We are still at it.

This is the new kitchen light in my studio. What do you think?

This has been a busy week for me. My husband and I have been looking at lots of flooring and finally decided on one. He thinks laminate is the way to go. Easy to clean after weaving. I picked some that looks like chestnut. He and our oldest son unloaded 30 boxes! I can't wait to see what this looks like on the floor. It should go down pretty quickly because the padding is already on the back of each plank.

I managed to get a couple of ceilings painted, more walls washed and some work done out in the yard. Not easy to do with a bad knee. Part of the back yard will be for vegetables and part for flowering plants. Last week I planted a green grape plant and two raspberry plants. Things are sprouting up pretty quickly over there. I am going to have lots of lilies! Right now some columbine is blooming as well as lily of the valley. I even discovered some money plants growing at the edge of the woods. The flowers are so pretty! The shrubs in front of the house are blooming, too. They are called Chinese laurel.

I took some time out last week to play around with some curtains I bought. Want to see? Hmmm, I can never seem to get the pictures just where I want them! Since I was in a hurry to see what they looked like I didn't iron them or put them on the right rod.

Well there you have it. I hope I can get more done this week!

Linda

Money and Waffle

My white azaleas aren't in bloom yet so I can't show them in all their glory, yet! However, shortly after we moved here in the early 80s, we planted a red azalea bush after my Grandmother died. I wanted a bit of color among all that white. Well, there isn't alot of sun at my front door. The azaleas are still doing ok but long and leggy. These flowers are about 6 feet above the ground!

Living in the area that we are, it's all pretty natural. One of the wild plants that someone must have orginally planted is moneyplant! There are 2 colors, purple and white. We have both. We don't plant them. They just come up where they please. Right now they're in full bloom and as the flowers fade, round circles grow that eventually will dry.

Here's a plant left over from last year. All you have to do is rub off the skin on each side of the circle and you've got a translucent circle that's awfully pretty. When I do pick them in late summer, I rub off the seeds outside. Nature can use a bit of help sometimes! We're never sure where they'll make an appearance. These plants take 2 years to mature. The first year it just grows about 6 inches high and then dies back. It's the second year that you have the show of flowers. One year, years ago, I decided to weed the front patch. Yup, I pulled up all those baby money plants. Took several years to get back to having them each year again. Is that a reason not to weed the garden?

DH is into wildflowers and years ago he planted some trillium in our front yard. These are happy!

Lenten rose is still blooming. They started blooming a bit later in winter than normal and these are near the trillium and still going strong!

I've been weaving on my waffle weave towels. Using alot of different colors in the weft takes time. However, it's so worth it when you take them off the loom, wash them and hem them. Make great gifts! If you look closely, you can see a t pin near the top of where I've been weaving. I am changing colors as they are placed on the warp. Because of the way the progression is, I'm keeping up with where I am by placing the pin in the part that corresponds with the warp. That way I'll know where I am when I get back to that loom. I'm a good third of the way done on this towel! I do have another progression for the beginning and end of the towel which is noted on a paper near the loom, but the easiest way to follow the middle part of the towel is to just watch the warp and weave like it!

Still have pretty neutral warps on my Nilus so there aren't any pictures of that. Interruptions are still keeping me from weaving as much as I'd like. However, this is a new week and we can always hope for more time, right?!

Carol

A Bat in my Belfry

This is the time of year when most people do their Spring Cleaning....but not at my house. I just move looms! While my sister was here to help, we moved the Baby Wolf, Julia, into the living room with John and Sally, and moved the Mighty Wolf, Annee, into my bedroom. I did vacuum really well and got the lint and loose threads up off the floor. (That counts as my Spring Cleaning!) When I went into the bedroom last night to take a picture for the blog, something was flying around my bedroom! After I quit screaming and hiding in the bathroom, I took a peek to see if I could figure out what it was...a BAT! Don't even ask me HOW it got in my bedroom....I don't have a clue! But, since the French doors were open to the porch, I turned off the lights and let it fly out there, and slammed the doors shut. I'll work on what to do about that later. Anyone have a net????

I wove some on John this week. It's getting down to the end of the warp, I think. I love this fabric with this warp, so I think I'll just keep weaving with it until the warp is finished. Wonder how long this rug will be?

I wanted to share this picture from my visit to the Appalachian Center for Craft last weekend. Student work was displayed in the weaving studio, and this piece caught my eye. At first I thought it might be linen, but on closer examination, I believe it is hemp. My friend, Dana, thought it might be hemp, also. It was so soft and I love the pattern.

Today I'm off the KMA to hear Libby O'Bryan speak about her work with Ann Wilson's Wind, Rewind, Weave project. After we view the exhibit, the Guild will eat lunch together. This is the last week of weaving on the project, which makes me a little sad. I have really enjoyed weaving on that cloth.

That's all for now, folks!
Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Stamina

I was outside in the soon to be garden the other day. I was surveying the work I had in front of me this year. (groaning) I looked up to see my DN (dear neighbor) walking across his field to ask me something, and I knew what the question was going to be. "Don't you want me to till this year?"

You see I wasn't going to till this year, I have read for years about the benefits of the no-till-deep mulch- method and I thoroughly believe in it, it is just that I have been less than successful in carrying it out. This year I thought, I am not working outside the home, I will be able to tackle the job.

I moved some fences around this last week, mostly to get a u shaped chicken run around the garden. I figure they can be a barrier against the garden pests on 3 sides. I also doubled the garden, after all I am not working outside the home anymore so I can handle it. The first day I started driving the fence posts I drove in 3 and was done in. I realized that I hadn't had breakfast and I went in and just never got back to the fences that day. The next day however, Wally and I managed to get the other 18 posts in and all the chickens wrangled into their new pasture.

When we moved in here 9 years ago this month, I was in my early 40's, and while walking Wally 2 miles a day has made my early morning shadow look really good, (though I think it is stretching the truth a little) I am having to work hard to get myself ready for full force gardening this year. Just because I have more time to do it doesn't mean that my body is all in favor of it!

So I looked at my garden with the area I had added, all that sod, I thought of the hours I would have to spend ripping it all out, I turned to my neighbor and I said sheepishly "yes please, but don't tell my husband."

Happy Weaving and Gardening, Tina

Walking About my Yard

Does anybody know what kind of tree this is?? It has small pinkish/white blooms and stinks really bad when first blooming. It is in my neighbor's yard. Click on picture for a larger view.

No weaving for me. I am still working for my husband. He has a chain and ball around my ankle to keep me working. I do make sure I go out ever hour or so and walk around the yard. It is nice but it makes me see what I am not getting done in my yard. So I decided to show what I see when I go out. It can be very relaxing. Lets go for a walk.
This is just outside my basement door. Last year it was a pile of old bricks and sticks and nothing. You can see the bricks, I used them around the edge of the flower bed. You may see a few weeds too. I pick a few everytime I go out. This bush was a semi-dead stick when it arrived in the mail. A mail order-which I will not do again. I revived it in a little pot, last year and planted it here.

Back yard with my blue bird house.

This is my butterfly bush on the front side. No blooms yet. It blooms purple. It is 2 years old.

This is my Iris on the other side of the house. I got two little plants at the plant sell at the Appalachian Arts Craft Center 2 years ago and they have multiplied a bit.

My front yard below. We cleared out under the trees. But now it is needing it again. It takes the weed eater and the husband will have to do it. I see the right picture out the window while working on the boards. So this is what I see on my short walk in the yard.

Now you have taken my walk with me today. Have a happy week.

Bonnie

Profile of a Weaver: Pat Bing

Ten years ago, someone at Pat Bing's church wanted to give away a loom. It was the start of a new chapter in Pat's life, who'd always loved fiber, and had long been curious about weaving. The loom looked like an eight harness, but had two sticks for harnesses, holding 400 string treadles. After a lot of research and perseverance, Pat made the loom into a functioning eight harness loom. She heard that Ellen Cain was teaching weaving at the Center, and took lessons there.

Pat soon became involved in the Center, as a member of the weaving group, a member of the board and now, as a member of the Education Committee. In only ten years, Pat has become one of the Tuesday Weavers' guiding forces, someone to come to with trouble in a warp or the world.

But before that, Pat had a love of all fibers. Growing up in the small community of Timnath, Colorado, the daughter of the head of the school district, she lived a life out of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie. Her father was the Principal, Teacher and early morning stove lighter of the school. For part of his pay, his family lived in the Teacherage, a home on one acre, where they raised a garden, chickens, a cow or two and "bummer lambs," lambs that were orphaned by their mothers. Pat was active in 4-H, the farm activities as well as the domestic activities. She learned to sew, and with that, learned to love fibers.

One of Pat's joys to this day is walking through a fabric store to run her hands over the different fabrics. It was this love of fiber and fabric that led her to become curious about weaving. During her first lessons in weaving at the Center, Pat's first warp was wound on a warping wheel, rather than a warping board, something she remembers describing as "a spiritual experience!"

Pat became a member, after learning to weave, of the Foothills Craft Guild, a juried guild formed for the marketing and selling of craftspeople's goods. She demonstrated weaving initially by warping a small loom and letting children weave a section. Each section was labeled with the weaver's name and address, and afterwards, Pat would cut off each section and mail it to the weaver. They had a sample of their weaving to keep. But she felt there should be an easier way to initiate people in the joy of weaving. Her niece, Heidi Welch, an art teacher, told her about straw weaving, a simple loom of drinking straws and yarn. They got together and made kits up for the next guild show, and it was a hit. Now, Pat demonstrates straw loom weaving, and is always busy each Fall guild show.

Pat recently sold her eight shaft loom to Sharen, one of the Center's newer weavers, and took home the twelve shaft LeClerc loom from the Center that she'd been weaving on. It sits in her lovely stone-floored weaving room, ready for its next project.

And below, her Harrisville has the friendship afghan from another group she belongs to, the Clinch Valley Handweavers' Guild. Carol's weft is on the loom, in the pattern Pat's selected, Gothic Cross.

After a lovely lunch of yellow pepper soup, homemade bread from Pat's husband, Dan and a gorgeous strawberry-rhubarb pie, Pat gave me a trunk show of her weaving.

One of the most interesting things that
Pat is making are these lamp shades, woven directly onto the lamp shade frames. Click on the photos to see the details; they are lovely.

Weaving is now an integral part of Pat's life, as she is an important part of life at the Center and the lives of the Tuesday Weavers.

Tuesday doings

Hello all, it is indeed Tuesday again. Carol is doing day 2 of a weaving 201 class that she does for us once a year or so. Going beyond the initial table loom class everyone does when they start out here. Next week Ann and Marta are going to warp one of the floor looms we have waiting for them.

Ann brought a wonderful thread and fabric scale used by her grandfather in his textile business. There were a tiny set of weights for cloth and a tinier set for threads. You can see the cloth weight on the scale.

The scale came in this little wooden box. It all fit so neat and tidy!

Now for the rest of us, I thought I would do close-ups of what everyone was working on.

Jane is working on a set of placemats on her table loom.

Carl is on his final placemat on the spring green warp. He will be moving onto a different loom for his next project.

This is a close up of a rug that Lanny is weaving.

Bonnis is working on a warp that Lou Ann had started. Lou Ann couldn't make it today.

Bonnie is still plugging away at the towels she started. I was going to take a few more pictures, but my camera said it was tired thank you and shut off.

So there you have is, we were missing some weavers today, and Wally was left at home today too, so I got a ton done on my warp. I will have to show you that next week.

Happy weaving, Tina