Best of Missouri coming up!

Whew!This is a whirlwind week! Best of Missouri Market is this weekend. Friday morning a friend and I will be packing the rental van and up I-44 I go. Beautiful fall weather in store, according to the weather man - 40s at nights, 60s in the day. We may be warming our hands up in the stacks of wool rugs.

Fruitful weeks

The tea towel warp is off the Newcomb. I will be washing tea towels and then putting them in the "to do" bin (the back of my couch) until I can get them hemmed. They turned out very nicely. This warp was a mixture of 8/2 and 10/2 cotton in broad stripes of two shades of blue with a smaller stripe in between. The smaller stripe has 2 navy blue threads, then some red, some whites, then red and navy blue again. I wanted to make the smaller stripes a different texture, too, so used the 8/2 in white, and added a heavily textured nubby yard for a couple threads in the middle. Because I was warping 20 epi, which is about right for the 8/2, (it's plain weave) it crowded the larger threads. That, plus using the nubby yarn, gives a nice texture to the small stripe.

The red, white and blue color scheme has patriotic overtones, but you have to look for them, as the colors are not in equal value. Thanks to Gloria for requesting it.

My sewing machine is back and running smoothly after a pricey fix. I would not have put the money into just any machine, but this old Singer 401A is one of the few machines that will do the heavy sewing I require.

Mowing the grass last night, again, I discovered two of my apple trees are ready and dropping fruit. One more, the one I pruned last winter (I didn't know I had THREE!), is groaning with apples, but they're not quite ready. After I finished mowing, I went back out and picked up apples, picked strawberries, and found a few peaches. I scarfed the peaches down in short time, cleaned and froze the strawberries, and cut about a peck of apples up and made sauce. So, it's fruit time! Yeah! The apples look so pretty on the tree, with a pink blush darkening to red, superimposed on the background of green leaves with a little gray bark. I think there's a future warp in those colors.
My very first paid job was sorting fruit for an orchard down the road. It was hot and hard work, but when the peaches came in, it was olfactory heaven. I saved out the biggest, most beautiful peach that came through to eat on break. Of course, this chosen peach kept getting switched out as I found yet another, more beautiful, bigger one. It took just a couple days until I figured out the the biggest, prettiest peach is not necessarily the best tasting. After that I looked for overall ripeness, preferably with some blemishes where it was very ripe: a Number 2 peach in the grading system. What a good lesson!

Back to weaving, I have already started winding the next warp for the Newcomb: more tea towels, this time in a twill pattern. Natural (off white) background with 8 different colors stripes across the warp.

Here's photo of the red, white and blue textured towels.

Summer is finally here!

It's been such a cool, wet spring that these 90+ degree days caught me by surprise.  The extra rain is continuing, though, so far, and that means the gardens (and grass) continues by leaps and bounds.
Since I'm not in the independently wealthy category, I started a job this week, and that's been different.  I'm about used to the earlier rising time, really not much of a chore with early summer sunrises beaming in the window.  I have managed to weave or do weaving related chores for at least an hour every night, and plan to put several more hours toward weaving this weekend.

I about have another placemat warp off, and will be winding tea towel warp this weekend for that loom.  The Newcomb still has totes on it, and weaving came to a standstill on that loom tonight when I ran out of sewn weft.  My sewing machine is in the shop.  Looms are very patient critters, though.  I'll put time and energy into warping tea towels until the sewing machine comes back.

More on the totes

This second size is much better!  My sewing machine has to go in for servicing, but as soon as it gets back, I'll be sewing totes.

Also, Marie commented suggesting I just cover the piece of plastic.  Sorry I deleted your comment before I realized it was for real, Marie.  Yes, I had thought of that.  We'll see what pans out when I start sewing.  Thanks for commenting, though, Marie!

Tote that tote

Since I have now met my goal of rugs for my fall show, I have warped up the Hammett for totes.  I did get the log cabin placemats woven off the Newcomb.  They're very pretty.  I have the Newcomb warped for more placemats, just plain weave this time.  But back to totes.

I warped the loom at 27", because I wanted to make a nice big tote.  I used thinly cut strips to de-bulk the weaving, and wove the first one at 49" on the loom.  Let me tell you, folks, that was one BIG tote.  Too big.  Way too big.  I took the stitching out and turned it back into a rug.

Tonight I un-sleyed and unthreaded several inches off each side of the warp, so I now have a 17" wide warp.  Tomorrow I'll weave a piece off and see how it does.

The rage right now is messenger bag type totes.  But some of us still like the over-the-shoulder type.  I'm thinking about an adjustable strap.

Another question I'll need to resolve is how to deal with the bottom of the bag.  I really like to put a piece of plastic in the bottom, to shape it, but that means lining the bag.  It's always a challenge to make a quality product that holds up but takes minimum hours to make.  I'll think of something!

Log Cabin again

Well, it's placemats in Log Cabin this time.  I put a 12 yard warp on yesterday, got my first four done today.  Log Cabin is an humbling pattern.  Others may throw the shuttle without much forethought, but I have to stay tuned in when weaving Log Cabin.  And that's not necessarily a bad thing.  It's a kind of meditation in itself.  Becoming immersed in a pattern certainly makes the time fly!

I also dressed the Hammett yesterday.  I absolutely HATE having both looms naked.  I thought I would get to rugs on the Hammett today, too, but ended up sanding my staircase for the greater part of the afternoon.  This is something I've been putting off for a few weeks.  Finally got it done today.  I've been keeping company with paint samples pretty seriously now for a couple weeks, and will try to get to the paint store tomorrow and get started on this project with some primer for the stairs!

Interestingly, I finally decided the colors I want on my walls are the grayed colors: blues, grayed sea green, purples, brick red.  When I got to the point of agreeing with myself that yes, these are the colors I like, it struck me that these are the colors I gravitate to in my woven projects, too. Duh!!  Some people have to be hit over the head.  We'll see how I like them on my walls.

Shades of Roman

Truly, the fact that I was actually IN Roma in the past month has nothing to do with making this fabric.  When I saw my friend's Roman shade made with her own quilted fabric, I knew that's what I wanted for my doors.  So it really was in the planning for a while.

This is 10/2 unmercerized cotton, warped at 24 epi.  I have 3 different colors of weft, two of which are shown below.  Besides these laid back, I think, colors, I have one of a royal blue weft that fairly cries out for discipline.  It will be a challenge to find paint that complements and tones it down some.

This pattern is Five After Eleven Check from A Handweaver's Pattern Book by Davison.  The unwashed sample is on top, the washed on the bottom.  Fabrics on the left use 5/2 Pearl in a dark green.  The ones on the right use a cotton/linen slub carried with a 10/2 slate green.
Now I need to sit down with paint chips and make some decisions.


I'm also weaving small rugs for stock for my fall show.  And, now that I have the Roman shade cloth off the loom, I'll be putting some noodling time into what's going on that loom next.