Juried in!

Several weeks ago we got a call from our friend Kathie.  She and her husband were in  town and wanted to stop by.  Come to find out they had something on their mind.

They were getting ready to submit some of her paintings to be juried in to the Oak Ridge Art Center art show.  They wanted to take some of  Dear One's pen and ink drawings and some of his paintings as well.  When we were almost done getting his stuff selected and tagged, Kathie turns to me and says, "Oh, I bet we could take some of your pieces too!"

We went upstairs and she helped me select three pieces to submit.  One Looper rug, one Baby blanket and a Runner. 

Both Dear One and Kathie got a piece in the show, and I got TWO pieces in the show!  The looper rug and the baby blanket were accepted.  The show opens tomorrow afternoon, and we four are going to make a date of it.   It is exciting, and I can't wait to see my pieces up for display!  There are prizes, and who knows something might even sell!  (They (our friends) put outrageous prices on our stuff!  They said that they were art and priced accordingly!)

I will probably post on my Farmstead Studio blog after we take the tour.  Wish me luck!

Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina

The Alpha and Omega of Weaving

Some find the Appalachian Arts Craft Center and the Tuesday Weavers when they are already accomplished weavers and they are looking for a community of craftsman to share their love of fiber art. Others, like me, find the group because they want to learn to weave.

The AACC offers lots of classes in various crafts - basket weaving, glass bead making, caning, broom making, felting - the list goes on and on. Most of these classes are taught one time or for a short series. However, there is one class that is always (almost always) available - a six week beginning weaving class taught by Carol Pritcher. Except when Carol is traveling she is there every week ready to teach. Whenever you show up you can start. If you can come once a week - great. If you need to do the class over a period of months that is fine, too. She and the rest of the crowd say welcome, show up and become part of the weaving frenzy.

I heard about the Tuesday Weavers from a friend who sold her jewelry at the center. I showed up to take the six classes and as my husband would say - I got stuck to the "Tar Baby." Here I am part of something bigger than a hobby, part of a learning community, part of a group of crafters preparing for a show, part of a cohort of bloggers who talk about weaving and life.

Carol starts all beginner weavers on a table loom weaving a simple twill sampler and a few place mats. She guides you through the planning of the warp, the winding, the dressing of the loom and shows you how to begin to weave.

Over Six

BUT stop - before you go more than an inch or so she stops you in your tracks and says you need to learn to hem stitch. Take that long tail you left before starting to weave and go four threads over and then three threads over. It is awkward - it isn't weaving - it is hard to count the individual threads - wait I think I have it. Wow, I am at the end of the hem. Carol declares to the whole room - we have a new hem stitcher!!!!

Over five

I have come to realize that some projects don't require hem stitching. But most of the time I still use it. And I have learned that counting the threads is important especially if I am going to twist my fringe. Going over four threads means a nice clean grouping of four for the fringe. (or in the case of the two photos - over six then over five for six thread groupings of fine bamboo for my shawl)

Pulling the stitch to lock it

Not everyone in the Tuesday Weaver group is a hem stitcher but if Carol has taught you - you at least know how. This summer I was talking to some new weavers from Rhode Island. When I mentioned hem stitching - neither had any idea what I was talking about. I was shocked. Because of Carol I thought that hem stitch was truly the Alpha and Omega of weaving - the beginning and the end.

The Alpha

The Omega

The Gospel according to Carol (as understood by me) - hem stitching the beginning and the end, amen.

Be well,
Ann

Unemployment?

Every day on the news, we hear stories about people who have been unemployed since 2008, many of whose benefits have run out.  At the farm, we frequently talk about how lucky we are to have our jobs.  But I have had four openings in the bake shop since July, and can't find people willing to do the work, with the education and experience necessary.  Twice this month, I've had newly graduated culinary students tell me they are over-qualified for the positions I have open.
  It makes me wonder what culinary schools are telling their students.  I know when I graduated, they called us all Chefs, but I knew we weren't.  I knew I had so far to go before I could wear that title, and my first job confirmed that every day.  I didn't know anything!  I had so much to learn.
  Yesterday, a woman who graduated from culinary school last summer told me that I couldn't teach her anything new, that making cookies and cakes all day wasn't going to be enough.  It took every ounce of will I had left at that point in my day not to hang up on her, but I used that will, listened to her whiny little story and wished her the best.
  Just a little shot of reality:  Pastry is boring.  It's repetitive.  It IS cookies and cakes, on and on, over and over, every single day.  Every once in a while, a little creativity is required or allowed, and it's like a little ray of sunshine on your otherwise dull day.  Witness the chocolates above.  I made them at the end of a 13 hour day, because I absolutely had to have chocolates made before I had a day off.  I pondered flavors of fillings all day, while I baked cakes and cookies, over and over again. I daydreamed combinations and tongue-tempting concoctions while I cut mousses into shapes and peeled and chopped apples into tiny perfect cubes.
  Then, it came to me that it would be fun to layer the fillings, like peanut butter and jelly, so that when you bite into it, there are distinct layers, but when you chew, you get the flavors together.  The "jelly" is the purple stuff, made with our grape jam, and the peanut butter is the golden cream, made with our peanut butter.  It's not earth-shattering or life-changing, and probably a lot of people have done it before, but it was fun for me, and it made my otherwise long, repetitive day a little brighter.
  I hope the two women who turned down the pastry cook jobs find what they're looking for, but I have a feeling that they're going to come to the same conclusion I have:  You have to work your way to the top, by repeatedly doing every day, mundane, boring,  repetitive work until you can do that work better than a lot of other people.  And then, and only then, will you earn the right to make your mark on your profession.
  And it's not just for pastry, is it?  Weavers learn the same lesson.  Weaving can be so deadly dull, so repetitive, and it seems some times like we have nothing new to learn.  But there's always more to learn here, too.
  As soon as I have one more position filled, I'll be back with you, weaving on dear B.  Tell him I miss him!  Give him a kick on the brake release for me!  Until I see him again, I'll be baking cookies and cakes, over and over again, along with a little sweet sunshine every once in a while!
Happy weaving!
Maggie

Another Great Day!

  There was an agenda....Ann was ready to dye her bamboo for the shawl challenge.  The utensils were located, and the cover put on the counter.  Formulas were calculated for the dye for the colors that Ann had chosen.  So far....so good........

S P L A T ! ! !

Yes.....that's what happened!

  Christy's pants took the worst of it.  But, accidents happen, right?

No accident here....
  Ms. Ila is getting close to the end of her scarf warp. 


  And, I got to cut off my warp with the two remaining scarves (plus 4 mug rugs!!!!)

  Bonnie was able to be back with us today.  She's helping Ms. Trudy put a new warp on one of the table looms.  We can always use more mug rugs for the Foothills booth in November.

And, our guys just keep on keepin' on!!!! 

  In fact.....Lanny made these for us today!
On the left is a Queen Mary's Tart (with golden currants and cream and butter....YUM!)  And, on the right is an Apple and Walnut Clootie....also very yummy!  We need to send Lanny to cooking school more often!!!!
  Just another great reason to be a Tuesday Weaver!!!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Monkeys Done!

Sewing the background squares together didn't take much time at all!  The monkeys turned out to take more time than I'd hoped to finish! There were about 27 pieces of fabric needed for each monkey/banana section. So I spent most of the week working on the quilt. It's 52 x 70 so actually is more than a little baby blanket but how long are babies little really? It's  a great toddler blanket.

 The mouth was hand embroidered just before I pinned the layers together for quilting. Actually, I almost forgot about them. Good thing I hadn't worked late Thursday evening to layer it all since I didn't think about the mouth til I was waking up Friday morning!

 They're really impish little guys!

 So what do you put on the back of a monkey quilt? A jungle! folded the quilt so the jungle showed when they pulled it out of the bag yesterday! They liked that pretty much and were tickled when they saw the monkeys on the other side.

 I'd gotten the blanket done by Friday evening. I spent most of the day machine quilting it. I'd hoped to use my walking foot on my Bernina to machine quilt around the monkeys but that didn't work well, so I dropped the feed dogs, changed the presser foot and did free motion quilting around the guys. It actually worked pretty well altho I'm not the best at that. There are a few places where it kind of went wonky but I don't think a little guy will care! Free motion quilting means that your hands  move the fabric forward, sideways, whichever way you want without the machine doing it. Your foot controls the speed that the needle goes up and down so you're really controlling how big the stitches are. I'm better at it than I used to be but probably need to quilt a few more to get better at it. Once the monkeys were done I put the walking foot back on to machine quilt the rest of the blanket.
The baby shower was yesterday afternoon. Other gifts there included monkey crib sheets, plush monkeys and even a monkey mobile to hang above the crib!

Before I left for Canada at the end of July I ordered some yarn for my next production projects. Well, it finally came Friday afternoon.

Here is my part of the order. We'd also ordered some bamboo for Tuesday Weavers. I think one of those cones was what held up the order but the arrival was perfect. Until now I hadn't had time to really work on production. So, today I pull out black and begin weaving short vests just of black to add appliques to for the show in October! Just over a month til the next show! yikes!!
Black's not fun to weave, it's all kind of the same but it's a good background for what I'll be adding to it later. While I weave I'll open up the box of Borders, Season 3 DVD that my nephew gave me this summer and watch it to pass the time. This'll be just a short warp but needs to be done, 7 vests, close to 13 yards I guess. Hope to have it on, off and the next one on by the weekend since I've only got 3 days to work on it this week!
Til next week.
Carol

Makin' It New

  "All things old are new again."  That's what my Mom used to say when I would rave about some new fashion item.  She would just chuckle and then tell me how that was popular when she was younger.  Remember those wonderful, colorful fabrics from the '60's and '70's?  I came across some in my great aunt's stash, and it has already been used in one small tote bag.  This week I pulled some curtain valances from the stash (they came with John and Sally) and got them ready for their new life.

  Weavers have been "using it up" for eons.  Old fabric has a chance at a new, useful life.  The wilder and bolder the print, the better it weaves up, it seems!

  The countdown to the Foothills Guild show is now 69 days.  I challenged myself this week to a tote bag a day.  I think that is doable (as long as I've got the weft ready to go!)

  One of the items I needed to prepare for my challenge was navy mop cord for handles.  Wednesday was dye day at my house, and I was rewarded with some lovely cord for more totes.  This is one completed tote, and the start for the next one.

  Remember that lovely brown/tan/orange fabric?  This is the way it wove up for the small tote!   I used the mop cord that I had dyed brown...and it worked like a charm.

  So, my challenge is going smoothly, so far.  I pulled some more fabric and got it washed in preparation for doing a mixed fabric weft in the next few days.  I will need to dye more mop cord, but not today!!!

  Thirteen Cross of Tennessee mug rugs are completed.  I'm ready to hemstitch number fourteen!  So we just keep chugging along!

  Turning old fabric into new items.....using old patterns in new ways.....all things old are new again.

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Rosalee

A city friend of mine called last night, she wanted to know if a chicken could find her way home all by herself.  It seems that there was a hen roaming her neighborhood.  She had even layed an egg in the neighbors yard!  Now, there is currently a feud going on in the town between those wanting to keep a few hens about the place and those that do not want that sort of thing anywhere near them.  We knew that whoever had lost this little girl would not be able to advertise the fact!  I told her to call me in the morning if the hen was still there.

Her daughter and granddaughter were spending the night last night, and the hen was named Rosalee.  The child was delighted that the Rosalee was still there this morning.  The call was made, and after my morning chores I made my way there with a nice cage, and nicer grain to make friends.

I found her among the Vinca and  monkey grass.  I tossed her some grain, but after bread, grapes and grits, who wants grain and layer pellets!  It took about an hour but in the end I caughter her when she settled in to lay her days egg.  She burrowed deep within a border of monkey grass and got really still.  I walked up to her and put my hand on her back, and scooped her up!  My friend was impressed.  I packed her into the cage and headed off home.  She stayed in the car while I ran into the store to pick up a few things, then home.



She must have layed the egg while I was in the store, cause when I unpacked her into the no-fly zone, there is was just as pretty as you please!  I believe she is a Barred Rock, and she seems to be young too!  I will have to take some eggs to my city friend to thank her!

This afternoon I will be weaving baby blankets.  Light blue this time, I will edit and  post a picture of one of them this evening.  I would like to finish one today, and another tomorrow.  We will see, you know the best layed plans sometimes don't happen.

Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina (the chicken whisperer in some circles)