Check it off!!

I love to be able to check something off my virtual list. That happened this week when I "checked off" the centerpiece mat from my list. Ok, it's a kit, but what a cool picture!! It's all wool and came with the pattern and this stack of wool pieces. Deciding what to use for what was fun, then figuring out how to attach it to the base was another thing. I bought some tiny pins to do that since the heat n bond wouldn't stick, wool was too thick. It worked out nicely with the pins and I got into the rhythm of pinning and sewing the pieces onto the background.

 This was my project the last few weeks in the evenings with the Christmas tree lights on and watching something on TV.

 I enjoyed it so much that the next time I head down to Greenback to the quilt shop, I may just pick up another kit or a pattern and pick out wool from their huge selection there and make another piece.

I have been weaving as much as I could this past week. Having to work at the Art Market Gallery on Thursday and then helping to paint on Friday, made for a very short week of weaving. However, I did get that black warp off the loom.
The last one I wove was with those fuzzy selvages. I picked up a bunch in summer and this was my first try. Linda'd told me to pick up a comb to help bring the threads forward and up before I beat each row in, and that's what I did.

The black is actually a much truer black than this picture shows.   I kept thinking, this takes forever. Is it worth it? Well, I think it's worth it. It may take forever, but chaining loopers does too, especially after dyeing them ourselves. I've dyed some more but forgot to take a picture of them. Also, have to quit dyeing til we get that septic tank fixed so I'll keep weaving with the loopers I got a year or so ago. I do want to use them up too.

The rest of the rugs on the warp were the bags of already cut strips of stripes from Great Northern. I got 3 rugs from this black, grey, white, turquoise combination. It's now finished.

 The hot pink and black striped strips wove up nicely and I got 2 of them done. There's some left. I've got a bag of solid black strips that I'll combine with what's left of this to make one more rug on the next warp.

 There are 3 of this combination, I think. I do have some left and I'll use the black again, to stretch it if need be. A bit of solid black for a band at each end will look good.

 Yesterday I wound another solid black warp. I had to scrounge to find enough black carpet warp to do it, but it worked! Guess I'll be ordering more black when the Tuesday Weavers makes their next carpet warp order. That's got to be soon since we're kind of low at the center!!

Saturday I got a new book in the mail from amazon. It's the Weft-Faced Pattern Weaves by Nancy Arthur Hoskins. Wow, what a book. This is a very detailed book with lots of sample projects to weave to figure out the different weave structures. When I took a class with Robyn Spady a few years ago at Midwest, we did a couple of these weaves. I enjoyed them then, but this is a very detailed look at what happens if......

Today is our daughter's birthday. Where did the last 25 years ago??? Now, if I can find that birthday card I bought for her......a year ago.........I'll be in fine shape! Her birth mom's bringing her a cookie cake and I suspect we'll go out tonight for a special dinner with her. So, happy birthday, BG or KP, or whatever your name is right now! ha!! Oh, actually, Thursday it'll be exactly 25 years since we got her. I remember that day sooooo well!!! Thursday's also my sister's birthday.
It's all good.

We woke to rain again this morning, but it's supposed to quit raining and by tomorrow be in the low 60s and dry. Guess I'll be packing my paint clothes (now that I have some) and be ready to paint some more. We are hoping to get the inside of our annex space painted as well. Just getting a coat of paint on there to lighten the wood inside as well as protect the floor, will help preserve the space.  This may be our last opportunity to paint til spring when it warms up again. Once it's painted, Allan'll be building shelves for us and we'll begin the massive move of our weaving stash into there. Then we'll finally know how much we really have and see who wants to weave what!!
Til next week.
Carol