A Week To Catch Up

New Weavers!!!!

The class went great!

Once they got the hang of throwing the shuttle, they were off and running. 

   I want to tweak my notes for the September class, but all in all, I'm pleased.

  I unloaded the car when I got home, and Parker Pup made it as far as the kitchen.  I wove off the rest of the warp this week.  The results:  eight mug rugs!
  I need some items for the fall sales!!!!
  The next warp for Parker Pup will be another scarf using the art yarn for accent.   I have some gray chenille that I want to pair up with some of my yarn.

Cece did her part keeping the last scarf weighed down while I twisted the fringes....but, when I was finished, she was, too!!!  Enough is enough!  I think she likes the more colorful scarves.

  I've started weaving on the double binding hot pad.  I fell in love with Hilary's rugs on her blog, and adapted the threading for a hot pad.  This threading is also found in Meany and Pfaff's Rag Rug book.
  I love trying out weaving structures...don't you?

This is my surprise of the week!
This honeydew vine has been blooming and blooming and growing out into the yard.....but no little melons had developed.  Then, to my surprise, I saw this hanging on the fence this week.  We've had a lot of rain, so everything has been growing like crazy.  All summer....and this is the only one!!!!  Oh well.........

I just hope I get to enjoy it......but I'll have to watch out for the deer and raccoons!!!!  They may have their eyes on it, too.

Have a glorious weekend....
Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Little Emily?

Last Tuesday a donation came in.  It was a Leclerc floor loom, plus a few other odds and ends.  I took one look at the loom, and I thought that it was the same size as my Alice.  Alice has a 29inch weaving width, so she is quite compact, and will fit almost anywhere!  (that is in weavers terms, for sure!)

I mentioned the fact that I would be happy to babysit her at my house if nobody else could use her.  You see, we have no more room at the center, and she would have just gone into storage again.  I said however, that I did not want to be a "Grabby Grabberson", and that if anyone else could use her, they were to have first choice.

Nobody else wanted her, she is in rough shape you see, having been in storage for ages.

Here she is on my kitchen floor, at least part of her, I didn't have the right car to bring the bigger pieces home, so Lou Ann had the side sections, she brought them over the following day.

That evening, as I was cleaning and oiling the breast beam, I thought, wait a minute, this is longer than I thought it was!  I pulled out the yardstick, and sure enough, there were several inches of beam beyond the end of the yardstick!  I had my hands on a 44 inch breast beam, which means a 36 inch weaving width!  Not quite as compact as I thought!

In fact she is identical to the loom I babysat last year for the center.  I had finally gotten that one moved over when a space came available!  Oh well,  I will fit her in somehow I suppose, you can't have too many looms when you are a weaver.

I continued to clean and oil the loom parts, and I ran across several pieces of old masking tape.  I had learned to dislike masking tape, when I ruined a quilt by leaving some on in storage.  I kind of feel the same way with it on wood.  Here let me show you.

I know that is is not an unusual use of tape, especially if the loom is used in a teaching situation.

Here is a close up!

I carefully scraped this piece off without any oil on it, which I think is the way to do it.  Look at the beautiful wood underneath!

I continued cleaning an oiling the pieces that I had, but I wasn't happy with the results.  Usually, I am perfectly happy to leave the looms as they are, you know preserve the patina and all.  But this time, I just wasn't happy. ( I could be because off all that beautiful wood I was finding under the tape!)  So I pulled out a piece of sandpaper, and tried it on an inconspicuous section, just a light sanding, then I oiled that section.  I was so pleased with the results that before you know it, I had done the whole beam!  There is still plenty of character, not a total face lift, just a cleansing mask, if you will.  (Besides, I have never seen a floor loom on the "Antique Road Show" anyway!  I don't know what I was worried about!)

On the left, lightly sanded and oiled, on the right, just cleaned and oiled.  I think I will take my time, and sand and oil the whole loom. 

There is lots of missing hardware, cords and even the front beam take-up handle and the back beam crank are missing, so it will be awhile before you see Ms Emily (in honor of her former owner) in action, but when you do,  she will be a beauty!

Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina

Joyce's Next Adventure

 Joyce, aka Mom, is on the road again!  She's leaving east Tennessee for central Virginia, to live in Chesterfield, a suburb of Richmond.  She sold her house last week, and my sister Liz and her friend Deedee came to move her, lock, stock, and loom.  In fact, when I pulled up, there was the Harrisville that I learned to weave on, wedged between some chairs.
  Joyce is the smiling weaver at the right edge of the group photo, and the group has loved her, worried about her and been her friends, but when they found out she was moving on, not many were surprised.  They know her gypsy soul!

 Liz and Deedee were on vacation, but ran out of stuff to do.  They decided moving Mom's stuff sounded like fun, and drove down yesterday.  Today, they loaded the truck, and are now putting in the pieces of furniture I had in my house that were Mom's.  Liz has found a house around the block from her own that will need a lot of furniture to fill it up.  Mom already has her loom room picked out in the new place, so the Harrisville will have a room to be put to use.





So, farewell, Joyce, and bon voyage!  Weave up a storm and send photos, now that you know how!  We will miss you!

We All Have A Job To Do

  It's all like well oiled machinery.  We come to the Center on Tuesdays, and we just get busy.  Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of chatter....a lot of catching up on what's been going on in our lives....but for the most part, we just pick up where we left off last Tuesday.
  Pat has been working on the library...she has picked up where Ms. Joyce left off.  It's a huge job!  But, Joyce got us started, and Pat is adding to our collection.  Some weeding has been necessary, too.

The magazines have all been organized and are all neatly sorted in their boxes.  Even the Weaver's Craft has their own special place in the line-up.

  Tina is our treasurer....and today she got the deposit all ready to go to the bank.  We had a good July upstairs in the shop!!!!  (We were really happy to have her back with us today!)

  Ms. Ila and Eiko came in and got the Wolf Pups ready to weave.....
....and way back in the upper right hand corner you can catch a glimpse of Carl.  He started on another rug today.

  Here's the latest view of Bonnie's shawls.  Don't you just love this painted warp!!!!!

  And, just in case you think he's always perfect, here's evidence that even Lanny can have a boo-boo!!!
  Two light stripes????  It might be time to unweave!!!!!

  THANK YOU to the family of Dr. Emily Ezell.  Paul had been storing her loom and a lot of art supplies, and he brought them to us today.  We'll put everything to good use, never fear!

  And, speaking of good use..........
.........Tina brought us homemade blueberry bread for us to enjoy this morning!!!!  Yum!
  Thanks, Tina!!! 

And, YES!  It takes three weavers to put a warp on a loom!!!!  Tina, Linda and I took an hour out to beam the warp at the Museum of Appalachia.  I'm hoping we can get the heddles back on the bars and ready to thread next week.  That's my plan........

It was a great day at the Center....just doing what we do best:   WEAVING!!!

LouAnn

Week 2 with Mom

All of last week it was just Mom and me so I got some work done while she rested or was at dialysis. I got the quilt top done for our bed. It's all Aussie fabric and I like the way it looks! Getting it all together took a bit of time and I had to pin each piece with the order it was supposed to be in on each row to make sure that I got them right. Maybe I should have switched some blocks around but I kind of like the way it looks, very eclectic! 

 I had planned to just take it home and quilt it myself on our dining room table since I didn't have any batting or backing along but....my sister's friend Linda came over. She owns a long arm quilting machine and she told me I was nuts if I was going to do it all myself on my little bernina! So I caved. Good thing too because the quilt is massive! We went to town to check out backing fabric. Found one that looks great. It's from a stonehenge collection and fits in with the fabrics I used. Problem is that the fabric was 109" wide and my quilt is 112" square!! So, last night when my sister got in, she helped me cut the fabric and then I sewed in the strips I'd pieced earlier for that purpose. I just have to iron it and take it over to Linda's. She'll have it done by the weekend so I can take it home to bind and put on our bed!

 I'd stopped at Hancocks in Paducah on the way up "just to look". I found some more Charlie Brown Christmas fabric. I'd brought along about half a dozen fat quarters I'd bought earlier and planned to make into something for my in laws for Christmas. My mother in law loves Charlie Brown and esp the tree! So I bought some yard long pieces of a couple of prints and once I had my quilt pieced, I decided to piece a smaller throw for them.

 It's pieced and now I have to go back to Hancocks on the way home to pick up fabric for sashing around the whole thing. That, plus some backing fabric so I can quilt it. It's only about 60 by 70 inches so manageable with my machine!

 It should be a nice surprise for her.
I'd bought some 5" charm square packets along, just incase, and I had some time yet Friday so I cut out the pieces for a little square about 19" that I'll back and quilt just as a little table topper. I love charm squares because they are already the beginning of something neat!

 Ok, so I had time to start another one. This packet had all 30s fabrics in it. I bought half a meter of yellow to match. Then cut and sewed the 2 sets of squares. The squares on the diagonal had to be trimmed down to 6 1/2" square but I'd brought along my little rulers and that made it easy. I just have to figure out how to lay it out and assemble them yet. I'll take this home to add borders as well and finish later. But the hardest part will be done already!

 That's all I got done this week. Mom had some fun in the kitchen. On Saturday morning she rolled out some pie dough she found in the freezer and put them into tart pans, filled them with blueberries and good stuff and we baked them. They are awesome! Blueberries are low in potassium...and she uses mostly splenda so she can eat them without worrying about getting ill from too much potassium in her.

My sister and daughters came in last night and there's a long list of stuff that needs to be done this week. My aunt is supposed to come from Edmonton with a quilt project she's having problems with so we'll be doing some work with that. I've got my design wall to set up to help with that.
I'll be here until a week from today when I'll load up and head back down to Tennessee! It's been a good break for everyone and I'm glad that I could be here to help.
So, y'all keep weaving and I'll try to get a bit more sewing done and then help out as needed here!!
Til next week.
Carol

Hi-ho, Hi-ho...It's Off I Go.....

  The scarf is finished....it had to be!  I needed to warp Parker Pup for today's mug rug class.  Both of my looms are already at the Center for today's class.  I keep adding items to the basket to take with me this morning.
Rag balls.....check!
Shuttles......check!
Tags.....check!
Sample mug rugs......check!!!!
  The handouts are ready to go, too.

  Last night I started threading the hot pad pattern that I've been wanting to do.  I wound this warp in May (oh my!) and it's been waiting its turn to get on a loom.  I'm really excited to see how it weaves....this is the block pattern that Hilary uses for some of her rugs.
  We'll see how this goes!

  But, I didn't just wind warps and thread this week!  On Wednesday, Bonnie and I met with Ranger McDade and Ms. Peggy (Clinch Valley Handweavers Guild) to help with the preservation of some of the mountain textiles from the Great Smoky Mountains.  We wound three quilts and one coverlet onto their own acid free roll, which is then wrapped in muslin.  Each item has their own picture and tag so that the roll doesn't need to be opened.  The racks and supplies came from a grant that Ranger McDade wrote for this project.  This keeps the textile from getting weak places from being folded.  Ms. Peggy and some of the Guild members met on Tuesday and rolled the other quilts and coverlets.
 
  I've got to get ready to go.....my mind keeps racing with "do I have this?"  and "do I have that?"  Let's just do it!  Tonight, if Cece is in the mood to weigh down the scarf, I should get the fringes twisted so that I can wet finish it.  I should be done in time for Sunday's closing ceremony for the Olympics.
  I've been sprinting all week!!!!
Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Making my way home

I got home from my west coast travels on Wednesday.  It was a great trip, with lots of family time, getting reaquainted with great-nephews and nieces, and meeting my new grandson too!  

One of the funny things that happened on this trip, and it happened twice, is that while I was traveling from one place to the next, I was seated beside an unaccompanied child.  Both times it was little boys, and both times we had such fun!  The first one was 10 years old, and quite grown up!   I always travel with peanut butter crackers, peanut M n' M's, and my iPod, and that really came in handy!  We played "Where's my Water" all the way from Sacramento to Portland.  As I left him, he said "It was a pleasure traveling with you."  What a gentleman!

The second boy was only 8 years old, and he was glad I was a grandma several times over.  I did not have my iPod fully charged for this flight, ( a mistake I will not make again!) but he had a back up Sony game thingy.  It had a video camera and he filmed me knitting.  He also made me play his video games to try to beat his score.  He came out looking pretty good!  When he tired of all that,(this was a long 4 hr flight) he pulled out a beach towel and his pillow and watched a documentary on the Arctic poles, tapping me on the arm every time he saw something cool.  He somehow managed to get free ice cream twice during the flight, I could never pull that off!

I don't have anything to show you in the weaving department, except to say that my big bread cloth order has been simplified to easier, less time consuming patterns!   I should be able to knock those out this next week while Dear One is on a business trip.

And now to more Baby pics.  We of course had to do a photo shoot with him laying on the blanket that I wove for him.  It was much too hot to wrap him up in it!

My daughter picked his outfit to contrast with the blanket.  I was snapping pictures and she was snapping pictures.  He was doing very well with it all.

One of the first things he did of course was to spit up on the blanket!  I got so tickled at that, we just laughed and wiped it up.  It won't be the last time that happens.

I only have a few more of these blankets on the loom, then after a loom repair, I will have to decide if I want to do more of the same or switch to something different.  I may do some blankets in carpet warp, with a Swedish lace pattern, since I am really enjoying my other one shuttle, loom controlled projects.  It is very tempting!

Until next time, Happy Weaving, Spinning and Knitting, Tina