarf in taupe using my vines and leaves draft.

Here's what the back of the loom looks like with 40 harnesses threaded. It is a stretch to reach those back 8 harnesses when threading the heddles. Thank goodness there's an option to use the weaving program to raise the harnesses tromp as writ for easy threading. I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be trying to pick the next heddle up in the pattern without that. Theoretically I will have no threading errors this way but that's only if the computer program has no hiccups.

Playing..........

Today I did a little playing that is part of the surface design program I'm presenting in November. Always a fun activity.

I took a black silk scarf (pre-washed) and put painter's tape on it in a grid and then pulled out the Shiva Paintstiks and stencil brushes.

Here are the ends of the scarf once finished - color looks different on them but it's really not, just a camera/lighting snafu.

Here's a piece of wool felt I stenciled gingko leaves on using the Shiva Paintstiks. I'm thinking I'll put this wool under the embroidery machine and stitch very simple line drawn gingko leaves all over it - maybe in metallic thread. This will eventually become part of a tote bag.......I think.......plans may change...........

I had another black silk scarf that I had washed.......gingko leaves landed on it too, this time a different stencil.......

I used Jacquard Lumiere Textile paints and these two foam stamps when embellishing cardstock. This will get further embellishment with Shiva Paintstiks and possibly foiling. These are a test run to see how they'd do cut into strips to be bookmarks. I always like to have something for everyone to go with the presentation handout so am thinking of bookmarks. It has to be something simple and relatively quick to make. Will get back to these sometime next week.......

Ginkgo

Yesterday I did muster up enough energy to twist the fringe on the ginkgo scarves and do the photography work.......then I ran out of steam and finished up the photo editing this morning. These scarves are now listed for sale in my etsy shop.........well, the purple one isn't yet as someone asked me for a purple one, if she doesn't end up buying it, it will show up in the etsy shop.

When I look at this photo my mind immediately dreams of autumn - it can't come too soon this year. Beside being ready for the end of fire season autumn is my favorite time of the year. I can feel it coming - the temp this morning was 48, crisp, cool and lovely.......if you ignore the smoke.

Whatever this 'county fair bug' is - it's gotten us all down. I'm feeling much better, not much coughing now, just no energy. I have too much to get done to be down - this is getting old.

Slow day......

I knew it would be a slow day with the county fair respiratory bug but I didn't think I'd end up prone on the couch again which is what happened mid-afternoon.....and the coughing started up again, ribs aching.......but I'm still better than yesterday.  Late this afternoon I washed the 4 gingko scarves and put them out over the deck railing to dry - with our dry hot weather that took all of 30 minutes. Maybe tomorrow I'll work on twisting fringe - that won't take much energy.....if I'm short on it again tomorrow. Need to get over this bug, have to much on my to-do list to be down........

Final gingko scarf

I finished up the final gingko scarf this morning, this time the weft was sage green. I have extra warp on the loom to still weave off - will be using a charcoal grey with hopes of including that woven piece in a purse. Temps today are to be over 100 - it was already getting too warm in the studio so I'm done weaving for the day.

Whoever designed this AVL V Series loom must be left handed - that little screwed on block of wood that will hold a couple pencils and scissors is on the left hand side of the castle - very awkward for a right handed person. I could move it to the right side but hate to leave holes in the wood.  Might have to check to see how much another simple little block of wood with a couple holes and slot in it costs so I can install a second one.....or I could work on being ambidextrous.....nah......too much work, easier to buy another one.

 

Taking a chance

I'm taking a chance here weaving purple gingkos - I really like it, very subtle. I was contacted by a prospective customer about purple when I mentioned I had a black warp on the loom and what colors I was considering for wefts. I don't know as if she'll be interested in buying once I've got it ready to sell but I'm taking a gamble that if she doesn't someone else will. One more scarf to go on the warp - maybe tomorrow.

I'm slowing down my weaving a bit to do other things and I'm enjoying it. I'm still really driven to produce so it's a challenge but I'm working on it.....trying to keep that nagging voice in the back of my head telling me I have to be productive all the time at bay. I'm also considering a big change in the selling of roving to free up even more time for creative ventures - sometime in the new year I may put that part of the business on sabbatical for a few months to see how it goes.........still in the thinking stages on this as it's a good portion of my income. I've had some ideas of drafts I want to create for the AVL for around 4 years but just run out of time to sit and design them - hoping to free up more time for that along with other fun creative tasks.

So, now instead of weaving on that last scarf I'll go paint my toe nails a bright hot pink.

Red Gingkos

In-between mundane chores I did get another gingko scarf woven today - this one in red

 

 

My favorite leaf.....

I put a black warp on the AVL last month with plans of weaving more gingko leaf scarves. Today I finally got them started. I auditioned many weft colors, a small glimpse of that is on the bottom in this picture. First scarf up is a coppery brown weft. I think another scarf will be red, a sage one and possibly a purple one. Someone visiting my etsy shop asked about purple so I might give it a try and hope that someone buys it if she doesn't. It will be very subtle. I'm loving the coppery brown one above. Not sure when I'll get back to this warp - have another warp to wind and get on the Macomber and also have many warps to wind for future dyeing/painting.

Gingkos

 At conference last weekend friend Loyce was teaching a class in discharge dyeing. She surprised me with these samples she made in the class featuring gingko leaves - my favorite leaf. Aren't they fun?  I'm not sure what I'll end up using these fabric pieces for but I do know I'll be embellishing them with gingko embroidery and gingko stamping......maybe some fun little change purses.....who knows.....will ponder on them for a while.

Loyce also walked into our spinning circle one evening with two branches of gingkos she ripped gently removed from trees on the Willamette Campus. When I got home Sunday I removed all the leaves from the branches and they're drying in-between the pages in two phone books - thank goodness we still have phone books in this day of everything going electronic.

Life has been more than busy since I got back home Sunday - have been running around and not getting a single thing done at home. Today I'm hoping to get a warp on the loom..........after I move all the piles of 'stuff' between me and the loom.....we'll see if I actually make it there.........