Pub Quilt finished and on the bed! And Cape Gooseberries!

 I’ve  been waiting for the DH to take some glamor shots of the finished Pub Quilt, but with everything else going on I suspect that’s not going to happen soon.  So I took a couple of plain photos...

Heres's my side

I did want to note that I did straight grain binding but now I've done it I prefer bias; also, I did 2.25" binding and I think I prefer 2". 

I’m very pleased with myself. I’m still trying to figure out when I started it; it was between  28 and 30 years ago. I finished it a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been playing since then.

And here's his side

Specifically, these are the other projects:

• I’ve been spinning paper, with a goal to knit something from it. Below is a knitted sample, using silk singles as a  binder. The yarn is between light fingering and lace weight from 1/4” strips of sewing pattern tissue paper.  1/2" strips make a thinker yarn. I'm using some roughly spun silk I got from someone's destash as the binder on the yarn for the knitting project... (In case I forget, I'm adding twist to the silk with a 4 count out and a 4 count in, and plied it with an 8 count out and 2 count in. 

• 

  Knitted paper yarn!!!

  I’ve been spinning a blue stashed batt with a woolen draw, to get ready for the next project. The singles are ready to be plied.
• I carded the green fiber from 2020 CNCH some random silk bits, and some zwartbles together, and will spin it into a 2 ply woolen yarn. There's a competition for the yarns, which is why I'm practicing with the batt.
• I spun some cotton but need to work more on this.
• I’ve been weaving some of the samples from Janet Dawson’s class but am not ready to share. There are some fun and some overly fussy samples.
• I cataloged my sewing fabric and patterns with an eye towards engaging a sewing tutor; I put together a list of goals.
• I took a class in ruler quilting at PIQF, made a super ugly runner which needs to be bound.
• I have a mosaic class in Andemento coming up in which we won't be doing any mosaic, but really just drawing pieces and grout line.
• I enrolled in a Lino block carving class and got to order art supplies!!!! Hurray for art supplies! Sadly it’s nearly impossible to get red ink right now.
• And yesterday I dyed the yarns for the next run of ikat scarves. It was an utter disappointment; I'll detail that later!

Now I need to think about how to structure my life so I can get all this shit done.

New Pool Toy

Meanwhile, construction continues on the laundry room that will morph into a dye studio, and I'm taking piano lessons. We had a huge rain storm in which my favorite oak fell into the pool, and we had several new leaks. Good thing we have contractors working on drywall right now anyways.

And last but not least, the cape gooseberry crop came in just in time for me to candy these adorable tiny fruits for DH's birthday. We had these for the first time at a rural hotel in England, as part of a dessert tray, the year we got married. So I guess 27 years later is the magic year to get things done. 

Things From SOAR

I often take classes then don't practice what I learn, then I forget what I learned. I promised myself I wouldn't do this with the classes I just took at SOAR. So...

Here's a lovely finished object from SOAR... a tablet woven mask lanyard. It's 20 cards of 10/2 cotton in Egyptian diagonals pattern (iron age tech), started in a class with John Mullarkey. It's about 3/4" wide and 35" long with lobster clips. I sloppily zig-zaged it together by machine; I need to find a better way.  The double diamonds in the center section were a mistake! You'd think I could have watched my weaving and caught it... but I liked it enough to replicate it (with John's help). I have notes!

Speaking of card weaving, my new friend S. pointed out this delightful site: http://ladyelewys.carpevinumpdx.com/. She's hosting a weave-a-long for historical card weaving that includes historical or archeological information. I'm hooked.

I took a break from The Quilt That Must Be Finished this morning to practice a couple things from SOAR. I had cut up some pattern paper in 1/2" strips and tried spinning it on my Kromski wheel; it spins beautifully but will not feed on. The orafice is more convoluted than on the Louet, and all the little hooks seem to be a bit of an issue. I'll go back to the Louet and try it again. I've also bought some colored tissue paper from Target; one of the ladies had brought it to the workshop and Judith had declared it fabulous, so I'll give it a try some morning. 

I also tried some tweed. I took the green fiber from the CNCH Return to Sender challenge and carded it with about 15-20% Zwartbles wool  and some silk floor sweepings from John's class; it ended up being a lovely olive green with the little silk bits showing through. My spinning technique, however, needs some work... So I'll spin something else up with a woolen draft before I go back to this. The good parts are very good but there are some unattractive lumps...

Zwartbles

Zwartbles, by the way, are a Dutch sheep breed that are naturally black in their un-unburnt state; the wool goes a little brown on the older sheep.  Here's an awesome photo of them from https://zwartblesireland.com/. They're milk and meat sheep; the wool has a good crimp but is in the 30 micron diameter range which makes it a little itchy for next to the skin use.

The aforementioned quilt will be done this week!

LOTS of cool things going on...

It's been a while since I posted last and a lot is going on but with very little to show for it.

First and foremost is that darned quilt. Yes, I am obsessed with it to the point where I'm not really working on much of anything else, which is a shame. The good news is that I am nearly done with it and will have it on the bed by the end of October, hopefully sooner for DH's birthday. I've been spending afternoons on the deck in the shade quilting on it with the cats, who are much better at staying off it outside than inside...

Boulder Chautauqua, view of the Flatirons.

The other big news is I travelled to Boulder for SOAR (a small retreat devoted to spinning). It was at the Colorado Chautauqua, so I got to learn about that movement, which was super interesting. More importantly, I got to go somewhere new and interesting and take classes with some of Spinning's luminaries! I learned to spin paper and to make tweed yarns with Judith MacKenzie, practiced long draw with Maggie Casey, and got attention on my bad-boyfriend charkha from Kate Larson; then, a two day class in spinning silk for cardweaving from John Mularkey!!! I have Plans to practice what I learned... just as soon as the quilt it done...  so expect some more posts on projects from that event in the next couple of months.

On the project side,

• I signed up for and warped the loom for Janet Dawson's class, Overshot Departures. I've woven one overshot motif to check the threading and nothing more yet.

SQUEE!!! They're so cute!

• I finished two cute little hand towels for the powder room; DH asked "am I supposed to use them or just look at them?" I told him either was fine but that they require ironing to look their best, 'nuff said. Two more towels are draped over the loom waiting hemming.
• Fiber is here for the rug, rug is designed. 
• I promised my study group I'd show them how to wrap for ikat... so I put the last set of random ikat scarves on the warping board and demo'ed. Then realized that I needed to have the warping board free for a guild demo and so I tied the rest of it in a hurry! I have the dye but haven't dyed it yet.
• I finished spinning the dark blue singles that I've been working on for the last year or so; some is plied.
• Construction started on the laundry room/dye studio, which is not something I'm personally working on but it's an exciting prospect.

Does it feel like there's a lot of projects that are languishing? There are! It's that darned quilt! Every time I think of another project, I am pulled back to it. Am I obsessed because I need a new quilt on the bed? Excited to have a new quilt? Or just tired of thinking about it? Maybe the trail of cotton lint that will follow it until it's bound haunts me? I feels so close yet so far away... Meanwhile, I'm carefully dancing around an overuse wrist injury, and thinking about spinning cotton on my newly tuned little bad-boyfriend book charkha.

The Little Bad-Boyfriend Book Charkha spinning cotton.

Q3'21 finished things (4)

Nothing to do with anything, 
but still a pretty sunset

Done:

• 2 huck baby blankets
• 2 of 4 of the hand towels for the guest bath; the other two are siting on the loom, unhemmed.

In Progress:

• 2 more hand towels for the guest bath; okay, they just need hemming
• The Pub Quilt! I'm on border 4 of 4, then have to bind it and do a litttttttle more quilting on the inside. Honestly, nothing else is getting done 'cause I'm obsessed.
  

Still on the list but what was I thinking?

• Make the Get Weaving Vest pattern in handwoven or stash fabric. 
• Start an overshot throw in champagne and white for the den.
• Make more progress on the new mosaic table (more than just one poppy).
• Okay, I did a second poppy but that was it.
• Make another grocery bag! 
• Make a piece of Andean Pebble weave that's wider, on the loom. 
  
• More towels for another towel exchange, maybe using info from Tien and Janet's class.
• 2 Ikat scarves, for M. and for C. (these are tied but not dyed or woven).