Post holiday

First off, sorry a couple pix are sideways - makes no sense, can't seem to correct it when it loads to blogger. Take the pic with phone held the same way but some come out different and no amount of editing on the computer reflects once they upload to blogger. 

I'm sorry I neglected to take photos of many of the gifts I made this year but that's life.  So below is one of them and a few other pix. 

I decided to make an inkling this year since I had an idea. This is #27 in the series started back in the 90's. Some years I have ideas, some years I don't, some years I've made a set that go together, some years just one.....or none.  This year's inkling is a Yellowstone Ranch cowboy (Yellowstone series starring Kevin Costner) The body is inkle woven and stuffed. What looks like feet is really a horse shoe he's sitting on top of. Part of the fun making these is searching for 'accessories' from all different sources.  I already have an idea for next year.....if I can pull it off. 

Yesterday I knit another hat on the Addi machine out of Cascade 220 worsted wool.  It's reversible. Here is one side of it........

...here's the other side. I thought I'd be doing good if I could knock out one a day fitting it in-between other activities - may not always happen but I'll work towards it.

And here are our holiday cards. Handwoven as they often are although I have been known to make quilted, crocheted or paper crafted cards. 

Finally, this is for Judy from Fundamentally Fiber, if you happen to read my blog. The photo of your current roving being spun on a turkish spindle is incredible - the colors are incredible and the photo is beautiful - I think you could put together a great calendar with your fiber photos. Anyhow, since you don't have comments enabled I'm writing here to say I love seeing what you're up to in your fiber life. 

 

New toy.......

Friend Yolanda 'enabled' me to buy a new toy - the Addi Express King knitting machine.   It is limited with what it can knit having only 46 stitches but it will knit tubes and although I haven't tried it yet, it will knit flat too.  I have a ton, I mean a whole lot, of worsted weight wool that I'd like to use to knit hats for charity but if I were going to handknit them I might only get a few done each year.  So, the Addi was a perfect solution - I haven't officially timed myself but I'm guess it takes between 30-45 minutes to knit a hat......will time it next hat. 

Here is it with some Red Heart pink yarn that I bought to learn on. I watched many You Tubes for instruction as learning from the minimal directions would be difficult......at least difficult for me. There are tons of You Tube videos on the Addi and many different project ideas. 

This is my first hat. It is double thick which means it could be reversible, different colors on each side. Learning the tension to put on the yarn coming through my hand takes a while - this hat is a little too tight for an adult but would fit a child just fine. I had enough of the big skein of pink yarn to make a second hat so I lessened the tension in my hand and it turned out perfect. 

Sorry, this is upside-down for what reason I don't know.  Next up I wanted to try the Cascade 220 wool yarn that I have shelves of. Sam requested a hat so I told him I wasn't in the mood to wind skeins into balls right then so I'd use some leftovers that were already wound. I was worried this would turn out too small as I needed to learn how much tension for this yarn but it's perfect. At first I was having troubled with dropped stitches and what is called tucked stitches - I learned how to fix them except a couple times the ladders on dropped or tucked stitches were crossed so I to take the hat out.  My friend told me to use a dryer sheet in my hand and let the yarn run over it, I also held my hand a little lower than the guide - perfect, no issues. I know I saw a video where it showed how to make a jogless change of color - need to go back and find that. Sam loves his new hat, being 2 layers it will be extra warm.  I made this hat a little shorter too which is perfect. The inside of the hat is a lighter green with the black. I can't wait to mix and match all the fun colors of yarn I have for some colorful hats. 

In addition to being able to knit many hats for charity I will be able to knit flat pieces. I've been wanting to knit my own flat pieces for dyeing. In the past I've bought some or had a friend make me some on her flatbed knitting machine. When I get to doing that I'll be learning how small the yarn can be on this machine. 

At the moment the two downsides to buying this new toy is that I have many, many skeins of wool to sit and wind into balls and then where do I make room to store it.......it does have a nice 'hat box' for storage but there needs to be shelf space for it. Oh, another downside - I need to not go too far the rabbit hole at the moment as I have other things to do too.............

 

Sunrise in November

Beautiful sunrise this morning..........

Playing with fiber on turkey day......

We're having a very laid back turkey day which suits me just fine. It's harder this year with no family here locally but we're doing fine. I'm playing with fiber and Sam is watching the Commanders, formerly Redskins, our team as we both grew up in DC/MD. I am making a small turkey dinner but got much of it done yesterday, will finish up in a bit and put a spatchcocked turkey breast in the oven which shouldn't take long to roast. 

 

I've got more socks on the needles - this is sock number two of this pair. Kind of weird color combinations but I like them. 

Over a week ago I wound a warp and got it wound on the back beam. Yesterday I threaded heddles, sleyed the reed and got it tied on. Today I started weaving. It's a networked twill with an advancing twill treadling. The left side looks like there's a problem in this pic but there isn't, it's just the way the light is shining in on that side.  After this warp I may go back to a quilt project just barely started way back in March. 

I hope you all are having a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

Festive table runner

 I got this warp on the loom yesterday and almost have it woven off. It's basketweave and twill in 5/2 perle cotton. It was inspired by this fun melamine platter and a matching chip/dip tray I found this summer. They along with the runner will be a fun gift for friends that moved to AZ last year. I just love how festive and cheery it is. I put on enough warp for 2 long runners, not sure if the other will be a gift or if we'll use it ourselves.  I've really been enjoying weaving in fun colors lately, it's nice not to always be thinking about what will sell best, I love weaving what tickles me these days..........

.....that blasted table runner warp.............

 Here is one of the table runners woven from that blasted summer & winter project I posted about two weeks ago. It's still not quite square but that would have taken reworking the entire project, as in changing sett and I really didn't want it wider. I'm happy with the end result even if it's not what it should have been. I guess I really should have ironed it before it's pic but at this point I'm happy to get another post on the blog. I'm going to make an effort to do it more often............

Towels..........

 Towels off the loom this morning, washed and hemmed. They're a 2 block twill weave structure. I started out with sea glass green for weft and woven 2 towels. Then I decided to weave the rest all different colors. I can mix and match them if I want to give away a set of 2. I did take photos of them all on the loom but never got around to posting them so a finished pic is what shows up here. I've noticed lately I've been drawn to using cheery bright colors - guess that's what I need in my life right now. 

I've got another gift project planned - a couple table runners to match some melamine platters.  It's hard not to put on long warps like I did when selling my weaving but I'm starting to get used to it.  The table runner project wouldn't really work for many others because of the bright colors so no use putting on a long warp. 

Tonight will be spent hand hemming a few table mats off another table runner warp.  I need to lay out one of the table runners on the table and get a pic of it to post. 

MIA.........once again.......

I'm not sure why I can't motivate myself to post to the blog. Maybe those that have followed it for years have given up on me. I just don't have anything to say, often not much to post photos of.  I could say I'm going to do better but might as well not since who knows what will happen.  But for today there is a post...............

I've been wanting to do a summer & winter runner project since seeing it in Handwoven magazine back in the S/O 2001 issue. If I do use something from Handwoven I don't often follow directions for  projects exactly - usually I use a draft in totally different fibers for a totally different project.........but this time I decided to follow them......big mistake for this particular project. 

Phew, what a fiasco.......for a bit.  First I almost had the 400+ ends threaded through the heddles when I decided something didn't look right, too many warp ends left to thread - yep, I had forgotten to do a repeat back at the beginning.  Out it came, rethreaded the next day, sleyed the reed and tied on. 

I started weaving but it wouldn't beat square (no pic), it was at least 3 times longer than it should be. There was no way to beat it square.  When starting this project I was thinking using 10/2 sett at 24 epi was a bit much, should have been 18-20 epi but I kept with the instructions. And with 10/2 I would have chosen 5/2 for the pattern weft but the instructions said 3/2. The errata I found for this project was actually in the letters to the editor where someone brought up this exact issue - answer was that yes, it could be beat square (hah!) but there were changes that could be made. The changes I made were to give up the diamond summer & winter background which takes 8 shots per square on the profile draft to a plainer background that only took 4 shots per square which meant I could alter the number of repeats.......and to use 5/2 for the pattern rather than 3/2. If I were going to weave this project again I would change the sett so I could use the diamond treadling. I've now got 3 out of 4 table runners woven - hoping to finish the last one today. 

I went to Websters with a friend on Wednesday to see the trunk show for Greenwood Fiberworks - the owner Carolyn, was on her way to OFFF (Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival) so stopped in our area on her way to share with those of us not going to OFFF this year. I helped make her trunk show a success with the purchases below..........

So once again taking photos with my phone leaves me with sideways or upside down photos that no matter how many times I edit them once I upload them to the blog they do what they want.  Here is the Greenwood Fiberworks shawl kit I bought - almost bought one in sand/sea glass colors but decided I've done too much in those colors recently so went with these yarn colors. I think I can wear the shawl with much more in these colors.  Not sure when I'll start this - have many things on the to-do list before it.

Here is the yarn I bought to make these fingerless mitts, 2 different colorways for 2 pair of mitts. Carolyn Greenwood had a pair knit in this pattern in her trunk show, it's a free pattern on Ravelry called Keep the Leaf. 

And then I bought this set of mini-skeins for a pair of socks - will have to look for some ideas of how to use them.........when they move up the very long to-do list................

Still dealing with back and leg pain but it's slowly improving. I was going to PT for a bit, now doing the stretches and exercises here at home.  I'm able to weave again, slowly with many breaks but that's ok, I'm weaving. 

Maybe I'll post again soon........
 

In the pipeline...........

More socks in the pipeline for holiday gifts.  I'm having fun knitting all the socks and my hands haven't cramped up yet so that's a good thing. 

Love these lavendars and purples

These are very fun, have finished the first sock, this is sock #2 of the pair

We spent a few days on the coast escaping the smoke of the valley.  There was still a bit of smoke on the coast and inland just a mile from the beach there's heavy smoke. We have a big fire just to the south of us spreading most of the smoke but then there are also fires to the west, east and north. The AQI (air quality) has been hazardous for weeks, it's ugly out. I hate summer/fire season. 

Comedy of Errors.........

 Many thanks for Peg for sharing this draft in her late July blog post. I just started weaving on this today and love the look although it is fiddly but then she warned it was......lots of color changes and I haven't gotten a rhythm yet, also always trying to make sure the colors get carried up the side for their groupings. 

But it was a comedy in errors getting this on the loom - I'm blaming it all on the prednisone I started on Saturday for intense sciatica pain. It is helping quite a bit but I'm wondering what will happen when my 9 day course of this med is over, will the pain return???  I'm waiting on the scheduler to get me in with PT so hoping that happens soon.  Now back to this project.  I wound the warp, got it wound on the back beam yesterday. I threaded the heddles. Then I sleyed the reed - I'm using 24 epi in a 12 dent reed only I didn't double check which reed was in there and it's so close to my 15 dent reed. You can guess what happened - I got to the end of sleying the 'wrong' reed and sat back and could see it immediately so I pulled all 476 ends out, put in the 12 dent reed and re-sleyed.  I got the warp tied on the front beam and started to weave to make sure all was correct - nope. But it wasn't a threading error, I had 3 out of 10 treadles tied up incorrectly. I have NEVER used the wrong reed and NEVER tied up treadles incorrectly in my 37 years weaving so I've determined it must be from prednisone brain, if there is such a thing.  At least fixing treadle tie-ups is much quicker than dealing with a threading mistake. 

I stopped to watch HGA's Textiles and Tea zoom presentation at 1:00 and now am having a hard time going back to the loom, just can't seem to focus. While the presentation was on I did cut out fabric for 4 tote bags for gifts (maybe one a gift for me) - I'll get to sewing those another day as I need a color of thread I have none of........isn't that always the way it is.........

Phew........

Phew.........these cross stitch ornaments took a long time to stitch and put together. I realize that I'm getting older when it gets harder to see 32 count fabric to stitch on even with reading glasses and an Ott light with a magnifying lens. It was a real challenge at times. I had thoughts of making more for a few gifts.....not happening!  These will look great at the beach cottage, not just for the holidays but all the time as decor. Now back to working on holiday gifts. 

 

Another start...........

 Another pair on the needles of the socks I'm knitting for holiday gifts.  I finished pair #2 the other night, started pair #3 last night. I love how this one is turning out.  I'm using a solid gray for the cuff, heel and toe.  Getting a lot of sock knitting done in the evenings while we watch Suits on Netflix - we're hooked. 

In other crafts I'm working on small holiday gifts here and there.  Hoping to get a warp on the loom soon but need to finish up a couple of other projects first, feeling very scattered. Would love to get holiday gifts finished up in the next 2 months so I can get back to a wall quilt I had taken a class on. 

Moving right along.......

I'm moving right along knitting socks for holiday gifts. I finished the pair I started last week, now have another pair on the needles. Also working on some other small gifts. 

Not much else to say.  It's hot, but not as hot as it could be, that's coming this weekend. Just like every summer we're in extreme fire season - fire just a bit to the west occasionally throws some smoke in our direction but it's mostly blowing the other direction. Counting down the days until the end of fire season. I hate summer. 

 

Sox in progress.........

I've decided I need to knit a number of pair of sox for holiday gifts so no idle hands around here for the foreseeable future.  Here is the first - I'm down to the instep on both pair, have them going at the same time so it's easy to match up where I start and stop in the pattern for contrasting cuff, heel and toe.  Also working on some other gifts but can't post them here..........

 

Inkling away..........

First warp on the inkle loom down, one more just like it to go. New inkle weaving project for holiday gifts so can't show until after the holidays, so months away from the reveal. 

Christmas in July............

First off, why in the world do my pictures from my phone want to turn sideways when uploaded to the blog??? I took pictures holding the phone 2 different ways and the same happened with each. Many times at least one of them will be turned correctly.  And I save them to my computer and edit them turning them the correct way but when loaded to blogger they turn back. ACK.  I give up. 

Anyhow, got heddles threaded, reed sleyed yesterday on this warp. It's a combination weave from a workshop I took from Robyn Spady. the threading is based on the Periwinkle overshot pattern in the Davison book. The treadling is polychrome swivel. This makes a sturdy fabric but not suitable for anything where the back would show as there are very long floats - would be great upholostery fabric or for a project that is lined. I'll be using this for our holiday card inserts. So far it's been slow weaving only because I haven't gotten in a rhythm with the color changes and treadling. Maybe others wouldn't think it's slow weaving but for me it is.........but since I'm not weaving to sell anymore it really doesn't matter. 

I have another pair of socks started, will take a photo once I'm more than 2" into the knitting. I want some denim colored socks, only denim, not stripes or other patterns.  I'm still working on some black socks but can't take those places to work on because if the light isn't good I can't see well, especially if I drop a stitch. 

 

I am remiss. I meant to post these socks earlier in the week but totally forgot.  Neighbor Jill in the knitting group I was invited to last year gave us all a ball of holiday sock yarn at the beginning of the year and we're to create something with it for this upcoming holiday season. I made these slouch socks - love them. I only had a little bit of yarn leftover so made a little ornament for her, a tiny basket of yarn complete with yarn balls and knitting (on toothpicks).  Picture is sideways, don't ask me why...........

Took this picture last weekend at The Wool Co in Bandon (on the coast).  I went to visit Kelly, the owner, and saw this in the yard - it had been put up to celebrate knit in public day the weekend before. I love it - hope it lasts for a long time.  Of course in visiting I bought more 'stuff' I didn't need but what does need have to do with anything.......

 

Almost done.......

The king size quilt for the trundle bed in the guest room is almost done. Some people call this a spider web quilt but I need another name for it as I have a spider phobia, don't even like typing the word.  I took my pieced quilt top to a long arm quilter, Stitched on Second, and picked it up this week. This photo shows it laid on the floor in the foyer while I trimmed it up. This was not easy.  I have since learned that Stitched on Second will do the trimming so next time I do a big quilt I'll pay them to do this. Smaller quilts I can easily do.  I now have the binding (the charcoal gray background fabric) sewn on the front, turned to the back and clipped. It will take me several evenings to hand sew the binding to the back.  I have very little leftover fabric but I think I can eek out some pillowcases using one or more of the prints as the borders on white on white fabric as the body of the placemats.  I have some bolsters that sit on the bed against the wall that will definitely need recovering but will have to find a suitable fabric for those (dreading that sewing chore).  So good to almost have this big project done. I'd like to make another king size quilt for our bed but that will have to wait........maybe next year........
 

Polka dots.........

 Here's a picture of the 8 finished towels - I wove each one with a different color weft. Feels strange to only put on enough warp for 8 towels but now that I'm not selling I don't have the need to. Four of these will immediately be used as gifts, others will be stashed away for future gifts or for me.  Next up at the loom is to finally weave off a scarf warp that's been on the AVL for way too long.  But first I need to trim  and sew binding on the quilt I picked up from the long arm quilter this week - picture of that to come once it's finished. 

Berries......

 strawberries picked this morning, more ready in a day or two

thinking maybe scones or shortcakes are in order

berries are yummy

On the loom........

I decided to weave this towel draft again although now I'm not sure of my color choices in the warp.  I do know once off the loom and washed the circles will show up much more so hopefully I'll like them. 

I'm sorry I can't tell you whose draft this is but I do remember I found it in the May/June 2019 issue of Handwoven. Well, being honest I don't remember this off the top of my head, I had it written in my notes from the last time I wove these towels. 

This is weft color number 3. I'm not sure what color will be next. I had hoped to have this warp woven off this past weekend but it didn't happen. Since I no longer sell woven goods I'm not weaving much these days but would really like to get back to it.  There have been many projects on my very long to-do list that I could never find time for.....not sure how to get my mojo back........

 

Ready for garden goodies........

Sam made me this great potting bench/sink out of leftover composite deck board cut-off's from when he rebuilt the two decks. I had seen a picture in a magazine a few years back of one made out of pallets so saved it for inspiration. I love it.  I need to put a hook on the back wall for a colander, maybe some fun outdoor metal art too. I do have to empty the bucket of water, the plum trees will love the extra water. Misty has discovered it's great fun to hang out right there to catch the water as it's flowing to the bucket. 

Here's a close up of the sink. It's just a plastic storage container from Home Depot. The faucet was 1 of 2 I bought over 30 years ago that we never used. There's even a stopper for the drain hole. 

Now all I need is for the rolly bugs and earwigs to stop eating my veggies as they pop up from the soil. I have noticed they don't bother the veggie starts I've bought, just the tender starts from seeds I've planted - this happened last year too. I even planted some marigolds amongst the veggies last week and noticed this morning that they're eating the leaves off those - I thought marigolds were a deterrent. Sheesh.  I've tried a organic bug spray meant for gardens last year, trying a different brand this year - not working so far. if anyone has any ideas please leave me a comment. 

 

Quilts.........

Recently I worked on some sewing/quilting projects.  The wallhanging above was from a kit a friend gave me. It's got many small pieces in the center, applied wool flowers, it's 15" x 18". I machine quilted it, some stitch in the ditch, free motion around the flowers, diamond window pane in the borders. I am not a quilter - this size is around my limit.  I'm interested in exploring tiny quilting so this has gotten me started. For tiny quilting I'm planning much smaller than this. Adding it to my very long to-do list.

I finished the 4 placemats I had started a couple months ago - I just did simple quilting on them. I had enough of some fabrics to make some serged napkins. 

 This turkey wall hanging was made from a quilt kit gifted from another friend. It's fused applique with crazy free motion quilting. As I said the quilting part is not my thing but I manage. I put a hanging sleeve on the back but it may end up being a table centerpiece around Thanksgiving - undecided as of yet. 

Also on the quilting front I took my king size spider web quilt to Stitched on Second for long arm quilting - it should be ready in a few weeks. 

I'm finally getting back to the loom. I wound a towel warp on the back beam the other day, threaded heddles and sleyed the reed yesterday.  But have other things on the calendar the next few days so will get back to it soon. 

 

spider webs........

 Earlier this week I finally finished piecing the spider web quilt. It's hanging over a table in this photo. I started this right after the holidays. Very slow piecing with all those fabrics and widths.  Yesterday I ordered some fabric for the backing - I was limited in my choices since I needed 118" wide to avoid piecing. I really don't like dealing with huge amounts of fabric at the sewing machine - putting this one together was a bear as it's king size. I'm hoping where all those 'slices of pie' come together in the center of the spider webs it's not too thick for the long arm quilter. 

Even though I have a need for another king size quilt that may wait until next year - smaller quilting projects as well as weaving and other crafts are on the agenda for the rest of this year. Yesterday I was working on a turkey wall hanging/table centerpiece quilt. A friend gave me the kit for Christmas. I've got the turkey all pieced, actually pieces cut out of numerous batiks and fused. Will post a picture after I sew the two borders on. I'll quilt this myself since it's small.  I've also got 4 placemats all sandwiched and ready to quilt which I'll also quilt myself. 

Our weather has finally turned to spring - we are out of the freezing temps at least for now. I've got apple and plum trees flowering so sure hope there's no hard freeze. I haven't planted any of the early veggie seeds yet - maybe this week.  I'm afraid what's going to happen is that we'll go straight from winter to summer in a week. 

It's been a while

It's been a while since I last posted. Back then I had taken day one of a quilt workshop on paper piecing.  I attended day two a couple weeks later and this is the start of my quilt which will end up being a 42" x 42" wall hanging or table topper. There are many more of these blocks to be made that will radiate out from this center.  I've found that I really like the paper piecing. But I had an issue with the teacher's instructions being different than the commercial pattern which resulted in pieces being cut wrong and me not liking my curves. I know my curves would have turned out better had I followed the pattern instructions. As far as pieces being cut wrong I did buy a bit extra fabric so I'm hoping I have enough. I may end up contacting the quilt shop to have them send me more of several of the fabrics just to be sure, hopefully they still have more. If I can get more of most of the fabrics I may remake these 4 blocks. (the background looks tan but it's really gray)  I never attended day three of the workshop - it snowed and was quite snowy around my town until early afternoon. I don't think I missed anything as it was just continuing to sew blocks. I did learn something new and loved it so in spite of issues it was a success and the shop where I took the class is great. 

Because of things going on in my family life I never got back to working on this project. My mother had a few falls, resulting in hitting her head, hard, and started going downhill quickly. She passed away two weeks after the last fall. Even though she was 94, had moved into a memory care facility and was getting more and more frail it was still a shock. I've always been certain she would live to be over 100. I can't say enough good about the memory care facility where she had been living - the Lodge at Countryside Village (Grants Pass, OR).  All of the staff are so kind and compassionate. 

As I wait to get things started with settling her affairs I decided to spend time at the sewing machine working on the quilt blocks from the quilt I started after the holidays. It's been very therapeutic. I now have only 3 more blocks to make and then I can start sewing them all together. I'm anxious to get it finished and off to the longarm quilter. I'm anxious to put away the piles of fabric strips and fold up the craft table. 

If the weather cooperates I'd like to get out to clean up the raised beds. Usually I would have had some early things planted but there's been no time and even if there were the weather has not been good - snow, sleet, rain, cold.  Maybe we'll be heading into more spring like weather later this week........maybe............

So, that's my life at the moment. I would like to say I'll post more often but it may not happen, at least not for a while. 

A little bit......

....a little bit of sewing happening here but not much. Did did come up with borders for 2 sides of the sample blocks to make them placemat size. They will have dark purple binding, it's already sewn, ironed and ready to go.  I now have 4 placemat tops set aside to quilt later on.  I've figured out my fabrics for the second part of the quilt workshop but now I'm questioning myself on what goes where.  For the immediate I'm back to making blocks for the teal quilt top for our guestroom bed.......I'm sure that will be set aside again soon to work on other projects. 

Snow off and on here the past couple of weeks, has been some on the valley floors but mostly a bit higher in elevation, enough to mess up driving on the passes to the north and south of our valley, and then many feet higher in the mountains, that is great thinking ahead to fire season. 
 

Paper piecing......

 Last month I signed up for a 3 day paper piecing quilt class at Stitched on Second in Gold Hill. Friday was day 1 which was to learn the technique. Here is my block from that day, it's made up of 4 smaller blocks. The pattern is out of a Carol Doak book, the instructor provided it. It's fittingly called 'Cindi's Block'.  It was suggested that we should make 4 more big blocks and use them as the center of a baby quilt. I have no use for a baby quilt and I don't have a use for a wall hanging in these colors (I was working from bits of stash fabrics). I have decided to use them to make a set of placemats - I will add borders to 2 sides so I end up with a rectangle. They will be bright and cheery to use on the deck table once it's eating out weather. 

I'd love to be working on this over the weekend but the weather is nice and we need to get the plum and apple trees pruned - 2 plum trees done yesterday, will do the apple trees today. Did grapes last month. Roses still to come sometime in March. And it's getting time to think about the garden. There has been lettuce, spinach and chard growing under ground cover all winter.  It's amazing how much we have growing on a city lot - more than we ever had when we were on acreage. 

Day 2 & 3 of the workshop come in a couple weeks. We have homework to do - buy our fabrics, cut out paper patterns. I already bought my fabrics but need to decide what will go where.  The pattern we'll be doing for those 2 days is called Arizona Cactus - more complicated and includes curves.  

This month was a bad one for me to sign up for a class but I'm so glad I did - I love learning new!  I'm really enjoying the paper piecing. Of course I 'had' to buy a lightpad from the quilt shop halfway thru the day.  I have a tiny lightbox that I bought for who knows what over 25 years ago but it can't compare to a lightpad that has cutting mats that fit on top and it's big too. And I even got a carrying bag. Added benefit of being so flat to store, it won't take up much space. Every new technique comes with a new set of tools that must be added to the cupboard!  

This photo has been sitting on my desktop for quite a while now, since right after the last post when I was weaving it. I couldn't capture the iridescence in this scarf and the sequins don't sparkle as much as in real life. As I said in my last post this is my guild challenge - use gold to celebrate my guild's 50th anniversary. 

 I originally thought I'd weave a second scarf but then came to my senses and cut this one off to finish it. Since I'm no longer selling my handwovens what would I do with 2 scarves with sequins, even if I did use a different weft. I suppose I could have rethreaded to a different draft but still, I just don't need more scarf inventory, still have quite a bit from my selling years.  Instead I tied back on and am weaving using different variegated tencel wefts to create fabric to make notecard inserts. I will use notecards......I'll be using a dragonfly punch for the cardstock. 

It's snowing this morning - so nice to see some snow. It won't amount to a whole lot by the time it's over but it's covering the ground and is so pretty even though it's still dark out. 

Sparkle.......

It's not evident in the photo but those are sparkly holographic sequins in this tencel scarf on the loom. The Saturday Handweaver's Guild will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and our challenge for the year to weave gold. Hopefully there will be an exhibit along with other celebrations. 

At first I was going to weave this with gold warp & weft but in my sampling it looks so flat so I started trying out different wefts. I really like this greyed teal weft. I put enough on for 2 scarves, still trying to decide between a few colors what color the weft will be for the next scarf. 

This is plain weave with double weave pockets that I slip each sequin in and then close them up on the next shot thrown. I made some scarves many years ago using this technique. This scarf will have a repeat of 5 rows of sequins on each end. For a conference exhibit (2001) on recycling I wove fabric with bigger pockets and slipped small circuit boards in them. This is a 6 harness weave. At some point I'll need to figure out how to weave a fancy twill with pockets........I'll add that to my very long to-do list. 

I tried out 3 different styles of gold sequins when sampling. They all happened to be from my way too large stash of specialty sequins. These are square and holographic gold. I buy my sequins from Cartwrights Sequins. I don't know if they still have these, haven't explored their website in quite a while since I have such a huge stash in a multitude of colors, sizes and shapes. 

This project is a nice break from working on quilt blocks. I've made 40 of the 72 needed - they are slow going. I'll get back to them sometime this week. 

Spinning.......

 I got back to spinning before the holidays......not spending a lot of time spinning but I am spinning.  I'm working on some merino/tussah silk/tencel blend dyed by my friend Whitney of Twisted & Dyed Fibers. I got the first 2 braids spun and finished plying a couple nights ago, last night I wound the first of it into a skein. Two more braids to spin. And no, I'm not sure what this will grow up and be, will start thinking about it once I'm done and see how many yards I have.  I'm spinning it between a lace and fingering weight. I tend to spin fairly thin, will have to concenrate on spinning a little thicker after I finish this because I find so many patterns I like that require DK or worsted weight yarn. 

Sox on the needles

Last year I think I only knit one pair of sox, or maybe I finished a pair from the year before and then knit another pair - can't remember right now.  Recently I decided I need a pair of black handknit sox so went searching through my stash and found this fun black yarn with specks (will take the 2 skeins I have). I haven't gotten very far and they'll be a long term project to cart along with me places......although it would be nice to wear them this winter.........

Still working on quilt blocks - think I have 34 now, not sure how many I need, at least 60 but probably more. I'll figure that out shortly.  I've been listening to the audio version of Outlander's book 7, An Echo in the Bone while I stitch. I downloaded it from the library so only have so much free time to listen to 46 hours, I 'think' I'm going to finish before it disappears from my Kindle. 

I've signed up for a quilt class in Feb/March. It has points and curves so I'll be learning new stuff. It's been so long since I've ventured out for any kind of class or workshop - I'm so looking forward to it.  I have finally gone back to my weaving guild meetings as of this past Saturday - nice to see many who I haven't seen since the start of covid.  I did wear my mask though with illnesses on the rise in our area. 

Wall pouches

I made a few of these wall pouches for gifts this year. I'm pretty sure directions for this project were in an email from Bernina with a link to the Bernina site. 

These two are in my sewing room on the wall behind my machines.  The pouches are made using 4" embroidery hoops and pouches sewn to fit.  I've hung them using Command hooks. 

 Here are two that I hung next to the Macomber loom. I already had the little basket that I made years ago - it's job was to hold bobbins but it was always overflowing with empty bobbins, bobbins with bits and newly filled bobbins for the current project.  With the addition of the two pouches I've got them all covered now. 

I'm still working on the quilt blocks shown in my last post and will be for a while - it's slow sewing.  I've now got 15 blocks sewn. I'll probably be in need of a break soon so will think about what to put on the loom.........or get off the loom as there's still a 3 scarf warp on the AVL............

A better year......

Yes, I've been a terrible blogger by not posting.  I just haven't done much that I feel like sharing, or am just not in the mood to post......such is life. 2018-2022 were struggles with family illness/death, moving my mother twice to more care within the last 1 1/2 years, several hospital visits for her, but I'm determined 2023 will better. Christmas week we got my mother settled into the memory care building of her retirement community - she likes the smaller community so it will be a good move for her. The last straw in assisted living was her brawling in the dining room - a little dramatic but pushing someone with her wheelchair was her demise. Have to laugh about it now. 

When I had time in the fall I was working on gifts but alas, I forgot to take pictures of them so I could share them here.  Oh well.....some sewing, some knitting, some cross stitch. I'm still working on cross stitch in the evenings - I've been shopping in my own cupboard for small kits, many Shepherd's Bush, that I bought years ago. 

The past 2 years or so I've been collecting small bits of fabric for a quilt for the guest room bed.  It's a trundle bed but I want the quilt to cover the entire bed when the lower bed is brought up.  I started on it 2 days ago. 

Here are strips of fabric cut at varying sizes from 1 14" to 2".   There are 38 different fabrics plus the dark charcoal gray background.  I'm afraid tables in the sewing room will look like this until the project is finished which means I won't be working on any other projects at the machine until it's done - basically the thought of packing it all away to work on something else is overwhelming.  I'm hoping I have plenty of fabric, I've only cut a very small amount of it so far. There were 3 other fabrics I had but they got culled for being too gray. 

Here is the first block.  It actually consists of 4 triangles.  It's around 13".   This is sewn on paper to keep the bias edges from stretching out of shape. I've pulled the paper out from behind the charcoal gray but the rest will wait until it's sewn to squares around it. 

And this is what it looks like when 4 blocks are finished (16 triangles) - it created a spider web of sorts, an octagon. I'm loving the look. I looked at 2 different patterns, one in a magazine, one a free pattern online, to come up with my final design.

I will try to do better posting and I actually may have some fun projects to share since I know 2023 is going to be a better year - I'm determined to have more time to spend being creative.

I wish you all a peaceful and safe new year.